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Friday, July 3, 2009

Cucumber Cool

My niece Carrie and her husband Al are hosting a Fourth of July wing-ding at their house tomorrow. Carrie is blessedly calm, cool and collected when it comes to her role as hostess. I want to study her, learn her secrets and find a way to be as relaxed as she is when hordes of relatives come pouring over the threshold!

I spent today dicing, slicing, chopping, simmering and baking. Now the cooking is done! Al and Carrie will be grilling the hot dogs and hamburgers and Carrie left the rest of the menu up to her guests’ discretion. See what I mean? Cool as a cucumber she is! Speaking of cucumbers, I made a big pot of my Gazpacho this afternoon. I played with it a bit by adding some fire roasted tomatoes and a dash of chipotle powder.

I also made some Southwestern influenced appetizers. I used Wendy in Scotland’s recipe for Black Bean and Sweet Potato Burritos as the springboard. But instead of full sized burritos, I used wonton wrappers to create tiny two bite portions. I’ve used the same technique for mini-quiches. I took the square wonton wrappers and gently pushed them into the greased wells of a mini-muffin tin. Then I added a heaping teaspoonful of the burrito filling into the wrapper. Lastly, I put a little piece of sharp cheddar cheese on top of the filling. I popped them into the oven at 350-375 degrees Fahrenheit (175-190 Celsius) for about ten to fifteen minutes or until they look bubbly and golden.

I hope that all of you celebrating Independence Day tomorrow have a storm free, blue sky day. Most importantly, I hope you have a safe and happy holiday weekend!

Here's one batch cooling on the rack.

4 comments:

Ms Brown Mouse said...

yummy.

Pinky's Pages said...

Happy 4th of July/Independence Day!!! Hope you, Chuck & family are having a lovely long weekend :) Hugs, xx

Anonymous said...

Thanks for a great 4th of July...the black bean sweet potatoes were delicious Carrie

Pink Granite said...

Hi DMM - Yummy they were, even if I do say so myself!
;o)
- Lee


Hi Lailaa -
Thank you so much for the good wishes!
We had an excellent weekend with family, froends and fireworks!
;o)
- Lee


Hi Carrie -
Thanks for the unsolicited testimonial!
And many thanks to you and Al for an awesome day - and night!
;o)
- A.L.