One of my favorite parts of this time of year is kicking off grilling season; there is no better way to quickly pull together a tasty dinner or quick appetizer! My friends at Martha Stewart Living challenged me this grilling season to think beyond the cheese board and create a delicious grilling recipe with one of my favorite entertaining staples: Boursin® Cheese. With Memorial Day coming up, I’ve been thinking about tasty party dishes that bring in bright fresh ingredients, and this was the perfect opportunity to create a new recipe for my holiday weekend menu.
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Recently I made a big batch of roasted chickpeas using this peppery new seasoning I got for my birthday and served them on top of a chicken and rice dish. Since then I’ve been dreaming up ways to add them to other meals. My newfound love for these spicy little legumes inspired a pretty appetizer idea that is a perfect addition to my Oscars viewing party menu: Roasted Chickpea and Hummus Cups. 
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Puff pastry has to be my all-time favorite entertaining secret! I always keep some in the freezer and you can pull it out to make an endless combination of easy desserts, brunch treats, and appetizers. I was brainstorming some new appetizers to make for the Oscars next Sunday night, and I always love to include a puff pastry snack (because you know all of those skinny actresses LOVE buttery, flaky pastry dough — ha!). This puff pastry creation has just 5 ingredients: asparagus, prosciutto, black pepper, and an egg wash over that buttery, rich dough. Check your frozen puff pastry’s ingredients for real butter and you’ll know it’s the good stuff, it makes a huge difference when you bake these these savory little snacks off for your celebration. Get the full recipe below: 
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I have been filling your feeds with delicious, indulgent, and yes, high-calorie snacks for the Super Bowl next weekend. We’ve made pizza muffins, flavorful queso, and loaded potato skins on latkes! I have one more recipe to add to the menu: Buffalo Chicken Meatballs. These spicy little meatballs are made with ground chicken and carrots and are baked in the oven; I won’t go so far as to say they’re healthy, but they’re a great option to add to your game day menu as an option for guests who are watching their calories. I’ve been making these recently not just as an appetizer, but also as an easy dinner served over broccoli and rice or even on a salad with some crumbled blue cheese on top. The recipe easily doubles, and you can make them in advance — just throw them in a saucepan over low heat to bring them up to temperature. Get the full recipe below: 
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If you are still on track with your healthy-eating New Year’s resolutions, you might want to look away. I have a new recipe for your Super Bowl menu that is rich and cheesy and full of flavor and spice: Green Chili Corn Queso Dip. It is the easiest thing in the world to make — you just combine all of the ingredients in a small pot and simmer them until they’re melted together. The queso gets tons of flavor from chopped green chilies, and delicious texture from folding in corn salsa. You can control the heat and add jalapeños to the mix too — depending how much your snack audience likes spice! I served this to my family when they were visiting recently and we used a variety of items to dip: salty blue corn chips, Trader Joe’s cornbread crisps, and soft pretzel bites (I got these at Wegmans — they were my favorite!). Get the full recipe below:
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I always get asked by people: “what do you do with all of the food you photograph?” The answer is almost always: we eat it! I try to test a lot of my dinner recipes in the afternoon so I can photograph them and then reheat for dinner. If I’m working on bigger event-spreads, I try to make them on the weekends so I can invite family over to taste test and share in the photoshoot-feasting. I was testing recipes for the Super Bowl the same weekend as Jane’s birthday party, and decided to give this recipe a whirl so we could also serve it at the celebration. They’re just about the most toddler-friendly Super Bowl snack I could think of — we called them Pizza Muffins. They’re tiny, handheld, and filled with warm cheese, mini pepperoni, and a touch of tomato sauce. The kids loved them and the adults gobbled them up. The best part is that they were so quick and easy to make, we whipped up a fresh batch the following day too! These are going to be a favorite in our Super Bowl snack menu and at toddler parties in the future. Get the full recipe below:
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We are all camped out on the couch this afternoon, recovering from Jane’s birthday party and ready for relaxation and non-stop football watching. One of my favorite football snacks is a loaded potato skin — I’m always on board for potatoes topped with cheese and sour cream — but they can take awhile to make. I have been brainstorming some new recipes for my Super Bowl menu and this is my new shortcut for all of that loaded potato skin flavor in half the time.
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I have been scribbling a long shopping list and menu ideas this week to prepare for our Christmas Eve dinner at my parents house! I’m making some recipes from my cookbook (the penne a la vodka in the Christmas chapter was requested), but I always love to mix in some new dishes too. I decided to upgrade my cheese plate with a dressed up goat cheese spread; it’s easy to make ahead of time and store in the fridge until you’re ready to serve. It’s dotted with sweet candied pecans and dried fruit, and gets tons of seasonal flavors from fresh rosemary and thyme. I liked how pretty it looks with the colorful flecks in the cheese, and I garnished it for the holidays with a little wreath of rosemary sprigs around the base and a small sprig on top with dried cranberries to look like holly! Get the full recipe below: 
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I have a super easy appetizer idea for your holiday celebrations today: Butternut Squash and Ricotta Crostini. It takes just a few simple ingredients to put this together; sweet roasted cubes of butternut squash, creamy whole milk ricotta, and crusty toasted slices of bread. Then these little bites are finished off with a garnish of chopped fresh sage and the star ingredient: a sprinkle of Sel Marin. Louis Sel is the most delicious sea salt blended with provencal herbs. A good friend of mine, Karen, found out about this amazing salt at a Parisian food fair and could never quite find something similar back here at home. She decided to bring Louis Sel to the US and I’m so glad she did because now I put it on everything (I call it magic salt, because it magically makes me crave vegetables when I add it on top of a dish!). If you have any foodie friends or family, it would make a lovely holiday gift (maybe pair it with a nice cookbook, I have one you might like, wink wink!). Or grab some for yourself and get making this tasty appetizer for the holidays — full recipe below:
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This is my season to shine! I love coming up with new recipes for the holiday season, and this year I have so many fun ones to share. When I’m brainstorming recipes ideas I’m always thinking about how I can create tasty dishes that can be prepped ahead of time. While I love cooking for friends and family, I also like to actually hang out with them too and don’t want to spend the whole time they’reover in the kitchen. Today’s holiday appetizer idea is a Garlic and Herb Crab Pinwheel – it’s very easy to prepare, and you can make most of the recipe in advance; just slice and bake when you’re ready to serve them!
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