weekend party food...

[OhioBlue]

These were the medjool dates/spanish goat cheese/mascarpone/prosciutto/basil I mentioned in the forum a couple days ago. Turned out pretty good actually. We tried them at room temp and also under broiler for 2 mins to crisp up the prosciutto and warm the cheese a bit. I like them best in the latter preparation.


Basic spanish gazpacho con tropezones, diced cucumber and orange bell pepper on top with drizzle of olive oil. Made it the night before and the flavors all married pretty well by Saturday.


little capreses, pre-oil/balsamic drizzle. Hard to mess that up as long as the ingredients are good.



Tasty corn chowder. Started with bacon then the onions/fresh corn cook in bacon fat. Mmmm bacon.


We also made peach ice cream using a ben&jerry's recipe and served it in small cups with tiny spoons. The tiny spoons were my favorite, mostly because they frustrated the heck out of my kids.

Nothing crazy complex, everything fairly easy to make, good colors/flavors/textures = happy party guests AND hosts.

[TripletDaddy]

look delish. yum!

how about some recipes, esp for the corn chowder and gazpacho.

[OhioBlue]

look delish. yum!

how about some recipes, esp for the corn chowder and gazpacho.

I'm lousy at following recipes and remembering what I did. I can tell you the basic ingredients I used but I'm not sure how helpful that will be. The things that distinguished our corn chowder were fresh corn from the cob, bacon/bacon fat, and throwing the cobs into the soup to further enhance flavor while cooking. Other than that it was the usual potatoes, pureed corn, heavy cream, chicken broth, aromatics, fresh green stuff at the end, etc.

The gazpacho is a very forgiving chilled soup of good ripe fresh tomatoes and just about anything else. I seeded the tomatoes and also threw in garlic cloves, red and green bells, cucumber, red onion, white onion, a little red pepper flake, S/P, and then for flavor used a white wine vinegar and good olive oil. Good right away, better after letting it sit overnight. Poured it out of a pitcher, topped with 'tropezones' -- any finely diced fresh vegetable. Drizzle with olive oil and maybe a turn of fresh-cracked pepper, and you're off. Really with that base you could do just about anything to play around with it. Easy peasy.

[Fiyero]