The Good Plate

Archive for the ‘Appetizers’ Category

Cream Cheese Stuffed Chocolate Dipped Strawberries

Recipes in This Post

• How to Temper Chocolate
• Cheesecake Stuffed Chocolate Dipped Strawberries

The other day, when I was perusing Pinterest, I came across something that looked fabulous. It was strawberries stuffed with cream cheese, and it was called Cheesecake Stuffed Strawberries. I pinned it, and decided it would make a nice treat for the kids in Spane’s class going to the Planetarium field trip. Last year, I made White Chocolate Rum Raisin Cookies for Mrs. Mary’s class when we went to The Natural Science Museum.

I lucked out, and strawberries were Buy One box, Get One Free. There are 24 kids in Spane’s class, plus the teacher, and possibly one or two more parents who, like me, volunteered to go on the trip to help with the children. There were enough strawberries, with a few extra for the house.

I decided to change the original recipe a little and dip the strawberries in chocolate. All the recipes on the Internet tell you to add shortening to the chocolate to temper it. I don’t like shortening, and I knew that I had dipped strawberries before without it. Of course, looking in The Joy of Cooking, I found that I didn’t need shortening at all, just a candy thermometer, that I have a nice glass one with a clip. There are instructions later in this post about how to do this.

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Recipes in this Post

• Cream of Mushroom Soup with Sherry

I love it when the supermarket puts a large box of whole mushrooms on Manager’s Special. I take them home and make something out of them, this time Manicotti Stuffed with Cream Cheese, Spinach and Pine-nuts. When I opened my refrigerator this afternoon, I realized I had a lot of mushrooms left over, and what could I do with an almost whole box of mushrooms? Mushroom soup seemed like the perfect thing on a cold, winter day.

Some of you are probably saying “Ew! That’s the stuff you make casseroles out of, you don’t actually EAT that!” Well, that’s true. I would never have a bowl of that canned stuff, it’s only good for a few casserole dishes, and then that’s doubtful, too – now that I made this glorious mushroom soup.

This is probably one of the easiest soups you will ever make. When mushrooms go on sale at your grocery store, get a whole bunch of them, and share this wonderful soup.

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Well, December 25 is over, and now all we have to wait for is the New Year celebrations. I thought I would make a list of some recipes that have been popular this year, or you might want to make for your New Year’s Eve event.

Every year, I make a special New Year’s Day dish, but I’m going to hold that one for another post, so stay tuned. In the meantime, I think that you might find yourself making some of 2011′s most popular recipes for your own festivities.

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Recipes in This Post

Fruit Boats

• Skull Cheese Ball
• Fruit Boats
• Cucumber Boats

Here, for your pleasure and review are pictures of some of the food served at Spane’s eighth birthday party. There will be pictures of the actual Birthday Boy soon.

These Caribbean meatballs were quite the hit. Spane asked me to make them again. Recipe for Caribbean Pirate Meat Balls

These just looked so lovely. My original intent was just to have the banana slice and orange quarter, and Douglas came back from the store with these lovely red grapes. They made the dish!

This cheese ball was very simple to make. It’s a good way to get rid of little bits of cheese, nuts and dried fruit you might have laying about.

These were a take off on the Oreo Rum Balls I made, only these used white creme cookies, and had spice flavorings. Here is the recipe.

This is probably my favorite. In all the time I was thinking to myself, what could I stuff those cucumbers with, and then I thought egg salad would be good. As I removed the egg yolks from the whites, I realized that the whites would make proper sails, and the black olives were the Jolly Rogers.

I have a whole post about making this cake. It was really fun and everyone loved it!

Cucumber Boats

Recipes in This Post

• Cucumber Boats

I made these for Spane’s eighth birthday party, a pirate theme. I’m not much for egg whites, and this is a unique way to enjoy deviled eggs. The ground sumac really gives this appetizer the zip it needs.

These little boats are so delicious and festive looking that they could be the star of any holiday party. They are very easy to make, and would be wonderful to use up the colored eggs at Easter time. Children like them as a snack.

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We’re going to have good pirate themes food for Spane’s Eighth Birthday Party on November 19, 2011. Just as I did for Spane’s seventh birthday, I have loaded up my Lotus Organizer and started my recipes and grocery list. I thought I would share the menu and recipes. Note that all of these recipes can be used for other occasions.

Pirate Party Menu

• Dead Men’s Fingers
• Dead Parrot Wings
• Pirate’s Balls
• Macaroni and Cheese
• Cucumber Boats flying the Jolly Roger
• Orange Banana ships
• Cannon Balls
• Jolly Roger Flag Cake
• Grog

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