Neighbors over for Dinner

We had our wonderful neighbors over for dinner last night! I've been slowly exercising my "hostess" skills and have been watching other people very closely lately to see what they do that makes me feel special. People have been having us over a lot and I have been so honored. Blake's friend and his wife from church had us over and she used all her fine china and had coffee and desserts and appetizers all set out. Then our pastor's family had us over for Sunday lunch and they also had spent a lot of time on their table and had it decorated and all the place settings out with pretty chargers and napkins. They also had coffee made after the meal and desserts ready.

Now, I know I am not the best at decorating, and so I made do with what I had. The tips I've been taking most are to use your best dishes and make an actual place setting, and to have coffee available after the meal with a homemade dessert. Our guests didn't take us up on the coffee, but I still felt good making it for just me and Blake.

So, what I did was take a recipe that I knew was a knock-out hit. And so I made that Cornbread Taco Casserole. I needed an appetizer or side, so I just had a basket of tortilla chips in the middle of the table and set out a personal salsa dish for each person. And I used my crystal glasses and just had water or sweet tea available. It was so fun!! Our neighbors are retired, and super-talkative. They've been everywhere and know so much. After we finished the main course, I had a new dessert ready that I cooked the day before: Poor Man's Dessert. I was unsure that it would be very good, and had ice cream ready in case it was a flop. But it was AWESOME!!

Poor Man's Dessert
-1 can cherry pie filling
-1 can of pears with their juice, or crushed fruit and their juice
-1 box cake mix (I used a pineapple cake mix)
-1-3 little packets of instant oatmeal (or use plain oatmeal and some brown sugar)
-1 stick of butter
- nuts, as a garnish (optional)
Directions
1. Pour pie filling in bottom of greased crockpot
2. Pour can of fruit with juice over pie filling
3. Add cake mix, do not stir
4. Sprinkle oatmeal on top
5. Cut butter in 1 tbsp pats and lay across top
6. Cover and cook on low 6-7 hours. Do not open your crock during cooking time!
7. Serve warm with ice cream



This was good. Very good. I will use this whenever I entertain. It's a pretty dessert and has a wow-factor. I bet it could be translated to an oven recipe, but I sure liked just dumping it into the crock pot and ignoring it.

*Update* my only complaint about this dessert was that the cake was still kinda gummy. Next time I might flip the crockpot to High on the last hour and keep and eye on it.