Posted in Holidays, Party Theme, Recipes, tagged Cinco De Mayo, Cinco de Mayo recipes, Savvy Entertaining, Shanna Hatfield on May 2, 2014| Leave a Comment »
Since Cinco De Mayo is fast approaching, I thought I’d share a few of my favorite recipes with you today.
Devour in bliss.
The combination of cinnamon-y chips with the fresh fruit is amazing.
Taco Bites are always a crowd pleaser.
These are so yummy and easy to make and disappear almost as fast as you can make them.
Cheesy, filling and delicious!
The perfect finish to any meal!
She Who Needs to Do some Baking
Posted in Recipes, Salads, tagged Compressed Salad, Salad Recipes, Savvy Entertaining, Shanna Hatfield on April 25, 2014| 2 Comments »
If you want to impress your guests with a fancy little salad, this is super easy to do and makes for a fun start to your meal.
Ingredients – you can use whatever combo you want of lettuce, veggies and dressing. I tried to choose things with varied color.
You need a mold to put the salad in. You can use a small mold and make individual salads (which would probably be easier than the gigantic mold I made).
After you toss the lettuce with dressing, start layering it with the veggies. I think my layers went something like lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, beets, olives, then repeat. Pack it tightly or it won’t hold the shape.
Let chill for about twenty minutes. This isn’t something you’d want to let linger for a long time because the dressing makes the lettuce limp in a hurry. Remove from the mold and you have an amazing tower of salad!
Then serve! I garnished with some grated Parmesan and a tomato.
Compressed Salad
4 cups of lettuce (your choice)
1/2 cup sliced or diced tomatoes
1/2 cup thinly sliced cucumbers
1/4 cup sliced black olives
1/4 cup sliced pickled beets
1/4 cup salad dressing (I used a Caesar Vinaigrette)
2 tbsp. shredded Parmesan cheese for garnish
Mix the lettuce with the dressing. Using a mold or form, start layer lettuce with tomatoes, cucumbers, olives and beets, pressing down tightly until form is filled. Chill for fifteen to twenty minutes then remove from form. If you have an individual form you can use (like a silicone cupcake form) you can easily unmold on your individual serving plates. If you are making the salad in one big form, you may need an extra set of hands to get it out of the mold then divided into individual servings.
She Who Likes Things That Taste Like Spring
Posted in Easter, Easy Recipes, Entertaining at Home, Entertaining Ideas, Holiday Recipes, tagged Cookie Cups, Easter, Easter Desserts, Savvy Entertaining, Shanna Hatfield on April 18, 2014| Leave a Comment »
If you’re looking for a fun and simple dessert for Easter, think about serving Cookie Cups. The kids (and young at heart) will love them!
Start with sugar cookie dough (either homemade our from the store). Roll it out and cut into circles, then form the circles over an oven-proof container like custard cups to bake.
I used silicone cupcake pans to form my cups. Just press them around the outside and bake with the cups upside down.
Bake in a 350 degree oven until lightly browned then cool. You can form a handle out of dough. Just roll a rope of dough and bend it in a handle shape and bake along with the cups.
You can fill the cups with whatever your heart desires. I made ours like fruit pizza with a sweet cream cheese filling and fruit.
Put a thick ring of whipped cream around the top if you want to add a handle and stick it into the whipped cream to hold it upright.
Ta-Da!
You can also make mini cookie cups. Just form them on the back of a mini cupcake or muffin tin.
Cook until lightly browned then cool.
I colored coconut green to look like grass.
And filled the mini cookie cups.
Then topped with jelly beans. This would be fun to mark each place setting or as a little take-away treat if you are the host for Easter dinner.
She Who Wishes You All a Very Happy Easter!
Posted in Captain Cavedweller, Comfort Food, Main Dish, Recipes, tagged Comfort Food, Meatloaf, Savvy Entertaining, Shanna Hatfield on April 11, 2014| Leave a Comment »
Captain Cavedweller isn’t a meatloaf fan and I’m allergic to processed tomatoes, so we’ve avoided meatloaf at our house.
The other day I got inspired to see if I could either find or create a recipe that didn’t use ketchup or any kind of canned tomatoes. Boy, did that turn out to be a tasty decision. Finding a few recipes online, I combined elements of what I liked and came up with a meatloaf recipe that is nothing like the one Granny used to make, but delicious all the same!
Ingredients
Start by slicing and dicing your celery into small, thin pieces.
Heat olive oil in a skillet on medium heat and add celery and onion flakes. If you want to use fresh onion and add garlic, you can certainly do that, too. Cook until celery is soft then let cool.
Add celery mixture to remaining ingredients and mix thoroughly.
Form mixture into a loaf on a rimmed baking sheet. I lined mine with foil because I’m lazy and don’t like scraping goo off the pan. The loaf should be about twelve inches long, four to five inches wide and at least an inch and a half to two inches deep.
While the meatloaf is baking, pour two cups of chicken broth into a pan with butter. You can add a spoon of crushed garlic if you want, which we didn’t. This is going to cook for about twenty minutes, until it starts to thicken (although it will still be thin, not like gravy).
Bake the meatloaf until nice and brown – about an hour.
Slice and serve with the “gravy” drizzled over the top.
Not Your Granny’s Meatloaf
2 pounds of ground beef
3 eggs
2/3 cup milk
1 tbsp. parsley
1 1/2 cups Panko crumbs
1 tsp. seasoning
dash of salt
1 tbsp. olive oil
1/3 cup of thinly sliced and diced celery
1 tsp. onion flakes (or you can add fresh onion)
2 cups chicken broth
3 tbsp. butter
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Thinly slice and dice celery. Heat olive oil in a small skillet on medium heat and add celery and onion (you can also add a little garlic if you want). Cook until celery is softened. Remove from heat and let cool.
Mix celery with remaining ingredients until thoroughly blended.
Line a rimmed baking pan with foil (if you’re lazy like me) and give it a shot of non-stick spray. Form a loaf in the pan that is about 12 inches long by 4-5 inches wide by 1 1/2-2 inches deep.
Bake for an hour, until outside is a nice, deep brown.
About twenty-five minutes before the meatloaf is finished baking, pour 2 cups of chicken broth into a heavy skillet with the butter. You can add a spoon of crushed garlic if you want or a spoon of seasoning.
Bring to a boil then simmer for about twenty minutes, until it starts to thicken. It will not get thick like gravy, but will be thicker than broth.
When the meatloaf is finished, slice and drizzle with the gravy and enjoy the delicious, yummy treat!
She Who Will Be Making This Again
Savvy Entertaining 