Baked Brie/Brie En Croute

Cheese always makes a great appetizer, unless all of your guests are lactose intolerant of course. Instead of just leaving blocks of cheese and crackers out for my guests at a recent dinner party, I decided to bake some brie so it looked like I didn't think of the appetizer as an afterthought.

This recipe is nearly foolproof and looks rather elegant. It's a perfect cold weather appetizer and is almost always eaten up in seconds.

This particular recipe only used nuts, cinnamon and brown sugar.  But you can make many different variations. One of my other favorites is a mix of nuts, apricot jam and dried cranberries. It's important that this is served warm. Pair it with crackers or fruits like apples and grapes.

Baked Brie

Ingredients:

1 sheet of pre-packaged frozen puff pastry
1 tablespoon of unsalted butter
1/4 cup chopped walnuts
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 8 ounce wheel of brie
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1 egg, beaten

Method:

Step 1: Allow puff pastry to thaw for at least 20 minutes
Step 2: Preheat oven to 375 degrees
Step 3: Melt butter in pan over low heat, and add walnuts, cooking while stirring for 5 minutes
Step 4: Mix cinnamon into nut mixture and take off heat
Step 5: Roll out puff pastry on floured surface (not too thin), and place brie in center of dough
Step 6: Top brie with nuts and then brown sugar, and wrap with dough
Step 7: Cut off remaining dough and make shapes to place on top of dough wrapped around brie if desired
Step 8: Brush all sides, but bottom of dough with egg, and place on baking sheet
Step 9: Bake for 20-25 minutes until lightly browned, and serve

Italian White Bean Dip

The final recipe I'm sharing from my fall dinner party is a fabulous Italian white bean dip. I wanted something easily blended together served with pita chips, but I did not want to make the same old hummus.  That's when I found this recipe from Giada.  This dip is dangerously addictive, may be the easiest thing I've ever made.

Italian White Bean Dip


Ingredients:

1 15 ounce can of cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
2 cloves of garlic
2 tbsp. fresh lemon juice
1/3 cup olive oil
1/4 cup loosely packed Italian parsley leaves
Salt and pepper to taste

Method:
Step 1: Dump the first 5 ingredients in a blender, and pulse until blended
Step 2: Stir in salt and pepper to taste

Fresh Start

Don't let the title fool you. I haven't drastically changed anything in my life. Well...except for the fact that I got engaged--as of October 30, 2010. But that doesn't mean I've stopped eating/baking/cooking.  So I thought I would start new, and share some recipes or great eats.

I've been trying to eat healthier in an effort to look great in my wedding photos, as the wedding is set for January. As a part of healthy eating, I'm trying to eat more raw veggies.  But everyone knows vegetables can be boring without a nice dip.  Since I love hummus so much, I thought I would try to tackle making a healthier hummus, and I think I succeeded. You can obviously alter to taste.

Lightened Up Hummus


Ingredients:

1/2 can garbanzo beans (15.5 oz can)
1 6 ounce container of fat free greek yogurt
1 lemon, juiced
1/4 tsp. onion powder
4 minced cloves of garlic
1 tsp. tahini (sesame paste. If you don't have this, you can leave it out, or add some peanut butter)
1/4 tsp. cumin
salt and pepper to taste
A few leaves of cilantro or parsley

Method:
Dump everything into a blender, and blend. Alter to taste.

Recipe Review: Post-Party

Last night I had a small gathering at boyfriend's place for my birthday.  I decided to ask everyone to bring wine or food, while I supplied wine and food as well.  I was pretty impressed with the new recipes I tried.

I made my usual stuffed mushrooms and the toffee filled brownies I made for the superbowl party, but I also made a Paula Deen shrimp crostini recipe.   Now if there is one recipe I can recommend as an appetizer, this is it!  It is beautiful, simple, and delicious!  Make it now!
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/shrimp-crostini-recipe2/index.html

22 people in a tiny apartment despite tons of last minute cancellations = warm fratty party, but still fun thanks to tons of leftover bottles of wine.  One friend brought a delicious apple cake, another brought red velvet cupcakes, one brought spinach dip, another artichoke parmesan dip and spanakopita, and another brought brie.

Stuffed Mushrooms

Sometimes it's fun not eating meat.  You get to be creative with vegetables, and last night was one of those meat-free dinner nights.

I decided to make some stuffed mushrooms served with my favorite Trader Joe's pre-packed salad, and their olive rosemary bread.

I usually make stuffed mushrooms using small white mushrooms, but I had some portabello stuffing mushrooms and adapted my usual recipe for the larger, meatier mushroom.

And this is what came out

Most mushroom recipes start with washing the mushroom, taking out the stems and chopping them up, then spooning and throwing out the remaining black gills.

After chopping up the stems, I added some chopped up marinated artichoke hearts, a couple of jalapenos, and mixed them up in a hot pan drizzled with olive oil.  While cooking up the base, I (ok, not me but my sous chef/boyfriend) oiled, salted, and peppered the mushroom caps and put them in a 375 degree oven for 5 minutes (this is not necessary for smaller mushrooms).

Once my mushroom mix looked cooked, I added some Italian breadcrumbs, cayenne pepper, black pepper, onion and garlic powders, parmesan cheese, and some more Italian seasonings until it was mixed together and ready to be stuffed into the caps.  Once the caps were stuffed, they went into the oven for another 20 minutes, and voila! Stuffed mushrooms!

Here's another photo for good measure

Halloween Treats

So my friend Brian is having a Halloween party tomorrow night.  I thought instead of bringing a boring bottle of wine or some store-bought cookies, I'd make some treats.   So I'm currently in the process of making one sweet, and one savory snack.

The first is Amy Sedaris's Lil' Smoky cheese ball.  I'm going to decorate it so that it looks like a spider.  Here is the recipe http://www.amysedarisrocks.com/recipes.htm#cheeseball

I'm also making chocolate dipped cheesecake pops, sans crust.  It was all the rage last year during the Daring Bakers Challenge all over the internet.  It's basically just cheesecake balls on sticks dipped in melted chocolate and sprinkles, and then cooled.  I'm actually done making these, but they're freezing at the moment.  Pics tomorrow.