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.

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.

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.

We’ve all watched awards show where the famous celebrity laments that they can’t properly thank everyone who contributed to their success? I feel that way just a little about this fig dish. Not that it will win any awards (although you never know). Suffice it to say I don’t expect to be teetering on too-high heels toward a stage lit to resemble the sun whilst sewn into an inappropriate dress any time soon.

Even so, the inspirations for this post were so varied and many it’s worth dwelling on them just a bit. Back at the beginning of summer I had the marvelous opportunity to enjoy a dinner at the nationally-acclaimed Olivia restaurant with the also nationally-acclaimed — and oh so very fabulous — Mollie Katzen, all courtesy of California Walnuts. When I received the invitation to the dinner I jumped at the chance to attend because Chef James Holmes’ cooking is a real treat, I’m a huge fan of Mollie’s, and I love walnuts. As a source of healthy fat and protein they are hard to beat. So it was a trifecta of admiration on my part and the evening was all I expected and more.

I sat across from Mollie and we talked about what seemed like every topic under the sun, from the role food bloggers play in the food world to education funding and how hard it is to raise kids. Woven throughout the lovely evening of conversation was a collection of one-of-a-kind walnut dishes prepared by Chef Holmes. What I learned from the chef that night is that the applications of walnuts are seemingly endless and I need to think about them as more than the crunch factor in a cookie or a healthy addition to a salad.

Fast forward a few weeks later to my long over-due trip to Monument Cafe and the Monument Market in Georgetown, Texas, just a short drive from Austin. The cafe has been open for a while now and many of my food blogging friends have had nice things to say about it. The cafe is a quirky cross between an old-school diner and an upscale restaurant. The food is very much diner food although it’s locally sourced and much better than your typical greasy spoon. The interior is accented with dark cherry and leather and the waiters all dress, and have the demeanor of, those you would find in a find dining establishment.

It’s a bit of a trek for Georgetown residents to find their way to the farmers markets in Austin, so the owners of Monument started one right behind the cafe. Given their strong relationships with local growers, setting up a market was a natural extension of their restuarnt. Besides carrying local produce they have meats from reputable, sustainable growers, and artisan goods like small batch jams and preserves made by my friend Stephanie of confituras. While we were browsing the market I came across these tiny figs and just had to have them. They were fresh and sweet and just begging to come home with me.

And finally, speaking on confituras, the fig and walnut conserve Stephanie made last year and that I’m hoarding several jars of my pantry was the last inspiration for this dish. She comes up with the most unexpected flavor combinations and they are always tasty. As I was standing in my pantry trying to decide what to do with the figs, I saw a jar of conserve and I was almost there.

I’m happy to report the addition of the blue cheese was all my doing. I’ve come to love sweet and salty combinations and I knew the super-sweet figs would need a strong salty partner to balance them out. I initially thought of goat cheese but I decided a stronger blue would help create a mellow bite in the end (how’s that for counter-intuative).

So there you have it, a dish inspired by many of my food adventures, which is what those adventures are all about, right? Now where’s my little golden statue?

Queso flameado (or flaming cheese) is one of my favorite indulgent dishes. It’s nothing more than melted cheese in a cast-iron skillet with some sausage and an occasional green chile thrown in for good measure. It’s served fresh and bubbling hot to be spooned into warm tortillas. The Homesick Texan has an awesome recipe for this dish of cheese and chorizo awesomeness. Yes, I used the word awesome, or some derivation thereof, twice in that last sentence because it’s a totally appropriate usage.

The down side to queso flameado – besides the fact that you might as well just wipe it on your thighs – is that it has to be piping hot to stay ooey and gooey and melty. When it’s fresh out of the oven or off of the grill, that’s just fine. In fact, I’ve been known to serve it from a pan on the grill during an outdoor party. But, when it sits around, it starts to get stiff and not so melty, making it not the best option to sit on a table of party fare for an extended period of time.

When I was trying to come up with a way to serve queso flameado at a party without having to involve a heating element, it occurred to me that it would be great stuffed in bread, with the bread also providing the perfect vessel for transferring the cheese from plate to mouth without the need for a utensil. I put this theory to the test and voila, I offer you bread stuffed with chorizo and cheese.

Bread, cheese, and sausage. What could be better?

Recipe: Chorizo and Cheese Stuffed Bread

Details

• Difficulty: Easy
  
• Makes: 16 slices
  
• Prep Time: 20 minutes
  
• Cook Time: 25 minutes
  

Ingredients

• 1 14-16 oz. ciabatta, rustic Italian, or other rectangular loaf of bread
• 1 lb. fresh chorizo (aka Mexican chorizo)
• 5 oz. mozzarella cheese, shredded (about 1.5 c.)
• 5 oz. Monterey Jack cheese, shredded (about 1.5 c.)
• 1 Tbsp. snipped chives for garnish

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Cook the chorizo in a medium skillet over medium-high heat until cooked through. Drain well on paper towels and let cool slightly.
3. While the chorizo drains and cools, hollow out the bread to create a 1 inch thick bread shell with a wide opening at the top (sort of like a brad bowl, or I suppose a bread tray). Save the bread you remove for fresh breadcrumbs.
   
4. In a medium bowl toss the mozzarella and jack cheeses with the cooked chorizo until well combined.
5. Fill the bread shell with the cheese and chorizo mixture, mounding it in the center until almost overflowing.
   
6. Place the filled bread on a rimmed baking sheet sprayed with cooking spray.
7. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until the cheese is melted and the top of the bread nicely browned.
8. Remove from the oven and cut into slices.
9. Garnish with chives.

Recipe for Success

• Be sure to use fresh pork chorizo in this recipe and not cured Spanish chorizo.
• You can substitute Italian sausage in this recipe, or really any other bulk sausage you’d like. For an Italian take on this dish, use hot Italian sausage, a combination of mozzarella and provolone cheese with a bit of parmesan cheese grated on top for good measure. Garnish with chopped Italian parsley or fresh oregano.
• You could easily toss a can of drained4 oz of chopped Hatch Green Chiles (or roasted Anaheim peppers) into this dish for a little more of a kick and depth of flavor.

I often struggle to get vegetables (other than crudités platters) on my fall and winter party menus. Many winter vegetables just don’t lend themselves to quick and easy preparations because most benefit from a look roast or simmer. I’m also leery of putting out dishes that scream spring or summer, like a cucumber cup or a tomato skewer because they just seem so completely out of place during the cooler months. Over the years, I’ve found that stuffing endive leaves with a somewhat rich filling – such as the blue cheese, cashew, and dried cherry one featured in this recipe – is a happy medium. The endive brings some additional vegetable crunch to the table but the heartier filling helps it fit in with the rest of the dishes on the table. This endive recipe also comes together very quickly and requires absolutely no cooking, so it is a great last-minute dish to prepare for an evening get together after work. As you’ll see in the Recipe for Success section, the variations on this recipe are many. Choose your favorite combination of nut, soft cheese, and dried fruit and re-visit this recipe often with a new twist each time.

Recipe: Endive Stuffed with Blue Cheese, Cashews, and Cherries

Details

• Difficulty: Easy
  
• Makes: 16
  
• Prep Time: 15 minutes
  

Ingredients

• 2 heads of endive
• ½ c. cashews (spicy if you can find them), roughly chopped
• ½ c. blue cheese crumbles
• ½ c. dried cherries

Instructions

1. Wash the endive, cut off the root end, and separate out the leaves. Discard the smallest and any torn leaves. Every head of endive is different, but you should be able to get 8 good size leaves from each one.
2. Mix the cashews, blue cheese, and dried cherries in a medium bowl until well combined.
3. Arrange the endive on a serving platter. Stuff each leaf with about 1 ½ Tbsp. of the filling.
4. Serve cold or at room temperature.

Recipe for Success

• I found spicy cashews in the bulk section of my local market and I really like the extra flavor and oomph they added to the dish. If you can’t find spicy cashews, plain ones will do.
• You can use any combination of semi-soft or soft cheese, nuts, and dried fruit that you’d like in this dish. The sweetness of the cashews and cherries helps offset the tang of the blue cheese in this combination. If you used goat cheese instead of blue cheese, you might go with a slightly more tart dried cranberry and a less sweet almond or walnut. This is another one of those dishes that’s a great vehicle for the left over nuts and dried fruit typically used in holiday baking.
• You can make the endive several hours in advance. Cover them with plastic wrap and refrigerate them until you’re ready to serve. It’s okay if they sit at room temperature for a few minutes before guests arrive so the cheese can warm up just a tad.

For the last several years I’ve served a tiny twice-baked potato at my holiday parties that is essentially a miniature version of the traditional large twice-baked russet potato often found at steakhouses. I use small round Yukon Gold potatoes, roast them, scoop them out, and mix the potato guts with goodies like cheese and bacon, then stuff the shells and bake them again. They taste wonderful, but good grief are they a pain to make and it’s not like I have a staff of sous chefs to do the cutting and scooping of 100 little potatoes.

To that end, I’ve been on the hunt for a faster way to bring a similar dish to my parties that takes less work but is just as interesting. I thought that a good quality potato chip might be a great base for an appetizer but even the thickest cut and ridged chips I found wouldn’t hold up well to more than a topping or maybe two.

Enter TERRA Blues Potato Chips. I’d seen this brand of chip at my local grocery store and on Jet Blue flights, but it wasn’t until BlogHer this last summer that I had a chance to visit with the chips’ makers and talk to their chef. They were showcasing their chips as more than your average party food, and it was then that I realized they would be a great based for a fast-and-easy take on my twice-baked potato. The blue chips have a beautiful color, are a nice size, and are hefty enough to take on any number of toppings. And they taste great too, which is what really matters in the end.

Full disclosure: after BlogHer, the nice folks at TERRA sent me a couple of bags of these chips so I could experiment with them. I’ve purchased more on my own since, but the first two were given to me by the company.

TERRA Blues are also a great paring with substantial dips like this Onion Bacon Dip I served with them at a party this fall. I think you’ll find that once you taste these chips and start to experiment with them, you’ll come up with all number of fun applications for these beautiful gems.

Recipe: Loaded Potato Chips

Details

• Difficulty: Easy
  
• Serves: 24
  
• Prep Time: 15 minutes
  

Ingredients

• 2 oz. pancetta, cut into ¼ inch dice
• 24 thick potato chips like TERRA Blues Potato Chips
• ½ c. crème fraiche
• 1 bunch fresh chives, thinly sliced

Instructions

1. Sautee the pancetta in a small skillet over medium heat until crispy. Drain on paper towels to remove excess fat.
2. Lay the potato chips on a serving platter.
3. Top each chip with a tsp. of crème fraiche, a few pieces of pancetta, and a sprinkle of chives.

Recipe for Success

• If you don’t use the TERRA Blues chips, choose a sturdy and large potato chip that will stand up to the toppings. While you could use a traditional yellow chip, I love the contrast of colors that blue chip brings to this dish. You could also use a sturdy vegetable chip for a different color palette and to sneak a few more veggies on the table.
• You can use just about any combination of potato toppings in this recipe that you’d like. Try traditional sour cream and chives, bacon bits and cheese, or even something more Spanish inspired like manchego and cured chorizo.

Fillo (or phyllo) dough is one of my favorite ingredients because it’s so light and crunchy when baked and it works well in both sweet and savory recipes. However, fillo can be a bit finicky and requires patience and practice to use well. When I have the luxury of time, its well worth it to make baklava, tarts, or filled triangles with sheet up on sheet of fillo. When I’m pressed for time though, pre-made fillo cups are a great substitute that you can fill and bake quickly. I’ve had great luck finding fillo shells at many stores in Texas, and the nice folks at Athens Foods who make the fillo cups have a handy-dandy store locator you can use to quickly find a supplier in your neck of the woods.

The inspiration for this recipe is a traditional Greek spanakopita, or spinach pie, that’s typically served as a triangle of fillo stuffed with spinach and cheese or as a large pie cut into squares. The pre-made fillo shells help the dish come together quickly and they add a tasty vegetable dish to holiday menus that may be otherwise overly full of cheese and sweets.

Recipe: Spinach Fillo Cups

Details

• Difficulty: Easy
  
• Makes: 15
  
• Prep Time: 20 minutes
  
• Cook Time: 8 minutes
  

Ingredients

• 2 tsp. olive oil
• ¼ c. diced shallot
• 1 c. chopped frozen spinach, thawed and well drained
• ¼ c. toasted pine nuts
• ¼. tsp. freshly ground pepper
• 1/8 tsp. fresh nutmeg
• 3 oz. goat cheese
• 1 package Fillo Shells

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Heat the olive oil in a medium non-stick pan. Sautee the shallot until soft and translucent, about 5 minutes.
3. Add the spinach to the pan and sauté briefly to warm through.
4. Stir in the pine nuts, pepper, and nutmeg. Sautee for 2-3 minutes until well-combined.
5. Transfer the spinach mixture to a medium mixing bowl; crumble in the goat cheese, and mix gently to distribute the cheese.
6. Fill each fillo shell with a heaping 1 Tbsp. of the filling, mounding it generously on top. Place the filled shell on a baking sheet and repeat with the remaining shells.
7. Bake in the oven for 6-8 minutes or until the filling is warmed through. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Recipe for Success

• The best way I know to drain thawed spinach is to squeeze it in small batches in your hand. You can also place it in a clean dishtowel and ring the excess moisture from it.
• You can make the spinach filling and fill the cups up to an hour in advance but not much more than that. If you leave the filling in the cups too long they will get soggy on the bottom. Cover the filled cups with plastic wrap and stash in the refrigerator until you’re ready to heat them.
• You can substitute feta cheese or even mozzarella for the goat cheese.

Blue Dahlia Bistro, one of my favorite restaurants in Austin, makes amazing open-faced sandwiches that are just the perfect lunch when I’m in the mood for something more than a typical sub. A couple of weeks ago I took my lunch break at Blue Dahlia to contemplate the recipes for my 12 Days of Easy Appetizers. While I had a chicken salad tartine, I noticed fig and ricotta sandwich on the menu and decided right then and there that I’d find a way to put that flavor combination in one of my appetizers. Then, serendipitously, my friend Stephanie, the local preserves artisan behind Confituras, added fig walnut conserves to her list of available goodies. It was as if the universe was telling me to create this dish. I decided that for a party appetizer a crostini would be a good expression of the Blue Dahlia tartine. I added a bit of prosciutto to the mix for a bit of meat and saltiness, but some fresh arugula would work as well to make this a vegetarian twist.

Recipe: Fig, Ricotta, and Prosciutto Crostini

Details

• Difficulty: Easy
  
• Makes: 24 crostini
  
• Prep Time: 15 min
  
• Cook Time: 10 min
  

Ingredients

• 1 baguette
• 3 Tbsp. Olive oil for drizzling
• 1 c. fig compote or jam
• 24 oz. whole milk ricotta
• 8 thin slices prosciutto, down the longest side into thirds for a total of 24 pieces.

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
2. Slice the baguette into 24 ½ in. slices. Place the slices on a baking sheet and drizzle evenly with the olive oil.
3. Bake for 10 minutes or until crispy and light golden brown. Remove from the oven and let cool completely.
4. Spread each crostini with 2 tsp. of the jam then top with a Tbsp. of the ricotta cheese. Roll each piece of prosciutto into a small cylinder and place it on top of the ricotta. Serve immediately.

Recipe for Success

• Ingredient quality makes all the difference in this dish, so choose wisely. It’s also a great opportunity to showcase goodies from local artisans or even friends who gifted you a particularly tasty jam.
• You can substitute other jams for the fig compote in this recipe. Try for something on the sweeter side like a cherry preserve that can stand up to the ricotta and the prosciutto.
• You can make the toasted bread up to a day in advance but wait to assemble the crostini until 5-10 minutes before you plan to serve them so they won’t get soggy.

When I was growing up, nut-crusted cheese balls made an appearance at a variety of parties and open houses. A look at just about any good cheese plate is ample evidence that nuts and cheese do beautifully together, and a cheese ball is a sort of mini-celebration of their happy partnership. Some cheese ball recipes require more labor than I’m interested in this time of year: grating, mixing, shaping, and rolling. I’ve found it’s much easier to start with a semi-soft cheese in a pleasing shape (like goat cheese), add nuts, and garnish. You can get goat cheese logs in a variety of sizes as well, from 4 oz. to 16 oz. typically, so you can easily find the right size for the number of guests you’ll be serving.

This recipe is inspired by the Sweet-’n'- Salty Cheese Spread I took to my first Austin food blogger potluck. For that spring potluck I used sunflower seeds and fresh raspberries. Now that it’s winter, pistachios and dried cranberries are more appropriate. They’re also very festive. I also really like the bit of sweet the honey brings to this dish. It helps balance the other flavors without being overpowering. And to put the perfect bow on this recipe, it comes together quickly and you can make it ahead. What could be better a better easy appetizer for a holiday party?

Recipe: Pistachio-Crusted Goat Cheese

Details

• Difficulty: Easy
  
• Makes: 32 ½ oz. portions
  
• Prep Time: 15 min
  

Ingredients

• 1 16 oz. log goat cheese
• ½ – ¾ c. coarsely chopped roasted pistachio nuts
• 2 Tbsp. honey
• ¼ c. dried cranberries
• Assorted crackers

Instructions

1. Remove the goat cheese from its wrapper and let it sit on the counter for about 10 minutes so it’s easier to work with.
2. Place the nuts in a pie pan or other shallow dish. Roll the goat cheese in the nuts, pressing gently to adhere the nuts to the cheese, until all sides of the log are evenly coated with nuts.
3. Place the goat cheese on the serving dish and drizzle with the honey.
4. Scatter the dried cranberries around the cheese and serve with the crackers.

Recipe for Success

• You can easily substitute your favorite nut or dried fruit in this recipe. A pecan-crusted log with dried cherries would be lovely as would a walnut-crusted log with chopped apricots. Dried fruits and nuts are common ingredients in holiday cooking so use whatever leftovers you might have in your pantry.
• You can crust the goat cheese log up to 8 hours in advance. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and store in the refrigerator until about 30 minutes before you’re ready to serve it. Unwrap the log, drizzle with the honey, and garnish with the cranberries before serving.