Five Days of Decadence: Day Three

December 21, 2011 Leave a Comment

Today was the appetizer/grazing day.  I had toyed with the idea of waiting until my children went to bed before serving up the finger foods, but my husband preferred the “set it out early and we can graze all day” kind of idea.  So we did that.  And it was nice.

Every year we have one of the days designated as the “appetizer day.”  Last year was a little hectic for me and my food all turned out gross looking and quite bizarre.  This year, I managed a bit better by not trying to make a bunch of little dishes in a tight time frame while also getting ready to go to a Christmas party.

I made the Barbecue Swedish Meatballs again this year, and unlike last year, they were not some psychotic looking color and actually didn’t fall apart on me.  Hooray!

I also made a cheese dip (that is supposed to be a cheese ball, but I didn’t make it ahead of time so that I could shape it into a ball.  Big deal, it tastes the same!) that my mom used to make when I was a teenager and it is so freaking good I have a hard time walking away from it!

It’s one of those things where you ask for the recipe and the person says, “Oh it isn’t a recipe you just throw these things together and that’s it!”  It’s in that spirit that I’ll share this with you.

Take 2 8-oz. blocks of cream cheese and let them come to room temperature.  Then finely dice one red bell pepper and one small onion.  Put them in a bowl.  Add a tiny bit of salt (seriously tiny) and a tiny bit of pepper.  Add about a 1/2 Tblsp. of garlic powder. Chop up some dried beef (about 1/3 of a cup) and throw it in the bowl.  Now add the cream cheese and mix well.  If you’re concerned about it being a cheese BALL, then wrap the concoction in plastic wrap, form into a ball and refrigerate at least over night.  If you don’t care if it’s a ball or a spread, put it in a bowl and have fun stuffing your face.

That is pretty much how it was conveyed to me, so have fun with that.

I also made a favorite appetizer of mine that I used to make way back in the days when I would make Thanksgiving dinner for my husband’s family and my family.  We would eat dinner at around 4 p.m. but I would have appetizers and finger foods set out so people could munch all day.  Again, it’s a simple dish.

Crisp Cucumber Rounds

An Easy Everyday Cooking Recipe

2 medium cucumbers

12 oz. cream cheese, softened

4 green onions, finely chopped

1 tsp. salt

¼ tsp. pepper

1 loaf soft white bread (about 32 slices)

Peel cucumbers and cut lengthwise into quarters.  Remove seeds.  Chop cucumbers very finely.

Place chopped cucumbers in a large kitchen towel and wring to remove all the liquid.

Combine cream cheese, cucumbers, green onions, salt and pepper in a medium bowl; mix well.

Cut 2 rounds from each slice of bread with a small round cookie cutter (1-1/2 inch or less).  Spread with cucumber mixture.  Serve immediately.  YIELD:  64 rounds.

Since I made the cheeseball, I decided that this might be too much cheese (if such a concept exists…) so instead of cream cheese, I made this with sour cream.  Not AS good, but still good.  And instead of using white bread, I used pumpernickel bread…just because I had it.

The only other things that I made were cocktail weiners in barbecue sauce.  Almost every buffet style party I have EVER been to in all my life always has these things sitting in a crock pot and smelling up the place.  My husband loves them..

I just made a mixture of 50% ketchup (mine is homemade, so not as sweet as store bought) and 50% dark, sweet store bought barbecue sauce.  It was a big hit.

Here is a picture of the cheese spread (should be a ball) and the cucumber sandwiches.

To avoid having the whole thing turn pink on you, don’t use a mini-food processor to chop the red bell pepper.  I rather like it, though.

And here is a picture of the weiners and meatballs.  Notice the normal look of the meatballs as opposed to how they looked last year.

There is a reason why I make those meatballs every year.  THEY ARE DELICIOUS!  God, I love those things.  They are so sticky and sweet and spicy and wonderful!

Now, it’s still early for me here so I’m going to go clean my kitchen, light a fire, and drink my favorite winter-time cocktail, the Cosmopolitan!

Ok, I’ll share that one with you too!

1 oz. vodka

1/4 oz. Cointreau

1/4 oz. fresh lime juice

2 oz. cranberry juice

shake with ice in a shaker and drink while it’s cold.

Very easy.  I had this drink at a nice bar in Seattle once, only they made it with white cranberry juice and I’ve been addicted to it (in the winter time only) ever since.

I can’t really explain the taste of cocktails in a manner that is universal because tastes are so different. You CAN taste the alcohol in a drink like this, but that’s not totally bad.  It’s tart and cold and lovely and somehow always makes me think of snow.  Sex and the City gave this drink (and many other things) a bad reputation, but it really is quite good.

Day Four won’t be until Friday, but I am making Duck L’Orange and orange martinis!

Happy Holidays!

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Filed Under Appetizers, Beverages Tagged With alcohol, appetizers, cheese ball, cocktail, cocktail food, cosmopolitan, finger food, food, holiday cooking, how to, recipe, swedish meatballs

5 Days of Decadence: Day 3

December 23, 2010 4 Comments

On this night Jessie and I were attending his office Christmas party in Philadelphia (an hour and a half drive from our house) so we had a very early dinner at about 2 p.m.  I decided to make this day a day of appetizers and finger foods.  I like appetizers and making one of the 5 Days dedicated solely to them would give me an opportunity to have an old favorite and try a new one.  While the results were delicious and satisfying, the look of the food was a bit of a fail, but great for a joke.

When we lived in WA and my mother and step-father would come and visit every year for Thanksgiving, I would always lay out various finger foods for all day snacking before the big meal.  One of the big favorites were these mini barbecue meatballs.  They are very good and just spicy enough to clear your sinuses but not spicy enough to make you cry for your mommy.

Barbecued Swedish Meatballs

Favorite Brand Name Old-Fashioned Holiday Recipes 2004

Meatballs

1-1/2 pounds lean ground beef

1 cup finely chopped onions

1/2 cup fresh breadcrumbs

1/2 cup white wine

1 egg, beaten

1/2 tsp. allspice

1/2 tsp. nutmeg

Sauce

1 jar (10 oz.) currant jelly

1/2 cup chili sauce

1/4 cup white wine

1 Tblsp. cornstarch

Heat oven to 350 degrees F.  In medium bowl, combine all meatball ingredients, mix well.  Shape into 1-inch balls.  Place meatballs in 15x10x1-inch baking pan.  Bake 20 minutes or until brown.

In medium saucepan, combine all sauce ingredients; mix well.  Cook over medium heat until mixture boils and thickens, stirring occasionally.  Add meatballs.  To serve, place meatballs and sauce in fondue pot or chafing dish.  Sprinkle with chopped fresh parsley, if desired.  Serve with cocktail picks.  YIELD:  6-8 servings.

Two things about this recipe:  1) When I first looked at this recipe and saw that it calls for you to bake the meatballs instead of sauteing them, I thought, “That’s really stupid.  Those meatballs will be too soft and just disintegrate into the sauce.”  Well I was right.  Up until this night, I had always sauteed the meatballs and they held together perfectly in the sauce.  On Day 3, I baked them as the recipe instructed and sure enough, the damned things fell apart in the sauce.

2)  I can never find currant jelly.  I have made this recipe probably 5 times and have only found currant jelly once.  Normally when I can’t find currant jelly, I use fig jelly and it works out great.  However, this time I couldn’t find currant OR fig jelly and ended up using blackberry jelly (which accounts for that psychotic color).  The blackberry jelly worked out to be very good but honestly the currant jelly is the best.  If you can find it, great!  If not, don’t sweat it.

The other recipe that I tried is a recipe that I have been eyeballing for a while now.  It had the potential to be a really great appetizer.  While they didn’t turn out to be quite as impressive as I had imagined, they tasted quite nice.  The appearance, however……oh god.  Either I am just having a massive brain fart over these directions or there is a geometry mistake going on.  Here’s the recipe.

Curried Chicken Triangles

Anne Marie Cardilino

TOH Bonus Book

2 Tubes (8 oz. each) refrigerated crescent rolls

1 can (8 oz.) sliced water chestnuts, drained and chopped

1 cup (4 oz.) shredded Swiss cheese

½ cup chopped green onions

1/3 cup mayonnaise

1 tsp. lemon juice

½ tsp. curry powder

½ tsp. garlic salt

1 can (5 oz.) chunk white chicken, undrained

Separate crescent dough into four rectangles; gently press perforations to seal.  Place on greased baking sheets.  In a large bowl, combine the water chestnuts, cheese, onions, mayonnaise, lemon juice, curry powder and garlic salt.  Crumble chicken over mayonnaise mixture; stir to coat.

Place rounded teaspoonfuls in the center of each triangle.  Sprinkle with paprika if desired.  Bake at 350 for 12-15 minutes or until edges are lightly browned.  Serve warm.  YIELD:  about 5-1/2 dozen.

These stupid things look like somebody strategically puked little plops of vomit all over the dough rectangles.  Luckily, it didn’t taste that way, but I’m still confused how the rectangle of dough magically transforms into triangles in the recipe without any sort of direction.  If you can provide clarity, that would be super.  (Seriously, though, these were pretty tasty.)

The third big thing that I made was Salmon Cakes.  I once posted a recipe for these great Crab Cakes.  Use that exact recipe, but use canned salmon instead.  It’s really good.

Sorry for the ultra-crapulent photo.  This is what happens when the cook is in a big freaking hurry.  No time to dress up the food or try to take a fancy photo.  The food tasted good so what the hell ever.

The rest of the meal consisted of crackers, cheese, sausages and good drink.  We had to eat rather fast, but it was still a nice meal.  Hopefully next year I can give the days of appetizers another try and actually make some stuff that doesn’t look like science experiments.  Oh well!

Enjoy!

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Filed Under Appetizers Tagged With appetizers, food, recipe, salmon cakes, swedish meatballs

Fruit and Cheese Platter

June 11, 2009 1 Comment

Sometimes, particularly in the warmer months, the last thing that I want to do is heat my house to unbearable temperatures by cooking a hot meal.  Sometimes you just want something cool and light.  Tonight we had something that my husband and I used to have regularly for weekend brunches before our son was born.  I made a fruit and cheese platter and white wine spritzers.  It’s light, delicious, crisp, and very fulfilling.

Here is a picture of the finished product and we’ll break it down from there:

Fruit and Cheese Platter

On this platter is sliced watermelon, sliced Bartlett pears, sliced green apples, strawberries, sliced salami, toasted French bread, Roquefort (blue) cheese, Chevre (goat cheese), and a gorgeous French Brie.

When you are indulging in heavier tasting cheeses, it is important to accompany these cheeses with palate-cleansing fruits.  Grapes are usually the generic fruit for this, but I really prefer green apples and pears.  And there’s no better pairing in the food world than strawberries and Brie.  (Brie is one of my favorite cheeses to schmeer on some bread.  It’s like butter, but with some FUNK mixed in.  And people, FUNK is a good thing where cheese is concerned.)

French Bread

I don’t like to put crackers on a gorgeous platter like this.  I just go to my local grocer and buy a loaf of French bread.  There’s more body to it and it stands up better to some of the strong cheeses.

Sliced French Bread

Just slice the bread, drizzle with Extra Virgin Olive Oil, and toast in a 400 degree F. oven for 10 minutes.

I also really love the pairing of this platter with white wine spritzers.  I know most spritzers will be served with seltzer water or sparkling water, but I use lemon lime soda.  I buy a HUGE bottle of an inexpensive, fruity wine and a 2 litre bottle of lemon lime soda.  Just put ice in your glass and do half and half of the wine and soda.  It’s a light and sweet drink that goes great with the cheese and fruit.  Also, I buy the big bottle of wine because I will drink these babies until the bottle is empty.  They are spectacular.

Pretty Food

Of course if you choose to make a fruit and cheese platter, I would expect that you use your favorite fruits and cheeses.  This is just my personal pick for favorites.  It’s a great dinner, brunch, picnic, cocktail party serving, appetizer, etc. meal.  Enjoy!

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Filed Under Appetizers, Beverages, Main Dishes Tagged With blue, bread, brie, cheese, chevre, french, fruit, platter, spritzer, wine

Crab Cakes

May 24, 2009 1 Comment

When I was in college, my boyfriend (now husband) picked me up from one of my night classes and brought me home.  When I walked through the door, I noticed that he had music playing.  Low ambient light provided a warm glow to our crappy little domicile and there was a small feast spread out on our kitchen table.  He had spent the last few hours researching and making crab cakes and oysters on the half shell for us as a romantic meal.  Of course, the oysters were astounding, but I was surprised at how good the crab cakes were.  On our tiny college-student-budget, he had managed to put together a proper meal.

If you research crab cake recipes online (and even if you use the recipe I will be providing), you will notice that almost all of these recipes will call for lump crab meat.  While it is a fact of life that lump crab meat makes much better crab cakes and require less filler (like bread crumbs), lump crab meat is really expensive.  It’s more than I’m comfortable paying for an everyday meal, in fact.

Canned Crab Meat

I use canned crab meat when I make crab cakes as a small family meal.  Obviously it is not as good as lump crab meat, but it’s still crab meat and crab meat is good….so shut it.  This stuff is so cheap and affordable that if you stop listening to the people who tell you that the only good food is expensive food, you can have a perfectly delicious meal for pennies a person.  I still use the recipe my husband used all those years ago (maybe I’m a sentimental fool) and it’s still as good today as it was then and it’s still budget friendly because it uses ingredients that most people already have in their pantries.  I’ve revised the recipe a little bit (of course) so here’s the original recipe and I’ll list my revisions below.

Mrs. Duvall’s Crab Cakes

Mrs. Duvall of the Rail Stop, The Plains, VA

¼ cup mayonnaise

¼ cup onion, minced

2 eggs, lightly beaten

½ tsp. Worcestershire Sauce

½ tsp. dry mustard

¼ tsp. salt

¼ tsp. cayenne pepper

1 lb. lump crab meat, picked over

1 cup soda crackers, finely crushed

2 Tblsp. unsalted butter

¼ cup vegetable oil

Lemon wedges

In a large bowl, combine the mayonnaise, onion, eggs, Wocestershire sauce, dry mustard, salt and cayenne.  Fold in the crabmeat and ¼ cup of the cracker crumbs.  Shape the mixture into 16 cakes about 1-inch thick.  Coat the crab cakes with the remaining cracker crumbs and transfer to a baking sheet lined with waxed paper.  The crab cakes can be refrigerated overnight at this point, if needed.

In a large skillet, melt 1 Tblsp. of the butter in 2 Tblsp. of the oil.  When the foam subsides, add half the crab cakes and cook over moderate heat until golden and crisp, 2-3 minutes pre side.  Drain the crab cakes on paper towels, then keep warm in a low oven.  Repeat with the remaining 1 Tblsp. of butter and 2 Tblsp. oil and cook the remaining crab cakes.  Serve with lemon wedges.

YIELD:  4 servings

-If you are using canned crab for this recipe, use two 6 oz. cans.  I know that doesn’t quite equal a full lb., but for canned meat, it is the perfect measurement.

-I use 1 Tblsp. of Dijon mustard and 1 Tblsp. of coarse grain mustard instead of that piddly amount of dry mustard called for in the recipe.  It adds wonderful zing to the dish.

Mini Food Processor

-I have this awesome tiny-sized food processor that I use for dishes like this that call for finely minced onion and garlic.  You want a very fine mince (almost like a paste) because big chunks of onion or garlic in this are not very appetizing.  Oh yeah, I also use garlic in this dish even though it isn’t called for.  I have yet to meat a seafood that doesn’t benefit from a little garlic.  2 cloves minced is a good measurement.

Saltines

-Instead of soda crackers in this, I use Saltines.  Everybody has Saltines in their pantries and they add a nice saltiness to the dish.  You’ll use an entire sleeve of the crackers in this dish.  Just crush them up as finely as you can.  A few chunks here and there are fine.  Use 1/2 cup of the crumbs in the mixture and the rest for outer coating just as in the recipe.

Assembly Line

-When it’s time to fry these babies up, make a little assembly line for yourself.  Crab mixture, cracker crumbs, skillet.  It makes the process a lot easier, trust me.

In between batches, put these on cooling racks over a baking sheet so they can drain and put them in a warm oven until you are ready to serve.

Crab Cakes

A simple, affordable, and lovely dish.  You can even mini-size these things for appetizers.  I’ve been making them for about 6 years and will continue to do so for many more.  Enjoy!

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Filed Under Appetizers, Main Dishes Tagged With crab cakes, economical recipe, food, how to, recipe, seafood