Tag Archives: finger foods

A New Holiday Party Idea for your New Year’s Celebration

December 14, 2017 Fran Comment

Start a new tradition for ringing in the New Year with an Open House!

One of the best times of the year to have a party is New Year’s Day. I’m not talking about New Year’s Eve – the one that goes on until well past the stroke of midnight. Although THOSE parties can be lots of fun. I should know, I’ve hosted them for years, but they’re also a lot of work for the host.

There are so many ways to enjoy New Years. I know a lot of people who like to stay off the roads on New Year’s Eve – and for good reason: traffic, parking, drunks – just to name a few of the typical hassles. And, because of those reasons, many people have started some very lovely family traditions of ringing in the New Year from home.

One friend is a “Tubist.” Yep, he plays tuba for a living. He used to play at Disneyland, and once played for the LA Philharmonic Orchestra. His New Year’s tradition is to serenade his neighborhood with Auld Lang Syne right at midnight. I’ve heard that his neighbors come outside to applaud and cheer when he’s done.

But, what I’m talking about is a party ON New Year’s Day. Picture a new tradition, an Open House on New Year’s Day. Invite people to come and go when they want. They can get there early for the Rose Parade, or crawl in at the second half of the Rose Bowl game.

The key to the idea is “keep it easy.” If you’ve ever been out late New Year’s Eve, you know what I mean. You don’t want to have to “seriously entertain” bright and early the next day. But maybe, you’d love to drop by a friend’s home for a quiet(ish) morning(ish) get together.

Serve food that can be out all day so that people can come at different times. For the early arrivals have trays out with your favorite selections from your local deli: bagels, lox, cream cheese, capers, thinly sliced onion, and so on. Make sure that there’s a fresh pot of coffee and juice for those early birds.

And how about some easy finger food and snacks? I keep these near the entertainment center for my guests to munch on during the games.

One of my favorites is this Sweet and Spicy Pretzel and Nut Mix from one of my favorite food websites, Food52. A bowl of these will be on my coffee table this year.

I’ll also have a big pot of hearty Turkey Chili. This is another great recipe from Food52. You can easily cook it up the day before so that all you have to do is put it on the stove (or in your cooker set to the lowest temp).

Set the chili out with all of the toppings – sour cream, chopped red onion, shredded cheddar cheese, and salsa (of course). My favorite salsa is Salsa Casera from Herdez, which is great with anything. And don’t forget some cornbread from the market and a simple green salad.

This could be the start of a new tradition at your home: entertaining friends and family on New Year’s Day. All you have to do is sit back, relax, and enjoy the parade and then all the football games!

Home Entertaining, Kitchen Hacks, Lifestyle

Holiday Appetizers: hors d’oeuvres and finger foods, yum!

December 7, 2017 Fran Comment

Tips for making your holiday appetizers truly appealing.

Planning a holiday party? Start with all the ones you’ve seen – the good, the bad, and the ugly. Why remember the bad and the ugly? Because, we don’t want to do that!

The best ones, I’m sure you’ll agree, are actually the most memorable. These are the ones where everything came together – from start to finish.

The ideal way to start ANY party (holiday, birthday, anniversary, anything!) is for guests to be greeted at the door with a cocktail and a tray of hors-d’oeuvres and finger foods.

It’s also important to have additional finger food out for your holiday parties so guests can snack at their leisure. Do easy appetizers that don’t need to stay hot and taste great either warm or cold. That way it won’t matter when your guests arrive or how long the food is out (but definitely do not leave it out overnight).

Remember – you don’t always have to serve a seated dinner for your events. Some of the best holiday parties are appetizers only! No surprise, but a finger-food party is easy on guests as well as the host. Appetizers are prepared before guests arrive, they’re easier to eat, you don’t need forks and knives, and you definitely don’t need tables! In fact, when parties are all about the appetizers and finger foods, everybody is portable! That means you and your guests can walk around talking to each other.

Let me give you a couple of finger food ideas:

People love my fresh ricotta with roasted grapes on crostini. I’ve been serving these at my parties forever. They’re so easy and quick to prepare it’s crazy – the best appetizer recipes always are. Use this recipe from one of my favorite websites – Alexandra’s Kitchen. To make the roasted grapes really sing, it’s important to have fresh ricotta. I follow the incredibly easy recipe from Ina Garten’s Barefoot Contessa. You can use store bought fresh ricotta but when it’s this easy to make – why?

My other “can’t miss” party finger food is prosciutto wrapped asparagus. This is so easy that just about anyone with minimal kitchen skills can manage. Make sure you blanch the asparagus tips first – here’s a video I did for the easy way to blanch your veggies. Then you wrap the asparagus tips in prosciutto and quickly grill. This is one dish that definitely does not need to stay hot. The crispy prosciutto tastes great and is much easier to eat than when the prosciutto is not grilled. They are so popular with my friends that I always make a lot – I don’t want to run out!

And, that’s the way to have a fun party!

Home Entertaining, Food

My Favorite Holiday Appetizer

December 2, 2017 Fran Comment

Finger Food Idea – prosciutto wrapped asparagus – it’s EASY

Everyone has a favorite holiday appetizer: finger foods for the Christmas office party, New Year’s party, or any other gathering. After twenty years in the restaurant business, I’ve collected all sorts of great and easy holiday food ideas – from hors-d’oeuvre to main courses.

This one is an easy finger food idea. A very dear friend of mine can’t boil eggs without step-by-step instructions. She saw me cooking this recipe and said, “Fran! Even I can cook this one!” It’s really that simple.

Finger Food: Prosciutto Wrapped Asparagus

This is the ‘hard’ part: pick your asparagus carefully. Make sure that you buy asparagus spears that have tight heads. What I mean is that all of the little buds should be tight and very close to the stalk.
Wash your asparagus in cold water and break off the “woody” lower end of the stem. Make it even easier so that you don’t have to guess, bend each asparagus spear until they snap in two. That’s the natural point where the soft edible part begins.
For appearance, after you’ve snapped them cut all spears about the same length.
Blanch your stalks to bring out that appetizing bright green color. Just drop them briefly (about 15-20 seconds) into boiling water. Take them out right when the color brightens. Immediately immerse them in ice water to stop them from cooking.
Wrap each spear with enough prosciutto to completely go around the stalk. You want to leave both ends of the asparagus spear exposed.
Preheat your grilling pan. Add a little olive oil – just wipe some on for flavor. No puddles of oil.
Grill the prosciutto-spears, turning as needed, just until they start to brown.
Remember that the prosciutto is already cooked, so you don’t have to make these really crispy but they will crisp a bit. This will be about 3-4 minutes. Make sure that you roll them in the grill pan so they color evenly.

Serve this alongside another insanely easy appetizer like slender morsels of mozzarella cheese wrapped with fresh basil leaves. YUM.

And as always, have fun!

Home Entertaining, Lifestyle

Time Management for the Holidays

November 25, 2017 Fran Comment

My Top 5 Tips for sane and safe planning during the holidays.

This is one of my favorite times of the year, I can plan all the holiday parties I want and not go crazy. It’s the one time of the year that I can turn on all the great holiday party ideas that I’ve been storing up for the year. And you know me, holiday decorations, party themes, finger food, appetizers – you name it – I’ve got something I want to try.

But, this is also the time of year that we can lose ourselves in all the demands on our time. Considering that the usual demands don’t stop – work, the meetings, classes, a visit to the dentist, coffee with a friend, a drive downtown – we’re adding a lot of extra stuff. This is where all those years owning my restaurants comes in handy.

Owning a restaurant is all about planning. A well-managed restaurant is a little like a ballet. The key to making it easy? We never let up. We always plan ahead. And, we’ve always got a plan “B” – you know, just in case.

My Top 5 Tips for Holiday Planning:

Start early – like NOW. If you’re like me and sometimes think it’s a circus up there – write it down! Don’t rely on your memory to hold in all the ideas and schedules in your head. Use that smartphone that you’re carrying around. It’s got a calendar function in there that works pretty well.
Big time saver: make a list of everything that you need to do and update it on a regular basis. Include everything: shopping for gifts, shopping for food – your grocery list, Holiday decorations – whatever. Then consolidate the lists into shopping trips.
Match your calendar with your list. Set blocks of time for everything from your list. Pick a start time and how long you think it will take, but pad the time block a bit and expect delays. They are inevitable. Do as much early as you can i.e. – anything that doesn’t spoil try to buy way ahead of when you will need it.
Multitasking isn’t always the best idea any time of the year. But, it’s particularly true this time of year. In fact, multitasking too many different things often produces a disaster. Speaking for myself, I focus on one task at a time. Make it right. Then move on to the next.
Follow your plan and schedule as closely as possible. If, for some reason, something is delayed or postponed, reschedule it immediately or delete it entirely. Resist the temptation to “save” tasks that – for whatever reason – cannot be completed as planned. Reschedule or move on.

Along with my “TOP 5” holiday planning tips, make sure that that you always think about doing something nice for yourself each day. Whatever it is – some quiet time, a hot bath, watching your guilty pleasure – just take time in the day (or evening) to do something you like to do for only you!

And, most important of all, don’t forget to breathe. The bustle of the holidays may encroach on your space a bit. Some of the tasks may pile up – especially if you have kids (or friends and relatives with kids). The stress level may climb a bit. Remind yourself (if you can every day) that you’re in control. Your schedule is your key to getting everything you need accomplished for the holiday season.

Remember there are only 24 hours in a day. If you schedule too much for one day, prioritize and start taking things off your list – if you can – try to delegate what you can’t get to. You’re only human! It’s OK to say no.

Lifestyle, Friendships

How to Plan Your Holiday Shopping

November 18, 2017 Fran Comment

SIX SHOPPING TIPS to help you from being “cyber-crazy” this holiday.

It’s that time again – time for the year-end holiday traditions: the Christmas office party, finger foods, holiday decorations, and gifts. OMG, did you forget the Secret Santa Gift – again? You rush headlong into the mall and BAM – you’re smack in the middle of another tradition: the start of holiday shopping season.

Take a breath and remember that it only happens once a year. Retailers have been calling the day after Thanksgiving “Black Friday” for more than 60 years. The theory is that the term “Black Friday” originally came from the Philadelphia police department because thousands of people would descend on the city the day after Thanksgiving ahead of the annual Army/Navy football game on Saturday. The stores took advantage of the crowds with big sales and the police were stuck with long and very busy shifts. They weren’t happy. But, the shoppers were!

Why the rush? It’s historically a day when retailers pull out all the stops to get shoppers into their stores. Retailers called it “Black Friday” because the volume of sales could put a retail store back into “the black” with enough profit to cover the entire year.

It’s also, historically, the best day of the year to get a great deal on all those holiday gifts you want to buy for friends – and for yourself. But these days, it doesn’t stop there. If you’re an online shopper like many people are now, you can avoid the crowds, the lines, the hassle of brick and mortar shopping, and get in on some pretty good deals. Retailers got wise pretty quickly and created “Cyber Monday” just for you.

The whole weekend has morphed into the biggest shopping weekend of the year (sales begin to be advertised more than a week before with some retailers posting ads as early as October); enough cyber-crazy to produce more than $3 billion in sales last year. Some retailers will also push out good deals through Tuesday. So, from Thursday (with some starting midnight Wednesday night) to Tuesday, you can literally shop until you drop – or your fingers get too tired! Big Retailers already have their ads out for Black Friday. If the retailers are planning that far in advance then it just makes sense then that we should plan ahead too, right?

Here are Six easy tips to help you survive this holiday shopping season and not spend more than you planned:

Tip One – Make your shopping lists for everything including electronics (iPhone, Xbox, etc.) and set the price that you’re willing to pay now. That way you can jump on the deals when you recognize them.

Tip Two – The technology deals are best on Thanksgiving and Black Friday but some may get better the closer to Cyber Monday/Tuesday you get. But, don’t wait and hope to see a lower price than the one you’re happy with because it’s possible the item will sell out before the end of the day. Remember – once an item is sold out the store will not honor the sale price – if it’s sold out – it’s sold out. Cyber Monday has gotten pretty good for “soft goods” like clothing, shoes, even beauty products. There are even great deals on travel – mostly for year-round presales for resort hotels and spas.

Tip Three – Buy from companies you know – Amazon, Best Buy, Walmart, eBay, and so on. The holidays are a very bad time to test out a new online shopping experience.

Tip Four – DOUBLE check the return policies – because you never know. Remember that whatever the store policy was last year, it’s a good bet they’ve changed it this year.

Tip Five – Don’t forget to check shipping terms and conditions. Sometimes you’ll find excellent deals that can save you a bundle on shipping. How about that Secret Santa gift? Remember that the faster you want something, the higher shipping costs. It only makes sense. All the more reason to plan ahead and shop with plenty of time to spare. About that sometimes nasty shipping cost – if you’re a late shopper you may have traded one hell for another. Your choice might be to either get swallowed up by the thick crowds at the mall or be hammered by very expensive overnight shipping costs.

A friend told me about her experience last year. She waited until the very last week to do her holiday shopping online and wound up paying hundreds of dollars in rush shipping fees to make sure that the gifts arrived on time. She said that one gift that she bought cost less than the overnight shipping fees. I was astounded.

Tip Six is for the deep divers: I found this great stream on The Verge for the best Black Friday/Cyber Monday deals all in one place. The deals change quite a bit, so go back and check it often.

Keep it fun!