The One With the Coconut Mango Appetizers

I like trying new appetizers at parties to keep things interesting and, hopefully, expand my repertoire of recipes. (Do you like the alliteration in that last bit? I do.) Anyway, I saw these on Pinterest and decided to give them a try. Of course I ended up adapting the recipe to fit what tasted good and was available at my local grocery store. I'm really just not dedicated enough to go to specialty stores.  Call me lazy. But I prefer "resourceful." Here goes...

Coconut Mango Appetizers
Serves 24 guests, with 2 appetizers each

• 48 wonton wrappers (ask your store clerk to help you find these, but they're probably available anywhere)
• 1 Tablespoon olive oil
• 1 medium onion, diced small
• 6 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
• 2 tsp dried ground ginger
• 4 chicken breasts, grilled and diced small
• 1 cup coconut milk (you can find this canned in the Asian foods section)
• 1 cup peach mango salsa, mild or medium (or any kind of mango salsa)
• 1/4 cup lime juice
• Salt to taste

To make the Coconut Mango Filling:
Heat your oil in a skillet over medium heat. Saute the onions for about 5 minutes, until tender. Add the garlic and ginger and cook for another minute. Add the chicken*, coconut milk, salsa, lime juice and salt. Stirring constantly, cook until the mixture is bubbly and thickened. Let cool before spooning into wonton cups.

To make the Wonton Cups:
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
Lightly oil or use Pam pray to coat a mini cupcake or muffin tin. Press one wonton wrapper into each of the muffin spots, creasing the folds against the side of the pan so that your coconut mango creation has somewhere to go. Bake in oven for about 8 minutes, until golden brown.  (Depending on how hot your oven runs, it might only take 5 minutes, so check then to make sure you don't burn your wontons.)

*To prepare ahead of time: make everything according to directions a day to two days before your party, leaving the wonton cups to be made the day-of. Leave the chicken out of the filling until you have made your wonton cups and are ready to serve. Allow everything to stand at room temperature for about an hour, to let it lose it's refrigerated chill. 
**This recipe easily becomes vegetarian without the chicken, which really doesn't seem incredibly necessary, except that it makes the appetizers more hearty and substantial.
***This would be reallly, really good with some shredded ginger on top. I was going to add it myself, but someone threw away my prized ginger. I was sad. But they turned out great, anyway.

 

I shared this recipe at Creative Juice on the Momnivore's Dilemma.

The One with the Cranberry-Chicken Salad Fillo Cups

Olivia loves craisins. A lot. So I wanted that to be incorporated into the food I made her for her party. I saw these on Betty Crocker and they looked good, so I made them.

Cranberry-Chicken Salad Fillo Cups
Serves 24 guests 

• 3 packages frozen mini fillo shells (45 shells total)
• 1 cup chopped dried cranberries
• 1 1/2 cups chicken, grilled and diced
• 1 cup plain Greek yougurt
• 1 cup mayonnaise
• 2 Tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 bushel (6-8) green onions, chopped
• 2 teaspoons dried rosemary leaves
• 1 teaspoon salt

Mix 1/2 cup of the dried cranberries with the rest of the ingredients.
An hour or two before serving, remove fillo shells from freezer and spoon cranberry-chicken salad into the shells.
Garnish with remaining dried cranberries, and rosemary, if desired.

*You can make the salad a day or two ahead of time and keep it refrigerated.  According to my husband, Steve, the longer you let it sit, the better it tastes (he really liked it on day three).
**You can add toasted chopped walnuts if you desire.

The One With the Tortellini Broccoli Salad and Bruschetta

Even more party food recipes!
On the menu last Sunday we had Tortellini and Broccoli Salad and Bruschetta - two of my favorite party foods. Pretty simple and pretty delicious.

This recipe is party-sized, so if you're making it for dinner, halve it!
For the Tortellini Broccoli Salad:

• 2 bags frozen tortellini (19 oz. each)
• 4-6 cups broccoli florets (depending on how much you like broccoli)
• 2 cups cherry tomatoes, cut in half
• 2 tsp chopped chives
• 1 pound bacon, cooked and cut into pieces
• 1/2 cup sunflower seeds
•  Coleslaw dressing

Prep the salad: Cook the tortellini, drain and set to cool.  Cut broccoli into bit-sized pieces. Cook and chop up bacon. Mix all ingredients together and toss with the coleslaw dressing. I like to make it pretty moist, but this part is up to you. Cover and refrigerate for at least an hour so that the salad soaks up all the flavor.

Tip for preparing ahead of time: Cook  and cut up the bacon and the broccoli the night before. Do not cook the tortellini until the day of the party and then combine all ingredients just a few hours (at most) before the party.

 

Bruschetta is one of my favorite appetizers and it is so easy!

For a small gathering I will do just one baguette and for a party I'll use two. Again, the recipe listed below is party-sized.

For the bruschetta:

• 2 baguettes
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 2 Tbls lemon juice
• 3 cups diced roma tomatoes
• 1 cup diced red onion
• 2 Tbls basil
• 4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• Salt and pepper to taste

Combine the oil, lemon juice, tomatoes, onion, basil, garlic, salt and pepper. Mix together well. I like to make this either the day before or at least a few hours before so that all the flavors mix together really well. Right before serving time, cut the baguette into thin slices and broil until lightly toasted. Spoon the mixture onto the toasted slices and serve with a smile. :-)

As a side note: the other salads featured where a Caesar salad and a pasta salad. I just make up the ingredient amounts as I go, but for the Caesar I use chicken grilled with garlic salt and oil, lettuce, parmesan, croutons and, of course, Caesar dressing. The pasta salad is a recipe from Mallory and just uses the pasta of your choice, tomatoes, red onion, olives, cucumbers, feta cheese, diced salami and Italian dressing in the quantities you desire.

This pretty much ends the food-related birthday posts. And just in case you think I'm a one-woman show, I'd like to take this moment to say a HUGE thank you to Allison, Mallory and my mom for all of their help in the kitchen. And a big thanks to Steve for entertaining babies, too. I love you all!

The One With the Bacon-Wrapped Potato Bites

In preparation for the birthday party last weekend, I went through my pins on Pinterest to see what yummy ideas were just waiting there to be tested. I saw bacon-wrapped potato bites and knew they were birthday-party worthy.

 

My pin took me here where I found that the recipe is really pretty straight-forward and simple. For the party I used three pounds of bacon and probably eight potatoes (about 3 pounds). Here's what you do:

Preheat oven to 400.

Wash your potatoes and cut them into 1-inch pieces. All your pieces should be roughly the same size. Put them in a pot of cold water and bring the water to a boil over medium-high heat. Once they have started boiling, watch them carefully and check them often. They are done when you can easily insert a fork into them. Be carefully that they aren't too soft or it will be hard to wrap them. Drain and set aside to cool. 

Prepare the dressing:

• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 Tbls rosemary
• Garlic salt 
• Pepper

Mix the olive oil and rosemary and add the garlic salt and pepper to taste. Toss the potatoes in this dressing to coat them well.

Cut strips of bacon in half. Wrap a half-strip around each potato piece and use a toothpick to secure. Lay your pieces on a baking sheet covered with aluminum foil and bake for 15 minutes or so. Once they are crisped up on side one, turn them over and bake for another 15 minutes on the other side.

The recipe linked above has a spicy sour cream dipping sauce but I opted for a fry-sauce type with mayo, ketchup and honey dijon mustard. Really this is a basic (but delicious) potato-bacon combo, so you could make any sauce you want. They're even really good all by themselves.

If you are making these for a party and want to prepare ahead of time, you can cook and wrap the potatoes the night before and store them in aluminum foil in the fridge overnight, putting them in the oven a few hours before the party starts. :-)