Cooking for Others: Holiday Parties for Quarter-life and Beyond

Alexis putting the finishing touches on her chickens

EVENT: The Supper Club Holiday Party
VENUE: Wendy’s Apartment, Financial District
PARTY SIZE: about 20 twenty-somethings
TYPE: Cocktail Hour and Buffet
MENU: JC’s Roast Chicken (Julia Child, not Jesus), White Cheddar Mashed Potatoes, Classic Hanukkah Latkes, Creamed Corn Crostini (P), String Beans with Spiced Nuts and Apple Cider Vinaigrette (P); Gingersnaps (C)

To call Wendy’s Sunday-evening holiday party a potluck would be to do it a grand injustice. While it’s true that Phoebe was in charge of the buffet’s veggie dish and pre-dinner finger food and Cara, late in the party, set out a platter of still-warm gingersnaps, it was Wendy’s friend Alexis who deserves full credit for slaving away in the not so itsy-bitsy (well, marginally larger than ours) kitchen all day. Apron-clad, Alexis basted roasting chickens, doctored rich mashed potatoes with grated cheese, and—most martyr-like of all—flipped latkes onto an awaiting plate at just the same speed hungry guests devoured them.

The impressive dishes seemed to pave the way to conversations among guests who’d met just moments before, in a marked contrast to the party we’d been at the night before—at our friend Kate’s parents’ place, where we sat cozy and comfortable surrounded by some of our oldest friends.

Still, as we left Wendy’s to sleep up before a week of work (and yet more holiday events), it suddenly struck us: the two parties, so different in size, guest list, and timing (Saturday vs. Sunday, night vs. day, half parents vs. completely kids), had hit upon the same formulas for their success. Both had casual but delicious dishes, and not too many at that. Both relied on guests to contribute, yet without jeopardizing the harmony of the meal. Both set the scene with warming, wintry holiday drinks like cranberry punch and spiked hot cider. And both harnessed the spirit of the holiday season simply by bringing people together over fattening food.

Below, what we made.

From our kitchen, albeit small, to yours,

-Phoebe and Cara, THE QUARTER-LIFE COOKS

Gingersnaps
Makes 50 cookies

I suppose it’s my own prejudices, but I was convinced that no one likes gingersnaps. I imagine them always the lone survivors on a cookie plate, what remains after all the chocolate chip cookies, brownies, and lemon squares have been snatched up. You might ask, then, why I decided to make them for Wendy’s, and the answer is that I’m so pleasantly surprised each time I do scavenge a gingersnap from that picked-over platter that I figured they might be up for their hour in the spotlight. It turned out to be a good move, and at least four people declared that gingersnaps were their favorite cookie! I stand corrected.

Gingersnaps, unbaked balls (left), ready-to-eat cookies (right)

Because of oven issues (more on them, and the creative meals they induced, to come soon), I brought over dough, not baked cookies. This had the pleasant upshot that guests got to inhale the sweet spices as the cookies baked, then taste them warm and soft from the oven. Made ahead and cooled, though gingersnaps keep well for days.

Ingredients

1 cup white sugar
¾ cup molasses
¼ cup honey
¾ cup unsalted butter
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 ½ cups whole wheat pastry flour
2 teaspoons ground ginger

1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1/3 cup water

Preheat the oven to 375 °F.

Put the sugar, molasses, honey, and butter in a microwave-safe bowl. Microwave until the butter is melted, the sugar is dissolved, and the whole mess bubbles a bit.

In a separate bowl, mix together the flours, spices, baking soda and salt. Add the sugar mixture and stir until combined. Add the water and incorporate it.

Refrigerate the dough until it solidifies to a workable consistency (about an hour). Roll heaping tablespoons into balls and place them about 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 8-10 minutes, or until the cookies puff up and are slightly cracked on top. Cool 5 minutes on the cookie sheet, then remove to a rack or serving platter.

Embracing the snap

Creamed Corn Crostini

Makes 10 servings

Dreaming of Kate’s family’s buffet stalwart, her mother’s warm corn pudding, inspiration struck, and I decided to do an appetizer adaptation of another corn classic for Wendy’s party. The resulting dish put a holiday spin on some late-summertime flavors: corn chowder sopped up by a piece of rustic, crusty bread. The addition of sage and the light topnote of cured meat make this dish all the more hearty, comforting, and complimentary to wintertime cheer.

Ingredients

1 French baguette (best if a day old)

2 tablespoon unsalted butter

3 garlic cloves, minced

8 sage leaves, minced

2 15oz cans corn, rinsed. If in season, use 5 ears of fresh corn, kernels removed

1/2 cup half in half

1/2 pound prosciutto, thinly sliced

Salt

In a medium saucepan or skillet, melt the butter over medium heat until it begins to brown. Add the garlic and the sage and cook until fragrant, being careful not to burn the garlic, about 1 to 2 minutes. Add the corn and half in half. Simmer gently until the half in half has thickened and reduced by at least (yes, you guessed it) half. The corn mixture should be thinner than chowder and have just enough liquid left to coat the kernels.

Sliced the baguette and arrange on a cookie sheet. Drizzle with a touch of olive oil and place under the broiler to toast. Remove the bread when it is a light golden brown, and very crisp around the edges. I tend to toast the bread more so for this recipe more than for other bruschetta or crostini concoctions due to the wet, creamy consistency of the corn.

Spoon the corn onto the bread, being careful not to soak it with the remaining cream sauce. With your hands, shred the prosciutto into small, rustic strips and garnish the top of each slice.

What color! Festive corn crostini with prosciutto

Green Beans with Spiced Nuts and Apple Cider Vinaigrette

Makes 10 servings

For Thanksgiving, my mother makes this simple, easy string bean side. The spiced nuts can be made days or weeks in advance if they’re kept in an airtight container, and the beans themselves take less time to cook than the water does to boil. Since I knew my mother’s cider gravy would not be available to drizzle atop, I gave the beans their own sauce, a variation of the foolproof vinaigrette I keep returning to in my Barefoot Contessa recipe book.

Ingredients

4 pounds fresh string beans

For the nuts:

1 1/2 cups raw pecan halves

1 cup raw walnuts

2 tbsp. olive oil

2 tbsp. chopped fresh rosemary (and/or thyme if you have it on hand)

1 tbsp. sugar

2 tsp. ground cumin

1 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper

1⁄2 tsp chili powder

For the dressing:*

¾ cup apple cider

2 tbsp. apple cider vinegar

1 shallot, minced

1 1/2 tbsp. Dijon mustard

Olive oil and salt to taste

*A variation on Ina Garten’s vinaigrette in Barefoot Contessa: Back to Basics

Preheat the oven to 250 °F.

Place the nuts in a medium-sized bowl. In a small saucepan over low heat, warm the olive oil. Add the rosemary and stir until fragrant, about 1 minute. Pour the seasoned oil over the nuts and add the remaining ingredients, tossing to coat the nuts evenly. Transfer the nuts to a cookie sheet and bake until lightly toasted, about 20 minutes.

In the meantime, bring a large pot of water to boil for the string beans. While you are waiting, heat the cider, vinegar, and shallot over medium-high heat in the saucepan you used for the nuts (no need to clean it). Let simmer for 5 to 7 minutes until the mixture is reduced by half. Off the heat, whisk in the mustard and 3 tbsp of olive oil. If the dressing is too acidic, add more oil.

When the water comes to a boil, cook the green bean until they are a bit soft, but still with a have a bite. Drain well.

Scatter the nuts on top of the beans and add the vinaigrette right before serving.

Christmas Cranberry Punch

This is gorgeous, with its floating frozen cranberries and sweet-tart bite.

Ingredients

1 part Cranberry Juice
1 part Pineapple Juice
1 part Vodka
A touch of grenadine
Frozen cranberries

Mix all ingredients. Serve in a glass pitcher or punch bowl with ladle.

Warm Spiked Cider

A warming pot of spiced cider on the stove sets the scene for holiday festivities to come...

Ingredients

3 gallons apple cider
½ a (750ml) bottle of Jack Daniels
10 cinnamon sticks

Slowly warm the apple cider and cinnamon sticks in a big soup pot. Add the Jack and serve in heat-proof cups.

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Cooking for Others: Know Your Audience, However Large

The Judges.

EVENT: Chili Cook-off
VENUE: Phoebe’s Apartment, Flatiron
PARTY SIZE: 18 - 20, mostly male with notable appetites
TYPE: Casual Buffet
MENU: Keith’s Spiked Meat-Lover’s Chili (recipe not included; interested parties can beg Keith for it), Phoebe’s Smoky Chipotle Vegetarian Chili, Cornbread, Spinach Salad with Corn, Avocado, and Cilantro Citrus Vinaigrette
DESSERT: Mexican Wedding Cakes, Cinnamon-Mocha Dulce de Leche Bites (see Cara’s post, below)

What I’ve come to realize from hosting over the past few years in a variety of different venues, with the use of many ad-hoc kitchens, is that our audience—the over-extended student, the overtired first-year analyst, and the over-eager eternal dilettante (whose time is slightly more flexible)—requires very few reasons to have fun. Make the food simple, but impressive. Keep the setting casual, the vibe relaxed. Add a theme and, when in doubt, don’t be afraid to err on the side of nerd-dom.

Which brings us to the Chili Cook-off. My good friend Keith, a spice-master in his own right, agreed to take me on in front of a relatively non-judgmental taste-testing crowd of our hungry friends. On my stove, he warmed two versions of the meat chili he’d brought over—one spicy, one milder—and I reheated my smoky, vegetarian version on the remaining burner. Because of the size of the crowd (about 20), I employed a few of my rules of thumb when dealing with so many guests: reduce the number of dishes served; use paper or plastic, not glass; and, most importantly, serve buffet style or directly from the stove.

The tips paid off, and, with the exception of the unfortunate, cocky few who mixed in too much of Keith’s lethal batch with their portion of mild, I can assure you that when two pots of chili face-off, everybody wins.

From my small (yet often spicy) kitchen to yours,

Phoebe, THE QUARTER-LIFE COOK

Keith giving his chili some love.

**Recipes**

Smoky Chipotle Vegetarian Chili
Makes 10 - 15 servings
Budget $50

Chili is the ultimate gift to cooks in small kitchens. It requires only one pot, the result is a hardy, filling meal that can feed a fleet, and, in the case of my Vegetarian Chipotle version, it’s also extremely cheap.

Though the dish has long been hailed as a meat-lovers’ favorite, I’ve found that if done correctly, the familiarity of the flavors is what makes people want to eat it all night long. In this version, the chipotle compensates in flavor for the absence of slow-cooked beef brisket (my chili meat of choice) by giving the dish a down-home, rich smokiness.

If the spirit of competition strikes, plate servings of chili yourself to ensure each bite is accompanied with the perfect balance of garnishes.

Ingredients

2 15.5 oz cans kidney beans
1 15.5 oz can black beans
1 15.5 oz can pinto beans
2 medium zucchini, quartered and sliced
1 yellow squash
2 large sweet onions
1 red pepper
1 yellow pepper
1 orange pepper (if unavailable, double up on red)
3 14.5 oz cans fire roasted diced tomatoes (I used Muir Glen Organic Fire Roasted Diced Tomatoes in Adobo)
½ quart veggie stock
1 7oz can mild green chilies
½ 7oz can whole chipotle peppers in adobo sauce
2 tablespoons chili powder
2 tablespoons cumin
1 tbsp oregano
3 cloves garlic
1 bottle dark Mexican beer, Negra Moderno if they have it
1 bunch cilantro stems (leaves to be used for garnish and salad dressing)

Garnish

Handful cilantro leaves
Shredded Monterey Jack cheese
2 limes, cut into thin wedges (12 total)
Crushed tortilla chips
Diced avocado (not pictured, but a necessary element!)

In a large pot over medium heat, sauté onions and peppers until beginning to caramelize, 8 minutes. Add the zucchini and the squash and sauté until tender, 5 minutes. Add tomatoes and continue to simmer. Meanwhile, add garlic cloves, cilantro stems, green chilies, and chipotle peppers to a small food processor (see tip at bottom). Puree mixture. Add ½ cup of stock, and pulse to combine. Pour mixture into pot of simmering vegetables. Rinse beans thoroughly in a colander to get rid of the canning liquids, then add to the pot. Add salt, chili powder, cumin, oregano, beer, and the remaining stock.

Simmer with the lid off, stirring frequently until the liquids begin to thicken and the vegetables have begun to break down.

The chili is best if made the night before, and can keep in the refrigerator for up to a week.

Garnish!

Spinach Salad with Corn, Avocado, and Cilantro Citrus Vinaigrette
Makes 10 servings

I’ve found that the fatal error of buffet-style dinners is fooling yourself into thinking that the table must be filled with as many sides as a Thanksgiving feast (though my mother and I do operate under this philosophy during the actual holidays), so I like to choose one or two basic dishes that easily lend themselves to large portions.

To offset the heaviness of the chili and offer a palate cleanser in between the competing bowls, I made this big, simple salad. The ingredients are minimal, but the dressing is so good, my roommate once tried to drink it. There are several different herbed variations that can be added to the base of shallot, Dijon mustard, and lemon, but to stick to my budget and round out the Mexican flavors, I used the remaining cilantro and a hint of pickled jalapeño.

Ingredients

2 limes
2 avocados
1 cup corn kernels. Use fresh if in season (about 2 ears) or canned (rinsed in a colander)
10 oz baby spinach
1 lemon
1 teaspoon salt
1 medium shallot
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
1 bunch cilantro leaves
2 slices pickled jalapeño (optional)
olive oil

For the dressing:

In a small food processor, combine the cilantro leaves, shallot, Dijon, salt, jalapeño, and the juice of 1 ½ limes and 1 lemon. Puree the mixture until all elements are fully minced. Stream in olive oil until the texture becomes a frothy liquid. Taste the dressing, and if it is too tart, add in more olive oil.

For the salad:

Cut the avocado into rustic chunks and add to a large salad bowl. Squeeze the remaining ½ lime over the avocado so it does not begin to brown while you are waiting for your guests to arrive. Add the corn and spinach. Right before serving, add the citrus cilantro vinaigrette and toss.

TIP: for both recipes, I use the Cuisinart DLC-2ABC Mini Prep Plus Food Processor. It’s only $35 at Bed, Bath, and Beyond, multi-purpose, and takes up half the space of a blender. I’m obsessed. For the chili, if you do not have any type of blender or food processor, just make sure to finely mince the aforementioned ingredients. The dressing is harder to achieve manually, and I would highly recommend the purchase for this reason alone. You don’t know what you’re missing.

Spice-masters recovering from the heat of battle.

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Baking For Others: Baking as an Art

FRONT: Cinnamon-Mocha Dulce de Leche Bites

BACK: Mexican Wedding Cakes

EVENT: Top Chef Chili Cook-off
VENUE: Phoebe’s Apartment, Flatiron
PARTY SIZE: 18 - 20, mostly Male with notable appetites
TYPE: Casual Buffet
MENU*: Keith’s Spiked Meat-Lovers Chili, Phoebe’s Smoky Chipotle Vegetarian Chili, Spinach
Salad with Corn, Avocado, and Cilantro Citrus Vinaigrette
DESSERT: Mexican Wedding Cakes, Cinnamon-Mocha Dulce de Leche Bites
*The meat, if you will, of this menu is featured in the following post

You know how everyone always likes to say that there are bakers and then there are cooks? The cooks get depicted as creative, impulsive types, while the bakers get shortshrifted: they’re seen as stodgy, by-the-book, uptight.

So off the bat, I’d like to announce that I’m both. Both a cook and a baker. Both creative and stodgy. Both impulsive and a little bit uptight. Both a recipe-follower and a recipe-perverter. Sure, I’m going to measure my baking powder and level it off just so, but I’m also going to throw in however many chocolate chips, a pinch of cinnamon, a spoonful of instant espresso powder, and those heath bar bits I’ve been storing in my freezer (see below for the Dulce de Leche Cinnamon-Mocha Bites that resulted).

For the chili party, of course, I was working within some recipe-like bounds: dessert had to be something that people would want to eat after Phoebe’s voluptuous stew, that I could carry with me on the subway without damage, and that wouldn’t completely wreck my kitchen (baking would occur circa 10pm on a Monday).

Two sources of inspiration hit, both for small but rich little after-dinner sweets.

From my small (confectioners sugar-free) kitchen to yours,

Cara, THE QUARTER-LIFE COOK

**Recipes**

Mexican Wedding Cakes
Makes about 60 cookies

These shortbread-like nut balls are mysteriously referred to both as Russian tea cookies and Mexican wedding cakes—for Phoebe’s, I stuck to the theme with the latter. Typically, you make them with very little sugar in the dough; they’re sweetened instead by rolling them through a mountain of powdered sugar after baking. But because I wasn’t in the mood to dust powdered sugar from every corner of my kitchen, I opted to mix the sugar into the dough. They stay crisp this way too—whereas sugar on the outside can become soggy.

Ingredients

½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
3 tablespoons powdered sugar
1 tablespoons brown sugar
¼ cup sugar
1 teaspoon bourbon
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup finely chopped toasted walnuts*

*Measure chopped or whole walnuts. Then toast the walnuts in a 325°F oven for about 10 minutes. Cool, then chop finely.

Preheat the oven to 325°F.

In a large bowl, mix the softened butter well, with a spoon, spatula, or (if your kitchen’s big enough) an electric mixer; add the sugars and mix more, until smooth and creamy. Add the bourbon (you can also just use ½ teaspoon of vanilla, but I was feeling extra festive). Put in the flour and the nuts, stirring just until the flour is absorbed by the butter-sugar mixture.

Roll tiny balls (large marble sized) and put them on an ungreased cookie sheet, two inches apart. Bake for 6-9minutes, until the cookies have spread slightly and look dry on top. Cool on the sheets, a rack, a plate or a clean countertop. When fully cooled, serve, or keep in an airtight container.

Adding the chopped walnuts to the Mexican Wedding Cakes

Cinnamon-Mocha Dolce de Leche Bites
Makes 48 cookies

Pondering the second batch of post-chili cookies, I conjured up every Mexican sweet I’d ever had: Flan, covered in caramel. Tres Leches cake, spongy and soaked with dulce de leche. Mexican hot chocolate or coffee, made piquant with cinnamon. And though I swear I do value my sense of proportion and ability to practice restraint, I really didn’t want to pick any one of these flavors.

So using a simple, butter-sugar-egg-flour refrigerator dough (note: refrigerator doughs have to chill for at least an hour before you use them!) that could stand up to all my extras, I proceeded to dissolve espresso powder, sift in cinnamon, chop dark chocolate chips into shards, and sprinkle in some caramel-like toffee bits. In the finished product, some of the flavors hit you together, and some flood in succession. I think these are best the day after they’re made.

Ingredients

½ cup (1 stick) butter
¼ cup sugar
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 teaspoons instant espresso powder
1 egg
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon salt
1/3 cup chocolate chips (measured, then chopped)
¼ cup heath bar bits (use any kind of caramel candy)

In a large bowl, cream the butter, sugars, and espresso powder until the espresso is dissolved and the texture is creamy. Beat in the egg until smooth again. In a separate bowl, stir together the cinnamon, flour, and salt, then add them to the butter mixture, stirring only until combined. Toss in the chocolate and the heath bar bits, mixing until well-distributed.
Break the dough into two semi-equal pieces. Roll each into about a 10-inch long log, as round as you can get it. Chill in the freezer for an hour (you can also chill in the fridge for a day or two, or keep frozen for a month).

When you’re ready to bake, preheat the over to 375°F. Slice each log into 24 pieces—slices should be about a quarter to a third of an inch. Arrange them on the ungreased baking sheet a half inch apart. Bake for about 8 minutes, until the tops of the cookies are slightly golden. Cool, then store in airtight containers.

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