Caprese Salad Appetizer

Back in Arkansas we had pot-luck BBQ's weekly at our house. One day Claire brought these appetizers and they were gone before the meat hit the grill. I thought it was such a great idea and I have been waiting for the opportunity to recreate these. I made them for Jill's engagement party and they did not disappoint.

Ingredients:

Wet Mozzarella

Basil

Cherry or grape tomato's

Olive oil

Balsamic

Salt and pepper

1. Insert toothpick into tomato. Add a small piece of basil and then mozzarella.

2. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and then drizzle lightly with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

Stuffed Mushrooms

This is a great healthy recipe! However, for the engagment party we added about 1/4 cup Parmesan to the mixture to add even more flavor! They were great and I'd recommend adding the extra parm if you are not worried about the extra calories.
I've made these for two different parties and I have never had leftovers.


My mom was asking for this recipe the other day, I'd say it is definitely a success when such a great cook is asking ME for a recipe!!:)

Ingredients:

Makes ~20

~5 sun-dried tomatos (rinse oil off with water)

20 white mushrooms (stems removed and save)

2 Tbs. Olive oil
2 garlic cloves

2-3 shallots

1/3 cup bread crumbs

1 egg yolk beaten lightly

1/4 cup fresh parsley

1/2 tea. dried basil

2 Tbs. grated Parmesan

1. Preheat oven to 400.

2. Take stems out of the mushrooms and put in a food processor. Lay the mushroom caps on a baking sheet or pan and cook face down ~10 minutes, or until liquid puddles underneath. Remove from oven and remove liquid and turn caps around so they are ready to be filled.

3. Mince mushroom stems, garlic, and shallots. Heat in a skillet over med heat until shallots are softened.

4. In a bowl stir together bread crumbs, tomatos, yolk, parsley, basil, and mushroom mixture. Add salt and pepper to taste, this is also when you can add the 1/4 cup of parmesan cheese if you desire.

5. Stuff the mushrooms with the mixture and sprinkle with parmesan cheese.

6. Bake ~15 min or until cheese on top is slightly melted.

Twice Baked Mini-Potatos

My sister Jill showed me how to make these after she tried them at one of her own dinner parties. You can add and take away what you want and you could make them with large potatoes as well. (Jill made this with blue cheese for her party and said they were fancier, I guess that means it was a "pinky's out" kind of party).

Ingredients:

Makes 16

Small red potatoes

olive oil

cheese (we used sharp Cheddar, but you can substitute blue cheese)

sour cream

chives (to sprinkle on top, optional)

1 Tbs. milk

1-2 Tbs. butter

salt and pepper

1. Preheat over to 350 degrees.

2. Scrub potato's and cut in half.

3. Coat with olive oil, salt and pepper. Bake face down for ~20min or until soft.

4. Remove from oven and carefully remove filling and save the skin to be stuffed.

5. Mash potatoes, butter, sour cream, milk, cheese, salt and pepper. Add ingredients to taste.

6. Stuff potatoes with filling and sprinkle with chives or shredded cheese. Bake until cheese is melted ~10 minutes.

Jalapeno Poppers

Posting just in time for the 4th of July!! So easy and so good. This simple recipe was a hit at Jill's engagement party. The jalapeno's in New Mexico are much hotter than anywhere else I have lived, thankfully my fellow New Mexican's could take the heat!:) To ease my conscience I used the 1/3 less fat cream cheese, and I'm pretty positive no one could tell the difference. Some people like to mix the cream cheese with a sharp cheddar, but I like my stuffed jalapeno's simple.

I guess they went so quick I didn't get a chance to take a pic of the final product:) sorry.

Ingredients:

Jalapenos

Cream cheese

Bacon

1. Cut jalapeno's in half, lengthwise. De-vein and de-seed.

2. Fill each jalapeno half with cream cheese.

3. Wrap each half with ~half peice of bacon.

4. Grill ~30-40min or Bake on 375 degrees until bacon is crispy. If after baking ~20 min and the bacon is still looking a little undercooked you can broil for a couple of minutes.

Crab Cakes

Like I said, not only was my vacation filled with great friends and family, but it was filled with great food as well! We did a lot of home cooking and bbq'ing, but I also got to visit two of my favorites, Si Senor and Hometown burger TWICE!!!

My mom and I started cooking this crab pattie recipe only to find out half way through that it wasn't a crab cake recipe but was intended to be used as a filling. We had our hearts set on serving mini-crab cakes for Jill's Engagement party so we had to play around to make it work. The finished product was amazing bite size crabcakes! I do not like crab cakes that are filled with breadcrumbs. This recipe is great and loaded with crabmeat!

Ingredients:

2 cups crab meat

2 Tbs. Flour

3 stalks celery

1 Tbs. Worcestershire

2 Tbs. Minced Parsley

1 cup cream

3 Tbs. butter

2 medium onions

1/2 tea celery salt

1/4 red bell pepper

1 clove garlic

1 Tbs. Green onion (chopped)

~5 slices toasted french bread (crumbled)

Tony Chachere's, salt and pepper to taste

1. Chop celery very fine and dice onions. Saute celery, bell pepper, onion with butter ~ 20 minutes.

2. Add cream, crabmeat, parsley and seasonings: cook another 20 minutes.
3. Add crumbled toast. Mix well.
4 Bake at 350 degees ~5-10 minutes.

Crawfish Pie

I just returned from my vacation in New Mexico. Visiting my family was a blast. When you go to the Stansbury house, cooking and eating is a huge part of the experience. By day two Jill and I had already planned out our meals for the next 9 days of our trip!! But Saturday nights party the menu was in our hands...in the next 5 posts you will see what we came up with.

For Jill and Blaine's engagment party in Farmington, NM we served heavy hor douves. Mom, Jill and I cooked all day and it was a huge success. We turned some of our favorite recipes into bite size creations and they all turned out so super cute and were perfect for the party! In the past I have made this Crawfish pie recipe in a deep dish pie crust and it was amazing as well.

Ingredients:

1 lb. Crawfish Tails

1 stick butter

1 can cream of mushroom

1 can rotel

2 lg. onions (chopped)

1 bell pepper (chopped)

2 sticks celery

2 green onions

4 cloves garlic

parsley

Pie crust or phyllo cups

Mix:

2 beaten eggs

3 slices of crumbled toast

1. Saute all except egg and toast. Add Cream of Mushroom, mix well.

2. Fold in tails, green onions and parsley.

3. Bake shells or pie crust at 400 degrees about 15-20 mintues.