The 2008 Appetizer Party - Summary & Details

The Table and Participants

The Courses

Course #1 Crab Empanadas Fig and Blue Cheese Bruschetta Proscuitto Palmiers (Elephant Ears) Plate: Noritake Buena Vista salad plate.
Course #2 Sweet and Spicy Sausage Bites Chinese Skewered Pork Bites, with sauce Sundried Tomato and Goat Cheese Tartlets Plate: Spode India Tree salad plate (Suzy's grandmother's china).
Course #3 - the Sandwich Course Chicken Pesto Foccacia Sandwiches Ham and Pecan Sandwiches Smoked Salmon Sandwiches Chive and Cucumber Sandwiches Roast Beef and Stilton Sandwiches Plate: Noritake Buena Vista dinner plate.
Course #4 Steamed Wontons with Shrimp and Ginger Sauce Blue Cheese Tartlets Ham and Cheese Skewers with Mango Chutney Plate: Royal Doulton Carmina salad plate.
Course #5 Hot Beef Brisket Party Sandwiches Pimento Cheese Toasts Proscuitto and Melon Canapes Plate: Random sale plates that Suzy got from Waccamaw years ago.

Appetizer Details and Rankings

#1: Fig and Blue Cheese Bruschetta From Southern Living, November, 2006. Score out of 17: 4.25 # of "Must Serve at Party" rankings: 10 Best Appetizer rating: Mark, Melony, Em, Rachel, Jim. Comments: "Light Blue Cheese Flavor" (Jeff), "One of the best things I've ever tasted" (Rachel), "Less jelly, please" (Sam), "Love anything with Blue Cheese" (Marye Lois), "Love it - but maybe a bit less fig on top" (Mike). Given that not everyone likes blue cheese, it's impressive that this won. It's also incredibly easy.
#2: Sweet and Spicy Sausage Bites Modified from Southern Living, June, 2007. Score out of 17: 5.97 # of "Must Serve at Party" rankings: 10 Best Appetizer rating: Linda, Mike, Jeff Comments: "Almost too spicy, but great" (Em), "Great" (Mike), "Amazing" (Jeff). These are really simple to make. The recipe called for breakfast sausage links - instead we used chicken & asiago sausage from Sam's club, cut it into bites and grilled it. Given the number of recipe sources that we tried, it's impressive that Southern Living got the #1 and #2 recipes.
#3: Sundried Tomato and Goat Cheese Tartlets From Hors d'Oeuvre at Home with the Culinary Institute of America. Score out of 17: 6.06 # of "Must Serve at Party" rankings: 10 Best Appetizer rating: Marye-Lois Comments: "Good taste, but cooled off quickly" (Linda), "Great combo" (Jeff), "Cook crust a little longer" (Joel), "Great filling, but the pastry is so-so" (Mike), "Amazing flavor combination" (Rachel), "Boring" (Jean). This was made with homemade puff pastry dough, and I believe Suzy, Joel, Sylvia and I all had significant roles in making this.
#4: Hot Beef Brisket Party Sandwiches Sandwich From Southern Living, October, 2007. Brisket from Top Chef, Season 4 (Richard Blais). Score out of 17: 6.375 # of "Must Serve at Party" rankings: 9 Best Appetizer rating: Mark, Mary, Suzy, Sylvia. Comments: "Oh yeah!" (Mike), "Better without nuts" (Melony), "Sweet taste works very well" (Rachel), "A little mushy, but tasty" (Joel), "Lose the crunch; roll is too sweet" (Jean). Southern Living goes three for four. We made these two weeks ahead and froze them, and heated them probably over three hours before they were served, so mushiness is to be expected. However, the make-ahead quotient is very high and that's a good thing. The picture on the right shows some of the construction.
#5: Proscuitto Palmiers (Elephant Ears) From Hors d'Oeuvre at Home with the Culinary Institute of America. Score out of 17: 6.88 # of "Must Serve at Party" rankings: 7 Best Appetizer rating: Jean. Comments: "Really good - too much work?" (Jeff), "Very good -- seems like a lot of work" (Marye-Lois). I made these a few weeks ahead of time, again with the CIA's puff pastry dough, then froze the rolled up log, and thawed/sliced/cooked for the party. It's not too hard to make a lot of these -- I may work on getting the dough thinner (or using frozen puff pastry dough) for the Christmas party to make them a little less doughy.
#6: Smoked Salmon Sandwiches From Hors d'Oeuvre at Home with the Culinary Institute of America. Score out of 17: 7.00 # of "Must Serve at Party" rankings: 8 Best Appetizer rating: Sam Comments: "Would be better on WHITE BREAD" (Jean), "Tasty" (Jeff), "Great texture and taste combo" (Rachel), "Wow" (Em), "Anything with smoked salmon" (Mike), "Nice and easy to eat" (Suzy). These were made with double fiber, "Nature's Own" wheat bread. Ellen and Kate did the sandwich construction.
#7: Proscuitto and Melon Canapes From Hors d'Oeuvre at Home with the Culinary Institute of America. Score out of 17: 7.28 # of "Must Serve at Party" rankings: 7 Best Appetizer rating: No one. Comments: "Concern over good melons in winter" (Joel), "Very good -- even better than the Elephant Ears" (Mike), "Good taste, but one of my melon balls fell on the floor!" (Jim), "Incredible" (Em), "Wow" (Rachel). By far the most visually appealing dish. Not overly hard to make.
#8: Steamed Wontons with Shrimp and Ginger Sauce Wontons from Hors d'Oeuvre at Home with the Culinary Institute of America. Sauce is our Lumpia Roll sauce. Score out of 17: 8.19 # of "Must Serve at Party" rankings: 8 Best Appetizer rating: Joel Comments: "Sauce is excellent and would make anything taste good" (Jim), "And you didn't think they'd be good" (Rachel), "Fantastic sauce" (Jeff), "Sauce amazing - wontons so-so" (Jean), "Incredible" (Em), "Sauce makes it!" (Suzy). The story behind these -- Suzy and I made them a few weeks early and froze them. We both thought they were horrible -- bland and starchy. We changed the filling twice, and unfortunately the last time I put so much ginger in that you couldn't even taste the shrimp. We both decided that they needed a sauce (the cookbook says to serve them plain), so we made the tart and gingery Lumpia roll sauce. They still fill me with anger, but we have 80 or so still frozen that we can serve at the party.
#9: Pimento Cheese Toasts From Gourmet, January, 2008. Score out of 17: 9.19 # of "Must Serve at Party" rankings: 4 Best Appetizer rating: No one. Comments: "Sleazy & delish! USA!" (Mike), "The first pimento I've ever liked!" (Em). From the comments afterwards, clearly many people have some scarred memories involving pimento cheese. This recipe calls for cheddar and roasted red peppers, so it's not a standard pimento cheese. Easy to make. I'm guessing it would have ranked higher had it not used the word "Pimento" in the title.
#10: Chive and Cucumber Sandwiches From Hors d'Oeuvre at Home with the Culinary Institute of America. Score out of 17: 9.34 # of "Must Serve at Party" rankings: 3 Best Appetizer rating: No one. Comments: "Bad bread" (Jim), "Too boring" (Jean), "Great - kind of summery" (Jeff), "Good with wine" (Em), "Too much bread - open face would be better" (Sam), "Simple and wonderful - too summery?" (Mike), "Nice and easy to eat" (Suzy - same comment on three sandwiches), "Nice and crisp" (Marye-Lois). A lot of opinions on this one. White bread on top and wheat beneath.
#11: Chicken Pesto Foccacia Sandwiches From Bon Appetit, July, 2003. Score out of 17: 9.94 # of "Must Serve at Party" rankings: 5 Best Appetizer rating: No one. Comments: "Too bready, apples are nice though" (Mike), "A bit boring" (Suzy), "Foccacia dry and bulky - might be great on thin white bread, like Pepperidge Farm" (Jean), "Favorite of the sandwiches - great apple crunch" (Jeff), "Apples make a great addition" (Rachel). I think the foccacia hurt this one -- like Jeff, it was my favorite sandwich with the three contrasting flavors and textures: chicken, pesto, apples. We may redo this with a different bread.
#12: Chinese Skewered Pork Bites, with sauce From Hors d'Oeuvre at Home with the Culinary Institute of America. Score out of 17: 10.28 # of "Must Serve at Party" rankings: 3 Best Appetizer rating: Ray. Comments: "Sauce good; pork dull; easy to eat" (Jim), "Meat slightly dry" (Sylvia), "Pork too dry; needed to use my fingers with the skewer" (Jean), "Liked the mix with the plum sauce - need better pork" (Linda), "Good, but overwhelmed by the other two in the course" (Jeff). I think this was unanimous -- bad pork, great sauce. It has potential.
#13: Blue Cheese Tartlets From Hors d'Oeuvre at Home with the Culinary Institute of America. Score out of 17: 11.10 # of "Must Serve at Party" rankings: 4 Best Appetizer rating: No one. Comments: "Like mini-quiches; need less dough" (Jim), "Great" (Em), "Ranked 16, and that's not just because it's blue cheese" (Joel), "You should add a fruit garnish, like raspberry" (Sylvia), "Sundried tomato tarts were better" (Rachel), "Good blue tart" (Jeff), "Tart shell not great" (Jean). The clear loser of the two tarts. This dough was homemade again, but an easier and thicker dough than the puff pastry. It's also incredibly unhealthy.
#14: Roast Beef and Stilton Sandwiches From Hors d'Oeuvre at Home with the Culinary Institute of America. Score out of 17: 12.19 # of "Must Serve at Party" rankings: 1 Best Appetizer rating: No one. Comments: "Better with a milder blue cheese" (Mark), "Great for blue cheese lovers" (Jeff), "Bread was a little dry and the flavors did not mix as well" (Rachel), "Pumpernickel a little fragile" (Joel), "Excellent (love the greens, too)" (Mike), "Different bread would be better; flank steak would be better!" (Jean), "Lovely blue cheese" (Marye-Lois), "Way too strong" (Suzy), "The Stilton is great!" (Em), "Would be better with regular blue cheese" (Melony), "Good filling, crappy bread" (Jim). Since Stilton is exceptionally strong, I think this one came down to who really likes strong blue cheese. Obviously the bread wasn't a hit.
#15: Devilled Ham and Pecan Sandwiches From Gourmet, January, 2008. Score out of 17: 12.28 # of "Must Serve at Party" rankings: 2 Best Appetizer rating: No one. Comments: "Not my taste" (Em), "Would taste better with a 'sweet' ham salad" (Linda), "Serve on something nicer than white bread" (Joel), "Too heavy on the gherkins" (Jim), "Nice and easy to eat" (Suzy), "Nice crust (?) on ham salad" (Mike), "Least favorite sandwich" (Jeff).
#16: Crab Empanadas From Food & Wine, December, 2006. Score out of 17: 13.125 # of "Must Serve at Party" rankings: 0 Best Appetizer rating: No one. Comments: "Good; love crab" (Jeff), "Cold; not good; peppers not good" (Jean), "Crumbly" (Sam). Joel and I fought this recipe for two days -- it's a typical Food & Wine recipe: two columns of text, anal preparation, and when you get down to it, not that good. This is the second year in a row that Food & Wine delivered a difficult and lame recipe.
#17: Ham and Cheese Skewers From Southern Living, October, 2007. Score out of 17: 13.84 # of "Must Serve at Party" rankings: 1 Best Appetizer rating: No one. Comments: "A little hard to eat -- came off the skewer" (Sylvia), "Too boring" (Jeff), "Will be difficult to eat at the party" (Marye-Lois), "Hard to eat" (Jim), "Love the blue cheese and the ham; hard to taste it all together" (Rachel), "Skewers too big -- needed to use my fingers" (Jean). Pretty unanimous. Too hard to eat.

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