Steam one pound of sugar snap peas until crisp tender.

Combine 5 tsp. melted butter, 1 T. low-sodium soy sauce, 1 tsp lemon juice and a couple of twists from the pepper mill.

Drizzle over peas.

TADA!

–From Cooking Light.

Preheat oven to 325.  In large bowl or food processor combine the flours;  sugar and salt.  Cut the margarine into the flour until mixture looks like coarse meal.  Blend in milk slowly, adding only enough to form cohesive ball.  Divide dough into 2 equal parts for rolling.  On a floured surface, roll the crackers thin, 1/16th to 1/8th inch.  If desired, lightly sprinkle tops with salt and gently roll in with rolling pin.  With a sharp knife, cut into 2 inch squares.  Transfer to an ungreased baking sheet, prick each cracker 2-3 times with a fork. Bake 20-25 minutes.  Cool on rack

Heat oven to 300.  Mix cereal and almonds in large bowl; set aside.  Microwave margarine, brown sugar and juice concentrate in 1 cup microwavable measuring cup uncovered on high 30 seconds; stir.  Pour over cereal mixture in bowl, stirring until evenly coated.  Spread in large ungreased roasting pan.   Bake 30 minutes, stirring after 15 minutes.  Stir in cranberries, spread on waxed paper or aluminum foil to coil.  Store in airtight container.  10 cups.

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This recipe is absolutely intriguing.

40 tater tots, slightly thawed.
20 slices of bacon, any sort. (I use my husband’s homemade bacon, which is really lean.)

Cut the bacon in half and wrap each piece around a tater tot. Overlap the bacon a bit and skewer with a toothpick.

Bake at 425 for about 15-20 minutes, or until the bacon is crispy. The bacon I use is very thick and tends to take longer.

Yum!

Preheat the oven to 375. Grease 2 baking sheets and set aside. In a small bowl, stir togehter the ricotta cheese and Parmesan cheese. In another small bowl stir together your diced ingredients.  On a lightly floured surface, with a lightly floured rolling pin, roll the dough to slightly less than a 1/4″ thickness. With a 2 1/2 inch round cutter or drinking glass, cut the circles of the dough. Place a scant teaspoon of the ricotta mixture and small spoonful of the diced ingredients on the circles. Fold the circles in half and seal the edges by pressing with the tines of a fork. Place the filled calzones on the prepared baking sheets. Prick the tops with a fork to allow steam to escape. Brush the tops with the milk. If you want you can then sprinkle the tops with Italian Seasoning or Parmesan.  Bake in the 375 oven for 15 to 20 minutes or until golden. Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, heat your sauce. Remove the calzones from the baking sheets. Serve immediately with the tomato sauce for dipping.
This recipe originally came from Better Homes and Gardens.  I have changed it to suit my evil purposes.

Technorati Tags: Italian, appetizers, holiday food, mini calzones, party food

I just made this artichoke dip for Orphan’s Thanksgiving, and of course I had to try it before I served it to starving orphans, and I think I am going to have babies with it.  Tasty tasty babies.

• 1/2 c. sour cream
• 1/2 c. mayo
• 1 can of artichoke hearts.  (Don’t use the ones in the oil/water in the jar, get a can.  For some reason they are so much better.)
• hot sauce to taste
• 1/4 c. freshly grated parmesan cheese

Mix it all together.  Put it into a baking dish.  Sprinkle with cayenne, and some of that parmesan from the green can.

Bake at 350 for 30 mins.

Do not burn yourself eating it.

From  my all time favorite cookbook in the whole wide world The American Century Cookbook: The Most Popular Recipes of the 20th Century

Greek Custard in Phyllo Cups
Ingredients
30 1-3/4-inch baked miniature phyllo shells (two 2.1 oz. pkg.) or Homemade Mini-Phyllo Shells (see recipe below)
1 4-ounce package crumbled feta cheese
1 3-ounce package cream cheese, softened
1 egg
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon all-purpose flour
1/3 cup pitted kalamata olives, chopped
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano, crushed
1/2 teaspoon olive oil
1/4 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
1 clove garlic, minced
Dash ground cumin
Dash ground red pepper
Snipped fresh parsley or snipped fresh oregano
1. Preheat oven to 325 degree F. Place phyllo shells on a large baking sheet. For custard filling, in a medium mixing bowl combine feta cheese, cream cheese, egg, lemon juice, and flour. Beat with an electric mixer on medium speed until nearly smooth. Spoon mixture evenly into phyllo cups, using a scant 2 teaspoons of mixture for each cup. Bake for 15 to 17 minutes or until shells are lightly brown and crisp.
2. For olive topping, in a small bowl stir together olives, dried oregano, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, garlic, cumin, and red pepper. Sprinkle olive topping evenly over tops of baked custard. Sprinkle each with snipped parsley or oregano. Serve immediately. Makes 30 appetizers.

• 1 8 oz can pitted black olives
• 1/4 c. sun-dried tomatoes
• 2 T. olive oil
• 1/3 c. reduced fat sour cream
• 1/3 c. chopped tomatoes
• 1 tsp chopped fresh parsley

Place olives, sun-dried tomatoes, and olive oil in food processor; process until well blended.

Spread onto serving plate; top with sour cream tomatoes and parsley.

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Ha Ha!  I literally just read this recipe as I was typing it, even though I made it last night.  When I made it last night I put everything in the food processor and whirled it around and then plopped it down on the table.  It was really good!  Apparently I was not supposed to do that.  Oopsa.

• 1 T. butter (they actually say margarine, but that word does not exist in our house)
• 1 large sweet onion, finely chopped
• 1/3 c. Light Mayo (they say Kraft, but we are a Best Foods/Hellman’s family…sorry Triscuit people)
• 1/2 c. KRAFT 2% shredded reduced fat cheese
• 1/4 c. KRAFT Grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 T. chopped fresh parsley
• 1/2 tsp. hot pepper sauce

Preheat oven to 350.  Melt butter in large skillet on medium heat.  Add onions; cook 5 to 7 min. or until golden brown, stirring occasionally.  Cool slightly.

Mix mayo, cheeses, parsley and pepper sauce in medium bowl.  Stir in onions.  Sppon into baking dish.

Bake 25 mins or until heated through.

Then you are supposed to put little mounds of this on Triscuit Quattro Formaggio Thin Crisps and serve it to your guests.  We ate it out of the dish with a baguette.  Take that Triscuit!

• 1 pkg refrigerated pie crust or one recipe pastry crust
• one portabello mushroom
• 8 oz. button mushrooms, porcini mushrooms, or whatever other mushrooms are on sale that week
• 2 T. butter
• 1 T. olive oil
• 1/2 c. whipping cream
• 1 egg ( or the equivalent amount of Egg Beaters.  These are just as good if you just use the egg whites)
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1/8 tsp. pepper
• 1 c. shredded swiss cheese
• bacon, cooked, drained and crumbled.  ( I didn’t use the bacon in all of them, because I have vegetarian friends.  In fact, I don’t think the original recipe even called for bacon, but I don’t have it any more and I have no idea where I got it.  I just found this scribbled mess on my dining room floor.)

Preheat oven to 375

Let crusts stand at room temp for 20 mins, roll out into 12″ circles.  Wash mushrooms (yes, with water people.  It doesn’t hurt them.  MYTH! Just dry them off after you wash them, or the next step will take longer)  Chop up in food processor or with knife.  Place butter and olive oil in skillet and cook mushrooms over medium heat until all liquid is evaporated and mushrooms are brown and tender.

Spray 24 muffin cups with Pam the wonder Spray.  (I wrote down 1 3/4c. but I just used standard size cupcake pans.)  Using a pint glass, cut 24 circles from pie crust (12 from each crust) rerolling if needed.  Press into muffin pans.  Divide mushrooms between cups.

Combine egg, cream, salt and cayenne pepper and beat well.  Pour mixture over mushrooms, about 2 tsp. per cup.  Sprinkle each with grated cheese.

Bake for 18-20 mins or until center is set.

These freeze awesome, and the recipe doubles fantastically.  I have zillions of cupcake pans, so it was easy for me to do a quadruple batch in a short amount of time, if you don’t have a lot of cupcake pans this might not be so easy.

When you freeze them, cool them to room temp first, then put them on a tray and freeze them on the tray, then put them in a zip lock bag.

These were not as popular as the bite size ones, but they were pretty darn tasty.

Oh to reheat, bake at 350 for 12-14 mins.