It’s been almost exactly one year since the Austin food bloggers got together for our first ever potluck, so it was only fitting that we gathered again this month for our first potluck of 2010. (It really does take us this long to recover from the foodpalooza that is our holiday season.) The food and company were amazing as always. Foodie is the New 40 and Aimee Wenske have some beautiful photographs of the event on the blogs, and as their posts show, we ate very well that day. I enjoyed everything I tasted, but was especially enamored with the Greek Unorthodox Empanadas from first time potluck attendee Girl Gone Grits. I’m a big fan of empanadas as prep-ahead party food, so I expect to see some version of those empanadas on one of my party menus soon.

A Blogger without a Plan

To say that I’m a planner is an understatement. My life –food-related and otherwise – is run out of a series of spreadsheets that range from simply weekly menus to 1500 lines of to-dos for the whole year. When I have a plan I’m comfortable, even if the plan changes along the way. Without a plan, I’m a fish out of water. Imagine my horror when I looked up two days before the potluck and realized I had ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA what I was going to make. To further complicate matters, I had plans to attend a farm tour the morning of potluck so any and all prep work had to be done the evening before.

After a moment or two of panic, followed by some deep breathing, I realized I was going to have to wing it. After a bit more panic I decided to turn this into what my mother would call a “teachable moment” applied to myself and find out what lessons I could learn when faced with a situation where my traditional planning wasn’t an option. With that in mind, and only an hour or so to select recipes, I went in search of two recipes that fit these criteria:

• Were suitable for a picnic. Picnic-friendly recipes hold well, are portable, and are easy to eat without much cutlery.
• Would travel well. My food wouldn’t just have to get to the potluck, it would have to go the farm tour first, so portability was a must, with some assemble on site acceptable.
• Could be prepped in an hour or less the night before or morning of my potluck. Why an hour? That’s pretty much all the time I had to work with if I was going to get a good night’s sleep.
• Were elegant. I was absolutely unwilling to sacrifice quality because of a lack of time. I was convinced I could put together a lovely dish even with my limited time.

Herbed Bocconcini

I’m happy to report that I found a lovely collection of recipes during my search and the most difficult part of the hunt was deciding which two recipes to make. I narrowed the selection to:

• Herbed Bocconcini
  This recipe comes together in minutes and its perfect for highlighting any herb you like. I used fresh oregano because it’s what I had on hand and added a little lemon zest to balance the richness of the cheese and olive oil. I also used a blood orange olive oil for its unique flavor profile. This recipe is a great one for showcasing high quality cheese and olive oils.
• Filo Cups with Pesto and Artichoke Filling
  This was my own creation inspired by Puff Pastry Baskets with Artichoke and Pesto Filling. I seriously considered making this recipe as is, because puff pastry is so easy to work with (see Puff Pastry Perfection below) but decided that I’d be pushing my time limit. Instead, I substituted pre-made mini Filo shells to further reduce the prep time. I also used canned artichoke hearts in the interest of time and am very happy with the results. You’ll find the recipe at the end of the post.

Fast, Cheap, Good – Pick Two

My day job is at a marketing agency and in the creative world we are reminded every day that any given work product can be a combination of two of the following: fast, cheap, and good. As I was exploring recipes that fit my criteria, I discovered that the axiom applies here as well. Fast and elegant recipes have short ingredient lists and rely heavily on the quality of the ingredients to work. The reality is good ingredients aren’t always the least expensive. This doesn’t mean you can’t bargain hunt, but when you are only bringing a few key ingredients to the dish, it’s important to not skimp on quality.

A Collection of Picnic-Friendly, Fast, and Easy Recipes

My recipe search yielded a host of picnic possibilities and I realized that they fell into four categories that are generally really great for any picnic or potluck situation, particularly when you are short on time. As you plan your own picnic or potluck treats, consider these examples of the kinds of recipes you might want to explore. They will help you narrow your search on your favorite recipe sites or blogs.

Cheese, Glorious Cheese

It’s really hard to go wrong with cheese in a picnic or potluck situation because it’s almost universally popular and it can sit out for quite a while. There are so many great cheese available that you can find great quality ingredients to share with your friends and family with relative ease. Some good cheese-centric recipes I came across include:

• Sweet-’n'-Salty Honey Cheese Spread
• Smoky Green Chile-Cheddar Cheese with Avocado-Mango Salsa
• Goat Cheese Bites

Puff Pastry Perfection

If I had to list my top 3 three secret ingredients for entertaining, puff pastry would be one of them. It’s versatile, easy to work with, and oh-so-impressive. It holds up well when you store it in an air tight container, and it works beautifully in both sweet and savory applications. Cheese straws are a go-to technique for many of my entertaining needs because they are easy and let me highlight favorite cheeses. You can make them ahead of time and they pair nicely with wine. Once you’ve made cheese straws by a recipe, you’ll find yourself dreaming up all sorts of ingredient combinations. These three will get you started:

• Lemon-and-Black-Pepper Cheese Straws
• Pistachio Pastry Twists
• Parmesan and Herb Cheese Straws

Food on Sticks

Skewers of any sort of food are just plain ol’ fun for any party setting. They rely on great combinations of ingredients and some assembly time, but not much actual cooking. I’ll often enlist the help of my family to make a bunch of skewers once I’ve prepped the ingredients and made a couple of sample skewers. The goodness of skewers is really only limited by your imagination. Here are a few examples to get your creative juices flowing:

• Melon, Mozzarella, and Prosciutto Skewers
• Antipasto Skewers with Pesto Dip
• Mini Caprese Bites
• Mozzarella and Nectarine Skewers With Pesto

Don’t Forget the Veggies

Many potlucks and picnics are heavy on the carbs and proteins, and crudités are often the only option. Consider upping the veggie stakes with one of these recipes:

• Crunchy Zucchini Rounds With Sun-Dried Tomatoes and Goat Cheese
• Chicory “boats” with marinated chestnuts & parma ham

Toasted Bread Rules

When all else fails, break out the crostini. Two or three high-quality ingredients on a piece of toasted bread will cure all potluck and picnic ills. When I go down the crostini path, I do try to surprise people with combinations they might not have seen before. If you have to travel a ways to your party, you may want to prep all of the ingredients ahead of time and plan to assemble the crostini on site. This helps keep them from losing half of their toppings in transit. When you’re looking for your next crostini inspiration, try one of these unexpected but still very easy recipes:

• Crostini with Honey, Gorgonzola, and Figs
• Artichoke Crostini
• Crostini with Mascarpone, Fresh Berries & Drizzled Honey
• Flamed Chorizo

Recipe: Filo Cups with Pesto and Artichoke Filling

Details

• Difficulty: Easy
• Makes: 30 mini cups
• Prep Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 c. prepared pesto
• 1 can artichoke hearts in water, drained and finely chopped in a food processor
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 2 packages mini Filo cups, thawed
• Freshly grated parmesan for garnish

Instructions

1. Combine the pesto and chopped artichoke hearts. Stir to mix well. Taste for seasoning and add salt and pepper to taste.
2. Line the cups up on your serving dish and spoon about 1 Tbsp. of the pesto and artichoke mix into each cup.
3. Sprinkle each cup with a bit of the parmesan cheese and serve.

Recipe for Success

• My local Central Market makes amazing pesto so if I don’t have time to make my own, I know I have a source. I do however try to freeze extra pesto just for times like this. If you have an extra 15 or 20 minutes, as well as an abundance of basil, then by all means make your own. The pesto is the star player here though, so be sure you buy good pesto.
• A small scoop makes filling the cups with the pesto and artichoke mixture fast and easy.
• I highly recommend transporting the filling and cups separately and then doing final assembly at the picnic site. The filo cups will hold up for about three or four hours before the bottoms get soggy, but they are somewhat fragile, so you’ll have less breakage if you keep them in their packaging until you’re ready to serve them.
• You can make the artichoke and pesto mixture the night before, but be sure to store it in an air-tight container with a thin layer of olive oil on the top to keep the pesto from turning brown.

• I like Zatarain’s products and have cooked with them for years. As much as I’m a fan of from-scratch cooking, sometimes not everything can be from scratch and I feel good when I put their food on my table.
• They are affiliated with John Besh, a chef that I respect and admire.
• I wanted to take advantage of the group activity to learn more about how other celebrate Mardi Gras.

And just to keep the blogger police at bay, I want to disclose that Zatarain’s has sent me a party pack with some sample products, decorations, and other goodies, but I’m still supplying the majority of the food for this shindig. I’m not being compensated in any other way.

I’m in the midst of planning my party and realized that sharing my menu and ideas now might be helpful to anyone also planning a celebration for this weekend or next week. Because I’m throwing a weeknight party, I’ve tried to select recipes that are practical for having guests over on a school night. However, because I want to really offer a sampling of New Orleans-style flavors, my party menu is pretty extensive, featuring 10 items plus drinks. I’m not suggesting you do the same. Instead, I’ll point you at all of the recipes I’m making with relevant links and then include a couple of possible menus that show how to mix and match them.

My Mardi Gras Recipe Collection

As I selected these recipes I wanted to capture the essence of New Orleans cuisine, put a few new twists on some old favorites, and stay family-friendly. I’m also serving my menu buffet style so I chose dishes that would be easy to serve and eat. I toyed with the idea of making both gumbo and jambalaya, but time simply won’t allow for it. If gumbo is more your style, it’s a great substitute for the jambalaya on any menu.

• Artichoke Dip with Crab and Creole Seasoning – I’m going to modify my guest-favorite artichoke dip by adding some jumbo lump crab and a little Creole seasoning to the blend. Look for a recipe for this one about a week after Fat Tuesday in my party recap. This dish holds beautifully over night and bakes about an hour before the party. I’m serving it with slices of bread and pita chips.
• Creole Mustard Dip – This dip is a Creole-take on a traditional onion dip. I can also make it ahead and it will be a nice alternative for those who don’t like artichokes or who can’t eat shellfish.
• Crudités – I always put fresh vegetables out on a buffet because they are familiar to folks and very kid-friendly. They also help to balance out the heavier dishes. I’ll probably put out some Ranch Dressing for the kids as well.
• Roasted asparagus – Asparagus is always nice addition to a buffet table because it’s good warm or cold, and its richness stands up to heartier foods. I really like the simple preparation that Elise from Simply Recipes uses and I can pre-prep the asparagus several hours before the party and put it into roast just before guests arrive.
• Sweet and Tangy Creole-Style Wings – This is a John Besh recipe that I can’t wait to serve. People love wings and this will be a new variation for them to try.
• Spicy Mardi Gras Shrimp – It’s just not Mardi Gras without shrimp but some of my guests don’t eat them. For the rest that do, I’m offering an easy and flavorful make-ahead dish.
• Jambalaya with Duck and Sausage – I’ll be modifying a Zatarain’s recipe to dress it up a little with duck and artisan Andouille sausage. This is a good example of how a couple of next-level ingredients can be combined with high-quality convenience foods like the Zatarain’s jambalaya mix to put a great dish on the table.
• Root Beer Cupcakes – I didn’t realize that Zatarain’s started with a patent for root beer extract, so when I found out I thought it only appropriate to incorporate it into my menu somehow. I think these cupcakes will be fun and unexpected. I’m modifying a cake recipe to work as cupcakes to make serving dessert easier.
• King Cake – It’s not Mardi Gras without King Cake. If I were having this party on a weekend I would make the cake myself, but because this is a weeknight party, I’m ordering a cake from a local bakery. If you want to make your own, Epicurious features John Besh’s King Cake recipe from his recently released My New Orleans cookbook.
• Hurricanes – I’m not usually big on mixed drinks at parties because they are difficult to manage, but it’s just not Mardi Gras without a sweet and powerful hurricane. I’m using a recipe from Emeril that will be great for a crowd. I particularly like that it uses two different types of rum for depth of flavor.

Suggested Menu: Elegant New Orleans Supper

If you’d like to host an easy-yet-elegant dinner party on or around Fat Tuesday using recipes from this menu I’d recommend:

Appetizer

Artichoke Dip with Crab and Creole Seasoning

French Bread and Pita Triangles

Main Course

Jambalaya with Duck and Sausage or Gumbo

Roast Asparagus

Dessert

King Cake

Suggested Menu: Mardi Gras Cocktail Party

As the start to an evening or on Tuesday after work, consider celebrating the spirit of the holiday and New Orleans with sparkling wine, Hurricanes, and these nibbles:

Artichoke Dip with Crab and Creole Seasoning

Creole Mustard Dip

French Bread and Pita Triangles

Sweet and Tangy Creole-Style Wings

Spicy Mardi Gras Shrimp

Root Beer Cupcakes

What are you serving for Mardi Gras? Do you have any favorite recipes? Please share in the comments.

Citrus is a bright spot in the cold of winter, giving us a sneak peak of the fresh fruits and vegetables waiting for us in spring and summer. And while oranges and grapefruits probably come immediately to mind when you think of citrus, there are many interesting and fun varieties to choose from, including Satsuma mandarins, tangelos, and yuzu. Citrus is also a source of important nutrients, including the ever-critical Vitamin C. With so much going for it, there’s really no good reason not to add more citrus to your diet.

Celebrating Citrus with Central Market

As I started to see more citrus show up in my market’s aisles this past holiday season, I really had citrus on my mind. I absolutely love Satsumas and I buy them by the box in December for healthy snacking during the fat- and sugar-laden holiday season. Needless to say, I was very excited when the wonderful folks from Central Market invited me to attend a special olive oil tasting and kickoff to their annual Citrus Fest. The event was amazing and I learned a lot about olive oil, so much so that it will get its own post next week, but I was truly inspired by the citrus dishes we were served. Citrus was party of every dish in our tasting but it played a different role in each, truly showing off its versatility. I’ve scanned back through my notes and gone on the search for recipes similar to those we enjoyed at the tasting with the hope that you’ll be as inspired as I was to get your citrus on this winter.

Shrimp and Grapefruit Salad with Fennel: This lovely cold salad featured perfectly cooked shrimp, crisp fennel, slightly sweet grapefruit, and a drizzle of light olive oil. The tastes and textures were well balanced to allow each ingredient to shine without overshadowing the others. To put a similar dish on your table, try Sautéed Shrimp with Spicy Grapefruit.

Baked Salmon with Citrus Goat Cheese and Roasted Cauliflower: I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t like salmon as much as I should. I don’t dislike it, but I don’t love it, which is not a good thing because salmon is so very good for us. This year I promised myself I’d find ways to like salmon, and this dish will help me get there pretty quickly. The chef topped a perfectly cooked piece of salmon with goat cheese blended with herbs and citrus. The balance of creamy goat cheese, tangy citrus, and earthy herbs was a fantastic companion to the fresh salmon. To try a dish similar to this one, whip up a recipe of Citrus Broiled Alaska Salmon and then mix some fresh herbs and citrus zest into goat cheese as a garnish.

Key Lime Tart: I love key limes in every possible incarnation: pie, tart, cookies, or sorbet. You name it, I like it. As you might imagine, I was most excited to see our tasting end with a light and creamy tart. Sometimes creamy pies and tarts can be too heavy so the citrus is almost muted, defeating the entire purpose of the dessert in the first place. Not so in this case – it was really fantastic. Having tried several key lime recipes in my day, I can highly recommend Martha Stewart’s Key Lime Tart. While it may be difficult to get key limes other times during the year, they are in abundance right now, so go out, get some, and make a tart!

If these three recipes recommendations aren’t your cup o’ tea (or cup o’ juice), you can find even more citrus inspiration in these recipe collections:

• Central Market
• Epicurious
• Saveur

When I left class I was inspired to come up with my own citrus recipe to share here. I had the goat cheese salmon on my mind and the staff at Central Market said their blood oranges are amazing this year, so I decided to combine the two and create a blood orange and goat cheese crostini. These little bites come together in a matter of minutes. Supreming the orange is the most arduous task but is well worth it. They are perfect for a light lunch or as an appetizer before a meal. The citrus is the star of the show here and this recipe really lets it shine. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Recipe: Goat Cheese Crostini with Greens and Blood Oranges

Details

• Difficulty: Easy
• Serves: 8 as an appetizer, 4 as light lunch
• Prep Time: 20 min
• Cook Time: 15 min

Ingredients

• 1 baguette, sliced on a diagonal into 16 pieces
• Olive oil for drizzling
• Salt and pepper
• 2 Tbsp. freshly squeezed blood orange juice
• 1 Tbsp. champagne vinegar
• 1 medium shallot, minced
• 1 tsp. honey
• 2 Tbsp. good olive oil
• ¼ tsp. salt
• 1/8 tsp. pepper
• 3 cups baby greens
• 4 oz. goat cheese
• 32 segments from 2-3 blood oranges

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Place the baguette slices on a baking sheet about 1 inch apart. Drizzle evenly with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
3. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until crispy.
4. Combine the juice, vinegar, shallot, and honey in a medium bowl and whisk to combine. Continuing whisking and slowly stream the olive oil into the bowl. Season the vinaigrette with salt and pepper. Taste and adjust for seasoning with more salt and pepper if necessary.
5. Add the baby greens to the vinaigrette in the bowl and toss gently to coat the greens.
6. To assemble the crostini, spread baguette slice with a thin layer of goat cheese, top with a small bunch of the dressed greens and two blood orange segments.

Recipe for Success

• If you can’t find blood oranges, regular oranges will work as a substitution.
• Be sure to taste your vinaigrette for balance before you coat the greens with it. Some blood oranges may be more tart than others, so you may need to add a touch more honey to account for that tartness.
• Create the orange segments using the supreming technique. If you’ve never supreme citrus, watch Ming Tsai’s video for a great overview of the technique. The process is a little time consuming but the beautiful segments are well worth it.

Recipe: Warm and Creamy Artichoke Dip

Details

• Difficulty: Easy
• Makes: 6 cups for about 96 1 Tbsp. servings
• Prep Time: 30 min
• Cook Time: 50 min

Ingredients

• 2 tsp. olive oil
• 1 large shallot, minced
• 1 ½ c. mayonnaise
• 1 c. sour cream
• 1 Tbsp. fresh rosemary, finely chopped
• 1 ½ c. grated parmesan cheese
• ¼ tsp. salt
• ½ tsp. pepper
• 28 oz. artichoke hearts (frozen or in water); drained (if packed in water) and roughly chopped
• 1 large round loaf of bread, hollowed out to make a bowl

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
2. Heat the olive oil in a small sauté pan over medium heat.
3. Sautee the shallots until soft, 3-4 minutes; remove from heat and let cool to room temperature.
4. Combine the mayonnaise, sour cream, rosemary, cheese, salt, pepper, and cooled shallots in a medium bowl.
5. Fold in the artichokes then taste for seasoning and add more salt and pepper if needed.
6. Transfer mixture to the bread bowl.
7. Place the filled bread bowl on a baking sheet and bake for 40-50 minutes or until heated through and the top is brown and crusty.
8. Remove from oven, plate, and serve with crostini, vegetables, or hearty crackers.

Recipe for Success

• This dish can be made a day in advance. Store the dip and the bread bowl separately and then fill the bowl just before you’re ready to bake it. Chilled dip may need an additional 10-15 minutes to cook.
• The best way I’ve found to be sure the dip is heated through is to us an instant-read thermometer. Look for an internal temperature of 160-180 degrees.
• You can also bake the dip in a oven-safe dish instead of a bread bowl. It will only take 30 minutes or so to heat through and you may need to run it under the broiler for a couple of minutes to encourage browning on top.
• You can easily substitute another hard cheese like pecorino romano or asiago for the parmesan. You could also use thyme instead of rosemary for a slightly different flavor profile.
• Artichoke hearts marinated in oil with herbs will work in this dish, but be sure to drain them very well before adding them to the mayonnaise and sour cream mixture so as not to add too much additional oil to the dish.
• I haven’t tried this recipe with reduced fat mayonnaise or sour cream, but many recipes I reviewed use these lighter options so I expect they would work well. I wouldn’t use fat-free because you really need a bit of fat to maintain consistency and keep the dip creamy.
• You could substitute 8-10 ounces of jumbo lump crab for an equal amount of artichokes for a really decadent dip.
• You can easily reduce this recipe by half for a smaller gathering or to use as an appetizer for a dinner for 6-8.

Learn more about artichokes

Throwing a really great party doesn’t have to be difficult if you do two important things:

• Plan ahead a bit.
• Create a menu that combines a healthy selection of make-ahead recipes with a few choice “serve immediately” dishes. The make-ahead dishes are the backbone of the party and the more time sensitive dishes add a sense of fresh and just made to the whole affair.

To make party planning and cooking easier, I have a whole arsenal of make-ahead recipes in my collection and am always on the hunt for new additions. And just because a dish can be made ahead doesn’t mean it can’t showcase really great ingredients or have a unique flavor profile. Make ahead does not have to equal boring!

For my upcoming pumpkin carving party, 10 of the 21 different dishes I plan to serve can be (and have been) made more than a week in advance. And really, with travel for fun and work filling up the days before the party, I didn’t have a choice. Even if I choose not to sleep for 24 hours before the party, I won’t be able to pull of such an extensive menu without the help of my make-ahead recipes.

Disclaimer: Really, 21 dishes is probably overkill for a pumpkin carving party, but hey, I like to cook. Also, some of these dishes are simple things like a cheese plate and dippers for fondue, so it’s not 21 complex dishes. Mixing easy and more difficult preparations is another key to throwing a really great party. But, I digress…

Three of my favorite types of make-ahead party foods include:

• Flavored nuts. While you could easily set out a dish of mixed nuts for your guests, in an hour or so you can jazz up any plain ol’ nut to make it just a little more special. Most seasoned nut recipes keep for a week or two at least, and most are also easy to prepare. At this year’s party I’m serving Rosemary Roasted Almonds and Orange Chipotle Spiced Pecans. I made both recipes last night between dinner time and bed time. With just a few ingredients, the prep work goes quickly and the oven does most of the heavy lifting. Nuts like these also make great holiday gifts. They are homemade, which everyone truly appreciates, but they fit neatly into a hectic schedule.
• Biscotti. I have extolled the virtues of biscotti in previous posts. They are surprisingly easy to make, can be both savory and sweet, work with almost limitless flavor combinations, and freeze beautifully. For this year’s party I’ve made a Parmesan and Black Pepper Biscotti, a Gourmet recipe that turned out to be my tribute to that great magazine. With only a few ingredients, the parmesan is the star, with the black pepper adding a contrasting bite at the back of the throat after each nibble. They go very well with champagne too, which is always a bonus in my book. I made the dough for this recipe in my food processor because I really hate cutting butter into flour by hand, and it worked beautifully. The biscotti will keep for up to four weeks wrapped tightly in foil and then zipped up in a freezer bag. Let them thaw the night before you plan to serve them. And if you don’t have parmesan on hand, try another hard cheese like an asiago or even a well-aged manchego.
• Nuts and Bolts. My family calls Chex Mix “Nuts and Bolts” although I’m not really sure why. It’s a much more fun name though so I’ll go with it. While you can buy Chex Mix pre-made, I’d highly recommend that you make it yourself because you can control the salt content and the quality of all of the ingredients. It’s also silly easy. If you’ve only ever had packaged Chex Mix, I highly recommend you try a homemade version – the difference is astronomical. Like all of my other favorite recipes, the Nuts and Bolts recipe is infinitely variable. Change up the cereal combinations, the nuts and other mix-ins, as well as the spices you use for flavor. Like seasoned nuts, putting the dish together is easy and the oven does the hard work. These munchies keep for 3-4 weeks in an air-tight container and are perfect to keep on hand during the holidays for when unexpected guests drop by. My recipe is my take on the one my mother has been making since I was a kid.

Recipe: Savory Chex Mix with Pumpkin Seeds

Details

• Difficulty: Easy
• Serves: 36-40 1 cup servings
• Prep Time: 15 minutes
• Cook Time: 60 minutes

Ingredients

• ½ c. olive oil
• 2 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
• 2 Tbsp. Balsamic vinegar
• 1 tsp. red hot pepper sauce
• 1 box each Rice Chex, Corn Chex, and Wheat Chex
• 8 oz. pretzels, any shape
• 6 oz. pecan halves
• 4 oz. roasted, shelled pumpkin seeds (pepitas)
• 1 1 oz. package Italian salad dressing mix
• ¼ tsp. garlic powder

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 250 degrees.
2. Combine the olive oil, Worcestershire sauce, vinegar, and hot pepper sauce in a small bowl and whisk to mix well.
3. Add the cereal, pretzels, pecan halves, and pumpkin seeds in a large roasting pan and stir to combine.
4. Combine the salad dressing mix and the garlic powder in a small bowl and stir to mix.
5. Sprinkle the dry seasonings over the top of the cereal, pretzel, and nut mixture. Drizzle evenly with the olive oil mixture. Do not stir.
6. Place the roaster in the oven. Bake, stirring every 15 minutes, for 1 hour.
7. Remove from oven and let cool completely before storing in an air-tight container.

Recipe for Success

• My local market has tamari roasted pumpkin seeds in the bulk department and they work beautifully in this dish. You can include unshelled, roasted pumpkin seeds in the mix instead of shelled seeds, but they do make add a shelling component to the munching, so be sure to put out a shell receptacle.
• My family owned a house with a whole slew of pecan trees for most of my childhood, so pecans tend to be our nut of choice. You can however use any nut, or combination thereof, that you like. Buy roasted or raw nuts – which ever you would normally buy for snacking.
• We use standard Chex cereal in our recipe, but you could easily use another similar cereal if you’d like. Experiment!
• If you’d like to add a bit of a sweet element to the mix, you could toss in dried fruit or even M&Ms. Add them at the end after the mixture has cooled.

A year or so ago, I had a wild hair that it would be cool to take my favorite sushi rolls and created deconstructed versions of them to serve as an appetizer before an Asian-inspired dinner or as a refreshing nibble at a spring or summer party. The idea of the ingredients I usually find in my rolls piled up on a cucumber slice just sounded fun. And well, the variations on the theme are just endless, making it my kind of food idea. Even with all there was to recommend trying this idea out immediately, somehow it took me much longer to act on this idea than on most of my wild hairs. Recently, I finally rolled up my sleeves and tried my concept out, and a fun time was had by all in the kitchen and at the dining table.

As the picture shows, I experimented with two standard rolls: California and spicy tuna.

Roll Equations

The California roll is pretty straight forward: cucumber slice + rice + avocado + crab + sesame seeds. There’s not really any prep for any of the ingredients beyond mashing the avocado up a bit so it’s easier to keep on top of the rice. For the spicy roll I had to do two things:

• Make the tuna spicy – hence the tuna tartare recipe you’ll find later in this blog.
• Whip up a batch of spicy mayo to top it all off. My spicy mayo recipe is 4 parts mayo, 1 part sriracha, and a drizzle of honey or agave nectar.

With that prep work done, the spicy tuna roll = cucumber slice + rice + avocado + tuna tartare + spicy mayo + thin slice of green Thai pepper.

What about the Rice?

For both rolls, I cooked a cup of short grain sushi rice according to the package directions and then mixed the finished rice with a couple of tablespoons of seasoned rice wine vinegar. The rice needs to be cool before you can pile it on the cucumber slices, and the fast way to do this is to spread the seasoned rice on a sheet pan and stick it in the fridge for 30 minutes or so. This also helps dry it out.

Useful Things to Know

As I was making my deconstructed rolls, I learned some things:

• Just like sushi rolls, deconstructed sushi rolls are messy and time-consuming. This is not a reason not to make them, just a fact to consider. If you plan to make them for a crowd, enlist help and/or give yourself plenty of time.
• Sushi rice sticks to everything. Keep your hands damp as you work.
• Small cookie cutters or molds make it easier to stack and pack ingredients, just be sure you dip them in water so the rice doesn’t stick.
• Buy big cucumbers to use as the base – I mean really big. Little English cukes just don’t work.
• If the rice wants to slide off of the cucumber base, use a tiny bit of prepared wasabi as glue.
• These rolls are best served pretty quickly after you make them. You could probably hold them in the fridge for maybe 30 minutes, but no more.

Recipe: Tuna Tartare

Details

• Difficulty: Easy
• Serves: 4-6 as an appetizer
• Prep Time: 15min
• Inactive Time: 30 min
• Weight Watchers™ Points: 3

Ingredients

• 8 oz. yellow fin tuna, sushi grade, cut into ¼ inch cubes
• 4 Tbsp. soy sauce
• 4 Tbsp. mirin
• 1 Tbsp. toasted sesame oil
• 4 Tbsp. lime juice
• 2 Tbsp. rice wine vinegar
• 1 tsp. prepared wasabi (plus more to taste)

Instructions

1. Combine all ingredients.
2. Let marinate in the refrigerator for at least an hour and up to 3.
3. Serve on deconstructed sushi rolls, with wonton skins, in shooter glasses, or any other fun way you can come up with.

Recipe for Success

• High quality, sushi grade tuna is a must for this recipe, not only for safety but for flavor. Be sure to source your tuna from a fish monger that you trust.
• Freeze the fish for 15 minutes or so to make it easier to cut into cubes.

Learn more about ahi tuna

Recently, the Austin food bloggers gathered again for a potluck, giving me another blogger event to simultaneously look forward to and fret about. I of course work myself up unnecessarily. Our local blogging group is so down to earth and ready to try new food that they are possibly the easiest group of people I’ve ever fed. They also make some amazing food. See for yourself:

• Food Blogger Potluck, The Sequel – A rundown of the event from Addie Broyles, the Statesman’s food writer extraordinaire and organizer of our foodie fun.
• Lemon Tart – A recipe from Anna at Cookie Madness for easily the best lemon dessert I’ve ever had.
• Potlucks and Pig-Pickinses – Welcome to Texas! – A fantastic story of not one but two food-lover events in one day from Boots In the Oven, my favorite read when I need a foodie fix and a good laugh.
• Ethel’s Sugar Cookies – A recipe from Lisa is Cooking where you’ll gain pounds just looking at her beautiful pictures.
• Food Blogger Pot Luck and Slow Food Austin Pot Luck – Yet another two-for-one post about local foodie events from Jennie who reminds me that it’s important to really enjoy your food.
• Technical Difficulties – A fantastic recipe for Penne Pasta with Goat Cheese Sauce, blackberries, and pecans from Teddy at Fun With Your Food who may have had technical issues but never has issues coming up with tasty recipes.

For our last potluck I took the opportunity to really think through what makes a great dish for a potluck, and the result was my Potluck Survival Guide. For this potluck I wanted to follow all of those basic principles, but also flex my culinary muscles and put to work what I’ve learned as I’ve been reading Michael Ruhlman’s book Ratio. Finally, the pickin’s at the farmers markets these days are amazing and it seemed a shame to not make the most of some great local produce. The end result was an idea for Caprese Sandwiches on Parmesan Gougères. The caprese part of the recipe gave me a chance to showcase the best tomatoes and basil available at the market right now (both are just amazing), and the gougères element gave me a chance to test out the pâte à choux ratio from Ratio. Even though it’s a little different from my last potluck, this dish meets the requirements of my survival guide because:

• It can be made ahead and is easy to transport.
• It can sit safely at room temperature for a while without spoiling.
• It’s easy to eat with one hand.

Before I dive right into the recipe, let’s take a moment to discuss one of my favorite food bites ever, gougeres.

Gougère Musings

I’ve been making gougères for a while as one of my party staples. They are exceptionally easy to make, freeze beautifully, and can support myriad flavor combinations. Pâte à choux is really (I mean really) easy to make. You cook up a little flour, water, and butter, mix in some eggs and cheese and you’re done. Really, I promise. It’s that easy. I use my Kitchen Aide to incorporate the eggs, but you can actually make them in one pan if you’re up for building some arm strength.

I think pâte à choux is often under utilized by home cooks because it seems like it should be harder than it is. My hypothesis is that any recipe that calls for a piping bag to make bread is scary. Be afraid no more! I’ve found you can skip the piping bag all together and use scoops of varying sizes to portion your balls of choux goodness. Need bite-size gougeres? Go with a 2 tsp. or 1 Tbsp. scoop. Want bigger ones; say the perfect size for little sandwiches? Try a #30 scoop. The only thing that changes in the recipe is the length of time you bake the gougères.

Seriously, if you’ve never made pâte à choux, try it. The “secrets to success” section of the recipe at the end of this post has some tips that will help you find your choux comfort zone. Ruhlman also has some great advice in Ratio, so be sure to take a look at that as well.

Learn more about choux pastry

Measuring By Volume Does Make a Difference

I’ve known for a long time that bakers who know what they’re doing always measure their ingredients by weight. You won’t typically find cups of flour called for in their recipes, but rather ounces (or possibly pounds). I even witnessed the effect the type of measuring cup and the measurer can have on the final weight of a cup of flour in a cooking class. The same measuring cup yielded flour weights between 4 and 5.5 oz depending on the person doing the measuring. In Ratio, Ruhlman is a big advocate of measuring by weight whenever possible, specifically because measures by volume can often be so inexact, and given that baking is as much of science as an art, accuracy matters.

Even though I know measuring by weight for baking is the right thing to do, I typically measure my dry ingredients for baking with a measuring cup, figuring an ounce or two here or there won’t make a difference. Boy was I wrong. When I made my parmesan gougères for this recipe, I took the time to measure all of the ingredients by volume, and these gougères were the best I’ve ever made. They were lighter, crispier, and all around more of what I’ve experienced in restaurants and other settings where the food is prepared by professional bakers and chefs. I’m officially convinced. As much as it’s sort of a pain to get the kitchen scale out to measure ingredients by volume, I can unequivocally say that it’s worth the effort for a better end product.

Ruhlman’s ratio for pâte à choux is 1 part butter, 2 parts liquid, 2 parts egg, and 1 part flour. I highly recommend snagging a copy of his book for the full scoop on how the ratios work as well downloading this hand-dandy doughs and batters ratios PDF from his site so you can print a copy and hang it on your fridge.

Pick a Flavor, Any Flavor

Once you’re comfortable making a basic pâte à choux, you’ve added a technique to your repertoire that will take you far. Pâte à choux is blank slate dough, just waiting for your favorite combination of tastes to take it from plain to yum. For the caprese sandwiches I used rosemary and parmesan to compliment the tomato, basil, and mozzarella, but that’s just a starting point. Gruyere is a traditional cheese to stir into pâte à choux dough but blue cheese is a winner and I have some suspicion a manchego and paprika gougères served with chorizo would be a truly wonderful thing. To get your creative juices flowing, here are some of my favorite gougère recipes:

• Jacques Pepin’s classic Gougères recipe featuring Swiss cheese
• Tori Ritchie’s Cheddar-Chive Gougères
• Bon Appetite Blue Cheese Gougères

Recipe: Caprese Sandwiches on Parmesan Gougères

Details

• Difficulty: Easy (I promise)
• Serves: Makes 18 sandwiches
• Prep Time: 30 min
• Cook Time: 30 min

Ingredients

• 4 oz. water
• 4 oz. milk (any kind will do; I use skim)
• 4 oz. butter
• ½ tsp. salt
• 4 oz. flour
• 4 large eggs (room temperature is best)
• 1 oz. parmesan cheese, grated (about ½ cup by volume)
• 2 tsp. minced fresh rosemary
• 8 oz. fresh mozzarella, sliced into 16 slices
• 6 medium tomatoes, sliced in 3-4 slices each
• 18 basil leaves
• Kosher salt and freshly-cracked pepper
• Good olive oil

Instructions

Make gougères:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Combine milk, water, butter, and salt in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil.
3. Add flour all at once, reduce heat to medium, and stir until the dough comes together and forms a ball.
4. Stir and cook for one minute more.
5. Remove from heat, cover, and let stand for five minutes.
6. Transfer dough to a stand mixer fitted with a paddle.
7. Mix the dough on medium-low for 1-2 minutes or until the steam released from the hot dough decreases significantly.
8. Add the eggs one at a time, letting each fully incorporate before adding the next.
9. Add the cheese and rosemary; mix until combined.
10. Scoop onto a parchment or slipat lined baking sheet using the scoop of your choice.
11. Dampen fingertips with water and smooth down any peaks in the dough.
12. Bake for 20-30 minutes depending on size of the scoop (20-25 minutes for smaller gougeres and 30 for larger).
13. Remove gougères from the oven and:
    • Serve immediately
    • Poke a hole in each gougère with a toothpick or skewer and let cool before holding for service in 24-48 hours or freezing.

Assemble sandwiches:

1. Split each gougère in half.
2. Top the bottom with a slice of mozzarella and tomato and a basil leaf.
3. Season with salt and pepper then drizzle with olive oil.
4. Top with the remaining half and serve.

Recipe for Success

• When you’re making pâte à choux, it’s important that the butter/four/liquid mixture not be too hot, otherwise you’ll scramble the eggs when you add them. The five minutes the dough spends before you put it into the mixer and the 1-2 minutes of mixing time before you add the eggs, help the dough cool off enough to take on the eggs without scrambling them. Even if you’re tempted to save the 6-7 minutes, don’t.
• You can make the gougères up to 3 weeks in advance. After they cool, put them on a baking sheet in the freezer for an hour to set and then place them in a heavy-duty zip-top bag and freeze. To bring them back to life, place them in a 350 degree oven for 10-12 minutes. This is true of any gougere recipe, not just this one. This is in fact why I like gougères so much for parties. You can cook up batches of them one weekend and quickly reheat when it’s time for the party.
• If you’re in a hurry or just don’t want to try the whole pâte à choux thing, this recipe works equally well with the bread of your choice. Consider toasted sourdough, whole wheat, or rosemary bread.
• Play around with the combination of flavors on the sandwich. Prosciutto might be a nice addition or you can build your own unique combination of flavors with the cheese, veggies, and meat of your choice. The options are really limitless.
• Because the pâte à choux is based on a ratio, you can easily double it (or triple it and more) by modifying the ratios. A double batch would have 8 oz. each of water and milk, 8 oz. of butter, 8 oz. of flour, and 8 large eggs. You could double the parmesan and rosemary as well, or play around with the amounts you use to tweak the final flavor of the gougère.

Tools of the Trade

These kitchen tools were important to this recipe. You may want to consider adding them to your collection if you don’t have them already.

• Digital Kitchen Scale. Slect a scale that displays both grams and ounces. A tare feature is also important so you can measure directly into the container of your choice.
• Silpat Nonstick Silicone Baking Mat. While different cooks have their own opinion of silicon baking mats, I’ve found them to be indespensible in the kitchen and use them for most of my baking activities.
• Size 30 Disher and Size 60 Disher. Dishers not only help you skip the piping bag in this recipe, but they make portioning cookies, muffins, ice cream, and all number of other foods much easier than a spoon ever can.

Recently I’ve had two opportunities to connect with some amazing Austin chefs: the Hill Country Wine and Food Festival VIP lounge at the Stars Across Texas event and a recent blogger happy hour event at the acclaimed Parkside restaurant. Beyond experiencing some absolutely amazing food, I wanted to take the opportunity to get some insight from the chefs on how they select dishes for events like these. Tastings are very much like open houses and other nibbly-bits parties that home cooks throw, so I was pretty sure that I would walk away with some useful tips on how to select food for a crowd that I could use at when prepping for my next big party. The chefs didn’t disappoint. It turns out they face some of the same dilemmas I do when prepping for a party including:

• Managing the food preparation along with other responsibilities. Every chef I talked to was working the tasting on a busy night at their restaurant so they were juggling resources at both locations and having to work the prep for the party into their standard dinner service activities. Funny, I run into similar issues when I’m throwing a party. While I might take a day off to cook for a fairly large party, typically I’m managing preparation for it along with every other day-to-day responsibility.
• Restrictions on preparation and service space. At the wine and food festival event, each chef had four long tables on which to work and serve. They had to bring chafing dishes to keep food warm if necessary and coolers to keep food cold. Their plating and serving areas were small and crowded with people. Think back on your last party – didn’t you experience the same issues? At the Parkside event the chef had access to his own kitchen, just as I do at a party, but he wasn’t serving food in the standard ways or times as he typically does, just as happens to me when I throw a party.
• Satisfying guests’ pallets. Each chef had to think carefully about how to create an amazing one-bite experience for tasters in a way that both represented their restaurant’s style and catered to the pallets of those at the tasting. At the Parkside tasking the chef had to do that 8 times to show the breadth-and-depth of his menu. When I plan a menu for a finger-food party, I too want to create great one-bite experiences that my guests will enjoy and that fit within their overall taste preferences, and the combine all of those one-bites into a menu that works well together. I want to reflect well on my own skills but ultimately the goal is to make the taster’s happy.

So given that professional chefs run into the same sorts of issues that home cooks do when it’s time to feed a crowd, what can we learn from their years of experience with such things?

• Make everything one bite. This simple but key advice comes from chefs Stewart Scruggs and Mark Paul of Zoot. What makes this particularly interesting is their offering that night was fried wonton wrapper filled with cabbage and topped with a marinated slice of beef tenderloin. It was exceptionally tasty but actually larger than one bite and I heard more than one person comment that it was bigger than they would have liked. When I talked with the chefs, they admitted were they to make the dish again they would make it smaller so it would be easier to eat. This doesn’t mean that you have to turn out thousands of mini-dishes for a party. Bread slices, dips, cheese, fruits and veggies, and a variety of other foods can all be managed in a single bite as long as you prepare them the right way. A previous blog post I put together on a holiday party menu shows this philosophy in action.
• Choose food that is easy to eat and prepare. Chefs Teresa Wilson and Robert Brady from Aquarelle provided this advice that is in line with the recommendations from the Zoot crew but also adds the element of easy preparation. Keeping with this philosophy, the chefs offered new potatoes topped with shrimp and drizzled with a blue cheese sauce. For the Stars Across Texas event each restaurant only had to prepare one item, but when I’m throwing the party I’m on the hook for almost all of the food so ease of preparation is even more important. To me, an easy-to-prepare recipes has a manageable ingredient list (say no more than 7 or 8 ingredients), includes prep-ahead elements, and doesn’t require extensive plating or assembly. My recipe at the end of this post, Tiny Twice-Baked Chorizo and Manchego Potatoes meets all of these criteria.
• Focus on what’s fresh and available. Chef Tristan White from Asti offers this advice which is particularly important if you’re interested in avoiding processed food and supporting local and sustainable agriculture. His offering at Stars Across Texas was the epitome of this advice: bruschetta with fava bean puree, ramps, and crispy guanciale. The fava beans and ramps were a beautiful green and just screamed “spring” to the eyes and taste buds. While I can’t base every single dish at a party on fresh and local ingredients – budget and time are at issues as well – I do try to include them were practical and in at least one or two star dishes.
• Be ready to be flexible. At the Parkside tasting, chef Shawn Cirkiel reminded me that flexibility has to be part of your vocabulary if you’re planning to feed a slew o’ people. The night of the blogger party he was short staffed and having to serve a full restaurant along with the blogging hoard. If he hadn’t told us though, we never would have known. His menu was expertly executed because he adjusted to circumstances by tweaking dishes and preparation approaches. In the end, guests are there for whatever great food you serve them, not the great food you’d planned to serve them.
• Make what you like. Every chef I talked to at the Stars Across Texas Event and at the Parkside tasting offered this pearl of wisdom in some form or another. In the end, cooking and entertaining are a creative expression of the chef’s passion. While I always try to keep my party guests’ likes (and dislikes) firmly in mind, in the end I cook food that I like for parties because I want to share what I enjoy with others.

More About These Great Foodie Events

Before I jump into one of my tried-and-true entertaining recipes, here are some links to other articles and posts about both the Stars Across Texas event.

• Relish Austin’s take on Stars Across Texas with a heavy focus on tartare
• A plethora of images from the Stars Across Texas tasting
• VintageTexas excellent run-down of everything to be had at the Stars Across Texas tasting

If you’re in Austin as a local or just as a visitor, you really should make a point to visit Parkside. The restaurant is bright and comfortable, and the food is just incredible. The chef’s focus on fresh ingredients, particularly raw seafood, shows in every dish. I’ve reviewed a few of my favorite offerings from the tasting and a previous visit on Dishola, and my fellow bloggers have some nice things to say as well.

• Maggie’s Austin tale of the Parkside tasting
• Crystal’s description of the event plus some fun pictures on poco-cocoa
• Eating in a Box’s take on the event, also with some great pics of the food
  

Recipe: Tiny Twice-Baked Chorizo and Manchego Potatoes

Stuffed single-bite potatoes are great for any party because they hold well, can be made ahead of time, and the basic recipe is really a blank slate for just about any savory flavor combination you can come up with. My favorite is Spanish-inspired chorizo and manchego, but you could be more traditional with cheddar, bacon, and chives or even think ballpark with chile and cheese. Really, if you would put it on a baked potato, you can put it in this twice-baked potato recipe.

Details

• Difficulty: Easy
• Serves: Makes 30
• Active Prep Time: 45 min
• Inactive Prep Time: 45 min
• Cook Time: 20 min

Ingredients

• 30 small red or white potatoes, scrubbed
• 1 Tbsp. olive oil
• 8 oz. good quality manchego cheese, shredded
• 5 oz. Spanish chorizo, diced
• 1 c. crème fraiche
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Chives for garnish

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
2. Toss the potatoes with olive oil then sprinkle with salt and pepper.
3. Spread the potatoes in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet and roast for 40 – 45 minutes or until cooked through.
4. Cool the potatoes until you can easily handle them.
5. Cut the top ¼ off of each potato and discard. Use a small spoon or tiny melon-baller to scoop the flesh from each potato, leaving the skin as a “bowl” to refill later.
6. Put the potato flesh in a mixing bowl and return the skins to the baking sheet.
7. Combine the potato flesh, shredded cheese, chorizo, and crème fraiche in the mixing bowl and stir until smooth(ish). Taste and add salt and pepper as needed for seasoning.
8. Stuff each skin with the potato mixture, mounding the mixture on top of each skin.
9. Return the potatoes to the oven and bake for 15 – 20 minutes or until heated through.
10. Snip chives over the potatoes for a pretty garnish.

Recipe for Success

• You can make the potatoes through step 8 up to 24 hours in advance. Cover the potatoes on the baking sheet with plastic wrap and refrigerate. Set out about 20 minutes before baking to allow the potatoes to come to room temperature before you put them in the oven.
• These potatoes hold their heat well for a party, but if you can, serve them in a warming dish so the cheese stays gooey and melty.

Learn more about manchego cheese

Last weekend a bunch of Austin food bloggers got together to share great food and to make real world connections. A wonderful time was had by all at Penny De Los Santos’ beautiful home as we tasted the most amazing range of food from curry-spiced cookies to vegan samosas from the owner of local Kula Catering to some of the best tacos I’ve had in a very long time from Mando of Taco Journalism. Some of the attendees have put together fantastic recaps of the event with some amazing photography, so I’m going to leverage (that’s marketing speak for be really lazy and not do it myself) their posts for those who want a download on the day’s activities:

• Addie Broyles, Statesman food writer goddess and organizer of local bloggers (and this event) put together a lovely recap and gets extra points because she included a really big picture of my sunflower and goat cheese dish in her post aptly titled: Who woulda guessed? Food bloggers like potlucks.
• Logan from Boots in the Oven makes reading about the event almost as fun as being there. He also does justice to the beauty of Penny’s house in both pictures and words.
• Michelle Cheng’s photo gallery showcases the variety of the food and the bloggers behind it.

All-in-all the event was very satisfying for both the stomach and the soul.

However, when I first accepted the invitation for the party the first thing I experienced was…anxiety. Not only was I going to have to cook for a collection of food bloggers whom I respect for both their food and writing prowess, but I had to cook for a potluck which in-and-of-itself has a whole collection of issues to contend with. For about two weeks I was truly flummoxed. And then, as if my mental hamster wheeling over the food blogger event wasn’t enough, I was invited to an Easter potluck to be held a short week later.

Typically menu planning and recipe selection come easily to me. My biggest challenge is usually excluding dishes I want to make to create a menu that’s manageable for me and my guests’ pallets. After some thinking about why I was thrashing about these two potlucks so extensively, I realized that the nature of a potluck was really to blame.

The Problem with Potlucks

Don’t get me wrong, potlucks are great for a whole host of reasons:

• The host doesn’t have to bear the whole burden for cooking (and financing) the event.
• A range of food and culinary styles come to the table to create what can be a truly great experience.
• Their communal nature helps set the stage for party goers to connect. Everyone at the party has at least one thing in common: prepping a dish for the party.

Even so, when it comes to prepping food for the party, potlucks present a not-so-nifty collection of challenges:

• The food has to be prepped ahead. This narrows the possibly recipes down considerably. Recipes that include the words “serve immediately” are out.
• The food had to hold for both transport and serving. When you combine transit time, milling time when you first get to the party, and the time it takes everyone to serve themselves at a party, potluck dishes need to be able to hold their own for quite a while. In my mind, this immediately eliminates any food that uses mayo or eggs, and possibly chicken depending on the preparation because the last thing I want to do is make give a whole group of people food poisoning. I can hear it now “Oh yeah, that was the food blogger event when the Everyday Foodie made us all sick”. Ugh.
• The food has to travel well. Unless you’re hosting the potluck (and then you’re in your own kitchen and none of this really applies to you) you have to get the food from point A to point B more-or-less in good shape, so delicate or fragile food may not be the best choice.

The good news is all of these challenges are completely manageable with just a little know-how and planning. As I finalized my plans for both the food blogger and Easter potlucks, I kept track of the tactics I employed to overcome potluck problems and find the perfect dishes for each occasion.

Potluck Solutions

In the end, surviving a potluck comes down to following a few simple strategies:

• Let the ingredients be the star. A defining characteristic of potlucks are lots of different dishes that may not necessarily go together well. Rather than add fuel to the fire with a complex dish, consider recipes with 5 or fewer ingredients and then buy the best possible ones you can lay hands on and/or afford.
• Choose recipes that do well at room temperature. Cheese dishes are great for a party because cheese is actually best at room temperature. Cured meats, nuts, veggies, and some hearty fruits also do well at room temperature. Vinaigrettes are the best dressings for potlucks because they handle sitting out much better than mayo-based dressings.
• Select recipes that can be prepped ahead. The last thing you want to be doing while you’re trying to get out of the house for a party is cooking a full recipe from start-to-finish. If you can put most or all of a recipe together 12-24 hours in advance you’ll have the time you need to focus on a great dish and prepping for the party.
• Make enough for everyone. Find out from your host how many people will be at the party and plan to serve that many plus 20% more. There’s nothing worse than standing at the end of the line and missing out on a dish because there wasn’t enough to go around.
• Don’t forget presentation. Just because you’re serving at a potluck doesn’t mean you can’t have a pretty presentation. Consider how you’d serve the dish at home and think about how you might replicate that at the potluck without sacrificing your best china or having to arrive 2 hours early. I have a collection of high-quality plastic presentation dishes specifically for serving at potlucks. They are durable and I won’t be heartbroken if I lose one along the way.
• Plan for transportation. Consider how you’ll get your dish to the potluck, particularly if you have to keep it warm or cool. Remember that you can assemble your final dish at the potluck so package elements separately if necessary and put them all together when you get there.
• Be kind to your host by bringing everything you’ll need to plate and serve your dish. At a lunch recently a dining companion told me she’d hosted a potluck party for 30 people and almost none of them had thought about serving the dishes they brought, so she was left scrambling at the last minute. To avoid this plan to bring:
  • A serving dish which is probably different from the one that will get your food to its destination.
  • Serving utensils.
  • Garnishes and final seasonings.

Given all of these strategies, the dishes I chose for my various potluck events included:

• Sweet-’n'-Salty Honey Cheese Spread
  from Southern Living magazine. With only three ingredients (plush garnish) this recipe provides a great opportunity to showcase great goat cheese and honey. I choose local Pure Luck goat cheese which is some of the best you’ll ever taste and Tupelo Honey. An imported orange blossom honey would have been nice as well. With this dish, tasters get to experience high-quality ingredients they may or may not have had before, which is a great gift to give to anyone. This dish holds well at room temperature, lends itself to pretty plating, and travels well (plan to plate at your destination). It also has a make-ahead component and is almost silly-easy to put together. You can roll the goat cheese in sunflower seeds a few hours before the party and finish assembly and garnish at the party.
• Prosciutto-Wrapped Dates with Marcona Almonds and Manchego Cheese. Dates stuffed with nuts and cheese then wrapped in pig meat are a classic appetizer that can be elevated to amazing when you choose great ingredients. Prosciutto de Parma, Marcona almonds, and artisan manchego cheese are best-of-the-best ingredients that come together to create taste experiences. These taste great right out of the oven or at room temperature. You can assemble these up to 24 hours in advance and refrigerate. Cook them for 10 minutes just before you leave for the party and transport in a warm carrier or consult with your host and possibly cook them on-site, but only if you ask first.
• Spring Pasta Salad. Sometimes the oldies but goodies are perfect for a potluck because they are comfortable and expected by the crowd. My mom has been making the pasta salad for potlucks since I was a kid and it’s always well received. You can make it up to 12 hours in advance and take advantage of whatever fresh product you have available at the time. It scales easily to feed a few or a bunch of people and you can make it visually interesting by choosing a fun pasta shape. We simplify the recipe even further by using bottled dressing, but you can just as easily use your favorite vinaigrette. Because this recipe is mayo-free it holds well and it’s easy to transport. For serving, pile it on a beautiful platter, toss on some parsley sprigs and you’re done.

Learn more about prosciutto

Recipe: Prosciutto-Wrapped Dates with Marcona Almonds and Manchego Cheese

Details

• Difficulty: Easy
• Makes: 30
• Prep Time: 30 min
• Cook Time: 10 min
• Weight Watchers™ Points: 1 each, 5.5 for 4

Ingredients

• 30 pitted dates, (about 8 oz.)
• 4 oz. good quality manchego cheese, cut in to ¼ in. cubes
• 30 marcona almonds (about 4 oz.)
• 12 thin slices prosciutto (about 3 oz.), each cut into 3 long strips, for a total of 36 strips

Instructions

1.  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Using a sharp knife, cut through one long side of each date so it opens like a book for stuffing. Be careful not to cut the date fully in half.
3. Place one cube of cheese and one marcona almond side-by-side in the open date.
4. Wrap the stuffed date in a strip of prosciutto and place seam side down on a baking pan.
5. Repeat with remaining dates, almonds, cheese, and prosciutto.
6. Roast the dates for 8-10 minutes or until the prosciutto is crispy and the cheese begins to melt.
7. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Recipe for Success

• Not every date in your package will be the right size for stuffing and you’ll probably lose a few to breakage, so start with two packages to find your 30 best dates and expect to have a few leftovers. They’re great on salads or for snacking.
• Every strip of prosciutto will not necessary cooperate with the rolling process which is why the recipe calls for a few extra slices of prosciutto. Consider the leftovers treats for the cook.
• You can stuff and wrap the dates up to 24 hours in advance. Bake them just before serving or porting to a potluck.

Recipe: Spring Pasta Salad

Details

• Difficulty: Easy
• Serves: 8-12
• Prep Time: 40 min
• Cook Time: According to pasta package directions

Ingredients

• 2 medium carrots, cut into ¼ inch slices
• 1 bunch asparagus, ends trimmed, cut into 1 inch pieces
• 8 oz. package pasta in the shape of your choice
• Cooking spray
• 1 medium yellow bell pepper, chopped
• 1 English cucumber, chopped
• 1 pint grape tomatoes, halved
• 1 cup. shelled edamame, cooked according to package directions and drained
• ½ bottle (or so) of your favorite bottled vinaigrette or Italian dressing
• Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

1. Bring a big pot of salted water to a rolling boil.
2. Blanch the carrot slices and asparagus pieces for about 2 minutes. Scoop them from the boiling water and shock in ice water to stop the cooking. Don’t discard the boiling water as you’ll use it for the pasta.
3. Cook the pasta according to package directions. Drain the pasta and coat lightly with cooking spray to prevent sticking. Let cool to room temperature.
4. Combine the pasta and all prepared vegetables in a large bowl and toss lightly to combine.
5. Add ½ cup of the dressing to the pasta and vegetables and stir to coat. Add additional dressing in small amounts until all of the pasta and vegetables are lightly coated with dressing.
6. Taste for seasoning and add salt and pepper to taste (if needed).

Recipe for Success

• Use whatever shape pasta that strikes your fancy. Have fun with it. You can also use whole wheat pasta to make the dish more fiber-rich.
• You can make this salad up to 12 hours ahead. Store in the refrigerator before setting out for service.
• The combination of veggies in the recipe is my favorite but you can use any combination you like. Try for a mix of colors, flavors, and sizes. Some other good options include broccoli, green peas, other colors of bell pepper, and red onion. You could also narrow the selection down to a single color (cucumber, edamame, and asparagus for example) for a more focused taste and look. Also, try tomatoes, cucumbers, red onion, and cubes of mozzarella cheese for a take on a traditional salad.
• Watery vegetables can make this salad watery, which is why I use grape tomatoes and English cucumbers. If you want to use a regular tomato or cucumber, seed them first to keep the water content down.
• Don’t dress this salad until the pasta has cooled or it will look greasy. The type of pasta you use and your personal preferences will guide how much dressing to use. Be careful not to over-dress the salad. If you make the ahead, plan to add a bit more dressing just before service because the pasta will absorb the dressing over the course of a few hours.
• I use bottled vinaigrette for this recipe because it’s easy but you can absolutely make your own. Like many of my other recipes, this recipe is more of an approach than a recipe. Make it your own with the pasta, veggies, and dressing of your choice.