Halloween Dinner

Chocolate Wasted Cake

Halloween is, hands down, my favorite holiday.  I had a few larger parties for a couple of years, but Michael and I (mostly Michael) are too uptight about cleanliness and there was just too much glitter left everywhere.  So I switched to a small dinner party.  We like this much better - I can create a more focused menu and we can really catch up with our friends.

I like to try to create “dark” menus, but not too kitchy - just a little kitchy.  This year the menu was:
Appetizers:
- blue cheese spread with rosemary crackers
- guacamole with black beans (and chips)
- grapes with cheddar cheese and garlic and olive oil crackers (all bought)
Starter:
- french onion soup with rye bread and humbolt fog blue cheese
Main dishes:
- caramelized brussels sprouts with croutons and bacon
- balsamic roasted chicken
Dessert:
- chocolate wasted cake
Drink:
- autumn sangria

I was pretty happy with most of it.  The appetizers especially - the rosemary and parm crackers were super yummy.  And I used my halloween cookie cutters to cut them into pumpkins and bats.  The blue cheese spread was good, but strong and would’ve been better for a larger party.

Rosemary and Parmesan Crackers in Halloween shapes

Blue Cheese Spread

The guacamole was incredibly good!  I think I may use this as my go to guacamole recipe.  It’s a bit soupy because it was supposed to be “swamp like”, but the extra lime and black beans added such a depth of flavor.  Plus, it never turned brown!

Guacamole with Black Beans

I liked the soup, but I didn’t find it all that special.  It was a basic french onion soup.  I did like it with the rye bread.  The cheese I got was a goat blue and I felt the flavors went really well together.

French Onion soup with rye bread and goat cheese

For the main dishes I made caramelized brussels sprouts (see my previous post regarding my love of fall veggies) and Balsamic Roasted Chicken.  The brussels sprouts dish had promise, but it just didn’t quite deliver what I wanted.  I think I should’ve roasted the sprouts longer as they just weren’t caramelized enough for me.  Or maybe added some maple syrup.  And I would definitely use less bread next time.  I was in love with the bread idea and added WAY more than the recipe called for.  Next time - just stick to the recipe.

Caramelized Brussels Sprouts

The chicken was pretty tasty.  I used drumsticks and wings so that people could choose white or dark meat.  It was just slightly too dry I think - I still don’t have the cooking chicken thing down yet.  I always overcook it.  But the sauce was yummy and served on the side, made for a great sauce - all dark, thick and oozy.  The best part was the next day I shredded all the chicken off the bones and we ate it on sandwiches with the sauce.  That was super yummy!

For a drink I made an autumn sangria and I have to say, this was one of my favorites of the night.  I wasn’t sure if I would like it cause I’ve never been a huge sangria fan, but this was tasty.  We used all the fruits listed in the recipe and Marc Cellars Pinot Noir and Central Market’s sparkling pear and apple juice.  It was sweet and refreshing and tasted very fall.

Autumn Sangria

And finally.. the cake.  This was the first recipe I decided on.  It was going to be my halloween party cake since I first pinned it in way back in like February.  And let me just say, it did not disappoint!  I wasn’t sure about the actual cake part since when I read the recipe there were no eggs - which I thought odd, but it was really, really good!  Almost like a brownie, but not overly sweet, which was good considering the rest of the stuff on the cake.  I forgot to drizzle it with liquor, which I can only imagine would have made it even better.  But like I said, it was fantastic and moist on it’s own.  And I added a layer of caramel to the middle since I knew I would be using Twix and I wanted to connect everything.  For the top I added Butterfingers, KitKat, Twix, Hershey’s miniatures, Reese’s Pieces, and Ghirardelli 60% dark chocolate chips.  And thanks to Patti at PattiCakes for the most delicious chocolate frosting ever.  Her frosting is so good, I thought ‘why try to make it myself, just get some of Patti’s!’  The cake is hard to cut, but it doesn’t really matter.  Everything tastes better all piled together anyway.  But it is a sugar rush!  I had SO much energy after my piece I made everyone play Just Dance for a few minutes.  :)  The energy was helpful though when I needed to clean up after everyone left.  If you’re a candy fan, I would highly recommend trying this cake, just once.  It’s just so decadent and fun!

Chocolate Wasted Cake

Recipe Recreations...

This weekend I decided to recreate a couple of the dishes I loved at Poppy in Seattle.  Particularly the Crab, Avocado & Grapefruit Salad and the Eggplant fries.

First, the eggplant fries...
I was a bit nervous to try these because I don’t love eggplant - but I did love these at Poppy and I felt like I could make it work.  Also, I knew I wanted to bake them since I wanted them to be healthier and frying is just messy.  I found this recipe and felt it came close to what I was wanting.  It was a good start but I had to change it quite a bit.

I had also considered doing 2 batches - one just like the recipe and one where I dessicated the eggplant.  But the more I looked at recipes, no one was using the desiccation technique, so I decided it wasn’t worth it.

Initially I tried exactly what the recipe called for but it just didn’t work.  The eggplant is too slick and wet and the panko and breadcrumb mixture didn’t stick at all.  Michael suggested removing the “fries” and wiping them clean and then coating them in flour first.  That seemed to work at first, but when I got to the breadcrumb step again, still nothing stuck.  So I decided to start over entirely.  Luckily, I had planned to only use ½ the eggplant, so I had the other half to try some adjustments.

I got rid of everything and started from scratch.  After slicing the eggplant, I coated the fries in flour, then coated them in 2 WHOLE eggs, not just egg white.  I want them to be as low-cal as possible, but I just don’t think the egg whites have enough binder.  Then I coated them in the panko mixture and it worked perfectly.  I cooked them for about 12 mins and they were perfectly crisp and tasty.  And then, with the honey, they were ooey, gooey yumminess.  Truly a perfect sub for fries.

Some notes:
Pre-coat with flour (possibly add salt to flour)
Use whole eggs (may not need to do this - when I make these again I will try just the whites to make sure)
More salt in bread crumbs, plus add herbs
Maybe drizzle with olive oil before going in oven - the Poppy fries were more luscious (but I also think theirs were actually fried)
Michael suggested taking the skin off the eggplant, but it didn’t bother me

Eggplant Fries

Makes about 60-70 fries

Ingredients:

1/2 large Eggplant, sliced into thin strips

1/4 cup Flour

1 cup Panko

1/2 cup Plain Bread Crumbs

Seasonings - I used garlic salt, paprika, & cinnamon (but I would add Herbs and more salt next time)

2 Whole Eggs

2 Tbsp Honey

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400. 

Slice your eggplant into very thin strips.

Put flour in ziploc bag.

Whisk two eggs in a medium-large bowl. 

Add 2 cups panko, 1 cup plain bread crumbs and seasonings to a ziploc bag and shake.

Place a handful of your raw eggplant fries into the bag of flour and shake to coat.

Then transfer to bowl with the eggs and coat well.

Place egg coated eggplant fries into the panko/bread crumb mixture and shake all around to coat the fries with the mixture.

Place your coated eggplant fries onto your pan (not overlapping) and cook about 10-12 minutes, or until browned and crispy. 

Once out of the oven, sprinkle with kosher salt.

Serve immediately with your favorite dipping sauce - I drizzled them with honey

Nutrition Facts: Serving Size - 12 fries; Calories 168; Total Fat 2.67g; Sodium 167.28mg; Total Carbohydrate 30.47g; Sugars 2.8g; Protein 5.8g

------------

Then I made the Crab, Avocado, Hearts of Palm & Grapefruit Salad.  I just made this up from what I remembered.  Obviously I knew the main ingredients, but I couldn’t remember if there were greens and if there were, I didn’t know what kind.  I decided I wanted some kind of green.  I wanted to use watercress because I thought their delicateness would be a perfect compliment.  But I couldn’t find any, so I went with arugula because it’s my favorite green right now.

Then there was the dressing.  Again, I couldn’t really remember what they had, but I seem to recall a citrusy quality.  I went with grapefruit juice, lemon juice, apple cider vinegar, honey, salt and a little, really good olive oil.  I was super happy with this and may use it on other salads!

Also, we tried to be thrifty and bought claw meat - being from New Orleans we both love the claw meat, but for this salad, you really need the clean, fresh flavor of the lump.  And, ideally, the freshest crab possible.

Overall it was quite yummy - very light and full of citrus flavor, which makes it a perfect spring salad.  Honestly, you could leave the crab off entirely and it would be a good, inexpensive, weeknight salad.

Some notes:
Use fresh, good quality, lump crab meat
Loved everything else, especially the dressing
Would like to try it with watercress

Crab, Avocado, Hearts of Palm and Grapefruit Salad
Makes 2 salads


Ingredients:

For Salad:

2 cups Arugula Or Watercress

¼ Avocados, diced very small

4 - 6 Tbsp Lump Crab Meat, separated into chunks

2 stalks Hearts Of Palm, sliced finely

½ Grapefruit, separated into segments

For Dressing:

2 Tbsp Olive Oil

2 Tbsp Grapefruit Juice

1 tsp Lemon Juice

2 Tbsp Honey

⅛ cup Apple Cider Vinegar

¼ tsp Salt

Directions:

For the dressing: whisk all ingredients together in a bowl and set aside.  (note: this makes more than the 2 salads, so you can save what's left for other salads)

For the salad:

Place 1 cup arugula in a bowl

Add 1 Tbsp diced avocado (about ¼ of ½ avocado)

Add 2 - 4 Tbsp crab

Add 1 stalk, sliced hearts of palm

Add 4 grapefruit segments

Cover with 2-3 tbsp of the dressing and mix gently with fingers to keep everything from breaking apart

Serve

Repeat for second salad.


Nutrition Facts:
Salad: Calories - 68; Total Fat - 4.4g; Sodium - 170mg; Sugars - 2.8g; Protein - 2.6g
Dressing: Calories - 40; Total Fat - 2.7g; Sodium - 58mg; Sugars - 3.7g; Protein - 0