Winter Wonderland

On Monday, I was in charge of coordinating a luncheon for the teachers at Advent. And, I admit, I got a bit carried away with my winter wonderland theme! I'm told it's not normal to gather nature from outside the school and spray it white for centerpieces, and to give your children art projects that last a good part of the weekend. But, they had fun ... and don't these snowflakes look cute!? They really spruced up the buffet table, and used up a fair amount of our overflowing box of packing peanuts!Food for the luncheon was a baked potato bar (Did you know it takes about an hour for potatoes to cook in the oven? I didn't ... but now I do!), a couple varieties of chili, salads, and some vegetable "cupcakes" I tried for the first time. They were actually VERY good. But Dennis almost had me convinced I shouldn't take them to the luncheon. Guess you don't ask someone, who isn't a veggie fan, what they think of a recipe containing about every kind of vegetable imaginable! Anyway, they were a hit ... so here's the recipe. Make sure to use your food processor ... lots of chopping! And I made a double recipe IN cupcake papers ... filling them pretty full. I think I ended up with about 30 total.

VEGETABLE CUPCAKES
¾ stick butter
½ c. ea. chopped green pepper & celery
1 c. ea. chopped onion, zucchini, and broccoli
½ pkg chopped frozen spinach, thawed and drained
1 ½ c. grated carrots
3 eggs
salt and pepper to taste
¾ c. matzo meal
½ c. Parmesan cheese
2 tsp. sweet basil

Melt butter in large skillet. Sauté green pepper, onion, celery, spinach, carrots, zucchini and broccoli. In a large bowl pour all vegetables and allow them to cool. Add eggs, Parmesan cheese, basil, salt, pepper and matzo meal. Mix well. Spoon into greased muffin tins and bake at 350 for 40 minutes. Sprinkle muffins with paprika and serve hot. Yield: approx. 20 cupcakes.