Do you have a favorite flavor of jellybeans? Do you even like jellybeans? I love the orange ones followed closely by the black ones.
Several years ago, friends and I had this discussion over lunch – which flavor do you like best?
As usual with my companions, anything could lead to a party. We decided to have a jellybean contest to see which was the favorite color.
Have you noticed I said color, not flavor? Aside from orange and black, most jellybean flavors are unidentifiable. If you’re thinking that this is really trite, imagine giving a party based on this same idea! Which is what we did!
We decided to have a Favorite Jellybean Flavor Party. Everyone had to bring a large bag of their favorite color jellybean. We would then have tests with scorecards.
Certainly, we would need enough alcohol to cleanse the palate between colors and a lot of thought was given to which alcoholic beverages went best with jellybeans. I loved that group as we could make the most inane things fun!
We marked a Saturday night for the party, invited friends, stocked up on the preferred alcohol (Tequila) and planned some savory treats to nullify the amount of sweets we would be eating.
After counting numerous votes, and amid much loud complaining, orange jellybeans won with black taking second place.
This was one of the silliest parties we ever gave. I really miss those carefree times.
To counteract all the sweetness of the jellybeans, we served a luscious salty Virginia Ham. Here’s a recipe using the leftovers.
Mini Ham/Mushroom Tarts – 30 pieces: Melt 2 tbs. butter in medium pan. Add 2 cups finely chopped mushrooms, ½ cup each finely chopped onions and red pepper, and 2 tsp. minced garlic. Cook until any liquid has evaporated and vegetables are tender. Cool.
In medium bowl whisk 6 eggs, 1-1/2 cups half-and-half , 1 tsp. dry mustard, ¾ tsp. salt and ½ tsp. black pepper. In mini phyllo shells, divide 1 cup chopped ham, 1-1/2 cups grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese and the cooled vegetables.
Spoon egg mixture into each shell. Bake 20 minutes at 350 degrees.
