Bon Voyage Party Menu

By popular demand, the recipes from my party this weekend to send off my lovely friend moving out west. I will now weep silently in the corner while you peruse these...

Roasted Garlic Dressing/Dip (from Bon Appetit, July 2008)

2 large heads of garlic
2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup greek yogurt (you could also use regular yogurt, buttermilk, or any number fo buttermilk substitutes, even sour cream would probably be good)
1/3 cup coarsely chopped fresh basil

Preheat oven to 400°F. Cut off top 1/2 inch from garlic heads. Place garlic heads on foil, cut sides up. Drizzle each with 1 teaspoon olive oil. Enclose garlic in foil. Roast until soft, about 1 hour. Unwrap; cool. Squeeze garlic from skins into blender. Add mayonnaise and greek yogurt; puree. Add basil; blend until chopped. Season with salt and pepper.

Roasted Eggplant Dip (from Ina Garten)

2 medium eggplants, peeled
1 red bell pepper, seeded
1 red onion, peeled
2 garlic cloves, minced
3 tablespoons good olive oil
kosher salt
black pepper
1 tablespoon tomato paste

Preheat oven to 400. Chop the eggplant, red papers and onion roughly into 1 inch cubes and toss on a cookie sheet with minced garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper. Roast for 45 minutes, tossing once, until the veggies are soft and slightly browned. Cool the veggies and then use a food processor of blender to puree them coarsely. Add the tomato paste and salt and pepper to taste.

Serve with veggies and toasted pita to dip

This is also really lovely as a pizza sauce instead of tomato sauce. You can even use a pita round as a crust, just top it with mozzarella or an Italian cheese blend.

Key Lime Squares

Graham Crackers (2 of the 3 bags in a box of them is enough) or Oreo Cookies (2 ½ rows from a standard package)

1 stick of butter

6 egg yolks (whites not required)

1 cup lime juice (I use Nellie & Joe's Key West Lime Juice, but you can use fresh or any other kind)

2 14 ounce cans sweetened condensed milk

If desired: the zest of a few limes, and whipped cream (cool whip holds up the best but is made of scary things, you be the judge)

Preheat oven to 350. Grease a 9x13 in baking pan. Melt the butter. Crush cookies by hand or in a food processor to a coarse crumble. Add the butter; you can mix with the processor or with your hands this will be the consistency of wet sand. Put the mixture into the prepared pan and spread over the bottom, pressing it down with your hands. Put this crust in the oven for about 20 minutes. Let this cool while you get on with the filling. Mix egg yolks, lime juice and sweetened condensed milk until thoroughly combined; add lime zest to this mixture if you like. Pour over the crust and bake for 20-30 minutes until the custard is set, just jiggle the pan a bit and see if the center looks set. Let this cool on the counter for a while and then refrigerate for at least 2 hours, more is better. You can cover this with whipped cream if you like before you cut it into squares to serve.

Chocolate and Zucchini Cup Cakes, (adapted slightly from Clotilde Dusoulier’s lovely cookbook Chocolate and Zucchini, here is a link to her blog: http://chocolateandzucchini.com/)

2 C all-purpose flour
1/2 C unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 C butter, softened or extra virgin olive oil (I used oil)
1 C light brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp instant coffee granules (the Nescafé type, the stronger the better)-I didn’t have this on hand but I can only imagine this would make it MUCH better
3 eggs, at room temperature
2 C zucchini, unpeeled, grated (two medium)
1 bag chocolate chips (I used milk chocolate)

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line 2 muffin tins with paper liners (this makes about 18 cupcakes)

In a large bowl, whisk together the flours, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt.

In your food processor or mixer, combine the sugar and butter or oil, and mix until fluffy. Add in the vanilla extract and espresso powder, then the eggs, one at a time, mixing thoroughly between each addition.

Spoon in the flour mixture, reserving the last half-cup of it. Mix thoroughly, the batter will be thick.

Add the grated zucchini and 1 cup the chocolate chips to the reserved flour mixture, and toss to coat. Fold in the batter, and blend thoroughly (but don’t over mix!). Use a small ice cream scoop to dish out about 2 small scoops per muffin cup. Then take the rest of the chocolate chips and sprinkle a few on each cup cake.

Bake for about 25-30 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean.

You can top these with a dusting of powdered sugar, they really don’t need any frosting, this is from a girl who really sees cup cakes (as all sane people do) as a vehicle for frosting.