Zesty Cook » party

9 Steps to a Flawless Hors D’Oeuvres Party!

zesty — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 13:05:54 +0000

Happy Monday! April is upon us. Hard to believe but yet it is true. I was tossing around some ideas in my head on what to share with you today and this popped into my mind. I spent some time this weekend working on my new book so I had party and hosting on my brain. I hope you enjoy these tips and find use for them when you host your next gathering.

Planning a party? Apps or Hors D’oeuvres can make hosting much easier and you can still feel like a rock star. With a little planning and timely prep you can pull this party off without stress. Here are 9 tips to help you on your way to a memorable party.

Top 9 Tips for an Awesome Party

Think – Before beginning any preparation, ask yourself: How many guests? Any allergies? What time will they arrive? Am I going hot or cold – or both?
Watch the Temp – plan carefully so you can serve your cold food cold and your hot food hot. The same goes for your plates. Warm the plates in the microwave for 30 seconds before serving your hot dishes and shove some in the freezer for the cold dishes.
Keep it Together – A pattern can be beneficial in serving the food. You will want to keep the cold appetizers together as well as the hot. A nice alternative is too serve warm dips that will still hold their flavor and texture as they cool down.
Cheese Please – Cheese is still trendy and one of the more popular items at any appetizer party. If you go this route, aim for a nice variety and take time to pair the cheese with either bread , crackers or even some wine.
Sweet Finish – Mini desserts will make you look like a HERO. Think of bite sized tarts, cupcakes, cheesecakes, squares and have lots on hand. People tend to go a little heavier on the bite sized desserts.
Match Your Drinks – Drinks are an essential part to the party. Now they don’t have to be all alcoholic but take time in planning out the drinks and try to match the season with your drink. Example – winter party could feature warm cocoa spiked with baileys and cinnamon topped with homemade whipped cream where as a summer gathering may have a fresh watermelon spritzer with a hint of lime.
Portion Control – I am always heavy on the food. I always prepare too much because my mother always taught me that leftovers are not the end of the world and you do not want to run out of food. With that said, I would allow 7-8 appetizers per person.
Style – people love to eat dressed up food. Take the time and jazz it up for the “WOW” factor regardless of the crowd.
Enjoy – Spend time with guests, have a laugh and enjoy yourself. Gatherings with friends and family are a great time to relax and be thankful for what you have.

So there you have a quick guide that you can use at your next party. Have a super Monday and you know I will be back on Wednesday.

Take care

zesty

Zesty Goes Brick: Cooking at 900 Degrees

zesty — Fri, 13 May 2011 13:00:30 +0000

Guess what? I totally forgot it was Friday and I had to post today! Can you believe that? Well I just remembered and I knew I had nothing prepared. With that said, I thought of this post because hopefully we are approaching the nicer weather where the zesty-in-laws will be calling us up for some pizza. Whooo Hooo. Look at this post if you don’t remember it from last year.

Happy Wednesday and welcome to a very special post!

A few weeks back I got a call from a Zesty in Law stating that they were getting a brick oven built in their backyard and I was asked if I would like to photograph the build and feature it on zesty. Of course my answer was yes as I thought you would love to see it from start to finish. The goal being to see it at the finished stage and taste the food from the oven. That happened last Friday and we will get to that in a little bit.

One hint: AMAZING

What is a Brick Oven

Now some of you may ask what is a brick oven so I thought I would share a little insight.

These ovens work on retained heat. A fire is burned in the oven for a few hours, the coals are raked out, the oven floor brushed or swabbed with a damp mop and then the food is cooked using the heat stored in the oven mass. Wood-fired bakeovens are used to bake crusty bread, crisp pizza and just about anything else including the Christmas turkey. The oven can have a barrel/vault shape or it can be round. The inner workings of the oven can be of modern firebrick material or simply made of clay like the early settlers used. Plan your oven location, if you can, so it can be used in any weather.

OK. Everyone is on the same page on the “What is a Brick Oven” so now let’s get to “How to Build a Brick Oven”. For this next phase I am going to show you a bunch of pictures with very little narrative as I think the pictures will explain themselves.

The Brick Oven

The Final Product

Here is the final oven in all it’s glory! Notice the sheer size of the structure not too mention how cool it looks in general.

Pizza Pizza

Oh my God or OMG or whatever you want to say when you are super excited and you cannot get enough of something. This pizza was absolutely insane. For the night, I was sous chef Zesty as I was helping with the prep and layout of the pizza. Also was called upon every now and again to give the pizza a turn in the oven, slice it after completion and call over the troops.

For cooking pizza, the oven was around 850-900 degrees F and the pizzas would literally cook in 2-3 minutes. It was the first night of pizza cooking so there will be a few tweaks put in place to master the dough levels but overall the crowd loved it.

First off, you have to start the fire and get the oven up to temperature. Then using a brush, reach in and clean the floor in preparation of the pizza dough.

Zesty in law and myself cooked 11 pizzas including a couple of dessert pizzas that may knock your socks off. We will get to those in a minute. First up we have a basic pizza with homemade tomato sauce, some Genoa salami and cheese ( It was for the kiddos but I may have snuck a piece )

As the night went on we switched up the toppings, rolled the dough for a few of them and even picked some fresh basil.

Here is a little olive oil, fresh basil and cheese pizza. This was a huge hit!

On to the Dessert Pizza. How does strawberries, raspberries, chocolate, vanilla sugar and fresh dough baked at 800 degrees sound for dessert? Pretty damn good right? Well if you said “Holy Yum” you would be bang on. These were amazing!

We capped the night off with a Simple Smore done in the oven. I took a marshmallow, sliced a hole in the center and shoved in some chocolate, then roasted it in the oven and placed it between two graham wafers.

Let’s finish the night with a little FIRE!

Special thanks to the Zesty in Law’s for letting me feature this on the blog and Red Clay for building the oven and doing such a great job. John over at Red Clay definitely knows his bricks and it shows in the final product.

Before I go I want to say a special “HAPPY BIRTHDAY” to a Zesty in Law who reads my posts everyday. Hope you have a great day, CAW. Alright, I better get going here and get some breakfast. I know this was a long post but I felt it was the best way to describe such an amazing work of art. Have a super Wednesday and I will see you on Friday.

Take care

zesty

Welcome to 2011

zesty — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 13:34:57 +0000

Welcome to 2011. I hope you had a wonderful new year celebration with your family and friends. As I sit here in the dining room preparing this post and I look back on the holidays…. I feel like I have gained 10 lbs – oh wait maybe I actually did. The amount of food and drink consumed this year was appalling – but nonetheless a fact.

I need to apologize before we go any further as NYE festivities got a little sloppy ( and I don’t mean Sloppy Joe’ s) for zest and I didn’t take any pictures. The food from what I can remember was amazing as per usual and there are a couple of dishes that stand out. Thanks to the amazing zesty in law for putting on an amazing party and taking some pictures.

The menu was quite elaborate and included shrimp, trout, quail, mushrooms, brie bake, homemade tomato paste with goat and mozzarella cheese as a spread, of course homemade pizza, fresh ravioli, sticky date pudding

Stuffed Mushrooms

These mushrooms were stuffed with capers, anchovies, cumin, mushroom stems, bread crumbs and Parmesan cheese…. Totally Delicious!!!

Prosciutto Wrapped Quail

I somewhat remember eating this and I did enjoy it…. the salty crunch on the Prosciutto was a nice balance with the Quail.

So a new year is upon us, and normally we go ahead and make some resolutions and promises to ourselves. I have been keeping mine fairly quiet but I do want to try a few things that I have not yet completed. I would like to try some vegan recipes, use agave nectar, eat more oatmeal and do some more exercise. Yes a year full of excitement is in store for zest. Tell me what are going to do this year.

I have some more fun recipes to share with you over the next couple of weeks that I have experimented with over the holidays. Stay tuned and have a great start to the new year.

Take care

zesty.