Progressive desserts

In the middle of December Patrick and I got together with our neighbors for some holiday merriment. We all decided that it would be fun to plan a progressive dinner (I'm on a secret mission to bring back progressives and make them cool again). Since there were three couples it worked out perfectly to have appetizers at one house, dinner at another, and then dessert at the last house. We volunteered for dessert and served a rum cake with eggnog ice cream and chocolate pie. Patrick and I feel extremely lucky to have moved into such a great neighborhood with amazing neighbors! This progressive was a great way to celebrate that!

Here's our dessert spread

Angus Barn's Chocolate Chess Pie

Ingredients

1 unbaked pie shell (we used this recipe)

1/2 cup butter
2 (1 ounce) bakers semi-sweet chocolate baking squares
    (we substituted unsweetened chocolate baking squares since there was 1 cup sugar)
1 cup sugar
2 eggs, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 dash salt

Directions
   Melt butter and chocolate. Mix with other ingredients which have been blended together. Pour into pie crust. Bake 35 minutes, at 350F.

Adding glaze to the rum cake

Granny's Rum Cake - original Bacardi rum recipe
Ingredients
  For the Cake
1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts
1 18-1/2 oz. pkg. yellow cake mix
1 3-3/4 oz. pkg. instant vanilla pudding mix
4 eggs
1/2 cup cold water
1/2 cup Wesson oil
1/2 cup Bacardi dark rum
  Glaze
1/4 lb. butter
1/4 cup water
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup Bacardi dark rum

Directions
   Preheat oven to 325F. Grease and flour 10 inch tube or 12 cup bundt pan. Sprinkle nuts over bottom of pan. Mix all cake ingredients together. Pour batter over nuts in pan. Bake one hour. Set on rack to cool. Invert on serving plate. Prick top. Drizzle and brush glaze evenly over top and sides.
   For glaze, melt butter in saucepan. Stir in water and sugar. Boil 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Stir in rum.
   Optional: Decorate with border of sugar frosting or whipped cream. Serve with seedless green grapes dusted with powdered sugar and whole maraschino cherries.

Eggnog Ice Cream

Ingredients

2 cups eggnog 

2 cups heavy cream 

1 10oz can sweetened condensed milk 

1 teaspoon vanilla 

Directions

   Mix eggnog, heavy cream, condensed milk, and vanilla in a large bowl. Pour the mixture into an ice cream maker and freeze according to manufacturer's directions until it reaches "soft-serve" consistency. Transfer ice cream to a one- or two-quart lidded plastic container; cover surface with plastic wrap and seal. For best results, ice cream should ripen in the freezer for at least 2 hours or overnight.

Couldn't resist taking a selfie before we left to start the progressive! Each house was wonderfully decorated and the food we ate that night was delicious. We capped off the night with a "Yankee Elephant" gift swap. This was such a nice evening to share with neighbors and we look forward to making it an annual event!