Party Eats

Cookie Monster and I recently hosted a party. This was the first time I'd cooked for several of my friends, so I wanted to impress. I also wanted to use the flavors of the season.

Here's what I made:

Hazelnut brown sugar cookies

(recipe from my Better Homes & Gardens cookbook)

Cranberry sauce over cream cheese, served with crackers

Bacon-wrapped dates

Homemade pumpkin bread

Caramelized onion and blue cheese flatbread (L) and pumpkin ricotta phyllo turnovers (R)

Ginger molasses cookies

(Both cookies were served in my Snowman cookie jar, 

which plays "Jingle Bells" when you lift his head off)

And, the pièce de résistance, Cookie Monster's famous eggnog.

Also, I mulled hot cider in my Crock pot and served that, too.

So, things turned out pretty much awesome. There was very little food left at the end of the party. Yay!

Here are the "recipes" of some of the dishes. I made these all up, so there are no exact measurements.

Bacon-Wrapped Dates

Be sure to make a lot of these babies. They go fast!

I feel silly even typing a recipe for these. It's just combining two delicious things and making them into one uber-delicious thing. Simply cut strips of bacon into thirds, wrap each slice around a dried date, and bake at 350 until the bacon is crisp. They are salty, sweet and amazing. Highly recommended.

Caramelized Onion and Blue Cheese Flatbread

Butter

Yellow onions 

S&P

Blue cheese (I used  a tub of blue cheese from Trader Joe's)

Flatbread (also from Trader Joe's)

Heat a large skillet to medium-high heat. Melt few tablespoons of butter and add onions, salt and pepper. When they begin to turn brown, reduce the heat to very low. Continue to stir until they break down and turn very brown and caramely. This usually takes a while--about 30-40 minutes.

Brush flatbread lightly with olive oil. Spread a thin layer of caramelized onions over bread, then sprinkle with chunks of blue cheese. Bake at 350 until cheese is melted and edges of bread are crisp, about 10-15 minutes.

Pumpkin Ricotta Phyllo Turnovers

Sheets of phyllo dough

Canned pure pumpkin

Part-skim ricotta cheese

Grated Asiago cheese

Freshly grated nutmeg

Hot sauce

S&P

Prepare filling: Stir together pumpkin, cheeses and spices.

Prepare phyllo: Take one piece of dough and brush lightly with olive oil. (Be sure to cover unused phyllo with a damp kitchen towel; this will prevent it from drying out.) Add another layer and brush with oil. Repeat until there are four layers of phyllo. Place layers of dough lengthwise on a cutting board like a flag. Cut horizontally into four even strips. Working with one strip at a time, spoon ricotta mixture onto bottom and fold up corner to form a triangle shape. Continue folding until you have one large triangle, and tuck the last end under the bottom. Continue with remaining strips. Cut three air slits into top of each triangle, and brush tops with olive oil. Bake until golden brown in a 350 oven, about 25-30 minutes.

White Girl Samosas

Sometimes I get random ideas in my head about things to make. They stem from perusal of the approximately 14,598 food blogs I regularly read. I see something, then think about what I have at home and if I can make a version of it.

I recently bought a jar of green curry paste at Uwajimaya and have been thinking of ways to use it aside from the typical coconut milk curry. Here's what I came up with, something I've lovingly dubbed "White Girl Samosas," since, you know, I'm about as Indian as Dick Cheney. I don't like to fry anything, so making a dough to deep-fry was out. Phyllo dough has a similar consistency, and it's lower in calories, so I used that for the pastry. Then it was just a simple matter of filling it with samosa-like fillings. And voila! White Girl Samosas were born. (Check out what a normal samosa is here.)

I opted to go with a typical filling of potatoes and peas, not because it would be more authentic that way, but because that's what we had.
Here we have the filling, looking just lovely and not at all like poop or baby food or some combination thereof. I think I should be a photography instructor my photos are so good!


Here's what I did to make the filling: I started by sauteeing onions, carrots and garlic in a big saucepan. Then I added some frozen corn and about 2/3 of a package of frozen peas, along with 2-3 tablespoonsish of the green curry paste. I cooked 'til warmed through, then added a dollop of Greek yogurt. Adding some potato I'd already cooked in the microwave, I then, with my handy-dandy immersion blender, pulverized the shit out of the vegetables, making them more of a paste-like consistency, like you'd find in samosas. Stirring in some soft tofu was the last step. I had hoped it would remain firmer and resemble Indian paneer, but it broke up and absorbed all the flavors of the curry, which was fine too.

After assembling 4-5 layers of phyllo, each brushed with a little olive oil, I wrapped up the whole thing. Isn't it cute? Doesn't it look like a little bundle with a baby inside*?

I brushed the top with a little more olive oil, then stuck in the oven 'til it looked like this:


Crunchy, flaky outside, creamy and spicy on the inside. This one's a winner! It may not be authentic, but it is original.


*Ok, so I couldn't find the exact image I had in mind, but it totally made me think of that scene where the stork drops Dumbo through the train and Jumbo unwraps the little bundle, and there's Dumbo, looking like the most adorable animated pachyderm you've ever freakin' seen. Ok, now I have to put this movie in my Netflix queue, because it is one of the best Disney movies! So sad, but so satisfying when Dumbo gives a big "Fuck you!" to all the bastards that were mean to him. And I dare you not to feel hearbroken when Jumbo rocks him to sleep from her jail circus car. It tugs at the ol' heartstrings, lemme tell ya!

Asparagus & Potato Tart

So here we have a lovely asparagus tart made with phyllo dough. It is yet another recipe I actually followed! (Well, me following a recipe is relative. I used most of the ingredients it called for, but I did not measure anything. Measuring is evil. Ok, it's not, but I never do it. Call me lazy, I don't care!). I got it from Jamie Oliver, from his new show on the Food Network, Jamie at Home.



Working with phyllo isn't too tough, but it does take some preparation. It is very, very thin, paper-like dough that easily breaks if you're not careful. It also dries out very easily, so you want to work with one sheet at at time. Have a damp towel on-hand to cover the stuff you're not working with so it does not dry out.

So, here I assembled about 8 layers of phyllo, brushing each layer with olive oil. I put it in my square baking dish and filled it with mashed potatoes mixed with a little milk, 3 eggs and grated cheddar cheese. The dark spots you see are the potato skins. I never peel potatoes because the peel is perfectly edible, give the spuds an interesting texture, and provide a bit of additional fiber.

After I put the potatoes in, I topped them with asparagus I had steamed 'til it was al dente.
Isn't it pretty?

I folded down the edges of the phyllo and then baked 'til golden brown. It looked like this:

It was really good! It was crunchy from the layers of phyllo and creamy from the potatoes, and the asparagus on top was an interesting flavor. I would definitely recommend this!

Crispy and Delicious Asparagus & Potato Tart (ok, so this name is a little cheesy, in my opinion. But, I guess it's better than calling it "The Super-Bestest Most Awesome Asparagus & Potato Tart in the History of the World").
Recipe courtesy of Jamie Oliver, from Jamie at Home

1 pound potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks (I never peel. See why above).
Sea salt
1 pound asparagus spears, woody ends removed
8 ounces filo pastry (I used about 8 sheets of phyllo. Those crazy Brits spell it "filo." I have no idea how much 8 sheets of phyllo weigh).
1/2 cup butter, melted (I used olive oil instead)
1/2 cup freshly grated Lancashire cheese (I didn't use this. I don't even know what kind of cheese this is.)
1/2 cup freshly grated Cheddar
3 large organic or free-range eggs
1 (8-ounce) container heavy cream (I dumped in enough milk to make it creamy. I definitely didn't use this much, and it was nonfat milk, not heavy cream. I need to fit into my jeans tomorrow, people!)
1/4 whole fresh nutmeg
Freshly ground black pepper.

Put your potatoes into a pan of salted boiling water and cook for 15 minutes. Meanwhile blanch your asparagus in a separate pan of salted boiling water for 4 minutes, and drain in a colander.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Get an ovenproof dish - I've used many different shapes and sizes. Layer the sheets of filo pastry in the dish, brushing them with melted butter as you go and letting about 1-inch hang over the edge. You want to get the pastry about 5 layers thick. Put a clean, damp kitchen towel over the top and put aside.

When the potatoes are done, mash them with the cheeses. In a separate bowl, mix together the eggs and cream and stir into your cheesy mashed potato. Grate in the nutmeg, season well with pepper and mix together. Spread the mashed potato over the filo pastry, then bring up the sides of the filo and scrunch them together to form a rim. Take your blanched asparagus and line them up across the filling, making sure you cover it all. Brush all over with the remaining melted butter and pop into the preheated oven for around 20 minutes, or until golden and crisp. Allow to rest for 10 minutes. Serve just as you would a quiche for a quick lunch or supper, with a salad.