Easiest, Lightest Dinner Party Dessert

I hate having to make desserts for dinner parties, not because it's not the crowning moment of the evening, but because by the time dessert comes out, everyone is always too full, too tired, or even too drunk! I think I solved the puzzle with the below churro recipe. It takes 5 minutes of prep and it's so simple.

I pair this with a spicy salted chocolate dip. A hit every time!

Ingredients (Churros): 

2 sheets puff pastry, thawed
1 stick butter
1 cup each cinnamon and sugar

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Cut the puff pastry in half width-wise and then into about 4 inch long rectangles. ( I ended up with about 20 per pastry sheet).

Lay the cut pastry on parchment paper and bake for 12 minutes, or until pastry is puffed and golden brown.

Remove from the oven and immediately roll each pastry in the cmelted butter and then cinnamon sugar mixture.

Ingredients (Spicy Salted Chocolate Sauce)

12 ounces good quality milk chocolate
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 tsp sea salt (to start)
Generous pinch of cayenne pepper

Directions:

Heat the chocolate in a heavy-bottomed pan until melted. Add the cream and stir until very smooth.

To the chocolate mixture, add the salt and cayenne to taste. I always end up adding a lot of salt, which people like because they don't expect it, but be very sure to add it slowly and taste as you go along so you don't make it too salty or spicy!

Rustic Onion Tart

Without a doubt, one of my top appetizer recipes is Claire Robinson's Brie and Onion Puff. If you are having a dinner party and I'm asked to bring an app, chances are high that's the one I'll choose, main;y because of the savory caramelized onion layer. It smells like Thanksgiving stuffing when you're browning the onions and it's complex sweetness makes any dish special.

So it's not much of a surprise that I recently created this onion tart recipe to feature these onions for a recent wine tasting Boyfriend and I hosted. (More on that later!)

Simple, elegant and just a little country flair, rustic onions tart may be my next go-to appetizer!

Ingredients:

1 refrigerated pie crust
2 T olive oil
2 T butter, salted
5 lbs sweet onions, sliced thinly on mandoline
2 garlic cloves
10 sprigs thyme, stems removed
Kosher salt
Black pepper

~4 Swiss cheese slices 

Directions:

Flour a work surface and unroll the pie crust onto a parchment paper. Using a rolling pin, roll the pie crust until it nearly doubles its size, and the crust is about 1/8 inch thin.

To a hot pan, add the olive oil and butter (the combination is less likely to burn). Once the butter and olive oil are melted, add the garlic and then quickly add the onions.

Stirring every so often, watch the onions turn a dark caramel color, which can take anywhere from 10-20 minutes, depending on how hot your pan is. If your pan is getting dry and your onions have a ways to go, add some water or stock, about 4 T at a time.

When the onions are soft and caramelized (they should have shrunk in size significantly), add the salt, pepper and thyme and continue to cook for about 2 minutes. Let cool.

Back to your crust (laid out on the  parchment paper), add about 4 slices of good quality Swiss cheese to the center of the crust- in about an 8 inch circle. This will be the bottom of your tart, so make sure your crust isn't too thin here.

Add the cool onion mixture to the top of the cheese and then fold the crust over on top of itself in 4 inch sections until you end where you began. It should be fairly even, but shouldn't be perfect.

Sprinkle with Swiss cheese, and brush crust with a beaten egg, if you are feeling fancypants.

Bake for ~20 minutes at 350, ensuring the crust is cooked.

If you like, finish with additional thyme and a sprinkle of sea salt. Pair with an Oregon pinot and you're in business!

How to throw a Wine Party at Home

Want to throw an awesome wine party at your house? Boyfriend and I had a last-minute change in plans a few weeks ago when the wine festival we were supposed to attend with friends was canceled due to rain. We made do, and relocated to my house. We asked each couple to bring at least two wines- one red, and one white. All of us had varied knowledge of wines, so it was fun.

A friend told us doing themed wine parties is more fun--for instance Oregon Pinots, 2007 Cabernets, only New Jersey wines. Next time, I'd put a  theme around it.

Of course, wine parties call for a few staples: classy minibites to complement the taste of the wines, and bland crackers or bread to cleanse your palate in between wines.

Find my tips and menu below!

My menu:
-Mini crabcakes with roasted red pepper aioli 
-Rustic onion tart
-Baked ricotta and tomato puff pastry flatbread

Wine Tasting 101

Wine Party Scoring Cards

Dad's Skinnier Mussles (Mussels Fra Diavlo)

Remember that time I made those ridiculously amazing mussels? Well, here's an alternative if you're not into the heavy cream base. (Though I can't imagine why you wouldn't be...)

My dad has done a lot for me over the years. I could go on and on, and I probably will one of these days, but in gratitude for helping me fix a few odds and ends around my little house, I wanted to bring Dad something just for him.

Aside from Dad and I, my family members aren't very adventurous eaters, so this was really something just for us. I had planned on making my compliment-worthy mussels, but Dad requested something a bit less rich. (The apple falls far from the tree here.) A few cookbook searches and some kitchen magic later, I came up with this spicy Mussels Fra Divalo recipe. They became the perfect kick-start to a lazy Father's Day afternoon.

Ingredients:

2 T good olive oil
6 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 onion or 2 shallots, finely diced
1 cup dry white wine (make sure it's good stuff so you can feel free to drink the rest while making the marinara)
1-28 oz. can whole tomatoes (dump these out into a big bowl and use your clean hands to burst them, so you end up with a chunky tomato "soup")
Fresh basil, chiffonaded 
Kosher salt, red pepper flakes and black pepper to taste
3 lbs. mussels (I used P.E.I. mussels, scrubbed and beards removed)
Round, warmed foccacia bread for serving

Directions:

Heat the olive oil in a large pan until it shimmers, then add the onion or shallot and cook for a few minutes until the onions begin to turn soft.

Once the onions are soft, add the garlic and stir until fragrant, about 1 minute. To the pan, add the crushed tomatoes, and let simmer for 10 minutes so the flavors combine.

Add the wine and basil (save some for garnish), and adjust the seasonings. I like to go heavy on the red pepper.

Once the sauce is hot, add the mussels and cover the pan with the lid for about 12 minutes or until all of the mussels
 
have opened. Remember, throw out any mussels that don't open.

Garnish with extra basil and serve piping hot with tasted bread for dipping.

Why I Love Cooking and A Classic Beef and Noodles Dish

I don't quite know where my absolute passion for cooking came from. My brothers and I were so blessed to have grown up with a hot, homemade dinner on the table every single night, ready at 6pm when my dad walked in the door. My mom is an amazing cook, and some of my best conversations with her happened when she was standing up against the stove, hand on hip, stirring up something wonderful. She taught me to experiment with foods and more importantly, showed me that food is really love. Mom, you changed the course of my life by showing me that, and I will be forever grateful. Thank you!

My mom and I both learned a lot about cooking from my Gramma, my father's mother. She's a great cook and is responsible for many of the traditions my family has today on holidays. She and I are very close, and regularly talk on the phone to catch up. Despite an over 50 year age difference, she "gets" me, and encourages me. She bought me some of my best pots and pans for the kitchen, and lets me comb through her binders and binders of recipes when I visit her. Since she is getting older, I want to learn everything I can from her so I can pass traditions and recipes down to my family one day.

When I visit her, Gramma often pulls up a chair at her kitchen table and walks me through a recipe.This photo is exactly how she looks when we're saddled up to the stove! Last time I saw her, we made Beef and Noodles, a classic comfort dish my father grew up on. The tomatoes tenderize the meat, so you don't have to get an expensive cut. The cloves add another layer of really interesting flavor you can't quite put your finger on. One ultimate dish of comfort.

Here's her recipe:

Ingredients: 

2 lbs beef chuck, cubed or cut into strips
4 chopped green onions
4 gloves garlic
2-3 whole cloves (don't make the recipe if you don't have this!)
2 bay leaves
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 1-lb. can of tomatoes (diced or crushed works)
1 pint mushrooms, sliced
4 oz egg noodles
1 cup beef stock
1 can V8

Directions:

1. In a large pot, combine the first 8 ingredients. No need to brown the meat, just let it simmer be for 1 1/2 to 2 hours. 
2. After ~2 hours, add the mushrooms (if you likemushrooms), egg noodles and stock and simmer for another 20 minutes until the noodles are cooked through.
3. For a thinner sauce, or to add more liquid, use V8.
4. Remove the bay leaves and serve.
 

Easy and Elegant- Really! Parmesan Frico

Have extra Parmesan cheese to use and want to make a very classy addition to a salad or soup? Make Parmesan frico! This turns cups of grated cheese into dainty, lacy crisps.

It's as easy as 1,2,3.

1. Grate your cheese (about 1 cup for 4 fricos)
2. Arrange cheese in 1/4 cup circles on a NONSTICK baking pan (or use parchment paper)
3. Pop in a 375 degree oven for 10-12 minutes until golden brown

These will be a bit bendable when they come out warm, so you can shape the frico into cylinders or cones if you are very fabulous and a master chef. Or you can do what I did and thrown them on a Cesare salad.

Either way, you look like the hostess with the mostest and your guests will be impressed and your culinary prowess.

Mussels in an Herbed White Wine Sauce - Restaurant Worthy!

I co-hosted a dinner party a while back for our closest friends- most of us who have been together since college! We decided to make it super classy-- simple, decadent dishes and a wine pairing with each course. I was tasked with the appetizers and side dishes (he did the hard work - stuffed crown roast!). We wanted to push the envelope bit for our friends who much prefer mini hot dogs over escargot. :) I decided to make classic mussels in an herbed white wine sauce.

It turned out to be the best idea! I'm not kidding, this is better than dishes I've had in restaurants. Having never worked with mussels before, I did hours of research into cleaning, preparation and recipes and came up with the below recipe- an Elaine original! I hope you enjoy; this really is a fun, cheap and delicious alternative to standard dinner party fare.Even those initially wary loved it. Experiment!

 Ingredients

6 pounds fresh mussels (I used Prince Edward Island [P.E.I.] Mussels), scrubbed and beards removed
4 T olive oil
4 T butter (go ahead, use the whole stick if you want.)
8 shallots, finely chopped
8 garlic cloves, minced
32 oz. chicken stock
2 cups dry white wine
2 cups heavy cream 
8 T fresh herbs (I used an herb paste, but would recommend basil, parsley, thyme, maybe even a but of oregano or rosemary)
Good quality crusty bread, warmed right before serving
 
Directions  

Scrub and debeard (remove a thin hairlike strand) mussels. Throw away any that are opened. If mussels are slightly opened, tap on their shell. Good mussels should close; toss those that stay open. 

Preheat a very large pot (fair disclosure, I underestimated how large a pot I would need!) over high heat. Once pot is heated, add the butter and olive oil. Warm until butter melts.

Into the melted butter, add the shallots, with a pinch of salt and pepper. Stir until shallots are softened, about 5-7 minutes. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute or just slightly longer.


Add wine, chicken stock and the mussels into the pot. Cover with a lid and steam until all mussels open, about 12 minutes. Discard any mussels that do not open. 

Remove the mussels with a slotted spoon and place into a large serving bowl. (Remember to set an extra bowl on the table for the shells.) To the remaining liquid, add the cream and herbs (or herb paste) and adjust seasonings with salt and pepper. Once you have a great-tasting broth, pour over the mussels in the bow.

Serve with warm, crusty bread and soak in the complements.

Any Season Angletti

It's pretty well known that I hate baking. I mean hate it. I don't like being exact with my measurements (if you ever saw me cook, you know that already) and I just don't have the patience for it. But, each Christmas, I make a few new cookie recipes, searching for my one "best" recipe I'll contribute year after year.

Last Christmas, I finally made this Angletti recipe I found in Real Simple a few years ago. It's really is simple (hah), delicious and pretty! The cookies are soft and not overly sweet-- perfect for a sweet treat with tea or evening coffee, but won't give you a cavity like more traditional holiday cookies. I plan to experiment adding orange or lemon zest to these to play with flavors.

Why am I posting about these in May? Because since the finishing touch is a few shakes of sprinkles, you can play with the colors and make them year round! These are great for Easter, Mother's Day or just to brighten someone's day. Have fun!  

Ingredients

• 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• 2 cups all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled, plus more for rolling the dough
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• Glaze:
• 2 cups confectioners’ sugar
• 2 Tbsp  pure vanilla extract
• Warm water (to thing the glaze, if needed) 
• 6 tablespoons multicolor nonpareil sprinkles, for decoration 
• Note: you can add food coloring to the glaze if you like as well

Directions

1. Heat oven to 375° F.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the butter, granulated sugar, vanilla, and eggs until blended. Add the flour, baking powder, and salt and mix until just combined (do not overmix).
3. With floured hands, roll level tablespoonfuls of the dough into balls and place on parchment-lined baking sheets, spacing them 2 inches apart. Bake until puffed and the bottoms are pale golden, 7 to 8 minutes. Transfer to a rack to cool completely.
4. Make the glaze: In a small bowl, whisk together the confectioners’ sugar, 2 tablespoons water, and the vanilla until the mixture forms a thick but pourable glaze (add more water if necessary. You want a thicker consistency, sort of like white school glue). Add the food coloring here if you are using.
5. Dip the top of each cookie into the glaze and let set, rounded side up, on a rack set over a piece of parchment paper. (I take each cookie and roll it around the icing. It doens't need to be perfect. The glaze will reset itself and harden to a beauitful, smooth finish.) 
6. When cookies are still wet with glaze, sprinkle with non-pareils, if using. (I take a bowl of them and sprinkle them over the cookies with my fingertips. It's messy, but it gets the job done.
7. Allow the glaze to set, about 20 minutes. Store the cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days. 
8. Enjoy! Impress your guests! Look like the hostess with the mostest! 

Our New Saint Patrick's Day Tradition-Colcannon

If you know anything about me, chances are you know I'm super Irish and super proud. Since my mom was a child, our family has been celebraing Saint Patrick's Day with the same foods-- corned beef and cabbage, potatoes and carrots broiled in the corned beef water with rye bread on the side.

This year, I wanted to contribute a dish instead of a bottle to our festivities and decided to bring colcannon, a traditional Irish dish. The original recipe is fairly bland and is made with kale or cabbage, so this is a combination of my research online about the traditional recipe and some newer recipes I found.

The dish turned out amazing and even started a new tradition. Next year, Mom won't boil her potatoes, we'll serve the colcannon on the side instead. So thrilled to help shape my family's history!

Ingredients:

6 large baking potatoes
3/4- 1 cup warmed milk (I used fat free, but you can use anything- especially cream!)
4-6 T butter, divided (or more-who are we kidding?)
1/2 onion, chopped  
1/4 of large green cabbage, shredded
4 slices bacon, cooked crisp and grease reserved
Salt, pepper to taste

Directions:

Scrub, peel and dice potatoes and place in large pan of boiling water. Cook until you can pierce easily with a fork.

While potatoes are cooking, cook the bacon until crisp. Remove from the pan, reserving the grease.

To the greased pan, add the onion and cook for about 3 minutes. Once it's started to soften, add the shredded cabbage. Keep stirring for about 5 additional minutes until onions and cabbage are soft. (Careful not to burn the cabbage.)

When the potatoes are done, drain them. Immediately add half of the butter and warm milk to the drained potatoes (start with 1/2 cup and add more to your desired consistency)  and mash quickly with a potato masher. You can use a handheld mixer, but I wanted some lumps for a more homestyle dish. Adjust the salt and pepper of the mashed potatoes. (Don't oversalt. The bacon and bacon grease will add plenty of that!)

When the potatoes are mashed and have the desired consistency and flavor, add the onions and cabbage from the pan and give a stir to combine.

At the last minute, add the crispy bacon and stir once more. Make a hole in the center of the potatoes and add remaining butter. Of course you can skip this step if you're being calorie conscious, but WHY? 

Here's cooking me on St. Patrick's Day, and the REAL me on St. Patrick's Day: :)

A Very Non-Valentine's Dinner

Boyfriend and I aren't Valentine's Day fans. At all. So when we realized we had scheduled a dinner party for "Valentine's Weekend," we weren't all that upset.

I thought about making a more intimate dinner for the four of us (steak, potatoes, the works), but I gave up red wine for Lent (I KNOW. Don't say it) and our guest gave up chocolate! So, I settled on something totally not associated with the big day- shrimp creole!

I've been meaning to make this for years now and since boyfriend and his friend got back from New Orleans fairly recently, I figured they'd be good judges. Most of the recipes I looked at were super time intensive and complicated, so I adapted this one from skinnytaste. I served it over white rice (cooked in chicken broth and garlic to give more flavor) with really crusty bread on the side.

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup plus 1T olive oil (divided)
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 green bell pepper, chopped
• 1 stalk celery, chopped
• 7 cloves of garlic, minced, divided
• 14-ounce can of diced tomatoes
• 8 oz tomato sauce
• red pepper flakes to taste (I totally overdid it)
• 1/4 tsp Cajun Seasoning
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 tbsp of all purpose flour (1 tsp corn starch for gluten-free)
• 2 tbsp water
• 1 lb of large shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• 2 tsp hot sauce, to taste
• Scallion and pasley for garnish
• Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

First, peel and devein your shrimp (if not done already). Then, combine olive oil (about a quarter cup) and 5 chopped garlic cloves in a large Ziploc bag. Marinate in the refrigerator for ~3 hours.

While shrimp is marinating, you can make the tomato base. Heat the tablespoon of olive oil and add the garlic and onion. Once that's fragrant and the onions are turning clearer, add the green bell pepper, garlic and celery and saute until tender. Next, add the tomatoes and tomato sauce, spices, bay leaf and bring to a boil. Cover and reduce heat to low and simmer for about 40 minutes.


While the tomato base is simmering, take the shrimp out of the bag and dump onto a large baking tray. Cook at 350-375 for about 6 minutes until opaque and no longer pink. Season with a bit of Cajun seasoning when they are hot out of the oven and set aside.

When the tomato base has simmered, combine the flour and water in a small bowl, and then dump into the tomato mixture. Continue cooking for another 5 minutes. Add Worcestershire sauce and hot sauce; stir together.



Add the shrimp to the dish and adjust seasonings to taste. Top with parsley and sliced scallions.


The evening was complete with Irish coffees with homemade whipped cream-- complements of B, who had never made it before! Look how proud this girl is!

Mom's "Reliving Her 20s" Best Quiche Recipes

One of my favorite things is going home for Sunday dinner. It grounds me, lets me spend time with my family and get back to things that matter.

When I was making my 52 Weeks of New Food list for 2013, I originally said I wanted to make a killer quiche, inspired by a trip to Morristown with my friend Samantha. My mom read it and said she had an amazing crab quiche recipe she and her best friend used to make when they shared an apartment together in their 20s.

We spent the larger part of a rainy afternoon going through all of her recipe books and pulling out the best recipes (one of our goals for 2013, and a post for another day!).

Her quiche recipe (from a 1978 issue of Better Homes and Gardens), and she had handwritten notes all over it. The recipe makes enough egg and Swiss filling for two pies, so we made a spinach quiche and a crab quiche.

They were AMAZING, and she said they tasted exactly like she remembered. Definitely not low cal, but who cares- they're worth it. (Ignore the photo. I was so excited about these that I started to cut it before I took a photo!)

Thanks for this recipe, Mom! It's a keeper!    

Mom's Quiche (Makes enough filling for 2 quiche)

Ingredients:

2 refrigerated pie crusts (or premade crusts)
2 cups heavy cream
4 eggs
4 Tbsp butter
1/2 cup scallions, chopped
~2 cups Swiss cheese, shredded
 6oz. crab claw meat
10oz. frozen spinach, thawed and drained 
Salt, pepper (can use white pepper), cayenne, nutmeg to taste

Directions: 

Cook the pie crusts per the directions on the package for about 8 minutes. You want the crust to be a tiny it brown, but not burn when you put it back in the oven. When pie crusts are done, turn oven to 325.

In a bowl, whisk together the heavy cream, eggs, and Swiss cheese.

In the meantime, heat the butter over the stove, and add scallions until they shrink just a bit, about 5 minutes. Add the scallions to the egg mixture. Then, divide the egg mixture evenly into two bowls.

For spinach quiche:
Add the thawed spinach to the egg mixture. I love a lot of spinach, so this was OK for me, but you can add half if you like. Add in a sprinkle of nutmeg, salt and pepper and stir.

Pour into the pie crust and bake at 325 for 45 minutes (until a knife comes out clean if you put it in the middle). Let it rest for about 10 minutes before serving.

For crab quiche:

Add the crab claw meat to the egg mixture, followed by a sprinkle of cayenne, salt and pepper.

Pour into the pie crust and bake at 325 for 45 minutes (until a knife comes out clean if you put it in the middle). Let it rest for about 10 minutes before serving.

Announcing...52 New Weeks of New Food 2013

Hot on the heels of my Year in Review, announcing...my 2013 list of new foods! I already have three under my belt, and I think I'll be able to add 49 more before the end of the year.

Here's to new recipes, old friends, great wine and beautiful new traditions!

1.       Creamed Onions

2.       Gut a fish/Salt fish

3.       Bread from scratch

4.       Souflee

5.       Mom’s Crab Quiche

6.       Pasta from Scratch

7.       Flourless Chocolate Cake

8.       Rutabega recipe

9.       Homemade pizza

10.   Sweet and sour tofu

11.   Mushroom tartlets

12.   Cream of mushroom soup

13.   Salisbury steak

14.   Colcannon

15.   Shepherd’s Pie

16.   Enchiladas Suizas with Green Chile Sauce

17.   Mole sauce

18.   Gnudi

19.   White wine sangria

20.   French Onion Soup with Gruyere Croutons

21.   Scarpetta Tomato and Basil Sauce

22.   Biscuits and Sausage Gravy

23.   Gravy

24.   Scotch Eggs

25.   Tamale

26.   Black Cod Recipe from Yellowstone

27.   Wild game pot roast (from a butcher)

28.   Maple fudge

29.   Cream of Leek Soup

30.   BLT Cheesecake

31.   Onion Tart

32.   PB Cup pie

33.   Feta Salad Dressing

34.   Chicken and Brown Rice with Spinach and Baby Portobello Casserole

35.   Carnitas

36.   Thai Chicken and Basil

37.   Irish Beef Hand Pies

38.   Spinach Stuffed Chicken Breast with Walnut Mushroom Cream

39.   Pasta with Mushrooms in Pumpkin Gorgonzola Sauce

40.   Southwest Pasta with Bacon

41.   Pepperoni Pasta Bake

42.   Butternut Squash Risotto

43.   Prune cake

44.   Carbonara

45.   Mushroom Ragu

46.   Shrimp Creole

47.   Sesame Lime Tuna

48.   Sherried Tomato Soup

49.   Sweet Corn Soup with Crab

50.   Scalloped Pumpkin and Spinach

51.   Broccoli Blue Cheese Bake

52.   Mashed Turnips with Parmesan