Recently in Snacks Category

I made these using this recipe from Cooking Light magazine (June 2008). I made a half-batch and cooked them in my mini loaf pan. If made this way, you'll need to bake the mini loaves for 25 - 30 minutes, or until the tops are golden and a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.

I didn't try these because this sort of thing is absolutely verboten on the South Beach diet, but I put them in Boy and Girl's lunchboxes for a snack and they were a big hit.

Speaking of lunchboxes, here are some great lunch-packing ideas for you moms in the crowd:

Epicurious lunchbox recipes

Laptop Lunchbox Website (I LOVE LOVE LOVE these cute little lunchboxes, but they're really only good for elementary schoolers; once a kid gets to middle school, these cutie-pie lunchkits are a sure-fire "Kick my ass" invitation. That's OK - when your kids reach that age, you can use these cute lunch kits for yourself!)

About.com lunch ideas

a few more from about.com

Cute ideas (mostly for younger kids) from familyfun.com (Disney)

St. Andre cheese, "champagne" grapes, Lavash hearts and wheat crackers

We recently found ourselves hungry mid-day, after a HUGE breakfast and before an impending dinner reservation. We decided to just skip lunch, but were still a little peckish. This fit the bill perfectly for the 4 of us, to tide us over before Girl's 13th birthday dinner.

succulent Black Mission figs, fragrant toasted pecans and creamy Maytag blue cheese

The kids are off at school; I have a bit of time to myself during the day on a regular basis now. Hubby is even out of town on a business trip, so my schedule is completely my own. I took advantage of this rare opportunity to create a snack/brunch (it really should be a dessert) for myself that NO ONE else in my family will eat, but I LOVE, but rarely get to indulge. Seriously, no one will touch this but me (Hubby hates figs, Girl hates almost all nuts and Boy hates "stinky cheese"). I am absolutely loving life right now. I'm reading the third of Ruth Reichl's books (Garlic and Sapphires) while nibbling on this tasty treat and watching the hummingbirds play out of the corner of my eye. The only thing that would make it perfect would be a diminutive glass of port, but it is 10:00 am and even I would find that a little too indulgent.

These spicy, smoky, salty eggs are beautiful and are very impressive-looking, too. They are a common Chinese street food and look like they are made of carved marble. They are surprisingly easy to make, but are beautiful to accompany an Asian-themed meal, or even to dress up regular picnic or lunchbox fare. They are really simple to make, but do take some advanced planning, because they need to sit overnight (that means YOU, Eileen).

Spicy Chai Marbled Tea Eggs

8 eggs
1 whole star anise
6 whole coriander seeds
2 whole cardamom pods (or 1/2 tsp whole seeds, removed from the pod)
6 whole cloves
3 whole allspice pods
2 whole black peppercorns
2 Tbsp soy sauce
3 tsp loose smoky tea leaves (lapsang souchong is best, but Earl Grey would do)

Place the eggs in a medium-to-large sized lidded saucepan and cover with cold water (do not put the lid on). The eggs should have at least an inch of water over them. Bring the water/eggs to a boil over high heat. As soon as the water gets to a full boil, remove pan from the heat and place the lid over the pan. Set aside for 16 minutes.

After 16 minutes, drain the water from the pan and rinse the eggs with cold water until they have cooled slightly. Gently hit the eggs all over with the back of a spoon to crack them evenly all over. Add the eggs back to the saucepan. Crush the whole spices gently with the side of a knife blade, or a mortar and pestle or meat pounding mallet. Add all of the spices, tea and soy sauce to the pan and then add more cold water to cover the eggs. Bring the water/tea/spices/eggs to a gentle simmer over low heat. Simmer gently, covered, for 2 hours.

After two hours, remove the pan from the heat and allow it to cool slightly. After the pan is cool to the touch, place the whole thing into the refrigerator to cool. Let the eggs sit overnight in the liquid, or at least 8 hours.

After 8 hours, drain the liquid and rinse the eggs. Carefully peel them. They should be uniformly marbled and smell of soy and spices. Serve them with Lapsang Souchong salt or Balsamic Mayonnaise (1/2 cup mayo, 1 tsp. balsamic mayonnaise and 2 Tbsp. of the soy-spice liquid that the eggs were cooked in).

To serve, place the whole eggs on a plate, so that they can be appreciated in their marbly beauty, but then cut each egg into 4 wedges to serve.

Just about my favorite snack/appetizer in the whole world...
I'm the only one in the family that will eat them and I am perfectly OK with that, because it means that I don't have to share.

I recently received a hostess gift of a cute potted herb garden that contained some lemon thyme (and oregano and variegated sage). The thyme was growing particularly vigorously, so I went in search of a recipe that would make good use of it. I found this one on epicurious.

These were really tasty, unique and easy. I would recommend reading the epicurious reviews before you decide whether or not to make them. It seems that most people either LOVE them or HATE them. I did add more lemon zest and more lemon juice, as was recommend in the reviews. I must be honest and say that these were not a big hit with Boy and Girl. I think that they would have liked them a lot without the thyme in them, but that would sort of defeat my original purpose, yes? I liked them quite a bit, but would serve them in the future as more of a appetizer or (with a glass of chardonnay) snack, rather than as a dessert. I also must disclose that I am a sucker for ANYTHING citrus. I'll take lemon or orange ANYTHING over chocolate any day of the week, so I may have a bit of a bias. Anyway, they were easy and the dough could be stored in the freezer for last-minute hostess needs.

Our friend, Jennifer, made this bread for us from Padma Lakshmi's new cookbook (we gave her the cookbook for her birthday). It is a delicious, moist banana bread made with cornmeal and molasses. I can't find a link to the recipe online, so you'll just have to buy the book! We LOVED this - I would be embarassed to admit how quickly we finished it after Jennifer gave it to us! Mmmm....

OK, all of you BCW Gourmet Clubbers that are stopping by - please leave me a comment to let me know what you think! That was a great party, huh? Does anyone have the Orange-Chipotle Pork recipe that they would be willing to share? That was scrumptious!

NOTE: I'm going to be entering the photo above in the monthly CLICK photography contest. Wish me luck!

This recipe is adapted from one in the great little appetizer cookbook, Cocktail Food: 50 Finger Foods with Attitude (they are called "Nutty Napoleons" in the book and are made with dry-toasted pecans, instead of the balsamic glazed ones). I don't remember where I originally saw the instructions for the balsamic-glazed pecans, but they were served over a spinach salad (with balsamic vinaigrette). I thought these two recipes would be great, if they were combined together. We are heading to a neighborhood party this evening and each couple is asked to bring an appetizer. I thought that these would be fun and festive.

Balsamic-Glazed Pecan and Stilton Bites

6 cups very large and perfect pecan halves, divided
1 and 1/2 cups brown sugar, divided
6 Tbsp. olive oil, divided
6 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar, divided
salt

8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
6 ounces Stilton cheese, at room temperature
6 tsp. port wine
1 1/2 tsp. honey
1/4 tsp fresh ground black pepper
chopped fresh chives, for garnishing (about 6 Tbsp.)

Line a large cookie sheet with foil. Spray the foil lightly with cooking spray and set it aside.

NOTE:
I prepared the pecans in 3 separate batches, with 2 cups pecans, 2 Tbsp. oil, 2 Tbsp. vinegar, 1/2 cup brown sugar and a pinch of salt in each one. It MIGHT work if you cook all 6 cups of pecans (and all of the other ingredients) at once, but I haven't tried it, so I can't vouch for it, for sure (don't know if the pecans would toast evenly, etc.). If you're going to do all 6 cups at once, you'll need more than one foil-lined baking sheet.

Whisk the oil, vinegar, sugar and salt in a large, heavy skillet over medium heat until bubbly. Add pecans and cook until glaze is dark and thick and pecans are well toasted, stirring frequently and being careful not to burn the pecans (about 5 - 7 minutes). Remove pan from heat and pour pecans onto foil-lined baking sheet, gently separating the pecans as much as possible as you pour them, with a wooden spoon or spatula. DO NOT TOUCH THE PECANS WITH YOUR HANDS; they will be scaldingly hot (yes - I learned this the hard way - I have a blister under the tip of my left middle fingernail - ouch). Allow the pecans to cool for at least 10 minutes - you'll be able to separate them more later.

Blend the cream cheese, Stilton, port, honey and pepper in a food processor until smooth. Transfer to a pastry bag fitted with a # 18 (or similarly-sized) tip. (You can also use a plastic baggie with a corner cut off or a small, round tip.)

Put half of the cooled, separated pecans (flat-side down) on a serving tray. Pipe about 1/4 tsp. of the cheese mixture down the top of the pecan and then top with a second pecan (flat-side down). Pipe an additional 1/4 tsp. of cheese onto the top pecan and sprinkle with chopped chives to garnish.

The glazed pecans can be prepared up to 3 days in advance and stored in an airtight container at room temperature. The cheese mixture can be prepared up to 3 days in advance and refrigerated, but allow to come to room temperature before assembling (pull it out of the fridge about an hour ahead of time).

You can assemble the pecans up to 3 hours ahead and allow to sit at room temperature.

Yield: about 120 bites, depending upon the size of your pecans.

Yeah, yeah, I know....not local, not organic, but these things are a veritable treasure trove of vitamins (B5, C mostly and PACKED with anti-oxidants) and the kids LOVE them. It's kind of a pain to peel them and remove the seeds, but they are so beautiful that I don't mind - they look like little, juicy rubies. Mmmmm...

I've read about sprinkling them over dishes as a garnish, but haven't ever done it, myself. I would imagine that they would be pretty fabulous in a very simple (and lightly dressed) salad. Dropping a few of them into the bottom of a glass of champagne is lovely and there are trillions of pomegranate cocktail recipes online. Get 'em while you can - pomegranate season is already waning.

Boy, enjoying a warm samosa.

When I saw this recipe in the new special edition Fine Cooking "Appetizers" magazine, I knew that I would have to try it. We LOVE Indian food, and especially samosas. We are attending a party soon where we are expected to bring an appetizer and this may very well be what we bring. These were WAY labor-intensive: I prepared the garam masala one day, cooked the potatoes the next and then prepared the dough and make the samosas the next. Whew! But.....they were REALLY good. My worst fear is that I didn't seal the samosas well enough and that they would fall apart and the filling would come out when I fried them, but they didn't! Yay!

I learned a few things making them, though:

Garam Masala, toasting in a skillet.
The peppercorns that I use are a mixture of different colors of pepper, so that's what the red things are.

I didn't use the garam masala recipe that was in the recipe, but used this one, instead. They were similar enough that I don't think it changed the flavor of the final product.

Browning the parboiled potatoes.
I used Yukon Gold potatoes, because that's what we like and that's what we had on hand.

I also couldn't bring myself to use shortening: it's just not something that I keep in the house, so I used butter, both to brown the potatoes and to make the dough.

Completed filling.

The first thing that I learned:
I think this recipe called for just a BIT too much coriander. There's already quite a lot of coriander in the garam masala, so I don't think I'll add the extra seeds to the filling next time.

Rolling out the dough.

Forming the dough into a "cone".

Stuffing filling into a dough "cone".

The second thing that I learned -
I was afraid to stuff the samosas too full, for fear that the dough would rip, but they are really better when they are stuffed full of the potato-pea filling, and don't have any empty "air space" in them. It turns out that the dough is much less fragile than I feared, so stuffing them pretty full is OK.

Formed and filled samosas - can you tell which ones I did last, after some practice?

Samosas, frying. 350 degrees for 5 minutes was PERFECT.

The third thing that I learned:
It was hard to turn the samosas over; they had a tendency to want to stay the way that you first put them in and would flip back over when I tried to turn them.

The finished plate of samosas (minus the two that Hubby and I ate before we took the photo).

The last thing that I learned -
I had a lot of filling left over. I haven't decided if I'll make a second batch of dough tomorrow and use it up or if I'll use the filling in some sort of sandwich or fritatta, instead (maybe with some leftover turkey - ha, ha!)

I would HIGHLY recommend this recipe for anyone that loves samosas but hasn't tried making them before. I would also highly recommend buying the "Appetizers" magazine - it has a lot more great recipes in it to get ready for upcoming holiday gatherings.