Bacon Mushroom Caps

 

These are wonderful appetizers, easy to make and delicious. I have served them both at brunches and cocktail parties with equal success, and I always get requests for the recipe. Recipients are continually surprised by one of the ingredients - corn chips!

 Bacon Mushroom Caps

40 medium button mushrooms

½ lb. bacon, crisply cooked and crumbled

1 c. shredded Monterrey Jack cheese

½ c. butter, softened

½ c. finely crushed corn chips

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

2 T. finely chopped onion

1 T. dry red wine

 Remove stems from cleaned mushrooms; chop stems. Combine stems with remaining ingredients. Fill mushroom caps. Place an inch apart on baking sheets and broil 5 to 7 minutes until lightly browned and bubbly. Serve hot.

 

Crush corn chips very fine. I used an ice cream scoop.The recipe calls for Monterrey Jack, but I used Fontina.Cook bacon until well done and crispy, and then chop with a sharp knife.Stir ingredients together well. I cubed the butter in order to allow it to more quickly incorporate.Rolling the filling into loose ball shapes makes it easy to fill each cap.

These are a MUST TRY!

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Apricot Scones

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According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Apricot Scones are a menu favorite at The Barn, the restaurant on the grounds of the Thomas Sappington House Museum Complex in the county of Crestwood. Now, I have been to The Barn restaurant, and my experience was not a good one. However, I do love apricots, and I like a good scone, so I was willing to give these a try. The directions provided were unnecessarily tedious and long, so I updated them; I find the absolute best way to make a scone is in the food processor, so that’s what I did. These are indeed tasty and filling, and made a wonderful breakfast this morning.

 Apricot Scones

Recipe adapted from Feast Magazine

 

Flour, for work surface

2 c. flour

⅓ c. granulated sugar

1 t. baking powder

¼ t. baking soda

½ t. kosher salt

8 T. (1 stick) cold, unsalted butter, cut into 16 pieces

1 3-oz. pkg. Melissa’s dried apricots

½ c. toasted pecan pieces

½ c. sour cream

1 large egg

2 T. melted butter, for tops

⅓ c. Sugar in the Raw

 

Preheat oven to 450° F. Line a baking sheet with parchment or a Silpat. Lightly dust a work surface with flour.

 Pulse apricots in food processor 4-5 times until diced small; empty into bowl. Pulse pecan halves 4-5 times until chopped; empty into bowl with apricots.

Into the food processor, place flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Pulse until combined. Place butter cubes into food processor, and pulse until mixture forms a coarse meal. Add apricots and pecans, and pulse until blended.

 In a small bowl, whisk sour cream and egg until smooth, then add to the food processor. Pulse until it forms a large ball.

Place dough ball on floured work surface and pat into a 6-inch disc, smoothing sides as you go. 

 

 

Brush melted butter over the top and sides, then cover with sugar in the raw, pressing down lightly as you do.

 

Make four cuts into the top to create eight pie-shaped scones. Lift each one off of the work surface, lightly dipping the bottom into any accumulated butter and sugar, and place on baking sheet. 

 

Bake until golden brown, 15 to 17 minutes.

 

Serve warm or at room temperature.

  

Cheesy Spinach Pull-Apart Bread with Hearts of Palm

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 In your family do you have things that you refer to as “party food?“ We do. This generally applies to finger foods, baked appetizers, and other truly wonderful little edibles that we tend to only make for parties, and never for ourselves. Why is that? I mean, we love this food, why not enjoy it more often? Today, I decided that I was going to make party food for myself.

This is super simple to make. The filling can be made the day before, and assembly is a breeze so that you can bake it up just before you’re ready to enjoy it. Dividing the filling between the slices of biscuit is best accomplished by using a cookie scoop, as I did. Seriously, this went together in no time at all. I had it with a spinach and strawberry salad, and enjoyed myself tremendously. More party food is in my future, I guarantee!

Cheesy Spinach Pull-Apart Bread with Hearts of Palm

8 oz. cream cheese, room temperature 

½ c. finely chopped Melissa’s Hearts of Palm 

½ c. finely chopped baby spinach

1 c. shredded mozzarella, divided

½ c. freshly grated Parmesan

   1 t. minced garlic

¼ t. red pepper flakes

Pinch kosher salt

  Freshly ground black pepper

 1 tube Pillsbury refrigerated biscuit dough

Fresh or dried parsley, for garnish

Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray a 9"-x-5" loaf pan with PAM; set aside. 

In a large bowl, combine cream cheese, hearts of palm, spinach, ½ cup mozzarella, Parmesan, garlic, paprika, and red pepper flakes. Season with salt and pepper and stir to combine.

Cut each biscuit in half horizontally.

Using a cookie scoop, dollop 2 tablespoons of the dip mixture onto one side of each biscuit half.

Stack biscuits so that there is a layer of dip between each biscuit, leaving the ends plain.

Place your biscuit stack into prepared loaf pan. Cover with foil and bake 45 minutes. Remove from oven and remove foil. 

Brush with butter, sprinkle with remaining mozzarella, and bake 15 minutes more, until biscuits are golden and cheese is melted.

Allow to cool for 10 minutes. Run a knife around the edge of the pan, and carefully remove. Garnish with parsley and serve.

Green Pepper Fries

Onion rings, step aside; I am about to kick you to the curb. Today, I harvested my first green pepper from my deck garden. It was an exciting moment. I wasn’t sure exactly what to do with it, whether or not I should sink my teeth into the sun-warmed fruit (yes, green pepper is a fruit), make up some pepper steak (a single serving, naturally), or do something completely different. I decided upon the latter. Having recently come across a recipe for oven baked green pepper rings, today seemed like an excellent day to give it a try. 

These are easy to make, and are amazingly good! I credit some of this to my recipe for rémoulade that I will share below, but you can dip them in anything that you like. I think this would make a great snack for the kids this summer, or a nice side for a grilled steak, chop, or piece of chicken. They will surprise and delight you, and they’re guilt-free!

Green Pepper Fries

Adapted from Delish.com

2 bell peppers, sliced into ½” rounds, seeds removed

2 large eggs, beaten with 1 T. water

1 c. flour

1½ c. panko breadcrumbs

1 tsp. paprika

1 tsp. garlic powder

1 tsp. kosher salt

Preheat oven to 400°F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper; set aside.

In a medium shallow bowl, combine panko with paprika, garlic powder, and salt. Coat pepper rings first in flour, then egg, and then the panko mixture. Place on prepared baking sheet.

  

Bake 10 minutes, carefully turn them over, and bake 10 minutes more, until tender. Remove from oven and let cool slightly.

 .

While peppers are baking, make rémoulade (recipe below).

Serve pepper rings with dipping sauce on the side.

Rémoulade

1/3 c. mayonnaise
2 tsp. Dijon mustard
1 tsp. Creole seasoning
1 tsp. prepared horseradish
½ tsp. dill pickle juice
½ tsp. hot sauce
1 small clove garlic, minced

Whisk above ingredients together in a small bowl. Will keep in the refrigerator 3-5 days.

PRINT RECIPE

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How to Peel Pearl Onions

Pearl onions are the darling of holiday buffets. Creamed onions are as traditional at Thanksgiving as are cranberries, and as traditional at Christmas as is eggnog. Braised, glazed, creamed, roasted, grilled, added to soups and stews, any way you enjoy them, they are delicious, but many people forego dealing with them because the peeling seems so daunting. If you're a pearl onion rookie, here is the best and easiest way to peel them. Start to finish it only consumes about fifteen minutes of your time, and is well worth it for the fresh taste.

This mixed assortment from Melissa's Produce is by far my favorite. Not only is the variety of sizes and colors visually appealing, but the combination of tastes is unsurpassed.

Now, let's get started. First of all, bring a large pot of water to a boil. While you're waiting, cut the stem end (the end OPPOSITE of the root end) off of each onion. It may seem tedious, but you can develop a rhythm and knock them out in no time.

Discard the tips and put the onions in a small bowl. When the water reaches a full, rolling boil, dump the onions in all at once. Allow the water to return to a boil and boil them for three minutes. While they are boiling, fill the empty onion bowl with ice water and set a strainer over the sink.

When the three minutes of boiling time are up, strain the onions and immediately dump them into the bowl of ice water.

Allow them a couple of minutes to cool and then, one by one, squeeze the root end, and out will pop your peeled onion! Yes, there will be a tiny bit of waste, but nothing beats this method for speed, and aren't we all busy cooks? In some cases the root end may remain attached so either pinch it off or cut it off. That's it!

I have a delicious recipe that I made on Thanksgiving using these beauties that I will share next week. Stay tuned!

This post is linked to:

Metamorphosis Monday 

Inspire Me Tuesday

Tuesdays At Our Home

Tutorials and Tips Tuesday

Homemaking Party Tuesday

Foodie Friday & Everything Else

Great Idea Thursday