Goat cheese + bacon = love

I found out something rather shocking recently - not everyone loves goat cheese! Who knew? I made these goat cheese bacon appetizers for a party and I was really surprised to have leftovers! I had to use serious self restraint to not eat all of them before my party guests arrived.

You can find the recipe here. Unlike most recipes from thekitchn, it's not needlessly complicated and though it requires a few more dishes than I usually like, in a party food, that is acceptable. I made a batch and a half because goat cheese came in a 6 oz package, that might be why I had some leftovers. I also served them with some herbed crackers and crostini.

You'll notice mine aren't "pops." While I thought it was a super cute touch, I could not find the little sticks at my local grocery store, I'm sure you'd need to be a larger "suburban" grocery store or maybe a craft shop to find them. Anyway, I did not feel like nor have the time to go all over town looking for sticks.

Perfect, creamy hummus

I made the most amazing hummus earlier this week. Possibly the best I've ever had. The first few times I made hummus I was always disappointed, it just wasn't creamy enough. Even after I bought my food processor, which significantly improved the hummus making process, let me tell you, I still found it to be lackluster. Until last week, I read a tip to heat up your chickpeas when making hummus to get them to blend smoother and I thought I'd give it a try.

Results? Amazing! I heated my chickpeas up in the microwave for 20-30 seconds before putting them in the food processor and the difference was like night and day. The hummus was almost frothy when I was blending it. You also want to use a small amount of the liquid from the can of chickpeas, this helps too, but not nearly as much as heating them up first.

I also put a fairly significant amount of paprika in this batch, which gave it a really nice spice profile.

Homemade hummus

Hummus is quite possibly the world's most perfect food. Yes, I've probably said that about something else if you look through all my past posts. I recently decided, somewhat randomly, that I was going to make homemade hummus. I knew some people who had done it and felt assured it was pretty easy. And that brings me to:
Challenge #1: Finding tahini. I live in a large metro area, there is all kinds of weird stuff that I never saw at a grocery store anywhere in Kansas sitting on the shelves. Could I find tahini? No. I looked in the international aisle, condiment aisle, next to the ready-made hummus to no avail. I called my friend in Kansas to find out where she buys hers and it was at her normal grocery store. No Middle Eastern market, no specialty health food store. I finally found it. They had one kind, in a little spot in the store. I talked to four different store employees until one of them even knew what tahini was!

Challenge #2: The missing blender
Ideally, you should make hummus in a food processor but I don't have one and I'm pretty sure if I did, I'd use it four times a year. Maybe. Many hummus recipes out there say you can also use a blender and I had one of those, or at least I used to. I have absolutely no idea where my blender is. I must have left it at the old apartment somehow, but no clue how. Congratulations, new tenant! You just got a really nice blender.However, I had already bought all the fixin's for hummus. I was on a mission. Enter the IKEA chopper. I recently had bough a vegetable chopper from IKEA but had yet to break it out. It was kind of an impulse buy. I put my hummus in the bottom of a square, flat dish (corning ware baking dish) and set to chopping. I thought it would more or less work to mush up the chickpeas and it more or less did, though the hummus wasn't as smooth as it normally would be.


Challenge #3: Too much tahini
I read a multitude of hummus recipes before making it and they were all about the same, varying a little in the details, according to tastes. I would suggest tinkering with it, to see what you like but I put a basic recipe below for starters. However, I challenge anyone who has ever claimed to measure tahini. It is impossible. It's very cement like at the bottom and all the oil is at the top (kind of like natural peanut butter), so you have to stir it up, which basically resulted in some tahini cement stuck to the bottom of my spoon. I have now attempted the hummus twice, and still no idea how anyone would ever mention this.

That being said, most of the recipes I read called for 2 Tb of tahini and that is a lot. Wow. The first batch of hummus I made was way too strong on the tahini. I would advise you to start with about 3/4 Tb and taste the results to see if you want more. With the proper equipment and tinkering, fresh hummus would be way better than grocery store hummus.


Sorry for the poor quality photo! Hope you still get the idea.

hummus

1 can of chickpeas (garbanzo beans)
2-4 Tb lemon juice
2 cloves garlic (minced)
minced onion (I skip this because I hate onion)
1 Tb tahini
1 Tb olive oil
salt and pepper to taste (I'd use sea salt)

Flavorings to think about....
-red pepper
-artichoke
-spinach

Do you have other flavoring ideas? I'd love to hear your tips!

Bruschetta

Bruschetta (Bra-ske-ta) is a very simple appetizer and Italian staple. I recently had a fresh herb windfall of basil and rosemary, courtesy of one of my coworkers who must be a gardening prodigy based on the size of this basil plant.

What I love about Italian food is that it's not about quantity or complexity, it's all about simple, fresh, quality ingredients. Bruschetta is a prime example of this, it requires only a few ingredients, which must be fresh and combine to create an amazing (and healthy!) flavor.

This is a small size recipe for 1-2 people to share, you can double it (or more) if you're having a party.

Fresh Italian bread, light toasted

1-2 ripe roma tomatoes

1 clove garlic

1 Tb olive oil (use a quality one!)

8-10 fresh basil leaves

Toast thick slices of Italian bread either under a broiler or in a toaster oven. Chop tomatoes and garlic and place in a small bowl. Tear basil leaves into small pieces and mix with tomatoes and garlic. Toss tomato mixture in olive oil and spoon onto bread slices. Serve.

Sorry the photo is a bit dark, but I sure you it was a rich red and delicious!

Fried tomatoes

I recently discovered For the Love of Cooking, a cooking blog that is worth a visit if only to see the fantastic photos. I made the recipe for "Tiffany's Tomatoes" (breaded and fried tomatoes) and they were pretty tasty.

This recipe is an ideal appetizer. It's quick to make and requires very few ingredients. You can also make as much or as little as you like. I made about a tomato and a half for myself as a mid-day snack.

I made a few alterations, see the notations below, mostly because I had various things on hand.

Tiffany's Tomatoes

2 tbsp olive oil (more if needed)
Olive oil cooking spray * I did not do this...I just forgot but they still cooked fine.
4 large, FIRM, red tomatoes, cut into thick slices * I made about two for myself.
Italian flavored panko crumbs * Used seasoned bread crumbs and added some Italian seasoning, worked well.
Milk
Sea salt and freshly cracked pepper, to taste

Heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Dip the thick slices of tomato in the milk then into the panko crumbs. Season with sea salt and freshly cracked pepper then place into the hot skillet, spray the tops of the tomatoes with the olive oil cooking spray before flipping them. Cook for 2-3 minutes on each side or until golden brown. Place the cooked tomatoes onto a paper towel before placing on the serving plate. Serve with the creamy basil dressing or your favorite creamy dip. Enjoy.

Be sure to let the tomatoes sit a minute or two on several paper towels, otherwise the will be kind of oily, mine could have rested longer. I also skipped the dressing, they were pretty tasty without a dip.

Mini Taco Bites

So the weekend ran away from me and I haven't yet had a chance to make my ravioli (could still use steaming tips if anyone has any) but I threw together some taco bites using some of my wontons for my last-minute BBQ on the 4th.

When I was looking for steaming help, I happened upon a photo of some taco bites using wonton wraps for the shells. Genius? Uh, sort of. I think they offer a great presentation (ie they look cute!) and everyone was excited to try them but I also noticed no one was as excited for seconds. A little blah on the taste front.

I've considered they could be tasty shells to hold an avocado-crab mixture of some sort but I'm not sure that I'll try them again. If anyone has stray wontons, crab and avocado and wants to try it let me know how it turns out.

Wonton wraps
Prepared taco meat
Taco stuffin's (cheese, lettuce, salsa or whatever you normally put on your tacos)

Equipment: Muffin pan

Put wontons into compartments of lightly greased muffin tin, cupping them to form small bowls. Bake for 7 minutes at 350 degrees or until lightly browned. Fill cooled shells with taco meat and toppings. Serve.

Avocado crostini

Add avocado to my list of obsessions.

I had diner with a friend of mine at Cork, a wine bar in DC, last week and we had the best starter - grilled toast topped with avocado, olive oil, salt and pistachios. So simple, and yet so delicious.

Of course, I had to try and make this myself and of course they were delicious! I'm not a pistachio fan so I of course had to adapt it a bit.

Avocado crostini

Thinly sliced bread, toasted
Thin slices of avocado
Olive oil
Course salt
Chopped pistachio

Sprinkle toast lightly with olive oil and salt. Layer with avocado and serve immediately.

I have some ideas also for variations, using pesto instead of olive oil, adding tomato slices, topping with Parmesan flakes or using almonds/walnuts instead of pistachios. Get some artisan bread to dress up it for a party or whatever toast you have around for a simple and healthy snack...oh I'm going to be eating a lot of avocado.

Broiled tomato appetizer

A simple and delicious appetizer that is sure to be a crowd pleaser at your next soire, date night or when you feel like have something extra special with your grilled cheese. I'm pretty excited about this because it is my own recipe (!) and my mind is already filled with variations, so without further ado...

Broiled stuffed tomatoes

4-6 ripe tomatoes (tomatoes the size of plumbs are best)
4 oz soft cream cheese
4 oz crumbled feta cheese
2 TB pesto sauce
Italian seasoning

Equipment: muffin pan

Preheat oven to broil. Grease one muffin pan. Mix cream cheese, feta and pesto together in a small bowl and set aside. Using a sharp knife core each tomato and use a spoon to scoop all of the seeds and center of the tomato out. Sprinkle Italian seasoning in each tomato and fill with cheese mixture. Place tomatoes in the slots of the muffin pan. Broil for 4 minutes allowing cheese to melt but not burn on the top and tomatoes to soften. Serve while while still warm.

These were delicious! A fantastic and simple start to a meal. A great date night addition that will make it look like you tried, even when you didn't!

Taste: A+
Cost: A-
Waste: A

Fresh Guacamole - I'm converted!

I'm currently in KC, visiting my friend Jess - culinary student extraordinaire! We were at the store negotiating dinner options and I saw avocados on sale. While I was feeling up the avocados trying to find a ripe one, Jess was asking me what the beep I'm planning to with it. I said, just eat it. I LOVE avocado. Jess felt this was not a good plan and insisted on making guacamole, which I told her I don't like.

Apparently I was wrong. Jess makes some tasty guacamole. I'm not sure I'd ever had fresh made before because when I hear guacamole I think the goopy stuff you get at restaurants. Ew. But this was almost chunky. I ate almost all of it. Jess got like 2 chips. The following day we made it again, this time using two avocados so Jess could have at least a little bit. Oh I'm hungry just thinking about it.

Here is a link to Jess' blog with her avocado recipe. I'm working on getting a guest post from her in the future.

PS: I got in trouble for this photo because it wasn't "presentation ready." Forgive me.

Cheese ball: The name says it all

Cheese is possibly the world's most perfect food and forming it into a ball for a party appetizer is ingenius. Cheese balls that you buy at a store are ok but they are basically round blocks of cheese, not nearly as good as the ones you can make.

Homemade cheese balls typically use some portion of cream cheese to get everything to stick together. They are fairly simple to make and only require a few ingredients. For the holidays, I tried out two out two cheese ball recipes. To make both took less than 30 minutes. The also transport easily, I took these to a party and carried it on the metro with no issue.

The first was a dried beef cheese ball, the recipe can be found here. I skipped the MSG. This turned out ok but it was a little salty. I suspect I might have been a little heavy handed with the Worcestershire sauce. I also did not roll the ball in dried beef but chopped it up and mixed it into the cheese ball and then rolled it chopped walnuts. Generally, I find rolling a cheese ball in chopped nuts is the easiest way to keep it from sticking and adds to the flavor.

The second one I made was a feta cheese ball. How could that not be delicious? Feta! The recipe can be seen here. I skipped the olives and onions because I don't like them, but if you do, I'm sure they could only add to the flavor. I also rolled this one in walnuts, and would suggest this to anyone who makes it because it was quite sticky. I took both of the cheese balls to the same event and this one disappeared much faster!