Nibbles

What To Serve Before the Turkey?

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Tis the season for roasting turkey and serving it up with all of the trimmings. But what, if anything, comes before it?

Back when we would gather for a 1 or 2 o’clock dinner it was quite common to skip breakfast (maybe grazing on the dishes as they were prepared–all in the name of quality control, of course) and just eat one big meal mid-day. Sometimes we’d have a relish tray set up: some deviled eggs, stuffed celery, that sort of thing. But it wasn’t really needed.

Due to family schedules we’ve pushed our main meal to 5:30 or so for the past couple of years. Not only is it no longer feasible to skip breakfast, we often have folks show up an hour or so before supper is scheduled plus the inevitable wait for the last one or two guests to arrive.

This means appetizers are called for. Just a little something to keep the hunger pains at bay (because usually a late breakfast led to a skipped lunch).

So far I’ve had a request for a delicious cheese we stumbled upon a few years back. St Andre is a double (almost triple) cream cheese that, when brought to room temperature, is amazing spread on slices of baguette–like butter, but better.

To go with it, I’m also preparing another family favorite, a simple combination of softened cream cheese, crab meat and cocktail sauce, layered in that order, that when scooped up with a buttery cracker is fantastic far beyond it’s otherwise simple preparation.

I like threes, though, so am casting about to find another little nibble to add to the pre-supper spread. What are you serving before the bird?

Loving Fall at the Farmers’ Market!

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What’s your favorite season?

Mine has always been fall. It’s cool without being cold, the air is crisp, it’s the season of football (and marching bands!) and Halloween and Thanksgiving.

And with yesterday’s trip to the farmers’ market, after a month or so absence due to schedule conflicts, I’ve got another reason to love fall:

Fall Farmers' Market Haul

It was so many of my veggie favorites all wrapped up in one shopping trip: Brussels sprouts (still on the stalk!), turnips, beets, squash, massive sweet potatoes, daikon radishes and wonderful kale. And that’s just what I brought home this week.

I’m so looking forward to hearty stews  and soups, roasted vegetables and stuffed anything else. Tis the season for some very good eatin’!

What are you excited about, be it from your local farmers’ market or you corner store?

3 Tips for Making Mealtime Easier

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With the part last weekend wrapped-up, I fully admit I didn’t feel much like cooking. But rather than resort to fast food and microwave meals, I bucked up, made a menu and managed to have a week’s worth of fairly quick and easy meals on an other-wise inspired week.

Having a few leftovers helped, of course, as it’s a lot easier to refashion one dish into another than to start from scratch. But whether you’ve got some soup stocked away in the freezer or just got your goodies from your local CSA (community-supported agriculture), planning your meals is the first way to make mealtimes easier to tackle. And if you’re starting from scratch, checking out the store’s sales papers or what’s in season for your area can be a good kick-start to your list-making.

Of course, if you know you’ve got a busy week ahead–like this week we had our anniversary and then the Greek Food Festival–it’s okay to give yourself permission to have a night off from the kitchen. It’s okay to go out one night (or two) if it’s part of the plan. And if you’re concerned about the health benefits (or lack thereof) of a night out, remember it’s all about balance. If you’re going to indulge one night, balance it out by going a little healthier the night before or after. What you want to avoid is planning to cook, getting overwhelmed by your schedule, and pulling in for fast-food and–just like a dieter that falls off the wagon–getting off-track, discouraged, and throwing the plan out of the window for the rest of the week or month.

So you’ve got your plan and you’ve looked ahead at your schedule, what else can you do to make getting dinner on the table something other than mission impossible? Prepping ahead! If you know you’re going to need diced onions for 3 meals this week, go ahead and chop them all when you’re preparing the first dinner and put the extra in containers in the fridge so you can just pull them out the next nights and get cooking. If you need hard-boiled eggs for a salad in a couple of days, go ahead and boil and peel them one evening after you’ve finished dinner for the night. Think ahead about what and when you can get some of the work out of the way and the next night will be so much easier.

So, to sum it up, here are my Top 3 Tips for Making Mealtime Easier:

    1. Plan your meals ahead so you never have to wonder “What’s for dinner?”
    2. Give yourself permission to take a night off if you or your schedule demands it.
    3. Prepare what you can ahead of time to make night-of preparation quicker.

What are your tips for making mealtime easier?

All Over But the Clean-Up

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This weekend marked the 8th not-exactly-annual BYOP (bring your own pumpkin) in 12 years and, after each event, it’s a good idea to look back and figure out what worked and what (if anything) didn’t.

For those who’ve attended my parties in the past, it’s no surprise when I say I’ve been known to over-prepare. Just a smidgen. I’ve been known to put out so many appetizers that 3 hours later when dinner is ready no one’s hungry! Now, I don’t mind having party leftovers because it means I don’t have to cook for a few days, but there’s a big difference between a few leftovers and an entire meal uneaten (not that that’s ever really happened–people always eat more, eventually).

So this time around I tried to keep this in mind and put out a simpler spread at the beginning of the party, 2.5 hours before dinner was scheduled to start.

Appetizers for the 8th BYOP party

We had the usual veggie platter with blue cheese dip, bacon-wrapped artichoke hearts*, stacked spuds* with sour cream, black bean dip* with chips and spinach puffs* with whole-grain mustard. There were about 64 artichoke hearts and a full pan (between 45 and 50 pieces) of potato slices and all but a bare few were gone by the end of the night, we definitely hit that one right. About half of the spinach puffs (about 6 dozen) were gone and more than 2/3 or the bean dip. The veggie tray wasn’t completely ignored, either, even if I mainly put it out to balance out the other starchy, bacon-laden options.

Using a smaller table for the food meant that when it was time for supper, the appetizers got moved back into the kitchen to make way for the main event. I think this worked pretty well, too, since it shifted the focus between courses.

Dinner selections for BYOP 8

Dinner was a combination of grilled (chicken breasts and hot dogs), crocked (Sloppy Jacks–sloppy joes with pumpkin and spices) and cold salads (pineapple-poppyseed coleslaw* and redskin potato salad*). Toppings and condiments abounded so the simple options could be combined however our guests wanted: various barbecue sauces, cheeses, vegetables and the usual mayo, mustard, et al.

By the end of the evening the hot dogs were gone, all but 6 of the chicken breasts (we started with 14), and most of the Sloppy Jacks. All after feeding 21 adults and 1 kid. Half of each of the slaw and salad were leftover and we’ll be munching on those this week.

Desserts at the 8th BYOP party

After supper, the pumpkin judging and a group picture, it was time to bring out dessert. Again, I kept it relatively simple: chocolate chip cookies, pumpkin dip served with apple slices and gingersnaps, and cream puffs. Originally, the cream puffs were supposed to be a croquembouche: a French-style tower of cream puffs stuck together with caramel. Hindsight says I should have stuck with the caramel but I wanted a witches-hat looking dessert, so used chocolate caramel sauce to try and stick the puffs (chocolate profiteroles filled with pumpkin custard) together in their conical form. But when it was time to unmold it the chocolate didn’t having the sticking power of pure caramel.

Didn’t really matter though: we mounded the puffs onto a platter and they tasted amazing. No worries in the end.

This was the first year that the weather has been anything other than hot and humid for the pumpkin party (fall in Florida isn’t always predictable). Taking advantage of the situation I added mulled cider at the last minute to the drink menu (in addition to Paladin Punch* and sodas) and it was a huge hit. We went through almost 2 full gallons of it by the end of the evening.

And while the cider may have been the best edible idea, I have to pat myself on the back for the party favors. Usually I go with an edible favor but this year I decided to do aprons for everyone (using this basic procedure) that they received at the beginning of the party. After all, pumpkin carving is messy; I’m ashamed I didn’t think of this sooner.

How often do you evaluate your parties?

*These recipes will all be found in What to Feed Your Raiding Party, expected out in the near future!

To Brown or Not to Brown

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This was a recent topic of discussion around our house this weekend and I wanted to get some outside opinions on the subject:

When cooking in the slow-cooker,
do you do any pre-cooking or just toss everything in and let it go?

My position is the toss and go side of things. Frankly, I think after 8 hours of cooking everything is nice and tender as is and any browning that could have been done is rendered unnoticeable.

Todd, on the other hand, will frequently saute the onions or brown the ground meat or roasts before loading up the slow-cooker. A lot of recipes call for this and he’s not the type to deviate from instructions.

I won’t deny that browning–the caramelization of sugars–enhances flavor and appearance in most dishes. But I also think that the biggest boon to using a slow-cooker is that it simplifies meal preparation and allows plenty of flavor to develop while cooking low and slow for several hours. Plus, if I have to dirty a frying pan in addition to the crock, that’s double the large dishes to fit in the dishwasher–the perfect slow-cooker meal involves the cooker, a cutting board and a knife. Maybe  a measuring cup, too.

So, where do you sit on the issue? Curious kitchens want to know!