Pigs in Blankets
This was me today – a piggie in a blanket – wrapped in fleece, zoning out, sipping Belgian chocolate rooibos and eating toast and jam (and later, nachos with chili con queso and chocolate cake) like it was going out of style.
(Wait. Honestly? Does food go so horribly out of style that one might allow trends to dictate their choice of menu? I think not. Then again, there’s tomato aspic and salmon mousse. Then again, they’re not delicious. Some things dated have moved beyond their eras by virtue of their deliciousness. Case in point: those cocktail meatballs with grape jelly and chili sauce. Love them.)
Hey, I just segued right into the subject of 70s cocktail hour – the theme of the birthday party I cooked for last night – without even meaning to. That was easy.
In honour of the 1970s I made devilled eggs, pigs in blankets, meatballs, cocktail wienies, angels on horseback (dates stuffed with Parmesan, wrapped in bacon and baked), fondue – the entire menu was pretty cheeseball. Oh hey, another segue way.
What we have here is a traditional pecan-encrusted cheese ball made with a large tub of spreadable cream cheese (blocks would have been fine, too) and a couple cups of grated cheddar, spiked with a bit of Worcestershire, finely chopped green onion, and S & P.
For the pigs in blankets, I couldn’t bring myself to go so far as to use crescent rolls – I instead mixed up a batch of biscuits, tossing another handful of grated cheddar in with the dry ingredients before adding the milk, then rolled the dough out about 1/2″ thick and cut it into strips, which I wrapped around halved dogs and baked at 350F until golden. We generally aren’t much of a hot dog-eating family (much to W’s utter disappointment – were it up to him they would constitute our breakfast, lunch and dinner), but I’d make these again, next time W requests (read: begs for) them. Mike suggested wrapping the cheesy biscuit dough around pepperoni sticks (like the honey-garlic bison ones from Valta) or smokies, which is a capital idea indeed.
After the party I was not-so-fashionably late for Tonic for a Cause down at Velvet, where I further aggravated my Marge Simpson voice by yelling over the band until the wee hours; and today was a Sunday full of laundry, tidying, haircuts and homework before a belated birthday dinner for my Mom and sister. Dinner: homemade burgers, salad, oven fries and nachos with chili con queso, in honour of the Super Bowl. And chocolate cake – there must be chocolate cake. (I kind of miss keeping you up to date on our dinners. Food seems to have become an afterthought this week. Not so much that I might have forgotten to eat, mind you.)
In other news, I just read another lovely post about the Blog Aid cookbook, and am completely wowed that five minutes ago it was at 1069 copies. I had secretly aimed for 1000, and we blew that number out of the water in only four days. Wow. Just wow.
February 07 2010 | leftovers | 16 Comments »
