New Year's Eve Party Time

New Year's Eve is my favorite excuse to try out those "splurge" recipes I collect throughout the year. You know the ones -- sounds delish, but maybe a little more effort or cost than your average Friday night get together warrants.

We have a wonderful tradition of ringing in the New Year with a group of families from our neighborhood. Each year we put the kids in their jammies and head over to the host house (taking turns hosting means each year is a little different... it helps keep it fresh and special). The days leading up today had texts flying back and forth with preparations... should we fry up wings? what dessert are you bringing? do we want to make a punch? I'll bring pepperoni bread... are you making your famous crab dip? Anticipation for a night of fun fills the air.

So here we are on New Year's Eve Day and I still haven't decided what to make. Yes, I'll do the standard pepperoni bread. My kids love it. But what will my "splurge" recipe be? I think I've narrowed down the choices. Hmmm. Now only to make a decision and get cooking!

Option 1: Prosciutto-Wrapped Shrimp w/ Bourbon BBQ Sauce (Food & Wine)

This sounds like my kind of appetizer. Shrimp, prosciutto, bourbon. Ok, really, you had me at bourbon. Yes, bacon-wrapped li'l smokies are always a fan favorite, but this takes it to a whole new, grown up, taste-sensation level.

Option 2:  Whiskey, Caramel, Marshmallow and Bacon Bark (endlesssimmer.com)

Here's a decadent dessert option. I already make what we call "cracker candy" which is saltines, butter, sugar, chocolate and almonds. It's simple, yet amazingly addictive. I am quite intrigued by this version. Will New Year's Eve be my incentive to finally try it out? And, I'm starting to notice a theme here...

Option 3: Bacon Wrapped Dates with Almonds

The other evening, we enjoyed a mini food tour of Philadelphia. The night found us enjoying burgers, frites and beer at Eulogy; tapas and sangria at Amada; and fried plantains and margaritas at El Vez. It was a wonderful night spent with good friends. Each of these restaurants offers "slurge"- worthy inspiration. But in keeping with the bacon/prosciutto theme, I've found this recipe for bacon wrapped dates with almonds. Always a favorite treat when at Amada.

Now, if only I could make a decision. Guess I'd better head to the grocery store and see where that leads me. 

Whatever special foods you enjoy tonight, Happy New Year's! Here's to a happy and healthy 2014!

Doughnuts...A Halloween Tradition Continues

Consider this...fresh, homemade doughnuts for a Halloween treat. I really should get the whole story about where this tradition started -- and why!?! I never would have had the inclination to start making these on the same day as outfitting everyone in costumes and rushing through dinner to get out the door for trick-or-treating. But, alas, it is a a fond memory for my husband (and his siblings, and their friends, and their neighbors) and I oblige, making this special treat every year on Halloween.

Once you get the hang of it, you really do get a big bang for your buck, here. The hardest part is figuring out the timing. You need to start the process at least 4 hours before you want to start frying up these little gems. And you need to plan it so that once you start frying, no one needs help with their costumes for a good 20 minutes. Hot grease and Halloween costumes can lead to a very messy (and dangerous) situation.

This particular recipe comes from my mother-in-law's Betty Crocker cookbook. I checked other cook books, out of curiosity, to see how much variation there is to doughnut recipes and was surprised by what I found. Some use shortening (like this one), others use butter in the dough. I found one recipe that uses two packages of yeast, while this only takes one.

I'm sticking with this recipe, though. Especially now that I've earned the generous praise from a neighbor that "these are better than the Amish Market's!"

Note: I always double this recipe. Carole was known to make up to 4 batches at a time.

Raised Doughnuts
1 package active dry yeast or 1 cake compressed yeast
1/4 cup water
*   *   *
3/4 cup milk, scalded
1/4 cup shortening
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp. salt
1 egg
3 1/2 to 3 3/4 cups sifted all-purpose flour

Soften active dry yeast in warm water (110 deg.) or compressed yeast in lukewarm water (85 deg.). Combine milk, shortening, sugar and salt; cool to lukewarm. Add 1 cup of the flour; beat well. Add softened yeast and egg; mix. Add enough of remaining flour to make soft dough. Turn out on lightly floured surface; knead till smooth and satiny (about 8 minutes). Place in greased bowl, turning once to grease surface. Cover and let rise till double (about 1 1/4 hours). Punch down. Let rise again till double (about 55 minutes).

Roll out dough 1/3 inch thick. Cut with floured doughnut cutter. Let rise till very light (30 to 40 minutes).

Fry in deep hot fat (375 deg.) till browned. Drain on paper towels. While warm dip doughnuts in granulated sugar or glaze with Orange Glaze. Makes about 1 1/2 dozen.

Recipe courtesy of Betty Crocker.

Additional Notes:
1. This year I used peanut oil, with fantastic results. You need about 1 1/2 inches of oil in a high sided pot. Let one side cook to a light brown, then flip (just the one time!) to cook the other side.
2. You can re-roll the dough once, using up some of the scraps. Avoid doing this more than once, though, as the dough can get tough.
3. It really helps to have two people working during the final stages: one to fry and one to coat the finished, and still warm, doughnuts in sugar.
4. These really are best when eaten fresh (and still warm!) ...don't cook them too far in advance!

Two fun summer treats

I started this post thinking I would just write about my Auntie Janette's Zucchini Bread recipe, but on the same page of my recipe book is another fun summer treat, Pineapple Angel Food Cake. So, as I haven't posted for a few days, today we'll offer a two for one deal.

I suppose most of us have a family recipe for zucchini bread. Once this abundant veggie starts to ripen, you'd better have some plans in place for using it all. I like to add it to green salads and pasta sauce, but my favorite use is my Auntie Janette's Zucchini Bread. Toast up a nice thick slice and add a schmeer of cream cheese and you are talking about one tasty treat. And, it's a health food, isn't it?

So, if you have some zucchini sitting in your fridge and you're just not feeling inspired, try whipping up a loaf, or two, or three...

Auntie Janette's Zucchini Bread
Cream together:
3 eggs
1 c. oil
1 1/2 c. sugar (or less, depending how sweet you like your bread)
2 c. grated zucchini
2 tsp. vanilla

Add to above and mix well:
2 c. flour
1/4 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. cinnamon

stir into above:
2 c. raisins
1 c. nuts

pour into loaf pans a bake at 350 deg. about one hour, or until done.

-----------------------------
The second recipe comes from my Weight Watcher days, but it's good and it's easy and I still enjoy it, though I'm no longer counting points.

Pineapple Angel Food Cake
1 pkg. of 1-step angel food cake mix
20 oz. can of crushed pineapple in it's own juice (do not drain)

Mix above and pour into non-greased 9x13 pan (glass pan works best). Bake at 350 deg. for 30-35 minutes. Cut into 12 servings. (for those of you counting, it is 3 points per serving).

Another variation is to make these as muffins, using cupcake papers. Mix together, as above, dividing between 36 muffins (1 point each) or 24 muffins (1.5 points each). bake at 350 deg. for 12-15 minutes.

Really Yummy (and easy) Chocolate Cake

About a year ago, Mark brought home from work this recipe for chocolate cake. He said that one of the women he worked with made this cake on a regular basis and that it was guaranteed to result in a wonderful, moist, chocolate-y cake.

Now, I admit, I almost never make cake from scratch. Icing? Yes! Homemade icing is far superior to the stuff in a can. But, cake? Why bother? The box kind is consistently quite good.

So, a few months later, when it became clear to Mark that I was in no hurry to try his friend's cake recipe, he pulled out the ingredients and got to work. (Mark knows that if he wants dessert, he'd better make a specific request or make it himself, as I am not one to crave sweets.)

The result? Yummy! I now have several boxes of cake mix in the pantry that I look past in order to get out the ingredients for this delicious and easy cake.

Chocolate Cake
2 c. sugar
2 eggs
1/2 c. oil
1 c. milk
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. baking soda
2 c. flour
3/4 c. cocoa (or 3 squares melted)

Mix together all ingredients. Add 1 cup boiling water. Mix and pour into greased and floured pan(s). Bake at 350 deg. until done (35 - 50 minutes, depending on type of pan you use). Let cool 10 minutes before removing from pans and cooling on rack. When completely cooled, add a dusting of powdered sugar or your favorite icing.