Appetizers and Desserts...

Well, I've discovered it's super convenient to have all these recipes on my blog...so if I happen to be at mom's house and don't have my recipe book with me, or if my sister calls for a recipe, it's all in one place ready for referencing.  That said, I've decided to add a few appetizer and dessert recipes from my jewelry party in December, so I have them recorded somewhere other than scraps of envelopes and buried in my sent emails.  I'm just putting them all in one post, since I usually make more than one of them at a time anyway.  I don't have calories for these, nor would I ever look them up.  Holidays and parties are calorie-free zones, my friends.  lol.  Here we go :)

Here's a picture of my table setting from my jewelry party...so at least you have an idea of what it all looks like:

 

Feta Bruschetta

This is my own recipe, for once.  I had seen a lot of bruschetta recipes that just weren't quite what I wanted, so I created my own with all my favorite parts of a whole bunch of different recipes.  It was really good and has been made 3 or 4 more times since Christmas by my family. 

Ingredients:

- 1/4 c. butter, melted

- 1/4 c. + 3 T. extra virgin olive oil

- Baguette, sliced relatively thin

- 2-3 oz. Crumbled Feta

- 3 cloves garlic, minced

- 1 T. fresh basil, minced

- 6-8 roma tomatoes, seeded and diced

Directions:

Mix tomatoes, basil, feta, garlic, and 3 T. olive oil together in a bowl.  Cover and refrigerate for 1-2 hours before serving.  Mix butter and olive oil together in a small bowl.  Brush sliced bread with butter/olive oil mixture, and put on a baking sheet in the oven under the broiler until toasted.

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Cranberry-Jalapeno Dip

This is a Pinterest specialty, and it's delicious.  The original recipe is at Jamie Cooks it Up if you're interested in checking it out.  It's super duper easy too, which is a plus :)

Ingredients:

1 - 12 oz. package fresh cranberries

1/4 c. green onions, chopped

1/4 c. cilantro, chopped (I usually use less than this cuz I'm not a huge cilantro fan)

1 small jalapeno, seeded and minced

1 1/4 c. sugar

1/4 tsp. cumin

2 T. lemon juice

Dash of salt

2 - 8 oz. packages cream cheese, softened

Directions:

Chop up cranberries in food processor or mini processor.  Combine all ingredients except cream cheese in  bowl, and store in refrigerator for at least 4 hours (this is important...it brings out the sweetness in the cranberries as the sugar starts to break them down).  When ready to serve, spread cream cheese mixture on a plate and spread cranberry mixture on top of cream cheese.  Serve with crackers.

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Union Square Bar Nuts

We made these for a bridal shower a few years ago, and they've been a go-to ever since.  I gave out little tins of them for Christmas presents a couple of years ago too.  Yum.  They're originally from the book Nigella Bites, by Nigella Lawson.  Also, quick and easy :)

Ingredients:

18 oz. lightly salted assorted nuts (I like to use the Emerald ones)

2 T. coarsely chopped rosemary

1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper

2 tsp. brown sugar (dark or light is fine...I usually use dark)

1/2 tsp. salt

1 T. butter, melted

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spread nuts on baking sheet and toast in the oven till light golden brown...about 8-10 minutes.  In large bowl, combine rosemary, cayenne pepper, brown sugar, salt, and melted butter.  Thoroughly toss nuts in spiced butter.  Serve warm or let cool before storing in a lidded container.

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White Sugar Cookies

I, personally, think these are the best cookies in existence.  My friend gave me the recipe last year, and I've made them a bunch of times for holiday parties, etc. since.  The recipe should make about 4 dozen, and from my experience, they don't last long.  lol :)  They're really easy to make, nearly impossibe to mess up, and absolutely NOT diet food.

Ingredients:

Cookies

- 1 c. white sugar

- 1 c. powdered sugar

- 1 c. oil

- 2 sticks margarine

- 1 tsp. baking soda

- 1 tsp. vanilla

- 2 eggs

- 4 cups flour

Frosting

- 1 stick margarine

- 1 lb. powdered sugar

- 1 tsp. vanilla

- 1 tsp. butter flavoring

- 3 T milk (to desired consistency)

Directions:

Cookies - Mix all ingredients and bake 10-12 minutes at 375 degrees.  Makes approximately 4 dozen cookies.

Frosting - Mix all ingredients till smooth.  Spread over cooled cookies.

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And that's all for tonight...I'll save pumpkin squares and wassail for another day :)

Homemade Pita Bread...

I figured as long as I had all the ingredients for this recipe, I'd give it a go.  It tastes right.  I think I rolled the dough too thick or didn't knead quite enough  or let it rise too long or something though (I did sort of lose track of time, since I was cleaning and doing errands in between), because they came out way too thick.  Either that, or I misinterpreted the explanation/photos on Under the High Chair where I found this recipe.  I got the impression they were light and hollow.  Either way, they taste really good with the hummus...I just need to cut them all in half to get them to an appropriate thickness...otherwise I feel like I've got a giant piece of crusty bread that I should be putting butter on or something.  Next time I'll roll them out thinner and knead more and see what happens :)  Here's the recipe:

Homemade Pita Bread

Ingredients:

- 1 T. yeast

- 1 1/4 c. warm water

- 1 tsp. salt

- 3-3 1/2 c. flour

Directions:

Put the yeast and water in a bowl, and let yeast sit and dissolve in for about 5 minutes.  Add salt and 1 1/2 c. flour, and mix with the dough hook of an electric mixer.  Keep adding flour until it forms a solid mass that's not too sticky.  Knead for about 8 minutes until dough is smooth and elastic.  Add more flour if it's too sticky to work with.  Put dough on a floured surface, cut into 6-10 pieces depending on the size of pita you want.  Form each piece into a ball, and then use a rolling pin to roll it out to about 1/4 inch.  Let rest on floured surface for 30-40 minutes. 

Flip upside down onto baking sheet, and bake 10-15 minutes. 

As I said earlier, I'm having mine with the hummus I made :)





Homemade Hummus...

I thought I hated hummus for a long time.  As it turns out, I just hate grocery store hummus.  My sister and I went to this lovely little coffee shop in Milwaukee, WI, called Brewed one day and ordered hummus, and oh.my.god.  It was amazing.  Warm and delicious and sort of nutty with fresh, hot little pita points.  (Additionally, if you're ever in the Milwaukee area, they also have delicious coffee, pastries, tuna sandwiches, and a bunch of vegan stuff if you're into that).  Anyway, I loved it.  But I didn't really know what was in it or how to make it...and I didn't have a food processor anyway.  Enter Christmas 2011...and I got a food processor for Christmas!  (You know you're getting old when you're legitimately excited about getting kitchen appliances for Christmas).  Anyway, I went to the Food Network website and got Alton Brown's recipes for hummus.  I figure if anyway knows the proper way to make hummus, it's Alton Brown.  So anyway, there's a traditional version, and there's a "turbo" version that's quicker and easier to make.  Since it's my first hummus-making experiment, and I was already a little overwhelmed at the whole prospect, I went with the Turbo Hummus.  Plus, it's cheaper, since it uses peanut butter instead of tahini...an idea that I liked in case the whole process went terribly awry, I wouldn't have a bunch of tahini sitting around with nothing to do.  So I got it all done, and it's good...it's not Brewed good by any stretch, and you do get a little bit of that peanut butter flavor, but it's pretty tasty.  MUCH better than the grocery store version, and every bit the right texture, which is, as it turns out, half the battle with the hummus that I've tried.  Anyway, here's the recipe:

Turbo Hummus

Ingredients:

- 2-3 cloves garlic
- 1 can chickpeas (garbanzo beans), drained and liquid reserved
- 2-3 T smooth peanut butter
- 1 handful fresh parsley leaves
- 1 lemon, juiced and zested
- Pinch of pepper
- Pinch of salt
- 1/3 c. olive oil


Directions:

Chop the garlic in the food processor. Add beans and 1/2 of the reserved liquid and process to the consistency of your preference. Add the peanut butter, parsley, lemon zest and juice, salt & pepper. Process until it forms a paste. Drizzle in the olive oil and process until it reaches the consistency of mayonnaise.

I'm serving mine with homemade pita bread too, which will be the next (and final, for this month) recipe.