Vegetable Bread Baskets

I am very fond of entertaining, and hosting parties or gatherings is one of my favorite hobbies:) The other appealing feature is that I get to try different food, especially appetizers and hors'douvres that we don't usually cook in our day-to-day lives. Though I'm not a great cook, I believe that presentation is as important as the taste of the dish; if what you see looks inviting, only then would you be tempted to put it in your mouth, right?!I recently came across a cookbook that showcased only party food recipes, and it got me really inspired. All food does not need to be exotic, but just adding a different look in cooking or presentation can surely turn eyes, and impress your guests. Like these very simple Vegetable Bread Baskets filled with onions, bell peppers, mushrooms, olives and cheese. Quick and easy, these work great as appetizers or a snack with tea! These bread cups are going to dazzle the guests at HOTM-Party Foods!!

Ingredients
6 wheat or white bread slices
2 tbsp oil
1/2 cup green or red bell-peppers- chopped finely
1/2 cup onions - chopped finely
4 tbsp black olives- chopped finely
1/2 cup mushrooms - chopped finely
1 cup mixed yellow and white cheese
4 tbsp margarine - melted
1/2 cup tomato ketchup
1/2 cup green chutney or pesto sauce
salt - to taste
black peper - to taste
3 tbsp dried basil flakes

I would strongly recommend using Green Chutney(Sauce) rather than pesto because it goes very well with the chosen vegetables. If you choose to use Pesto, I'd say replace ketchup with something else or skip it altogether!

Method
Take the bread slices, cut off their edges and keep aside. Preheat oven to 325 degrees, spray cooking spray on a muffin pan, then place each bread slice in the muffin cups. Shape them to form like a basket. You can even flatten them a bit using a rolling pin. Bake for 10-15 mins, making sure to check they they do not burn. It should just become hard and take the shape of a basket.

Take a pan, add 1 tbsp olive or cooking oil, and saute the onions and bell peppers until a bit tender. Add the chopped olives, and mushrooms, season with some salt, pepper and dry basil flakes, and cook a little more.

Now take each bread cup/basket, spread some green chutney with a knife, then add a spoonful of the mixture to it. Drizzle with some ketchup as required, then spread mixed cheese on the top. Lightly brush the 4 corners of the basket with melted margarine so they don't get burnt.

Transfer the cups back to the muffin pan, then bake at 200 degrees for about 7-8 minutes, just until the cheese melts. Now change the oven setting to Broil, and bake the baskets for another 1 minute.

Remove from the oven, let them cool a bit and serve immediately. These cute vegetable baskets are healthy, tasty and definitely the perfect finger food at a party.

Tip: You can add more veggies or even scrambled eggs as a variation.

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Chocolate Cupcakes with Orange Cream Sauce (For St.Patrick's Day)

St.Patricks's Day is around the corner, and most of the lucky ones are going to enjoy a 3-day weekend in the US! St.Paddy, as he's lovingly called, is supposed to have been responsible for a lot of miracles, and of course, spreading of Christianity in Ireland (though he was born in Britain). March 17th is celebrated worldwide by Irish people and non-Irish too (mainly in Australia, North America, and Ireland) as an annual Feast Day to celebrate the essence of the bishop St. Patrick. Celebrations, including food, are themed around all things Irish, which means anything that is green or orange, and contains a lot of booze!! Curious if you are on how alcohol came to be so much a part of this day's celebrations, here's an ancient legend to read. Chocolate always tops my list of dessert ideas, but as I was trying to make this an irish dessert, and I didn't have anything green, I chose to go with orange:) Trust me, this is no ordinary Chocolate Cupcake as the list of ingredients will show you; but the icing on the cake definitely has to be the fragrant, citrusy-sweet and rich Orange Cream Sauce, which I think has been one of the best sauces I've ever concocted on my own in my kitchen!

We don't celebrate this festival, per se, but we have a neighbor who is highly enthusiastic about holidays and decorations, and you'll always find her house and yard decorated with seasonal themes that kind of infect you with the spirit!(in a nice way, of course:)) She has this huge hand-crafted Shamrock (the symbolic 3-leaf clover) and famous Irish hat hanging in her front yard, and when Emiline from Sugar Plum called out to us to join her St.Paddy's day Pub Crawl event(read booze here:)), and Cookthink asked for a recipe using Maple, I was tempted to join in the celebrations. So without further ado, I present to you, my spectacular Chocolate Cupcakes topped with Orange and Maple Cream Sauce!!

Ingredients
Makes about 12 small cupcakes

Chocolate Cupcakes
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup granulated white sugar
4 tbsp unsalted butter
1 large egg
1 tspn vanilla extract
1 tbsp orange zest
1 tspn baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4-1 cup hot water
1 tbsp Baileys Irish Cream liquer (optional)
1 tbsp Grand Marnier (orange liquer)(optional)

Orange and Maple Cream Sauce
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream (you can use light too)
2 tbsp cream cheese - softened
2 tbsp orange zest (for sauce and final garnish)
2 tbsp maple syrup
1/2 cup sugar (or a little less, adjust to your taste)
2 tbsp milk (only if needed)

Method
For the chocolate cupcakes, combine butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla in a large mixer bowl. Beat on high speed for 3 minutes. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Add the flour and hot water alternately to the creamed mixture, mixing well every time. Blend until well-combined. Finally, add in the irish cream liquer and the grand marnier and give a final swish with your hand.

Fill paper lined muffin cups 2/3 full with batter. Bake at 350 degress F for 20 to 25min, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool completely on a wire rack.

For making the Orange Cream Sauce, take the cream cheese and beat well, or blend in a mixer. Slowly add the whipping cream, maple syrup and blend again. Now scrape the sides, and keep adding the sugar a little at a time and continue to blend until you achieve a thick and creamy consistency. You can add some milk only if needed; Remove in a bowl, add 1 tbsp orange zest and mix barely to fold in. Refrigerate the sauce until ready to serve. The maple syrup really adds a nice flavor to the sauce, and this would actually be a great topping for pancakes too!

By this time, your kitchen must be bursting with the citrusy fragrance of orange combined with the aroma of baking a chocolate cake! So you are already feeling high, and to this, add the effect of the irish cream and grand marnier and you will feel like you are floating in heaven! Take the cupcake, warm it just a little in the microwave (say 15 seconds), then place it on a serving dish. Drizzle with a generous helping of the orange cream sauce, then garnish with some more fresh orange zest, and get ready to enjoy your dessert, totally the Irish way!!

Traditionally, cupcakes need to be frosted, but that's just way too much cream for me and kind of overpowers the flavor of the cake. So, defying tradition, I opted to top my cupcakes with this cream sauce that adds the correct amount of creamy texture without killing the actual taste of the chocolate cake. But if you are the frosting-kind of a person, feel free to ice your cakes with orange frosting!:)

Happy St.Patrick's Day to one and all!!

Similar Recipes:
Chocolate n Coffee Martini
Kahlua Coffee Cheesecake
Hazelnut-Mocha-Nut Bread

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A Retro Kitchen that is Both Stylish and Eco-Friendly

With every passing day, we see more and more people tend to lean on designing their homes and interiors to be more "green and eco-friendly". Some people go to extreme lengths to hire reputed designers that can give meaning to their ideas and design something captivating yet useful. "Conceptual Kitchens" that are in sync with the decor of your home, but at the same time add an element of "green" seem to be the in-thing these days. But looks like some Turkish designers have come up with a truly revolutionary kitchen set-up with a host of features to give it a stylish modern look, at the same time designing it to minimise wastage of food and water. It looks too fancy to be true, but you have to read on to admire the motive behind such an innovative design!

Altera Design Studio’s latest concept comes in the form of a retro-looking kitchen design called "Alight Kitchens". It was recently awarded a design win at the Incheon International Design Competition 2007 and will be exhibited at International Design Fair this December. The project deals with global shortages of clean water, food, resources. What role can a designer play in minimising wastage of resources became the theme behind the birth of this beautiful kichen. The system is designed to not only minimize waste materials but to make people aware of how much they are consuming. If you can take your eyes off the vibrant kitchen, take a look at some of the cool features that the Alight Kitchen boasts of:

* Only ready-made food and beverages can be consumed in sheet-metal packaging so people will be conscious about what and how much they eat.

* The cooling unit provided in the design will only allow storage of 3 days' worth of food.

* A smart oven warms up the food in groups to minimize how often it’s used. It arranges the ideal time and temperature for the packs by reading their barcodes!!

* There are 4 hollow plates located on the main dining table. Each of them can rotate on its center-axis so you can eat on the either side of the plate. The center of the table also features a small flatware station.

* The integrated dishwasher conserves water by using a biological solution for filtering and reusing the dirty water. On the table, there are two lids for detergent and capsules of filtering solution, and also a lid under the table for changing water after several usages.

* All plates are stored underneath the table in their own compartments, in sheet-metal packages which is easy to collect, store and recycle after usage.

This may not be a kitchen that you cook in daily; I for one simply CANNOT imagine myself using this for my everyday chores, especially as cooking for me is an elaborate affair, and I'd prefer a spacious open kitchen with a window overlooking some green field!:) But even then, I really admire the intention behind this design. It brings an innovative kitchen concept that focusses on minimizing waste of time, food, energy used in appliances like refrigerators and dishwashers, and the need for a large kitchen space. This design can surely fit the bill for bachelors or vacation homes, condos or places that you use occasionally. I love the look and design, and I'm sure more and more people would eventually warm up to the idea of such innovations!

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