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Foodies: hors d'oeurves help!
Hey ladies. DH is going to Japan for work, and brilliantly, they have scheduled him to be gone the first two weekends of December, just in time to miss a friend's wedding and our holiday parties. :-P We are still going to hold my annual tree-trimming party, but he'll be coming in on the redeye the night before.
To simplify things, I'm planning to do a lot of cooking ahead of time, so I'm looking for hors d'oeurves that I can make ahead (or make part of ahead) and freeze, for relatively easy assembly on the day of.
Example: fancy pigs in blankets:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Chicks-in-Blankets-236166
These froze beautifully, and turned out great when I made the extras a week later.
Any other suggestions? Here's my menu for last year, if it gives you an idea of the types of stuff we like (apparently bacon/prosciutto!). Fwiw, we had 35-40 people, so if it's anything terribly labor-intensive (like my bacon-pineapple wraps), I'll prob steer clear of that this year.
baked goat cheese / pesto / pine nuts thingy
baked brie
asparagus / arugula wrapped in prosciutto
beef / goat cheese crostini
artichoke / parmesean crostini
bacon-wrapped pineapple
andouille sausage in pastry (fancy pigs in blankets!)
butterscotch spiders
chocolate oatmeal bars
cranberry G&Ts
spiced wine
Thanks!!
Re: Foodies: hors d'oeurves help!
These two appetizers are always gone when I have a party. I use Turkey Bacon instead of real Bacon. Do you have a grill at your place? Its so good on the grill but fine in the broiler as well.
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Shrimp-Brochette/Detail.aspx
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/emerils-crab-cakes-recipe/index.html
The pigs sound awesome!
I'd try to do a cheese tray with a few different condiments, and people can assemble themselves.
In sugrefrejaz's app post below, I put a link to a fantastic fig and olive tapenade. It's really good. I have no idea if you can freeze it (prob not) but it's not that hard to make, and it goes great with cheese of all kinds.
I have heard that pesto freezes really well. And I've been salivating over this broccoli rabe pesto recipe for a while. You could just put a bowl of this with cheeses and crostinis and breads:
http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/broccoli-rabe-pesto-bruschetta
I also love these:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Parmesan-Black-Pepper-Biscotti-236698
I've made them a few times. Really good. And they since they are biscotti, they stay fresh for a couple weeks.
The sage cashews in my food blog are really good too.
For drinks, I'm trying something new for Thanksgiving. I am making a simple syrup infused with bay leaf, and then adding a splash of it with rose cava. It's from Martha Stewart.
So much meat! I totally want to crash your parties.
It looks like you're down with the pig, so let me suggest one of my favorite apps: Armadillo Eggs. Basically, it's a sausage-covered popper.
You take a stick of cheese and put it inside half a jalapeno pepper. Wrap the whole thing in raw, ground sausage, then roll in breadcrumbs. Bake until done, and then die because of the sheer deliciousness. These are fine to make well in advance and then just pop in the oven beforehand.
Another really impressive whore-derv is a leaf of belgian endive with a "squirt" of cream cheese/blue cheese mixture on the end, and the cheese is topped with half a grape. Here's a pic one them done with (what looks like) candied nuts:
It looks like they spread the cheese mixture around, but I like using a pastry bag and making a litle rosette on the end. It's really impressive looking and very easy! You can make it at least 1 day ahead.
Have you thought about putting sweet stuff in your baked brie? I used to make one with apricot jam, dried cherries (or cranberries) and chopped pecans.
Dips are always good. I have a hot artichoke dip that's really good. I'll look for the recipe tonight.
Another thing that is delicious - let an 8-ounce block of cream cheese soften. Top with a fruit salsa. My mom has used some sort of thing that was more like a cranberry chutney than anything else. A mild peach salsa is also good. Serve with hearty crackers and sesame sticks.
Oooh, that just made me think - bruschetta! Make a nice tomato-based bruschetta topping, buy a couple of baguettes, slice them, and toast the slices up in the oven. You could even do a variety of bruschetta toppings: cheeses (have I mentioned my love for goat chevre?), meats (mmm, prosciutto and salame), flavored olive oils, and spreads.
I have a grilled chicken recipe that includes a roasted red pepper/olive tapenade that would be a delicious bruschetta topping.
3/4 cup roasted red pepper, chopped (you can roast yourself, or to make it easier, buy jarred roasted red peppers)
1/4 cup chopped olives (buy good olives, like kalamata or some other nice variety, not the cheap canned ones)
1/4 cup golden raisins
a few tablespoons red onion, chopped
salt, cilantro, and orange zest (I substituted lime juice for orange zest because we keep containers of lime juice around)
I don't even like olives very much, and I LOVED this, even though I think we even had not enough red pepper. The sweet/salty of the raisins/olives is so yummy!
Are you opposed to seafood? For a party I had earlier this year, I made a crab-and-mango salad in crispy wonton cups. They were really yummy, and fairly easy. I made the salad and the wonton cups the day before the party, and then I assembled everything before people arrived. The recipe was from Ellie Krieger.
The best spinach dip recipe ever is the warm spinach parmesan dip from Epicurious. ?I don't ever have to think about what I bring to parties since that's always requested of me.
I recently had dates stuffed with brie wrapped with prosciutto topped with balsamic cream glaze and about died. ?So so so yummy. ?It was at a restaurant, but I'm sure you couldn't emulate it. ?I'd hate to stuff, though. ?That's always such a PITA.
Easy are puff pastry twists. ?You just buy frozen dough, top with different things, slice, twist and bake.
You could buy puff pastry cups and fill them with different things. ?I did an avocado crab one that I thought was good, but no one else seemed to like
?They had no taste, I told myself. ?But those are easy to do and be creative with.?
These are great and you can freeze them.
A great party dish. Set the "crackers" on a platter with some big bunches of grapes and pour the wine! These are truly great.
Walnut-Roquefort Shortbread
1 1/2 C flour
1 C walnut pieces
1/2 lb. Roquefort, crumbled
1/2 C cubed, cold butter
2 egg yolks
1 tsp. pepper
Blend all ingredients in food processor till dough forms.
Divide dough in quarters.
On lightly floured surface form each into a 1 1/2 inch-diameter
cylinder.
Wrap and chill 4 hours.
Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
Cut dough into 1/3 inch thick rounds.
Place on ungreased baking sheets and bake 9-10 mins or till edges are
golden.
**alternate sheets 1/2 way through cooking to eliminate over-browned
bottoms.
Transfer to paper towels to cool.
To utilize the oven for multiple dishes, bake at 350 degrees for a
longer period of time.
a friend makes a super easy, delicious fig and goat cheese appetizer. it's not freezable. but it's so simple, it will take you literally 10 minutes to make.
slice figs in half, mix some goat cheese and black pepper and spoon that into the middle of the fig. you can get fancy and drizzle some olive oil and vinegar on top. but really, that is it. fantastic.