Housewarming!

Well this past weekend we finally had our housewarming party and it was EPIC! So amazing to celebrate our new home with family and great friends. This by far was the biggest party we have ever hosted, so we had to make sure everything was just right. The hubby and I decided to each tackle a meat, so he went with smoked pulled pork and I decided to make my mojito chicken. I came up with this recipe a number of years ago after having one too many mojitos and thought all the flavors would go perfect with chicken - I was right. I have yet to make it for my hubby, so this was the perfect opportunity to finally make it. To go with the pulled pork, I made my sweet BBQ sauce, which paired perfect with the smokey meat. Sides are what helps make meals memorable to me, so I went with the classics - my homemade potato salad, coleslaw, veggie tray, and queso dip. Desserts are always a must, so I finished off my party menu with my go-to dessert, blondies. I have to make sure everyone can eat, so for my vegan friends, I made grilled portobello mushrooms and made vegan potato salad and vegan brownies. Based on everyone's reactions, the food was a hit! Make this the next time you throw a party and all your guest's will be sure to enjoy!

What's cooking in my kitchen this week:
BBQ pulled pork sliders, Mojito chicken, homemade potato salad, and coleslaw with veggie tray, queso dip, blondies and vegan brownies

What you'll need:
Pulled pork
5-6 lbs pork shoulder butt
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 Tbsp salt
1 Tbsp ground black pepper
1 Tbsp garlic powder
1/2 Tbsp cayenne pepper
Applewood chips
2-3 packs slider buns

BBQ sauce
1 (29 oz) can tomato sauce
1 (4 oz) can tomato paste
1 shallot, finely diced
1 jalapeño, finely diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 Tbsp molasses
1 1/4 cup brown sugar
14 Tbsp vinegar
1/2 tsp liquid smoke
3 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground black pepper

Mojito chicken
5 lbs bonless, skinless chicken thighs
3 Tbsp oil
2 limes
fresh mint
1 shallot, diced
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tbsp light rum
1 tsp sugar
3 Tbsp lime soda

Homemade potato salad
5 lbs potatoes
6 eggs
1/2 cup dill pickles
1 1/2 cup mayo*
1 cup mustard
1/2 Tbsp salt
1 tsp ground black pepper
2 tsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic powder

*note: for vegan potato salad, substitute for vegan mayo and omit the eggs. 

Coleslaw
2 bags shredded cabbage
3/4 - 1 cup coleslaw dressing
1/2 tsp ground black pepper

Veggie tray
2 lbs carrots
2 lbs celery
2 lbs broccoli
2 lbs cauliflower
2 packages grape tomatoes
2 cucumbers
16 oz sour cream
2 packages ranch seaoning

Queso dip
1 box Velveeta cheese
2 (10 oz) cans Rotel diced tomatoes
tortilla chips

Blondies
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter
1 1/2 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cup brown sugar
 2 eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup milk chocolate chips
1/2 cup toffee chips

Vegan brownies
3 ripe bananas
1/2 cup peanut butter*
1/3 cup coco powder
1/4 cup molasses

*note: can substitute for any nut butter you prefer

Note: Depending on the size of your party, you will need to double or triple amounts shown. For my party, I did use triple amounts.

How to make it:
So the night before my party, I started with the BBQ sauce, blondies, and vegan brownies. My hubby also got the pork butt rubbed down with the spices so flavors would start infusing before smoking the meat. I got the BBQ sauce going first, by dicing up the shallot and jalapeño finely and mincing the garlic. As they are all going in the same place, I just kept them on my cutting board - this is the hardest part of making BBQ sauce!

Next, dump tomato sauce and tomato paste in large pot over medium heat. Add the shallot, garlic, jalapeño, molasses, brown sugar, vinegar, liquid smoke, salt, and ground black pepper. Stir until well mixed. Bring to boil and then turn heat down to low and simmer for at least two hours.

Onto the blondies. Pre-heat oven to 350°. Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt in medium bowl. Melt butter in saucepan and add brown sugar. Whisk together until brown sugar is melted, about 5 minutes.

Transfer mixture to medium bowl and let cool down - you have to make sure it is cool, or when you add the eggs in the next step it will cook them and you don't want that. In a cup, crack eggs (this makes sure no shells get into the batter) and add vanilla. Once brown sugar/butter mix is cooled down, whisk in eggs and vanilla. Add flour mix and whisk until just incorporated.

Fold in chocolate and toffee chips and transfer mix to greased cookie sheet. Bake 15-20 minutes, until golden brown and top cracks.

Let cool completely before cutting into pieces. Onto the vegan brownies - don't turn off that oven yet! Peel and mash bananas with fork on plate.

Place in medium bowl and add coco powder, peanut butter, and molasses. Stir until well combined.

Place in greased baking dish and bake for 20-25 minutes.

Let cool completely before cutting into pieces. The night is almost done at this point, need to finish off with making the rub and putting it on the pork. Combine the brown sugar, salt, ground black pepper, cayenne pepper, and garlic powder in small bowl. Rub all over pork butt and let sit 3-5 hours.

How long you smoke the pork depends on how many pounds you have, we had 15 pounds of pork butt so the hubby smoked ours for about 10 hours at 235°, until the internal temp reaches 185°. You also want to add wood chips about every hours or so, that way the meat gets nice and smokey. When you are smoking meats, you really need to leave the door on the smoker closed but we needed to add some water about mid-way, so I had to open it up and snapped a quick pic.

Once meat is done smoking, remove and wrap in foil and let rest at least 20-30 minutes until cool. Shred meat, if done to temp you can hand shred, and place in serving tray.

First thing I got going on the day of our party was my mojito chicken. First, juice the limes and place in medium bowl. Next, dice up shallots, mince garlic, and finely chop 4-5 sprigs fresh mint. Place all in same bowl as lime juice. Add oil, lime soda, salt, ground black pepper, rum, and sugar and whisk until mixed - don't worry about the alcohol in the rum if you have kiddos like me. Once you cook the chicken on the grill, the alcohol will burn off and you'll just be left with the flavor of the rum.

Pour over chicken and let marinade for at least 2-3 hours.

Once ready to cook, grill on medium flame for about 25-30 minutes, until chicken is done. When the chicken was being grilled, we also grilled the portobello mushrooms, that had a drizzle of oil, seasoned with salt and ground black pepper.

While chicken is marinating, boil potatoes and eggs for potato salad. For the potatoes, boil until fork tender, remove from heat, drain and cool until can handle. For the eggs, place in cold water, with 1 tablespoon baking soda and bring to boil. Boil for 13 minutes and turn off heat. Let eggs sit in hot water for another 10 minutes and then remove and place under cold water. Once potatoes and eggs are cool (and eggs peeled), dice into cubes and put in large bowl, reserve small amount and put in small, separate bowl for vegan potato salad. Cut up pickles and add to bowl. Add mayo, mustard, salt, ground black pepper, onion powder, and garlic powder. Stir until well mixed. Put in fridge until ready to serve. For the vegan potato salad, make as before with bowl of reserved potatoes, however replace mayo with vegan mayo and omit the boiled eggs.

Next make the coleslaw. This is super simple to make, and everyone will think it's the best coleslaw they've ever had! Take bags of shredded cabbage and put in large bowl. Add coleslaw dressing (yes I cheat and buy this already made, Hidden Valley is best) and ground black pepper. Stir until well mixed. Put in fridge until ready to serve.

For the veggies, all you need to do is wash them and then cut into bite size pieces and place on serving tray. So easy, I had helpers do it for me.

To make the dip for the veggies, take sour cream and put in small bowl. Add ranch seasoning packs and stir until well mixed. Chill in fridge until ready to serve.

About an hour before guests start to arrive, get queso dip going. Cut up Velveeta into small pieces and place in crock pot. Add cans of Rotel and turn to high. Stir cheese every 15 minutes or so, until cheese is all melted and smooth. Turn crock pot down to warm for party.

At this point, everything is done so you can set up your different stations to serve.

I happened to munch a bunch while mingling with our guests, so by the time I got my plate to eat I just got the basics. The best part is everyone gets to serve themselves with what they want. Enjoy!

I'll leave you with one of the pics of the shenanigans that happened after the eating was all done - did I mention this party was epic?!

Did you know?
On this day in 1874, Sergey Vasilyevich Lebedev was born. Lebedev was a Russian chemist who developed a method to produce synthetic rubber on a commercial scale, which used potatoes and limestone as raw materials.