S'mores on a Stick

Mr. Unwired and I host a New Year's Open House every year.  For the bulk of the year, we don't spend enough time with our adult friends.  Having two kids who like to sleep, going out on New Year's Eve (with its extra alcohol for the adults and late night for all) seems like a poor start to the year.  Instead, we kick the year off by inviting friends and neighbors over for snacks, drinks and socializing.

For me, entertaining is fun as long as I don't drive myself crazy.  I've never seen myself as the 'Martha Stewart' type (referring of course to her hostessing skills, not her insider trading conviction.  Not that I do that either....).  That said, there are lot of cool food treats on other blogs, and hosting a party is an excuse to flex my cooking skills and try something new.

So here's S'mores on a Stick.  I found this adorable treat on this blog.  What a great idea-- sharing the blogging responsibilities with five cousins!  These ladies have a lot of cute entertaining/treats ideas- I was also tempted to make the Chocolate and PB Acorns, but once the idea of  presenting the S'mores as a 'bouquet' was born, I knew that THIS was the fun idea to try.

Smores on a Stick, bouquet-style!

The photo above is the recipe as written on the blog.  I microwaved the chocolate, which meant it was easy to put back in for 15 seconds after every 10 or so smores, in order to re-melt the chocolate.  There are glass beads in the vase to hold the sticks apart-- tha hardest part was keeping the sticks apart so the chocolate in each smore didn't touch.  I tried using legos in the vase, but would have needed to separate out just the itty bitty ones for this to work well.  Since no one in the house had the patience to sift through our billion-brick collection, glass beads were the next choice.

Since this is the season for candy canes, I also made a variation on the recipe using crushed candy in place of the graham cracker crumbs.  They looked great, and while I didn't get to eat one (*sniff*), they sure looked yummy!

Peppermint Marshmallows in front, classic Smores in back.

 What are your sources of inspiration for party hosting?  Or are you a 'tried-and-true' entertainer?