oscar party appetizers

matt and i had a little oscar party on sunday evening and we made a few appetizers. here was the menu:

1. fried zucchini with sun-dried tomatoes and mozzarella
2. black bean dip with cotija cheese
3. matt’s asparagus sushi rolls
4. curry egg salad with lettuce on toast
5. red potatoes with creamy goat cheese
(lauren also made some creamy humus dip but i didn’t get a picture of it)

the best part is that all of my recipes were pretty easy to put together, so we had lots of food without lots of prep/stress! all of these are my own recipe (except matt’s sushi, he gets credit for that).

here’s how they’re made …

1. wash and slice a zucchini into bite-sized rounds. set up a bowl with a scrambled raw egg and a plate with bread crumbs. dip the zucchini in the egg and then dust with breadcrumbs, then drop into a well-oiled frying pan. when the bottom is browned, flip it and cook the other side. you should be able to fry a few of these at a time since they’re small. when they’re cooked through, set them on a plate to cool a bit. then open a jar of sun-dried tomatoes and place one on each zucchini bite, slicing the tomatoes if they’re too big. then slice up some mozarella and put a piece on each zucchini. (i used authentic, fresh mozzarella balls instead of the low-moisture crap. look for it at the cheese section of your supermarket near the deli instead of the regular cheese aisle.) these are best a little warm so don’t make them too far in advance – i did them last right before lauren and beck arrived.

2. this was super easy and can be made ahead. drain the liquid from a can of black beans, then pour the beans into a bowl and mash with a potato-masher, adding some olive oil for a creamy consistency. add garlic powder and cumin powder. i also sautéed some red onion and red bell pepper and mixed those in, then topped it with cotija cheese and served with corn chips on the side.

3. i’ll leave the sushi for matt to explain if he wants.

4. i was really pleased with how this turned out, and you can make the egg salad ahead and keep it in the fridge, then plate it up with lettuce and toast right before your guests arrive. for the egg salad, hard-boil 4 eggs (put eggs in a sauce pan with enough water to cover, bring to a boil and simmer 10-11 minutes, then remove the eggs from the hot water and leave them in an ice-water bath for a few minutes before you peel the shells off). put the eggs in a bowl and mash with a fork along with a few dollops of mayonnaise, 1 tsp mustard powder, 1 tsp curry powder, a dash of garlic powder, and some salt. mix it well. when you’re ready to plate it, toast 3 pieces of bread and cut each slice into fourths. tear up some lettuce and put a piece on each toast and top with egg salad.

5. these red potatoes i copied from an hors d’oeuvre at Maggiano’s but i didn’t have an actual recipe. still, i think they turned out very close to what i remembered! buy a dozen or so small red potatoes (small enough that the widest part isn’t more than two bites worth). wash them and slice them in half, cutting off the bottoms so they stay level and don’t roll around. spray a baking pan with canola spray, then line up your potatoes, drizzle olive oil over the tops, and bake for about 15 minutes or until they’re tender in the middle. let them cool a bit. spoon some creamy goat cheese on each potato.

voila! you have a tasty array of appetizers covering tastes from different regions (italy, mexico, japan, india, and france) ^_^

pear-brie-pecan pouches

so tasty!

i haven’t posted on here in three months! i’ve been busy making holiday presents but couldn’t post about it or i’d ruin the surprise xmas morning, but i just made these super-tasty appetizers.

pear-brie-pecan pouches

ingredients: 1 or 2 cans crescent rolls, 1 can light pears in juice, 1/2 cup chopped pecans, 4 oz brie wedge (there was enough filling for two cans of rolls and each can makes 8 crescents)

first, drain your pears and dice, then chop your pecans and mix them in with the pears. slice the brie into small cubes and set aside. preheat the oven to 375*

open one of your roll cans. you can either make the normal crescent shape with a little filling inside or, since i’m feeding 10-20 people tomorrow, i took each 2-crescent rectangle, pressed the seam together, and cut it into three smaller rectangles (to make 24 bite-size square ones out of 2 cans of rolls instead of 16 crescents).

so either with your wedge or smaller rectangle, place it on a baking sheet, spoon a little of your pear-pecan filling on one end of the rectangle, add a small cube of brie, and fold it over, pressing the sides together as much as you can. when your baking sheet is full, bake it for 9-11 minutes or until they’re turning brown on top.

then eat! they turned out really well, we’ll see how the toastmaster group likes them tomorrow, but i’m happy enough with them that i think i’ll make more for new years 🙂

more easy, original recipes

here are two really easy recipes i made up this week: carrot slaw and dijon red potatoes

lauren and joel came over for dinner on tuesday to taste-test matt’s burger contest entry. i had a meeting after work and was scrambling for a side-dish when i finally got home. i had six small-ish carrots and decided to throw together a simple slaw.

[easy carrot slaw]
peel and grate six carrots and put them in a bowl. add a generous spoonful of mayonnaise, some garlic powder, and a few sprinkles of rice wine vinegar. stir to combine. that’s it! so easy! you could substitute white wine vinegar for the rice wine, anything light.

then, since i’m dating a culinary student and i like to cook too, i decided we should take turns cooking for each other each week, so tonight i made dijon red potatoes.

[easy dijon red potatoes]
slice some little red potatoes into rounds (i had 4). slice a green pepper into rounds too. sprinkle the bottom of a glass dish with breadcrumbs or just spray with oil so they don’t stick. put some of the green pepper slices on the bottom, then a round or two of potatoes depending on how much you have. sprinkle with salt and pepper. top with the rest of the green pepper slices. drizzle with honey dijon salad dressing. microwave for 5-6 minutes or until potatoes are tender.

so easy! and i remembered to take a photo before we ate all the potatoes:

wingin’ it: squash

we had some squash to use, so here is what i threw together without a recipe … * two small yellow squash and two small zucchini sliced in oblong rounds * half a white onion sauteed with garlic and olive oil * ricotta mixed with parmesean and some french onion soup broth to thin it * sliced tomato and breadcrumbs for the top sautee the onions and garlic, then stir that into the ricotta mixture. sprinkle some breadcrumbs in the bottom of a glass pie plate. place a layer of alternating squash and zucchini in the pie plate, then cover with half the ricotta mixture, then another layer of squash and the rest of the ricotta mixture. top with the tomato slices and another sprinkling of breadcrumbs, plus salt and pepper to taste. microwave for five minutes, let it rest a bit, then zap another five minutes. when the ricotta is bubbly, it’s eatin’ time.

fun with rhubarb

here is a perfect example of how i play with recipes.

we got some rhubarb in our produce delivery last week, and i’ve never worked with fresh rhubarb before so i looked online for a recipe. i found one for rhubarb crisp that looked promising, but it’s been so hot that i didn’t want to run the oven. i made the first part of the recipe as directed on the stove (rhubarb + butter + brown sugar + cinnamon). then i plated it with honey greek yogurt and some strawberry granola i got in bulk at the sprouts grocery store.

[no-bake rhubarb “crisp”]

i was very pleased with how it turned out – warm sweet rhubarb, creamy cool yogurt, and crunchy granola. you could turn it into a parfait by layering it in a glass.

but the best part is you could do this same thing with many different fruits – plums, apples, blueberries, etc. and you could use it to fill crepes or turnovers! yay.

scrambled

i’ve always liked cooking, and now i’m dating a culinary student, so we’re getting an organic home-delivery box of produce each week (door-to-door organics). last week we got a bunch of spinach, so i made matt a frittata-type dinner. i forgot to take a picture before he ate it all heh, thus the generic egg clipart above. but he enjoyed it.

in the last year or two, i’ve moved away from recipes and have cooked more instinctively. i still use recipes for baking (i made dad some toffee cashew shortbread bars for father’s day), but for meals i just throw stuff together and it mostly turns out well. i like that i feel confident enough in my cooking skills that i can break away from the rule book like that.

speaking of eggs, i read an article a month or two ago in prevention magazine about eggs, how “cage-free” isn’t as idyllic as it sounds, and they said “pasture-raised” is best but i cannot for the life of me find pasture-raised eggs at any store in our area. and after reading that article, i really want to keep trying. here is the article.