As you’ve probably gathered we do have a passion for cooking and another one of our passions is eating, no sorry, hosting. We both love baking some treats, setting the table and enjoying fantastic feasts with our guests. This weekend just passed, we had a couple of friends over for a cocktail night. As we’re sure we’ve already said we tend to have one takeaway a month and have our theme nights to fill in the gaps which not only spares up a few pennies but also a few calories and that means less running (winner)!! This weekend was our takeaway night but of course you need nibbles for later on in the night and so we made a couple savoury and a couple sweet ones to satisfy all palettes.
We wanted to make sure that all our snacks were quick and easy to make, as we didn’t have much time to get things prepared. We started off by making bacon cheese twists (like cheese straws but with a twist). Whilst Aaron was tidying the house I made my own rough puff pastry, which I was happy with for my first attempt. Of course you can use shop brought as making your own pastry can take a little bit longer. Fancy a go? Find the recipe here.
Our second savoury bit was mini pizzas. Our friend lent us the pizza dough recipe which can we used to make one big pizza or even dough balls! The great thing about mini pizzas is that you can have lots of different toppings and they can also be adapted for your vegetarian friends. Please excuse that they are a tad over done, as I got a bit too carried away at bossing Aaron around and forgot they were in the oven. Check out the recipe here!
As we were going to be having a few beverages, we thought it was be a great idea to make boozy desserts. Aaron found this great recipe for boozy fudge from BBC Good Food which we used and adapted slightly to make Amaretto fudge. This could also make great homemade gifts for birthdays or other occasions! I think we were both quite surprised at how easy it was to make (even is it did explode in the microwave on first attempt) and we will definitely make it again and add different liqueurs each time. If you’ve got a spare 15 minutes give this one a go, recipe is here!
And last but not least, Meg’s vodka lime cheesecake! She found a cheesecake recipe from the Philadelphia website and gave it an adult twist with some cheeky lime vodka! We did however find it will need longer to set as after five hours in the fridge it still wasn’t quite set, so for best results leave overnight! If you’re thinking that you can’t stomach straight vodka, don’t worry as you can’t taste it at all just the lime, but it leaves that satisfying warming in the back of your throat. If you want to feel the burn have a go at making it, check out the recipe!
I feel that this is the point where a ‘please drink responsibly’ banner should come across the screen! We were really surprised by the simplicity of these recipes and they were thoroughly enjoyed and welcomed and as said these can be easily adapted to different tastes, whether it’s different pizza toppings or different liqueurs in the fudge. As always we would love to hear your suggestions or feedback as we are learning as we go along and always love to learn new tricks!
Looking forward to this week; in light of the overwhelming response I have had to my solo post Saturday, I have decided to do a different version of a meal Meg cooked last week and so coming Thursday will be a ‘His vs Hers’ challenge where we will both be posting our recipes and it’s up to you to choose which one you think is best!! Also coming this week is a look at food wastage and we will be sharing how we turned our left over roast dinner bits into several different meals. Until then, happy snacking!
Fantastic Feasts and How to Cook Them 