Derby Party book club

A few years ago my book club girls were down town to see "Wicked" and we saw all of these lovely ladies and well dressed men. The girls were wearing fun dresses and fancy hats and the men had on suspenders and bow ties. We finally asked a group of them what on earth they were dressed for. They explained that all over down town there were Kentucky Derby parties. Fun, right?

We decided that we would do a party, but last year time got away from all of us, so this year it was on!

Lets start with the hat. I did a google search and came up with beautiful hats with crazy price tags, like hundreds of dollars for a hat. I am not a hat girl, so this was ridiculous.

 Thanks to my thrifty skills I found a brand new floppy white hat from Target with the tags still on it, for $3.99. It was little plain though, so I hit up the Hobby Lobby for some cute hot pink ribbon and huge sparkly flower for $1. It's amazing what a girl and glue gun can do! First I measure the ribbon and glued it in place. Then I tied a big bow and glued that in place as well.

 Next I trimmed off the stem of the flower and poked it through the weave of the hat and you guessed it... more glue. Last it needed a little something, so I rummaged around in Callie's room and pulled some feathers off one of her many feather boas... and finished product!

We had  feast! Southern style... We had shrimp, cheese and crackers for an appetizer. Fried chicken, mashed potatoes, cheddar biscuits and fruit salad. Yummmmm.

I was in charge of biscuits. I made a rip off of Red Lobster cheddar bay biscuits. They are so easy!

Here is the original recipe:
http://damndelicious.net/2014/02/03/red-lobster-cheddar-bay-biscuits/

I modify it slightly for a larger crowd and change some of the ingredients.

INGREDIENTS

• 4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 tablespoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons garlic powder
• 2 cups milk, I used skim
• 1 cup salted butter, melted
• 1 1/2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese
FOR THE TOPPING
• 6 tablespoons salted butter, melted
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley leaves
• Garlic salt to sprinkle

INSTRUCTIONS

• Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper 
• In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder combine with wet ingredients. Fold in cheese
•  scoop the batter evenly onto the prepared baking sheet. Place into oven and bake for 10-12 minutes, or until golden brown.
• For the topping, whisk together butter, parsley and garlic powder in a small bowl. Working one at a time, brush the tops of the biscuits with the butter mixture.

They came out great!!

We had Mint Juleps that my sister in law made. They were interesting, not as amazing as they look on TV. Jenn worked really hard on then, but I just don't think bourbon is our thing!

My other sister in law made Derby pie, which is essentially a pecan pie with chocolate chips added in. Phanneth is a great  baker and it was delicious!

We had a blast although we never really watched the race. We totally miscalculated the time and the race was not on for like another 2 hours, sad times. So we sat around in our fancy hats and drank Juleps. I can't think of a better way to supplement the time!