Murder Mystery Party

A couple of weeks ago, we had a murder mystery party at my house. The party was called "The Waterstown Affair" and is set in 1930's England. We sent out the invitations and dressed up according to our characters. We even planned it so we could put the 3 kids to sleep in 3 different rooms so we could enjoy the night...

The evening started with pictures in the appetizers in the front room. (Appetizers included stuffed mushrooms and homemade cheeseball and crackers...I found a GREAT recipe for the stuffed mushrooms!!!) This is where we learned a little bit about each other and discovered that a murder had taken place. For each round, you are given more information about your character and other characters...some of which you need to reveal during the round and other information that you can't lie about - but you don't have to present it as information unless directly asked.

We then moved to a formal dinner in the next room. We set it up so that we were able to have a candelight dinner on one long table (from the church)...The dinner consisted of roast, mashed potatoes, asparagus, orange rolls, salad, and martinellis.

We continued the next rounds over dinner. After the final accusations, we enjoyed the dessert which was delicious pumpkin cheesecake and wassail. We enjoyed great food and fun with everyone. It really turned out to be such a fun party and I definitely want to do one again sometime :)

Recipes

Here are a few that were requested - I still need to get the great cheeseball recipe!

Stuffed Mushrooms

INGREDIENTS:
12 whole fresh mushrooms
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray. Clean mushrooms with a damp paper towel. Carefully break off stems. Chop stems extremely fine, discarding tough end of stems.
2. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add garlic and chopped mushroom stems to the skillet. Fry until any moisture has disappeared, taking care not to burn garlic. Set aside to cool.
3. When garlic and mushroom mixture is no longer hot, stir in cream cheese, Parmesan cheese, black pepper, onion powder and cayenne pepper. Mixture should be very thick. Using a little spoon, fill each mushroom cap with a generous amount of stuffing. Arrange the mushroom caps on prepared cookie sheet.
4.Bake for 20 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the mushrooms are piping hot and liquid starts to form under caps.

Cranberry Wassail

100% apple cider

2-3 cinnamon sticks

Cloves

Cranberries

Heat to warm - the longer you cook, the more flavor :)

Pumpkin Cheesecake

Crust:

Gingersnap crumbs 8 oz.

Melted butter 6 oz.

Filling:

Cream Cheese, softened 24 oz.

Sugar 1 1/2 cups

Pumpkin Pur 12 oz. (1 1/2 cups)

Eggs 3 each

Vanilla 2 tsp.

Ground Cinnamon 2 1/2 tsp.

Ground Ginger 1/2 tsp.

Topping:

Sour Cream 2 cups

Sugar 1 cup

Extra Topping:

Cranberries 1 bag

Sugar to taste

Preparation Method:

1) Spray 9-inch springform pan with Pan

2) Combined melted butter and gingersnap crumbs. Press evenly to bottom of pan.

3) Cream the Cream Cheese and Sugar until no lumps remain. Add eggs one at a time. Add vanilla, pumpkin puree, pumpkin pie spice.

4) Pour mixture into pan and bake in a preheated 350 degree oven until done, about 45 minutes. When done the cake will move uniformly rather in more in the center)

5) While cake is baking combined sour cream and the sugar, set a side until cake is done baking.

6) When cake has finished, remove it from the oven and let it cool for about 2 minutes, or until the center falls slightly.

7) Spread sour cream mixture evenly on top of cake. Return the cake to the oven for 10 minutes.

8) Let cakes cool completely before refrigerating or freezing.

9) Put cranberries in a frying pan with a little bit of water, enough water to make the cranberries float, but not very high. Cook on medium on stove top, berries will pop and get soft, add sugar to taste usually somewhere between 1-1 1/2 cups of sugar.

Substitutions: I use Graham crackers for the gingersnaps sometimes, usually whatever is on sale.Also you can use pumpkin pie spice instead of the cinnamon and ginger.

So there was our fun night of fun and recipes...a very FUN event!