The Foreman Five: Book Exchange

Friday night I hosted a Book Exchange Party for my girlfriends. Everyone brought their favorite book wrapped with a book plate that I sent with the invitation. We played the white elephant game to exchange the books which was a lot of fun.

I had a chili bar with chicken taco chili and toppings which included Fritos, shredded cheese, and sour cream. Corn bread was served on the side and pumpkin crunch cake and candy corn cookie crunch finished everything off. Everything turned out great and was delicious. It was very much calorie free (NOT!).

Invitation and Book Plate

Get Invitation PDF here

Get Book Plate PDF here

(You have to cut right on the black line going around since it's only on three sides.)

Food Table

I made these food labels to go with the theme using a catalog card generator.

Each catalog card had a quote from a book I've read in my book club. I tried tying the quote with the food.

Recipe for Chicken Taco Chili

Ingredients:

1 can black beans

1 can kidney beans

1 can corn kernels

16 oz tomato sauce

28 oz diced tomatoes

1 packet taco seasoning

1 tbsp chili powder

4 boneless chicken breasts

Directions:

Line crockpot with crockpot liner. This is the next best thing since sliced bread! It makes clean up a breeze. Place black beans, kidney beans, corn, tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, taco seasoning, chili powder in crock pot. Mix well. Lay chicken breasts on top (mine were frozen), cover, and cook on low for 4 hours. About one hour before serving remove chicken breasts and place them in a KitchenAid mixer with the paddle attachment. Mix for 30-60 seconds and like magic you have shredded chicken. Spoon shredded chicken back into crockpot and stir.

Serve with sour cream, shredded cheese, and Fritos.

Recipe for Pumpkin Crunch Cake

Ingredients:

1 box yellow cake mix

1 can (15 oz) pumpkin puree

1 can (12oz) evaporated milk

3 large eggs

1.5 cups sugar

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. salt

1 cup butter, melted

Directions:

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease bottom of 9 x 13" pan. Mix pumpkin, milk, eggs, sugar, cinnamon, and sat. Pour mixture into greased pan. Sprinkle dry cake mix over pumpkin mixture. Drizzle melted butter on top. Bake 50-55 minutes or until middle appears to be set.

Recipe for Candy Corn Cookie Crunch

Ingredients:

1 lb. vanilla almond bark or white chocolate candies for melting

14 Double Stuffed Oreos, broken into pieces (who uses regular?!?!)

1.5 cups straight broken pretzels.

1 cup candy corn, divided

1/4 cup Reeses chips

1/2 Peanut M&M's

Directions:

Cover cookie sheet with wax paper. Spread the broken pretzels, broken Oreo's, and 3/4 cup of candy corn on the wax paper. Melt the white chocolate according to package directions and drizzle over entire cookie sheet with the use of a spatula if needed. Before it sets top with remaining candy corn, Reese's chips, and M& M's. Place in refrigerator to set. Once set break into small pieces. Beware I could finish this all by myself in one sitting.