Jazz Festival Open House

My sister was nice enough to host an open house for the Beaches Jazz Festival. When my parents lived there we could always make a fun night of it, as its better when you have a home base. This year my sister had an afternoon event, with everyone heading down in the evening. Unfortunately it rained quite hard in the afternoon, but luckily it cleared up for the evening portion.

Of course i offered to make a food contribution for the event - since it was a drop in there was no need to make anything too intricate, so i settled with some dips. I have a great and super easy seven layer dip that people like so i thought i would make that for sure, but for the second i wanted to do something i had never done before/.

A few weeks before my friend Melanie had done a hot crab dip that went over well, so i texted her and got the recipe. It was really easy and definitely a crowd pleaser! Its originally from Epicurious - Hot Crab Dip. I did of course make a few alernations - i used shallots instead of onions, and used reduce fat cream cheese, half sour cream/half mayo.

Seven layer ingredients

The layers:

Salsa
Re-fried Beans
tomatoes, onions and jalepnos
guacamole (okay this is a layer in itself)
sour cream
lettuce
cheese
I top it off with the left-over tomatoes and onions.

Wrapped and Ready to go

The spread (yeah that's a sushi boat)

Some of the desserts

Fish and Chicken Tacos

Reading this, you've probably become aware of my love of the fish tacos. There were a number of us up at the cottage, along with some eating rules (of which i am totally guilty) so i thought that tacos, which are always great with a crowd would be a good option. Everyone can make there own and have as many as they want.

In order to create a little variety i also did chicken as a filling. I have never cooked chicken, so instead i took the easy route and bought one of those whole roasted chickens at the grocery store. This saved me cooking chicken and poisoning everyone, and it saved a bit of time in the kitchen, because honestly i would rather be outside on a beautiful day. Luckily Jen volunteered to take the meat off the chicken - so i got to escape handling the chicken all together!!

For the fish i just used some frozen tempura breaded haddock - the full filets and heated them up in the oven. I've made them from scratch, and really they weren't that much better - and at the cottage you don't really want to be slaving away, especially on a nice day - so frozen filets it was!

I wanted to make a few different dips or salsas so everyone could combine their own flavours and make their own meals. One of the things i made was a roasted pineapple and jalapeno salsa, so while the boys were bbqing their sausages for lunch i had them put on my veggies to roast them. I always like to make my dips in advance (except for guac) so that the flavours really combine and they create more of a liquid.

Along with the roasted pineapple and jalapeno dip, i also made my feta, corn and tomato dip which is always super popular. This time i roasted the corn for the dip instead of using canned corn. I think this would be better with peaches and cream or a corn with larger niblets, as they seemed a little anemic, but the dip was still awesome! Of course i also made a guacamole - this one was a little more rustic, but avocados are essential to fish tacos.

Chips and Dips

The spread

Good Friday Dinner Part 3 - the sides

As i've already told you - Jarred and I really cheffed it up on Good Friday, and along with the burgers, fries, grilled veggies and Apricot tart i also made a caesar salad and a selection of dips (or for some burger toppings). I used to, many moons ago, work for a great caterer who always did an amazing bread and dip station that was so lovely and a total crowd pleaser. This was my inspiration for the dips. I made a guacamole, a bruschetta-esq topping, sauteed some finely diced mushrooms, onions and garlic and there was some hummus in the fridge

I had also gotten it into my head to make a caesar salad - of course it turned out that we didn't have a number of the usual ingredients - red wine vinegar, worschester sauce or anchovies - or a blender, so i had to do some improvising. I had always seen on cooking shows people making their salad dressings in mason jars and shaking them vigorously - i used to be a bartender so i used my skills from making martinis to blend the dressing. I also mixed white vinegar and balsamic to replae the red wine. I am the Macgiver of cooking!

I used the baguette that i purchased at Ma Maison, which was phenominal by the way, to make the crostini for the dips. The baguette was quite slender, so sliced them on the bias into small thin pieces. Unfortuantly, as i mentioned, the knives left something to be desired, so this was something of a challenge. Once cut, i lightly seasoned them and brushed them with olive oil and put them into the oven. They came out really well, and i will definitely be going back there to get more Baguettes.

And there is the final installment of the Good Friday Meal - told you it was epic!

Dips for Football munching

In honour of the SuperBowl i thought i would write about a few of the things i make for snacking during the game or a party. They are both pretty easy to make and i always notice they get devoured. I try and make things a little on the healthy side, but what really determines that is not the dips themselves, but what you use to scoop them up. Baked chips and vegetables are a good way of making things a little healthier, but lets be honest, sometimes you just gotta dig in!

Once of my favorite things to make is guacamole, i make mine fresh, a little spicy and full of different ingredients. Generally i use a lot of lime juice, one per avocado depending on how juicy they are. This may seem like a lot, but since i add quite a few tomatoes i think it balances out. One of the things i do when adding tomatoes is using grape, or smaller ones as you don't want them too watery. I also put in red onions, jalapeno, chopped cilantro and lots of fresh pepper. Depending on the crowd i might add a few dashes of hot sauce.

Another tasty and healthy dip i like to make is a Tomato, Corn and Feta Salsa that really you could almost eat as a salad if you were inclined. This one i first had in Vancouver a number of years ago and have been making it ever since. The ingredients don't sound that good together, but this dip is addictive and simple, and as long as you eat it with something healthy, its probably not bad for you.

I use a can of corn (the low sodium kind), diced plum tomatoes (usually 3) - in this case you want them to be juicy as it makes even better. I then add red onions and jalapenos to taste - obviously if you don't like bite use these ingredients more sparingly, but i don't suggest to omit them all together, the contrast is good. The final, and surprise ingredient is feta cheese! I know this sounds a little weird, but use approximately 1/3 to 1/2 a cup of light feta - crumble and stir it in. This dip is actually better the second day. Serve with scoops, as they are better for getting all the goodness on the chip.

Above:

Dips with scoops
Guacamole ingredients chopped and ready
Tomato, corn feta ingredients
Tomato corn in scoops
Guac ingredients