Baked Zucchini Chips

I received a phone call from a dear friend to ask about a recipe of baked zucchini I served over a year ago.  Wow!  That felt good, I made an impression from that long ago!  That evening I served baked zucchini, beets and sweet potato chips.  I used various seasonings that I liked.  The key here is to use what you love.  Cumin, garlic salt, Mrs. Dash, Tony's, paprika, sesame seeds etc., whatever inspires you.  Most importantly, slice them thin!  Mandolin is imperative, unless you have the patience of Job.  I clearly do not.  God Bless my scary friend the mandolin!  I spent big bucks on you to get the very best and you rewarded me one Easter by taking off part of my thumb.  Lesson learned, BE CAREFUL, use the guard!!

So here my dear friend, just for you!

Baked Zucchini Chips

The Chef in My Head

• 2 zucchinis (beets, sweet potatoes etc.), sliced very thin with a mandolin 
• cooking oil spray (I used olive oil)
• salt (or any seasoning you prefer, I love Tony's)

Preheat oven to 225°F. 
Thinly slice the zucchini. I used the thinnest setting on my mandolin. Place the zucchini slices onto a baking sheet lined with Silpat or parchment paper. Very lightly spray with olive oil and lightly sprinkle with salt or seasonings of your choice
Depending on your oven, bake for 35-45 minutes, keeping an eye on them so they don’t burn. When done, remove chips from baking sheet and place them on a plate and let cool.

Total Time: 50 minutes
Yield: serves 2-4

Print this Recipe

Antipasto Kabobs

Too Easy and Too Delicious

Quick and easy, you can prepare ahead and beautiful on your appetizer table!  Really this is almost embarrassing to post.  Here you go!

Cherry tomatoes, different colors if you can get them

Marinated Mozzarella balls, from Costco

Marinated Green Olives stuffed with garlic and jalapenos

Kalamata Olives

Marinated Artichoke Hearts

Sliced Pepperoni

Sliced Salami

Sliced Prosciutto

Sliced Pancetta

Fresh Four Cheese Tortellini, (Bertolli Brand) boiled 4-6 minutes

Balsamic Vinegar Dressing, I like Newman's Brand

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

4-inch long picks or skewers

Boil tortellini, drain well, and allow to cool slightly.  Place tortellini in large zip lock bag, pour dressing over pasta and refrigerate for at least a couple of hours.

Using all remaining ingredients along with the tortellini, assemble kabobs.  Place on serving tray and serve.

Can be made a day ahead, covered and refrigerated.

Print this Recipe

Stuffed Grilled Jalapenos, aka Bullets

These are amazingly good!!  This is a recipe from my sweet friend Vernell.  You may remember her, I've swiped recipes from her before such as her Bacon Wrapped Apricots Stuffed with Almonds.  Then there is her sister Nina that I have swiped the world's greatest dip, my absolute favorite Radish & Jalapeno Dip.  These girls can party like rock stars and they are understandably great at party food! 

So here's the scoop on the prep for these fabulous appetizers.  I promise they will be a huge success for any event!  Which by the way, if you have any left over, although I can't imagine that, they would be out of this world diced up and added to scrambled eggs the next morning for breakfast.  Damn that sounds good!

The amounts are all estimates, just adjust to the number of folks you are serving.  This amount served about 12 to 15 people.  Make more than you think you will need!!  They are terrific!

Vernell's Rockin' Awesome Jalapeno Bullets


30 fresh jalapenos
2 pounds of breakfast sausage
2-8 oz. packages of cream cheese
2 pounds thin sliced bacon, cut in half


Cut off the stem end of the jalapenos and discard.  Slice whole jalapenos down the middle lengthwise.  Remove seeds and veins.  Good idea to use gloves for this part (Thank you Nancy!)
Take about 1 Tablespoon of cream cheese and wrap/mold about an ounce of sausage around the cream cheese.  This will help retain the cheese while grilling.
Place sausage/cheese filling into 1 half of jalapeno and cover with remaining half.  Gently press two halves back together to reform whole jalapeno.
Wrap 1 half of the slice of bacon around the reconstructed jalapeno and secure with wooden skewer.
Grill over low-med heat grill, or bake in oven at 350 degrees until bacon is crisp and sausage is cooked through.  This should be about 30-45 minutes. 


Best consumed with an ice cold brew!


Enjoy!

Print this Recipe

Bulverde Area Art Center Show & Food

Recently our new Bulverde Area Art Center hosted the first Spring Show!  It was a lovely evening with lots of excitement with the unveiling of the beautiful and interesting art and the art show's winners.  Please take a moment to take a look at the beautiful art! 

I was asked to prepare the food, so here you go!

Baby Bells, Cherry Tomatoes, Olives

Tortilla Spring Roll Platter

The rolled tortillas were a big hit!

Rolled Tortilla Spring Rolls, The Chef In My Head

2 pkgs large tortillas (Spinach and Garlic Herb)

2-8 oz pkgs cream cheese, softened  

1-4 oz pkg goat cheese

2 T Ranch Dressing mix

1 tsp sea salt

1 tsp freshly ground black pepper

1 dash cayenne pepper

1 head Romaine Lettuce, washed/dried and hard stems removed

Thinly sliced mesquite smoked ham

Thinly sliced mesquite smoked turkey

Thinly sliced Provolone cheese

Thinly sliced Monterrey Jack cheese

Combine cream cheese, goat cheese, dressing mix and seasonings until smooth enough to spread.

Spread tortillas with cheese mixture. 

Layer with lettuce, your choice of meat and cheese slice. 

Roll tightly and place in large freezer tightly. 

Squeeze air from bag and move to refrigerator. 

These can be made ahead and kept in the refrigerator for a couple of days. 

When ready to serve, slice each tortilla into large bite size pieces and arrange on platter.  

Enjoy!

Rolled Meats and Cheeses

For the meats rolled into cone shape with the olives, you'll find a little dab of the cheese mixture from the tortillas inside.

Assorted Cheese Slices and Dried Cranberries

Cheese and Fresh Fruit Platter

Swiss Cheese, Irish Sharp Cheddar, Edam Cheese, Green & Red Grapes and beautiful Raspberries, Blueberries, Blackberries and Sweet Strawberries!

Ta-Daaaa!

Very easy and inexpensive food for a large crowd!

Print this Recipe

Salmon Canapes and Patty's Retirement Party

Smoked Salmon Canapes

Recently, a special friend of ours retired.  Patty had been threatening to retire for quite a while and finally took the plunge.  Of course that meant a surprise party for her filled with good friends and family, live music, plenty of great food and one really amazing cake!!

Smoked Salmon Canapes were my contribution to the evening's fare.  Simple and fun with a pretty presentation!

Smoked Salmon Canapes

The Chef In My Head

4 ounces goat cheese, at room temperature

4 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature

4 green onions, finely chopped

1 T fresh chives, finely chopped

2 T. parsley, finely chopped

1 tsp. Sriracha sauce, to taste

Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

3 T. fresh lemon juice

Finely grated rind from 1 lemon

8 ounces Smoked Salmon

Capers, rinsed and drained, for garnish

appetizer spoons, toast points, crackers, thinly sliced cucumber or daikon for serving

Combine cheeses, onion, chive, parsley, Sriracha Sauce, pepper, lemon juice and rind in a bowl.  Spoon into decorating bag with large star tip.  Squeeze onto spoons, toast points, etc. (your choice for serving).  Top with smoked salmon and capers.  Serve.

These can be made a couple of hours ahead and covered tightly with plastic wrap and chilled until ready to serve.

Pretty, Relaxed and Retired Patty

Her Beautiful Daughters!!

Take a close look at all of the custom touches!!

George, are you paying attention???

Our friend Nina made this creation, amaaazing!!!

Including a custom make robe and slippers!!

Patty we are so excited for you!!! 

The neighborhood just got better and a lot more fun!! 

We love you!!!

           

Print this Recipe

Sweet & Spicy Roasted Almonds

Sweet & Spicy Almonds



We are starting to plan ahead for recipes to take to the beach for Spring Break this year so this was a perfect one to try from Giada's run on I Heart Cooking clubs "California Dreamin".

Both of these recipes were a snap to prepare.  The almonds come out spicy with just a touch of sweet.  Perfect football snack for now!  The Chili-Infused oil will have lots of uses.  You can use it as a dipping oil with your favorite crusty loaf or use it to spice up any stir-fry.

Chili-Infused Oil

Chili-Infused Oil, adapted from Giada De Laurentiis Everyday Italian

The Chef In My Head

Makes 1/2 Cup

1/2 C. olive oil

2 tsp. dried crushed red pepper flakes

In a small, heavy saucepan, heat the oil and crushed red pepper flakes over a low flame, stirring occasionally, until a thermometer registers 180 degrees F, about 5 minutes.  Remove from the heat and let cool to room temperature, about 2 hours.  Transfer the oil and pepper flakes to a 40ounce bottle or other small container and seal the lid.  Refrigerate up to 1 month.

Sweet & Spicy Roasted Almonds

Sweet & Spicy Roasted Almonds, adapted from Giada De Laurentiis, Everyday Italian

The Chef In My Head

Makes 2 Cups

2 T Chili-Infused Oil (above)

1 T Sugar

1 tsp Grey Sea Salt

2 C Almonds

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

In a medium bowl, stir the oil, sugar, and sea salt to blend.  Add the almonds, and toss to coat.  Arrange the almond mixture on a large, heavy baking sheet, spacing the almonds evenly.  Bake, stirring occasionally until golden brown, about 15 minutes.  Serve warm or at room temperature. 

The nuts can be made two days ahead, store airtight at room temperature(if they last that long).

Print this Recipe

Turkey Meatballs With An Asian Flair Dipping Sauce

In my endeavor to find healthy food that tastes great, I happened upon Gina's Weight Watcher Recipes.  I now get her updates daily and I love her recipes.  You guys know me; lots of butter, lots of olive oil, lots of cream, the more decadent the better.  I am learning, though it is a struggle, that I can make healthy food taste great too.  I am taking cues from people that do it on a regular basis and do it well.  I am modifying a bit here and there to get the flavors I love while trying to be health conscious along with satisfying my Texas taste buds.  "A tall order" we would say down here.

As I said, I'm taking cues from the best.  Here is my version of Gina's Asian Turkey Meatballs with Lime Sesame Dipping Sauce.    Thank you Gina, you are an inspiration!!

More filling that you would expect!

Turkey Meatballs with an Asian Flair Dipping Sauce, adapted from Gina's Skinny Recipes

The Chef In My Head

1/2 C Panko bread crumbs

1-1/4 lbs lean ground turkey

1 egg white

1-1/2 T. ginger shaved on micro plane

3 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp ground white pepper

1-1/2 T fresh cilantro, chopped

4 green onions, chopped

1 T low sodium soy sauce

2 tsp sesame oil

Dipping Sauce

4 T low sodium soy sauce

2 tsp sesame oil

juice of 1 lime

3/4 tsp fresh grated lime rind

2 chopped green onions

2 T water

Preheat oven to 500 degrees.  Spray olive oil cooking spray on baking rack over foil lined baking sheet and set aside.

Combine all ingredients for meatballs lightly with hands.  Do not overmix or meatballs will become mushy.  Shape 1/4 C. meat mixture into a ball and transfer to baking rack over baking sheet.  Continue with remain meat mixture.   Bake until cooked through, about 15 minutes.

For the Dipping Sauce: 

Combine all ingredients and set aside for dipping/serving with meatballs.

NOTES: 

The meatballs can be shaped and the dipping sauce can be assembled ahead of time making dinner a breeze.

Serve over brown rice to catch the delicious dipping sauce along with an Asian inspired salad. 

As an appetizer, make smaller balls and bake ahead of time, reheat to serve.

Print this Recipe

Beautiful Summer Figs and Scrumptious Blue Cheese

Beautiful Blue Cheese Stuffed Figs

We planted a Brown Turkey Fig Tree about two years ago.  Last year with the drought, I was really surprised it survived.  It seemed touch and go for awhile.  Then the winter that followed was an unbelievable hard freeze.  I never saw those growing instructions on the tag when we planted it, but it must have been just the right thing for it.  We can't keep up with all the figs!  I guess I'm going to have to start freezing them and make preserves.

For now, we are having this delicious appetizer pretty frequently and we love it.  So easy and fast to throw together and beautiful too!

Blue Cheese Stuffed Figs

Your favorite blue cheese
Figs

Slice figs in half and press a small chunk of blue cheese into each half.  Put figs on baking sheet cut/blue cheese side up.  Place under broiler.  When the cheese begins to bubble, remove from oven and serve.

Print this Recipe

Goat Cheese, Pesto, Dried Fruits, and Pine Nuts OH MY!

YUM!

This is delicious and the world's easiest and fastest appetizer to put together!  The original recipe came from my sweet friend Janet in North Carolina which she served as a starter before a fabulous dinner at her home(full dinner on  later post).  I switched things up just a bit.  The original recipe called for dried cranberries, to that I also added chopped dried apricots.  This is a winner Janet, thank you!

Goat Cheese, Pesto, Dried Fruits and Pine Nuts

2-4 oz packages soft goat cheese

4 - 6 T. Pesto

1/2 C dried Cranberries

1/4 C dried Apricots, diced

1/3 C Pine Nuts, toasted

Your favorite crackers

Spread goat cheese in the bottom of low profile serving dish or plate.  Spoon pesto on top and spread to cover goat cheese.  Sprinkle mixture of dried fruits on top of pesto.  Sprinkle toasted pine nuts over dried fruits.  Serve with crackers or toasted baguette slices.  

Takes less than 5 minutes to prepare!  Goat cheese is a breeze to spread if you remove it from the refrigerator a few minutes before you assemble this.

Print this Recipe

Appetizers on the Beach

Shurvilleobbs ~ Part 3 in Series

One of the lovely days on the beautiful North Carolina beach, our Sweet Janet spoiled us again with these scrumptous appetizers.  She literally brought them down to the beach!  It felt a little like being a guest of Ina Garten's, gotta love that!!  This was not an isolated incident since Janet spoiled us throughout the trip.  Remember, she was the one that wouldn't stay out of the kitchen when it wasn't her day to help us clean up.

Miss Organized Janet, made these at home before our trip and brought them in her ice chest.  At the beach house she just pulled them out of the box and popped them into the oven!  Voila!!

Sweet Janet's Beach Appetizer

Makes 90 Appetizers

 2 pounds Neece's Hot Sausage (similar to Jimmy Dean's Hot sausage)
90 Athen's Fillo Cups (keep the box they come in)
4-6 Green Onions, finely chopped
1/2 Red Repper (about 1/2 C) , finely chopped
1-2 tsp Red PepperFlakes
3-4 cloves Garlic, minced
1/4 C Ranch Dressing
1-1/2 C Monterrey Jack cheese, grated
1-1/2 C Sharp Chedder Cheese, grated + more for garnish
Sour Cream for garnish
Parsley, finely chopped for garnish

Saute sausage over med-high heat.  Drain VERY well and pat dry.  Transfer cooked sausage to large bowl, add to that green onions, red pepper, red pepper flakes, garlic, dressing and both cheeses.  Combine well.  Place about 1 Tbl. in each of the Athens Fillo Cups.

Make ahead note:  At this point the cups can be placed back in trays and boxes and kept frozen.  Janet just puts a check mark on her boxes so she knows those are the filled ones in her freezer.  Frozen cups can later be removed from tray and popped in the oven.

Place cups directly on baking sheet and bake at 350 degrees for about 10 to 12 minutes, garnish with additional cheddar cheese and return to oven.  Continue to bake until cheese begins to melt, about 2 minutes.  Remove from oven and transfer to serving tray.  Garnish each cup with sour cream and parsley or chives and serve.

Janet says even her dad makes these and keeps them in the freezer, ready to pop in the oven for his golf buddies!  Impressive!  I'm swiping her recipe for my Christmas Party, this is just too easy.

Print this Recipe

Parmesan Twists, No. 101 on the list of crazy ideas my sister and I come up with

We had a blast making these, well I did, Claire did all the hard work, I just helped out with the fun part. 

Bless her heart.  This recipe was adapted from a recipe in Fine Cooking.  Adapted why, because remember, I don't know how to leave a recipe alone.  Everyone loved these, I looked up and they were gone!  The recipe makes about 40 breadsticks which is the recipe that follows, we doubled it, and I am really glad we did!  The dough should be made the day before to have time to refrigerate overnight.  You can keep the dough in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.  They are a snap to bake-up.

Crazy Spicy Cheese Breadsticks aka Parmesan Twists

1 tsp active dry yeast

1 Cup plus 2 Tbls warm water (85 degrees)

1/4 tsp sugar

3-1/2 Cups all-purpose flour

1/3 Cup Olive Oil, good quality

1 1/2 tsp Kosher Salt

Grey Salt for garnishing before baking

1 Tbl paprika

1/2 tsp cayenne

3/4 Cup grated Parmesan Cheese

Make A Sponge:

In a medium bowl, mis the yeast, warm water, and sugar until dissolved.  Whisk in 1-1/3 Cups of the flour until the mixture is uniform and free of lumps.  Cover with plastic and let it sit in a warm place until bubbly and light and almost doubled in volume, about 1 hour.

Make The Dough:

Whisk the oil and the seasonings into the sponge until well blended.  Pour the seasoned sponge into the bowl of your super amazing Cuisinart food processor with the dough blade (or an electric mixer fitted with the dough hook) and set to medium speed.  As the dough hook turns, gradually add 2 Cups of the flour.  Slowly add the Parmesan Cheese. Continue to add flour until the dough is only slightly sticky, but no longer wet.  When the dough behins to cling to the hook and pull away from the sides of the bowl, remove the dough from the bowl and knead by hand on a floured surface until smooth and elastic. 1 to 2 minutes.

Shape the dough into a ball and let it rise in an oiled bowl, covered with plastic wrap, until about doubled in bulk, about 3 hours.  Once risen, punch down the dough and refrigerate it overnight or for up to 4 days.

Shape And Bake The Breadsticks:                Let the dough sit at room temperature for about 1 hour before shaping it.  Heat the oven to 375 degrees and line several baking sheets with parchment.  Roll out the dough on a floured surface into a 12 X 20 inch rectangle about 1/4 inch thick.  Using a pizza cutter (or a long thin, sharp knife), cut  the rectangle lenghtwise into 2 sections each about 6 inches wide.  Then cut each section into narrow strips about 1/2 inch wide.  Strech and twist each strip to almost twice it's original length and arrang the strips, HAVE FUN, 1/4 inch apart, on the baking sheets.  Spinkle liberally with Grey Salt to garnish.

Bake the beadsticks until golden and crisp, 20 to 25 minutes.  Check them periodically as some of them will be thinner than others and will bake faster.  They're done if they feel firm when pinched.  Let them cool completely before serving.  They will stay fresh in an airtight container for up to 2 days.

You will notice one stray one in the photo that we tested with black sesame seeds.  Decided against them, didn't think they would look so great when guests smiled in photos  ;-)

Print this Recipe