Crabby English Muffins

Crabby English Muffins
From Tera's Grandma Arlene

For the first 15 or 20 years of my life, virtually every Easter and Thanksgiving was spent at my Grandma's house.  According to family lore, if you wanted to chat with young me, your best chance was to find me at the appetizer table, which was really the pool table in my Grandma's basement.  Thank goodness we used something as big as a pool table, because our family knows how to rock appetizers.  These are a family classic, and although my Grandma isn't responsible for cooking the whole meal these days, we can always count on her famous crab English muffins.

This year, with our big NYE party just around the corner, I finally thought to ask for the recipe.  I called up my Grandma requesting that she email it to me, and to my surprise she said she has it memorized and can just tell me over the phone.  Well, now that I know what's in this mystical delight, I can see what she meant.  It's pretty much equal parts butter, Velveeta, and fake crab meat.  It might not sound gourmet, but boy oh boy do they fly off the platter, and what more can you ask for in an appetizer!


Ingredients

• 1 stick butter
• 1/2 lb Velveeta
• 8 oz imitation crab meat, also known as surimi (it's in the refrigerated case, probably near sausages - it's a compilation of white fish, flavored and dyed to look like crab, and while that description sounds gross, just go with it)
• 6 English muffins

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Place butter and Velveeta in a microwave safe bowl and microwave, stirring every 30 seconds, until melted.
3. Pull crab meat apart into smaller shreds, using forks or your hands (hands is way faster).
4. Mix crab meat into butter and Velveeta.
5. Split English muffins into 12 halves.
6. Divide crab mixture across muffin halves.  If you want to make them in advance, you can put them in the fridge at this point and bake when you need them.
7. Bake for 20 minutes, or until brown on top.
8. Cut each muffin into 4 pieces.

Makes 48 pieces which will be quickly devoured, even after you admit that the only ingredients are butter, Velveeta, and fake crab.

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Bacon Wrapped Dates

Bacon Wrapped Dates
From the Honeymoon Kitchen

How good are bacon wrapped dates?  I'll be the first to admit they've become slightly overdone, but I'm still not sick of them.  We order them at tapas restaurants, gobble them down at other people's parties, and serve them at quite a few of our own.  And the other night, we made them for dinner.  Yes, you read that correctly.  They were our dinner.  As in the entree.  As I mentioned the other day, we received a plethora of olive oils as Christmas gifts, and decided to replace our dinner one night with an elaborate olive oil tasting.  But since even we couldn't justify bread and oil as dinner, we added an appetizer to make ourselves feel better...yes, we have our own brand of logic in the HMK.  Which is precisely what I love about it!


Ingredients

• 12 Medjool dates (I know they're expensive, but they really should be Medjool - they're super meaty and sweet and perfect for this dish)
• 12 whole, unsalted almonds
• 6 slices bacon
• 1 jar red pepper jelly (probably available near all the other jelly flavors)

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Use a paring knife to slice a slit in each date.
3. Reach into the date, being careful not to tear it open more than necessary, and pull out the pit.
4. Replace each pit with an almond, and squeeze the date shut.
5. Cut bacon slices in half to form 12 shorter slices.
6. Wrap each date with a half slice of bacon and place on a baking sheet, seam down.
7. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes, or until bacon appears crispy.
8. While dates are cooking, warm the jelly in a small sauce pan over low heat until thin enough to pour onto a platter.
9. To serve, pour jelly onto a platter and place dates on top of jelly.

Makes 12 pieces.

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Caesar Salad Deviled Eggs

Caesar Salad Deviled Eggs

From Smitten Kitchen 


As I'm sure everyone knows, last night was the epic basketball match up of Western Illinois University versus University of Illinois at Chicago.  What's that?  You didn't watch???  You didn't even know it took place?  Well by golly, you missed a heck of a game!  John, my parents and I were lucky enough to procure 10th row seats thanks to my dad's active membership in the WIU alumni association.  Since my parents are WIU alums, my dad is also a UIC alum, I am currently a grad student at UIC, and John has the honor of paying for my UIC tuition, this was clearly a very meaningful game to us.  So much so that we left with 2 minutes remaining and missed UIC's come-from-behind victory in the last second.  Woops.


Ok, so the game wasn't the highlight of the evening, but it did give us an excuse to get together and have a few drinks.  And since those drinks took place at our house, it FINALLY gave me a reason to cook something!  Last time I served deviled eggs was at my book club, and I was stunned to discover that a lot of people don't eat deviled eggs or are scared to try one.  Since they're a bit of work to do, I've been hesitant to make them again lest they go to waste.  But with just my parents and John I was sure they'd be a hit, so I whipped up a batch.  And since John's all time favorite salad is Caesar, they were enough to ensure a speedy departure from work to make sure he got a few before we left for the game.


Ingredients

• 6 eggs
• 3 Tbsp mayonnaise
• 2 tsp Dijon mustard
• 1/4 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1/2 tsp lemon juice
• salt, to taste
• pepper, to taste
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 1/2 tsp anchovy paste (original recipe called for 1 anchovy, minced, but paste was all I had on hand)
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1/4 cup panko break crumbs
• 2 Tbsp Parmesan cheese (obviously fresh is ideal, but I used the green can and it was perfectly fine)

Preparation

1. Boil the eggs.  I put the eggs in a pot, covered with cold water.  Brought to a boil.  Removed from heat and let sit, covered, for 10 minutes.  Immediately place in an ice bath for at least 5 minutes.  This makes very pretty, but somewhat tender hard boiled eggs, so take care when slicing and scooping the yolks.
2. Peel eggs.
3. Slice eggs in half, long ways.  If you don't have a deviled egg platter, slice slivers from each side to create a bottom for them to sit on.
4. Scoop egg yolks into the bowl of a small food processor or small bowl.  Set whites aside.
5. Add mayo, mustard, Worcestershire, and lemon juice to the yolks.  Mix in food processor or by hand until creamy.
6. Season with salt and pepper, to taste, stirring and tasting to check flavor.
7. Spoon yolks back into whites, or pipe them in with a pastry bag.
8. Heat olive oil in a small skillet over medium-low heat.
9. Add anchovy and garlic to olive oil and cook, stirring constantly, for about one minute or until anchovy dissolves into oil.
10. Add panko and saute until golden, about 2-3 minutes.
11. Stir in Parmesan cheese.
12. Sprinkle panko mixture over eggs and serve.

Makes 12 pieces.

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Cranberry Dip

Cranberry Dip
From the Honeymoon Kitchen

Brace yourselves folks, eating season has officially arrived.  From about November 15th through January 2nd the honeymoon kitchen turns into a lean, mean, holiday food making machine.  Well, maybe not so lean...

Right now we're in the throes of Thanksgiving prep, which means testing out potential recipes to contribute to the big family dinner next week.  We're somewhat neurotic when it comes to finding the perfect recipe, and we always test things out before serving them to the masses.  This usually results in a lot of weird dip-for-dinner, veggies-for-breakfast type meals, but we can't complain.

This particular dip was inspired by a Whole Foods cranberry dip and it's certainly pretty enough for any holiday spread.  The only problem with it is that I couldn't figure out when to serve it.  It's delicious but a little too sweet for an appetizer to a big dinner.  I think it could be perfect for a holiday cocktail gathering, but alas, we don't have any such event on the calendar this year.  Oh well, it made for a decadant dinner and a number of fantastic afternoon snacks!


Ingredients

• 2 tsp vegetable oil
• 1 sweet onion, diced
• 1 tsp + 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 cup fresh or frozen cranberries
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 8 oz cream cheese, room temperature
• 4 oz goat cheese, room temperature
• 1/2 tsp orange zest
• 1/4 cup orange juice
• 1/4 cup slivered almonds, toasted (you may notice a variety of nuts in the pic because we were experimenting - trust me, go with almonds, they were the winner by far)

Preparation

1. Heat vegetable oil in a skillet over medium heat.
2. Add diced onions.  Saute, stirring often, until onions are softened.
3. Add 1 tsp sugar and mix well. Cook until onions are caramelized, stirring often, about 10 minutes.
4. Remove onions from skillet and set aside.
5. Add cranberries, water, and 1/4 cup sugar, stirring to dissolve sugar.  Cook until cranberries are softened, periodically smushing them with a wooden spoon, about 7 minutes or until mixture thickens.
6. Add balsamic vinegar and caramelized onions.  Stir to combine.
7. Chill cranberry topping at least 1 hour.
8. Meanwhile, mix cream cheese, goat cheese, orange zest, and orange juice together with a hand mixer.
9. Spread cheese mixture in the bottom of a serving dish.  Top with chilled cranberry mixture and slivered almonds.
10. Serve immediately or chill up to 3 days.  (I thought it got better after a night in the fridge.)

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Caprese Bruschetta

Caprese Bruschetta
From Giada De Laurentiis

One of the nice things about living 30 miles away from your parents is you can get together fairly often, yet infrequently enough to make a special occasion of it.  For example, last weekend we had John's parents over for dinner, which seemed like the perfect excuse to use our new place settings and put together a festive table.

We always take menu planning pretty seriously, but the advent of the blog has definitely changed the game a little.  John's mom put in a special request for the bacon kale, which we were happy to fulfill.  We've also been looking for a reason to serve our papaya soup, so we started with those two items and built the menu from there.  The plan was to keep appetizers simple and just buy store bought bruschetta topping and a loaf of French bread to toast up.  However, John was feeling inspired and came across this simple recipe from Giada De Laurentiis.  He whipped up the topping that afternoon and then we toasted the bread and topped them right before serving.  It turned out to be totally worth the incremental effort for these fresh and delicious treats!  And, bonus, we had a little extra topping and mozzerella, which made for awesome caprese paninis the next day!


Ingredients

• 1 (32 oz) can whole tomatoes, drained
• 1 cup fresh basil, plus extra for garnish
• 4 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 3 garlic cloves
• salt, to taste
• pepper, to taste
• 2 French baguettes, cut into 1 inch slices (~36 slices)
• 1 1/2 lbs mozzarella cheese, cut into 1/4 inch slices

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Place tomatoes, 1 cup basil, olive oil and garlic in the bowl of a food processor.  Pulse until smooth with some chunks.
3. Place bread slices in a single layer on a baking sheet.  Bake for 3 minutes until light golden brown.
4. Place a slice of mozzarella on each piece of bread and return to oven for 1 minute, or until cheese starts to melt.
5. Top each piece with a tablespoon of the tomato mixture and a few strips of basil.

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Grilled Chicken Wings 3 Ways

 

Grilled Chicken Wings 3 Ways
From Ribs, Chops, Steaks & Wings by Ray "Dr. BBQ" Lampe

 

A couple weeks ago we enjoyed a lazy Sunday barbecue at our friends' house in the suburbs.  We were there to watch the Bears game, but since they let us down (as usual), the focus turned towards food.  Our chorizo bean dip was a hit, but the real star of the show was the grilled chicken wings made by our lovely hosts.

 

The next weekend we stayed home for the game, but we just had to have more of those wings!  We found a recipe for wing rub in a grilling cookbook we got as a wedding gift.  Then we saw that the book had a whole chapter dedicated to wing sauces, so we decided to take it up a notch.

 

All three of these versions turn out amazing and prove that deep frying ala your favorite sports bar is totally unnecessary for a crispy skin.  They all start with the same rub and grilling process.  Then one third is served as is, just rubbed and grilled.  Another third is tossed in a buffalo sauce, and the remaining third gets honey-BBQ sauce.  Of course, you can make all the wings to have one or two of these sauces, but we thought having all three was more fun.

 

Ingredients

 

Ribs

• about 20 whole, fresh chicken wings (they're weird looking if you're expecting what you see at the bar - see step 1 for cutting them down)

Rub

• 1 Tbsp salt
• 1 Tbsp sugar
• 1 Tbsp garlic powder
• 1 Tbsp onion powder
• 1 Tbsp paprika
• 1 tsp chili powder
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 1/2 tsp lemon pepper
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

Hot Wing Sauce

• 1/4 cup butter
• 3/4 cup Frank's Red Hot Sauce (other brands would do, I guess, but Frank's really has that classic hot wing flavor)

Barbeque Wing Sauce

• 1 cup barbecue sauce (we're partial to Sweet Baby Ray's, but use what you like)
• 1/4 cup honey 

Preparation

1. Use scissors or a sharp knife to cut each wing into three parts.  One end turns into the little drumstick, the middle turns into the rectangle shaped one, and the pointy tip end is garbage (we accidentally left it on, so you may notice it in the pic - we just ate around it).  I recommend You Tube if that made no sense, but if you order wings at bars a lot just take a second to look at the wing and I think you'll see the familiar parts.
2. Mix salt, sugar, and next 8 ingredients (through cayenne pepper) together in a small bowl.
3. Rub the spice mixture over each wing.  Allow wings to rest for at least 15 minutes, and up to 4 hours.
4. Heat grill to medium.
5. Grill wings for about 25 minutes, turning often.  They are done when they are nicely browned and the juices run clear.
6. For dry-rubbed wings, serve as is.
7. For hot wings, melt butter in a small sauce pan.  Stir in hot sauce.  Toss grilled wings in sauce.
8. For barbecue wings, warm barbecue sauce and honey in a small sauce pan over low heat.  Toss grilled wings in sauce.

Serves 40 wing pieces.

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Chorizo Bean Dip

 

Chorizo Bean Dip
From Cooking Light 

 

We've got one last surprise entry from the book club extravaganza.  I call it a surprise because it was too busy getting its groove on in the oven to make the teaser picture I posted last week.  On top of that, the book club version was made following the Cooking Light recipe verbatim.  It was devoured at book club and we thought about posting it as is, but we had a hunch we could make it even better.

 

So we scrambled to find a reason to test out the improved recipe before I moved on from my series of book club posts.  Just as we were about to resign ourselves to a bean dip dinner for two on Friday night, opportunity came a knockin' in the form of a Bears game cook out.  The main change was swapping out Spanish chorizo for the raw, crumbled Mexican variety.  It makes for a much smoother texture and adds smokey chrorizo flavor to every bite.  Enjoy!

 

Ingredients

• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 4 oz Mexican chorizo (it comes raw in a tube and you can squeeze it out and cook it kind of like ground beef)
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 Serrano peppers, or any fun hot pepper you want to try out, chopped (we removed about half the seeds, this depends on your chili and your preference for heat)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp ground cumin
• 1/4 tsp ground red pepper
• 5 garlic cloves, smashed and minced
• 3/4 cup chicken broth
• 2 (15 oz) cans black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 large tomato, seeded and chopped
• 3/4 cup Mexican cheese blend (we used reduced fat)

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Heat oil in a large saute pan over medium-high heat.  Add chorizo crumbles, breaking up with a wooden spoon.  Saute for about 5-7 minutes or until cooked, stiring occasionally.  Remove chorizo from pan, set aside.
3. Using the same pan over medium-high heat, add onion and jalapeno to chorizo drippings.  Saute 4 minutes, stirring occasionally.
4. Add salt, cumin, red pepper and garlic.  Saute 1 minute, stirring constantly.
5. Stir in broth and beans and bring to a boil.  Cook 5 minutes.  Remove from heat.
6. Mash beans using a potato masher.  Stir in reserved chorizo.
7. Spread bean mixture in an 8x8 baking dish, coated with cooking spray.  Top beans with tomatoes and cheese.
8. Bake for 20 minutes, or until cheese is melty and starting to brown.

Serves 6 (1/2 cup servings).

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Deviled Eggs

 

Deviled Eggs
From Ezra Pound Cake 

 

Next up from the book club menu is deviled eggs.  I love deviled eggs, but have never attempted making them myself before.  And I have to admit, I may have over committed myself on this one.  Deviled eggs pretty much have to be made right before the party, since the yolk center gets kind of crusty if it sits around too long.  This isn't the end of the world for, say, a Saturday party, but for a Tuesday at 7pm shindig...boy was I like a chicken with my head cut off.  I had boiled the eggs before leaving in the morning, but when I got home at 6 I still had to peel them, scoop them, blend up the filling, and re-fill them.  This is normally where my sous chef/husband comes into play, but as I mentioned in my Salted Toffee Squares post, he had wisely fled town before book club.  I had the best intentions to pipe the filling back into the eggs like the lovely Rebecca Crump did...but at 6:45 that really wasn't in the cards.  So spoon plopping it was.  Actually, with a sprinkling of chives I don't think they looked too shabby after all.

 

Ingredients

• 12 large eggs, preferably not too fresh, for easier peeling
• 1/3 cup mayonnaise (I used the canola kind)
• 2 Tbsp unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 Tbsp Dijon mustard
• 1/2 tsp cayanne pepper
• coarse salt & freshly ground pepper
• 2 Tbsp finely chopped chives, plus more for garnish

Preparation

1. Place eggs in a single layer in a saucepan and fill with enough water to cover the eggs by about 2 inches.
2. Bring pot to a gentle boil, then immediately remove from heat and cover.
3. Allow eggs to sit, covered, for about 18 minutes.
4. Place eggs in an ice water bath for about 5-10 minutes.
5. Peel eggs immediately, or place in the fridge for later peeling.  FYI, peeling 12 eggs is a pain.  Eventually I came up with this decent strategy: crack the egg on the top and bottom, and then all around by rolling on the counter.  Start chipping off the shell at the fat end, and make a little chipped off tunnel up to the skinny end.  Then, using the side of your thumb, try pulling off larger sections as you work around the circumference of the egg.
6. Slice eggs in half long ways (hot dog style, if you remember paper folding guidelines from grade school).  Slice little slivers off what will be the bottom of each egg, to help them sit still on the platter.
7. Gently scoop out yolks with a spoon.
8. Using a food processor or blender, combine yolks, mayonnaise, butter, Dijon, cayanne, and salt & pepper taste.  Mix until very smooth and creamy.
9. Add chives and mix just until combined.
10. Using a pastry piping bag or a zip lock baggie with the corner cut off, pipe filling back into egg whites.  Or, if you're me, plop it back in with a spoon...
11. Sprinkle chives over eggs.

Makes 24 egg halves.

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Bacon Blue Cheese Guacamole

 

Bacon Blue Cheese Guacamole
Adapted from The Best Thing I Ever Ate, on Food Network

 

Yes, you read that right.  And yes, it's awesome.  Unless, of course, you hate blue cheese, as does my roommate (that's what I choose to call him when he makes poor life decisions such as this).  But no worries, that just means more for me and the other sane people out there!

 

I made this gem for our big Labor Day BBQ and it was a huge hit.  People tended to take one bite, shoot me a quizzical look, and then exclaim "Oh my God, is there BACON in this?!?"  And then dive back in for more...

 

Ingredients

• 4 ripe avocados, pitted and mashed
• 1/4 cup red onion, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, smashed and minced
• 2 large Roma tomatoes, seeded and chopped
• 2 jalapenos, chopped (seeds in if you like extra heat - we do!)
• 3 Tbsp fresh cilantro, chopped
• 6 strips bacon, cooked until crispy and chopped into bits
• 1 1/2 tsp paprika
• salt and pepper, to taste
• juice of 2 limes
• 1/4 cup blue cheese
• 1 tsp fresh sage, finely chopped

Preparation

1. Mix all ingredients together.  (If you want to get some extra prep work done the night before, you can chop and mix everything except the avocados and store it in a bowl over night.  Then right before serving, add the avocados and possibly extra salt and pepper.)

Serves a crowd of blue cheese loving guac enthusiasts!

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