Showing posts with label #appetizerweek. Show all posts
Showing posts with label #appetizerweek. Show all posts

Friday, January 24, 2014

Very Veggie Puff Pastry Pizza Bites

Fresh and preserved veggies top this vegetarian puff pastry pizza bite.

Very Veggie Puff Pastry Pizza Bites | Farm Fresh Feasts




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Welcome to my final recipe for #AppetizerWeek! I've had fun, learned a lot of html and a wee bit of social media-ing, and watched the laundry pile up [and the snow, and the emails] while sharing savory appetizers and wicked cool giveaways alongside a terrific group of bloggers. If you're just tuning in for your usual Farm Fresh Feasts Friday Pizza you will not be disappointed--this is a tasty lil' morsel of artichokes, olives, spinach and caramelized onions topped with goat cheese on a roasted garlic oil-brushed puff pastry base. It's pretty easy to fix for a game day appetizer spread, though I'd offer napkins and plates to eat it from since the puff pastry is deliciously flaky [carefully avoids comparing anyone I know to the pizza].

I believe in offering choices for everyone I'm feeding [unless you're my kid and want cake or cookies for breakfast. Then there is no choice but cookies "No"].  I usually fix pizza for my family on Friday night, and frequently I make two pies so everyone has a choice.  Since I shared Pickled Pepper and Pepperoni Puff Pastry Pinwheel Pizza Palooza yesterday, I thought I'd conclude my contributions to #AppetizerWeek with a vegetarian choice--Very Veggie Puff Pastry Pizza Bites.

I've tried to spend a bit of each post talking about my food philosophy and today is no exception.  Today I want to talk about pantries.  Much of the toppings for my weekly pizzas are what I consider to be pantry staples:  a jar of artichoke hearts, a jar of olives, pickled peppers and cheese in the fridge.   I've got pepperoni and leftover cooked meats in the freezer.  Picking up one or two items (especially on sale or marked down) with each shopping trip means that over time I end up with a well-stocked pantry (but without the crazy cash outlay).  Buying in bulk can save money--if you have make the space for it.  Because I want the seasonal Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm share vegetables to feed my family year round, I've got an extra little freezer (doubles as a microwave stand) to store the farm vegetables that don't live in the Strategic Winter Squash Reserve. In addition, each year I expand my canning repertoire to put up the ever-increasing volume of tomatoes that we require.

I didn't go from zero (grasshopper) to 60 (ant) in a season--I've been evolving my ability to squirrel away food in season over the past dozen or so years.  [I've probably mixed up a bunch of animal/insect metaphors there, oops.] If I get a bunch of onions on sale, for example, I'll caramelize them in my crock pot (link to recipe below) and freeze them in ½ cup portions so I can bring them out when I get a hankering.  Too many leeks?  Slice them, wash them, and freeze them, to add to dishes. Peppers piling up? Chop and freeze them on trays, or roast and chop them before freezing--then add to soups, stews, and spaghetti sauce.  This means that I've always got ingredients on hand to make a variety of pizzas, like this one.

Very Veggie Puff Pastry Pizza Bites | Farm Fresh Feasts

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Thursday, January 23, 2014

Pickled Pepper and Pepperoni Puff Pastry Pinwheel Pizzas


Pepperoni pizza flavor inexpertly rolled into individual pinwheel pizzas. 

A recipe for pepperoni pizza flavor inexpertly rolled into individual pinwheel pizzas, this makes an easy to eat appetizer.

Question:  When is a pizza not an entree but instead an appetizer?
Answer:  When the pizza is little, cute, and can be consumed in a couple of bites.  Bonus points for alliteration.


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I had the puff pastry pizza idea for a while before I could execute it.  Luckily I picked up 2 boxes of puff pastry when I hit the outlet mall, so I had plenty of material to practice play with, because this was tricky for me to do.  I may make pizza crust look easy in my Pizza Primer, but you'll find some puff pastry outtakes on my FB page.

My first try [using fresh mozzarella and RTFM for baking instructions] was tasty but messy.  I baked the puff pastry for 10 minutes until it blew up like a throw pillow, then whacked it reasonably flat with my pizza peel [you may incorrectly assume I'm exaggerating here] and attempted to spread sauce on the flaking crust, added the toppings, and returned to the oven.  By the time the cheese was starting to melt the crust was starting to burn.  I went back to the drawing board.

A recipe for pepperoni pizza flavor inexpertly rolled into individual pinwheel pizzas, this makes an easy to eat appetizer.

Disregarding the published instructions and going rogue, I debated just topping the rolled-out puff pastry dough and baking it, but in the end I decided to roll it up and slice into pinwheels.  [Add another "p" while I'm at it.]  My slices were a bit squooshy because I again RTFM didn't see Bryn's suggestion to chill the rolled dough for 30 minutes before slicing. Do as I say in the instructions, not as I did.  Had I bought a 3rd box of puff pastry I would need to buy a new freezer to store it I'd carefully remove the package of dough from the box, rip the box to shreds so I'm not tempted to be led astray by the instructions on it, and try the pre chilling method before posting.  But #AppetizerWeek is here, and I wanted to bring you a rare Thursday pizza recipe so you get this after only 2 tries.

A recipe for pepperoni pizza flavor inexpertly rolled into individual pinwheel pizzas, this makes an easy to eat appetizer.

I made this pizza using pickled banana peppers which did not grow in my garden.  [Oh, there were banana pepper plants, 3 of them, planted in my garden.  They produced, over the course of the summer, I think about 5 peppers.  Total. Woot.]  If you prefer pickled jalapeños they'd also be a good combination with pepperoni--we just had that combo on a regular pizza crust last weekend.

If you prefer to avoid pepperoni, tomorrow in my final #AppetizerWeek post I'm sharing a vegetarian puff pastry pizza.  It's topped with roasted garlic oil, caramelized onions, spinach, olives, marinated artichokes, and goat cheese.  But because today's pizza name is such an alliterative mouthful, I'm calling tomorrow's pizza Very Veggie Puff Pastry Pizza Bites.

Visit all the other Appetizer Week blogs for more amazing recipes:

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Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Sriracha Butternut Squash Hummus

Spicy and creamy, this make ahead vegetable appetizer perks up any occasion.
Sriracha Butternut Squash Hummus #Appetizerweek | Farm Fresh Feasts


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I was trying to describe to a friend what a shake of sriracha brings to a dish.
"Well, it's heat.  But with flavor . . .  It doesn't burn your mouth like a really hot pepper, it doesn't numb your mouth like Szechuan peppercorns . . . it's just . . . heat.  But with flavor . . ."
[Clearly I suck at the whole food writing thing. Let me feed you instead.]  When I add a shake of sriracha chili sauce to vegetables, like my Soy Sriracha Roasted Mushrooms, happy things happen.  When Laura adds sriracha to vegetable muffins, StrangeButGood things happen.  I was in an experimental mood when I whipped up this batch of Sriracha Butternut Hummus for #AppetizerWeek.  I'd roasted one of the butternut squash in my Strategic Winter Squash Reserve (link to a photo on my FB page) and used half in Buffalo Butternut Hummus . . . but I had the second half beckoning me to play.

I like playing with the vegetables from my Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm share.  Getting a weekly box of fresh local vegetables means my family is more likely to eat vegetables.  It sounds silly, but just getting the produce into my kitchen is half the battle sometimes.  Figuring out what to do with them?  Well, that's why I created a Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient--so when I've got beets, kale, or peppers I can see several recipes for how to use them and pick which one suits my fancy.  Other folks who enjoy eating from a farm share agree, so I think I'm on the right track.
I've revamped my Visual Recipe Index! For more ideas on what to do with your butternut squash, click here.

Sriracha Butternut Squash Hummus #Appetizerweek | Farm Fresh Feasts

If you are serving vegetarians or vegans I recommend checking your sriracha sauce to make sure it does not contain fish extract, or making Buffalo Butternut Hummus and creating a layered dip to suit your eaters.

Sriracha Butternut Squash Hummus #Appetizerweek | Farm Fresh Feasts

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Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Harvest Sweet Potato Salsa

Roasted sweet potatoes and corn tossed with beans and avocado in an red and green salsa dressing. One of the ways I put up food to eat local all year long.

Harvest Sweet Potato Salsa | Farm Fresh Feasts

When the garden is barren and there's snow falling down is a strange time to talk about harvest and abundant vegetables, no?



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Harvest Sweet Potato Salsa | Farm Fresh Feasts

I think it's exactly the right time.  You see, the vegetables I used in this salsa--the corn, sweet potatoes, tomatoes and tomatillos that is*--came from my Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm share.  George, Mark, Josh and Erik of Patchwork Gardens grew and harvested them, and we got a weekly box of locally-grown vegetables during the growing season.  Once in my kitchen, I performed Vegetable Triage--eating what won't keep, freezing or canning what can be put up, and using a cold corner of my breakfast nook as my Strategic Winter Squash Reserve (link to a photo on my FB page) for the long storage crops.  Even though the fields are brown, we're still eating the fruits of our farmers' labors.


Harvest Sweet Potato Salsa | Farm Fresh Feasts


 If you'd like to know more about where your food is grown, now is the time to research local eating in your area.  Up on the left sidebar is a Local Harvest gadget.  If you're in the US, type in your zip code and see what's available near you.  Signing up with a CSA farm share before the season starts means your farmers will have the funds to purchase or repair equipment like the potato harvester shown here, which harvested the sweet potatoes I used in this salsa.

Roasted sweet potatoes and corn tossed with beans and avocado in an red and green salsa dressing. One of the ways I put up food to eat local all year long.
Photo credit Marguerite Mertz/Patchwork Gardens
*See the avocados in the second photo? Yeah, they sure are not local to Ohio and one of the reasons (along with bananas and salmon, vanilla and chocolate, tea and olive oil) that I will never be a completely local eater.  To me, local food just tastes better (think garden tomato vs store-bought) so I put my efforts into eating local food where I can.  I am fortunate to have a choice where I spend my dollars on food, and I choose to keep my money in my local community when possible.  It's why I started this blog and organized my Visual Recipe Index by produce type--to help other folks eat locally as well.

Harvest Sweet Potato Salsa | Farm Fresh Feasts

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Monday, January 20, 2014

Buffalo Butternut Squash Hummus

Buffalo sauce-seasoned roasted butternut squash hummus makes a spicy vegetable addition to an appetizer spread.

Buffalo Butternut Hummus | Farm Fresh Feasts




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When I think about game day snacks, Buffalo Chicken Dip is high on the list of essentials.  I've made 2 kinds of Buffalo Chicken pizzas (here and here). (My son will even cobble together a dip out of whatever he can find in fridge if I say 'No, I'm blogging about Corn and Black Bean Salsa in Avocado Cups and not making Buffalo dip!').  That's how much we like the flavor.

But what if your guests include vegans or vegetarians?  What if your guests include folks trying to rein in the tendency to overindulge and want more vegetable options?

Buffalo Butternut Hummus | Farm Fresh Feasts


I try to have something for a variety of eating styles on my appetizer spread, and I find I can't go wrong with vegetables.  For #AppetizerWeek I'll be sharing a variety of savory appetizers using seasonal vegetables, starting today with Buffalo Butternut Squash Hummus. Tomorrow I'll share a Harvest Sweet Potato salsa, coming on Wednesday I've got a Sriracha twist on this hummus, then I'll round out the week with a pair of puff pastry pizza appetizers--Pickled Pepper and Pepperoni Puff Pastry Pizza Pinwheels (say that 3x fast) on Thursday and Very Veggie Puff Pastry Pizza Bites on Friday. Whew, what a week!

This Buffalo Butternut Squash Hummus provides the spicy heat from cayenne pepper sauce coupled with the mellow smoothness of roasted butternut squash hummus.  It also makes a terrific base for a layered veggie appetizer in the style of my Five Layer Mediterranean Chicken Dip or Layered Summer Vegetable Appetizer. Customize this hummus any way you like.  Top it with sliced celery, crumbled blue cheese, and even chunks of chicken. Scoop it up with pita chips or celery sticks or pretzels or chicken fries.

The inspiration for this recipe came from my Strategic Winter Squash Reserve (link to the photo on my FB page)  As the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm share season draws to a close, I begin to stockpile winter squash, sweet and white potatoes, onions, and garlic in a cold corner of my breakfast nook.  After all the fresh greens are consumed--and before I turn to the vegetables I've canned or frozen--my SWSR is our source for farm fresh food in the dead of winter.  I started with the hummus recipe from Farmer John's Cookbook: The Real Dirt on Vegetables (Amazon affiliate link) and added my twists based on what I thought my family would enjoy and what we had on hand.

I've revamped my Visual Recipe Index! For more ideas on what to do with your butternut squash, click here. To learn How to Use This Blog, click here. To see what other vegetable happy recipes I've found to pin, follow me on Pinterest. To see behind the scenes of my day, follow me on Instagram. For articles and other things that catch my eye, follow me on Facebook.


Buffalo Butternut Hummus | Farm Fresh Feasts

Visit all the other Appetizer Week participants for more Football Munching Temptations:
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