Sunday Appetizers

Enjoyable Appetizers

Today's menu started off with a few appetizers to go with some Sunday football games on the big screen.

We began with a Jalapeno Pepper Spread which was very good - I wish you could smell the photos..(if only the screen was scratch and sniff). This combination of cream cheese, green chili's, jalapeño peppers and Parmesan cheese was truly excellent, every bite was an incredible rush of flavors. I must also warn you, this is one of those foods that takes a lot of will power to stop eating because it tastes so darn good. I recommend eating the dip with tortilla chips or bread, but many different foods would go good with this spread/dip; vegetables, pita bread, doritos chips and more.

Ingredients
2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
1 cup mayonnaise
1 (4 ounce) can chopped green chilies, drained
2 ounces canned diced jalapeno peppers, drained
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Directions
Stir together cream cheese and mayonnaise in a large bowl until smooth. Stir in green chiles and jalapeno peppers. Pour mixture into a microwave safe serving dish, and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.
Microwave on High until hot, about 3 minutes - or -
If you would like to brown the cheese, bake at 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) for about 30 minutes.

Next up on the menu was Bruschetta with White Beans and Walnuts. This recipe had a surprising mixture of tastes and textures with the toasted walnuts, garlic, olive oil and sourdough, those flavors went together very well with the pureed white beans.

Ingredients
1/3 cup walnuts
a 15- to 16-ounce can white beans
2 garlic cloves
1 1/2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
six 1/4-inch-thick slices rustic Italian bread

Garnish: chopped fresh flat-leafed parsley leaves

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Directions
In a shallow baking pan toast nuts in middle of oven until fragrant, about 10 minutes, and when cool coarsely chop. Rinse and drain beans. In a food processor mince garlic and purée with beans, lemon juice, and 1 tablespoon oil until smooth.

Toast bread and drizzle with 2 tablespoons oil. Divide purée among toasts and top with nuts. Drizzle remaining tablespoon oil over bruschetta and garnish with parsley.

Enjoy!

Football Food Munchies

Are you ready for some football?

Sunday is traditionally NFL Football Day, generations of Americans have made this a past time at their houses for decades and today is that big day. Lots of folks fire up the grill, bust out the beers and chow down on munchies of all types, from chips to hot dogs to tacos.

In our household, we usually crank up the big screen and start with the football talk shows and we let those shows run while we work around the house and get a few things done. Then its game time.

To make this a nice easy relaxing day, we get lazy on the food prep and do what I call "cheating". We pick up a few frozen appetizers and we'll make those through out the day, just snacking here and there as we're watching the games. This is kind of a brunch of sorts for us.

Personally I don't recommend buying pre-packaged stuff like this often because there's usually a ton of calories in these things. Home made food is always the best and most times more nutritious. However, once in a while is not bad and there's something really nice about not having to spend time prepping food and cooking for at least one day a week.

Today's cooking chores will be easy... I just unwrap the appetizer, pop it in the oven (microwaving just isn't the as good as baking) and in about 15-20 minutes we have our food with easy clean up being a simple toss of the wrapper into the recycle can.

We've tried many different frozen appetizers over the years and I can tell you, we've had some bad ones, but once in a while we've had some really good ones.

We've found some really good appetizer selections at our local Trader Joe's Grocery store, they're one of our favorite places to shop for groceries in Folsom (in addition to WinCo, Raley's and The Nugget).

Our menu today is Mini Beef Tacos, Chicken Empanaditas, Pizza Rolls, Arancini and of course some ice cold beer to wash it all down .. a junk food junkies delight. (stay tuned for more later, I'm going to be making a salmon pizza).

We made an interesting find the other day at Grocery Outlet - some Wolfgang Puck appetizers, figured it can't be that bad if Wolfgang put his name on it.

Here's the description: Arancini, Italian risotto balls blended with shiitake
mushrooms and three cheeses. Included tomato-basil-garlic sauce. As I was hoping, this was really good. In fact everything we're having is pretty decent.

I'm surprised that "tv dinners" have evolved so well. They're nice for a good quick meal.

Have a great Sunday everyone and I hope your favorite teams win today!

Go 49er's!