Appetizers Galore!!!

We had a LOT of appetizers for this month's cooking group.. here are the pics of each- and their respective owners :)   If you'd like to get a recipe for any of these listed, just let us know by leaving a comment!

Taco bites:
Basically use "tostitos scoops" chips and fill them with taco stuff, then bake them till the cheese melts.  I put a bit o' sour cream and salsa on top to finish it off once they were done cooking.

Potato Pizzas:
Slice up a potato into thin, round slices.  Lightly coat w/ olive oil and salt/pepper to taste.  bake for 10 minutes in oven on a cookie sheet, take them out and flip 'em over and bake for another 5-10 minutes till golden brown/slightly crispy.   Top w pizza sauce, cheese, grn/red peppers, scallions, and really whatever else you want.  Broil for a few minutes till cheese is melted. Garnish w a snip of parsely.

Apple and cloves Candle holder:
You can really just look at this and see what you need to do :)  Just used toothpicks for holding everything into place, and I used grapes and blueberries, but you can use anything you want...

This made me feel creative, so I made a "Potato Mouse" (This is fun to do for baked potatoes for the kids...) Made it with raisins for the eyes, and onions for the whiskers and tail.  Zucchini for the ears...

Isn't he cute?

After that I had a lot of scallion heads left over, so I used them and made little peeps for another candle holder...

(This one was just plain silly and fun!)

Here's some of the other yummy things we sampled:

Olive Skewers: Julia S.

Low-carb wraps: Ela  (Turkey, wrapped around feta, alfalfa sprouts, tomato, avocado, cucumber, topped w Bernstein's dressing.)

Sundried Tomato w/cream cheese wraps: Julia S.

Stuffed Mushrooms: Jordan A.

Asparagus Wraps: Tess D.

Lil' doggies in a blanket: Tess D.

Salami and olive skewers: Elena S.

This ugly mess was supposed to look cool, but turned out NOTHING like the picture!  I will not say who made it... You'll just have to guess.

What were the name of these???  By Julia S.

Thanks to everyone who participated!  Great Cooking Group- can't wait to make those asparagus wraps! MMMMMMMMMmmmmmm.

Piggies in a Blanket

Ingredients:
Pillsbury Croissant dough
Package of mini hot dogs

Directions:
1. Preheat oven using package directions
2. Open tube and layout dough. Dough comes divided into 8 large triangles. Cut each of these large triangles into three small triangles.
3. Wrap mini hotdogs starting from a wide side of the triangle towards a point.
4. Lay the wrapped mini dogs on a greased or lined baking sheet and cook according to Pillsbury package directions.

ENJOY!
P.S. If anyone ever finds chicken or turkey mini-dogs - let me know :)

Asparagus in Blankets

I did a quick modified version of a recipe Ela found on disney's family.go.com here is a link


Ingredients

Pillsbury croissant roll dough (in the tube)
Bundle of asparagus, trimmed and cooked* - I used about 3 cut stalks per roll
1 small tomato, cut into 1/4-inch-thick slices
About 2 ounces cheddar or mozzarella cheese, sliced

Directions

1. Follow directions on Pillsbury package for pre-heating the oven. 
2. Open the tube and layout the dough. It comes sectioned into 8 triangles (makes 8 large rolls, you could make a lot more by cutting the dough into smaller triangles). 
3. Cut the tomato slices in half. 
4. Lay the tomato on the wide side of the triangles, then place a cheese slice and 2 or 3 asparagus spears right on top.
5. Start rolling the dough starting from the wide side of the triangle towards the long point. 
6. Lay the rolls on a greased or lined cooking sheet and cook for about 15 min.

*How to cook asparagus: Boil asparagus in salted water until the stalks are just tender, about 4 minutes, then chill them.