Popular Dips and Finger Foods
For Super Bowl Sunday
Skillet Spaghetti
One skillet spaghetti recipe and you have dinner for 6 hearty eaters in 30 minutes! Hey, this is a great Super Bowl dish. It tastes great, and who doesn’t like spaghetti! And another plus, it’s not messy to serve … just spoon it up.
Chinese Mushroom Chicken Soup
When you’re eating late in the day and want something to take the chill away but not leave you feeling heavy and stuffed, try this! So much taste and easily changes up to vegan. Just substitute vegetable both and tofu. Easy! Makes up in minutes!
Portuguese Chocolate Sausage
What a surprise! My first bite … between fudge and brownie … Not too sweet chocolate flavor with roasted nuts. Chocolate Salami is an Italian and Portuguese favorite. But I have to admit while I lean to the Portuguese side I did add Amaretto instead of Port. Your choice of liqueurs is extensive. Just make it something that goes with chocolate and coffee. Exactly … What doesn’t? Not into a liqueur? Just add a little more coffee in its place.
I came across this dessert at a family reunion. Other foods from that wonderful day I have yet to try my hand. These are coming soon.
Pastéis de Nata
Bolo Levedos
Date Nut Pinwheels
Grandmother Rose baked these in the fall and winter months. They’re great any time! Chewy and fruity.
Grandma always become distracted when baking these. She was a multitasker. Cookies would then over brown … fruit oozing through the pinwheel on the bottom would burn. Be careful not to do this or these cookies will be a bitter disappointment, literally.
Texas Caviar
A Good Luck Dish for the New Year!
It’s not too late! Goes together in minutes. And it’s darn good! Yep, having this again this year. I love it!!
This is great just as a side salad with burgers too.
Ravioli Lasagna
What a simple lasagna dish with an amazing taste! Dress it up or down. It’s up to you. This one is vegetarian and so deliciously simple. Make your own sauce or use the best jar sauce you can find. Needn’t feel guilty about jar sauce … even chefs use it! This is one of those 30 minute meals too. We loved it!
Portuguese Festa Sopas
We’re passionate about our Portuguese Festa Sopas! This typically once a year Festa is celebrated throughout the San Joaquin Valley (and many other locations). BUT we love to make Portuguese Sopas at home throughout the whole year. The recipe varies a bit from place to place but the basic ingredients remain the same. When I posted our family’s recipe some years ago passions ran high. Others’ remembered differing recipes. I can assure you the Willitts’ (Perry-Freitas) recipe is authentic. This hearty dish has a unique flavor and is not always successfully duplicated at home. Dan (my brother), who put the recipe together for my post, helped with the cooking for these Portuguese Festas in Visalia for a number of years. It’s one thing helping to put food together for hundreds, and then another converting to a small dish accurately just by taste testing. He has completed many taste tests in creating this dish. I’ve tested this latest recipe. It’s exactly as I remember!
Clam Chowders
Both Boston Clam Chowder and Manhattan Clam Chowder make the list of the Top 10 Favorite Soups! So, for Throwback Thursday here they are. These recipes are simple and will bring many compliments.
Boston Clam Chowder
Manhattan Clam Chowder
Basic Marsala Sauce Makes 3 Dinners
Filet Mignon with Marsala Sauce
Meatballs Cooked in Marsala Sauce
Chicken Marsala
This simple recipe makes up beautifully. I’ve plated two Marsala Sauce Dinners to reveal the diversity of this recipe. Change two ingredients and it becomes Chicken Marsala. This recipe is one to put to memory.
Working 14 hour days as a single parent leaves little time for cooking. Creating a repertoire especially of versatile recipes like this one makes perfect sense. Don’t get me wrong, we had plenty of fast food in those days. Just ask my youngest ones. I wanted to cook but after hours of treating patients I just didn’t have the energy. Luckily we all survived but I would say not without some earmarks. Isn’t that what gives us character! Truly looking to help those parents out there that find themselves in my old shoes.
We all know now that wine doesn’t burn off during cooking at least not all of it. The shorter cooking times can guarantee you’re going to be consuming some alcohol. If you are concerned there are some things you can do with this recipe. A substitute for Marsala is very difficult to accomplish. You might try adding a little white grape juice and lemon juice or vinegar. Adding fruit such as grapes or figs sounds delicious. In a pinch the Marsala can be eliminated and broth substituted.
I hope you’ll enjoy this delicious recipe over and over.