A Very Simple Spooky Supper

Halloween has always been one of my favorite secular holidays.  First there is the socially-sanctioned door-to-door panhandling for candy!  Then there are the costumes! (And especially amusing to me are the many Halloween puns you can throw around. I apologize for those in advance.)

We started having Halloween-themed dinner parties on the night of trick-or-treating for my daughter and her friends when she was in elementary school. I quickly realized these dinners didn’t require any complicated recipes or elaborate preparation.  It wasn’t really what I cooked, but what I called it.  Half of a hot dog baked in a crescent roll wrapper with a sliced almond inserted at one end?  A severed finger, of course! 

This blog post follows a recent Halloween dinner we hosted.  But full disclosure:  there are no real recipes presented.  So you can choose to go all gourmet or just go all grocery store.  I encourage you to follow Dr. Frankenstein's example:  acquire the parts and then assemble this beast of a meal.   

Whatever you do, be sure to print out the menu in a suitably creepy font, and let your guests read it before they begin goblin.  This meal was a wicked success, and I’m already thinking about next year.  Ghoulash perhaps?

A Very Simple but Spooky Supper

Appetizer

Booschetta with Spider Spread, Gangrene Paté & 

Crime Scene Chutney

Salad

Marinated Eyeballs, Toadstools & Goblin Tongues

on Ghostly Greens 

Entrée

Brains with Blood Sauce

Vegetable

Witches’ Teeth

Bread

Bone Breadsticks with Vampire Butter

Dessert

Swampy Graveyard Pudding

A terrifying trifecta

For the appetizer, I spread purchased crostini with a Boursin-type cheese, although plain spreadable cream cheese or goat cheese would have worked just as well.  Then I topped each piece with either olive tapenade (Spider Spread), basil pesto (Gangrene Paté), or tomato pesto (Crime Scene Chutney).  I had homemade basil pesto in the freezer, but the other two were purchased.  For drinks, I just served purchased sangria, but there are tons of Halloween cocktail recipes on the web.

A scary salad

The salad base consisted of some lightly dressed baby greens.  The Marinated Eyeballs were slices of small tomatoes (Campari or Roma are good) topped with a slice of cherry-sized mozzarella balls (called ciliegine) and then a sliced black olive.  I did drizzle the tomatoes with some balsamic glaze I had in the refrigerator, but just salt and pepper would have been fine. 

The Toadstools were—you guessed it—sliced mushrooms.  I marinated slices of button mushrooms for a couple of hours in a garlicky marinade, but you can find marinated mushrooms in some grocery store olive bars.  Even just presenting freshly sliced mushrooms with a drizzle of vinaigrette would do the trick. 

For the Goblin Tongues, I roasted red peppers in the oven, removed the charred skins (that even sounds creepy), sliced them and let them soak in a quick “bath” of balsamic vinegar.  Jarred roasted red peppers (large pieces), drained, rinsed, and “bathed” would make an easy substitute. 

An eerie entrée

Brains with Blood Sauce is obviously a tomato sauce on noodles.  I did make my sauce from scratch using Italian sausage as the meat—which looks pretty gory in the sauté stage.  With all the great spaghetti sauces on the grocery store shelf these days, homemade is not at all necessary, and other noodle options would look just as “brainy.”

So much decay

The vegetable was shamefully simple--just cooked frozen corn. But when you call the corn Witches’ Teeth, it’s hard to unsee that.

Butter beware

The breadsticks were straight from the Pillsbury tube.  I thought tying a knot at the end of each strip of dough would make them look more humerus (get it!?), but I got lazy, so I just twisted them per the package instructions.

However, the Vampire Butter did not suck!  I heated about 4 tablespoons of butter in a small saucepan until the milk solids were caramel colored.  Then I took the butter off the heat and added 1-2 cloves of minced garlic, poured the butter into a small ramekin and chilled it in the refrigerator.  Before serving the butter, I let it soften a bit at room temperature.  This is a recipe that will not be buried in my recipe files!

A fatal finale

The Swampy Graveyard Pudding is a variation of a standard Halloween dessert especially loved by children.  I decided to use (packaged) pistachio pudding instead of the usual chocolate—more swampy looking.  I pulverized quite a few Oreos in the food processor, filling and all, for the “soil" and layered the cookie crumbs and pudding parfait-style in glass dishes. I also poked a few gummi worms in each pudding before chilling them.  

The tombstones are Milano cookies with the RIP written in black cake decorating “writing gel.”  They were a little fussy to make, but I think they gave the puddings a certain grave-itas. (I’m sorry.)

I hope you enjoyed this menu walk-through. Have a spooktacular Halloween!

Two-for-One Shrimp Deal!

Anyone who knows me knows that I LOVE shrimp!  Boiled shrimp, deep-fried shrimp, stuffed shrimp, shrimp cocktail, shrimp étouffée, shrimp Creole, shrimp and corn soup. 

O.K.  I’ll stop now.

Lately, I’ve been taking advantage of some good two-for-one deals of packages of frozen large easy-peel shrimp--wild caught whenever possible.  Who knew that those little flyers at the front of grocery stores have good information?!

So I’m going to give YOU a two-for-one deal of two great shrimp recipes.

But WAIT! There’s more!  I’m also going to give you two super side dish recipes absolutely free!

And I’m not done!  Here are two unsolicited shrimp tips!

Leftovers:  When I reheated leftovers, I took out the shrimp and reheated the rest of the ingredients in the microwave until hot.  Then I added the shrimp for about 1 minute (or less) so that they didn’t overcook.

Tails and shells:  Since I’ve been cooking a lot of shrimp dishes lately, I started saving the tails and shells in plastic bags in the freezer with the hope of using them for a shrimp stock.  I haven’t figured out that process yet, but I’ll let you know how it goes.

Skillet Shrimp Destin with Orzo

This is not an original recipe, but I did add the grape tomatoes.  This dish is a refreshing combination of orzo cooked in a light broth and lemony shrimp.

I’ve been working on preparing my mise en place—chef speak for getting your stuff ready ahead of time.  And that made this recipe go together in a snap.

Yield:  4 servings

Source:  Southern Living, May 2020

Ingredients: 

• 1 bunch scallions
• 1 pint grape tomatoes (optional)
• 12 ounces medium or large peeled, deveined raw shrimp
• 2 teaspoons lemon zest (from 1 lemon)
• 1½ teaspoons kosher salt, divided
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 garlic cloves, minced (about 1 tablespoon)
• 2 cups uncooked orzo (1 lb.)
• 2/3 cup dry white wine
• 3½ cups vegetable stock or chicken broth
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill

Process:

Slice dark green scallion tops to equal ¼ cup; slice light green and white bottoms to equal ½ cup. Set aside, keeping scallion parts separate. (Reserve the remaining scallions for another use.) Toss together shrimp, lemon zest, and ½ teaspoon of the kosher salt in a large bowl.

Heat oil in a large, deep skillet over medium. Add scallion bottoms and tomatoes, if using. Cook, stirring often, until onions are translucent and tomatoes are beginning to burst, 3-5 minutes. (I pressed the tomatoes a bit during the cooking process so that they released some of their juice.)

Add garlic and sauté until garlic is fragrant but not brown. Add orzo; cook, stirring often, until lightly toasted, 2 minutes. Stir in wine. Cook, stirring constantly, 1 minute. Add stock and remaining 1 teaspoon salt (I used less); bring to a simmer over medium-high heat.

Cover and reduce heat to low. Cook, undisturbed, until orzo is tender, about 12 minutes, adding shrimp during final 3 minutes of cook time. Remove pan from heat. Sprinkle evenly with scallion tops, parsley, and dill.

Green Beans and Mushrooms with Garlic Sauce

The vegetable dish is one I’ve made for years.  The soy sauce and ginger do lend a slight Asian “vibe,” but it was a good complement to the main dish.

Source:  old clipping 

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 pound fresh green beans, trimmed, cut into 2-inch lengths
• 6 oz. fresh mushrooms, quartered
• ¼ c. soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 2 teaspoons peeled, minced  fresh ginger

Process:

Heat oil in wok or heave large skillet over high heat.  Add green beans and mushrooms; sauté until beans are just crisp-tender, about 5 minutes.  Add soy sauce, garlic, honey and ginger.  Boil until sauce thickens slightly and coats vegetables about 2 minutes. 

Shrimp Lo Mein

The is an original recipe in that it is a “hybrid” of about six different recipes that I consulted.  And it’s definitely a keeper!  The flavors and proportions were almost perfect, if I do say so myself.

My husband said it would be great even without the shrimp, but I don’t know if I’d go that far.  However, I did make this recipe again using about a pound of thin-cut pork chops trimmed and cut in ¼-inch strips.

As is the case with most stir fry recipes, this one would be great with many vegetable additions or substitutions, such as sugar snap peas, green beans, sprouts, sliced water chestnuts, etc.  If you wanted to significantly increase the amount of vegetables, and/or the noodles, I might double the sauce.

I have a tendency to always make too much pasta, mostly because I like the leftovers with a little butter, salt and pepper.  But here the 4 oz. was exactly the right amount for the recipe.

Source:  original recipe

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients:

4 oz. lo mein noodles (or thin spaghetti), dry or fresh

Stir Fry Ingredients:

• 2 cups very small broccoli florets
• 1 red bell pepper, seeded and sliced into ½-inch strips
• 6 button mushroom caps, thinly sliced
• 6-8 green onions, thinly slice and separate white/light green ends from dark green tops
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic (about 3 cloves)
• 1 tablespoon peeled, minced ginger root
• 1 lb. peeled, deveined shrimp (I used 18 large)
• Peanut oil for frying

Sauce:

• ¾-1 cup chicken broth
• ¼ cup soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons oyster sauce
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• 1-2 teaspoons Sriracha sauce (optional)
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch (optional)

Process:

In a large pot of boiling water, cook the noodles according to package directions.  Drain and set aside.

In a wok or high-sided saucepan, heat 1 tablespoon peanut oil to sizzling.  (I add a pinch of salt to the oil when stir frying to raise the smoke point, and I cook at the highest heat possible.)  Add broccoli and red pepper to wok and stir fry (stirring constantly with 2 wooden spoons or spatulas) until almost crisp-tender.  Add mushrooms and white/light green scallion pieces.  Continue to stir fry until mushrooms and scallions are crisp-tender.  Add garlic and ginger.  Stir fry until fragrant, but not brown, about 1 minute.  Remove vegetables from pan to a large serving bowl.

Add 1 tablespoon peanut oil to wok and stir fry shrimp until almost opaque.  Add reserved vegetables, noodles and stir fry to mix ingredients.  Add sauce to wok, stirring to incorporate. 

To thicken sauce (optional):  In a small bowl using a fork or small whisk, mix the cornstarch with 1-2 tablespoons cold water.  Turn heat down to low and stir cornstarch “slurry” into wok in increments until desired consistency is achieved.

Taste sauce and add additional soy sauce and/or Sriracha to taste.  Garnish with green onion tops before serving.  Pass additional soy sauce and/or Sriracha.

Asian Broccoli Slaw with Jan’s Dressing and Topping

As a side dish, I began with a bag of grocery store broccoli slaw—you could do that from scratch, but why?  I dressed the slaw with a sweet and sour salad dressing and ramen-nut topping from the recipes of a good friend mine. 

The recipes for the dressing and topping make much more than needed for this recipe, but they are SO good on any type of salad and keep for a good while in the refrigerator.

Source:  Jan Shoemaker’s recipe

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients & Process:

Dressing:

• 1 cup vegetable oil 
• 1 cup sugar (I use a little less)                                 
• ½ cup red wine vinegar
• ¼ cup soy sauce
• Salt & pepper to taste

In a medium-sized bowl, whisk the ingredients together.  Store in an airtight container (such as a jar) until needed.  Shake before using and keep the leftover dressing in the refrigerator.

Topping:

• 4 T. butter
• 1 c. walnuts or pecans, chopped coarsely                    
• 1 pkg. ramen noodles, uncooked & broken up (save flavor packet for another use)  I “mash” the unopened package of ramen with a meat mallet.

In a medium frying pan, melt the butter and brown the nuts and ramen noodles.  When toasted, cool the mixture on paper towels.  Refrigerate leftovers.

Slaw:

• ½ of a 12-oz. package of broccoli or other slaw

Place slaw in a serving bowl. Dress the slaw with the some of the dressing.  (Don't overdress.  You will have leftovers.)  Sprinkle desired amount of nut/noodle topping on top or mix in to slaw. 

 

 

Vegetable Therapy

(Let me begin by saying, I don't mean this post to be flip or dismissive of the very real crisis we find ourselves in during this pandemic.  I just wanted to provide a little distraction, maybe a recipe you might try. Writing it distracted me.  I hope you are all staying safe and healthy.)

I find chopping vegetables very relaxing, even meditative.  

I love pouring myself a glass of wine (or 3), putting on some jazz, and slicing, dicing, mincing, and even julienneing (I made that word up).  So when I finish my grading for a given semester, I usually treat myself to some “vegetable therapy.”

But the current virus situation made such therapy even more necessary.

Up until March 13, when LSU closed, life had been in a pleasant groove—teaching, painting, cleaning, Netflix, nagging my husband.  You know, the things that give you joy. 

I won’t complain about my situation because I still enjoy all of those simple pleasures. Especially the “nagging my husband” pleasure. 

But shopping for groceries has become challenging, if not downright traumatizing.

When I do venture out—masked, of course—I make sure to pick up a lot of fresh vegetables.  And then I make sure that none of them go to waste.  Which led me to create this recipe. 

I won’t kid you.  This is not a five-ingredient-make-it-from-your-pantry-insta-pot-slow-cooker recipe.

But maybe you need some vegetable therapy, too.

Roasted Vegetable Pasta Primavera

Source:  original recipe

Yield: 4-6 servings

(I thought about calling this Pasta Prima Virus—but my daughter said, “Eww!”) 

There are three main elements to this dish: a lot of roasted vegetables, a lemon cream sauce and pasta.

You really can use any vegetables you have on hand—the more the merrier.  But the key is to roast them in order from least “delicate” to most “delicate."  I began with peppers and onions and ended with thin asparagus.  So, if you added sliced carrots, those would be in the first “round.”  Haricots vert (thin green beans to you and me) would be in the last “round.” 

I roasted the vegetables under the broiler for speed but also to make sure they were slightly charred and not soggy.  BTW the vegetables can cool to room temperature while you make the sauce and boil the pasta as they will heat up when all the ingredients are combined.

The lemon cream sauce is “technically” optional, but haven’t you had enough deprivation lately?

Marinade:

6 T. olive oil
6 cloves garlic, minced

½ tsp. red pepper flakes
1 tsp. Italian seasoning
½ tsp. dried basil

Vegetables:

1 red bell pepper, cut into 1-½-inch long thin strips
1 medium onion, halved lengthwise and thinly sliced
1 zucchini, ½-inch slices, halved if large
1 yellow squash, ½-inch slices, halved if large

8 oz. button mushrooms, sliced
1 pt. cherry tomatoes
Handful thin asparagus, cut in 1½-inch pieces, woody ends removed
Salt & pepper

Lemon Cream Sauce:

2 c. chicken broth
Grated zest and juice of one lemon
1 ½ c. dry white wine
6 T. butter, cut into ½-inch pieces
1 ½ c. half-and-half or heavy cream
1 ½ c. grated Parmesan (NOT the kind in the green can), plus more for serving

¾ to 1 lb. rotini, penne or farfalle pasta

Process:         

In a small bowl, whisk together the marinade ingredients.  Put the pepper and onion in one bowl, the zucchini and squash in another bowl, the mushrooms and tomatoes in another bowl, and the asparagus in another bowl.  Stir some of the marinade into each bowl of vegetables making sure vegetables are fully coated. (Can be done an hour or so ahead.)

Preheat broiler (I used high heat) with oven rack 6 inches from heat.  Pour the pepper and onions on a large sheet pan and sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Broil the peppers and onions for 5-7 minutes, until beginning to char.  Remove the pan from the oven and stir the peppers and onions. 

Add the zucchini and squash to the sheet pan, sprinkle with salt and pepper and broil for 5-7 minutes, until beginning to char.  (If the pan is too crowded, start another pan for the remaining vegetables and leave the first pan in the oven to continue broiling.)

Remove the pan from the oven, stir vegetables, add the mushrooms and tomatoes, sprinkle with salt and pepper and broil for 5-7 minutes until tomatoes begin to burst. 

Remove the pan from the oven, stir vegetables, sprinkle with salt and pepper, add asparagus and broil for 3-5 minutes, until asparagus is beginning to char but is still crisp-tender.  Remove the pans from the oven and put all the vegetables in a large bowl.  Cover with a pan lid to keep warm.

Meanwhile, In a large saucepan, combine the broth, wine, lemon zest and juice.  Over medium heat, simmer until the sauce is reduced by half. Add the butter a few pieces at a time, whisking to emulsify.  Add the cream slowly, whisking continuously.  Add the Parmesan cheese in 3 “handfuls,” whisking continuously.

In the meantime, cook the pasta in a large pot of salted boiling until al dente. Drain, reserving a cup or so of the pasta water to thin out sauce if necessary.

Add the pasta and sauce to the vegetables, stirring to combine completely. Serve with additional Parmesan cheese if desired.

A "Golden" Soup and a "Heavenly" Cake

For Christmas this year, I received a bag of gold.

O.K. it wasn’t exactly gold.  It was a bag of wild rice from my brother and his family who live in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Apart from its gastronomical and economical (it’s not cheap) worth, this bag of wild rice was valuable because it opened up a treasure chest of Northwoods memories. 

I remember that when I was a child, my father would often take me  on weekends to visit his dearest friend, Paul Munninghoff, who lived with his family in a log home on a branch of the Wisconsin River outside of my hometown of Rhinelander, Wisconsin.

Paul, who worked for the county highway department, was also a trapper, a backwoods philosopher, a builder of birch bark canoes, a jazz pianist, and a before-his-time ecologist. He was truly a Northwoods Renaissance man.

My memories of being at the Munninghoff home include playing with baby foxes in the living room,  hand-feeding apples to their horses, watching otters frolic in backyard pens (one of their otters starred in a Disney movie), studying Paul as he skinned muskrats he trapped, and observing the harvesting of wild rice.

I’m not sure what the economic arrangement was, but every fall several Native Americans would arrive at the Munninghoffs’ home, camp in Quonset huts Paul had built on his land, and harvest the wild rice.

I particularly remember sitting with my dad in the middle of a canoe as a man in the back of the canoe slowly paddled through the wild rice stalks. The man in the front used a stick in one hand to bend the stalks on one side over the bow and then used a stick in the other hand to “knock” the seeds into the boat.  Then he would do the same to the stalks on the other side of the boat as we glided through the water. 

My memories of the process after the harvest are not very clear, but I recall large flat baskets for winnowing, slow fires, and stirring.  But even in my youth I understood that wild rice was a very precious commodity, and when my mother made meals with it, I savored the nutty taste and chewy texture.

So, a few days before the spring semester began here at LSU, I invited two of my dearest friends, Sharon and Brian Andrews, for a very informal dinner featuring my Christmas gold—wild rice—and the most perfect cake of all time.

Winter Menu

Cheese straws, cocktail peanuts, olives

Strawberry & Pecan Salad

Wild Rice Soup

Jalapeño Muffins

Butter Almond Cake

Cheese Straws, Cocktail Peanuts and Assorted Olives

Since this wasn’t a very formal meal, I served these simple snacks in white ramekins.  Cocktail peanuts? Who doesn’t love these?  Olives?  How did we survive before grocery-store olive bars? 

And cheese straws?  They are delicious but laborious to make.  Ours were from Southern Straws, a company in my husband’s hometown of Columbus, Georgia.

Strawberry & Pecan Salad

This salad is by no means an original or particularly creative recipe.  But it is my go-to salad, especially when I want to showcase a few southern ingredients.  Also, it is very visually attractive—I plate individual portions instead of serving it from a large bowl—especially for Christmas.

I’m not going to give ingredient amounts as this recipe can be adapted to any number of servings and can be tailored to individual taste, but I guarantee that the combination of flavors is perfect!

Ingredients:

Salad greens (I prefer a spring mix but any combination of dark, leafy greens will do)

Ken’s Steakhouse Lite Sweet Vidalia Dressing (or a similar, slightly sweet dressing)

Green onions, green parts only, chopped  

Strawberries, stemmed and sliced the long way

Spicer Pecans (or plain or lightly salted pecan halve or whatever crunch element you have—other nuts, sunflower seeds, pepitas)

Process:

Place the greens, about one generous handful per serving, in a large bowl. Dress the greens with the dressing by adding a little bit at a time, mixing by hand and “feeling” so that the greens are not overdressed.  Plate the dressed greens on individual plates and garnish each salad with a sprinkling of the chopped green onions, strawberries and pecans.  

Wild Rice Soup

So maybe I should call this “Gold Soup.”  In all (no) modesty, I will say that this soup turned out perfectly.  

The portions and ingredients are flexible.  The chicken could be leftover or from a grocery-store rotisserie.  (On a slow day, I often pick up a couple of rotisserie chickens and “tear off” the meat and freeze it for meals such as this.)

I could even imagine chopped cooked ham or browned ground beef as meat substitutions.

You could add more vegetables, such as diced sweet or regular potatoes, especially if you want to make this a meat-free soup.   But you should aim for a very “hearty” soup, so adjust your ingredients and amounts accordingly.

As for the seasoning, Old Bay seasoning or poultry seasoning could be substitutions for the sage and thyme.  Since I used the bacon and boxed chicken broth, I did not add any salt. 

If you don’t want to add the white sauce (for a gluten-free option), you could add some cream to the soup toward the end or briefly run an immersion blender in the soup to give it a creamy texture.

But do not even think about using anything other than pure wild rice—no wild rice blends!

I’m sure this recipe could be adapted for a slow cooker or InstaPot.

What could be wrong about a recipe that begins with bacon?

Source:  Original, but I looked at several on-line recipes

Yield: 6-8 servings

Ingredients:

Soup:

6 slices bacon, chopped (or 1-2 T. oil)

1 medium onion, chopped

3-4 garlic cloves, minced

1 c. chopped celery (about 2-3 stalks)

2 c. chopped peeled carrots

8 oz. mushrooms, stems remove and sliced

1 bell pepper, chopped, optional (I used a red pepper, which I prefer to green)

1 c. wild rice, rinsed

6 c. vegetable or chicken broth

½ - 1 tsp. freshly ground or cracked pepper

½ - 1 tsp. dried sage leaves, rubbed between your hands

½ - 1 tsp. dried thyme leaves, rubbed between your hands

1 bay leaf

1-3 c. bite-sized pieces of cooked chicken, optional (I used 3 cups)

White sauce:

4 T. butter

¼ c. flour

1½ c. milk

Process:

For the soup: If using the bacon, sauté it in a large Dutch oven over low-to-medium heat until lightly crispy.  Remove the bacon with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels.  (If using the oil, heat it over medium heat to sizzling.)

To the hot drippings or the heated oil, add the onions and garlic and sauté until translucent.  Add the remaining vegetables and sauté until the mushrooms have lost some of their moisture.

Add the rice, broth, and seasonings.  Simmer covered for about 45 minutes until the rice is tender.  If using the chicken, add it and continue simmering for a few minutes until the chicken is heated through.  (The cooking process could be stopped at this point.  Return to a simmer before continuing.)

For the white sauce:  In a medium saucepan, heat the butter on low heat until melted.  Stir in the flour with a whisk and cook on low heat while stirring for 1-3 minutes until slightly golden. Whisk in the milk a half cup at a time and continue cooking and whisking until the white sauce is creamy and smooth.

Stir the white sauce into the simmering soup a little bit at a time (You may not need all of the sauce) until the soup is a rich, creamy consistency.  Adjust seasonings.

If you have used the bacon, garnish individual servings with the crumbled bacon.

Jalapeño Corn Muffins

Not only are these easy to make, they are moist enough to eat without butter, and they freeze well.

Source:  Kay Ewing’s Cooking School Cookbook: A Second Course

Yield: 24 mini muffins

Ingredients:

½ c. flour

1¼ c. yellow cornmeal

1½ tsp. salt

1 T. sugar

2 tsp. baking powder

2 T. chopped pickled jalapeño peppers

1 c. grated cheddar cheese

2 eggs

1 c. milk

¼ c. melted butter

Process:

Preheat oven to 425°.  Grease 24 mini-muffin tin cups with cooking spray. 

Combine dry ingredients in a bowl.  Stir chopped peppers and cheese into dry ingredients to coat. 

In another mixing bowl, beat eggs with a whisk.  Add milk and melted butter.  Combine dry ingredients with egg mixture. 

Spoon batter into mini muffin tins.  Bake about 10 minutes until golden and tested done.  Turn muffins on their sides in cups to release steam.

Butter Almond Cake

When I first tasted this fantastic dessert, it was, well, a religious experience. 

My church, First Presbyterian Church of Baton Rouge, partners with Buchanan Elementary School.  As one of our projects, we invite the dedicated staff of Buchanan to a sit-down luncheon at our church at Christmas.  

This year the head of our Buchanan Committee, Laura Shaw, somehow miraculously (I told you it was a religious experience) made about eight of these wonderful cakes. Each serving was topped with a dollop of whipped cream and a raspberry making an elegant Christmas-y presentation. 

When the luncheon was over, and before our committee began the clean-up, we paused to savor a piece of this cake.  And it was—heavenly!

As of this moment, I have made this cake three times in less than a month.  It is that easy and that good!   I am a big fan of almond/marzipan flavors, and this one-layer torte-like treat delivers! 

And I can testify that this cake retains its texture and flavor for about a week unrefrigerated.

Amen? Amen!

This picture sort of looks like Santa winking!

Yield:  8-10 servings

Ingredients:

1½ c. sugar

3⁄4 c, melted butter

2 eggs

1 tsp. almond extract

1½ tsp. vanilla extract

¼ tsp. salt

1½ c. flour

3 T. sliced almonds, toasted

1 T. sugar

Optional garnishes: whipped cream, raspberries, and mint

Process:

Preheat oven to 350°.  Toast almonds ahead or in oven while it is preheating.  Grease and flour a 9-inch round cake pan. (Using an 8-by-8-inch cake pan could work for  brownie-sized squares.)

With an electric mixer, blend the 1½ c. sugar and melted butter.  Beat in eggs.  Stir in almond and vanilla extracts.  Add salt and flour and mix well.

Spread batter evenly in the prepared cake pan.  Sprinkle the batter with the toasted almonds and sugar.  Bake for 30 to 35 minutes.  (Underbaking is better than overbaking.)

To serve, garnish each serving with some (or a lot of) whipped cream, a few raspberries (or other berries), and a sprig of mint. 

Variations?  I was thinking since what makes this cake "almond" is the extract and the sliced almonds in the topping, maybe you could  substitute a teaspoon of lemon extract and a sprinkling of grated lemon peal with the sugar?  Maybe a handful of blueberries or chocolate chips?  The possibilities are endless.  

The One That Has It All: The Fireside Supper Club

There are so many wonderful supper clubs in and around Rhinelander, Wisconsin:   Shady Sue's (see my blog post on this restaurant), Al-Gen, The White Stag Inn, Silver Birch, Bootleggers, just to name a few.  (Even The New York Times has sung the praises of a few of our supper clubs in this article.)

So given that this might be our last extended visit in the Northwoods for a while, it would seem to be a hard choice to just pick a few.  

But for me, my "last supper" had to be at The Fireside Supper Club.  

First, there is the view.  The Fireside Club, usually referred to by locals as just "Fireside," is located on Townline Lake which is a small lake just a few miles east of Rhinelander.  Even when the view of the lake from the dining room is partially hidden, it is obscured by beautiful Northwoods pine and hardwood trees, the latter which burst forth in color in the fall.

For many of us "old timers," Townline Lake conjures up memories apart from the restaurant.  When was I was in junior high back in the 1960s, Townline Lake was THE swimming lake of choice.  

At that time, the area in front of Fireside (then known as Lee's Fireside) was a sandy man-made beach.  Since the lake was so close to town, mothers routinely dropped off carloads of teenagers at Townline Lake for the day. 

There we lolled the day away swimming, floating on blow-up rafts, and, slathered in baby oil and with Sun-In our hair, sunning on beach towels with transistor radios blaring.  

Now, the beach area has been allowed to return to its natural weedy state which makes it perfect for fishing.

The staff at Fireside, always welcoming and efficient, is another reason this is one of our favorite supper clubs. 

Earl and Margo Morey have been the owners since 1989, and Margo is  often the hostess, always patient and unflappable even when dealing with the Friday night fish fry crowd.  Margo and I attended Trinity Lutheran Church and Rhinelander High School together, so I always feel like I'm walking into a friend's home when we visit the restaurant.  

The waitstaff and bartenders are also exceptional, and we have been waited on by some of the same waiters for years. 

While we have enjoyed countless fish fries at Fireside, for this special meal we chose a quieter week day, and once again we remembered how Fireside is just "more."

As we sipped our cocktails, we sampled the cracker basket.  Then we were quickly served crispy, well-garnished salads.   

At Fireside, you also get a small basked of assorted warm dinner breads with your salad, and that night I couldn't resist the bite-sized cornbread muffins which were slightly sweet.  

Then came our SECOND course which at Fireside means a choice of soup or juice.  My husband always orders the piping hot French onion soup.  He invariably burns his mouth because he can't wait to dig into the broiled cheese crown.  

I usually pass on the soup/juice course, but this night I couldn't resist the fantastic beef and dumpling soup.  It was filled with lots of tender beef and small, toothsome dumplings.

My husband and I usually try to avoid ordering the same entrée, but this night we both had to have one of the day's specials which was rainbow trout.  

While I chose the side of steamed vegetables and my husband chose the baked potato, the star of the meal was clearly the trout.  

Pan-fried to perfection, the trout was perhaps the juiciest fish I've ever had.  When I poked my fork in for the first bite, it literally squirted--in a good way.  

The beautiful, tender pink flesh was mild and reminded me of salmon.  (It was just as good the next day!)

What better way to end this wonderful meal than with an after-dinner ice cream drink?  We had been watching the expert bartender prepare these all evening, and we knew had to get in on the action.  

We sat at the bar to better observe the making of the Banana Banshee the bartender prepared for us to share.  

She filled the industrial blender to the top with scoops of vanilla ice cream before adding the vodka, creme de cacao, banana liqueur and heavy cream and then whirring it to icy perfection.

"Perfection" is a good word with which to end this restaurant recap because this meal, as with all the meals we've enjoyed at Fireside over the years, was exactly that.