Salmon and Asparagus party Sandwiches

The last couple of weeks I have been dealing with some health issues and while everything turned out better than expected, there have been some adjustments, and cooking has been very low in the priority list.

That is why Sweetbites has been a bit “dark”, as they say in the theater.

Then I took a quick little weekend trip to NYC, to meet up with “my people” to do some major wedding planning.

Happy to say, that we accomplished tons in 4 days.  Colors are down, flow of event, flowers, décor, wedding dress! Hair, makeup and all the stuff that you think do not take time, until you actually start to talk about it.  We had a conversation about cake for hours.  Especially when I announced that I did not want one.

I had a major revolt from everyone in the room.  Which then erupted in cries that I was crazy and “how I could possibly NOT HAVE CAKE at the wedding”.  My MOH even went has far as telling me that she would not attend unless I had cake.

I had no choice guys.

I gave in.

We are now having one.  No sense in fighting against the current on this one and “my people” can be very convincing.

Just like I’m going to convince you that these cute, tiny sandwiches are perfect for an afternoon snack.  You can certainly use them in special events, like I did when I hosted the tea party last month.  But, it makes a perfectly good spread to have hanging around in your refrigerator until it finds its way between two slices of bread for a quick sandwich.

You can poach some fresh salmon steak for it.  Or you can go the total lazy way and use canned salmon as well.  You can even use smoked if that is you preference.

The spread can be made an hour or two ahead and chilled; assemble sandwiches just before serving.

SALMON AND ASPARAGUS PARTY SANDWICHES 

• 2 cans of salmon (if you go the fresh salmon route, just poach your favorite way with some aromatics and then flake)
• 8 ounces of cream cheese – at room temperature
• ¼ cup sour cream
• 1 teaspoon coarse salt
• 1 teaspoon of lemon juice
• ½ teaspoon of hot sauce (I used Sriracha chili garlic sauce)
• 36 spears asparagus (about 3 pounds), ends trimmed
• ½ teaspoon of white vinegar
• 1½ loaves whole-grain bread, thinly slice 

Drain the salmon, flake the meat in a bowl. (Make sure the salmon is free of bones) add, the cream cheese sour cream, salt, hot sauce and lemon juice; stir to combine. Taste and adjust the seasoning as well by adding more salt or hot sauce. Set mixture aside.

Fill a large bowl with ice and water; set aside. Bring a wide, shallow pan of water, with the white vinegar, and a couple pinches of salt to a simmer over medium heat. Add asparagus; let simmer until tender, about 3 minutes. Transfer to the ice bath; let cool. Transfer to a cutting board, and slice the asparagus in half lengthwise; set aside.

Assemble the sandwiches: Spread reserved salmon mixture onto each slice of bread. Top half the slices with six asparagus-spear halves, then cover with the remaining slices of bread. Trim crusts, cut each sandwich into four triangles, and serve immediately.

Fior di Latte Gelato

It’s almost summer, which means that most of us will start cleaning out the grills, the backyards and prepping ourselves to melt under some of that Florida sunshine.

Not that we are not already doing that, but we may hold onto a couple of more weeks before we start to venture out of our nice cool a/c comfort.

Other than thinking about all the mouthwatering grilled food that we will be making, we are also thinking of food that will cool us off.

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Nonna's Crostata

My maternal grandmother was a true Italian socialite.  She had the most active social life of anyone that I have ever met.  When I was growing up, spending time with her meant going to afternoon coffee dates with her friends.  Playing canasta or poker at the country club most of Saturday afternoons and if there was a birthday, wedding, baby birth, baptism or any type of celebration within a 50-mile radius in our city, she was there, my sister and I at her heels.     

She was generous, funny, and knew EVERYONE. What she was not, however, was a fan of a kitchen.  Unlike my paternal grandmother, Nonna Franca was not a slave to her kitchen.  She could cook, but it was easy dishes, something that she could put together fast and be out of there to meet her social circle at the next bingo game.

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Sunday Afternoon Tea Party

I believe we should all celebrate more often.  Not just weddings, anniversaries, milestones and other major moments, but the everyday opportunities – the change of seasons, a new job or just the fact that I love cake! As I always like to point out, when opportunity knocks, answer the door and offer it some food and drinks!

And knock it did.

A few weeks ago I was approached by the marketing group for Donsuemor and told that they liked my collaboration so much during their “Dessert a day” campaign, they wanted to know if I would be interested in partnering with them once more.  They, along with Davidson’s Organics were looking for a few bloggers willing to host a tea party and use their respective products as part of the event.  

They did not have to ask me twice.  I jumped at the chance.

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Brown Butter Cake with Dark Chocolate Buttercream and Rich Chocolate Mousse Filling

This past week I had a cake fail moment.  It was one of those cakes that you think it totally going to work but upon tasting, it’s just not what you thought it was going to be.

So, I was cakeless and the bug of eating good cake stayed with me the rest of the week.

It was time to find a cake recipe that was labor intensive in order to occupy my Saturday.

I found it in February’s issue of Food & Wine magazine.  They talked about Tom Douglas cakes and how easy it was to make them at home. The featured recipe was his Brown Butter Layer Cake with Rich Chocolate Buttercream and Dark Chocolate Mousse Filling.

It had me at brown butter.

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Zucchini Chips

This post is going to be short and sweet savory.

I was in the kitchen making a salad.

And I found myself with left over zucchini. 

Had a light bulb moment and decided to make some chips out of them.

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Snacking Coconut Cake

I know that some of you were expecting to come here and see all the pretty pictures of the tea party that I hosted this past weekend.

And instead you are getting a post about coconut cake.

Life is unpredictable guys!

The tea party is a sponsor post, which means that I’m on a schedule set by Donsuemor and that post will not go up until the first week of May.

But, I promise that this cake is totally worth it.

It all started with a dream.  Seriously.  I dreamed of coconut and woke up with the thought of sweet coconut scenting the house.

Then I was craving chocolate.

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Blueberry Crumb Muffins

Yes my Sweetbites cooks, there are more blueberry posts coming your way.

Tom and the Mr. D decided to go blueberry picking yesterday and came back with EIGHT POUNDS OF BLUEBERRIES for me to work my magic with.

It was time to do same mass baking in order to make sure all EIGHT pounds of them would not go to waste.

The pitch started:

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Nonna's Semolina Cake

There is something comforting in having something sweet on top of a kitchen island.  While I was growing up the only time I experienced this was when I would visit my paternal grandparents.  My grandmother would always have snack cakes prepared and ready for anyone to eat if they were in the vicinity of the kitchen – and like a good Italian family – we were ALWAYS in the kitchen.  Most of the cake would last 2 days tops. Like a good Italian family, we would always sneak into the kitchen and take a little piece of cake until the next one appeared, just like magic.

This past week, I was looking through my old recipe notebook and came across the recipe, written in my 15 year old penmanship, with little flowers all around, which brought to mind how my grandmother would give me her recipe.  I would sit in this big kitchen table she had in the corner of the room and she would dictate what she will be doing.  Add a pinch of this, a tablespoon of that, a little bit of this… my grandmother was not big about keeping measurements - it was all in her head.

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Blueberry Pie for my Sweetie

This is my second attempt at pie.

It has been confirmed.

I suck at making pies.

Tom may disagree.

But, he is not the one that has to fight and shout at the stupid pie dough when it comes out of the resting stage in the refrigerator, and instead of being nice and pliable and smooth and silky when rolling out, I get a sticky, temperamental dough.

I hate PIE CRUST.

I’m 2 to 0 and piecrust is winning it.

Beating my ass, if I’m ever truthful.

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