Rashmi's Graduation Party 2012

As many of you know, I recently graduated college, more specifically from Arizona State University, and in celebration, we had a big party at my house, for which, we prepared some of my favorite things! Before I get to those, however, I would like to take a minute to go through a couple of other things first.

I have posted about this company before, and hopefully all of you are already fans on their Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/MojoMoxy), but if not, let me just take a moment to tell you about one of my MOST FAVORITE shoe companies EVER, Mojo Moxy! Very recently, Mojo Moxy and Izzy were awesome enough to pick winners to receive free shoes as Random Acts of Mojo (#RAOM). This year, the style that was given away, as seen below, was the Guility's. When I had originally seen this shoe (http://www.mojomoxy.com/catalog-spring-2012/guilty), I saw all the fabulous colors it was offered in and KNEW that it would look AMAZING with my graduation outfit. As it turns out, *I* was chosen as a lucky recipient. Even more perfect was the fact that I received a pair of black Guilty's because they went SO WELL with my dress that I had picked out! I wore them during the party, and with confidence, I can say that I rocked them because I received SO MANY compliments! Thus, I would like to entend a HUGE thank you again to Mojo Moxy and Izzy for being so wonderful, always!

And what is an outfit without the PERFECT nail polish to match? Well, for this, I would like to say thank you to an awesome nail polish blogger Cosmetic Sanctuary for finding Frenzy, as seen below, for me. I had originally commented on her Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/cosmeticsanctuary) asking if she knew of any dupes to the BL polish "Slapper", for which she found Hard Candy's "Frenzy". I went on a search to find this polish and was unsuccessful but SHE FOUND ME ONE!!! "Frenzy" was pretty much a PERFECT match to my dress. As seen on the left, the bottle is set on top of my dress, and on the right is a swatch of the polish! I'm not a polish blogger so I have nothing fancy to say except that if you buy this color (which you should) make sure you have a good base coat ... you're going to need it! =D

And so, here's a collage of all the parts of the outfit:

Awesome! So, now, on to the food! We are a fairly ambitious bunch at my house so the menu consisted of 3 snack type dishes along with 2 main dishes and 3 desserts! The 3 snack dishes were: 7 layer dip with chips, cocktail samosas, and spinach rolls. The 2 main dishes were kofta curry and butter chicken with accompaniments of rice and naan. And lastly, the 3 desserts were my oreo pops, nilla waffer banana pudding, and my "Congratulations Rashmi" cake.

I have to say, up front, that while everything was being made, there was a lot of "I should add a little of this and little of that" going on, especially since the quantity prepared was fit for 50-ish people. I tried my best to change the recipe quantities such that they make food for less number of people (around 3 or 4). Okay, let's get started:

7 Layer Dip and Chips

What you will need:

1 can Refried Beans

1/2 bottle of Chunky Salsa

Sour Cream

Tomatoes

Olives

Jalepenos

Cilantro

Cheese

Tortilla Chips

Directions:

Heat refried beans in a pan with a little bit of oil. Layer the beans on the bottom of the pan. Add a layer of salsa on top, followed by sour cream, tomatoes, olives, jalepenos, cilantro. Top with cheese and serve with chips. 

Cocktail Samosas

These can be found at pretty much any Indian store in the freezer section. They are the potato variety and the cooking of them entails frying.

Spinach Rolls

What you will need:

1 package of Puff Pastry Sheet

1 package of Frozen Spinach

Chopped Onions

About 1 package of Cream Cheese

Salt to taste

Directions:

Remove puff pastry sheet from freezer and let thaw.

In a pan, sautee onions in a pan till golden brown, then add spinach. Stir together and remove from heat. Add cream cheese and stir together. Roll out thawed puff pastry sheet and spread spinach mixture on top. then roll the puff pastry over and cut. Bake as directed on puff pastry sheet packet.

Kofta Curry

What you will need:

For the koftas:

2 cups peeled and diced boiled potatoes

1 cup mixed vegetables boiled

1 cup paneer

2 tbsps of heavy whipping cream

1 tsp cumin powder

1 tsp coriander powder

1/2 tsp red chilli powder

1/2 cup chopped cashews

Salt to taste

Cooking oil (for frying)

For the sauce:

3 tbsps oil

2 large onions quartered

2 tomatoes quartered

2 tbsps garlic paste

1 tbsp ginger paste

2 tsps coriander powder

1 tbsp cumin powder

1/2 tsp red chilli powder

1 tsp poppy seeds lightly roasted and ground into a powder

3 tbsps cashews, ground into a thick paste

Salt to taste

2 tsps garam masala

Directions:

Mash the potatoes, mixed vegetables, paneer and cream together. Add the kofta spices to this mash and mix well. Season with salt.

Make this dough into balls and put a few pieces of chopped cashews in the center of each ball.

Heat the oil kept aside to fry the koftas, on a medium flame. Deep fry these rounds till pale golden in colour.

Drain on paper towels and keep aside.

For the gravy, first heat the 3 tbsps of oil in a deep pan and fry the onions till light brown.

Grind into a paste along with the tomatoes, onions, ginger, garlic, coriander, cumin and red chilli powders.

Put this paste back into the pan and fry till the oil begins to separate from the masala.

Add the poppy seeds powder and cashew paste and fry for another 2-3 minutes.

Add 1/2 cup of warm water to this masala to form a sauce/gravy (the sauce for this dish is meant to be fairly thick so do not add too much water but if you need more than 1/2 cup, please add water accordingly). Mix well. Season with salt.

Bring the sauce/gravy to a boil and then reduce heat to a simmer.

Gently add the kofas to this sauce/gravy and cook uncovered for 2-3 minutes.

Turn off heat and sprinkle the garam masala all over the top of the dish. Stir quickly and cover immediately. Allow to sit for at least 5 minutes prior to serving.

*Please note that this recipe is not originally mine and was taken from cooking site online but modifications were made to it, as shown, reflecting the way in which it was cooked by us.

Butter Chicken

I'm totally going to cheat on this one and link you to a previous post that explains how to make this in great detail. We use the same recipe each time! Here it is: http://tangerinesandtomatoes.blogspot.com/2012/02/namaste-lets-take-trip-to-india.html

Oreo Pops

What you will need:

1 package Oreos

1/2 package Cream Cheese

Candy Melts

Sticks (if making pops)

Directions:

In a food processor, crush oreos to bits. Add cream cheese to the crushed oreos in the food processor and mix until you form what is similar to a dough. Remove from food processor and use a scoop to make oreo balls. Put in refrigerator for at least 30 minutes. Remove from refrigerator. Melt candy melts in a pot and dip a stick in the chocolate and press firmly into the oreo balls. Put oreo pops back in refrigerator and let chocolate harden for about at least an hour.  Remove from refrigerator and dip each oreo pop into chocolate until completely coated. Using a different color, decorate, if wanted.

Nilla Waffer Banana Pudding

What you will need:

1/2 package Nilla Waffers

1 small box of Pudding Mix

2 cups Milk

1/2 container Whipped Cream

1 Banana

Directions:

Prepare pudding as instructed on pudding mix. In a bowl, layer Nilla Waffers, bananas, pudding and whipped cream. Repeat.

"Congratulations Rashmi" cake

How awesome is this cake? I did a good job, right? HA. Fooled you. Nope, I didn't make this cake. It was a half-sheet marble cake with whipped frosting, ordered from Sam's Club! :o)

Fruit Punch Drink

What you will need:

Orange Sorbet

Mixed Berry Sorbet

Fruit Punch

Orange Juice

Ginger Ale

Directions:

In a large punch bowl, add equal parts orange and mixed berry sorbet. Pour equal parts fruit punch, orange juice, and ginger ale over sorbet. Stir together.

Note: I wouldn't melt the sorbet completely because it helps keep the drink cold ... so, in fact, when I make this, I actually don't melt the sorbet purposely at all. I just have the sorbet sitting at the bottom of the punch bowl when I pour everything in, and once it is all added, I do a light stir and it's good to go! :o)

Anddd lastly, here are a couple of extra pictures:

Me and my mom

Me and my cake

Uff! I know this post was really long but I hope you all enjoyed reading and looking at pictures. It was a really fun party and thank you all who attended, making it such an awesome day for me!!

xo -Rashmi