Spinach Appetizers, with Cupcakes?

Several of you asked in comments and e-mails about the menu from the gathering I described in my Tablescape Thursday post. I suppose I should confess that much of the meal was catered. I made the cupcakes and a spinach/feta cheese appetizer. The rest came from a local restaurant/caterer. Since there were people here from as far away as Boston and Martha's Vineyard, it seemed appropriate to offer local cuisine - West Tennessee barbecued pork (with turkey for the "no red meat" guests). The menu was "pulled pork" (not chopped!), vinegar cole slaw, potato salad, and baked beans.

Here's information about Cajun Cookers:

Who are the World Champion Cajun Cookers?

Darrell Hicks, the man behind the apron and the pit, has fed groups as small as five and as large as 13,000. The Sam Walton Family, Wal~Mart Inc., MLB, NFL, Fed Ex, Anheiser Bush, John Deere & Co., The Indy 500, The Brickyard 400, Bass Pro Shops, and various State and Local Governments are just a few of the clients Hicks and his firm have prepared food for over the years.

"We stay booked with catering jobs at least three days a week." "Whether we do an inside or outside catering, our food has the same quality all the time. Our reputation with numerous Fortune 500 companies speaks for itself."

The main focus is to exceed our customers expectations with all aspects of our business. "It is something we take personally every day of the week. Customer service is as important to Cajun Cookers as the taste of our food."

The menu at Cajun Cookers includes everything but filler. Every item is of World Champion quality. We start with the best products available. Our ribs, pulled pork, brisket, loin, bacon wrapped chicken, and smoked turkey are chosen because of quality, appearance, and taste.

We proudly boast that all of our recipes are straight from the heart-nothing out of chef school.

Darrell Hicks




Spinach and Feta Cheese Appetizers

Ingredients
• 1 - 10 oz. package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed to remove all excess water
• 1/4 cup crumbled feta cheese
• 1/4 cup part-skim ricotta cheese
• 1/2 cup liquid egg substitute, such as Egg Beaters (or 2 large eggs if cholesterol is not a concern)
• 2 Tbsp. shredded Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
• 1 tsp. finely minced garlic
• 1/2 tsp. kosher salt
• 30 mini fillo (phyllo) shells (2 packages)

I left off the minced garlic and salt and added two tablespoons of finely chopped red onion and some black pepper (a fairly generous amount – I didn’t measure).

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. In a large bowl, stir together the first seven ingredients (through the salt).
3. Place mini fillo shells on two ungreased cookie sheets. Spoon filling into shells. Bake 15 to 18 minutes. Serve immediately.

This recipe makes 30 spinach and feta cup appetizers.

Per serving (2 appetizers): 73 calories, 4 g fat (0 g saturated fat), 4 mg cholesterol, 150 mg sodium, 7 g carbohydrate, 0 g fiber, 3 g protein, 46% vitamin A, 2% vitamin C, 5% calcium, 5% iron

The spice cupcakes are from a mix. The brand is Duncan Hines (the only spice mix I could find). Spice cake must be less popular these days -- years ago, I remember it being one of the standard flavors. I substituted buttermilk for the water called for in the directions and added an extra egg and a package of vanilla pudding mix.

HERE is a link to a Cupcake Project blog post about caramel icing the way my mother used to make hers. I was in a hurry (as usual), so I caramalized white sugar and butter in a mason jar in the microwave, added some dark brown sugar, unsalted butter, confectioners sugar, and enough buttermilk to moisten it enough to make it spreadable. It came out a little on the soft side, but I prefer that to being difficult to spread. Sorry -- I know that's not a recipe (no measurements, etc.), but that's how I made it. I suppose it turned out OK; there were lots of compliments.

I used my vintage white KitchenAid mixer to make the cupcakes and the icing. It easily handled two cake mixes in one batch.

My mixers came from local estate sales. I contacted KitchenAid's customer service department to inquire about purchasing owner's manuals (which include recipes) for them. The friendly rep I spoke with said she'd mail them to me at no charge! Two very nice spiral-bound manuals arrived within just a few days. That speaks well for KitchenAid's committment to customer service, doesn't it?

Before I received the manuals, I spent some time viewing KitchenAid instructional videos on youtube. Among the more unusual ones I found was this one from Jolene Sugarbaker (The Trailer Park Queen):

I had to know more about Jolene after hearing "her" voice on the KA video. It turns out that she has an online cooking show and offers countless recipes that use affordable ingredients and a common sense approach to entertaining on a budget. The following video offers three examples of the sort of recipes she regularly cooks up in the Trailer Park Test Kitchen. It's about twenty minutes long. You could stop after the first recipe (for baby food beef pate) ... but I think you'll want to learn about making SOS and corn chip pecanless pie! Enjoy ...

I'm linking to Foodie Friday at Designs by Gollum. Check out all the great recipes and tutorials!