Author: Canapes and Chocolate

Bacon wrapped water chestnuts

Company’s Here: Water Chestnuts Wrapped in Bacon

Published by

If you like bacon, you will love the combination of crisp bacon, brown sugar goodness, and crunchy water chestnuts.  This is a simple and quick-to-prepare appetizer – a bit of marinating, a bit of baking, and voila you have a sure-fire delicious appetizer with very little effort. I usually marinate the water chestnuts about 2 hours, but if you are pressed for time you can narrow that down to 15 minutes and still have a winner.  This appetizer has been around for decades and yet your guests will polish them off like you just invented a new hors d’oeuvre – no matter their age!

Roasted Balsamic Brussels Sprouts and the “Cash Only Line”

Published by

You gotta love the chemistry of Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan in just about any film they make (although Joe Versus the Volcano was kinda lame).  While watching You’ve Got Mail this weekend I found I really liked the quick wit and banter between the two of them (the script was written by Nora Ephron, need I say more?).  Sometimes it is just the way they say a line as in the  “Happy Thanksgiving Back” scene where Kathleen (Meg’s character) is in the “cash only line” in the supermarket – makes me smile – here’s the clip: I’m confident that Kathleen was buying Brussels sprouts in that scene for Thanksgiving Dinner – maybe because I was flipping through my recipes and landed on Roasted Balsamic Brussels Sprouts at that precise moment in the movie…at the cash register. Was this

Grilled Cheese Sandwich – 31 Ways to Make ‘Em!

Published by

You are likely thinking, grilled cheese sandwich? Really?  Like I don’t know how to make one?  Sure you do, but do you know 31 different ways?  I didn’t until now.  The picture above is my grilled cheese sandwich and the makings of it are below.  But before you get to that you need to see a sampling of the 30 other ways that I found this weekend at the Grilled Cheese Academy (imagine being able to say you graduated from the Grilled Cheese Academy!)  Their sandwiches look amazing, so am posting some of their photos that I personally find mouth-watering.  Then you can go look at their site and see the rest of them and get their recipes.   Here you go….

Beef Stroganoff – Russian comfort food?

Published by

I don’t know if the Russians consider Beef Stroganoff comfort food or not, but in my house, it sure is.  Although the recipe originated in St. Petersburg in the 19th century, it became popular throughout Europe in the early 20th century and landed in American cookbooks mid-1930s.  Because red meat was rationed during WWII in the 1940s, this recipe was considered a “gourmet” dish served by those who had money. Legend has it that the recipe was named after Count Alexander Stroganov.  His chef created this dish since the Count had lost all his teeth and could no longer chew steak.  He then submitted his new recipe in a culinary competition and won first prize in 1891.  But wait……there is a  recipe

Baked Acorn Squash

Published by

  Halloween was only last week and yet I have been inundated with ideas on what to serve at Thanksgiving in mail, magazines, reality TV, and of course blogs.   OMG the pressure to find the perfect vegetable to serve!  Okay, just kidding. No pressure here… but when I went to Whole Foods I found a heaping mass of pumpkins, gourds, and a variety of winter squashes, at which I stopped counting when I hit the number 14.

Lyonnaise Potatoes

Published by

Lyonnaise Potatoes is a french dish of pan-fried potatoes, that originated around 1845 in the city of Lyon, which is located in a region called Rhone-Alpes in France.   In French, a la lyonnaise means the dish contains onions – think I originally learned how to make this dish watching Julia Child on TV way back when.  A lot of recipes suggest blanching or par-boiling the potatoes in advance of the pan-frying to help expedite the cooking of the potatoes.   I eliminate that step as I think it makes the potatoes too soft or mushy, and I definitely like this dish to be crispy!

Baby It’s Cold Outside – Hot and Sour Soup

Published by

It’s getting cold outside – had to wear a jacket this week for the first time this Fall.  And I notice quite a few people at work have colds, quite a few.  So of course I started to get a cold too, which means a mean stuffed-up head cold.  But wait, there is a sure-fire cure for this besides taking two aspirin and going to bed – it’s called Hot and Sour Soup.   For some reason I don’t think to have this soup during Spring or Summer.

If it’s Tuesday, it must be stir-fry!

Published by

For some reason, Tuesday is the hardest day of the week for me to figure out what to have for dinner. Growing up, we ate the same food each weekday (Monday was meatloaf, Wednesday was lamb chops, Thursday was beef stew, Friday was spaghetti, and Tuesday was … Liver and Bacon.  Now you know why I struggle to find something suitable for Tuesday.  Although I hated liver as a child, I now find eating it a few times a year works for me (and always served with homemade onion rings) – but I will never again eat it 52 times a year.  Lamb chops maybe…. Liver, no.

Stuffed artichokes

Published by

I realized yesterday morning that there were only 4 more weekends left to visit my local Farmers Market before closing for the season and not re-open till May. So it seemed logical to go check out the 85 vendors and see what they were hawking this weekend in terms of fruits, vegetables, flowers, and crafts.  As I hadn’t been for a few weeks, I noticed lots of new items not featured earlier this summer, so I struggled to stay focused on the fruits and vegetables and not get caught up in all the colorful crafts that were displayed.   In particular I found lovely artichokes, and the reddest of raspberries and ripe red pomegranates.  You are likely thinking what do the three items have in common – well nothing, except all three were exceptional each in their own right.  So I started with the artichokes using a recipe I adapted a few years ago from Biba Caggiano (From Biba’s Italian Kitchen).  As to the raspberries and pomegranates, well….hmmm…

No red sauce for me

Published by

I feel a bit like a traitor in saying “no red sauce for me” as spaghetti using the Garofalo red sauce is a wonderful version of marinara, and actually the first post I did for this blog.  But, when a girl just wants some plain spaghetti, I try to follow the classic version of Spaghetti Alla Carbonara, as I did last night.   Although I have had pasta Alla Carbonara many times before I never really knew what “carbonara” meant in Italian – some say it is a “hearty meal for the charcoal workers” and apparently it dates back to the middle ages.  That was a surprise!