Day 124 & 128: Luncheon Specials/Appetizers

Since I'm a little behind on my blogging, I thought I would combine some of my days to help catch up.  Today (Day 128) the kids are having mac & cheese, veggies, fruit, chips, and probably leftover cake for dinner.  They were babysat by my wonderful cousin.  Randy and I have been very busy lately, and I figure I'll just come out and say why: we're house shopping.  I haven't disclosed this information yet because we like to maintain a certain degree of privacy.  But I'm tired of cryptically saying that we have "appointments" all the time around dinner.  For those who have house-shopping experience, you know that it involves a lot of last-minute appointments and dinnertime house-viewings.  This is why I haven't had many new dinner recipes to share lately.  Luckily, my recent catering jobs and Noah's party will provide some new recipes to post on my blog!
 
Friday (Day 124) I provided some appetizer specials for a luncheon at school.  The menu included homemade hummus with vegetables, honey-mustard dip, lemon-grilled chicken with satay dip, spring veggie tartlets, fruit skewers, gluten-free fruit tarts, and chocolate-chip "snowball" cookies.

All of my business cards were picked up at the luncheon!  Time to print more...

Here are a few of the recipes from the teacher luncheon:

1. Homemade Hummus
I got this recipe from my mother, which may have come in her Vitamix Blender.  Here is the original recipe, but I should disclose that I doubled it and added more garlic! ;)

2 15 oz cans of chickpeas, 1 drained & 1 with fluid
1/4 cup raw sesame seeds
1 clove of garlic, minced
1 TB olive oil
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 tsp cumin
salt

Place all ingredients (except the salt) in a blender or food processor and mix well.  Add the salt to taste.

2. Spring Veggie Tartlets (makes 18 tartlets)
I came up with this recipe myself.  It was inspired by the idea of "finger" appetizers like the warm goat cheese & onion tartlets I make but wanting something with a different flavor, more reflective of spring.  These tartlets are served cold, so you can easily make them ahead of time.

1 box puff pastry
1 egg for egg wash
4 oz cream cheese, softened
2-3 oz plain Greek yogurt
1 TB onion flakes
1 TB fresh chives
salt, pepper
1/2 cucumber, sliced & quartered
chopped red onion (1/4 or less of the onion)
chopped yellow pepper
chopped broccoli

Preheat the oven to 400*.  With a circle cutter, cut 9 circles out of each sheet of puff pastry.  Place them in a mini-tart (mini-muffin) tray and gently press down.  Brush each tartlet with eggwash and bake for 10 minutes.
Mix the cream cheese, yogurt, onion flakes, chives, and salt & pepper to taste together for the spread.  When the tartlets come out of the oven, allow them to cool a few minutes, then press them down to form little cups if necessary.  Spread the cheese mixture on top of each one and top with a cucumber quarter-slice, some red onion, yellow pepper, and a little broccoli.  Refrigerate for a few hours and serve cold.

3. Noah's Chocolate Chip "Snowball" Cookies
I love these cookies!  They are not too sweet, which definitely helps bring out the chocolate flavor.  I got the recipe from a friend who made them for me and brought them to the hospital the day after I had Noah.  Childbirth definitely gives you a case of the "munchies" and I thoroughly enjoyed these cookies!  They always remind me of when Noah was born which is why I renamed them after him. :) 

3/4 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsps vanilla
1 egg
2 cups of flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup chocolate chips

Blend the butter, sugar, and vanilla.  Add the egg and mix well.  Mix in the 2 cups of flour and salt.  Stir in the chocolate chips.  Shape into 1 inch balls and bake at 350* for 13-15 minutes.

4. Gluten-Free Almond Fruit Tart
This was the first gluten-free recipe I've made!  The recipe itself doesn't make much.  I actually quadrupled the recipe to get 2 normal-sized (in my opinion) tarts.  For this (and other) recipes I made for this luncheon, I actually used a lot of low-cal or fat-free cream cheeses, mayos, etc.  This is not how I normally cook.  But I had to consider my audience. This recipe is probably one I would consider making again (with full-fat cream cheese).  The almond crust was really good (it is the only aspect of the recipe I took from the internet--the filling was my recipe)!
 
For the Crust:
1 cup almond flour
1/8 tsp sea salt
1 egg
1 TB butter, melted
3 TB honey
1/4 tsp almond extract

Preheat oven to 350*.  Grease an 8" tart pan.  Blend the egg, butter, honey, and almond extract.  Add the almond flour and salt.  Spread over the tart pan and bake for 10-12 minutes or until light golden brown.  Remove from oven and cool completely before inverting and filling.

For the Filling:
8 oz cream cheese
3 TB honey
1 TB apricot preserves
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup confectioners sugar
1-2 TB milk

Cream/blend ingredients together and spread over a cooled crust.  Top with strawberry slices, kiwi slices, and blueberries.  (Add grapes, too, if you'd like!)