Food Friday: Party food (and my famous guacamole recipe)

Isn't it funny how Christmas parties all end up on the same weekend?  A few weeks ago I planned my second annual "Cousin Christmas" for this Saturday and then I offered to take a friend dinner on Friday (yay for new babies!) and a breakfast casserole to our church breakfast on Saturday and then I was asked to bring pineapple and apple slices to Adam's family party on Sunday!  That's a lot of food.

First of all, we did a Costco run for things like tortillas (the raw tortillas you cook yourself, once you try them you will never go back) and chips and then on Thursday I shopped at Smiths.  I got away with spending only $67!!!  I am goooooood. 

For the new mom dinner on Friday, I'm making lasagna.  I was inspired by Megan's post about lasagna, but I used a version of my lasagna recipe (The only lasagna recipe you'll ever need).  I wanted to put in some sun dried tomatoes, but I totally forgot!  I made two, because making two lasagnas is just as easy as making one!  So that took care of one of our dinners as well.

For Saturday's breakfast I'm making this breakfast casserole.  I don't have a favorite breakfast casserole because pretty much every ingredient is bad for you (I'm a vegan at heart so a pan full of eggs, milk, cheese and meat. . . well thank goodness for the potatoes), but I do prefer hash browns to those with bread.  Wow, a whole paragraph about breakfast casserole, did not know that was possible.

For my party I'm providing the "dinner".  Since it's not a sit down dinner party, I decided for more finger foods than a real meal.  I'm making my favorite ever chicken taquitos with cilantro lime dressing, BBQ sauce little smokies and chips and guacamole.  Which reminds me that I haven't shared my guacamole recipe on the blog!  I'm pretty much famous for it, so you really need it :)  (If you've lived in Provo for any amount of time, you probably ate at Los Hermanos at some point, right?  Well my dad and his brother are the original hermanos [brothers] and this was their recipe)

Los Hermanos Guacamole (they may have changed it since it sold over 20 years ago. . .)
Avocados
Sour cream
4 parts salt
2 parts garlic powder
1 part pepper
juice of a lime

Mash your avocados (I usually use about 4) and add some sour cream.  I like there to be more avocado than sour cream, but other than that you can add however much you want!  Then add salt to taste, but pay attention to how much you're adding (don't just sprinkle it in) because that will give you the measurements for the garlic and pepper.  So lets say you use 1 tsp salt, you would use 1/2 tsp garlic and 1/4 tsp pepper.  Just be careful with the salt because chips are really salty so you don't want the guac to be too salty on it's own.  And then I added the lime, it wasn't part of the original recipe.  I say 1 lime for every three or four avocados. (when I make it on Saturday I will take a picture and update the post, but I didn't want it to turn brown by making it too early!)

And then for Sunday I'm just bringing pineapple and apples.  I was lucky to find pineapple for $1 at Simth's!  Otherwise my mother-in-law's suggestion was to cut one pineapple into 40 little pieces (I was asked to bring pineapple and apples for 40 people!  Not by my MIL, by her sister-in-law)

What food are you planning for parties this season?