Holiday Party Recipes

Hosting parties is one of my favorite things to do and I recently had a holiday cocktail party.  Many people asked for my recipes so I'm sharing many of them here along with pictures!

Let's start with the all important bar.  A well stocked bar makes for a great party and the whiskey punch was a big hit on this snowy night.  I usually let people try it before I let them know the ingredients because it's deceptively simple.  Empty a can of frozen lemonade into your punch bowl.  Then use the can as a measuring tool to add one can's worth of whiskey and two of seltzer. Mix and serve! 

Then comes the savory buffet...

• Deviled eggs
• Spicy stuffed mushrooms
• Spanakopita
• Mini Reuben sandwiches
• Smoked salmon cucumber boats
• Sweet potato and pecan purses (I substituted goat cheese for blue)
• Pears with blue cheese and prosciutto 
• Smokey and sweet kielbasa bites
• Antipasto skewers (not pictured)
• An assortment of dips and crackers (not pictured)

And not to be outdone, the sweets!

Almond wedges

Linzer cookies

Mini gingerbread cupcakes with cinnamon cream cheese frosting

Pecan pie bites

All of which were accompanied by apple tart and eggnog panna cotta which escaped the camera. 

Parties are a great time to make memories.  But they also come with many memories built in.  The punch bowl was a gift from my friend Kristen and the drink tub a gift to Jake from my mom.  The flowers on the table were sent to me by my future mother-in-law.  The copper chafing dish was handed down to me by my grandfather.  I repurposed centerpieces from friends' weddings and showers as additional decor.  A cross-stitch piece of the twelve days of Christmas that my grandmother made hung in the window.  I remembered the last time I made those deviled eggs was for a lovely late summer picnic Jake and I had in Gloucester.  And the last time I wore the sparkly dress was to dinner after our engagement.   

I love the holidays and all the memories they bring, all the chances to spend with the people you care about.  Which is exactly why I love hosting a good party.  May your days be merry and bright and filled with delicious noshes and good company.  Merry Christmas everyone!

Global Inspired Chicken Recipes

We all know chicken can be a healthy option, but sometimes it just gets boring.  Here are three healthy dishes with some global flair to help liven up your weekly fare. 

Chicken Tikka Masala
This slow cooker recipe is a bit more involved (and requires a pretty stocked spice rack) but is probably one of the best things I've ever cooked.  We served it with rice, cucumber salad, and some toasted chickpeas.  You can find the recipe in this fabulous cookbook.

Chicken Taco Salad
This one is a super simple staple in our house.  Cube the chicken and cook it with a taco seasoning packet.  Serve it up with a buffet of black beans, sauteed onions, shredded lettuce, light sour cream, and salsa. 

Sesame Chicken
We decided this recipe tasted nothing like what you get from your local take-out place, but was tasty in its own right.  We served it with a vegetable stir fry. 

Toffee Matzo

We didn't really do  much for Easter or Passover, but we did celebrate in our own little ways.  I made this delicious toffee matzo with walnuts and chocolate, recipe courtesy of my girl Martha.

Sugar burns easily so watch your toffee carefully.  Mine only needed about seven minutes in the oven, not the recommended thirty.  Enjoy!

Healthy Super Bowl Snacks

Aside from Thanksgiving, the Super Bowl may be the 'holiday' that revolves most around food: the chicken wings, the pizza, the guacamole, the chips.  And I didn't want to miss out on those things.  So I fiddled a little with a few classics - chili, Tex-Mex layer dip, and nachos - to make healthier versions. 

The dip was by far the tastiest.  It's just a layer of fat free cream cheese, a layer of re-fried beans, a layer of diced tomatoes with chopped green chilies, jalapenos, and red onion, a layer of fat free cheddar cheese, a layer of chopped artichokes, and a layer of guacamole.  I ate it with Special K crackers instead of tortilla chips, but anyone eating it with chips would never know that this was a healthy dish. 

For the nachos I had to use tortilla chips because otherwise it wouldn't be nachos!  But I topped them with two slices of reduced fat cheddar, a jalapeno slice, salsa, and a little dollop of fat free sour cream and fat free re-fried beans. 

 

As the main course, I made turkey and vegetable chili.  I just brown lean ground turkey and then add  two cans of red beans and every veggie I can imagine: onions, peppers, carrots, celery, zucchini, broccoli, diced tomatoes, corn, and mushrooms.  It ends up being mostly vegetables, but there's enough meat and spice to make it feel like a really hearty chili.  The best part is, I now have lunch for the rest of the week!

Sisterhood of the Traveling Hot Dog Casserole

Recently my friend Kristen sent me a recipe for a chili cheese dog casserole.  At first I thought it wouldn't fit in with my new healthier eating (22 pounds lost and counting!) but after looking at it I saw that I could make a few tweaks.  The original recipe was:

Ingredients:
1 package (8-1/2 ounces) corn bread/muffin mix
1 cup chopped green pepper
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped celery
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 package (1 pound) hot dogs, halved lengthwise and cut into bite-size pieces
1 can (15 ounces) chili with beans
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1 cup (4 ounces) shredded cheddar cheese, divided

Prepare the corn bread as instructed on the box and spread half onto the bottom of a greased 8 inch casserole dish.  Soften onion, celery, and green pepper in a saute pan.  Add the hot dog pieces until browned.  Combine with chili and 3/4 cup of cheese and spoon over cornbread layer. Top with remaining cornbread and cheese and bake at 350 degrees for 28-32 minutes.  

I substituted 97% fat free hot dogs, fat free cheddar cheese, and homemade turkey and vegetable chili and eliminated the sugar and oil.  And it was still delicious.  The soft sweetness of the cornbread with the salty, rich goodness of hot dogs and chili make for a comforting combination.  It's really more like a chili cheese corn dog casserole, and if there's one thing I love, it's corn dogs.  


I'm not the only one to make this recipe.  Kristen made a healthy version too using low-fat canned chili and turkey dogs, which makes sense given her blog on health issues.  And Pam (who also has a blog you can read here) made the regular version, which suits her love of hot dogs.  Shared by three friends, this casserole dish full of tasty Americana is worth a shot in your kitchen too.  

Holiday Party Sweet Treats

I made a different treat each day leading up to the party.  In total, I made 233 cookies, enough for everyone at the party and Santa.

Sunday: Hugs pretzels 
Just lay out square pretzels on a wax paper lined cookie sheet and top each with a Hershey's Hug.  Put them in the oven at 170 degrees for about four minutes and then top with an M&M.  Salty and sweet and so easy. 

Monday: Chocolate Dreidels
More time-consuming than the pretzels, but not much harder - Attach a Hershey's Kiss to a marshmallow with chocolate, then insert a thin pretzel rod into the other side of the marshmallow.  Coat the entire "top" in chocolate, chill and then pipe on the Hebrew letters

Tuesday: Linzer Cookies
These cookies require a special cookie cutter that does the bottom cookie and the top cookie with the shape cut out of the middle.  You'll need to make equal numbers of each type, but I never end up counting correctly.  Make the cookies according to the recipe below and then fill them with blackberry preserves.

Ingedients:
Zest of 1 lemon
3/4 C. ground alnuts
1 C. sugar
3 1/2 C. Flour
3 sticks of butter, softened
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 tsp. salt

Blend together ingredients, roll dough and cut cookies, bake at 350 degrees for about 12 minutes or until cookies are golden brown, fill with delicious jam.

Wednesday: Iced Sugar Cookies
I love playing with colorful sugars, so I did the star of David cookies in blue, gave my snowmen black hats and did red stockings and green trees.  I also did striped candy canes and used peppermint frosting instead of vanilla to imitate the real thing!

Thursday: Italian Rainbow/7-Layer Cookies
These little squares, the colors of the Italian flag, come from making three very thin cakes and stacking them with layers of apricot jelly and topping it with a layer of melted chocolate.  

Friday: Cherry Walnut White Chocolate Chip Cookies
The best thing about this recipe is the touch of salt you can taste in the cookies, plus the fabulous chewy texture.  You can add whatever mix-ins you like.  Originally this was a recipe for chocolate chip cookies.

Ingredients:
2 1/4 C. Flour
2 large eggs
2 sticks of butter, softened
1/2 C. sugar
1 C. brown sugar
1/2 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. vanilla extract

Blend ingredients.  Add desired mix-ins.  Drop tablespoons of dough onto a cookie sheet.  Bake at 350 degrees until golden brown on the edges.  Mine took about 14 minutes, but some people's ovens take only 8-10 so I'd watch them carefully. 

Holiday Party Feast

Happy holidays!  You already saw the invitations, and now here are the fruits of my holiday party labor!  In this picture you can see the prosciutto wrapped asparagus, the salmon mouse filled cucumber boats, hummus, and my beautiful copper chaffing dish filled with kielbasa in an apricot mustard sauce.  

The salmon boats were a big hit so I'm posting the recipe for you to try.  It's great in the cucumbers, but also tasty spread on, you guessed it, a bagel!

Ingredients: 

4 oz. Smoked salmon, chopped

1/2 C. Greek yogurt

1/4 C. Red onion, chopped

2 English cucumbers

Fresh dill

Combine the salmon, yogurt and onion in a food processor and pulse into just blended. Peel, halve and seed the cucumbers.  Cut cucumber halves into 1.5 inch pieces and fill with your salmon mousse.  Top with sprigs of dill.  

Above, you can see most of the rest of the spread including spinach dip with crackers and veggies, chicken satay with peanut and duck sauce, and a basket of biscuits - some have fig jam and gorgonzola inside while others have garlic and mozzarella.  

There were also mozzarella ball and grape tomato skewers, artichoke dip, and a selection of cheeses that didn't make the photos.  I made the table more festive with red candles, my lantern, two poinsettias and a tulle and ribbon table runner.  But more on the decor to come!

St. Germain Cocktails

I've seen more and more specialty cocktail lists featuring drinks with St. Germain lately.  I had never heard of the concoction but I enjoyed all the drinks I tried with this intriguing sounding liquer.  St. Germain, I have since learned, is a French, elderflower spirit.  And it is delicious.  


Just this past weekend I had a Sparkling Pear cocktail at Sandrine's that was Grey Goose Poire, St. Germain, and cremant de bourgogne.  It had great pear flavor and none of the sharpness I expected from such a vodka-centric cocktail.  


In my exploration of paper and blogs I found this recipe for The Vieux Mot on http://ohsobeautifulpaper.com/.  

1 oz Gin
1 oz St-Germain
3/4 oz Lemon Juice
1/4 oz Sim­ple Syrup
1/4 oz Cointreau

Sounds yummy, no?  And then there's the Yellow Bicycle which is a half ounce each of St. Germain and Yellow Chartreuse with 4 ounces of Prosecco.  


A friend also gave me a tear-out of cocktail recipes from a St. Germain ad - what ingenious advertising!  It features such treats as the Elderfashioned which is 1/2 part St. Germain, 2 parts bourbon and 2 dashes of Angostura Bitters.  Or the classic St. Germain and Champagne, which in addition to being as simple to make as it sounds, also rhymes!  Add some Chambord and a blackberry for a delicious riff on a Kir Royale.  

Saturday - Leftovers, Thanksgiving II, and Small Business Saturday

Every year my mom makes a second Thanksgiving dinner, creatively dubbed "Thanksgiving Two."  It's because my mom knows the importance of the thanksgiving leftover.  Whether it's the classic turkey sandwich with stuffing and cranberry sauce, or the inventive "stuffpuppy," Thanksgiving leftovers are as American as, well, Thanksgiving - it's all part of the tradition.

Kristen sent me this idea for the "stuffpuppy," which anyone with an at-home fryer should most definitely try.  It's basically a fried ball of mashed potatoes and stuffing.  I didn't get a chance to put this into action, but it seemed like a worthy enough idea to blog about anyhow.

Saturday was also the answer to Black Friday - small business Saturday.  I obliged by going to the Stonington Farmer's Market to buy blueberry scones and the local coffee shop, The Yellow House, to get a double espresso to sneak into the library for Jake.  The local realtor had a sign in their window that said "Shop Local - Buy a House," but after the coffee and pastries I just didn't have enough pocket change left over.

Thursday - Thanksgiving Means Pie!

I love to bake and (aside from the stuffing) one of my favorite parts of the Thanksgiving meal is the dessert.  This year I made an apple blackberry pie as well as the classic pumpkin.  I decided to spice them up with with my Nordicware pie crust cutter.

I used the side with the leaves and the apple blackberry pie showcased the negative space and the pumpkin pie used the leftover leaves that were cut out.  

This recipe is courtesy of the Goddess herself, Martha although I admit I used a pre-made pie crust.  

This recipe for pumpkin pie is super easy, and also mostly comes from a box or a can!

The Cupcake Update: Halloween Edition

So some of you may be wondering: Where have all the cupcakes gone?  The truth, friends, is that they have gone the way of my waistline.  I've lost almost ten pounds on Weight Watchers so I've had to seriously cut down on the cupcakes in my life.  But I still love a good cupcake and a good treat.  Especially on Halloween!  So when the lovely ladies of NNAF came over my place for a little pre-Halloween pizza and wine I had to bring back the cupcakes.

These are the pumpkin cheesecake bites with orea crust and caramel topping that I also made.  The recipe (which is a lot easier than it might sound) is below.  Enjoy your treats!

Ingredients:

8 oreos

1.5 Tbs. Butter

8 oz. package of cream cheese

1/2 cup of pumpkin puree 

1/2 cup of sugar

1 egg

1 tsp. vanilla 

1/2 tsp. cinnamon 

1/4 tsp. nutmeg 

1 tub caramel dip 

cupcake papers 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  

Grind oreos in a food processor.  Mix with 1.5 Tbs. of melted butter.  Press into bottoms of muffin papers and bake for ten minutes.  

Blend cream cheese, sugar, pumpkin puree, egg, vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg.  Spoon mixture on top of oreo crust, until 3/4 full.  

Bake 25-28 minutes or until set.  Top each with 1 tsp. caramel dip.  

Makes 12

Chicken Cassoulet Date Night In

Last night Jake made me french cuisine in our new dutch oven.  Cassoulet, a french peasant dish, combines bits and pieces of whatever meats peasants could scrape together plus a lot of beans and some vegetables.  Using ham, sausage and herbs, the beans take on a lot of flavor.  If you want a very hearty and very, very delicious dish, I've put the recipe below.  Add a bottle of wine and a dvd rental and voilà, date night in.

Ingredients
4 whole chicken legs, without skin
1 smoked turkey kielbasa, cut into large chunks
1 thick slice of ham, cubed
1 onion, cubed
2 large carrots, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
1 can diced tomatoes
3 cans cannellini beans
7 garlic cloves, 4 sliced and 3 minced
2 tsp. olive oil
2 cups chicken broth
4 bay leaves
fresh thyme
fresh parsley
salt and pepper to taste
string or cheese cloth

Directions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Season chicken legs with salt and pepper.
Combine all three herbs into small packets using string or cheese cloth.
Saute olive oil, minced garlic and ham over medium high heat in an oven safe pot until ham and garlic are browned.
Remove ham and add chicken legs until brown.
Top with ham, kielbasa, vegetables, beans, herbs, tomatoes and chicken broth.
Cook for one hour, or until chicken is cooked through, stirring after 45 minutes.

Desserts from a Box or a Can that You Can Serve at a Party

I'm a modern woman who loves to bake.  I like bringing dessert to a get-together or having something sweet after Sunday dinner, but I do not have time to make everything from scratch.  When I consult my grandmother's old cookbook, they made everything themselves: pie crusts, white sauces, cake mixes.  Now, I buy all those things in a box or a can.  For a few quick (at least in prep time if not baking time) recipes that come mostly from your store shelves in a box or a can, but that look and taste as good as home cooking, read on. 

Key Lime Pie
Great for: backyard picnics, a summer fiesta

Ingredients:
2 cans sweetened condensed milk
1 cup lime juice
2 eggs
1 pre-prepared graham cracker crust

Whisk together the condensed milk, the eggs, and the lime juice.  Pour onto graham cracker crust. Bake at 325 degrees for 15 minutes.  Refrigerate for two hours. It really is that easy. 

Snickers Brownie Pie
Great for: Halloween, girls night in

Ingredients:
1 box brownie mix (also requires 2 eggs, and 1/3 cup oil)
1 can chocolate frosting
1 bag snickers minis
1 pre-prepared graham cracker crust
optional - sprinkles!

Mix brownie batter according to recipe on the box.  Unwrap snickers minis and place them on the bottom of the graham cracker crust, separated by about 1/2 inch.  Pour brownie mix over the snickers candies.  Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes or until toothpick stuck in center comes out clean.  Let cool.  Frost.  Decorate if desired.

Cherry Pie
Great for: Thanksgiving, Fourth of July

Ingredients:
2 cans cherry pie filling
1 box pre-prepared pie crust (contains two crust rounds)

Unroll one crust into a pie pan.  Score the bottom of the crust.  Fill with cherry pie filling (this may take less than full two cans).  Drape pie with second pie crust and crimp bottom and top crusts together.  Make four or five slits in top crust.  Bake at 400 degrees for 45 minutes or until crust is golden brown. 

If you want to get fancy with it, you can use a cookie cutter to cut shapes out of your top crust (like hearts or leaves) to leave a pretty pattern of exposed pie filling.  You can lay those crust cut-outs on top of the pie as well. 

Cocktails!

So I've been told that my last entry was a bit depressing.  And I sort of agree.  So in an attempt to not be a total Debbie Downer (Or alternatively a Negative Nancy, why is there never a male name for whiny, buzzkills?) I've decided to alternate entries about being overeducated and underemployed with entries about fun stuff, like cocktails!  After all, I will eventually find a job and I will need to get used to writing other material. 

Both sets of parents are coming over for a lobster bake tonight and I was in charge of cocktails.  After a less than extensive google search, I settled on "watermelon gin fizz" which I found at http://www.examiner.com/food-in-providence/watermelon-cocktail-recipe-with-bombay-sapphire-gin. It's pretty simple, but takes a bit of time to strain the watermelon.  From what I've tasted so far, it's worth the effort.  You'll need the following:

1 small, seedless watermelon
2 limes
15-20 mint leaves
4 tbs of white sugar
club soda
gin
cheese cloth or a fine strainer

Chop the mint and cut the watermelon into medium sized chunks.  Blend the watermelon, juice of two limes, sugar and mint in a blender.  Strain the juice through a strainer or cheesecloth.  Chill the juice and serve with a shot of gin and a splash of club soda.  Garnish with a lime wedge or sprig of mint. Imbibe!

Some tips:
To chop the mint, first "chiffonade" it by stacking the leaves and rolling them up from the bottom of the leaf to the top.  Then thinly slice from the end of your roll to make strips.  Now that you have thin strips, you can cut them again in the opposite direction to get a fine chop.

To get the most juice out of your limes, microwave each for about thirty seconds.  Be careful; they may be hot when they come out.

I always struggle when ordering cocktails out because I have the taste level of a sorority girl (margaritas and long island iced teas please!) but on occasion I have found some real gems.  For some of the best non-homemade cocktails you'll ever have the pleasure of sipping, check out The Spotted Pig in New York City (http://www.thespottedpig.com/) or Cook and Brown Public House in Providence, Rhode Island (http://cookandbrown.com/). 

Both restaurants have extensive and unique cocktail lists (as well as really delicious food), but I would recommend the Forager's Press at The Spotted Pig and the Bicycle at Cook and Brown.  The details of each of these cocktails are lost in the misty memories of a night when you had really great cocktails, but thanks to menupages.com (http://www.menupages.com/restaurants/the-spotted-pig/menu) I have been able to surmise that the Forager's Press consists of Michter's rye whiskey, chopped apples, honey syrup and lemon juice.  The closest approximation I could find of the Bicycle was a recipe on chow.com for a Yellow Bicycle (http://www.chow.com/recipes/14331-yellow-bicycle), which contains St. Germaine Elderflower liqueur, Yellow Chartreuse, Prosecco and a garnish of lemon zest (I do remember that my particular garnish was lime). 

Whatever your drink of choice always remember that life is better (if not classier) with little paper umbrellas!