Toast Points

A couple of weeks ago, my husband and I hosted what is becoming our annual wine and cheese party (menu to follow). The party is a blast – everyone brings a bottle or wine or a favorite cheese, and everyone gets to try a sampling of everything.

Anyway, slightly bored with the usual crackers and fresh bread for serving, these toast points are a nice change, and super easy to make. While I ate both soft and hard cheeses on the, they’re especially great for soft, spreadable cheeses such as goat cheese.

Toast Points

From Books n’ Cooks

Makes 16 triangles

Ingredients:

  • 4+ slices of sandwich bread (white, wheat, or your choice!)
  • 2+ Tbs. butter, melted
  • Kosher salt
  • Desired dried or fresh herbs

Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and preheat broiler on oven.

Trim crust from bread. Cut each slice into 4 triangles or squares. Place on prepared baking sheet.

Brush each piece of bread with a little butter. Sprinkle with salt and herbs.

Cook for 1-2 minutes, until golden brown.

Flip each piece, butter, and add salt/herbs. Cook for another minute, until the second side is browned.

Enjoy with your favorite cheese or crostini topping.

Cheese Straws

We recently hosted our annual wine and cheese tasting party, a party I love to host because no matter how busy we get, its easy. Nothing but picking up a couple of bottles of wine, some cheese and crackers, and there you have the perfect party.

However, this year I decided to experiment a bit. With extra puff pastry in the freezer, and a cheese I’d never had before (Gruyère), I decided to give these cheese straws a whirl. Easy to make (took less than 30 minutes, including cook time) and impressive to look at, I’ll be keeping the makings for these goodies around the house for last-minute entertaining.

Cheese Straws

Adapted from Barefoot Contessa Barefoot in Paris

Makes approximately 24 cheese straws

Ingredients:

  • 2 sheets (1 box) frozen puff pastry, defrosted
  • Flour
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 tbs. water
  • 1/2 c. freshly grated Parmesan
  • 1 c. finely grated Gruyère cheese
  • 1 tsp. minced fresh thyme leaves
  • 1 tsp. kosher salt
  • Freshly ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 375 and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.

Beat the egg with 1 tbs. water and set aside. Combine Parmesan, Gruyère, thyme, salt, and pepper in a small bowl. Set aside.

Lightly flour your counter or a large cutting board. Unfold each sheet of puff pastry and roll out, until it’s 10×12 inches. Brush each of the puff pastry sheets with some egg wash. Evenly sprinkle cheese mixture on both sheets. Use the rolling-pin (lightly!) to press the cheese into the dough.

Using a sharp, floured knife or pizza cutter, cut each piece of puff pastry into 12 strips. Twist each strip and lay on prepared baking sheet.

Bake 10-15 minutes, until lightly browned and puffed. Flip each straw and bake for another minute or two. Remove from oven and let cool on baking sheet (the straws will initially be a little soft, crisping up more as they cool).

Pecan-Date Spread

I found this idea in Fine Cooking (#102, p. 20), in the page on new ways to use seasonal ingredients compliments of editor Lisa Waddle. I was a little doubtful at first and honestly, when I had my first bite, I wasn’t quite sure how I felt about it. The consensus at the part was that although it was sweeter than expected, it was a great spread.

Note: Fine Cooking didn’t list portions, so feel free to use more or less of the below, according to your taste.

Date-Pecan Spread

Inspired by a Lisa Waddle suggestion in Fine Cooking #102

Yields about 1 1/2 cups spread

Ingredients:

  • 1 – 1 1/2 c. chopped dried dates
  • 1/2 – 3/4 c. toasted pecans
  • zest of 1 orange
  • dry sherry

Combine first three ingredients in a food processor. Pulse for 30 seconds or so, until the mixture begins to come together.

Gradually add sherry to food processor, pulsing until mixture is combined to desired consistency. Mine was still a bit chunky, but you can also pulse until a smooth paste has been formed.

Serve: with fresh bread as an appetizer. Crackers would also work, but we weren’t impressed with the spread on crostini. This is a great appetizer on its own, or as a compliment to a cheese board (I enjoyed it with brie).

Fine Cooking also suggested adding the spread to a grilled cheese sandwich or turkey panini.

Caramelized Onion & Feta Tartlets

Cara Onion & Feta Tartlets

A little pre-Valentine’s Day trip to Williams Sonoma got me excited about using these cute little tartlet pans I bought. Since I bought them and then ran to the grocery store, I didn’t have a recipe to work with for our Valentine’s Day dinner, I improvised. The dough is a basic savory pastry dough that you can find just about anywhere (I adapted this one from Fine Cooking). I halved the recipe, hoping to get 3 tartlets, but somehow ended up with enough for 6 (the below is an adaptation of the recipe for 6 tartlets, so don’t be surprised if you have extra dough). The caramelized onion and feta filling was my own little creation – sweet yet still savory.

Caramelized Onion & Feta Tartlets

Makes 1-10 inch tart or 6 tartlets

Ingredients for the Dough:

  • 1 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
  • 1/4 tsp. table salt
  • 9 Tbs. cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
  • 6 Tbs. ice water

Ingredients for the Filling:

  • 2-3 Tbs. olive oil
  • 2-3 medium onions, sliced thinly
  • 1 tsp. kosher salt
  • 1/2 c. feta cheese

Make the Dough: Whisk together flour and salt. Add butter and with a pastry blender, cut the butter into the flour until little balls form, almost like coarse cornmeal. Add water a tablespoon at a time, stirring with a for until the dough comes together.  You may not need all the water. (This can also be done in a food processor, step by step.) Roll dough into a ball, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate for 1 hour.

Caramelize the Onions: Heat oil in a skillet over medium heat. When hot, add onions and salt. Cook for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until onions are browned and sweet.

Make the Pastry: Using a rolling pin, roll out the dough. Cut out pieces, slightly larger than tartlet pans. Press into pan, and cut off excess dough. Add caramelized onions and feta on top.

Bake at 400F for about 15 minutes.

BB’s Sausage-Stuffed Mushrooms

Since I didn’t have any dinner party plans, I made this for a little appetizer for my husband and I one night before a late dinner. It was tasty although I was surprised that my husband preferred my traditional cheese-stuffed mushroom recipe to this one. I completely thought he would have opted for the sausage version!

I did use cream cheese in place of mascapone cheese in this recipe – I never really use mascapone and didn’t think I’d have the time to plan another menu-item around the ingredient to use it up. The cream cheese worked just find as a bonding agent.

The only thing I would recommend with this recipe is that you very finely chop the sausage after it is fully browned. I chopped mine up with a spoon as I would normally do, but when it came time to mix the ingredients, I found that the sausage chunks were still too large.

Stuffed Mushrooms

Source: The Barefoot Contessa

Prep Time: 15 minutes     Cook Time: 50-60 minutes

Yields: 6-8 servings

Ingredients:

  • 16 large white mushrooms
  • 3 Tbs. olive oil
  • 1 1/2 Tbs. Marsala wine or sherry
  • 3/4 lb. sweet Italian sausage, casings removed
  • 6 scallions, white & green parts, minced
  • 2 cloves of garlic, minced
  • 2/3 c. panko crumbs
  • 5 oz. mascarpone cheese  (I used cream cheese)
  • 1/3 c. grated Parmesan
  • 2 1/2 Tbs. minced fresh parsley
  • salt & pepper

Preheat the oven to 325F.

Remove stems from mushroom caps. Mince stems and set aside.

Heat olive oil over medium heat. Add sausage, breaking up into small chunks with a spatula or wooden spoon.

When completely browned (about 10 minutes), add mushroom stems and Marsala/sherry. Cook for another couple minutes.

Add scallions and garlic, and cook for another couple minutes. Be sure to stir so the mushrooms, scallions and garlic are getting warmed.

Stir in panko. When combined, add mascapone or cream cheese and stir until cheese has melted and the mixture is creamy.

Remove pan from heat and stir in Parmesan and parsley. Salt & pepper to taste.

Allow to cool slightly before filling the mushroom caps with the sausage mixture.

Arrange mushrooms in a baking dish that holds the mushrooms snugly against each other.

Bake for 50 minutes, until stuffing is cooked and browned. If your stuffing hasn’t browned after 50 minutes, broil for a few minutes.