Atomic 60s Part II

As I promised, I’m sharing a few appetizer recipes from our Atomic 60’s party. First, though, I’m going to share a couple other pictures from the party. As usual, I was able to snap a few pictures as the first guests arrived, but once the party got started, I set my camera down and didn’t pick it up again until much later. I missed a bunch of good pictures trying to be a good hostess. Who knows, maybe someday I’ll just decide I want to be a good photographer!

I love how everyone got into the theme of the party this year.

Our party-planning group.

Les and I

Looks like girl's night!

Shannon in a great outfit!

Brian mixing up drinks.

Sandy made Date and Linguica Rumaki for the party, and I think this was one of our appetizer stars! It is such a tasty and fun vintage appetizer

Date and Linguica Rumaki
Printable Recipe
Madjool Dates, pitted
Linguica Sausage, sliced in fat matchsticks
Bacon, sliced in half crosswise

Stuff the madjool dates with a slice of linguica. Wrap the date with the slice of bacon and secure with a toothpick. Place on a broiler pan and bake in a 350° oven for 20 to 30 minutes or until the bacon is fully cooked. Serve warm or at room temperature.

The cheese ball recipe was handed down to me from my mom, and like the grasshopper pie, I’m sure it was actually served in the 60s. I make this cheese ball about once a year for some party or get together. Everyone always loves it, and it brings back  childhood memories for me. I even remember the wooden platter my mom served the cheese ball on.

Cheese Ball
Printable Recipe
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
½ cup unsalted butter, softened
4 oz. blue cheese, at room temperature
¼ cup chopped green onions, whites and light green parts only
1½ cups chopped walnuts

Mix together cream cheese, butter, blue cheese and green onions until fully combined. Shape into a ball and roll in the chopped walnuts. Serve with butter crackers like Ritz.

A friend gave me this crab corner recipe after she served them at a party I attended. I’ve lost touch with this friend, but she photo-copied the recipe, so I know she got it from Pauli Powers. Thank you Pauli Powers whoever you are. You came up with a great cheesy do-ahead crab recipe. I made these the week before the party, and I cooked them right before serving them. Crab Corners were easy and popular with our guests.

Crab Corners
Printable Recipe
4 English muffins, split in half
1 can crab
1 jar Old English cheese
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
1 teaspoon garlic salt
½ cup butter
dash of Tabasco sauce

Mix together the crab, old English cheese, mayonnaise, garlic salt, butter and Tabasco sauce. Spread crab mixture on the English muffin halves. Place muffins on a sheet pan, and put the sheet pan in the freezer until the muffins are fully frozen, about 4 hours or overnight. Remove from the freeze and cut the muffin halves into quarters. Place muffin quarters in plastic freezer bags and back into the freezer until ready to bake.

To Bake: Preheat the oven to 450°F. Place frozen crab corners onto a sheet pan, and bake for 10 minutes or until they are golden brown and bubbly.

Dessert First

We held our yearly school fundraiser a couple of weeks ago.  Les and I, with two other couples, offered spots to our cocktail party during the school’s silent auction.  The first two years we had a tiki party at our house, and for the last two years, we had “A Fistful of Cocktails” at Sandy and Brian’s place.  David and Paula bowed out this year, since it was just too much with David’s travel schedule.  We suckered talked Kevin and Suzanne into joining us this year.

The theme for our party this year was Atomic 60s!  What is Atomic 60s?  We defined Atomic 60s as the early 60s before the hippy movement started.  Think Mad Men.  We had a great time planning this party.  We kept to traditional cocktails like Screwdrivers and Cuba Libres, but it wouldn’t be an Atomic 60s party without Martinis! We served gin and vodka martinis (We also served flavored martinis. Flavored martinis weren’t period, but we were trying to make our modern guests happy.)
We researched party food appetizers from the 60s, and to shake the party up a bit, we set chairs and coffee tables up living room style (we even dragged an old sofa out to the pool deck).  Some of the seating areas had fire pits instead of coffee tables.  The evening got a bit cool, so the fire pits were very popular.  Les also pulled out our teardrop trailer and pink flamingos for fun props.

The guys wore short-sleeved white dress shirts and skinny ties on party night.  Sandy, Suzanne and I all dressed up in little black dresses, and we tried to do our hair and make-up in an early 60s style.  I cheated a little by having my make-up done at Beauty 360, and the girl doing my make-up did a great job.  I looked a little like Shirley McClain!  I was most impressed by the guests who came dressed up in a 60s style. Having them participate made everything more fun!

 

We served some fun appetizers and I will share the recipes later.  When it came to dessert, we decided to make Bundt and pineapple upside-down cakes and a Jell-O mold.  I was trying to decide what type of Bundt cake to make, when inspiration hit, and I remembered my mom serving grasshopper pie at some of her parties.   I also remember I wasn’t allowed to have a piece of her pie since it had alcohol in it.   I did some research on traditional grasshopper pies, and I tried three different recipes using three different techniques. My family was happy to taste test grasshopper pie recipes for me (I obviously am not as squeamish as my mom)!   I settled on a recipe using marshmallows to stabilize the filling.  I liked the taste and texture of the marshmallow mixture the best.  The filling was fluffy and taste was crisp with mint.  And, if you can believe it, I found my mom’s recipe after I had done all the testing.  Which one did she use?  The marshmallow pie of course!  Here is my mom’s recipe for Grasshopper Pie.

Grasshopper Pie

Printable Recipe 

20 Chocolate sandwich cookies

3 Tablespoons butter, melted

½ cup milk

3 cups miniature marshmallows

¼ cup crème de menthe

¼ cup clear crème de cacao

1 ½ cups whipping cream

Preheat the oven to 350°F

Place cookies in the bowl of a food processor and pulse until the cookies are ground to a fine crumb.  Pour in the melted butter and pulse until combined.  Press the cookie mixture into a 9-inch pie plate.  Bake the crust for 10 minutes.  Remove from the oven and cool completely.

Heat the milk and the marshmallows in a small saucepan until the marshmallows are melted.  Pour into a large bowl and cool completely.  Once the mixture is cool, add the crème de menthe and crème de cacao.

In a medium bowl, beat the whipping cream until stiff peaks form.  Fold the whipped cream into the marshmallow mixture and pour onto the cooled cookie crust.  Freeze for at least 4 hours or overnight.  Remove from freezer 10 minutes prior to serving. 

White Bean and Fennel Crostini

I had some girl friends over for a jewelry party on Friday night.  Jewelry has now joined the likes of Tupperware, Pampered Chef and a host of other products offered as a in-home sales product.  A friend of mine is stylist for one of these jewelry companies, and I promised her I would host a party.  You know me; I’m always up for hosting a party, and helping Joanne was a great excuse for a party!

I had to make this party easy on myself since I chose to have the party on what seemed to be the busiest week I’ve had since before summer ended.  I served some easy pre-made appetizers, but I knew I needed to add at least one homemade appetizer. 

I had made this White Bean and Fennel Crostini a couple of weeks ago as a test for my family.  Everyone liked the appetizer, but my son loved it.  He kept coming back for more saying, “This bread stuff is really good!”  High praise!  The white bean spread tastes a little like aioli without the extra fat, so it fits right into our new way of eating, and I knew my girl friends would appreciate a healthy option.

White Bean and Fennel Crostini

Adapted from Fresh & Fast Vegetarian by Marie Simmons

Printable Recipe

1 clove garlic

1 teaspoon fennel seed

kosher salt

1 15 ounce can cannellini beans

¼ cup extra virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling

¼ cup minced red onion

1 tablespoon red wine vinegar

Freshly ground black pepper

1 baguette, sliced and toasted

2 tablespoons fresh rosemary, snipped

Combine garlic, fennel seed with ½ teaspoon salt in a mortar and crush into a paste with the pestle.  If you don’t have a mortar and pestle, you can finely chop the garlic and the fennel and combine with the salt and crush with the back of your knife to create a paste.

Combine the garlic mixture, white beans and olive oil into the bowl of a food processor and blend into a course puree.  Add the red onion, vinegar and ¼ teaspoon of freshly ground black pepper.  Add more salt if needed.

Spread each toast piece with the white bean mixture and top with rosemary and a drizzling of olive oil. Serve.