The children certainly had a fabulous time as did the adults.  I just love a family backyard party.  Part of my entry response to the contest was detailing how much I love home entertaining and preparing food for guests to enjoy and celebrate together.  I love watching children have a fantastic time, while the grownups get to imbibe an adult beverage and spend time mingling and simply enjoying the moment.

Menu

Appetizers

Crostini with Goat Cheese and ‘wichcraft Tomato Relish

Caprese Salad Crostini with Garlic Balsamic Vinaigrette

Frozen Green Grapes

Mains

Seared Pork Tenderloin with Lime-Cumin-Corriander Marindade

Citrus Marinated Grilled Chicken with Fresh Herb Sauce

Ripe Watermelon Balls

Strawberries and Raspberries with Fresh Mint Garnish

Sugar Snap Peas with Homemade Buttermilk Ranch Sauce

Sliced and Seasoned Kirby Cucumbers

Spinach Salad with Strawberries, Goat Cheese, and Almond Slivers

Dessert

Chocolate Cake with Espresso Buttercream and Dark Chocolate Ganache

Fresh Strawberry Cupcakes with Strawberry Buttercream Frosting

The items with links have already been featured on dinnerandconversation.com and helped make this party great.  Those with out, barring the raw foods, will be featured over the next week or so.  Part of home entertaining, especially in the summer in Texas, requires cold raw foods, so that’s part of why those were included.  The other reason is in my personal food philosophy.  Blessedly, I have children who will eat darn near anything.  I don’t prepare separate children’s meals, partly of course because we don’t have toddler food wars, so I wanted to include a variety of fruits that I thought even picky preschoolers could enjoy before indulging in a dessert sugar high.

All in all, I’d call it a grand success.  As I individually break down the recipes, I’ll give some tips on how I go about planning quantities and portion sizes for large gatherings.  Salud to the home party!

So back to the olive bread.  My reason’s for attempting this bread were three-fold.  One, I still have a large quantity of white whole wheat flour on hand just begging to be baked.  Two, I’ve had a couple of catering related questions on bread, and I want to hone my skills.  And three, SMIL just won a wonderful bottle of olive oil for me (in a huge gift basket) in the Dallas Food and Wine Festival’s silent auction benefiting the Farmers Market.  It’s delicious and perfect for dipping.  And of course the OLIVES.  Unlike my sisters or Monet, I truly believe olives make everything taste better.  Happily, I discovered my MIL has a large rosemary bush in her front yard, resulting in my having all the necessary ingredients on hand!  I used Nicoise Olives in my bread, which in retrospect the slightly tarter flavor of the Kalamata’s would probably be better – or maybe even green olives!  Yum!

Be sure to hop over to Anecdotes and Apple Cores to check out her other super recipes like Cranberry Almond Muffins and Honey Yogurt Whole Wheat Bread !

White Whole Wheat Bread with Nicoise Olives and Rosemary Recipe

(from Anecdotes and Apple Cores)

1 tbsp Active Dry yeast

3/4 c. warm water (105-110 degrees F)

1 tbsp sugar

2 tsp kosher salt

1/4 c. olive oil

2 tbps fresh rosemary, chopped

1/2 c. Nicoise olives, chopped

1 c. All-Purpose Flour

3 c. White Whole Wheat Flour

In a bowl, stir to combine yeast and water for approximately 10 minutes.  In the bowl of your stand mixer, combine sugar, salt, olive oil, rosemary and olives.  Use paddle attachment to stir on low, then add yeast mixture and continue stirring with the paddle attachment.  Add the flour in small batches at a time until combined, then switch to your dough hook.   With mixer on lowest setting, use dough hook to knead dough.  Add additional flour to dough as necessary to let dough form a ball and pull away from the sides of the bowl.  Knead on low speed for 7 minutes.

Coat a glass bowl with olive oil then move dough from stand mixer to bowl.  Rub a teeny bit of olive oil all around the sides of the dough, then cover with plastic wrap and let rise for an hour and a half.  Move bowl to a cookie sheet, then form a loaf shape.  Cover with a damp towel and let rise for an additional hour.  Sprinkle surface with flour and score the top of loaf.  Bake in an oven preheated to 400 for 30 minutes.  Continue to sing Hot Cross Buns over and over again while you wait for your fresh bread.  Dip in olive oil and enjoy!

I’ve made this with half and half and I’ve made it with cream.  It works both ways, but the cream is way better.  Anything resembling a quiche exists as the antithesis of diet food.  This tastes delicious and while you definitely shouldn’t eat it every day, pull it out every now and again and savor the taste.  It delivers a wonderful spicy, savory flavor that is surprising, then delightful.  Also can be made using a store bought frozen pie crust for ease!  Can be served for brunch, appetizers, or as a side dish at dinner.

Tomato Tart serves 8-10

adapted from Williams Sonoma Entertaining Cookbook

1/4 c. chilled butter

1/4 c. chilled Spectrum Palm Oil Shortening

1 and 1/2  c. flour

1/2 tsp kosher salt

3 and 1/2 tbsp ice water

2 tbsp Dijon mustard

3 tbsp fresh mint, minced

1/4 lb. Gruyere, sliced into thin slices

4 tomatoes on the vine

1 c. heavy cream

2 eggs

1/2 tsp kosher salt

12 turns fresh ground pepper

In a food processor, combine flour and salt.  Add butter and shortening cut into little pieces.  Use the pulse button to cut butter and shortening into flour until you see no more large pieces.  Through the top, pour the water 1 tablespoon at a time and continue to pulse until dough is just moist.  Move to a floured surface and form a ball.  Roll out with a floured rolling pin into a circle.  Press into the bottom of a glass pie pan, evening out and smoothing the edge.  Freeze overnight.

Core and cut tomatoes into slices.  Using a paring knife, trim the seeds and jelly from the slices, then move to a colander to drain.  Salt tomatoes slices, then let sit for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350.  Remove the now frozen pie crust, and use a spatula to cover the bottom with the Dijon.  Sprinkle with mint, then top with the Gruyere slices.  Arrange tomatoes on top of the Gruyere.  Combine cream and eggs, whisk to beat.  Season cream and egg mixture with the salt and pepper, then pour over the tomatoes.  Bake in oven for about an hour, until filling has risen and firmed and has a golden brown color.

Due to budget cuts and my continual tendency to overindulge at the grocery store, I’m trying to create only recipes wading through what’s currently available in my fridge and pantry.  It’s a great process for spring cleaning as well as creating new space for future bounty.  This recipe is quite similar to a Mediterranean pasta I blogged about last fall, only it requires a few less ingredients.

Pitted Niçoise olives are my very.most.favorite type of olives, but you probably only have access to them if your grocery has an olive bar.  They’re similar in color to Kalamatas, but smaller and with a more earthy, less astringent taste, IMO.  Kalamatas would certainly be an acceptable substitute if they are crowding up your refrigerator, though!  I also prefer Niçoise olives for snacking with a glass of bold red wine.

Montasio Cheese hails from the northeastern corner of Italy.  It has been awarded a PDO (Protected Designation of Origin) from the EU ensuring only cheese made from this specific region can bear this name.  It is an excellent grating cheese.  I purchased some for an herbed frittata I made recently, not realizing I already had an unused block at home (hence the necessity for paring back the fridge).  I absolutely loved the flavor of this cheese over hot pasta.  It struck me as slightly less nutty than a parmigianino reggiano with a more smooth and synthesizing flavor.  You could certainly grate another hard cheese in a similar fashion without tracking down the Montasio, but if you have the means, I highly recommend it.

This recipe also used skinnless boneless chicken breasts, since they were on hand.  You could certainly use split breasts if it suits you or even shred the meat from a grocery rotisserie chicken for ease!

Penne with Chicken, Niçoise Olives, Capers and Montasio Recipe

4 oz dried penne

2 skinless boneless chicken breasts

Emeril’s Chicken Rub

grapeseed oil

3 c. chicken broth

3 tbsp pitted nicoise olives, chopped

2 tbsp capers

2 tbsp grated Mantasio

fresh chives, snipped with scissors

Heat a skillet over medium high heat.  Rinse chicken and pat dry.  Season both sides liberally with Emeril’s Chicken Rub then sprinkle on a pinch of kosher salt.  Add about a tablespoon of grapeseed oil to skillet, let warm one minute, then add the chicken breasts.  Brown on each side for about 3 minutes to a nice golden color.  In a sauce pan, bring chicken broth to a boil, then add browned chicken breasts.  Cover and reduce heat to a simmer.  Simmer for 35 minutes, then remove chicken and shred with using two forks.

Bring a large pan of salted water to a boil.  Add penne and cook 10 minutes or to package directions.  Drain.  Mix in shredded chicken, capers, olives and Montasio.  Stir to combine.  If no longer warm, heat in microwave about a minute to serve warm.  Top with snipped fresh chives.

My fresh mozzarella came from the Dallas Mozzarella Company, a local factory making fresh handmade cheeses of truly exceptional quality.  I’ve been meaning to take their Hands on Cheese Making class for at least five years and just haven’t made it happen yet.  Trust me, I look hot in a hair net.  And the class includes a factory tour, a wine and cheese tasting, and take home samples of your own creations.  I think that’s a description of about my perfect day!  I’ve had a fascination with factories ever since I worked in a service company who sold things via service, but didn’t actually produce anything.  Apparently, the grass is always greener.  It’s a shame I never managed to tour 3M in college when I had the chance.  At that point, of course, endless lectures on the processes, software, and plants involved in making Scotch tape were hideously boring to me.  In any case, the Hands on Cheese Making Class is on my Bucket List.  I can knock out a factory tour and food creation in one fell swoop!

Caprese Salad Crostini

Baguette

1 clove garlic

olive oil

1 /2 lb ball fresh mozzarella

3 vine ripened tomatoes

12-15 basil leaves, halved

Garlic Balsamic Vinagrette

Preheat oven to 425.  Cut baguette into half-inch slices – or approx 25-30 pieces.  Smash garlic with a large knife, peel and break into two halves.  Rub top of each baguette slice with one of the pieces of garlic, as it disintegrates, switch to the other piece.  Using a brush, paint the top of each slice with olive oil.  Place each slice on a cookie sheet and bake 5-7 minutes until your crostini are lightly browned.

Slice mozzarella into 1/4 inch slices, then half or quarter as necessary to fit onto crostini.  Slice tomatoes into 1/4 inch slices, then quarter.  Top crostinis with mozzarella, then basil, then tomato, then drizzle with Garlic Balsamic Vinaigrette.

Garlic Balsamic Vinaigrette

1/4 c. balsamic vinegar

1/2 c. olive oil

1/4 c. water

1.5 tbsp fresh garlic, minced

1/2 tsp Murray River salt

8 turns fresh ground pepper

For the vinaigrette, combine vinegar, oil, water, garlic, salt and pepper.  Whisk together then let rest for at least 30 minutes for the flavors to combine.  Whisk again before serving.  Keep remainder in fridge for up to two weeks.

So this is what I came up with as my interpretation.  Tabouleh traditionally consists of parsley, mint, bulgur wheat, some veggie type things in a citrus vinaigrette.  Incidentally, can every Arabic word be spelled like 1,000 different ways?  Between trying to decide how to correctly spell Tabouleh and Baba Ghanoush, my brain feels like it’s been put in a washing machine.  Bulgur wheat is a whole grain which is high in fiber with a low-ish glycemic index for a grain.  I love tabouleh and love that it adds such nice color to appetizer plates!  Proper tabouleh production ensures only the leaves of the parsley are used and no stem pieces as a key element, albeit labor intensive and seriously time consuming.  This is a good time to let your preschooler practice those scissors skills.  Feel free to add more mint, I was using up what I had on hand, but would have been happy to add additional!

Tabouleh (makes about a quart)

4 c. parsley, leaves only, minced

1/2 c. fresh mint, leaves only, minced

2 tomatoes, finely chopped

1 english cucumber ( 1 c. finely chopped)

3/4 c. minced yellow onion

1 and 1/2 tsp chopped garlic

1/2 c. bulgur wheat

8 tbsp lemon juice plus 2 tbsp lemon juice

4 tbsp olive oil

2 tsp kosher salt

12 turns pepper

Use scissors to trim only leaves from parsley, discarding any stem pieces.  Mince leaves to accumulate 4 cups.  Use a similar method to mince mint leaves.  Combine with tomatoes, cucumber, onions, and garlic.  In a saucepan, bring 3/4 of a cup of water and 2 tbsp fresh lemon juice to a boil.  Add bulgur, remove from heat and let sit for 30 minutes.  Drain, then squish with  a clean towel to pull out any extra moisture.  Add to salad mixture.  In a small bowl, whisk to combine remaining 8 tbsps lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper, then pour mixture over salad.  Cover and refrigerate at least two hours, stirring part way through.

I’m a big fan of the slow food movement.  If you’re not familiar and don’t want to read that wikipedia article, my 30 second summary of what slow food means to me is based on creating foods from start to finish using natural, less processed, more local, more seasonal ingredients to cultivate healthy, whole meals which are good for your body, nourish your soul, and create great conversation.  Now I live a very moderate lifestyle, meaning attempting to use moderation in all (most) that I do.  And I certainly don’t mean to insinutate that I never go through a fast food drive through.  Some things catch my attention in the prepared foods market, like the woman I witnessed seeking pimento cheese at the grocery today.  Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but pimento cheese has about five ingredients.  If you buy it preprepared, there’s also going to be preservatives and other stuff, and it’s stored in plastic, and you have to throw away (recycle) the container.  I’m not overly concerned by getting sick from plastic or food preservatives, but I know it will taste fresher and better if I made it myself.  And I get the satisfaction of my time in the kitchen.  I realize that not everyone derives as much joy from food prep as I do, and to you fellow groceryer, I am in no way insinuating that a market should not exist for you to purchase prepared foods.  I just love what I do, and this is what works for me.

So the dip is quick and the pitas are not.  Though if you’d asked me last week how to make homemade pitas, I would have shrugged and my initial thought would be that it would probably require a special oven or at a minimum, special equipment.  Internet, I am here to tell you – that is not true.  There in lies the power of food blogging.  I write this blog for me.  I love that people enjouy reading it, but it started because I thought someday I might like to write a cookbook.  Before this year I’ve never written any of my recipes down, and my recipe box probably contains a sad 25 note cards.  Plus, I could talk about food, think about food, read about food, and create food all day long and that gets boring for my loved ones.  I read a lot of blogs in the past several years, but ironically, no food blogs.  I had no idea how large and crowded this community was.  It’s a phenomenal wealth of information available for you, the Internet, free of charge.  I think the end result will be that we’ll all wind up phenomenollay better cooks, and more and more people will realize the pleasure of dining intertwined with the pleasure of creating.  So thank you google, and thank you FoodieFarmGirl, and all the others to be unveiled during my adventures in pita making and beyond.

Cannellini Bean, Artichoke, and Fresh Rosemary Dip adapted from Farmgirl Fare

1 can organic cannellini beans, rinsed and drained

1 can artichoke hearts (not the marinated kind!), rinsed and drained

2 very large cloves garlic, chopped

3 tbsp fresh lemon juice

4 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

1/3 c. finely grated fresh Pecorino Romano Cheese

1 tbsp chopped fresh Rosemary

ground sea salt

fresh ground pepper

Place first four ingredients in a food processor, pulse for 3 minutes, then turn to on for 3 more minutes.  Keep your food processor in the on position and drizzle olive oil through top to emulsify.  Pour contents to a bowl and stir in  rosemary and cheese until combined.  Season to taste with salt and pepper.  Chill for at least two hours, then serve on crostini or pita chips.

I originally served this tossed with gemelli pasta and shredded chicken.  To be honest, I’m not really a huge pasta fan.  Or rice.  Or other side grains.  I started wondering halfway through my meal why in the heck I had served it this way.  Because I really would have rather had this pesto lovingly served on the side of beautiful roast bone in chicken breasts, with a vegetable for a side, that could share the dipping glory with the bites of chicken breast.  Then I remembered.  I am very used to preparing straight to the table meals, cooked to order so to speak.  But every so often the occasion arises where I need to prepare a dish well in advance.  Pasta dishes are good for this sort of thing.  You could totally serve this cold.  Or warm it just before serving, and it would still be good – in fact probably better if the pasta had time to rest in the pesto and let the flavors lovingly meld together.  So if it’s your turn to host your book club, make this the day before and pull it out right before the guests arrive.  Or if your friend has a baby, and it’s your night to bring dinner – try this out, because it’s wildly difficult to make and deliver fresh roasted chicken breasts, I know, I’ve tried it.  Or any other occasion falling into that Make and Store Category that remains so empty on my side bar.

But the way I advise eating it – to really get the flavor kick – is the way pictured in the top photo.  I made the crostini from half a loaf of leftover baguette, which I revived with a bit of water in a paper bag in the microwave for 20 seconds.  Unless you’ve recently broken it off with your vampire love interest and you’re trying every angle to keep him away, don’t rub the bread with garlic the way I usually do, just generously lather it with olive oil.  The garlic really has a way of becoming more pronounced when the pesto comes out of the fridge on the second day.  This would also be delicious on cucumber slices or veggie sticks.

1 can artichoke hearts in water, rinsed and drained

3 tbsp chopped Italian parsley

4 large cloves garlic

1 c. grated Parmesan Reggiano cheese

4 tbsp fresh squeezed lemon juice

1/4 c. slivered blanched almonds

1 tsp kosher salt

8 turns fresh ground pepper

3 tbsp olive oil

Combine all ingredients except the olive oil in a food processor.  Pulse to chop, then turn food processor to on/medium, then slowly drizzle in olive oil from top to emulsify.  Continue to run food processor until you like the texture.

Grasshopper pie’s hey day was in the deep south during the 50′s and 60′s – apparently there’s a cocktail called the grasshopper which served as the inspiration for this dessert.  I don’t know that I’d go so far as to call it a cocktail, to me it sounds more like a spiked milkshake.  The basics of the pie include, a cookie crumb crust, creme de menthe, and whipped cream in a chiffon style.  I like chocolate with my mint, so I use the chocolate wafer crumb crust and add creme de cacao – or chocolate liqueur.  I thickened mine using gelatin, but lots of people thicken with marshmallows.  I just couldn’t decide or remember what the marshmallow tasted like, and I wanted the mint to come through as the predominant flavor.  Oh and buy the green creme de menthe if you want your pie to turn green – or save the color with a few drops of green food coloring like I did.

This recipe is a teeny bit labor intense, so I wouldn’t recommend attempting it while simultaneously making other recipes, unless you are an extreme multi-tasker or you have hired a person to stand behind you and make sure you aren’t forgetting imperative steps in any of the preparations at hand.  NOTE to self, if you’ve forgotten all about this day and come back to make Grasshopper pie 9 months from now, by all means – follow your personal cardinal rules.  One, for the love of God, don’t attempt to toast bread at any time during this process, you *will* forget it, and it will burn.  And two, do not imbibe any cocktails until you are at least 75% of the way through the recipe.  Lest you get carried away, mess up some steps, and decide no one really wants dessert anyway.

I love cooking for people, but my inner-adventurer takes me down more often than not.  It’s not enough for me to serve one new recipe for a party setting.  For some reason I seem compelled by some culling force to make 80+ percent new recipes for each gathering.  This generally results in me screwing up my timeline, not disastrously, just enough to be stressful in the hour before the guests arrive.  I wonder if I’d have trouble in a restaurant where I had to cook from the same menu night after night.  Again note to self – remember this and scale it back for the next party.  On the upside, I have at least 4 days of blog posts from this one event.  And I got to spend my whole Saturday in the kitchen, which to me is a little slice of heaven.

Grasshopper Pie

2 c. chocolate wafer crumbs

2 tbsps plus 1 teaspoon sugar

6 tbsps melted butter

2 1/2 c. heavy cream

2/3 oz. (1 package from grocery) fresh mint

3 tbsps creme de menthe

1 tbsp creme de cacao

1 envelope gelatin

5 egg yolks

1/4 c. sugar

semi-sweet chocolate bar for shavings

1 c. heavy whipped cream

2 tbsp powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350.  Crush chocolate wafers in a Cuisinart.  To crumbs, add sugar and melted butter, stir to combine.  Press mixture into a greased 9 inch glass pie pan.  Bake 10 minutes, then let cool completely. Prepare and ice bath.  Whip 1 c. cream to stiff peaks.

In a small pan, bring 1 and 1/2 c. heavy cream and mint leaves to a boil, remove from heat and let steep 15 minutes.  In the top portion of a double boiler, combine creme de menthe and creme de cacao, then top with gelatin.  Stir to combine, then let stand 6 minutes.  Pour minted cream through a strainer into liqueur and gelatin, discarding mint leaves.  Whisk to combine.  In a separate bowl, whisk yolks and sugar.  Heat cream mixture over barely simmering water for 90 seconds.  Pour hot cream into eggs, slowly and continuously, whisking as you go.  Return mixture to double boiler, whisk continuously for 12 minutes or until mixture reaches 150.  Move to ice bath, then whisk two more minutes.  Add whipped cream to mixture, stirring gently with your whisk to combine.

Pour filling into prepared pie crust and refrigerate.  Chill at least 2 hours – or be smart and prepare it one day in advance ; )   Serve topped with a dollop of whipped cream and shaved chocolate bits.

Letting me loose in a Farmer’s Market is a little like letting loose a kid in a candy store.  Or maybe an 8 year old in a waterpark.  Or maybe a college student in New Orleans during Mardi Gras.  You get the point.  Fresh food picked as little as 6 hours prior, gets my heart pumping and my head spinning.  I actually have to ration myself on how much cash I bring or I get totally impulsive and start buying all sorts of stuff in way to large of quantities, like the 6 pints of raspberries and 2 lbs of cherries I bought one week.

We’re dippers in this family so we dipped the radishes in the chevre and the veggies in my dipping sauces.  I also brought some crackers and parmesan crisps for the chevre.  And while we were at it, we wound up dipping the bread in the sauces as well.  I try not to eat too much bread any more, just as a general habit, cause it’s rough on the blood sugar and there are so many other foods I enjoy, I just usually cut out the bread and don’t notice.  If you dip your bread in olive oil, Italian style, it’s much easier on the blood sugar and it tastes good, so why not give it a shot?

On another note, when cooking at my sister-in-law’s house this week, someone asked me if you can roast zucchini in vegetable oil instead of in olive oil.  Since I’d never tried it and we couldn’t find any olive oil, we gave it a go.  Don’t.  It was totally flavorless.  The key to good roasted vegetables is a flavorful olive oil.  I’ve mentioned it before, but the best one I’ve found was from my Nudo olive tree adoption my sister, Amelia, gave me for Christmas.

Mint Citrus Dipping Sauce

Juice of 1 medium naval orange (approx 1/4 c.)

Juice of 1 and 1/2 lemons (approx 1/3 c. )

1/2 c. grapeseed oil

2 tbsps minced shallots

2 tbsps fresh mint, finely chopped

1/2 tsp Maldon sea salt

1/4 tsp fresh ground pepper

Combine juices and grapeseed oil.   Add shallots, mint, sea salt, and pepper.  Whisk to combine.  Chill 1 hour before serving, then whisk again.

Garlic Balsamic Dipping Sauce

4 tbsps olive oil

3 tbsps balsamic vinager

2 tbsps water

4 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 tsp Maldon sea salt

1/4 tsp fresh ground pepper

1/2 tsp ground mustard

Combine balsamic, olive oil, and water.  Add garlic, salt, pepper, fresh ground pepper, and mustard.  Whisk to combine.  Chill 1 hour, then whisk again before serving.