Foodies to me!

[42_42_42]

Below is the menu I've planned so far for our 12th Night cocktail party. I've been pondering this all freaking afternoon after having thought about it for weeks and I'm still just not satisfied. I have a bad habit of going over-board, so I'm trying not to do that this time, want to keep it to around 5-6 hors d'oeuvres and a couple sweets as I know people don't eat as many sweets when drinking alcohol. Want to keep everything bit-size so no utensils needed and easy to eat while standing around. So...suggestions? comments? Do the below work together???



Hors d'Oeuvres
Shrimp cocktail
Crudite with Green Goddess dip
Crab-stuffed mushrooms
Baked Brie with baguette and fruit
Bite-size Beef Wellington with horseradish cream and mustard cream

Sweets
Petite Galette Des Rois
Truffles

Drinks
Peppermint Martinis
Wassail
Asst. Wines
Soda

[Jester]

Sounds good to me, though I have some suggestions and some questions.

Suggestions:
-->Make sure you have plenty of plates, napkins, and serving utensils on hand. Nothing worse than trying to get some brie and there's no knife to do so.
-->Depending on your crowd, you may also want to have some beers available.
-->Definitely have some water available, as not everyone drinks soda, and a lot of people who drink alcohol like to control their pace with the occasional glass of water. And sometimes you just need a neutral palate cleanser.

Questions:
-->What is Green Goddess dip? And what veggies are you planning to use in the crudite?
-->Will the crab-stuffed mushrooms be hot or cold? (Either way works, I'm just curious.) And will you have anything crunchy in them for texture, such as celery, onion, or bacon?
-->What kind of fruit are you planning to use with the brie? (Again,
-->What exactly IS Petite Galette Des Rois? Not really familiar with it off the top of my head.
-->What kind of truffles?
-->What is wassail?

[Food Lady]

Sounds good. I'll be there around 7.

[Seshat]

Will you be having vegans around? If so, is 'Green Goddess Dip' vegan friendly? And are you happy with them having only one option?

Can you present the horseradish & mustard as optionals? (I don't like either, but the bite-sized Beef Wellington sounds wonderful otherwise!)

Will you have enough soda, juice, water, coffee, or other non-alcoholic beverages for the non-drinkers & designated drivers?

Do you have guests with other food-rules (such as people who can't eat gluten, people with allergies)?
The menu is varied enough that I think most people will be able to eat around food-rules, but you may want to check with your guests.

Especially re seafood allergies: you have two, possibly three seafood things there; if you have seafood-allergic guests, you might need to use allergy-rules when prepping & avoid cross-contamination. Depending on the severity of the allergy, you may need to serve the seafoody things on one table, and the rest on another, and ask the guests to keep them apart. Much the same issue if there's nuts in the Green Goddess Dip; or other common allergens.
But you know your guest list, I don't.

[CoffeeMonkey]

Want one more thing that is easy, classy and impressive?

Pate a Choux
1 cup flour
1 cup water
1 stick butter
1 cup eggs (4-5 eggs)
1 pinch salt

Put butter (softened, cut up, or both) water and salt in a pot. Bring to boil.
Dump in all the flour at once. Stir like mad. It will form a wad and smell like cream of wheat. Stir until a skin forms on the bottom of the pot. Dump in a bowl.
Using a hand mixer, or the paddle on a stand mixer, beat for a moment to cool it a bit, then start beating in eggs one at a time.
What you're looking for is a paste that is shiny, loose enough to be piped but not runny. You might not need all the egg.
Load into a pastry bag (or ziplock bag with the end nipped off) and pipe 1 inch balls (they puff up hugely) well spaced on a parchment lined tray. If you get peaks, wet your finger and push them down.
Bake at 425 until super brown all over. Those lovely, delicately golden pastries you see when you inevitably google pate a choux? Lies. Let them brown.
When cool, lop the top 1/3ish off. If there are membranes inside the cavity, scrape out with a spoon. a grapefruit spoon works best, if you have one.

Now you have the perfect vehicle for EVERYTHING! For the sweet side, fill with pastry cream, pudding, whipped cream, berries, chocolate, or any combination of the above. For the savory side, fill with chicken or tuna salad, thick soup/stew, roasted vegetables, soft cheese, egg salad, basically anything soft but not so liquidy that it will disintigrate the pastry. Just don't fill them TOO far ahead of time.

I was thinking of making them for my party tonight, but I already have a hugely full table of appetizers planned that I am even now putting off putting all together. Someday I will have a tea party or cocktail party with a whole bunch of different stuffed treats.

Happy New Year to everyone, whatever you are doing tonight!

[42_42_42]

Thanks for the input, everyone.

Now, will try to answer all of your questions:

Water and Coffee are always at hand at my home (filter tap on fridge)

Not gonna do beer as neither my hubby nor I drink it and everyone who is coming will drink something else, especially the wine

Green Goddess dip has a multitude of recipes out there, but my version is basically herbed creme fraiche
Not sure exactly about which veggies, depends on what looks best at store, should be able to get decent carrots, radishes, bell pepper and cukes. Hope to be able to include snap peas, endive, blanched asparagus and green beans

The crab stuffed mushrooms are a hot dish. They're actually something my husband makes and it's been a while since he's made them so I cannot comment exactly other than they are delish!

With the brie, again, depends on the look of the fruit at the store. We did just buy some nice looking Honey Crisp and Pink Lady apples at the Farmer's market, so will be using those and probably some pears and grapes. The brie itself will be topped with a cherry-apricot chutney that contains rosemary and almonds before being encased in layers of phyllo

Petite Galette Des Rois - mini King Cakes, basically puff pastry with an almond cream filling. Jan. 6th is Epiphany, and King Cake is the traditional dessert served on that holiday. Here's the recipe I use: http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2...ke-recipe.html

I make my own truffles, so they'll just be a basic dark choc ganache rolled in cocoa powder, prob spiked slightly with brandy

Wassail is the traditional Christmas time drink (a warm alcoholic punch) of ol'England, as in the carol "Here we come a Wassailing". My version is adapted from this recipe http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/fo...Wassail-102329. I leave out the eggs (I think it makes it too heavy), use crab apples and a sliced blood orange if I can get them, and include apple cider and use Madeira, Sherry, and Brandy. Basically it turns out as a very alcoholic mulled cider.

No vegans or vegetarians even.

The horseradish and mustard creams are both dip options.

Fortunately, no food allergies in the group!

I'd actually thought about making a croquembouche, CoffeeMonkey, but decided to go as much with things I can make ahead as possible.

[Barracuda]

And I would LOVE your recipe for crab stuffed mushrooms. I could trade mine for BACON stuffed mushrooms. Or for my favorite dish that's semi-fancy--Baked Chicken with Curry-Dill Sauce.

[MoonCat]

Where do you live? I'm coming over....

[AccountingDrone]

1 adult blue crab per 2 3 inch portobellos
3 inch dia portobello shrooms
1 clove garlic to 2 blue crabs
fresh toasted sourdough bread made into crumbs
1 teaspoon minced shallot to 2 blue crabs
olive oil
melted butter

pop the stems out of the mushrooms, give them a quick rinse and brush off to get any dirt off. [both stems and caps]

steam the crabs, chill down and pull the meat out of the body and claws, wash off any yucky yellow goop. shred the meat.

mince the stems, and saute the minced stems, garlic and shallot in a small amount of olive oil. Mix with bread crumbs and crab meat and add just enough melted butter to moisten the stuffing mix so you can shovel it into the shroom caps and sort of mold it to a gentle round.

Pop the shroom caps onto a parchment lined baking dish and bake gently at about 350 degrees fahrenheit for about half an hour.

*most stuffed shroom recipes have cheese, I learned the recipe from someone with a dislike of cheese. He taught me the recipe as a matter of proportions instead of amounts so you can make anything from 2 to 200 of the damned things. The filling can be mixed with egg and turned into croquettes.

[wolfie]

1 adult blue crab per 2 3 inch portobellos
3 inch dia portobello shrooms
1 clove garlic to 2 blue crabs
fresh toasted sourdough bread made into crumbs
1 teaspoon minced shallot to 2 blue crabs
olive oil
melted butter

*most stuffed shroom recipes have cheese, I learned the recipe from someone with a dislike of cheese. He taught me the recipe as a matter of proportions instead of amounts so you can make anything from 2 to 200 of the damned things. The filling can be mixed with egg and turned into croquettes.

Just curious, but how can you make 2 from this recipe? Looking at the ingredients list, it seems to me that it needs to be made in multiples of 4. My reasoning? You're limited by the garlic cloves (a clove is an indivisible item, unlike minced shallot, where you'd be able to use a half teaspoon). 1 clove does 2 crabs, and each crab does 2 mushrooms, therefore the recipe contains an indivisible item that does 4 stuffed mushrooms.

[Jester]

I'd actually thought about making a croquembouche, CoffeeMonkey, but decided to go as much with things I can make ahead as possible.

Okay, I'm not a baker, but I've seen that insanity on various food programs many time, and good LORD that looks ambitious and difficult. Every time I've seen it done, the judges have complimented the person making it on the effort, if not the execution. Impressive if you can pull it off!

And I would LOVE your recipe for crab stuffed mushrooms. I could trade mine for BACON stuffed mushrooms.

I would love to get that recipe for bacon stuffed mushrooms, as my love of bacon is well known. I'd be more than happy to provide you with any of my recipes (other than, of course, The Three recipes I do not divulge).

Just curious, but how can you make 2 from this recipe? Looking at the ingredients list, it seems to me that it needs to be made in multiples of 4. My reasoning? You're limited by the garlic cloves (a clove is an indivisible item, unlike minced shallot, where you'd be able to use a half teaspoon). 1 clove does 2 crabs, and each crab does 2 mushrooms, therefore the recipe contains an indivisible item that does 4 stuffed mushrooms.

Wolfie, Wolfie, Wolfie....really? Dude, come on. A garlic clove is hardly indivisible. Don't believe me? Give me a clove and a knife. BAM! You have half a clove.

Yes, it really is that easy.

[42_42_42]

Here's the recipe my hubby uses for crab-stuffed mushrooms. Has successfully made with both real crab and "krab".


Crab Stuffed Mushrooms

Ingredients:
½ c + ¼ c melted butter
24 lg white mushrooms
12 oz flaked crab meat
4 tbsp finely chopped onions
1 tsp dry mustard
2 c + 1 c shredded parmesean cheese
1 c soft bread crumbs
2 tsp chopped parsley
1/8 tsp ground red pepper
1/8 tsp black pepper
¼ tsp + 1/8 tsp garlic salt
1 egg, beaten
3 tbsp mayo

Directions:
Spray a 9x13 glass baking dish with cooking spray.
Drizzle ¼ c of butter in bottom of dish.
Wipe mushrooms with a damp paper towel to clean.
Remove stems, set aside caps and chop stems to add to filling.
Mix crabmeat, chopped stems, onion, dry mustard, 1 c parmesean, breadcrumbs, parsley, red pepper, black pepper, and 1/8 tsp garlic salt.
Once these ingredients are mixed well; then stir in egg and mayo.
Mound filling into each cap.
Mix ½ c melted butter and ¼ tsp garlic salt and drizzle over filled mushrooms.
Mound a generous portion of remaining parmesan on each filled cap.
Bake for 20-25 minutes at 425°.
Can be prepared, refrigerated and then baked just before serving (add 7-10 minutes cooking time).
Serve warm.

[42_42_42]

Oh, here's the baked brie recipe I am using. I just scale back the chutney as appropriate for the size brie I have. In this case a 1 lb wheel as opposed to the 2 lb wheel the recipe calls for.

[RetailWorkhorse]

Sooooooo. Anyone else hungry all of a sudden? PARTY AT 42'S HOUSE!

[Barracuda]

I myself am having game day tomorrow with family and enjoying a large cheese/cracker assortment as well as dry salami end pieces. Yummy!