Date and proscuitto appetizer

I had the good fortune to spend the weekend at Whistler at my friends place right on the ski hill. This is a little wasted on me as I do not ski, but I can provide food for the more adventurous amongst us, and I have learned that it is critical to have a cold beer and a nibble for everyone as they come down off the slopes.

We had heavy snow that day, this was the view from my window in the morning.

And this was the view when I was waiting for my hungry skiers to come in from the snow.

One of my friends had left the ingredients and instructions for these appetizers, someone in her family had made these and she had thought that they would be a great apres ski nibble. These are quite rich and so though they are small probably 2 per person would be enough.

Home made olive oil crackers

This is something that I have wanted to make for a while. I love the artisan crackers that seem to be everywhere these days, but they are very expensive and really it is just flour and olive oil so how hard could they be?  Anyway I had a Christmas party for work colleagues so I decided to give them a try, and indeed they are not difficult at all. I found the recipe on 101cookbooks.com

3 cups of all-purpose flour (or half semolina flour half regular)
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup warm water
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
toppings you like – sesame seeds, caraway seeds, rosemary, coarse sea salt

Whisk together the flour and salt. Add the water and olive oil and mix together

before kneading 

Knead on a floured counter-top or in a mixer for 5-7 minutes. The dough should be just a bit tacky - not too dry, not too sticky to work with.

After kneading

Turkey and cranberry balls

Tis the season of potlucks and appetizers and it always a struggle to find something vaguely healthy and tasty that can be made ahead and please a crowd.  To add to all the Christmas cheer we were also having a potluck lunch for a baby shower at work. Often these potlucks are heavy on the starch and desserts, so I thought some lean protein would be a good idea, and this close to Christmas what could be more appropriate than turkey and cranberries.

This made enough for about 35 walnut sized meatballs

2lbs of ground turkey
1 cup of fresh breadcrumbs
1 large garlic clove
1 onion
1 cup of frozen cranberries
1 sprig of fresh sage or parsley

Place the turkey and breadcrumbs in a large bowl.

Place the remaining ingredients in to a food processor.  I added the cranberries after the onion and garlic had been fairly finely chopped up as I did not want to turn them into mush.  Add this mixture to the turkey and breadcrumbs.

It looks like Christmas already

Lemon olives and rosemary almonds

One more party before the holiday season grinds to a halt, so here are a couple of ideas for New Years eve. Both these are quick and easy to make and put out when company is coming. They both take very little time, but look and taste so much better than opening up a package of pre made snack.

You could use any type of olives with the exception of those tasteless canned black olive slices that are put on pizza. This time I used large pitted green, but I have used mixed olives, black olives and even sun dried Moroccan olives.

Lemon marinated olives

2 cups of drained olives.
1 lemon
Handful of parsley finely chopped
1/4 cup of good extra virgin olive oil.

Place the drained olives in a bowl Grate the lemon zest on top and then cut the lemon in half.  Slice half the lemon in to thin slices and add to the olives.  Squeeze the juice of the remaining lemon half on top.  Add the parsley and olive oil and stir in. Sometimes I add crushed coriander seeds and finely chopped chili.

Marinate in the fridge for a couple of hours and serve at room temperature.

Quick easy and taste like you spent hours preparing.

California spring rolls

I had seen this idea on pinterest, though I did no more than think, what a good idea, I love the flavours of california rolls, but could do with out the rice.  So making spring rolls with the california roll ingredients would give you the best of both worlds.

I figure you could use prawns or crab meat, I used fake crab meat I am afraid, but actually they tasted delicious and several people said that they preferred them to the regular spring rolls.

6 spring rolls
6 rice wrappers
small romain lettuce sliced
1 avocado peeled and sliced
1 cup of shredded crab or prawn sliced
3 tablespoons of japenese mayonnaise

Gather all the ingredients and a large bowl of cold water.

Dip one rice wrapper in the cold water and wait about 15 seconds until the wrapper has started to feel a little less like plastic and is pliable.  It will continue to soak up water as you use it.  Put a little lettuce in the centre of the wrapper top with avocado a drizzle of mayonnaise and top with the crab.

Graduation cup cakes

I have a group of friends that have been friends now for over 18 years and we call our selves "The Village".  This comes from the saying it takes a village to raise a child. When we first were connecting our children were very young, and as all parents, we were doing the best we could and appreciated any help we could get in maintaining our sanity.  Our children grew up in what was almost an extended family of cousins with second and third mothers.  I am proud to say that I am identified as a family member one these now grown children's face books.

This June the youngest of the "Village" children graduated from high school, it hardly seems possible that all those sometimes wild children have now grown.  Some have fledged, left home and are working full time making their own way, while many are still testing their wings going to college and University, trying to decide what it is they want to do with their lives.

With each June came new graduates and for each graduate or graduates we hold a Village party to celebrate their safe arrival to adulthood. This year was the last of such celebrations so a little nostalgic.

Nancy and I had offered to make graduation cupcakes for the party and so with the help of the Internet we came up with the design for the topping.  The base of the mortar board is a mini peanut butter cup and so I decided to make chocolate, chocolate chip cup cake with peanut butter icing. I found this recipe on food.com and changed it just a little, I made double the recipe which made about 50 cup cakes, but I have given ingredients for a single batch.


2 1/2 cups white flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
4 tablespoons of cocoa
2/3 cup butter, at room temperature
1  cup sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips

Mix all the dry ingredients together

San Antonio guacamole

On our recent visit to San Antonio Texas we went to a restaurant called boudros on the river walk and the waiter made a guacamole table side that was the best guacamole that I can ever remember having. So I decided to try and replicate it for the New Years party.

Included in this recipe is what the waiter described as "fire roasted tomatoes and pepper" I don't remember what pepper it was, though I do know that it was not jalapeno, but up on the sunshine coast in December that was all we could get so that is what I used. Also I did not have a fire in which roast them so I had use a hot oven.  Even with these changes actually it turned out very similarly to the original and well worth the little effort.

10 campari tomatoes
2 jalapeno pepper
1/4 red onion chopped
3 ripe avocado's
Juice of two limes
juice of one orange
bunch of cilantro
salt and pepper

Up to a couple of days ahead "fire roast" the tomatoes and jalapeno pepper by placing in a foil lined roasting tin and roasting in a 450 oven.

Cook until the skins of the tomatoes and peppers are starting to blacken about 1/2 hour to 3/4 of an hour.

Bacon and onion marmalade appetizers

I saw this on Patio Daddio's blog, and I could not resist giving it a go, I mean how can you go wrong with caramelized onions and bacon together?

So while we up at Pender Harbour I made the marmalade and the crostini, so that on New years day I just had to put them together to come up with a delicious appetizer.

Ingredients for the onion and bacon marmalade
4 Yellow onions, halved and sliced
4 slices Thick bacon
1/4 cup Sherry vinegar (white wine vinegar is fine)
2 sprigs Thyme, stripped from the stem

Fry the bacon in a large frying pan, removing it when it is crisp.

OK I know that there are more than 4 slices, we had taste the bacon to make sure it was alright and it was so we had another piece.

Add the onion to the bacon fat, I poured some of it off as there was a lot left in the pan.

Valdosta Pecans

This is a recipe that I got from my good friend and fellow blogger Cottagers wife she made these and brought them over one evening when they were here for dinner.  And my husband just loved them, he loved them so much he tried making them.  Now my husband is a very good person with many talents, but cooking is not one of them.  But after two attempts and a little prodding in the right direction he made some very tasty pecans.

So now that the holiday season is here I thought they would make a great addition to the snacks and appetizers at our annual carolling party.


SAUCE
2 Tbsp orange juice
1 Tbsp brown sugar
1 Tbsp white sugar
2 Tbsp butter (best) or margarine
Pinch of salt

ADD IN
1 and 1/2 cups whole pecans
1 tsp finely grated orange peel aka zest
1 tsp course salt
1/2 cup dried cranberries

METHOD
Heat oven to 300 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper

In a medium sauce pan combine sauce ingredients and heat over medium heat, stirring constantly until bubbling. Cook one minute longer, then remove from heat.

Home made crackers

I am having a Christmas party this Sunday (I know it is awfully early) and so I decided rather than going out and buying crackers for my cheese and quince paste platter I would make my own.  I had seen these being made when I was lying on the couch a couple of weeks ago sick and unable to do anything but watch the Food Network.  I found the recipe from Laura Calder on the food network web page. I have of course changed it a little but not materially

2/3 cup butter
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups flour
1 egg
2 to 3 tablespoons cold water

Put the butter, sugar, salt, water and egg in a food processor and mix until the ingredients have formed a smooth paste.

Then add the dry ingredients and pulse a few times until the mixture looks like course bread crumbs,
do not overwork. Then pour into a bowl.

Impromptu dinner for 18 - barbecued chicken and salads

After the the Boat Festival, the executive and volunteers repaired back to Nancy's house for a swim, a debriefing and of course dinner.  This had not been planned so a quick assessment of fridge contents and a trip to the local IGA was in order.

Nancy had a large bag of frozen tail on shrimps in the freezer so we ran them under cold water in a sieve to partially defrost, and pan fried quickly in olive oil and garlic.

This made a great nibble to assuage everyone's hunger along with some homemade salsa, chips, vegetable platter, hummus and foccacia bread dipped in olive oil and balsamic vinegar brought by some of the guests.

After considering the possibilities, it was decided to barbecue some chicken and serve it with assorted salads.

For the chicken I used Moroccan spice rub that I had used before, but added a little smoked paprika.  After rubbing the chicken all over I cooked the chicken pieces over indirect heat on the barbecue, putting the chicken on one side of the barbecue and the heat on the other.

Italian style dinner on the deck

So far this has been a horrible Summer in Vancouver, we have had far more than our share of rain and the temperatures have been way below normal.  So when Saturday was forecast to be warm and sunny we decided we should celebrate by having the neighborhood over for a dinner on the deck.

Having so recently returned from Italy I decided to make some of the food that we had there, but I did not want to waste the whole day in the kitchen as it was a beautiful day, so I kept it simple.

To start I made a antipasto platter.

I roasted some peppers and eggplant and served them with an assortment of Italian meats and a delicious fresh mozzarella.  This was just like the antipasto platters that we had put together in Florence at our Apartment

For the main course I made pizza using the foccacia bread recipe I made  the sauce by warming 3 garlic cloves that I sliced very thinly in about 2 tablespoons of olive oil until they were just golden.  Then I added a can of crushed tomatoes a handful of fresh basil chopped and 1/4 cup of red wine.  I let this simmer while the dough was rising and concentrate down.  I used this sauce on all the pizza's but three different toppings. One with Italian sausage, my home made sun dried tomatoes and boccocini

Italian sausage and boccocini

Then Over it all I sprinkled Parmesan.

Close up of the pizza with roasted eggplant and sun dried tomatoes ready for the oven

Mango Pomegranate Guacamole

Everybody has their signature dish, I believe Nancy has found hers in this dip.  She found it on epicurious.com a couple of months ago when she taking a dish for Caribbean themed party. It was a big hit everybody loved it and she has been making it ever since.  On Friday night we were going to a get together to celebrate a friends birthday.  Friday was a beautiful day and obviously she had to make the Mango Pomegranate Guacamole to nibble on while we sat on the deck enjoying, finally, a taste of the summer to come.

2 ripe avocados
1 cup finely chopped white onion
1 fresh serrano chiles, finely chopped
1/4 cup fresh lime juice, or to taste
3/4 cup pomegranate seeds (from 1 pomegranate)
2 diced peeled mango
1/2 cup chopped cilantro

I just love pomegranate seeds, but they are such a pain to remove, but our local Thrifties sells little tubs of pomegranate seeds, what a joy they are to use and though it is cheating a little and rather expensive, in my opinion well worth it.

Nancy wanted me to show the cutting up of the mango so here goes.

Nostalgic lunch in Bellingham

It would have been my Mother in laws 90 birthday on Sunday, she passed away a couple of years ago and is sadly missed by her family. My sister in law used this as a motivation to get the 5 siblings and their partners together.  She lives in a very unusual house down in Bellingham Washington State.

There is a lovely deck which they have just finished, with a view looking over Fairhaven to the Pacific.  Though the sun was shining it really was too cool to be sitting out yet but it will be wonderful when the weather warms up.

Mary Ann cooked every ones favourite dishes that there mother used to make.  Some exactly as she had done them like Macaroni cheese which she had made in one of her mothers baking dishes.

Party food - Sausage rolls

This could hardly be called a recipe as the only two ingredients are pre-made, but it is delicious, takes hardly any time and makes a great addition to any holiday buffet table.  These would also work very well for taking along to a pot luck.

The key to these is using really good sausages. My favourite are Oyama sausages at Granville island.  They have many different ever changing and always delicious sausages.  Most good butchers will have house made sausages, but if you are struggling to find some then use a good quality Italian sausage. This time I bought lamb sausages and duck sausages, both were delicious.

pissaldiere

This Saturday we had our annual Christmas party, many of the same people were coming that went to the retirement party last week so I had to make some different dishes.  I also wanted to make food that could be eaten with fingers or toothpicks and I did not want to spend the entire day cooking so I chose things that were not time consuming.

This recipe is one version of what is sometimes called Provencal pizza.  It can be made with a bread dough or puff pastry, I chose puff pastry as I was already making foccacia two ways.

1 package of puff pastry
6 small onions thinly sliced
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1 tablespoon of fresh thyme leaves
1 can of anchovies
About 20 pitted nicoise olives

foccacia bread

Foccacia bread is one of my favourite breads to make and there have not been very many occasions where I have entertained and I haven't produced a couple of loaves.  I like it because it is easy and tastes so good .

4 cups of all purpose flour
1 package of dried yeast or about a 2" cube of fresh
1 1/2 to 2 cups of water
1/4 cup of olive oil
1 teaspoon of sugar
2 teaspoons of salt

mix the yeast sugar and 1/2 the water together and leave for a few minutes until some bubbles start to form, this shows that the yeast is alive.

Place the flour and the yeast mixture along with the olive oil and salt in to a food processer.

party food - Curried chicken in endive

This is a dish I have made a few times, it is mostly prepared ahead and is a lo carb option on the often carb heavy buffet table. It is one of my few exceptions to the not using curry powder rule, as it really works well with mayonnaise.

Rather drunken looking appetizers

4 Belgian endive all leaves split apart
3 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1/2 cup of mayonnaise
Juice of 1 lemon
1 tablespoon of curry powder (or more to taste)
Small handful of chopped coriander
1/3 cup of chopped cashews
1/3 cup of chopped green grapes

Party food - Roasted prawns

One of the most popular items at a appetizer buffet always seems to be prawns. I much prefer to buy raw prawns and cook them fresh rather than buying pre cooked as they taste so much better. I have taken this method of cooking the prawns from my friend Candy who served them at a recent get together at her house.  It was simple to do, did not require a lot of last minute work (I want to enjoy the party) and most importantly tasted good.

Party food - Cheese straws

It was a very good friends retirement party this weekend, and of course I was helping with the food. There were going to be 40 people so not a sit down dinner, and we decided that all the food should be able to be eaten from small plates with out the use of cutlery.  I will share several of the items I made this week as this is the time of year to be partying. The first thing I made was an old standby as it can be made ahead, presents well and tastes good, cheese straws.

Cheese straws ready to party

You could make your own puff pastry for this, but at the moment I really do not have the time or the patience for that, so I buy it.  Lat year I discovered the Presidents Choice brand, I really like this one as it is all butter and it comes in a sheet, so you do not have to roll it out which often destroys the layers and it saves time.