Last night the hubby and I had some friends over for dinner.
I tried a bunch of new, but easy recipes - some that are definitely keepers.
The appetizers included falafal chips with roasted red pepper dip:
And bacon wrapped stuffed jalapenos:
Simply clean out jalapenos, fill with cream cheese, wrap with 1/2 slice of bacon, bake for about 30 minutes at 375. I found the recipe here.
And brie stuffed mushrooms:
Wash and stem button mushrooms. Heat 2 T butter in a pan and cook mushrooms until browned. Remove from pan. Fill with brie cheese and then bake until melted. Top with sauteed garlic and green onions if desired.
The salad course was a watermelon and goat cheese salad with balsamic reduction.
Watermelon and Goat Cheese Salad with Balsamic Reduction
Slice 6 rounds from a block of goat cheese.
Use a similar sized round cookie cutter to cut out 6 pieces of watermelon.
Reduce 3/4 cup of good balsamic vinegar (in small pot on lowest heat for about 2 hours).
Lay goat cheese on the watermelon and drizzle with the reduction.
The soup was a broccoli cheddar beer soup served with banana pepper and cheddar bannock.
The main course was ribs and deluxe mashed potatoes. I basically mashed a bunch of potatoes with cheddar, cream cheese, milk, butter, bacon and green onions and then warmed them in the oven the next day.
I made two desserts. One was Jessica's S'mores Pie:
The other was called burnt grapes. This recipe has apparently been around forever. It is super easy, and it tastes a lot better than it looks. If you haven't tried this, you must.
Burnt Grapes
5 cups seedless red grapes
2 cups sour cream
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
Clean all grapes. Mix together sour cream, vanilla and sugar. Gently stir the grapes into the mixture. Spread into a 9x13 pan. In a small saucepan, bring the butter and brown sugar to a boil. Immediately pour over the grapes, but DO NOT stir. Refrigerate for 3-4 hours. Serves 6-10.
So which dish would you go for first if you were at my dinner party?
I think I could eat the jalapenos all day.
