How to throw/survive a holiday party (appetizer edition)

I'm going to let everyone in on a little tip: The key to throwing a great party is to have great appetizers/finger foods/one or two bite offerings. whatever you want to call them, they are essential to kicking your shindig off right. it doesn't matter if you had the most awesome main dishes (if serving). what people will remember the most are the smallbites that you probably didn't want to make in the first place. i don't know many people that love to make appetizers. They're tiny, fussy, and require a lot of attention and work (the puppies/babies, of the food world, if you will). But just like all things tiny, people go nuts for appetizers. The trick here, is to make things that are interesting/colorful/tasty/cute/awesome, but to avoid a lot of heartache and stress. So, with all that said, here are some tasty treats to get any party headed in the right direction:

hardware you will need:

baking sheet(s)/saute pan/food processor/various platters/patience/mad skills

Salad bites: super easy. you will need some endive (usually available in most groceries) and then it's basically whatever you want to put in the leaves. The leaves on this belgian lettuce are great because they act as a little spoon or bowl. Basically, just make a salad that you really like, only put it on one piece of lettuce. I filled mine with some diced grapefruit, smoked salmon and avocado. dressed with a little reduced balsamic/pomegranate juice. this is a really easy one to put together but, like all of these little buggers, just takes a steady hand and some assemblage time. other filling ideas : blue cheese/walnut, bacon/tomato/ curried chicken, etc. you get the idea.

creamed mushrooms on brioche toasts: got this idea from here. a really easy one to make as you can do the filling ahead of time. I did substitute brandy for the vermouth in the recipe, but followed it otherwise. this one is sure to be a hit among the fungus lovers.

Things wrapped in salty meat: I know what you are thinking..."How could this ever be bad!?" well the answer to that question is...it really can't. I'm a sucker for salty cured meat treats. bacon, prosciutto, jambon, etc., etc. the obvious trick here is to make sure you are wrapping these tasties in something CURED. pancetta and bacon should be avoided because they are most likely raw and wouldn't be nice to serve the people that you love. however, if you are indeed hosting a party for your enemies, by all means, go ahead with the pancetta...and maybe wrap it around some orange roughy that you left out in the sun...Anyway...where was i? oh yeah, things wrapped in meat. My "things" of choice here were prunes. and goat cheese. I don't want to hear any whining about prunes either. They're delicious. So are dates. So enough with the bad rap already. If it makes you feel better, you can call them dried plums...

You put your hand upon my hip... Yeah, sorry, but cmon, couldn't resist. Every party needs some dippage. I like to make hummus, particularly, roasted red pepper hummus. here's my do:

1 can chickpeas (or equal weight of cooked dried), 14 oz.

1 generous teaspoon tahini

1 garlic clove

couple squeezes lemon juice

salt and pepper (white pepper if you are super picky about little black flecks, i'm not)

1 roasted red pepper (or if you bought a can of rrp's because you just didn't have the time or motivation to do it yourself...ahem...about 4-5 pieces.)

olive oil drizzles, my nizzles (fashizzle!)

throw everything in food processor. blend until super smooth, scraping down sides once ( you actually should stop the machine here, unless you are a fan of spatula death). now, slowly drizzle your olive oil in until the mixture starts to emulsify. Now, there are a lot of different schools of thought on proper hummus making. i tend to like mine very inundated with olive oil, it should look kind of like neon cream of wheat. There are folks who like it really thick, but i think that it kind of sucks that way. just my opinion:) top with some diced rrp and drizzle with olive oil. Serve with pita chips. I like these..a lot, but you could make your own (but this is supposed to be easy, remember, and honestly, i like the thinness of these compared to homemade pita chips.)

Mini loaded baked potatoes! these were a pretty big hit. they are really easy to make, just require a steady hand and some creativity. I loaded mine with prosciutto crispies, avocado, and diced red chili. But you can do whatever you want. the trick is to get super tiny potatoes. the variety that I used was a banana fingerling. I suppose you could use just regular potatoes, but these have some extra panache and you can't argue with extra panache, well, maybe sometimes...

anyway:

mini potatoes (preferably banana fingerling, for their excellent, one-bite shape/cuteness)

toppings of your choice

roast mini tates at 400F for about 30 minutes (your cooking time might vary, remember, I'm still using the stupid flair. Click here for more on that)

You could use any toppings you like. To fancy them way up, add some creme fresh, caviar and dill. options are wide open here. Get creative.

So, yeah. Hope that you all give these a try. They are all pretty easy and a great way to put a decent spread out with not too much time/worry. pieces.

Tips/tricks

hummus can be made ahead. (actually, I am demanding that you do so. To save your sanity, and to let the flavors party a little, best made the day before)

Mini salad bites need to be made close to party time

potatoes also close to party time (about 30-45 minutes before, you want them to be warm/room temp)

mushroom mixture can be a day ahead, just reheat and assemble on toasts before you do the potatoes.

things wrapped in meat should be made day of, you can do this first, it's easy.

If "to err is human" well, then, I am like king of human ville, or at least a very prominent figure...

So...Pretty embarrassing here. Last year for christmas, Wifeshow bought me an espresso machine. It is a francis! francis! machine and is super cool looking. however, for the last 11 months, I had been less than pleased with the drinks I could produce. I was attributing it to the fact that It was a pod machine, but I know now that it has more to do with the fact that I am an idiot. You see, there are three settings on the machine, and you turn the portafilter farther to the right to achieve each setting. I never did this. So while I was thinking that I had been making lattes, cappucinos/ macchiatos, etc. I had just been making...coffee. Not that it was bad, but I was disappointed in the amount of crema I was getting. Such a moron. So, now, that I actually went back and read the manual, I am getting some pretty great drinks out of this little guy. This is a pic of a macchiato I had at breakfast. Milk is a little bubbly, but I'll get the hang of it. and for all of you elitists out there, I know that a machine that uses ground coffee over pods produces a better end cup. but the fact is, you need an excellent grinder for those results, which I don't want to spend the money on. I have no plans on becoming a great barista (I rely on tams for that postition:), I just want to have an espresso ( or two) at home once and a while. So, for the espresso lover that doesn't want to trek all over town for the perfect cup or shell out a month's wages. I would totally recommend the francis! francis! line of stuff. Just make sure you read the directions:)

ALSO: learned something new from my friend karina. She made reference to an "ibrik" used for making turkish coffee. turkish coffee is quite delicious. here's some info for the curious.

Some more catch up photos

noodle soup was made with thanksgiv leftovers. just boiled some stock, and then slowly kept adding ingredients., started with chiles and ginger, then some paper thin onions, garlic, and snow peas. then noodles, and leftover turkey meat. added some bok choy and soy sauce at the very last and then garnished with a little cilantro and some sriracha sauce. really tasty way to use up roasted poultry. Other pics are yellow curry with tofu, cider chicken with squash risotto, hoisin beef stir fry, and a huge breakfast with home made sausage, potato and onion rosti, Pain de campagne (version 2.0, soon to be at LeQ, oh man is this stuff amazing, look at the great crust on that thing!) and farmyfresh eggs. I didn't eat lunch after this...

DISH recommends: eating a huge breakfast. curbs your lunch intake, which is most likely the most sedentary part of your day...

also

ALL CLAD mc-2 14'' inch frying pan. This pan is unbelievable! A breakfast workhorse. Was able to make a pretty big rosti, eggs, sausage, and toast all at once. totally loves it.

holla(back)daze

Yeah, I know, super late, but thought I would post a few thanksgiv pics. Crudite and cheese/bread/cracker plates are essential (not to mention crazy fast, you just need to find what you like and plan ahead). Also, if you prefer, cheese board can wait until last, it's kind of nice to end a meal that way, try it out. First pic is a cheese board with some St. andre (soft triple cream), Beechers flagship, black diamond white cheddar, and some locally produced aged gouda from branched oak farm. The little mugs have some local honey ( a must for cheese boards, great to dip semi-firm/firm cheeses in), and some diced dates (go really well with soft cheeses like the st. andre and also chevre). plate below has different bread/crackers and also some serrano ham- wrapped figs. Try these out, seriously. You could use any salty cured meat, just happened to have the serrrano. just wrap around the figgage and toothpick them. easiest appetizer ever. Crudite plate was just some carrots, cukes, celery, tomates, and a creamy dressing made from sour cream, white wine vinegar, olive oil, garlic powder, and salt and peps. also had some artichoke hearts, mixed olives and pickles. Other two pics are my turkey that was brined, compound buttered, and rubbed with lemon zest and fresh herbage. Notice that I don't use a roasting rack (in fact, you might as well toss yours out, I did). Cut up some veg and place the bird on this while it roasts. I do this for every big meathunk. The reason being, when you go to make a sauce with the drippings, you pour everything through a sieve and press on the veg, releasing all of their juices. Makes for delicious gravies. The other cured meat-covered turkey pic is, well exactly that. Before roasting any poultry, I lay some sort of cured meat across the top, whether it be bacon, or prosciutto, or pancetta, etc. Take it off when it starts to get crispy and this will let the breast skin catch up to the rest of the bird. Plus, you now have bacon crumblies for your gravy. Magical...

that other pic is the full thanksgiving monty. was so stuffed. there was also delicious pie.

TG sides were roasted brussels, sourdough stuffing with dried apples and andouille sausage, mashed tates, cider gravy, and corn from dish's folks. Also made a cranberry apple and toasted walnut conserve, but failed to snap a pic.

DISH recommends: Plain White dinnerware. Your food looks better on it, trust me. I don't really know what the brand is (I think it is just called "HOME") but we get our dinnerware, service dishes, etc., from target. It's inexpensive and built like a sherman tank. It has it's own space in an aisle and is all open stock, so you can piece it together little by little. The crudite and veg plates (along with most of the other plain white dishes You'll see on here) are in this collection.

If you burned alive in your car this morning, it's not my fault...

Right about now, I'm wishing that I was the owner of a snow-blower. New house=lots more driveway=huge amounts of snow schleppage. and while this is a valid gripe (and I assure you that it is), the main reason that I am wishing this is because of a major privacy infraction that was administered to the dish around 8:30 am this morning. As I was outside, I saw a local news car (10-11) drive by. I was instantly taken back to the time that I was a little kid, outside having a picnic with my cousin (eating sausages, duh!) and the same thing happened. The cameraman came up to us and filmed us playing/snarfing, and then left and we were on the news later that night. Seriously, there is nothing newsworthy about kids eating sausage. fast forward to this morning. Dish is outside wishing for snow-blower, cameraman drives back by, gets out and starts filming me scooping my drive. He says, "Really wanted to get a shot of someone clearing their drive the "old school" way. I calmly replied, "mister, I'm nothing but old school." (ps. really hope they edit out sound, probably said a bunch of stupid stuff to the guy, I was pretty annoyed at the dude) About this time I'm thinking, "dude, seriously? this is the most newsworthy thing that you could be doing?" so, as I am in the middle of this, camera guy gets a phone call and when he's done goes right back to filming. I sarcastically say "breaking news?" and he replies,"there's an automobile fire holding up traffic." About this time I'm wondering why is he still here filming, and he calmly says, "let's get a shot of the scooping from the shovel's eye view." ?1?! So, If by some major coincidence you are in the small microcosm of the population that reads my blog and/or you were either held up in traffic this morning by the flickering flames of a burning daewoo/and/or you were in the burning vehicle, trying to escape but your skin was melding to the bucket seats, I heartily apologize. See, if I had a snow-blower, none of this would have ever happened.

oh yeah, food...honestly, I have a back-log of like a month's worth of food here so I am going to barrage you peeps with pics. the first pic is some brown sugar and chile-rubbed pork loin with some bourbon glazed sweet tates and beer braised greens (lacinato kale). Second is a quick potato salad with green beans, tuna, sourdough croutons and vinaigrette, and third is penne and meatballs (half beef, half italian sausage). the sweet potatoes were pretty excellent and also easy. Just peel them and toss them with a few glugs of bourbon and a couple tablespoons of dark brown sugar. salt and pepper them, and put a few pats of butter on them and bake in a buttered dish at 400F for about 40 minutes. pretty awesome stuff.

Othersnewsbitsofthingsotherthanfoods: I bought a machine to carbonate things. I heart it, bigtime. I was a pretty big Perrier addict, so this thing will pay for itself (works out to be like .20 a bottle). I am excited to make some sodas and lots of other fizzy drinks. Should be a big hit at parties, which is good, because my conversational flashcards are... indeed...not.

DISH recommends: Sodastream Pure. making unfizzy things fizzy is my new passion. Which is good because that whole making unfuzzy things fuzzy campaign didn't really take off. Really thought the world would embrace a fuzzy nectarine...turns out that spot's already filled.

pieces.