Orange Mascarpone Filled Dates

The Superbowl is over, but apparently the Superbowl appetizer posts aren’t. I’ve made these twice now, once for New Years, once for the Superbowl, and they’re great. Actually, I must admit: I came up with the idea, but my friend’s 15 year old daughter Mary made them. And did a great job!

First you start by making the filling. Take a small container of mascarpone and scoop it into a bowl. Mix in the zest of an orange, half of the juice of the orange, and a teaspoon of ground cardamom.

Split open a date, and spoon a little of the filling into it.

 

BBQ Chicken Pizza

The Superbowl fast approaches, and with it, one of my favorite culinary events of the year. Last weekend I tested a new recipe that I plan to cook on Sunday, and here it is: Oven baked bbq chicken mini-pizzas with ancho chile bbq sauce.

You start by cooking and shredding a package of boneless chicken breasts. I skipped photos of this step, because I figure you all know how to do something that simple. I cooked mine on a george foreman, but you can grill them on the bbq, on the stovetop, even *shudder* boil them. I’m not a fan of boiling much, because it takes a lot of the flavor out of the chicken, but go ahead if you want to. As for shredding, the trusty website Lifehacker has a great article on shredding chicken in a stand mixer.

Once you have your shredded chicken, dice up half of a red onion, chop up a few slices of bacon (it’s the Superbowl, everything needs more bacon), and a cup of your favorite bbq sauce (I recommend this ancho chile sauce), and mix them together in a large bowl.

You can tell I mixed the sauce with just the chicken first, but either way is fine. Next, roll out some puff pastry dough, and cut into small circles. I used an old (aka bent to a weird oval shape) souffle ring, but anything about two inches circular will work. Heck, the top of a pint glass will do in a pinch. Place the dough on a baking sheet, spread some extra bbq sauce over them, hen top each mini pizza with the chicken mixture, and sprinkle grated cheese (I used pepperjack, but cheddar or parmesean would also work well).

 

Chorizo Fillo Shells

Tonight I had a few friends over for dinner, and whipped up a new appetizer and thought I’d share. The idea of it is chorizo (though I used vegetarian-friendly soy chorizo), mixed with some cream cheese for creaminess, pepperjack for cheesy spiciness, and salsa for a bit of tomato and extra spice. Then for a container, I decided on stuffing won-ton wrappers, but couldn’t find any, so got phyllo (fillo?) shells.

So, to start: brown the meat, or fry the soy fake stuff in a bit of oil and get it hot.

Then add the cream cheese, pepperjack cheese, and salsa over low heat and stir until melted.