Category — Entertaining

This Easter I’ve decided to skip my usual big holiday dessert and jump aboard the cupcake bandwagon. Both of these Easter-themed cupcakes are easy and totally kid-friendly, so be sure and have them help! And remember to watch Channel 12 Valley Dish today and watch as Marissa, Tram and I show you, step-by-step, how to make Silk Tie Easter Eggs.

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That pretty much sums up my Easter theme this year. Lots of eggs, a plethora of birdcages, with plenty of moss, twigs, and natural materials. Yesterday I showed you my moss table runner and moss-covered pots, and today some of my egg ideas.  And tomorrow, some easy and kid-friendly Easter cupcakes.

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There will not be a recipe posted today, I am far too busy to cook! I’ve been scouring every store I can think of for items for this year’s Easter buffet. I’ve been to Cost Plus World Market, Pier One, Holland Boone, and a couple of consignment stores, and I just returned home from Crown Imports. Maybe tomorrow I’ll hit Micheal’s and JoAnn’s … but I’ve done all I can do today.

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It was cold (well, it was 69 degrees, which is cold for us in March) windy and rainy yesterday, the perfect day for baking!

These savory little muffins came to be after Matt McLinn, Executive Chef at The Grind, taught at Les Gourmettes and left behind a batch of his candied jalapeños. This particular batch had gone past the point where Matt usually cooks them at the restaurant and had dried out to the real “candied” stage. Usually, they are still juicy and dripping with syrup.  The recipe below makes them that way, if you want them to be more dried out like they are pictured here, just cook them long after the vinegar is added, to dry them out. I prefer them still juicy though and they will work perfectly in this recipe either way. Matt uses them on his “to-die-for” burgers. You’ll want to use them on and in just about everything you can imagine… trust me, they are an addiction!

Along with that new vice, you should know that the muffin recipe makes a whole heck of a lot of mini muffins … how many?  Nearly 100!

Don’t try to count the muffins in the picture above. Before it was taken, I’d already delivered 2  1/2 dozen of the little gems to my sweet neighbor, Lori, who lent me 2 of the eggs I needed to make them.

I have four mini-muffin pans, so I had to make them in two batches. You can easily cut the recipe in half, but they freeze great and make the most wonderful party-size appetizer sandwiches.  Just cut in half, spread with a little jalapeño butter or jalapeño jelly, and fill with shaved deli ham or turkey.  So Amazingly Good!

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Before we get to today’s recipe I want to let you know about a change to the summer schedule. I’ve changed Week 5 to a new format. It is now a “tween/teen” week for 11-16 year-olds and will take place from Monday, June 27-Friday, July 1. There are still six spaces available for that week, so if you are interested, go to the “Classes” page on the left and check it out!

And speaking of kids… This dessert can easily be made “kid-friendly” by substituting 1/2 cup fresh orange juice for the Grand Marnier and Cognac in the compote.

This, the fourth – and final – for a little while, recipe installment in the 80th birthday party theme incorporates two interesting food-related items from 1931.

In 1931 the sidecar was created by Harry MacElhone of Harry’s Bar in Paris during prohibition here in the States. To make the famous drink; pour 1 1/2 -ounces Cognac or Armagnac, 3/4-ounce Grand Marnier or any other strong liqueur, and 1/4 ounce fresh lemon juice into a cocktail shaker filled with ice shake well and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

Also in 1931, General Mills introduced Bisquick. According to General Mills, Bisquick was born when one of their sales executives met a train dining car chef who mixed lard and the dry ingredients for biscuits ahead of time. So between the drink named the “sidecar” and the fact that Bisquick was born on a train dining car…. these sweet delights are aptly named.

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Here we have another recipe installment for the 1931-themed upcoming birthday celebration for my dad…

Although the television was already invented by 1931, regular commercial network television programming did not begin in the U.S. until 1948.  And it was many more years until it was commonplace for families to own a black and white television.  So it is not so much the television, but black and white photos that these pizzettas are meant to represent from the year 1931.

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Here is another of the recipes, along with a little history, that will be on the menu for my dad’s 80th birthday party.  You can use standard (big) size croissants or cocktail (mini) sizes, depending upon the occasion you plan to serve these delicious and classic sandwiches.

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Unfortunately, no time to post a recipe today. I’ll be on Valley Dish today at 3:30… not cooking this time, but instead showing how to set up a Mardi Gras tablescape. Tune in if you get a chance.

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Here is the final appetizer that I’ll be making this Friday on the “Oscars” edition on Valley Dish. Hope you’ll tune in at 3:30 on channel 12.

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I have an excellent excuse for not posting yesterday and delivering with the promised seafood crepe recipe. I was on a “special, highly covert, high-security assignment” revolving around THIS, for the Food section of our newspaper, The Arizona Republic.

OK, it wasn’t exactly “all that”! But I was developing recipes for the cover story of the Food section for an upcoming issue. So, I was busy! And the story/recipes really do revolve around THAT.

As bizarre as it certainly sounds, I will fill you in on the details after the story runs in the newspaper, it’s quite amusing, (Let’s just say that THAT had never ever crossed the threshold of my home before this task was handed to me – and all of my friends and family were in a state of shock to see it sitting on our kitchen counter!) so stay tuned.

Now the promised, exceedingly sought-after, and highly anticipated “special occasion” crepe recipe…

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