December 31, 2011: Crab Stuffed Belgian Endive Recipe

My husband and I don’t really have any New Year’s Eve traditions other than enjoying a nice meal of steak and lobster. If you need to prepare an hors d’oeuvre for a party tonight, this recipe looks very elegant and fits the bill as far as including seafood in the menu. I got this recipe some years ago from The Food Network website and modified it slightly.

Crab Stuffed Endive

½ cup mayonnaise

2 t. Dijon mustard

2 t. lemon juice

½ t. minced garlic

¼ t. hot sauce (such as Tabasco)

¼ t. salt

2 T. chopped green onions

¼ cup seeded, small diced tomatoes

2 T. small capers, drained

1 T. minced shallots

1 T. chopped fresh parsley

1 pound lump crab meat, picked over for shells and cartilage

4 heads endive, cored, leaves separated and wiped clean

In a bowl, combine the mayonnaise, mustard, lemon juice, garlic, hot sauce and salt. Whisk to combine. Fold in the green onions, tomatoes, capers, shallots and parsley. Gently fold in the crab meat, turning to coat with the dressing and being careful not to break up the lumps. Adjust seasoning to taste.

Spoon a heaping tablespoon of the stuffing into the endive leaves.

Makes about 40 hors d’oeuvres

December 18, 2011: Goat Cheese Phyllo Cups Hors d’oeuvres Recipe

Here’s another recipe fantastic for holiday parties. It doesn’t take a lot of preparation time and they taste good even if they’re not served hot. You can always swap out ingredients, too, using different veggies and cheese combinations (but do keep the base of cream cheese and egg white intact).

Goat Cheese Phyllo Cups with Korean Pork Skewers and Mozzarella Cheese Focaccia Bread

Goat Cheese Phyllo Cups

1 sheet phyllo dough (or one package frozen phyllo cups)

4 ounces cream cheese

2 ounces crumbled goat cheese

1 egg white

1 T. minced pimiento

1 T. finely minced, fresh jalapeno pepper (seeds removed) - optional

2 green onions, thinly sliced (white parts, reserve greens for garnish)

1 t. minced garlic

¼ t. cayenne pepper

½ t. garlic salt

¼ t. freshly ground black pepper

Cut thawed phyllo dough into 12 squares. Press squares into bottom of greased muffin cups.

Cream together cheeses. Whisk in egg white. Add remaining ingredients. Spoon about a tablespoon of mixture into each phyllo cup. Prick edges of dough with a fork. Bake at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes, until browned on the top and dough is puffed. Sprinkle with chopped or sliced green onion as garnish.

Makes a dozen hors d’oeuvres

Tip: for a bit of crunch, add a couple tablespoons of slivered almonds.

December 17, 2011: Christmas Party Hors d’oeuvres Ideas and Recipe

This year, the most popular appetizers for a party are served on a stick. Yep, they look cute and they’re easy to eat, to boot, which is especially important if your guests are encouraged to stand and mingle while eating.

The menu for my holiday party includes (items with asterisk denote recipes included here):

• Assorted Christmas cookies and candies
• Strawberry Pecan Cheese ball (seasoned with a mix) and Pringles honey wheat stix
• Tray of pickled jalapenos and okra (that I canned over the summer)
• Crackers topped with Alouette Spinach Artichoke soft cheese and slices of smoked sausage
• Meatball skewers (using my baked meatball recipe but made much smaller) with cheese cubes and olives
• Korean Pork skewers*
• Goat Cheese Phyllo cups* (look for recipe in tomorrow’s post)
• Spiced Apple Cider
• Hot Chocolate
• Egg Nog with Brandy

Photo courtesy of yourlife.usatoday.com

Korean Pork Skewers

This recipe courtesy of USA Weekend magazine

1 pound pork tenderloin

3 T. Asian chili sauce

2 T. each soy sauce and rice wine vinegar

1 T. each minced fresh ginger and garlic

½ t. hot red pepper flakes

Thinly slice the pork tenderloin into about 30 pieces (freeze it slightly to make slicing easier).

Combine remaining ingredients in zip-top bag. Add pork. Refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight.

Thread pieces of pork onto small bamboo skewers. Place on grill rack over a broiler pan. Broil close to heat about 5 minutes, until cooked through. Garnish with thinly sliced green onions, if desired.

Makes 30 hors d’oeuvres

February 7, 2011: Church Valentine’s Day Party Decorations and Games

As church secretary, I’ve been appointed the person in charge of this year’s Valentine’s Day potluck celebration at New Hope Christian Fellowship, along with my dear friend, Kathy. Yes, this is a usual and ordinary part of my job but I didn’t do it in 2010 (during my first year as secretary) since my daughter-in-law planned her baby shower for that weekend. I couldn’t miss the baby shower for my very first grandchild! So this is my first Valentine’s Day celebration where I’m in charge.

My pastor’s wife, Margaret, has some old games on pages we’ve copied over and over again through the years. She used to be an elementary school teacher and these are some of the games her kids would play for Valentine’s Day. The funny thing is that I looked online for suggestions, Googling “Valentine’s Day church games” and much of what I found was dual purpose: either for kids or Christians. Hmm… we may be church-goers, but we’re not children! So this year I’m opting for more adult-level games.

What have I got in store for our congregation? I’m in charge of games and this is what I’ve got so far:

• A glass jar decorated with hearts and filled with candy: challenge is to correctly guess how many pieces of candy are in it to win the jar with the candy.
• Valentine’s Day bingo: I found an online site (www.bingocardcreator.com) that allowed me to create and print 15 copies of a bingo card with such terms as “love”, “cupid”, etc. on the squares. I think I’ll need twice that amount of cards so I’ll make two copies of each and plan for two winners per round (that’s extra prizes we need to buy).
•  Valentine's Day crossword*
• Valentine’s Day word search*

• Valentine’s themed word ladder *
*These games can be found on http://holidays.kaboose.com/val-word.html - if you can get past the annoying auto-play video, there’s some good, albeit childish stuff here. Another one to try is http://puzzle-maker.com/.

We're on the hunt for tablecloths at thrift stores. To make things a bit more festive, we purchased some $1 packages of  large, cardstock Valentine’s confetti to sprinkle over the tables and a few packages of heart-decorated pencils.

This is a Valentine’s Day party recipe for decorating and fun on the cheap (since the church has a very small budget).