You just don’t see artichokes at parties and I think that’s a shame. True, they are a little prickly and require some attention to be made properly presentable, but given how tasty they are, I think it’s worth the work. And if you take the time to grill them for a final dressing up, man oh man, how pretty they can look. With summer grilling and entertaining season in full swing, I offer up this crowd-friendly, make ahead grilled artichoke recipe for your consideration. You can steam and marinade these artichokes the morning of a party or dinner and then finish them in just a few minutes on a hot grill. They take about as long to warm through as you’ll want to rest a nice piece of grilled meat, so they’ll fit right into your prep schedule. Because artichokes are hearty you can also transport them right in their marinade bag to a park or grilling potluck and finish them once you are there.

So instead of planning the same ol’ grilled vegetables or corn as a side for your next grilling party, may I suggest giving grilled artichokes a whirl. Your guests will be so impressed and you’ll be amazed at how much easier they are to prepare than you ever imagined.

When the day of luv falls on a weeknight things get a little tricky because, alas, Valentine’s day doesn’t warrant a full day off. I’m left to to squeeze dinner in among work and after school activities. In short, I need a menu that packs a punch of elegance lickity-split. Lamb, a meat that everyone things is so tricky to cook and that looks so beautiful in presentation, is my secret weapon this year. Paired with short-cut mashed potatoes loaded with bacon and cheese and some roasted baby carrots, we’ll have a feast on a weeknight (and you can too). Oh, and let’s not forget dessert. Puff pastry (another of my go-to secrete weapons) makes a beautiful and quick dessert when topped with Nutella and strawberries. Add some bubbly to the mix and the evening will be just right.

The Menu

Lamb Chops with Pomegranate Red Wine Sauce

Thyme-Roasted Carrots

Bacon and Cheddar Smashed Potatoes

Chocolate Raspberry Pastry Cups

Shopping Tips

• If your meat counter doesn’t already have lamb chops pre-cut, ask them to separate the chops in a rack of lamb for you. You’ll save some prep time and their chops will be prettier than yours (unless of course you’re a trained butcher).
• Buy baby carrots with the tops still on if you can find them. They’ll cook a little faster and will be so pretty on the plate.
• The quality of the bacon and cheddar in your potatoes can take them to a whole different level. I don’t recommend using the reduced-fat cheddar the recipe calls for. Instead go full fat and pick an aged cheddar with enough flavor to match that of a good bacon.
• The “apricot glaze” in the puff pastry hearts can really just be apricot jam that you melt in the microwave. Or, you can skip it all together and they’ll still be fantastic.
• Feel free to substitute sliced strawberries for the raspberries in the dessert, or use a mix of berries.

The Game Plan

Set a pretty table, gather your serving dishes, and put the puff pastry in the fridge to thaw the night before. Then plan about 45 minutes to an hour get dinner on the table on the big night.

• The carrots have the longest cooking time so get them started first. Preheat the oven while you peel and prep. If you were able to find baby carrots with their tops intact, leave about 1/2 an inch of the carrot tops on for an extra oomph to the presentation.
• Once the carrots are in the oven peel the potatoes and prep all of the other ingredients but don’t start the microwave until you start the lamb chops. Cold mashed potatoes will totally put a damper on this dinner (ha!).
• Prep all of the ingredients for the puff pastry cups. When the carrots come out of the oven you can reduce the temperature by 25 degrees and slide the puff pastry cups in to cook while you finish getting dinner on the table. Take them out and they’ll be cool enough to handle after dinner.
• The lamb chops come together quickly so get all of the ingredients together and ready to go before you start them.
• Once the chops are done everything else should coming together and while it will be a bit of a juggle it will be over pretty quickly. Plate the lamb chops and carrots, finish the potatoes, and move everything to the table. Don’t forget to take the puff pastry shells out of the oven! After you finish dinner dessert will come together in about the time it takes your family to clear the table.

I’m not quite sure why we Americans have such a love affair with chicken wings. Maybe it’s because the chicken wing can take on so many different flavors and has a convenient built-in handle. Or possibly our inner children still love to make a mess while we eat and there are fewer finger foods that have such a mess-making potential as the chicken wing. And then there’s the near ubiquitous pairing of sports and chicken wings. A big game watching party is just missing a bit of something if there aren’t chicken wings about.

While I’m a fan of the traditional Buffalo wing with it’s buttery pepper sauce, and I’m not going to turn down a chicken wing bathed in BBQ sauce, I’m always on the lookout for fun twists on wings recipes so I can offer a bit of the unexpected on my game watching party table.

Sriracha-Glazed Chicken Wings from Martha Stewart’s Everyday Food magazine embody that twist. Sriracha, a traditional Thai condiment featuring chiles and garlic, add spice and heat to the wings while soy sauce gives some depth of flavor. Fresh ginger offers nice back-of-the-throat burn that’s different but complimenatry to the heat from the Sriracha and honey adds a bit of sweetness to balance it all out. These wings are baked instead of fried making them less-messy and just a little better for you than a traditional fried wing.

Save Yourself Heartburn, Prep Ahead

While it only takes a few minutes to whip the Sriracha glaze together for these wings, and they technically only need 30 minutes of marinading time, you can do the whipping and marinating much further in advance to give you one less thing to do just before the game starts.

• Toss the wings with the sauce the morning before the party, cover, and let sit in the fridge until you’re ready to bake them. Pull the wings out at the same time you preheat the oven so they can shake the chill a bit, then bake as directed.
• Freeze the wings in the marinade in a heavy duty zip-top bag for up to a month. The night before the party move the bag to the fridge so the wings can thaw safely overnight. Set the wings out on the counter while the oven preheats and bake away.

Burn Baby, Burn

Even though the name implies that these wings might be extra spicy, a single tablespoon of Sriracha really doesn’t bring that much heat to the party, particularly when spread over a pound and a half of wings. You can easily double the Sriracha or if your guests have varying levels of heat tolerance, serve some Sriracha on the side so those who so desire can turn up the heat all they want.

Make Extra, It’s Easy

Besides being quick and easy to put together, this recipe is easy to double or triple to serve a bigger crowd. Just be sure to use a big enough baking dish so the wings aren’t crowded while they bake or you’ll risk soggy, undercooked wings. You can keep extra wings warm in a crock pot on low so fans can nosh (or possibly stress eat) throughout the game.

It’s a trick caterers and others have used for years upon years: display food at different heights on a table for a more visually interesting landscape. In fact, those very same caterers have whole piles of props designed specifically to elevate their food (to the naked eye at least). For those of us who only cater our own small gatherings at home, having a collection of pillars and other hight-giving apparatuses often isn’t practical from either a budget or storage standpoint. While I do have a small collection of tiered trays and stackable pedestal servers, but I’m always looking for new ways to make my tablescapes fun, interesting, and well, taller.

Who knew that pumpkins were an option?

Indeed it turns out that pumpkins can be a great way to raise platters of food up off of the table and contribute to the overall aesthetic of the table at the same time. They are also compostable (or carvable) so you don’t have to store them season after season. When selecting pumpkins to act as pedestals on your fall table keep a couple of things in mind:

• Selet wider more squat pumpkins so you have more surface area to work with. “Cinderella” pumpkins, like the ones in my photo, seem to be the perfect variety for this particular application.
• Look for symmetrical pumpkins so you don’t end up with the leaning tower of pumpkin on your table. You should be able to see if a pumpkin is particularly unbalanced and you can always use a paper bag to help you judge how flat a platter would sit on the pumpkin.

Finally, choose your serving platter wisely. A heavier platter grounds itself nicely on to the pumpkin so you avoid accidental tipping.

Pumpkins as pedestals were such a fun way to mix up my fall table this year and my guests really enjoyed the touch of whimsy they brought to the table. I’m expecting they’ll reappear on my table next fall…as if by magic.

As Thanksgiving rolls around the big bird and the plethora of sides and desserts we assemble to accompany it get all of the love, leaving little room for the lowly appetizer. This is truly a shame because heaven knows there’s always more time between when guests arrive and when we sit down to the Thanksgiving table than any of our stomachs would truly like. We load up our plates with grumbly bellies and low blood sugar which can lead not only to excessive overindulgence but crankiness with our fellow diners (which may happen even with full bellies and robust blood sugar so it doesn’t need any further assistance).

I submit that a properly sized and timed pre-dinner nibble bursting with fall flavors is just the primer your guests’ palates need to prepare them properly for the dinner you’ve so lovingly created.

Wow – someone pushed my alliteration button tonight.

I also submit that the Butternut Squash, Ricotta, and Sage Crostini from the October Bon Appetite is that properly sized palate primer. It is substantial enough that one or two will quell any niggling appetites and each creamy yet crunchy bite looks and tastes like fall. I initially worried that the creamy ricotta and the soft roasted squash wouldn’t have enough texture difference and the dish would be mostly mushy, but their textures are just different enough that they worked well together, particularly when combined with the crunchy crostini. Lemon zest in the ricotta brings just enough brightness to each bite that it doesn’t feel heavy.

And, as icing on the cake (or sage on the crostini), all of the elements of this nibble can be made the day before so you don’t have to add one more thing to an already busy day. It takes about 15 minutes total to assemble the finished crostini and plate them, which you can do while you enjoy a relaxing glass of bubbly (or possibly a shot if that’s more your style) in the last quiet minutes before your guests arrive.

So go ahead, buck tradition and make an appetizer for your next big Thanksgiving dinner. But not just any appetizer, this appetizer.

I saw these beautiful pomegranates while wandering a Whole Foods store in Dallas. They just evoke the very essence of the “holidays” to me. What foods make you really feel the season?

This post has been sitting in my inbox for a few weeks now because I simply couldn’t find the right words to explain the significance of this recipe to my family. I’ve finally decided that the more is less approach is the best way to tell this story.

This is my grandmother’s pecan pie bar recipe. I remember watching her make them standing on a stool pulled up to the kitchen counter. My daughter has been making it with my mom since she was tall enough to stand on that same stool to reach a kitchen counter. Back in September my daughter and I made batches of these bars for a local bake sale to benefit those ravaged by the Texas wildfires. She’s too tall now to need that stool.

The circle is complete. And sometimes a recipe for pecan pie bars is so much more than a recipe. It’s a tradition. A connection.

I look forward to the day that I get to make these same bars with my grandchildren.

For the food blogging community August was all about pie. Pie and love.

Food bloggers from around the world gathered together to support fellow food blogger Jennie Perillo when she lost her husband to a sudden heart attack. First, everyone made peanut butter pies in honor her husband Mikey. I spent an entire friday wiping tears from my eyes at my desk as I watched the #pieformikey Twitter feed. Then I watched this amazing video tribute for Jennie from White on Rice Couple and just outright bawled.

After this amazing group of bloggers gathered around Jennie and her family in the biggest virtual embrace I’ve ever witness, they quickly turned to the practical side of things. Bloggers Without Borders created the Fund for Jennie and bloggers from this same amazing community are offering baked goods, special art, and more in an auction to benefit Jennie and her family. My friend and photography goddess Penny De Los Santos is generously offering a full day of photography in New York City as part of the auction and let me tell you, I’d give my eye teeth to be able to bid on that amazing adventure. As of today the auction has raised $30k for this blogging family in need and it’s not over yet. Simply amazing.

In the mean time, here in Austin we’ve been having our own celebration of community and love through pie. The Austin Food Blogger Alliance partnered with the Alamo Drafhouse to host a special showing of Waitress with proceeds benefiting SafePlace, an organization that supports abused women and children in their greatest hours of need. Along with the proceeds from the movie ticket sales Alamo’s Executive Chef John Bullington made 20 pecan pies with local blogger Michael Chu after he won our pie contest earlier in the month. Proceeds from sales of slices of pie also went to SafePlace. And finally, local pie makers donated a table full of pies that we sold after the movie to further benefit SafePlace. When all was said and done we raised $2k for this important local charity. As I stood in front of a packed house before the Waitress screening and shared the story of A Pie for Mikey I was struck by how honored I feel to be part of such a passionate, loving, and supportive blogging community both here in Austin and around the virtual world. In the end this is why we blog: to create connections, build community, and share our love for food.

I didn’t quite manage to get a peanut butter pie made in honor of Mikey, but this weekend I did create what I’m calling inspired pie because it was inspired by two of my fellow food bloggers. At the food blogger pie contest Addie Broyles from the Austin American Statesman made a cherry galette with one of the best crusts I’ve ever tasted. It was flaky and just salty enough to balance out the sweet cherry filling. I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised to learn that the crust was made by Martha Stewart’s trusty pate brisee recipe. Addie said it was easy to make and work with which are great characteristics for any recipes to have, particularly a dessert recipe. Since I had Addie’s galette I’d been thinking about making one myself but hadn’t settled on what kind. Then just this last weekend Lisa Fain posted a recipe on Homesick Texan for Hatch Chile Apple Cobbler and I knew I had found my gallette.

My daughter turned 12 last weekend and my family was in town to celebrate. As I put together her birthday dinner the inspired galette was the first item on the menu. There was something particularly special about making pie for my family in a month when pie has meant so much to my extended blogging family. The touch of Hatch chile in the recipe tied the whole dish back to my roots in the Southwest. This particular pie meant more to me than any pie I’ve made before.

Recipe: Apple and Hatch Chile Galettes

Ingredients

• 1 recipe of Martha Stewart’s pate brisee
• 1 recipe of Homesick Texan’s Hach Chile Apple Cobbler filling
• 2 Tbsp. sugar in the raw

Directions

1. Make the pate brisee according to the recipe directions and refrigerate for at least an hour.
2. Make the cobbler filling according to the recipe directions and let cool.
3. Spray two cookie sheets with non-stick spray or line with parchment paper.
4. Divide the pate brisee dough into 8 equal portions. Roll each portion into a 7-8 inch circle.
5. Place a dough circle onto a corner of the cookie sheet. Fill with a heaping 1/2 c. of the cobbler filling, leaving about a 1 inch border of dough free of the filling.
6. Bring the free edges of the dough up around the filling. The crust will be uneven and the center of the filling won’t be covered by the dough. That’s okay, that’s sort of the point of the galette. It’s supposed to be rustic. It’s also a pass for you so the crust doesn’t have to look perfect. Everyone wins.
7. Repeat with the remaining dough and filling. Refrigerate the galettes for an hour.
8. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
9. Brush the crust of each galette lightly with water and sprinkle with the sugar.
10. Place the baking sheets into the oven and cook for 30 minutes, swapping the position of the sheets on the racks after 15 minutes.
11. After 30 minutes reduce the oven temperature to 375 and cook for another 15 minutes or until the edges of the galettes are nicely browned.
12. Let cool slightly and serve with something cool and creamy like vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.

When I was growing up my very Southern grandmother adapted all sorts of traditional Southern recipes to fit the ingredients, cooking styles, and tastes she encountered in El Paso. I can’t tell you how many nights she served collard or mustard greens (cooked with ham hocks of course) with a warm pan of onion and green chile cornbread. What’s funny is back then I only liked straight up cornbread with just a touch of sweetness, so I usually skipped her version. If only I could turn back time and enjoy a square right now. I didn’t know what I was missing.

Several years ago I came across a wonderful recipe for blue corn madelelines. The delicate cornbread bites are lighter than a dense square of cornbread and the fun shape is just a little unexpected. They have earned a permanent place on my Christmas Eve Mexican food menu. For this year’s Hatch chile festivities I decided to try a new twist on this stand-by recipe inspired by my grandmother’s cornbread. I’ve kept the madeleine shape because that’s half of the fun, but this version is stuffed with onions, green chiles, and gooey cheese. It makes these cornbread nibbles a little denser than the original recipe but because they are two bites, you hardly notice at all.

I’ve been making these madeleines for at least five or six years and found the recipe back when I still clipped and copied recipes from magazines instead of just saving them right into my online notebook. I’ve been working from a hand-written version of the recipe, without date or attribution of course, and  while some quality time with Google seems to indicate that this is a Bon Appetit recipe, I can’t find it anywhere on their actual site to verify. Long story short, this is my adaptation of a fantastic recipe and I humbly thank whomever originally created it because it’s a sining gem in my collection.

I have wonderful silicon baking molds that I use to bake these madeleines. I can’t recommend them enough. The cornbread cakes pop right out of the molds leaving the beautiful detailing intact.

It’s August and that means one thing here at Fete & Feast: it’s Hatch Chile Month! Over the last several years Hatch Chiles have become something of a celebrated vegetable here in Central Texas. Given my roots in far West Texas just down the road from Hatch, New Mexico, this thrills me to no end. Last year I celebrated Hatch with the likes of macaroni and cheese, enchiladas, green chile cheese beer bread, and green chile palmiers. This year I’m cooking up cornbread, roast chicken thighs, and even grilled cheese, all featuring the little green chile that could.

To kick the season off I’ve put together this recipe for a hand pie stuffed with squash, green chile, tomatoes, and cheese. It’s a fun take on calabacitas, a traditional way to cook squash with onions and green chiles that was featured at my family’s dinner table many a summer when squash were in abundance. I’ve tucked the squash, chile, and cheese mixture into puff pastry to make it convenient finger food, just perfect for a party. You can make these little bites ahead of time and freeze them unbaked so you have a quick meal or appetizer any time you get a hankerin’ for a taste of Hatch. The filling in these empanadas is so substantial they will hold up nicely as a main dish. Serve them with a side of guacamole and a green salad for an effortless Meatless Monday menu.