Football Season Is Almost Here….Take these Ideas to Your Next Tailgate!

Photo courtesy of Christopher Morgan Photography

With September and October around the bend, it’s time to start planning your NFL football season! Just let the scent of honey maple BBQ and fresh corn on the cob, roasting in its husk beckon you down the street (or out to your own backyard!) for the next great tailgate or block party. A sports fan or not, the beginning of fall is all the motivation you need to plan a party or wax nostalgic.

Who doesn’t remember their high school football games, circling the track and watching the field, cup of hot chocolate in one hand and hotdog in the other?  Now you’re ready for something more sophisticated than those concession stand snacks you grew up with. Relax, I’ve got you covered.    

When a fan and editor at Woman’s World got in touch with me last week, it was to ask for advice on tailgate food. I gave her a mouthful, and took to my blog to share the love. Whether it’s in a parking lot or someone’s backyard, outdoor parties are the perfect excuse to get to know your neighbors better, swap cobbler and nacho recipes, or simply give the kids an excuse to throw water balloons at each other.

Personally, I like to use tailgates as a method of sharing everything I’ve learned in my decades of being a Dolphins fan.  When the current draft picks were toddlers, I was already making a science out of cooler contents. This is a cheat sheet to get you started:

·         Sophisticated, Filling, Ooey Gooey Sandwiches that Pack Up Neat! Braised short ribs covered in melting munster cheese turn out awesome on a Panini grill. While the sandwich is still warm, wrap in Reynolds combo parchment/aluminum foil with the foil on the outside. Stack the sammies on top of each other and place into a thermal container. Serve when the tailgaters get their hungry on. Hero sized subs are a great idea, too! My favorites incorporate cobb or grilled chicken caesar salad, with anchovy laced caesar dressing.  Alternatively, I like to utilize leftovers, like my barbecued salmon hoagie with apple cider slaw. Whatever the filling, take the insides out of a long baguette. Stuff the bread and place the top back on. Wrap tightly in parchment paper. When it's tailgating time, slice the sub into sections (right through the paper) and hand out to your fans.

·         Done with stale boring nuts? Me too! Toast your favorite nuts on a baking sheet. Make it your own by adding your favorite spice, like chili powder. Place the nuts into a bowl and add raisins or dried cranberries. Toss in brown paper lunch sacks; roll over the tops and seal with chip clips. For the party, remove the clips and roll back the tops so that the bags make their own nut bowls.

·         You can't go wrong with friend chicken. Think outside the KFC bucket and prepare your own buttermilk fried chicken before you trek to the game. Place the pieces into a napkin lined basket and make it the star on your tailgating table.

·         Burgers, burgers, burgers. Earn the blue ribbon by stuffing your burgers before you put them on the grill. Stuffers include sautéed veggies like peppers and onions, and melting cheeses like provolone and mozzarella. Don't forget to butter the buns for toasting as you grill the burgers.

·         Sides That’ll Get You Tailgated: My favorite salad sides are purple potato salad, toasted corn and poblano slaw and pasta primavera salad. 

·         Bring a Pinwheel Platter: If you are bringing the dish to the tailgating party make a huge platter of bite size picnic pinwheels. Wrap 10-inch tortilla around your favorite fillings. My favorites are smoked salmon with cream cheese and capers; provolone, roasted turkey and avocado with cornichons, and my Ruben inspiration which is filled with sauerkraut, corn beef, Swiss cheese and Thousand Island dressing – Yumm!

·         Stuffed Cupcakes:  Make your favorite cake batter and bake the cupcakes. When they are cooled uses a squeeze bottle to stuff the insides with your favorite filling, like peanut butter and jelly, chocolate ganache, marshmallow fluff or my favorite – Nutella! Don't have a squeeze bottle – don't worry. Cut the tops from the cupcakes, use a melon baller or spoon to remove some of the insides, and scoop your filling into the cupcake. Top and frost!

It’ll all be so good you won't remember the score ; ). Let’s swap recipes before the season’s done!

Chipotle Spiced Candied Bacon

1 pound bacon
1 cup brown sugar
½ teaspoon dried ground chipotle pepper or chili powder

Preheat the oven to 400°. Mix together the brown sugar and ground chipotle pepper.

Cut the slices from 1 pound of bacon in half (about 4 to 5-inch lengths). Dredge each piece in the brown sugar.

Place onto a rack set into a baking pan with lip. Bake until the bacon is crisp, about 10 to 15 minutes.

Remove to a parchment paper lined pan. Cool to room temperature.

Store in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

A Proper Tree Trimming Deserves Your Sunday Best!

Ask your decorator-in-chief to pop over for Herbed Parmesan Popovers, dipped in velvety red Pappa Al Pomodoro 

So, word is out on my new project, Sunday Best Dishes, and my heart is full.  I couldn’t be more thankful for the loyal friends who are testing the recipes inspired by those Sunday inspirations we all, whether we realize it or not, bring home to our kitchens.  The muse I’m talking about struck me in an Italian restaurant, on a recent cold night.  I came up with an idea for what to serve the night your Christmas tree goes up.  It’s tradition in our home to invite friends and family over for some gnoshing and decorating on the heels of Thanksgiving, and I wanted to change things up a bit from standing rib roast and creamed spinach. 

So here’s how the idea hit.  I won’t say which restaurant, since you’ll probably guess once I describe it. Carefully plated entrees and desserts were lined up in a glass display case. Big vases of calla lilies were everywhere, and cans of San Marzano tomatoes lined the shelves. Those tomatoes always excite me; they’re the highest quality canned product out there. Suddenly my imagination was bubbling like a big pot of tomato gravy. Once we were seated, I began to take notes.  Okay, I didn’t really take notes, though I could have under the soft glow of white lights strung over the tables.  A packet of crayons and a kids’ menu sat beside a giant carafe of red wine—a look that’s both elegant and incongruent, especially on a paper tablecloth. I wanted to pick up a fire-red crayon and write “Pappa Al Pomodoro” right there on the butcher paper.

My Sunday Best Pappa Al Pomodoro, which translates to “Tomato Soup with Bread” contains the highest quality plum tomatoes, olive oil, dry red wine and chicken stock one might use for this dish. I’d also like to point out that this recipe is a golden opportunity to use fennel, one of my all-time favorite ingredients. Fennel is in its natural season from late fall through early spring. You’ll want to pick up a fresh batch from your farmers market while the getting is good, before it bitters up in rising temperatures. You can store fresh fennel in a Ziploc bag for up to 10 days in your fridge, and use it in comforting chicken slow-cooker dishes all winter long.

But of course, one can’t have a savory soup without a savory bread to go with it—now of course I realize there are big chucks of ciabatta cubes already in the soup, but this is Christmas decorating night, and we can never be too much in the way of carbs! That’s why I’m pulling one off the menu from an old Tree Trimming Party: Herbed Parmesan Popovers. They resemble a Yorkshire pudding so they’re perfect for this time of year. Piercing them with a fork when they’re straight out of the oven is a great idea if you’re cold; a pillar of steam will warm those cheeks right up! Feel free to dip a popover into your soup, and get back to your decorating after just one bowl. No lollygagging about when there’s work to be done!

Soup’s On, And So is my Book Launch and Sunday Best Recipe Contest!

If you have a delicious dish, worthy of Sunday night dinner, I’d love to hear about it. I am now accepting submissions through March 30^th of your Sunday Best dish; just email the recipe to jorj@jorj.com. On Easter Sunday, 2013, I’ll announce the winner and send a grand prize of my newly launched book, plus a goody basket filled with high quality pantry staples. Bon Appetite, holiday gnoshers!           

Tricks for These Treats

A Candy Maker’s Kitchen Must Haves, Chewy Caramels & More! 

We’re plowing through October, leaving fall leaves in our wake. Is it just me, or is 2012 wrapping up faster than a re-gift? All joking aside, have you thought much about the upcoming holidays? My chewy caramels are not just fun to have on hand Halloween night, but make nice Christmas presents too. Whether it’s now or later, rolls of wax paper showing up at the house can mean only one thing: Mom is making caramels to wrap up like penny store candy!

Not to knock the candy companies, but the incredible sweetness and goodness of homemade caramels cannot be matched, and that’s why this post focuses on tricks for these treats; making them with ease is a matter of two Kitchen Must Haves: 1) a candy thermometer and 2) poultry shears that do double duty cutting through the chewiest of cookies, caramels and bars you’ll be making this holiday season.

 

I like to use my slow cooker or double broiler when I make caramels—the deeper the pot the better. As your confection bubbles away, you’ll want to stick the candy thermometer in for a reading of around 250 degrees; this is the temperature that allows you to dredge a spoon through. Note: you’ll be looking to see that the track of yummy caramel doesn’t fill back up immediately—then it’s time to spread your treasure into the baking dish you’ve coated in vegetable oil spray and wax paper—or better yet, a Silpat Liner; a priority Kitchen Must Have since I started in the cooking biz. Once the caramel cools, you can cut pieces for wrapping later on, or….

You COULD skip the cooling and cutting, and dip up to 10 apples in the caramel while it’s still hot and melted in the pot. I think offering caramel apples is the ultimate TV viewing snack when ABC puts on its annual It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!” I’ve checked TV listings and the exact date is not yet available, but do touch base with me on Facebook to see my near daily notes (and admitted obsession with) sitting down to this sixties classic with an apple on a stick. I think it’s airing somewhere around October 27^th this year.

I’ve decided to make a make a day of prepping a half dozen apples or so before show time—and my readers, especially the ones who cook with kids—might want to do the same. It’s got great memory making potential! Whether you prepare the caramel the old-fashioned way, or tear open a bag, the Youtube instructional video you’ll find posted to my Nana Network gives the best dipping and decorating 411 on candied apples you’ve ever seen. I hope you’ll visit the page next time you’re on Facebook, “like us” and submit a fall photo for the contest we’re running until Halloween. The prize is a $25 gift card to Yankee Candle—where candied apple scented tallows are bound to be on sale!   

P.S. Nothing wrong with paying a local treat shop to do all this—I love the Confectionary at Disney that lets you custom create your candied apple! But if you decide to save a ton of $$ and make your own, feel free to write me with your experience. And don’t forget to count the apples in the Charlie Brown special! I think the party dunks for a few…          

Chewy Caramels

Makes approximately 3 pounds of caramels
Prep time: about 30 minutes

2 cups dark corn syrup

1 cup milk
2 cups sugar
½ cup butter (1 stick)
2 tablespoons vanilla extract
8 ounces unsweetened chocolate

Confectioners’ sugar

Place all of the ingredients into a large deep pan. Heat over medium high heat stirring constantly. Remove the caramel mixture from the heat. Cool to room temperature.

Spray a 13X9-inch baking dish with vegetable oil cooking spray. Line the sprayed pan with wax paper. Spray the waxed paper. Pour the caramel mixture into the pan. Let the caramels continue to cool until they are firm.

Turn out the caramels onto a cutting board. Remove the waxed paper.

Use poultry shears to cut the caramels into ½ inch squares and drop them into a bowl of powdered sugar.

Wrap each one in wax paper twisting the ends.  

Drink in the Sweet Pleasures of Autumn with This Casual Dessert Party

I have a date with a cup of Pumpkin Spice Coffee, served up warm with a dollop of whipped cream—I’m setting a small but lovely dessert table for a handful of my closest friends, and hope you’ll find a likeminded opportunity this year to host a seasonal gathering of your own.

October and November are perfect for savoring spicy, aromatic and super sweet flavors associated with Fall; whether you’re cooking a figgy pudding, roasting pumpkin seeds, or sniffing crisp red caramel-covered apples during the fall carnival—you can’t help but revel in the aromas that practically cling to you this time of year—right along with the sweaters you just pulled out of storage.

This is an ideal time to play hostess since the hectic pace of the full-on holiday season has yet to begin. Extend this cozy invite before everyone is too busy—or too frazzled—to join in the fun of an informal party.

Cue my Fall Equinox Dessert Feast! What am I serving?

Well…inspired by the October 21st holiday I just read about (would you believe it’s National Pumpkin Cheescake Day?), I’ve decided to do a Pumpkin Swirl Cheesecake; she’ll be big and marvelous, and take center stage on my table. The rest of my desserts consist of Chocolate Spice Cake with Caramel Toffee Frosting—so fitting for this time of year with its cinnamon clove smells, so inviting as you step in from the changing leaves…I could go on and on…—and last but not least, my Butterscotch Pudding with Toasted Almonds that I plan to serve from a real pumpkin shell! (Grab a carving knife, some newspaper, and get to work hollowing out a smallish pumpkin, so that you, too, are good-to-go serving your pudding the same way!)

You can prepare the pumpkin cheesecake 1 or 2 days in advance; the other desserts require some refrigeration time to set—see the recipes for complete instructions. My point in mentioning this is that you should prepare everything for this dessert party well in advance of show time!

One of the cool things you’ll notice about these desserts—aside from OMG!Flavor—are their colors, which are going to match the scented candles I’ll put out for the occasion. I also found a surprisingly nice (for its 40% mark-off from an original price of $30!) pumpkin/fall foliage centerpiece from Michael’s; browsing the aisles, there today I saw a lot of crafting tools from Martha Stewart’s product line—and was glad I just featured one of her Halloween party prep gadgets in my Favorite Things on the Nana Network.

Hop on Top Nana’s Facebook page and hit “Like “for weekly news feeds on more family fun with a culinary twist!

But in between work and play on the computer, get on the horn and arrange to have your friends over for dessert between now and Thanksgiving. A good rule of thumb for dessert parties on a smaller scale—which means between 4 to 7 guests—is to make 2 pots of coffee, reserve 2 bottles of wine and have, between the array of desserts offered, about 70 small servings on hand; that means cutting dainty slivers of cake, but almost everyone—in anticipation of that 3,000 calorie meal on gobble-gobble day is watching their figures anyway—and trust me, you’ll have enough food on hand with this party menu so that the napkins provided dab some VERY happy mouths—SPOILER ALERT: the frosting on my Chocolate Spice Cake is particularly mouth lickin’ good.

Come in from the first cold snap of the year, my friends, and enjoy some sweet treats with me!