Blog Party 30 - Veggie Friendly

It's been a few months since I've attended a Blog Party over at Dispensing Happiness. But with such a great theme for #30, how could I resist? Veggies are big in our house right now; I am new-years-resolutioning us into more veggies and less meat and processed food on a regular basis.

First up is open faced tomato sandwiches on biscuits.
Yes, it's winter and tomatos aren't really that great, but I'd rather have a not so great tomato than none at all. I've split biscuits (these are just Pillsbury), spread with a bit of mayo and some dried basil, topped them with sliced tomatos and sprinkled them with salt and pepper. So good. And good for you! Tomatos are low calorie, low fat, have no cholesterol, and are a good source of Vitamins A and C.

Next is one of my favorite lunch/dinner treats - Mango Cucumber wraps.

I spread the whole wheat wraps with a thin coating of dressing - mayo, mango chutney and curry powder - and top with shredded lettuce and chopped cucumber and mango. Normally I'd just roll them up and eat, but I watched an episode of Ricardo and Friends where he made wraps for a children's party. He wrapped them in parchment paper, tied off sections with ribbons, and then cut between the ribbons to make small wrapped servings. They looked so adorable I tried it.

Looks cute I think. PS - Cucumbers are low in calories and fat, and are good sources of calcium, iron, and Vitamin A.

And what Blog Party would be complete without a drink? I made up a batch of Dave Lieberman's Ginger Cranberry Cocktail, except I made individual drinks instead of a jug.
These were great and would be wonderful in the summer on a hot day. Ginger is not a veggie, but is still yummy. Ginger is a good source of Magnesium and Potassium, and is thought to help relieve migraines.

See you at the party!

Blog Party 26 - it's what's inside.

Stephanie from Dispensing Happiness is hosting her 26th Blog Party and this is one is all about what's on the inside. Well clear some room on that table Stephanie, I went crazy and brought lots with me today!!!

My first contribution to the party is Melon and Prosciutto. When I was a waitress at a restaurant in the downtown area I used to walk over to an Italian restaurant a few blocks from my house after work and get an order of this to go. The restaurant served big wedges wrapped in full slices of the salty ham. I prefer to go bite-sized. So, cut your melon (I used cantaloupe) into bite size pieces and wrap them in a bit of prosciutto.


Next up, ham and cheese wraps. Spread Boursin or herb and garlic cream cheese on a tortilla and top with a layer of thinly sliced ham. Roll up tightly, then cut into bite sized pieces.


I also made two batches of mini potato skins. These are small nugget potatoes that were steamed, halved and had their middles scooped out. One batch was filled with chopped tomato, one batch was filled with chopped ham. They were smothered in cheese, broiled and then topped with sour cream and a sprinkle of cayenne pepper.


For my tasty beverage this month I've put mint and fruit inside ice cubes made from lemonade.


Not only are they pretty, but they won't dilute your lemonade, and when the cubes melts you've got pretty floaties too.


Looking forward to the party Stephanie, cheers!

Blog Party 24 - Bloggers Choice

This month the hostess with mostess Stephanie of Dispensing Happiness is celebrating the 24th edition of Blog Party! She's made the theme of 24 "Bloggers Choice". I've chosen to throw a mini barbecue party.

We'll start with the main course. This is a dish I've wanted to make for ages and thanks to Stephanie now I have. Here's a plate of mini burgers.


Originally I wanted to make my own mini buns, but as you may have read in my previous posts, it's hot here right now, so I am not using the oven. Instead we cut the mini buns out of regular buns, and saved the bun scraps to serve with spinach dip the next day. I had some frozen burger patties in the freezer, so I thawed them out and made 3 mini burgers out of each patty. We grilled them up and served them with ketchup and relish.

Next up are bean bites. Brown beans are one of my most favorite foods. I added some onion, a chopped chipolte pepper and some bbq sauce to the beans and microwaved them. They were served on spoons for easy eating. (Those big Chinese soup spoons would have been perfect here, but I don't have any.)



Our beverage for the party is not that new; I made a similar drink for Blog Party 19. This time around it's Pineapple juice and 7-Up. Deee-licious.



Stephanie, congrats on 2 years of Blog Party! It's been fun, and I look forward to many more.

Blog Party 21 - Let's Have A Picnic

I think I done missed a couple of Blog Party's thrown by Stephanie over at Dispensing Happiness, but I'm back, baby! The theme for Blog Party 21 is picnic food. Sadly, our weather isn't co-operating with said theme. I was hoping to have an actual picnic to write about, but Mother Nature just won't have it.

So here's my contributions to the party from the comfort and warmth of my kitchen.

Up first, our drink, this month of the non-alcoholic variety:


I love to drink this in the summer. It's just water with thinly sliced cucumber and lemon. It is so refreshing. My other favorite is mint, lots of fresh mint steeped in water. I can't wait for my mint plant to spring back to life (hopefully) soon.

And also with the cucumber, Greek salad on cucumber rounds. Simple, refreshing, and easy.


We don't mess around much with Greek salad. Tomato, Kalamata olives, green onion, red bell pepper and feta mixed with a bit of olive oil and a squeeze of lemon juice.

Stephanie, you've whet my appetite for some outdoor eating! You'd better hope the weather turns soon, or I'm coming to your house!

Blog Party 19 - Comfort Food

Stephanie at Dispensing Happiness has picked a spot-on challenge for Blog Party 19 - Comfort Food.

These past few weeks - for me at least - have been filled with nothing but snow, cold temperatures, and being under the weather. What is a more perfect time to fix up some comfort food?

We start with our beverage, a new favorite of mine, Pineapple juice and soda water. Nice and sweet and fizzy without any added sugar or caffeine or alcohol. The only problem for me is actually finding pineapple juice in Calgary! What is up with that? Our savory appetizer tonight are Mini Sloppy Joes. I cut some slices of a nice cheese bread into small cubes and topped half of them with my leftover warmed up vegetarian sloppy joe filling and covered them with the other mini bread slices.





For dessert, what could be more comforting than cupcakes?



The recipe for these Lemon Gem Cupcakes comes from Vegan with a Vengeance. They were so fabulous. I was the only one who knew they were vegan. They were gobbled up in about 2 seconds. Comforting indeed!

Blog Party 18 - Black and White

Our divine hostess Stephanie at Dispensing Happiness has chosen Black and White as the theme for this month's Blog Party.

A bit of a toughie, but I think I did ok.

Tonight we have:


Sun Dried Tomato Pesto and Mozzarella Squares.
The mozzarella was supposed to blanket all the square, leaving them totally white, which didn't quite happen, but I think they still look good, but more importantly, they tasted very good.


Next up:


Rootbeer Float Shooters.
These are very small glasses (about 3" high and 1 1/2" wide) that I filled halfway with rootbeer and dropped a small spoon of vanilla ice cream in. Then you shoot 'em back.


And finally,


B&E.

Baileys and Espresso

1 shot freshly made espresso
1 shot Baileys
ice

Fill a hiball glass with ice and pour in the espresso and baileys. Stir and serve.

Blog Party XVII: Lights, Camera, Action!

This month's Blog Party over at Dispensing Happiness is all about the glamour. Stephanie's gone Hollywood, and she's taking us with her.

This month I've brought to the party:

Blinis with "caviar"


Deep Fried Pineapple


and a lovely glass of wine.


Blinis and caviar has always sounded like such an elegant dish to me, but I've never had any interest in trying caviar. Then it hit me - just fake it!

Blinis with "Caviar".
1 large (8oz) red or white skinned potato
1 tb flour
1 tb sour cream
1 egg
salt

toppings:

sour cream
finely diced tomato (the "caviar")
finely diced red onion

Boil the potato until tender. Cool slightly and peel. Mash the potato in a large bowl. Stir in the flour, sour cream and egg. Season with salt.

Heat a large frying pan over medium high heat. Pour in about 1 tsp of oil and drop small spoonfuls of the batter into the pan. Cook until golden brown, about 3 minutes per side. Keep the blinis warm while you use up the rest of the batter.

To serve, place a small spoonful of sour cream on each blini. Top with some diced tomatos and onion, and serve. Squeeze lemon on top if desired. Serve straight away.


I love pineapple, but I wanted to do something different with it. So I fried it! I used a tempura batter I bought in Chinatown and stirred in some brown sugar and hot chile flakes. The result was really nice. Hot, crispy, sweet and spicy.

Our wine was from one of our favorite wineries in BC - Mission Hill. Besides having a completely breathtaking property, their wines are terrific. My favorite is the Riesling. If it's available in your area, you should try it.

Stephanie, thanks. I can't wait to see all the fabulous food at the party!

Blog Party 15 - Literary Party

For Blog Party 15 Stephanie from Dispensing Happiness chose a literary theme, asking us to come up with some treats inspired by or from a novel.

At first I thought this would be a piece of cake. It was a lot harder than I thought! But finally I picked one of my favorite stories by one of my favorite authors, but probably most if not all of you won't have heard of him.

Stuart McLean is a Canadian author, journalist, teacher, radio host and performer. He is the author of many books including the popular Vinyl Cafe stories. He has a radio show on the CBC and also tours Canada. Scott and I have been lucky enough to see him twice in the past couple of years.

My favorite story of his is from his book Home From the Vinyl Cafe and is called "Dave Cooks the Turkey". It's also available as its own book and is on Stuart's Christmas Collection CD. It is a priceless, hysterical story; Dave decides to help out his wife Morley at Christmas by offering to prepare the turkey dinner while Morley takes their children to help at the Food Bank on Christmas Day. Dave does not realize until he goes to bed on Christmas Eve that preparing the turkey also means buying the turkey. What happens next...well, you really should read it yourself to find out.

In honor of Dave and because we Canadians had our Thanksgiving dinners on the 8th, I made Turkey Quesadillas.
Each quesadilla is cut into eight servings. For each quesadilla you'll need:
2 flour tortillas, 8 or 10" diameter
1/2 cup mozzarella cheese
2 tb cranberry sauce, plus more for serving **
2 green onions, chopped
2" piece of broccoli stem peeled and thinly sliced
1/4 cup leftover turkey meat, coarsely chopped

Spread 1 tb of cranberry sauce on each of the quesadillas. Top one with half the cheese, the onions, broccoli, and turkey. Sprinkle the rest of the cheese over and top with the other tortilla, cranberry sauce side down.
Heat a large pan over medium heat and spray lightly with non stick spray if desired. Place the quesadilla in the pan and cook until the bottom is lightly browned. Carefully flip the quesadilla over and cook until browned and the cheese has melted.
Remove to a cutting board and let stand 3 or 4 minutes before cutting. Cut the quesadilla in half, then cut each half into fourths. Serve with extra cranberry sauce on the side.

**I made my cranberry sauce from the recipe on the side of the cranberry bag but cut the sugar by half so it wasn't so sweet.

I have recently discovered Nutella; it is the best stuff on Earth. Where has it been all my life and why did no one tell me about it sooner? I whipped up a little chocolaty treat for the party - Nutella Tarts.
I filled baked mini tart shells with Nutella and whip cream blended together, then finished with a dollop of regular whip cream. These went fast let me tell you. I made 8 for 4 people and probably should have doubled it at least!

Our drink veered us close to Christmas territory what with the turkey and all. But the stores started selling Eggnog here earlier this month and my boss for some reason bought bottles for everyone at the office. We added rum to ours, but it's just as delicious plain with a sprinkle of nutmeg.

Blog Party 14 - Kids Party

When Stephanie at Dispensing Happiness announced that Blog Party #14 would be a kids party, I wasn't sure what to do for a moment. I don't have any kids. I don't have a lot of friends who have kids. Dilemma! But then I decided that I wouldn't let such a small issue such as a child get in the way; I would simply cook something that we would like, but that would also appeal to kids.
I made these Pizza Muffins because what kid doesn't love pizza? They were very tasty; slightly less firm than a traditional muffin, but I couldn't see any kid turning these down.
For dessert I made Worms and Dirt; chocolate pudding covered with cookie crumbs with wiggly gummy worms poking out. I know, my picture is awful! Not only is my camera possessed, I bought the wrong sort of cookie - it was sticky and I had a terrible time trying to crumble it up to cover the pudding. But it still tasted delicious.

I did make a drink as well but again, camera troubles. We made Swamp Juice - just different flavors of pop mixed together(Cola, Root Beer, Orange, Lemon-Lime etc). I learned this from my formers boss' kid. I think it tastes awful, but it is a hit with kids.

Thanks to Stephanie for hosting Blog Party - I always enjoy myself. Can't wait to see what next month will bring.

Pizza Muffins

Makes 12

1 package (125 g) Vegan Pepperoni chopped **SEE NOTE
1 red pepper seeded and finely chopped
10 oz can sliced mushrooms, drained
1 red onion minced
1 1/4 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup tomato sauce
salt and pepper
1 garlic clove minced finely
1 tsp dried basil
1/4 tsp hot pepper flakes
4 eggs
1/4 cup oil
1 1/4 cups flour
1 tb baking powder

Mix together the pepperoni, red pepper, mushrooms, onion, cheese, tomato sauce, and all the spices.
In a separate bowl whisk the eggs, oil, flour and baking powder. Pour into the pepperoni mixture and blend well.
Spray muffin cups with non stick spray and spoon in batter.
Bake at 375' for 25-30 minutes or until lightly browned.
Let cool slightly before serving.

**NOTE - I use Vegan Pepperoni not only because I like the taste, but it is also much lower in fat. If you prefer, just use the same amount of regular pepperoni.

Blog Party #13 - Cool As A...

This month's Blog Party over at Dispensing Happiness is all about staying cool and using the stove and other appliances as little as possible. Usually a wonderful idea for August. But of course here in Calgary our weather has taken a downward turn. I had to wear a jacket this morning to the farmers market! That is just wrong.For the party I made 2 snacks and 1 drink - Corn and Black Bean Salsa on Chips, Watermelon Margarita Salad and Long Island Ice Tea.
We made our Teas with rum, vodka, tequila, lemon juice and cola. Lethal!
The Watermelon Salad was wonderful! Very cool and refreshing.
Some of the chips have just a dot of sour cream, some are just salsa. These went fast - I had to make up 2 more trays after this picture!

Stephanie always has some great music lined up, and I'd like to throw in a song that I love that sprung to mind when I was flinging tequila everywhere - Sol Ja Camba by Fantcha. It's a beautiful song.

Thanks to Stephanie for another great party!



Watermelon Margarita Salad

I made mine with half a medium watermelon.

Watermelon, cut into bite sized cubes, chilled
2 tb finely chopped basil
2 tb finely chopped mint
4 tb lime juice
4 tb tequila
salt
sugar

Place watermelon cubes on a platter. Scatter the mint and basil over, then sprinkle with the lime juice and tequila. Top with a couple of small pinches each of salt and sugar. Serve right away, or let stand for 30 minutes or so.



Corn and Black Bean Salsa on Chips

salsa:
3 tomatos, seeded and diced
3/4 cup corn kernels
1 cup black beans
2 tb oil
2 tb lime juice
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cumin


tortilla chips
sour cream (optional)

Mix the salsa ingrediants gently together and let sit for a few hours or overnight.

When ready to serve, lay chips out on a plate. If using sour cream, put a small dab on each chip before topping with a spoonful of salsa.

Serve right away.

Blog Party #12 Passport Party

I am so excited this is my second Blog Party in a row! The wonderful hostess Stephanie from Dispensing Happiness is celebrating one year of her parties! For her 12th she asked that we base our food on a favorite destination or somewhere we'd like to travel to.
Since I haven't been to that many (none) exotic places, I chose the country of our number one dream trip - Spain.
Our first dish was Patatas Bravas - fierce potatos, a dish we had at a tapas restaurant earlier this summer. It is potato that is baked or fried and tossed with a spicy sauce. We cubed the potatos and baked them, then tossed them with a sauce of onion, tomato, white wine, red wine vinegar and paprika. The sauce was either a bit too thin or there was too much of it, but overall it was pretty nice.
Scott loved these mushrooms. I took 2 Spanish tapas ingredients - mushrooms and serrano ham - and made these wonderful stuffed caps. I finely diced the ham and mixed it with very finely minced onion and garlic. Stir in a glug of olive oil, paprika and pepper, stuff and bake.
Our drink was the best part of the party for me! We mixed white wine with Willaims Sonoma's sangria mix, added some fruit and drank away.

Thanks Stephanie for another wonderful time!

Blog Party #11 - Man Food

Finally, I remember to join Stephanie from Dispensing Happiness for one of her Blog Parties. And lucky me, the theme is Man Food! This is lucky because I live with a man! Who eats food! Clearly, this could not be more easy.

I asked Scott - what would you consider man food? His answer - fried things, spicy things, things on sticks. Meat. Cheese. Beer.

So we put our heads together for my first time at Blog Party and came up with 2 very manly appetizers and 1 masculine drink. We managed to cover 4 out of 6 of Scott's criteria. Not bad at all.

Prosciutto Wrapped BBQ Shrimp, Green Chile Cheese Squares and Hair of the Dog.

And all 3 were a huge hit. I barely got to try the shrimp!

Thanks for letting me join in Stephanie!



Prosciutto Wrapped BBQ Shrimp
makes 20 appetizers
20 large shrimp, peeled and deveined
10 slices of prosciutto, each cut in half lengthwise
2 cloves garlic, chopped
4 tb tamari
2 tb white wine vinegar
2 tb water
1 tb brown sugar

Mix together the garlic through sugar and stir well to dissolve the sugar. Divide between 2 bowls.
Add the shrimp to one bowl and let marinate for 1 hour. Reserve the other bowl to use with the cooked shrimp.
Remove shrimp from marinade and discard sauce. Wrap one slice of prosciutto around each shrimp.
Preheat your grill pan or bbq, and cook shrimp 2-3 minutes per side, until shrimps are cooked and ham is crisp.
Serve with reserved sauce for dipping.




Green Chile Cheese Squares

1 small can chopped green chiles
2 cups mozzarella
2 cups cheddar
6 eggs
3 green onions, chopped
2 tb milk or water
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper

Grease an 8x8 baking dish. Pour the chiles and their juices over the bottom of the pan and spread the cheeses over the chiles. Whisk the eggs, milk, salt, pepper and onions together and pour over the cheese. Bake at 350' for 35-40 minutes, until eggs are firm.
Remove from the oven and let sit for 10-15 minutes. Cut into small squares and serve.


Hair of the Dog

1 oz Clamato
3 oz cold beer
salt
pepper
hot sauce
Worcestershire

Pour the Clamato into a tall glass. Add two dashes each of hot sauce and Worcestershire, and sprinkle lightly with salt and pepper. Mix well. Slowly add the beer and mix again.