Big Game Sunday Party Food

I love me some good fattening appetizers, full of cheese and bacon and other gooey, unhealthy things, especially when a football game is involved. Big Game Sunday calls for lots of finger foods, right? Here's a roundup of some of the most drool-inducing appetizers recipes I found around the web for a football party, or any appetizer-worthy occasion.

If you try any of these for a party, leave me a note and tell me how you liked them!

Pizza-on-a-Stick

Vegan Creamy Cucumber Rollups

Bacon Double Cheeseburger Dip

Buffalo Chicken Mini-Meatballs

Won Ton Chicken Tacos

Jalapeno Poppers with Chorizo and Chihuahua Cheese

Sweet Potato Tahini Crostini

Seafood-Stuffed Mushroom Caps

Snickers Dip

Apple Pie Fries

Read more...

Chocolate Chip Candied Bacon Cookies with Bourbon Cream

We're nearly at the end my friends: one of the last recipes from our Iron Chef Bacon Cook Off. This one is from my friend Talea, Chef Extraordinaire, who has been a runner-up in several national cooking show competitions. These are Tollhouse chocolate chip sandwich cookies taken to the max, and they are amazing.

For our party, Talea also made Goat Cheese Fruit Salad in Parmesan Baskets, which is a dish with a lot of "Wow" factor. It's as luscious as it it beautiful!

Ingredients - Candied Bacon

12 slices bacon, about 1/4-inch thick
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/3 cup brown sugar, packed

Instructions - Candied Bacon

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Put bacon slices in a bowl, season them with chili powder and toss with the brown sugar. Cover a baking sheet with foil and arrange the bacon in a single layer on top. Sprinkle any sugar left in the bowl over the bacon. Place the tray in the center of the oven and bake for 20 minutes. Transfer to wire rack and let cool completely.

Enjoy eating the bacon on its own or crumpled into salads and other appetizers.

Side note: You may use the left over bacon grease to fry almonds or to flavor other dishes as the sugar and spices give it a delicious flavor.

Ingredients - Chocolate chip candied bacon cookies 

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
2 cups (12-oz. pkg.) semi-sweet chocolate morsels
1 cup chopped walnuts

Instructions - Chocolate chip candied bacon cookies 

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

In a mixer bowl, beat the butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract until well-combined and creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir together the flour, baking soda and salt, then slowly add it to the dough while the mixer is running on medium speed. Chop the candied bacon. Take the beaters out of the dough, and stir in the bacon, chocolate and nuts by hand. 

Drop rounded tablespoons onto ungreased baking pans. Bake for 9-11 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on cookie sheets for 2 minutes, then allow them to cool completely on wire racks. 

Makes about 36 cookies.

Ingredients - Bourbon buttercream

2 cup powdered sugar
3 tbsp bourbon
1 tsp vanilla
½ cup butter, softened
Pinch of salt
1 tbsp maple syrup

Instructions

Beat together all ingredients until they form a fluffy frosting. When the cookies have completely cooled, place the frosting in a pastry bag with a large tip, or a plastic Ziploc bag with a corner snipped off, and squeeze off a quarter-sized  dollop of cream on the flat side of one cookie. Press it together with another cookie. Repeat with remaining cookies.

Let cookies chill in the refrigerator for a half hour or so before serving as the cream needs time to set.

Makes about 18 double rich cookies.

Read more...

Chocolate-Caramel-Bacon Cheesecake

We're down to the last few recipes from the Iron Chef Bacon Cook Off of 2014, and this, my friends, this is one of the best desserts I've ever eaten. My friend Jo started with a crust of cashews and graham cracker crumbs, loaded up the cheesecake with heavy cream and vanilla, then topped it with caramel and a semi-sweet chocolate ganache studded with bacon bits. Heavenly!

Once again I will apologize for the awful photo. There was the hubbub of cutting and serving desserts just as I drained my third glass of wine, and the results were not pretty. Jo was also disappointed because this cheesecake waited in the car while they were at a baptism, and some of the caramel slid off to one side. This cheesecake is so much tastier than it looks.

Note: you can make this recipe a day ahead, but if you make it the day you're serving it, be sure to make time to chill it before serving.

Ingredients

For the Crust:

2 cups Low-Fat Graham Cracker Crumbs (low-fat cookies will prevent the crust from getting soggy)
2 Tbs. Butter, melted
2 Tbs. vanilla sugar
4 slices bacon, cooked crispy and crumbled
1/2 cup ground cashews (my friend used honey sesame-coated cashews from Trader Joe's)

For the Cheesecake:

24 oz. Cream Cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup Sugar
3 Large Eggs
1 cup Heavy Cream
1 1/2 Tbsp Lemon Juice
1 1/2 Tbsp Vanilla Extract

For the Bacon Turtle Topping: 

1 cup Sugar
1 Tbsp water
1 Tbsp Butter
1/2 cup Heavy Cream
1/2 package of Semi-sweet Chocolate Chips
4 slices bacon, cooked crisp and crumbled


Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Stir together the crust ingredients and press evenly into bottom and sides of a 9-inch spring form pan.

Blend together cream cheese, sugar, and heavy cream on medium speed in a mixer or food processor. Add eggs one by one, fully blending them before adding the next. Add the cream, lemon juice, and vanilla and blend until smooth and creamy.

Pour batter over the crust  and tap the pan to remove air bubbles. Bake 45-55 minutes, until the edges are set but the center is still jiggly. Turn off the oven. Wet a knife and run it between the pan and the cake to release it from the sides and prevent the middle from cracking. Put the cake (still in the pan) back in the oven, close the door, and let the cake set for one hour.

Remove the cake from the oven, and refrigerate four hours or overnight. Remove from the spring form pan before adding the topping.

Next, microwave the chocolate chips in a bowl for 1-minute intervals, stirring between, until the chips are melted. Stir in the bacon pieces, then spread over the top of the cake.

To make the chocolate turtle topping, stir together sugar and one tablespoon water in a small pan over medium-high heat. It will be grainy at first, but then the sugar will begin to melt. Then begin shaking the pan instead of stirring. Bring to a boil and cooked until caramel-colored.

Remove from heat and stir in the butter and cream. Let the mixture thicken for 20 minutes, then drizzle over the chocolate, as well as making a pool in the center.

Serves 8-10.

Read more...

Bacon-filled Ravioli with Mushroom Sauce

These bacon and ricotta filled ravioli were one of my favorite dishes of the evening. Our ravioli chef, Mark Borghetti, whips these out faster than you can imagine. "I'm Italian," he says in his suburban Chicago accent. "You oughta see my mom make ravioli."

Mark uses this pasta roller that clamps to a table or counter and the sheets come out smooth and even. If you don't have this, or a pasta machine, a rolling pin will do. He also has this round ravioli cutter that crimps the edges while it cuts through two layers of pasta, as you can see above. Alas, we don't have this tool either, so next time we make this recipe, we'll be cutting these into squares with a knife.

I hear there's also a thing called a ravioli mold that helps the ravioli-making process in some way. I shouldn't hear about things like this - my kitchen is way too small for any other gadgets or utensils.

Mark says he got the original recipe from The Food Network.

Ingredients

For the dough

4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
6 large eggs, beaten

For the filling

1 cup sliced yellow onion
8 slices thick-cut bacon, roughly chopped
4 carrots, diced
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Salt and Pepper to taste
1 1/2 cups fresh parsley, chopped
1/3 cup ricotta cheese
3 ounces gruyere or swiss cheese, grated
2 large egg yolks

For the sauce

4 tbsp butter
Salt and pepper to taste
1 pound assorted mushrooms, sliced
1 clove garlic, minced
4 green onions, chopped
2 pints grape or cherry tomatoes, halved
2 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
2 tbsp fresh basil leaves, chopped

Instructions

To make the dough

Put the flour and eggs in a food processor or mixer. Process until the dough clings to the beaters or blades. Turn out the dough on a floured surface and shape into a rectangle. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside 30 minutes at room temperature.

Let's eat!

To make the filling

In a food processor or blender, blend the onions, raw bacon, and carrots until finely chopped and well mixed. Pour 1 cup of water in a large skillet and heat until boiling. Add the bacon mixture, nutmeg, salt, and pepper, reduce heat to medium, and cook until the water is evaporated and the vegetables start to brown, about 10 minutes. Stir in the parsley, then place in a bowl and let it cool about 15 minutes. Mix in the rest of the filling ingredients and refrigerate until ready to stuff the ravioli. Note: this can be made one or two days ahead of time.

To make the ravioli

Sprinkle the dough with flour and divide into 6 pieces. Shape each piece into a 4" by 2" rectangle. If using a pasta machine, adjust it to the widest setting then roll the pasta through several times, reducing the setting until the pasta is about 1/16th inch thick. If using a rolling pin, turn the dough out on a floured surface and roll it until it is 1/16th inch thick and about 3" wide. Repeat with the rest of the dough.

On a floured surface, lay out one sheet of dough. Scoop out tablespoons of the ricotta filling and place them two inches apart on the sheet of dough, making sure you leave 2 inches along the edges of the dough as well. Place another sheet of dough over the top of the ravioli. Using a ravioli cutter, knife, or pizza wheel, cut out the ravioli. Repeat with the remaining dough and filling.

At this point, you can freeze the ravioli for later (no, eat it now!) or put it in a covered container and refrigerate for another day. Since we weren't going to eat for another hour or so, Mark put his raviolis on a cookie sheet and placed them in the freezer so they would hold together much better when he boiled them.

To make the sauce

Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Stir in the mushrooms, salt, and pepper, and saute until tender, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and green onions, and cook and stir for one minute. Add the tomatoes, basil, and parsley, and cook for 3-5 minutes, until the tomatoes are softened.

Boil the ravioli in a large pot for 10 minutes, then remove to a serving platter. Stir 1 1/2 cups of the ravioli cooking water to the sauce, and simmer 5 minutes. Serve with the sauce drizzled over the ravioli or passed in a separate bowl.

Serves 6-8.

Read more...

Goat Cheese Fruit Salad in Parmesan Baskets

I wish I had better photos of these delicate and flavorful little salads, but our Iron Chef Bacon Cook Off was in full gear and there was a lot of action in the room. The recipe is made in two steps, but nothing is very hard about the process. This recipe, crafted by my friend Talea, is definitely a dish to impress and dazzle, and can be either an appetizer or a bit of a side salad. Yum!

Parmesan Baskets

Ingredients

10 ounces coarsely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano or Asiago cheese

1/2 teaspoon coarsely ground multi color pepper medley-optional

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and place the oven rack in the middle of the oven. Grease a muffin tin or use parchment baking cups. Stir together the cheese and pepper, and gently pat into a very thin layer on the bottom and up the sides of each muffin cup.

Bake until bubbly and lightly golden, about 4 minutes. Allow to cool before slipping them out of the pan. These will keep crisp for several days at room temperature in a covered container.

Makes 12 -16 baskets.

Goat Cheese Fruit Salad

Ingredients

1 cup frisee lettuce, torn into bite size pieces (frisee lettuce is that frizzy-looking pale lettuce next to all the specialty lettuces; it has a nice bite to it, but substitute other lettuce if you can't find it)

1 Granny Smith apple, julienned
1 tbsp chopped fresh tarragon
Juice of ½ Lemon
3 slices of bacon, fried crisp and chopped, leave a few crumbs for final topping;
½ cup heirloom tomato, sliced into thin wedges
½ cup toasted Walnuts, chopped
1/4 cup cranberry goat cheese

For the Vinaigrette:

1/3 cup olive oil
3 tbsp pomegranate balsamic vinegar
2 tbsp white wine vinegar
2 tsp honey
1 tsp oriental mustard
1 pinch of salt
½ tsp ground white pepper

Instructions

For the vinaigrette, beat oil and vinegar until emulsified and then add all other ingredients. Stir until combined. Keep at room temperature until ready to serve.

Add the lettuce to the bottom of the parmesan basket. Mix all other ingredients except the cheese together and place on top of lettuce. Top with goat cheese and vinaigrette.

Read more...

Iron Chef Bacon Cookoff Party

When you've been craving bacon - which is always, in our home - the best thing you can do is round up a bunch of friends who love to cook and have a massive Iron Chef Bacon Cook Off. This is how we spent last weekend.

Our friends John and Peg hosted, and twelve of us sipped bacon-infused old fashioneds and chopped and baked and rolled our way to a glorious dinner. I love it when dinner takes a couple of hours and we all giggle and sprawl around the table in a food coma, taking just one more bite and a bit more wine.

We're ready to eat!

I'll be sharing a bunch of my talented friends' recipes over the next month, You'll have these to look forward to:

Bacon and Tomato Bruschetta

Bacon-stuffed ravioli in mushroom sauce

Stacked Bacon-Pecan Pear Salads

Goat Cheese Fruit Salad in Parmesan nests

Chocolate-caramel cheesecake with bacon

Bacon-bourbon brownies with pecans

Chocolate chip candied bacon cookies with bourbon cream

With all the bacon and a healthy helping of wine, we were all a little sluggish and dehydrated the next day, but it was worth every bite.

Read more...

Roll-Your-Own Sushi Party

I'm hesitant about posting about "how to host a roll-your-own sushi party" because I'd really rather go to each of your homes and make sushi with you. A sushi-making party is the perfect friend experience. Sushi takes a lot of prep but none of it is hard if you have a good sharp knife and a little coordination; the best part is having a glass of wine and catching up with people you love while you julienne vegetables and slice fish into tiny fillets.

I wouldn't say that I could eat sushi every day, but I could eat it a lot, and since you can put an astounding variety of things into them, I could eat a different sushi menu every day. You could start out with a recipe book if you wanted, but it's not necessary. At a recent sushi-making party, we had five cookbooks between the eight of us. But after awhile there were bowls of green onions and spicy tuna and fresh mango slices and an enormous bowl of sushi rice, and everyone improvised the items they put onto hand-formed rice balls and sheets of nori seaweed wrappers.

I'm gonna be realistic and assume you're not all going to invite me to make sushi with you. So here are some tips and ideas for making sushi at home, especially if you have a bunch of friends helping you. We have been making our own sushi for years and have learned a few things about how to help the party flow while actually producing something that wouldn't make a real sushi chef cry.

I originally posted some recipes on my Homemade Sushi post a few years ago (was it really three years ago?). So this post is intended to take the fun a little further with some things we've learned since then. If you have any questions for this avid amateur I'd be glad to answer them.

If you have trouble finding any of these ingredients in mainstream grocery stores, I would like to point you to Asian Food Grocer. I have heard good things about this online store but we live in an area with lots of ethnic variety and have found what we need without their help.

How to Host a Sushi Party

1. Plan for your utensils.

Here are things you'll definitely need on hand. We all had our favorite knives and cutting boards, and several of us brought full sushi dinner place settings which also came in handy when we were rolling.

• Bamboo mats for making sushi rolls - for 8 people, we used 4 mats; the other 4 people were slicing and forming sashimi
• Plastic wrap cut to the size of the nori sheets, for making sushi rolls
• Very sharp knives - we had 6 knives for the 6 people cutting ingredients at the beginning; some knives were just used for raw fish, some for vegetables and fruits
• Small bowls of vinegar water to seal the sushi rolls and rinse off sticky rice-covered fingers; wet towels are also helpful
• Chopsticks, plates, and soy dipping bowls
• Counter/Table space
• Plenty of cutting boards

2. Plan who will bring each ingredient to the party.

We made WAY too much food the at our last party. Friends brought home rolls and bits of fish we didn't eat; Joe and I had sushi again the next night, made seared ahi tuna wraps for lunch one day, and used up the rest of our leftovers in a luscious seafood udon soup.

We made sashimi of tamago (Japanese omelet), shrimp, ahi tuna, and smoked salmon. We made sushi rolls of spicy tuna and spicy salmon, California rolls, and rolls that had a mixture of fish, avocado, green onions, mango, and wasabi mayonnaise. Here's a suggestion to feed 8 people:

• 1/2-1 pound ahi tuna
• 1/2 pound red snapper filet or smoked salmon 
• 1/2 pound fresh sushi-grade salmon
• 1/4 pound crab or crab sticks
• 1/2 pound shrimp, cooked and cleaned
• 2 avocados, peeled and thinly sliced
• 1 small English cucumber, julienned
• 2 stalks green onions, julienned
• 1 mango, peeled and pitted
• 1 small carrot, peeled and julienned
• 1/3 cup brown or black sesame seeds (toast briefly on a dry hot skillet to intensify the flavor)
• 1/4 cup fish eggs (the orange fish roe is called tobiko or masago and can be hard to find; try a jar of inexpensive small-egged caviar from the canned meats aisle of the grocery store)
• 1/2 block cream cheese, cut into thin strips (this works better if you partially freeze it first)
• Tamago made with 4 eggs
• Rice vinegar
• 3 cups uncooked sushi rice
• 1 piece of Kombu (thick seaweed) for making the sushi rice
• Chili-garlic paste
• Soy sauce
• Pickled ginger
• Wasabi paste
• 1/2 cup mayo mixed with 1 tbsp wasabi paste
• 10 sheets of nori

3. Plan the Party.

Once everyone has agreed on what they're bringing, there are a few things the host can do ahead of time. Note that it will take at least an hour, but probably more time to make the sushi, so appetizers and drinks are welcome. Here's a step-by-step plan to get ready for the party.

One Week Before
Finalize the food and utensil assignments; shop.

One Day Before
Make wasabi mayo; if desired, you can make the spicy tuna or salmon a day in advance by mincing 1/2 cup of fish with 3 tbsp chili-garlic paste.

If you'd like to provide a guide to popular sushi rolls, you can print off a list from our sushi post here.

3–4 Hours Before
Chill cold drinks.

Prepare sushi rice and allow it to cool.

Prepare appetizers or starter sushi rolls.

1 Hour Before
Prep ingredients for all sushi rolls.

Set out utensils and prepare a cutting area and a rolling area. We did our cutting in the kitchen, then brought the ingredients to the table and assembled the sushi there.

During the Party
Pour wine, guide slicers and assemblers, and enjoy your friends!

Since many of our friends hadn't made sushi before, we floated between groups showing them how to roll sushi and how thinly to slice different fish. We nibbled as we worked, but then cleared the ingredients off the table and set to eating full platters of sushi in earnest once we had made enough.

That's all there is to it! If you host a roll-your-own sushi party, let me know how it goes.

Read more...

Pumpkin Patch Cheese Bites

These cute little cheese balls are fun for a fall party or an appetizer for an afternoon football game. You'll really be surprised how easy they are to make. We gave an appetizer cooking class a week ago, and the pumpkin balls were a hit.

In this cooking demo, Joe also got a chance to talk about his passion for sharp knives, which sounds a little scary, but he really does love cooking with razor-sharp knives. We have two different knife sharpeners, and I begin to drool like one of Pavlov's dogs when I hear him sharpening, because I know something delicious is on its way to the table.

Anyway, back to these appetizers. You can make these several days ahead of time and store them in the fridge until you're ready to serve them. Put the pretzels in last, if you won't be serving them for a while, because they tend to get a little stale. We like our pretzels crunchy.

Ingredients

4 cups sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
1 8-oz package cream cheese, softened
1 tbsp paprika
1 tbsp onion powder
2 tsp ground mustard

Garnishes

About 1/4 cup curly parsley leaves

About 15 pretzel sticks, cut in half

1/2 cup chopped pecans

Directions

In an electric mixer or food processor, cream the cheeses and spices together until well mixed, about 5 minutes. The mixture is completely mixed when you can no longer see cheese shreds and the mixture resembles dough. If the mixture is too dry and crumbly, add a little milk; if it feels sticky, add a little bit of flour.

Scoop 1/2 tablespoon of cheese mixture, then roll it between your palms until it forms a smooth round ball. This might be easier after chilling the cheese. With a butter knife, press lines into the ball in three angles to look like the ridges on a pumpkin. Press half a pretzel stick into each ball, then press the bottom of the ball in the chopped pecans.

With a toothpick, press small parsley sprigs into the top of the pumpkins to resemble leaves. They should stick pretty easily.

Makes about 30 pumpkin bites.

Read more...

Fab Four Mexican Recipes

Some people think that Cinco de Mayo is the Mexican Independence Day, but Mexicans really celebrate their independence from Spain on September 16. On this date in the year 1810, they began a revolt against Spain, and eventually became a free country. It's a national holiday in which people make special foods and enjoy great celebrations, fireworks, fancy cakes and cookies, and lots of decorations.

In honor of the holiday, I'm presenting four fabulous authentic Mexican dishes -- some ancient, some modern, all perfectly easy to make. These talented Mexican cooks and bloggers deserve a good look, if you love Mexican food as much as we do!

1: Empanadas of the Immaculate Conception (meat turnovers), from  Pati's Mexican Table.

2: Stuffed Chicken with Mango-Poblano Sauce, from What's Cooking, Mexico? - luscious mangoes and tangy poblano peppers dress up chicken breasts.

3: Red Pork Pozole Soup, from Mexico in My Kitchen - a traditional savory soup with large white hominy kernels.

4: Polvorones Ricas (holiday cookies dusted with powdered sugar), from De La Tierra - these sugar cookies are especially popular at Easter.

Viva Mexico!

Read more...

Gourmet Stuffed Hamburgers

Try this fun recipe the next time you have people over for a burger cookout. Give each guest two hamburger rounds and an array of stuffings like bleu cheese, chopped olives, jalapenos, shredded cheddar, onions...whatever your imagination suggests!  After stuffing the patty, place the second round on top and pinch the edges together.

Clockwise from top right: Cheddar and bacon, Swiss with onions and mushrooms, Olive with feta and roasted red pepper, and Swiss with green olives and pancetta.

The griller is in charge of remembering which burger belongs to which guest; it helps if a little of the stuffing drips out the side. Why not try these on homemade pretzel buns? It takes the burger to new heights of deliciousness.

Ingredients

For each burger

1/4 pound ground beef or turkey
1/4 tsp salt, pepper, and powdered onion
2 tbsp shredded cheese
2 tbsp sliced olives
1 tbsp sauteed mushrooms
1 tbsp sauteed or fresh chopped onions
1 tbsp roasted red pepper strips
1 tbsp cooked bacon, ham, or pancetta, diced
2 tbsp chopped spinach, kale, or basil
2 tsp chopped jalapenos
1 tbsp pizza sauce
2 tbsp chopped pepperoni or sausage

Note: each hamburger will only be able to hold about 3 types of stuffing before it explodes!

Directions

Form each 1/4 pound of ground beef into two patties with a lip around the edge. Sprinkle the stuffings on one half, then put the top patty over it and press down. Pinch the edges together well. Grill over medium heat until the desired level of doneness.

Read more...