NYE Strawberry Cupcakes

This post is not exactly a recipe but I did bake,

and since I have been MIA from the family food blog,

I thought I better post!

We are going to a NYE potluck tonight.

I decided to bring dessert,

what else would (could) I bring?

So, I started with Pillsbury Strawberry cake mix.

Mixed according to directions.

Placed in cupcake pan.

Baked 18 minutes.

After cooling, we iced the cupcakes with a pink vanilla icing,

I think strawberry icing would have been overkill,

then topped with a slice of strawberry.

Don't you love our new IKEA platters?

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*On a side note, my New Years Resolution is to incorporate more protein in my diet.

Any simple high-protein vegetarian recipes you would like to share?

What are your New Years resolutions?

(Since they usually involve food,

I thought it would be an

appropriate Pass That Dish discussion.)

Mimi's "Christmas Dinner"

Mimi had her first "Christmas Dinner" last night. She invited all Jews, go figure! Leslye and Adam Dicken, Maury, Sara, Stanley and Roro Brill, David and Jeff Perellis and Marvin Sotsky. She served a very traditional Holiday menu-

Roast Turkey and Gravy

Scalloped Potatos

Sauteed Hericot Verde

Carrot Ring

Tossed Salad

Broccoli Slaw

Rolls and Butter

Fruit Tart

Derby Pie

Assorted Cookies

See's Toffee

The dinner was fabulous with everyone leaving throughly stuffed. She had every TV (4) on in the house so Adam could watch Miami beat the Lakers in their holiday showdown. Roro and Stanley ate very well - kin-a-hora!! A good time was had by all.

I think she established a new family tradition last night, as long as I do most of the cooking! No more Chinese restaurants full of yahoodum!

Happy New Year Everyone. Love you

Ivy Ridge Holiday Party

IVY RIDGE HOLIDAY SPREAD

English Trifle

Antipasta platter

Peppered beef sandwiches with Henry Baines

Sundried tomato and basil pesto hye-rollers

Caribbean chicken kabobs with hot mango relish

Pecan cheddar cheese tort

Aunt Sharon talked me into catering the Holiday Party for her patio home community. I really enjoyed preparing this for her. I told them this was probably a "one and done" situation, but who knows.

The menu was fantastic and well received by all 35 attendees.

Menu

Caribbean chicken skewers with hot mango chutney

Asian inspired salmon with scallions and sesame seeds

Peppered beef sandwiches with Henry Baines

Pecan cheese tort

Antipasta platter

Hummus and pita chips

Bruschetti with toast points

Sundried tomato and pesto hye-rollers

English trifle

Assorted pick up desserts

all this for $20 per person!

...for individual recipes please send me an email.

Antipasti Platter

Crystal and I just got back from a very relaxing trip to Scottsdale, AZ for an extended weekend.  We had a wonderful time and mainly just hung by the pool, walked around Old Town, and of course ate well.  There were a few standout restaurants on the trip, including FnB (Food and Beverage), that I will get into in a later post (want to give them their proper due).  Tonight, I wanted to write about something that we ate for lunch two of the days that was really enjoyable.  That something is an antipasti platter.  The first platter we got was at a place called 5th and Wine, where we enjoyed a nice relaxing lunch in their courtyard patio.  We had tomatoes and basil, three different cheeses (white cheddar, a goat cheese, and a hard italian cheese), two types of cured meats, house marinated olives and some bread and olive oil.  It felt very nice just to pick at the food at our own pace, and paired well with the wines we were drinking.

Now the next day we were so inspired by our antipasti platter that we decided to get another one to start off our meal at Culinary Dropout.  This was a terrific gastropub very close to the fashion square mall in Scottsdale.  This place took its antipasti platters very seriously, with separate stations in the kitchen for the cheeses and where they sliced (paper-thin) to order cured meats.  We got a great Bresaola Salumi as our meat, oven roasted tomatoes mixed with basil and for the cheeses we had Tete de Moine cheese from Switzerland and Port Salut from France.  The Tete de Moine came shaved and assembled in the shape of a flower petal, very cool!  The Port Salut was almost like a butter, soft like a brie or camerbet, but with a slightly more balanced flavor.  Excellent on some good crusty bread.

So, why do I feel compelled to write about this tonight?  Well, we loved the concept so much (not that is new in anyway) that we decided to have it again for dinner tonight.  Friday nights are almost always takeout food for us, we anxiously await for it to arrive and then devour it as if we had not eaten in weeks; but always feel a little unsatisfied after eating it.  In Scottsdale, we thought doing our own antipasti on Friday nights may be an easy, delicious dinner option for us.  It is simple to put together, very satisfying and cheaper than takeout.  Crystal actually was able to find both cheeses we got at Culinary Dropout at our local Whole Foods and they were every bit as delicious as I remember.  She paired the cheeses with some prosciutto, salami, and olives stuffed with garlic cloves.  We also enjoyed a toasted baguette with some olive oil mixed with balsamic vinegar.  Such an quick and simple dinner, but felt like we were eating quality food that we felt much better about eating than Thai takeout or pizza for the 1,000th time.  I have a feeling we will be doing this again real soon.

Happy Chanukkah

Last Sunday, Crystal did me a solid and made some good old fashion Jewish food to celebrate Chanukkah.  Our menu for the evening was Mimi's brisket, kasha, latkes and some mandel bread (Jewish biscotti) for dessert.  I detected some nervousness on Crystal's part about making some of our family favorites, but she did a trememndous job and everything was delicious.  It was great to be able to celebrate the holiday, even though I was far away from my family. 

I started the evening off with a dry martini as Crystal finished up frying the latkes:

For the latkes, Crystal used a Martha Stewart recipe and doctored it up with some diced scallion.  She worked really hard to grate the onions and potatoes, but did admit at the end of the day, they were pretty fun to make.  Of course, we topped them with the traditional apple sauce and sour cream.

Below, is the final plate, you can see I like to load up my kasha with a lot of the brisket jus.  The latke and kasha were excellent.  We had some small issues on the roasting of the brisket -- so it was tasty, but a touch dry.  I think after some consultation with my Dad, I will have the issues fixed for next time. 

Earlier in the week Crystal made Mandel bread for a co-worker.  She had never even heard of it before that day (nor had I, apparently I am a bad Jew), but heard it was her co-workers favorite.  She made a standard dough, that was slightly sweet, but nothing like a cookie dough.  She shaped it into 9x3 logs and baked for about 15 minutes.  Then, she took the bread out of the oven, sliced into biscotti shaped portions and baked again for 10 more minutes.  She topped them with cinnamon sugar.  They were so good, excellent with coffee in the morning and as a great dessert for our holiday meal.

It was a great meal and it was fun to some of the traditional Jewish things on a holiday.  We lit the menorah and everything.  I hope everyone had a great Chanukkah, and as they say at passover, Next Year in Jerusalem. Shalom Perellis Family.