'paper year' potluck

     this past weekend, my husband + i decided to throw our first potluck (see event happenings on 'PaPer Year' Potluck) held at our STL home to celebrate our first anniversary.  in lieu of gifts, we asked each of our guests to bring the recipe of their dish/dessert they would be contributing to the potluck; but some friends still brought cards and paper-based gifts as tokens of congratulations.

   M + i were so busy cooking up a storm (several appetizers, entree dishes and dessert), i forgot to take pictures of the food we made.  fortunately, i was able to snag a quick pick of the red velvet cake (M's favorite kind) i made in honor of my hubby.  since i was short on time and disliked the way my creamy icing turned out, i cheated and used store-bought vanilla icing to ice the cake.  other than that, i did the cake from scratch, using this Better Home & Garden's recipe:

Red Waldorf Cake

(prep: 1 hr/ bake: 30 min / cool: 1 hr / servings: 12)

• 2 eggs (stand for 30 min. in room temp.)
• 1/2 c. unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 oz. red food coloring (1/4 c....2 bottles of it)
• 2 1/4 c. sifted cake flour or 2 c. sifted all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 c. shortening
• 1 1/2 c. sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 c. buttermilk
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. vinegar (i used apple cider)
• 1 recipe for buttercream frosting (i used store-bought vanilla frosting)

1. grease and lightly flour two 9-in. round cake pans; set pans aside. in small bowl stir cocoa powder and food coloring together and set aside; in another small bowl, stir flour and salt, then set aside.
2. preheat oven 35o deg F.  in large mixing bowl, beat shortening for 30 sec. with a electric mixer, then add sugar and vanilla; beat with mixer until well mixed. add each egg one at a time and beat with mixer until combined.  beat in cocoa mixture.  add flour mixture and buttermilk alternatively and beat with mixer. stir in baking soda and vinegar.
3. spread mixture equally in the two pans.  bake for 30-35 min. in round pans or until wooden toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean.
4. cool cakes in pans for 10 min., then remove from pans and cool cakes on wire rack for 1 hr.  frost cake as desired. NOTE:  can store cake (covered) in fridge for up to 3 days.

     other recipes (a mixture of vegetarian and meat/fish dishes) we used to make our portion of the potluck, we got online or from our BHG cookbook.

• two-bean tamale pie (BHG's recipe; V*)
• spinach salad w/ goat cheese and walnuts (Food Network's Recipe; V)
• couscous with mint, lemon and garbanzo (Couscous; V)
• vegetarian lumpia or the Filipino-version of eggrolls (my recipe, which i will reveal at a later time; V)
• baked mac'n'cheese (Chuck's Favorite Mac'n'Cheese; V)
• salmon sliders (Salmon Slider Recipe, but i used 2 lbs. of fresh salmon instead of canned; P*)
• mini turkey sliders (Mini Turkey Burgers and use meat thermometer to make sure it's cooked through and through at 165 deg. F; C*)
• lime green punch (Green Punch; V)

Key: V=vegetarian (not vegan); P=pescetarian (fish-based); C=carnivore (meat-based)