I’d been planning this tapas girls night and subsequent weekend of friendship for a while. The weekend was planned around my dear friend Erin's desire to make a trip to Philly to come visit and to convince whoever wanted friendship to come too. Since the couples in the plan were going to get into town on Saturday, I made an executive decision to have Tapas on Friday for some LU ladies from various walks of life (Erin, Mai, Heids, and KP). I’d taken Friday off in order to host Erin and deal with my old couch out/new couch in issues and cook. The night before Erin let me know she’d be in town around 10am, so I made sure to set my alarm for the usual time and get to Reading Terminal in the morning to get all the food shopping done for the weekend. While I was getting the last few items (some cheese) Erin called me and said she’d be in town in roughly half an hour (that was at 9) so I hustled home, and started chopping up some nuts. Once Erin made it into the city, I hopped into her car and we found a FREE PARKING SPACE, then we had to make one last stop at the grocery store before the real work could begin. Since Erin is a girl and can’t pack, we got her a shopping cart to carry all of her belongings around. Check out my dear hysterical friend.
Erin in a Grocery Store - cart full of belongings and a Pillow
Throughout the day I prepped things for dinner and had friendship time with Erin, we also had two burly gentlemen come and pick up my old couch, KP paid a visit to stay for the day and tapas, and two completely different burly men brought my new couch. KP and Erin hung my mirror, and everyone was a sues chef. We also made lunch, and eventually Mai arrived into town and also helped sues chef as we waited for Heids to arrive. Finally we were able to eat, chuckle, watch Beyonce videos, listen to some Florence and the Machine, get inspired by Lady Gaga, see a mash-up of Gaga and Judas Priest, consume some delightful wine, have a visit from JimmyJ (Heids’ delightful husband) and tweet a little uncontrollably. Also there was a viewing of this ADORABLE polar bear via Erin’s science writing blog (seen here: http://sciencedecoded.blogspot.com/2011/12/siku-polar-bear-and-power-of-biophilia.html) but I digress. Onward to the foodabilizations.
Erin sues chef’d for me prepping lunch while we all chatted with KP. Thankfully Erin has a lot of faith in me because I didn’t even tell her what we were going to be eating until it was almost completely done. Woops.
Lunch – Sour Pork Soup (or Štajerska kisla juha) from The Food and Cooking of Slovenia (this is a Slovenian wedding soup typically served at the very end of the night…kind of like a late night sandwich only soup). I cut the servings to 3.
Ingredients:
- 7-8oz boneless pork and “variety meats” – I got a pork chop and a half; I’m not quite ready for variety meats.
- 1 ¼ liters water – check
- 1 bay leaf – check
- 4 fresh sprigs thyme – I used about a tsp of dried thyme
- ½ tsp cumin seeds – check
- 1 garlic clove – check
- ½ tbs veg oil – check
- ½ onion – check, ish, I usually use slightly less onion. Onions are giant.
- ½ tbs flour - check
- ¼ tsp paprika - check
- Cider or white wine to taste – used the white wine
- Salt and pepper to taste – check
Step 1: Dice the meats into small pieces and place in a pot, pour in the water and boil, skimming the scum. There will be a life and death battle between you and the scum, you skim that skum. Stay vigilant.
Step 2: Reduce the heat so the water is just simmering and add the bay leaf, thyme, cumin, and garlic. Cover and simmer roughly an hour or until things are tender and you’ve done some other prep work, let some burly men take away your old couch, let in your dear friend KP and laughed a lot with Erin.
Step 3: Heat the oil in a pan and add the onion (which should be chopped) cook until soft but not browned. Add the flour and paprika and make a smooth paste. Cook for a minute or so.
Step 4: Remove the pan from heat, repeat: REMOVE THE PAN FROM HEAT, seriously. Gradually add a ladleful of liquid from the soup and stir to make thin paste, then stir the whole concoction into the soup.
Step 5: Bring the whole soup to boil, making your sues chef stir continuously to free up your hands for something else.
Step 6: Remove the bay leaf, add the white wine and some salt and pepper, add a decent amount of salt. Salt is good.
Step 7: Consume, preferably while watching Robinhood Men in Tights.
Unfortunately though I’d planned the meal for me, Erin, and KP to enjoy I forgot that KP doesn’t eat pork (CURSES! Foiled again…) but regardless it was pretty good, especially once Erin and I both asalted it to our taste. The meat was a little overcooked if I’m being honest, but I’d make it again. I'd also add more wine. After all, it’s a part of my heritage. This foodspermient: -2 for the scum fight, +3 for taste, +5 for heritage, +8 for Robinhood Men in Tights.
Sour Pork Soup
Nobody panic, as I cooked throughout the day, I discovered I had forgotten to purchase some things (that happens to me more often than it should for the amount of planning that goes into these meals) so there were a few adventures. Not to bore anyone with the details I’ll get straight to the cooking itself. Luckily I HAD planned well enough that the items which needed to cool were constructed early in the day etc etc or that cheeses were shredded, onions were chopped, mangos were cut, items were thawed, and pretzel breads were allowed the appropriate time to rise. Anywoo…tapas were made.
Cheese Stuffed Pecans – from food.com (changed to 6 servings)
Ingredients:
- 5/8 cup gouda – I got some honey gouda from the delightful man at the cheese shop in RTM.
- 1 7/8 tbs sour cream – check
- 24 lg pecan halves – check
Step 1: Shred the gouda, good luck trying to figure out how much 5/8ths is, usually err on the side of more gouda. Put the shredded gouda in a Ziploc.
Step 2: Measure out the sour cream into the Ziploc. Again, good luck with the 7/8ths tbs, you got this. Use your eyeballs.
Step 3: Smoosh (that’s the technical term for mix or combine) the sour cream and gouda together to form an amazing creamy mixture. This is best done while chatting.
Step 4: Squeeze the mixture to one corner of the Ziploc and cut that corner. Pipe the mixture onto pecan halves (flat side), then top with a second pecan half (flat side to the mixture). Be tempted to eat one but don’t succumb to the pressure.
Step 5: Cover the plate of stuffed pecans and chill for at least 30 minutes, or the rest of the day until party time excellent.
WOWZA. These were definitely a hit. The nutty flavors of the natural and unsalted pecans against the gouda mixture were a whammy. They got devoured fairly quickly. I think that they were also one of two cool (temp. wise) dishes of the night worked well in their favor. This foodsperiment: +10 for taste, +10 for ease, +10 for being the first dish constructed of the day!
Cheese Stuffed Pecans
Cucumbers in Cream (Smetanove murke) – from The Food and Cooking of Slovenia (also reduced the serving size…and this soup/drink/soup is usually a summer treat).
Ingredients:
- 1 1/8 lb cucumbers – check
- ½ small onion – check
- 1.5 cups of buttermilk – using 1.5 cups of milk and ½ tbs fresh lemon juice (thanks Slovenian cookbook for teaching me new things!)
- ½ cup sour cream - check
- 1.5 cloves garlic - check
- Pinch ground cumin – check
- Salt and pepper – check
Step 1: Peel and grate the cucumbers (or make Erin the sues chef do it) and put in a bowl, sprinkle with salt and add the finely chopped onion. Cover and set aside for 30 minutes. Make Mai do the buttermilk trick at the same time so that you have those 30 minutes to prep other (buttermilk takes 30 minutes).
Step 2: Drain the cucumbers/onion mixture
Step 3: Mix the garlic, cumin, and pepper into the buttermilk and stir in the sour cream; mix well. You know you want to.
Step 4: Stir in the cucumber and onion mixture and serve, or put in the fridge until the rest of dinner is ready and THEN serve. Duh.
This was another cool dish for the evening and I really enjoyed it! We had some pretzel bread rolls to dip into it and it was a good way to cool off. Everyone really enjoyed it, there was plenty leftover but I can’t say I minded so much. After all, how could I have a tapas party during soup month and not have a soup? This foodsperiment: +5 for taste, +5 for decent cleanup, +5 for innovation with buttermilk, and +8 for heritage.
Cucumbers in Cream - Also good to mix with Thai food leftovers!
Stuffed Prosciutto Pillows – from The Atkins Holiday Recipes
Ingredients:
- 12 thinly slices prosciutto (6 oz) – check
- 6 oz goat cheese – check
- 3 tbs sun dried tomatoes – check
Step 1: Chop the sun dried tomatoes and put them in some oil.
Step 2: Semi-slice the goat cheese, work on that, chunking it up is a pretty ok alternative.
Step 3: Put together each pillow in the following very therapeutic manner: Place down a slice of prosciutto, in the middle put a chuck of cheese, shake a few slices of sun dried tomatoes to remove excess oil and place on top of the cheese chunk, roll edges of the prosciutto so that the cheese and sun dried tomatoes are covered.
Step 4: (optional) wrap and place into fridge until time for the party.
Step 5: At party time excellent allow pillows to come to room temperature, then bake at 300F until just warm, roughly 5ish minutes.
I really enjoyed these. One or two of these at a party per person are totally enough (we had too many) they were definitely GREAT and so simple to make I’ll for sure make them again! This foodsperiment: +5 for taste, +6 for easy prep, +5 for easy cleanup, +5 for an explosion of taste.
Stuffed Prosciutto Pillows
Crab and Artichoke Dip – from food.com
Ingredients:
- ½ cup mayo - check
- ¼ cup sour cream - check
- ¼ cup cheese, chedder – I actually used gouda because I didn’t have any chedder
- 1/8 cup parm – check
- ½ lemon – check
- ½ clove garlic – check
- 7/8 tbs Dijon – check
- 1 (5 5/8 oz) can artichoke hearts – I used a 6oz can because I’m a rebel.
- ¼ lb crabmeat – I used imitation due to this being a last minute addition to the menu.
Step 1: Do the following prep work or have your amazing sues chefs do some of it: grate the “chedder” aka gouda, grate the parm, juice the lemon including using midwifery skills for the seeds that like to birth into your container (thanks Mai!), cut up the artichoke hearts, smash and slice the garlic
Step 2: Combine all ingredients in a bowl
Step 3: Spoon the ingredients into a oven safe dish (I used two smaller dishes so that there was easy sharing across the dinner table aka my coffee table).
Step 4: Put the dip into the oven at 425F for 15-20 minutes or until bubbly and a bit crusty on top (golden brownish is also a decent guage).
Step 5: Toast pieces of bread that you’d already made to use for scooping.
Step 6: Enjoy!
This was a dish that EVERYONE loved! It’s not your typical crab and artichoke dip but the Dijon gave it a little mustardy taste so it was a bit more tart and this one was a total hit! I think of the items spoken highly of for the night this was way up there on the list! This foodsperiment: +10 for taste, +5 for ease.
Crab and Artichoke Dip!
Toasted Bread Slices - Thanks to KP
Kale Chips – from food.com, and also from my friend Anne (as I’ve been obsessed with making them since I first had them at her place a few months ago).
Ingredients:
- Kale – check
- Olive oil – check
- Seasoned salt - I use sea salt so check
Step 1: Have a sues chef (KP!) remove the Kale leaves from the stems, cut into small pieces and wash and dry thoroughly
Step 2: Spread Kale on a baking sheet lined with PARCHMENT PAPER or FOIL but UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHOULD YOU USE WAX PAPER BECAUSE THAT WILL BURN AND SET OFF THE FIRE ALARM AND HAVE YOUR FRIENDS TRY TO SOLVE THE PROBLEM WHILE YOU TRUST THEY HAVE EVERYTHING UNDER CONTROL AND YOU DEAL WITH THE KITCHEN REPRICUSSIONS which are actually minimal.
Step 3: Drizzle some olive oil over the kale, sprinkle with salt and then toss the kale pieces until coated with both
Step 4: Bake at 350F until the edges are brown but not burnt, roughly 10-15minutes.
Kale Chips are sent from God directly to man to show that he loves us and to increase our healthy intake of vitamins. Wow, this was a total win aside from the entire fire alarm fiasco. Luckily I have friends with hearts of gold who mainly prefer laughing to calling me a moron. I’ve learned my lesson. This foodsperiment: +5 for taste, +5 for ease, +5 for easy cleanup, -2 for almost setting everything on fire, +10 for good nutrients!
Baked Kale Chips
Holiday Leftover Pizza – made from my brain
Some of you might remember this from a previous post, if not…too bad so sad. I added more cheeses (leftover goat, gouda, parm, gorgonzola, Dubliner) and subtracted turkey from the original recipe. This was the big hit of the night. The biggest I should say, but who can blame my dear friends for loving it, cheese is a blessing. I also used the second half of the pretzel bread from the crust of this to make rolls which became used for dipping the cucumbers in cream and the crab and artichoke dip I also made a second round of that (the dough) for use in making rolls for my lunches the following week, and also a small loaf for Saturday morning’s breakfast purposes, but regardless. This foodsperiment still gets a super massive high five.
Holiday Leftover 4 Cheese Mango Pizza
Finally, there was dessert. I probably could/should have simply left the dessert area to my darling Mai, who we all know is the queen of all things cupcakes (and her banana yum yums were AWESOME) but I couldn’t resist.
Strawberry Mousse – from this little Prevention book I have
Ingredients:
- 1 cup graham crackers - check
- 1 qt strawberries - check
- 3 reconsistuted egg whites – check
- ½ cup sugar – check
- 1 container frozen whipped topping – this was an adventure I had to go out for woops but check.
Step 1: Have sues chef Erin crumble up the graham crackers (one bag of the single serve graham crackers you can get from somewhere)
Step 2: Hull (aka cut the centers and the green leaves out…internet it if needed) and slice the strawberries. Then use a food processor to puree them.
Step 3: Whip the egg whites and sugar in a large bowl, use your own strength with a non-electric until you admit defeat then use your electric hand mixer and mix it until white frothy peaks form.
Step 4: Fold the strawberry puree into the whipped topping you JUST RAN OUT AND BOUGHT in the freezing tundra weather because you didn’t read this recipe carefully enough the first time. Then fold the strawberry and whipped topping mixture into the egg whites mixture and freeze overnight aka put in the fridge until you’re going to serve it and realize that you are a failure at making this recipe the way it was meant to be.
Step 5: For serving, get out those nifty Japanese bowls you bought with Mama and Staramama while IN Japan, pour some of the crumbled graham crackers into the bottom then spoon a serving of the mousse on top. Serve.
I really liked this, despite knowing that it could have been better it was still good. I guess while I’ve perfected baking bread, desserts are still not my strongest suite. The ladies liked this too though, even though we were all thoroughly stuffed and continuing to laugh at the second iteration of Beyonce’s Single Ladies video on-demand. This foodsperiment: +5 for taste, +5 for knowing it’ll be better in the future, and -2 for me not knowing all the ingredients ahead of time.
Strawberry Mousse
Overall what a wonderful Tapas party! I was in the kitchen all day but it was totally worth it, and my friends are amazing! I suppose the next party I have I’ll have to invite some of the boys over, since I’ve now had two girls nights and the boys are likely jealous. Happy Sperimenting!
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