Posts Tagged ‘appetizer’

We are having our first official snow/ice day in Dallas this year and I’m taking the opportunity to try out one of the appetizers I plan to make for the Valentines Dinner.  I realize half of the country is totally making fun us Texans’ with our silly weather but we really don’t handle this stuff well.  We were not made to deal with 10 degrees.  I don’t even know what to do other than stay in my pajamas and wrap my down duvet around me with a cup of hot soup!  It was pretty funny watching the two Superbowl teams riding in their fancy buses to Media Day down highway 30 with literally no one on the road but them…

This appetizer is nice and easy and really yummy.  It took a whole 10 minutes to prep and another 10 to cook which will make it ideal to serve warm once my guests arrive.  I feel like I’m constantly fighting to find appetizers that are going to taste good at room temperature.  Any suggestions??

Ingredients:

1 package (15 shells) of fillo shells

1 package (8 oz) of Neufchatel cheese (it should be by the cream cheese at your local grocery store, if you can not find it use cream cheese instead)

1 small jar of your favorite chutney (I used a Harry and David roasted red pepper chutney)

1/2 tsp dried thyme

1/2 tsp crushed garlic

1 large shallot sliced thin

3 tbs vegetable oil

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  Place the shells on a lightly greased cookie sheet.  Heat oil for frying in a small pan.  While the oil is getting hot slice your shallot.  Fry the shallots and set them aside on a paper towel to dry.  With a hand mixer blend together the neufchatel cheese, garlic and , thyme.  This works best with the cheese at room temperature.   Using a small spoon fill each fillo shell with the cheese and top with your chutney.  Finish off with a topping of fried shallot and then bake for 10 minutes.  Enjoy!

Every year at my office we have a Thanksgiving potluck and everyone brings their favorite dish to share with the office.    The most obvious dishes get selected first and we try not to double up on any dishes so if you manage to be last you have to get creative.   

We always have a ton of carbs.  It’s like even as adults no one  actually wants to eat vegetables.  Someone will bring green bean casserole and everyone will agree that it is the best vegetable dish.  I’m not sure that it still counts as a veggie after fried onions and cream of mushroom soup gets dumped all over the (canned) green beans.  Still, I will absolutely have some on my plate.

This year I waited until the day after our sign up deadline to actually decide what to cook.  I have been wanting to make a galette for a few months now so I was excited to use our potluck as a good excuse to make them.  I wandered the grocery store for forever trying to figure out what to fill these yummy pastries with.  I came across this wonderful little container of multicolored mini tomatoes and knew that the colors would be just perfect and that a pesto tomato galette wouldn’t be too scary either.

The crust for this galette is really flaky and very buttery.  I can’t wait to try it in a pie. 

I’m always curious about what everyone else eats for Thanksgiving.  My husband is Hispanic and Natalie’s husband is Polish so we always tease that Thanksgivings are very different with our spouses families then how it was while we were kids.  I joke that I’m headed to Mexican Thanksgiving because we tend to have the traditional stuff but there is always a nice flair to the food.  There are always tortillas and a large pot of beans.  My mother in law makes her famous Mexican rice and we have a very blended but FANTASTIC meal.  So, tell me about your Thanksgiving, pretty please.

What is your favorite Thanksgiving side?   – Garlic Mashed Potatoes

Do you have a family staple that you just hate?  Candied Yams.  Puke!

Favorite Dessert?  This one is really hard for me – um, shoot,  pumpkin pie I guess,  no pralines,  no pecan pie….  Gosh I just get a small piece of everything to be honest.

What do you watch on TV Thanksgiving Day?  Football and A Christmas Story Marathon.

Recipe:

Substitutions: If you don’t want to make homemade crust for this than please feel free to purchase your favorite frozen pie crust.

The crust is an adaption from one I found on www.asweetspoonful.com

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 tbs thyme

1 tsp salt

2 tsp granulated sugar

1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks) cut into cubes

5-8 tbs ice water

In the bowl of a food processor, combine the flour, thyme, salt and sugar.  Quickly pulse in the cubed butter until the mixture is nice and crumbly.  The dough will be about the size of  little peas.  Slowly add in the water 1 tbs of ice water at a time using long pulses.  Check your dough after 5 tbs of water before you add more.  You can always add water – not so easy to remove it.  The dough should be thick but mushy.  You don’t want it too sticky or it will be terrible to roll out and work with.  If for some reason it is too sticky just add more flour.

Flatten your dough out into a small disk and wrap it in plastic wrap.  Refrigerate it for about 4 hours or up to a day ahead of time.

Pesto Recipe:

2 cups pine nuts, toasted

2 cloves garlic

6 large basil leaves

1/2 cup olive oil

1 cup parmesan cheese for sprinkling.

In a food processor, add the toasted pine nuts, parmesan, garlic, basil and a  1/2 cup of olive oil and process until a smooth paste forms.

Toppings:

You will need about 2 pints of mulitcolored small tomatoes.  If you can’t find the multicolored package then just cherry tomatoes or the yellow ones will be fine. 

6 Shallots (sliced and sauteed until carmelized)

Balsamic Reduction:

In a small sauce pan bring 1 cup of balsamic vinegar to a rapid boil.  Heat until reduced. This should only take about 5-8 minutes.  Keep an eye on it because it will burn!!  You want it to be a really nice thick syrup.  Using  a spoon practice drizzling it in the pot to make sure it is a good consistancy. 

When you are ready to make your galettes take the dough out of the refrigerator and cut it into 10 equal parts.  Sprinkle some flour on your clean countertop as well as on your rolling pin.  Roll each section into a ball with your hands and then begin to flatten it out using a rolling pin.  Your galettes are supposed to be rustic looking so don’t worry so much about them being exactly circular.  the dough should be about 1/8″ thick.

I then placed the dough into my cookie sheet (lined with parchment and sprayed with a non cook cooking spray) because I felt like it was too hard to transfer the pastry to the pan once it was full of goodies.  Spread the pesto sauce on first, then sprinkle with a little Parmesan cheese.  Lastly, top with the tomatoes  and the shallots, fold the edges of the dough over the edges of the filling.  Refrigerate for about 30 minutes to let the dough firm up a bit.  Take your egg wash and brush the edges of the folded over dough.  Bake at 375 for about 45 minutes. 

Note:  The egg wash is purely for color and shine so if you don’t have an egg or forget this step don’t worry so much.  It is not a necessity, more a finishing touch. 

When the galettes are finished baking drizzle each one with the balsamic reduction.  These are best eaten warm straight from the oven but reheat really well.

 

If you missed the first two posts please click here and here for the decoration portion of this post.

So the party was a huge hit!  Everyone really seemed to have a good time and the last guest left around 3 am!  Crazy fun and totally worth all of the effort.  The food was tasty, the drinks were cold, and the guests were amazing!  This type of party is why I love to plan and cook and decorate the whole thing.  It just feels so good when it all comes together so well.  I will cut to the chase with this post because we just have too much to cover.

Green Chile Polenta with Mushrooms

I have made the polenta a million times and you can find the recipe here as well as the green chile sauce which you can find here.  I took the green chile sauce and the toasted almonds from the chicken and poured a small dollop on top of the polenta.   Natalie placed the almonds on top perfectly so these little guys looked super impressive.  This recipe is great because the green chile sauce and almonds can be made 2 days before and the polenta can be made the night before.  I would wait to make the mushrooms until the day of.

“Grown up Nachos”  or Tilapia Nachos

I added these the night before because I felt like I wasn’t going to have enough food and I’m really glad I did.  They were the favorite of the night.  Sugar and I ate them the whole next week.  These suckers are good!

4 Tilapia fillets

juice of 2 limes

40 – 50 large tortilla chips

2 cans black beans

3 tsp crushed garlic

3 tbs cilantro

1 tsp salt

3 shallots

olive oil for frying

flour for coating the shallots

Queso Fresco

raspberry poblano sauce (or any spicy sweet sauce you can find, Central Market has a ton of them)

I bought frozen Tilapia fillets and just followed the package direction for baking them.  Squeeze the lime juice over the thawed fillets before you bake them.  When they are finished allow them to cool to the touch and then shred them.  Set them aside.

Slice your shallots very finely and coat them in the flour.  Heat your olive oil to medium high heat.  Fry the shallots to crispy brown and set them aside.

Cook your can beans on the stove until they are hot and then transfer them to your blender.  Add in the garlic cilantro and salt and puree until nice and smooth.  Taste your beans to make sure they have enough salt.  Feel free to add more if they taste a bit bland, keeping in mind hat you are putting them on salty chips!

Preheat your oven to 350 and lay out as many chips as you can on a cookie sheet.  Smear a nice dollop of beans on the chips.  Do each chip individually so it is easy for your guests to pick each one up.  If you just make a giant pile of nachos it will look terrible and will be crazy messy.  Next place about a tablespoon of talapia on each chip topping them with all with the shredded queso fresco.  Bake them in the oven for about 8 minutes or until they are toasted.  While they are still hot top each one with the fried shallots and then sweep a little of the sauce on top.  These are soooo goood!

Endive and Spicy Potatoes

5-6 small red potatoes

2 tsp olive oil

2 shallots

1 tsp garlic

2 tsp chili flakes

1 tsp cumin

salt and pepper to taste

6 large endives

1 cup grated cotija cheese

Wash and dry the potatoes and chop them into small quarter inch pieces.  Heat a large pan with the olive oil.  When the oil is hot add the shallots.  Cook them until they are caramelized and then add the potatoes, chili flakes, cumin and some salt.  Cook for about 10-15 minutes or until the potatoes are cooked through.  Make sure not to over cook them.  They should not be mushy!  While the potatoes are cooking wash the endive really well and separate the pieces.  Be sure to cut off the end or stem portion of the endive.  Fill the pieces with the potato mixture and grate the cojita cheese on top.  Serve at room temperature.  This recipe should make about 50 pieces.

White Bean Crostini

2 cans white beans (garbanzo beans) – drained

1 tbs garlic

3tbs cilantro

2 tsp chili powder

salt and pepper to taste

2 baguettes sliced about 1/2 thick

olive oil

1 bunch of arugula

1 cup grated cotija cheese

In a medium sauce pan combine the beans, garlic, cilantro and chili powder.  Cook the beans and then add the mixture to your mixer or blender.  Puree the mixture into a smooth paste.

Slice the baguette into 1/2″ thick pieces and lay them out on a pan.  Brush each piece with a little bit of olive oil.  Lightly toast them in the oven at 350 for about 8 minutes.  Pull out the toasted baguettes and spread the bean puree over each one.  Slice the arugula into thin strips and top each baguette.  Cover with the cotija and serve.

Chorizo Meatballs with Avocado Crema

3 lbs of good chorizo meat (Ask the butcher at your favorite grocery store what brand he recommends)

Roll the chorizo into bite sized balls and bake them in the oven at 350 for about 12-15 minutes.  Chorizo already had so many spices in it that you really don’t have to do anything else.  The avocado crema is a really great cool flavor with the spicy meat.

Click here for the Avocado Crema recipe.

I also made a giant 3 tier chocolate cake and every part of it was a disaster.  The recipe had me bake the cake portion for too long and it was over-cooked.  The icing never solidified and I ended up pouring it over the cake.  The icing was so runny that the top tier keep sliding off and landing on my counter top.  I had to take popsicle sticks and stick them through the cake tiers to make them stay.  I had icing on the ceiling ya’ll!  Sugar walked in the kitchen and all he could do was laugh because I was covered in chocolate icing.  The cake tasted pretty good but it was horribly unsuccessful!  I will not be posting the recipe.  I will admit that at 3 am when everyone was gone I took a giant fork to this cake straight from the cake stand.  It didn’t taste that bad but I’m still mad at it….

I made Trece Leches and it turned out really well.  I have made this recipe a million times so luckily it came out just as it was supposed to. )f course I didn’t get any photos of this either.  Whoops!  Click here for the recipe.

We also put together these great little take away gifts for everyone.  I ordered the tags from www.myownlabels.com and bought mini Hershey’s, Popsicle sticks, marshmallows and graham crackers.  S’mores are such a great summer time treat that I thought it would be cute to use them as take aways.  I stuck the marshmallows on the sticks to make sure the treats were ready to use.  My little tags say “here is to many S’MORE birthday’s to come”  get it, get it, hehe!

I recently threw a little party to help raise money with my sister in law Monica.  Every year she participates in the Susan G. Koman 3 Day but can not this year because her little flat feet just can’t take it anymore!!  Instead of walking she decided to donate all of the proceeds from her Scentsy sales for the month of June to the 3-Day walk.  I hate Cancer so I decided to help her on her quest!!

I wanted to keep the party fairly simple but I’m a sucker for themes and I tend to get a little carried away.  I decided to call this one Scentsy and Sandwiches for Cancer.  I made 4 different types of bite sized sandwiches and for dessert I made ice cream sandwiches!

I wanted the food to be easy to prepare and it is always a challenge to keep things warm so I thought fun sandwiches would be perfect.

Pear and Pesto Sandwich:

Sliced green pear,  pesto, thick slices of dill cheese, and sprouts on hearty wheat bread.  This one was my favorite!  I made the pesto the day before, which is the same recipe from the Portobello Lasagna minus the lemon.  Click on the word pesto for the link to the recipe.  I would cut it in half though.  You don’t need that much pesto for a few sandwiches.

Pulled Pork Sandwich:

This is the same recipe from the Pulled Pork recipe that I posted last week.  I made this the day before too so all I had to do was plate this sandwich on a tasty dinner roll.

Peppered Turkey with Cranberry Relish:

I made the relish for this sandwich the day before as well so that it would be one less thing to worry about.  I just layered the relish, peppered turkey,  spinach, Gorgonzola cheese, and walnuts on hearty wheat bread.

Cranberry Relish:

1 can cranberry sauce

1 shallot

1 tsp olive oil

1 tsp black pepper

1 tsp garlic

Heat the oil on a small skillet and add the shallots and the garlic.  Once the shallots have begun to caramelize add the black pepper and cranberry sauce.  Cook on medium high heat until everything is combined and the sauce has thinned and warmed.  Set aside. This can be made up to three days in advance.  I would also recommend if you have extra sauce to pour this over chicken and bake it.  Very yummy!!

Cucumber Sandwiches:

These are super easy and one of my all time favorite sandwiches.  I just buy flavored cream cheese.  I like the chive and garlic the best.  Slice the cucumbers nice and thin and then sprinkle with black pepper.  I like to serve these open faced because they are so pretty.

Ice Cream Sandwiches:

I desperately need to buy the ice cream maker attachment for my Kitchen Aid but until then you all get store bought ice cream.  For these sandwiches I made homemade butter cookies from my wonderful “Butter” cookbook and used strawberry ice cream to make the sandwiches.  These cookies were amazing and had a simple flavor similar to an ice cream cone.  The ice cream was a little finicky and I was really glad I had a lot to practice with.  The first batch I made I let the ice cream get too soft and they fell flat before the ice cream could refreeze in my freezer.  You can do this up to a week ahead of time which is a total time savor.  You can get cute little baggies with colored ribbon to tie them up individually too.  I had planned to do this and bought all the stuff but then I totally forgot so they just went on the plates.

Butter Cookies: Makes 84  (The Great Big Butter Cookbook, Von Glahn)

1/2 pound or 2 sticks butter unsalted at room temp

8 oz cream cheese

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp almond extract

3 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

Cream the butter and cream cheese with an electric mixer in a large bowl.  Add the sugar and beat.  Add the egg, vanilla, and almond extract.  Beat well.

In a medium bowl, combine the flour and baking powder.  Add the flour mixture to the cream cheese mixture and beat until it is well mixed.

Divide the dough in half and wrap both haves in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least one and a half hours.

On a lightly floured surface roll out the dough to 1/8″ thickness and cut with desired cookie cutter.  Bake on a greased cookie sheet at 375 for 8-10 minutes.   Allow cookies to cool fully before making ice cream sandwiches.

I hosted a cocktail party last week for a friend of mine, Tara, who sells Stella & Dot jewelry.  I met Tara at one of her recent jewelry trunk shows and totally fell in love with the jewelry and her fun personality.  I decided to host a little trunk show of my own and invite some of my girl friends.  You all know that I love to host parties and pretty much look for any excuse to entertain, so I jumped at the chance to mix my love of jewelry and cocktail hour together. 

 Unfortunately, I was experiencing a very busy week.  The party was planned for Thursday at 6:30 and I had opera tickets for Wednesday night.  This did not leave ANY time to prepare appetizers.  I really enjoy making appetizers from scratch, but without a lot of time I had to really think about food I could prepare ahead to serve the evening of the party.  I remembered these great wafers my mom made at Easter and thought I could switch out the all-purpose flour for whole wheat to give them a healthy twist.  Cheese and wine are a never-fail combination so I knew these would get devoured.  They took almost no time to throw together and then stayed fresh wrapped up in the fridge for a few days.  On the night of the party, I was able to just slice, bake, and serve.  They were such a hit that I’m considering making a few logs to keep frozen in case of impromptu guests.

Whole Wheat Cheddar Wafers

1/2 cup unsalted butter (1 stick), softened
1/2 lb. cheddar cheese, grated and at room temperature
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon salt

Using a handheld mixer, whip the butter and cheese together in a bowl until creamy.  In a separate bowl, combine the flour, cayenne, and salt.  Add the dry ingredients to the wet and stir with a wooden spoon or spatula until combined.

Gather dough into a ball and split in half.  Roll each half of the dough into a log and wrap with parchment paper,  twist up the ends to seal.  Chill the logs for at least 4 hours.  These can also be frozen for a later date.  Once the dough has chilled, slice 1/4 inch wafers and place on a parchment covered baking sheet.  Bake at 400 degrees for 7-9 minutes or until lightly browned at the edges.  Depending on the thickness of your logs, this recipe makes around 3 dozen wafers.