Unfortunately, none of our foods glowed of their own accord. Perhaps someday science will find a way for edible glow-in-the-dark food stuff, but until that moment arrives, we just have to do the glowing ourselves.
I have a difficult time staying with a recipe for awhile. They tend to be short term relationships. I recognized this while making food for the Glo Party. Instead of relying on tried and true recipes, I found myself whipping up something completely new, and relying on tried and true flavor combos instead of a “recipe”. Some of the goodies whipped up:
- dates stuffed with sweet orange mascarpone: In a small bowl combine a small container of marscapone cheese (4 oz), 1 Tbs of sugar, 1 tsp of vanilla, grated orange zest of one orange (reserve some for decoration) and 1 Tbs of orange juice. Blend till combined, smooth and fluffy. Taste, to adjust sweetness levels. Slice 15 medjool dates in half, removing their large pits, and pipe them full of the sweet marscapone filling. Top with a spinkle of orange zest.
- roasted whole almonds with lemon salt: on a baking sheet, spread out 2 cups of whole almonds. Place in a 350F oven till fragrant and browned. While almonds are toasting, bash together several tablespoons of salt with several teaspoons of lemon zest. Right after the almonds have been removed from the oven, sprinkle with the lemon salt mixture.
- baked miniature apples stuffed with caramel spice mascarpone: slice the stem top (the top third) off of a dozen miniature apples that are approximately 1 - 1 ½ in diameter. Using a melon baller, remove the core of the apple leaving the apple to be an intact container. Set aside in a baking dish splashed with lemon juice, cut side down. Heat oven to 350F and place baking dish of apples in, cooking till the apples are slightly tender to the touch, 15- 20 minutes. When done, remove the apples and allow to cool completely. Prepare your marscapone filling by whipping together 4 oz of marscapone cheese, 3-4 Tbs of Tom and Jerry’s Hot Buttered Rum mix, 1 tsp of vanilla and a pinch of salt. Pipe into the completely cooled apples, and top with a light dusting of cinnamon.
My mind was also wonderfully inspired for this round of party food by a new cookbook I just picked up: sushi american style, by Tracy Griffith. I choose three sushi preparations to entertain our festive feasters:
- ~ roll containing: a stripe of wasabi mayo, grapefruit, avocado, crushed almonds, cucumber, and black pepper
- ~ roll containing: a stripe of wasabi mayo, jicama, cilantro, lime and coarse salt
- ~ ahi watermelons: rice filled cucumbers topped with spicy tuna and black sesame seeds
A nice presentation aid for the raw fish items is to place your serving dish in the freezer to get really cold. Let it stand at room temperature for 5 minutes before placing food items on it (so they don’t freeze to your dish). Plate up, and your sushi will stay chilled.
Mmmm, off to eat, errr… I mean clean up, the leftovers!
