Family game day – a great excuse to make some awesome party food

This afternoon our family started what hopefully will become a Labor Day tradition. Everyone gathered at our house for a fun game of Formula D, a racing themed board game. Although the game was fun, I have to admit that my favorite part of the day was making a ton of party food for the occasion. I really like to make appetizers, but we rarely entertain, so I don’t do it often.

When we decided to do this, I started looking online for inspiration to plan my menu, and I quickly came upon something I had seen in a magazine a few months ago, mini candy apples. I was afraid it would be difficult to scoop out apple pieces with a melon baller, but it was super simple. The end result was just about the cutest thing I’ve ever made in my kitchen, and since there were none left at the end of the afternoon, I guess they were pretty tasty, too!

I made a recipe I saw online a couple of weeks ago, baked cheese olives, along with buffalo chicken dip, bruschetta and mini pulled pork sandwiches. I served a few other things that I bought in the frozen section of Kroger, and they were all pretty good, too. Frozen jalapeno poppers, queso and potato skins were an easy addition to my party food buffet. An olive tray, pickles and peppers and some fresh fruit rounded out the selections.

Here are a few of the recipes from our first family game day:

Mini candy apples

Granny Smith apples
chocolate, peanut butter or butterscotch chips
sprinkles or chopped nuts
lollipop sticks
small paper candy cups

Cut the lollipop sticks in half and set out candy cups on a serving tray. Using a melon baller, scoop balls out of the apples. Push half of a lollipop stick into each apple ball, with a section of the apple peel on top. Pat the apples dry while melting chocolate, peanut butter or butterscotch chips. Quickly dip and swirl the apple balls into the melted chips, leaving the apple skin exposed. Then dip in sprinkles or nuts. Place in candy cups to set. Refrigerate for at least 10 minutes to harden candy coating.

Baked cheese olives

1/2 cup butter
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
1 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon hot pepper sauce 
40 large green olives, with pimento

In a medium-size bowl, cream butter. Mix in flour, cheese, paprika, cumin, and hot sauce. Cover bowl and refrigerate at least an hour (can be made ahead a day ahead).

Dry olives on paper towels. With a ball of cheese mixture that is close in size to the olive, flatten the cheese mixture in your palm, plop the olive in the center, work the mixture up around the olive, and then very gently roll it around between your palms. Make sure the cheese mixture completely seals in the olive. Repeat with remaining olives.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Place olives on a baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes. Serve at room temperature to slightly warm.

Buffalo chicken dip

1 (8 oz.) pkg. cream cheese, softened
2 (9.75 oz.) cans chunk chicken breast, drained and crumbled
1/2 c. buffalo wing sauce (we prefer Louisiana brand)
1/2 c. ranch dressing
1/2 c. shredded mozzarella cheese

Combine all ingredients in a microwave safe dish. Microwave on high for 3 minutes and stir. Continue to microwave at 2 minute intervals and stir until cheeses are completely melted. Serve warm with chips or crackers.

Our first “International Night” – the full English breakfast

During the lazy days of summer I come up with a lot of brilliant ideas. Most of these ideas never materialize once I get back to work in the fall, but ones involving food somehow seem to have the best chance of survival! International Night came about when I was looking at an online forum back in the early part of the summer. I’ll admit that I blatantly stole the idea from some creative poster who was planning on making a meal from a different country one night each week for her family. I thought that sounded pretty cool, so I put the concept in the back of my mind to try sometime. This week I finally started what I plan to be a family tradition with food, facts and fun stuff from merry old England!

When I asked my oldest son what he wanted to be our first country for International Night, he quickly responded with Germany. After a little online research I decided to prepare sauerbraten as the main course. However, since I only decided to do this on Tuesday of this week and all the recipes I found required three days of marinating, German night had to be postponed until next week. In an effort to find a quick substitute, I came across the full English breakfast.

I’ve eaten at some British themed restaurants, but I’ve never heard of this delicacy. I’m familiar with fish and chips, shepherd’s pie, bangers and mash and other well known British culinary fare, but the full English breakfast (or full Monty as some seem to call it) has eluded me all these years. If you can’t tell from the picture above, it consists of fried eggs, bacon, sausage, grilled tomatoes and mushrooms, toast and baked beans. Apparently another item often served with it is a slice of fried black pudding. I’m pretty sure you can’t find black pudding in our area, but even if it I could have found it, I doubt I would have included it because I think that would have been a little more than we could handle! We tried to remain true to the British classic, but I think they serve their fried eggs considerably softer cooked than we like ours.

To go along with our night of all things British, we watched Monty Python and the Holy Grail. I’ve been waiting for the right time to introduce my 12 year-old son to the finer things like Monty Python, and this was the perfect opportunity. I also printed some information about British cuisine for him to read. His current career goal is to become a chef, so International Night could be more than just a tasty meal for him each week!

I plan to post each week’s International Night along with the recipes for the meal. However, this week there really isn’t a recipe. I just fried up some bacon and sausage and then fried the eggs in the same pan. I cooked the tomatoes and mushrooms in another skillet for a few minutes, toasted some bread and heated up a can of pork and beans on the stove. I was a very filling meal, even though we ate it for dinner instead of breakfast.

Summer salad series – spicy Thai beef salad

Until last year, I had never had Thai food. A small Thai restaurant opened nearby, and ever since my first visit for our anniversary last summer, I’ve been hooked on the stuff. Everything I’ve tried there has been wonderful, but one dish in particular has become my absolute favorite, the spicy beef salad. I find myself thinking about the flavorful mix of beef, cucumbers, mint and cilantro quite often, and as a bonus, it’s not covered with a heavy sauce or anything else that would make it taboo for my Weight Watchers plan.

This weekend I was thinking how wonderful it would be to have a bowl of lemongrass soup followed by the succulent spicy beef salad. However, I had my three year-old son with me, and I decided it would be best to forgo the trip. The Thai restaurant is a beautifully decorated, quaint space that I feel is not exactly kid friendly. Some people might feel comfortable bringing toddlers to such a place, but I feared my son might act up. I certainly didn’t want to expose myself to any situation where I wouldn’t feel like I could go back there frequently, so we went to another restaurant instead. For the record, I think it’s great that there are restaurants that aren’t appropriate for young kids, so I’m not complaining. My 11 year-old loves it there, but he is old enough to sit still and enjoy his meal while speaking at an acceptable volume.

Unfortunately, though, my craving for spicy beef salad did not subside, so I decided to pick up some things when I went grocery shopping later to try to make it at home. I knew what the main ingredients were, and I guessed at the rest. When I got home, I looked up some different versions of the dish online and adapted mine according to my own personal taste. I was extremely pleased with the results, but I still plan on frequenting Sai Thai Cuisine whenever possible. Let me just say that I made my version extremely spicy because of my husband’s love of hot food. Feel free to tone down the heat. It will still be awesome. There are some very strong flavors in this dish, but give it a chance.

Here is my version of spicy Thai beef salad:

1 lb.-1 1/2 lb. flank steak
1/2 c. soy sauce
1/2 c. red wine vinegar
6 c. leaf lettuce, torn
1/2 c. fresh mint leaves, torn
1/2 c. fresh cilantro leaves, torn
1/2 tsp. dried basil
1/2-1 tsp. dried red pepper
4 green onions, finely chopped
1 cucumber, peeled and sliced
juice of 3 limes
1 T. vegetable oil or sesame oil
2 T. soy sauce or fish sauce
1/2 tsp. sugar or Splenda

Marinate flank steak in 1/2 c. soy sauce and red wine vinegar for several hours or overnight. Grill or broil over medium heat, 5 to 10 minutes on each side until medium or medium rare, depending on preference. This step can be done a day ahead and flank steak refrigerated, if desired.

Combine lime juice, oil, 2 T. soy sauce and sugar or Splenda in a large bowl and stir until sugar is dissolved. Add mint, cilantro, basil, pepper, onions and cucumber and mix well. Refrigerate 30 minutes if possible to help combine flavors. Thinly slice beef and reheat in a skillet if necessary. Just before serving, add lettuce to salad mixture and mix well. Serve salad mixture with beef and steamed white rice, if desired. Pour any remaining dressing over beef.  Garnish with some additional sliced cucumber, if desired.

Spicy ranch squash

At about 3 pm this afternoon, I decided I wanted to grill some stuff for dinner. After a quick trip to the grocery store, I came home and started prepping. Even though I don’t like squash, my husband loves it. I’ve made several impromptu variations of a spicy baked or grilled squash dish for him over the years, but this time I decided to add a little twist. After spying a folded over, half used packet of ranch dressing mix in my cabinets, I thought it would be a good addition to the squash. This was one of my classic “thrown together” dishes that turned out to be a keeper, according to my husband and son. They both confirmed that it was very good since I’m not a fan of squash. I may try it with some other veggies at some point, though. We put the casserole dish on the grill tonight, but it would work fine in the oven. One of my favorite things about it is that it can be mixed and cooked in one dish! Here is my brand new creation, spicy ranch squash:

2 to 3 yellow squash, thinly sliced
1/2 medium onion, chopped
1 T. olive oil
2 T. dry ranch dressing mix
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. ground red pepper
1 tsp. hot sauce
salt and pepper to taste

Spray baking dish with nonstick cooking spray. Place squash and onion in dish and drizzle with olive oil. Add remaining ingredients, and stir until squash is evenly coated. Cook on grill or in oven until squash is tender. Serve immediately.

Sunday supper – roast pork tenderloin

In case anybody’s wondering why I haven’t posted recently, I do have an explanation. My family and I got back on Thursday from a trip to Florida, so I wasn’t around to blog about food that I prepared. While at Disney World, we ate at a wonderful restaurant called Biergarten, which is located in the Germany pavilion of Epcot. There were several tasty pork dishes on the buffet there, so I decided to try to replicate their roast pork at home for my family’s dinner tonight. The result wasn’t quite like the roast pork we had at Biergarten, but it was good nonetheless.

I started with a pork tenderloin because they are very lean, and I’m trying to get back on track with my Weight Watchers program after a week of eating too much. After browning it with some spices, I roasted it in the oven with some Worcestershire sauce and onions. I had intended to make a red wine based sauce to serve with it like the one we had in Epcot, but I didn’t have any red wine on hand. With it being Sunday afternoon, I would have had to head to the state line to pick up a bottle of wine, so I decided to make due with what I had on hand. It turned out pretty good, but I still wish I could be in Epcot to have the roast pork at Biergarten!

Here is my variation of roast pork tenderloin with mushroom sauce:

2.5-3 lb. pork tenderloins
3 T. olive oil
1 onion, sliced
4 T. Montreal steak seasoning
1 tsp. garlic salt
2 T. Worcestershire sauce
2 lb. fresh mushrooms, sliced
1 T. minced garlic
2 pkg. brown gravy
1 pkg. onion soup mix
3 c. water

Preheat oven to 350º. Sprinkle pork tenderloin pieces with 2 T. steak seasoning and garlic salt. Heat 2 T. olive oil on medium high heat in a large skillet. Add pork tenderloins and brown on all sides. After browning, place tenderloins in a roasting pan with Worcestershire sauce and half of the sliced onion. Cover and roast in preheated oven until a meat thermometer registers 165º.

Meanwhile, in the same skillet that you browned the pork tenderloins heat the remaining olive oil and minced garlic over medium heat. Add the remaining onion, mushrooms and 2 T. steak seasoning. Saute until the onions and mushrooms are tender. Whisk together the water, gravy mix and soup mix and add to the onions and mushrooms. Heat to boiling, then reduce heat and cook until thickened.

Serve sauce over sliced pork tenderloin. It is also good served over rice or mashed potatoes.

July 4th Fare

First I want to apologize for the fact that I have no pictures to accompany my recipes today. We were in a mad rush to get out the door to our family gathering, and I just didn’t have time to snap any photos. A couple of the things I made turned out really good, though, so I wanted to share the recipes even without the pictures. If after heating up the leftovers they still look good, I’ll add some images later.

Since my husband and I married four years ago, I’ve become a part of his family tradition on the 4th of July. They rent a clubhouse at a youth camp in the woods (and I do mean in the woods – like “Bigfoot sighting” woods), and lots of family and extended family gather each year for lunch and swimming for the kids afterward. After four years, I still don’t know a lot of the people there, but maybe I’ll eventually learn everyone’s names.

Growing up my family was never big on 4th of July celebrations or extended family gatherings, so this has all been new to me. We really never did much of anything special on July 4, probably because for years my dad was working. With this new tradition in my life comes a new challenge to find food to prepare each year. I don’t like to bring the same things to a gathering every year, so I start scouring cookbooks and the internet for ideas on what to bring, just like I do at Thanksgiving and Christmas. This usually works out well, but the first year I went to this event, I apparently made a strawberry dessert that a couple of people there really liked. I have absolutely no idea what it was or where I found the recipe, but I’m usually reminded of how good it was and how I should make it again. At least now with this blog I’ll have a record of what I brought each year!

I decided this year to make some grilled chicken legs since they are a good choice for our Weight Watchers plan. After marinating the legs overnight, my husband grilled them, and they were quite good. I also made some pinto beans and potato salad that I adapted slightly from recipes I found online. The big hit of the day, however, was a dish that I decided to throw together at the last minute, crab and shrimp stuffed jalapeno popppers. A couple of years ago we made some grilled jalapeno poppers that basically consisted of stuffing shredded cheese in jalapenos and wrapping it with bacon. Those were good (according to the people who ate them), but in trying to keep the pepper intact, it was nearly impossible to deseed them completely. As a result, they were apparently very, very hot! For this variation, I just cut the peppers in half and stuffed each half separately before grilling. Even though I didn’t eat them, everybody else seemed to love them.

I hope everybody had a fun and safe holiday. Let me know if you try any of the recipes.

Here are the recipes that I prepared this Independence Day:

Seafood Stuffed Jalapeno Poppers

12-15 large jalapeno peppers
1 (8 oz.) pkg. cream cheese, softened
1 can crab or tiny shrimp, drained
1/2 c. shredded cheese
2 T. Old Bay seasoning or Emeril’s Essence
1 T. lemon juice
Paprika

Cut jalapeno peppers in half lengthwise. Remove seeds and veins completely. Combine cream cheese, crab or shrimp, cheese, seasoning and lemon juice. Place some of stuffing mixture in each pepper half. Sprinkle with paprika. Grill using indirect heat for 10-20 minutes. Serve immediately. Any type of shredded cheese will work with this recipe, just use your favorite.

Texas Style Pinto Beans (adapted from allrecipes.com)

1 pound dry pinto beans
1 (29 ounce) can chicken broth
1 large onion, chopped
1 fresh jalapeno pepper, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon cumin
salt and pepper to taste
water, if needed

Soak beans overnight, drain. Combine beans, chicken broth, onion, pepper, garlic, and spices in a large pot. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium-low, and continue cooking 2 hours, stirring often, until beans are tender. Add water as needed to keep the beans moist.

Grilled Chicken Legs

3 to 5 lb. chicken drumsticks
1/2 c. soy sauce
1/2 c. Worcestershire sauce
1/2 c. teriyaki sauce
Juice from 2 limes
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. red pepper flakes

Place chicken legs in a a gallon zip loc bag and add remaining ingredients. Shake to mix well. Refrigerate overnight to marinade. Preheat an outdoor grill for medium-low heat and lightly oil grate. Drain the marinade from the wings and discard. Cook chicken on the heated grill, turning occasionally, until juices run clear, 25 to 30 minutes.

Tex-Mex Potato Salad (adapted from kraftfoods.com)

5 cups red potatoes, unpeeled and cut into large pieces
2/3 cup  Light Miracle Whip
1 tsp. chili powder
1 tsp.  onion powder
salt and pepper to taste
1 can (11 oz.) whole kernel corn, drained
1 can  (4 oz.) chopped green chiles, undrained
1/2 cup chopped celery

Cook potatoes in boiling water 15 minutes or until tender. Drain and cool slightly. Combine Miracle Whip and remaining ingredients. Add potatoes and mix well. Refrigerate several hours or overnight before serving.

Summer salad series – cucumber-tomato salad

I want to first apologize for failing to post on here for over a week. I had my 20 year class reunion on June 27, and I was doing a lot of the planning for the event. As a result, I put things like cooking, cleaning, laundry, etc. on the backburner to focus on the task at hand. Since I didn’t do much cooking, I didn’t really have anything to blog about!

The reunion was a lot of fun, but as a result of my good time I gained 1.2 pounds at my weekly Weight Watchers weigh in yesterday. Since joining on June 1, I had lost 10 pounds, but now I’m back to just 8.8. After weighing in yesterday, I went grocery shopping at Sam’s, and of course, I was focused on buying stuff that would help get me back on my weight loss plan. I often buy tomatoes there because their on the vine campari tomatoes actually have a flavor and texture that resembles a “real” tomato, unlike most grocery store varieties. After putting some tomatoes in my cart, I noticed something else that looked appealing, a three pack of seedless cucumbers. I bought these as well with nothing in particular in mind for them. I suspected that they would also be more flavorful than the big waxy skinned cucumbers I usually find at the grocery store.

Last night I started to make dinner and decided to throw together a salad using my Sam’s veggie finds. This was truly one of those “create as you go” recipes, but it turned out great. As a bonus, it has zero points value for any of my fellow Weight Watchers! As I was eating it last night, I thought it would have been even better with some diced red onion, but I’ll try that next time. Here is the recipe as I first created it last night:

1 large cucumber, sliced
2 small or 1 large tomato, chopped
1 tsp. dried dill weed
1/4 tsp. celery seed
1/4 tsp. garlic powder
3 T. balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients and refrigerate at least 30 minutes before serving.

Skinny chicken soup – a last minute supper

The rotisserie chicken that was used in this soup gave it a great flavor. I bought the traditional flavor because I thought it would work best for a variety of dishes. I’ll be on the lookout for rotisserie chicken sales again!

As I mentioned in one of my first posts, I am the kind of cook that often just throws things together in a pot and hope it turns into something edible for my family. Most times it works out into a good meal for us, but other times we just begrudgingly eat it because that’s all there is to eat that night. Of course, with the “misses” I never worry about preparing it again, but an even bigger issue arises with the “hits.”

My husband frequently complains that when I make one of my creations that he likes, he never gets it again because I never remember what I put into things that I just make out of the contents of the pantry and freezer. I decided when I started this blog that it would, if nothing else, force me to actually write down the recipes I create on the spur of the moment.

Today I decided it would be a good night for a filling bowl of soup. Since I’m doing Weight Watchers, I also wanted it to be something that wouldn’t burn through my points too rapidly. I remembered that I still had a bag of chicken in my freezer that came from the rotisserie chicken sale I stumbled on at Wal-Mart last week. I decided that would be the basis for a hearty soup, so I started looking around to see what else I had. I discovered that I had a plethora of soup staples in my cabinets, so I went to work. As my toddler napped, I began watching a movie and making our dinner. By the time the movie ended, there was a simmering pot of soup on the stove, and my husband was walking in the door commenting on the appetizing aromas that filled the house.

Everybody gave tonight’s soup a thumbs up, so I decided to include it in the blog so I can share it with others and possibly make it again for my family. I counted each one cup serving as four Weight Watchers points. I think that’s pretty accurate, but I could be off a little.

2 c. chopped cooked chicken
1 32 oz. carton chicken broth
5 c. water
1 28 oz. can petite diced tomatoes
1 envelope onion soup mix
1 15 oz. can kidney beans
1 c. carrots, chopped
3 ribs celery, chopped
3 small potatoes, peeled and chopped
1/2 c. frozen corn kernels
1 tsp. minced garlic
1 tsp. Italian seasoning
salt and pepper to taste
4 oz. dry pasta

Combine all ingredients in a large pot. Cook over medium heat for 15 minutes, then reduce heat to simmer for at least 30 minutes, or until vegetables are almost done. Add pasta and cook until desired doneness.

Summer salad series – spicy crab salad

The second in my summer salad series is an example of how sometimes I just throw stuff together and hope something edible turns out as a result. In this case, my husband confirms that it is indeed not only edible but also quite tasty. He is my taste tester for this recipe because I don’t like crab or imitation crab.

My dad always liked crab salad prepared with imitation crab, mayonnaise, macaroni, peas and celery. After my mom died, I would occasionally make him up a batch of it, and he would eat on it for days. I was always really surprised that he liked that so well because he was definitely a “meat and potatoes” kind of guy. I seem to recall that the first time he had it was at a company Christmas party at a restaurant, and after that he had my mom make it for him every so often.

My husband, however, is not a fan of mayonnaise or Miracle Whip. He tolerates it in my chicken salad as long as I keep it very light. Since we’ve been trying to lose weight he likes to snack on imitation crab meat, so I thought I’d find a way to add a little variety in it for him. I had a few leftover fresh ingredients from my salsa and chicken salad that I needed to use, so I combined some of them with the crab for a delightful, light salad that is perfect to serve with crackers or on a bed of lettuce:

1-1 1/2 lb. pkg. imitation crab meat, flaked
1 lime
1/4 c. fresh cilantro, chopped
2 ribs celery, chopped
1 jalapeno, seeded and chopped
1/2 medium onion, finely chopped
1 T. white wine vinegar
2 tsp. light olive oil
1 tsp. minced garlic
1/4 tsp. celery seed
salt and pepper to taste

Squeeze the juice from the lime and pour over other ingredients. Stir well to combine. Refrigerate at least 1 hour before serving.

Summer salad series – lightened up chicken salad

Roasted chicken salad served in lettuce leaves.

I don’t think I tried chicken salad until I was in my 20’s. Tuna salad sandwiches were pretty common, and I even remember ham salad and egg salad sandwiches on occasion. However, chicken salad was never on our menu at home as far as I can remember. If we did have chicken salad, I probably wouldn’t have cared for it anyway, because I’m sure it would have been made with canned chunk chicken. With a few exceptions, I don’t care for canned chicken in recipes because of its weird, soft texture.

As I got older, I tried some good chicken salad, but I never tried to make any until I was giving a baby shower and needed something to put on croissants. It was around the time I first started exploring the internet, and one of the earliest sites that I fell in love with was allrecipes.com. I still have printouts of the chicken salad recipes I looked at and combined elements of to make my own recipe. I don’t make it very much, but it gets rave reviews every time. In fact, my chicken salad was one of the first meals I made for my husband when we were dating, and I think it was one of the big factors in him falling for me!

Usually I rub some olive oil, salt and pepper on a whole chicken, wrap it in foil and cook it in the oven or on the grill. After it cools, I skin and debone it to get all the meat off to use in the salad. However, I’ve discovered a wonderful shortcut that results in an even more flavorful salad. When I was in Wal-Mart last night, the rotisserie chickens were on sale for $2.98, much less than a whole raw chicken. I bought the traditional flavor, but I think any flavor other than barbecue would be great. I bought two chickens and used half the meat for the salad and put the rest in the freezer. It was a much quicker way to make the salad, and I will no doubt look for rotisserie chicken sales again.

I usually put a combination of celery, grapes and sunflower seed kernels in my chicken salad, but I modified the recipe this time because I’m currently doing Weight Watchers. I left out the sunflower seeds and added mandarin oranges instead. It tasted great, but feel free to try it with the sunflower seeds if you’re not watching your fat intake. I think the most important ingredient (other than the chicken, of course) in it is dill. I absolutely love the taste of dill, and fresh dill is the best. Most of the time, however, I can’t find fresh dill at our local stores, so I just use dried instead. Another modification I made this time was to use light Miracle Whip and cut down the amount I use to around 1/2 cup. I didn’t miss the extra dressing one bit. It’s great to serve in a wrap, a sandwich or on lettuce leaves.

I served the chicken salad to my husband in a wrap with some pretzel sticks, sliced tomatoes and a pickle. A very filling yet low fat, low calorie meal for us Weight Watchers folks.

Here is my lightened up version of roasted chicken salad:

1 whole rotisserie chicken, skinned, deboned and chopped
1/2 c. chopped celery
1/2 c. light Miracle Whip
4 T. chopped fresh dill or 2 tsp. dried dill
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
salt and pepper to taste
1 c. red seedless grapes, halved
1 c. mandarin oranges

Combine chicken, celery, Miracle Whip, dill, garlic, salt and pepper in a large bowl. Stir to mix well. Fold in grapes and oranges. Refrigerate at least one hour before serving.