This is another one of those quick and dirty dessert recipes I love to have in my back pocket.

Ingredients:
6 frozen biscuits
3 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 375 F. Thaw the biscuits for about 20 minutes or until you can cut them into four quarters, 3 to 4 minutes.

Melt the butter and set it aside. Place the sugar in a small bowl and stir in the cinnamon. Set this aside. Spray a mini-muffin tray with oil. Dip each quarter into the melted butter, then shake around in the cinnamon-sugar. Place each quarter in a muffin tin. When all the quarters have been dipped and dredged and placed in the pan, place the pan in the oven.

Bake until the bottoms of the puffs have browned and they are lightly browned.
It should take about 15 minutes.

I love brownie mixes.
They’re quick, they’re easy and they’re free of that messy chocolate tempering.

But they’re a little blah.

There are some easy peasy brownie toppers that you just sprinkle on the old mix right before popping it in the oven.

From the Cake Mix Doctor:

Crushed peppermint candy
Chopped peppermint patties
Toffee bits
Chopped walnuts and semisweet chocolate chips
Dried sweetened cherries and milk chocolate chips
Chopped macadamia nuts and white chocolate chips
Minced dried apricots tossed with a dribble of almond extract
Miniature marshmallows and chopped milk chocolate bar with almonds
Dollops of raspberry jam
M&Ms

Happy brownie-ing!

There are tips for good hosting, yes.
But we mustn’t forget the tips for being a good guest.

I follow a few rules when I go over to friends’ homes to make sure that I’m welcomed back and not a burden.

1. Bring a gift for the host.

2. Show up on time or 30 minutes after the party starts depending on the type of party.

3. Leave while they’re still wanting more.

4. Talk no more than 10% of the time.

5. Don’t tell stories that embarrass your date or your host.

6. If you bring wine, please be okay with the fact that the host might not open it during the party. If you really really want them to open the wine while you’re there, let the host know upon arrival.

7. Don’t get too drunk.

8. Send a thank you note. Some folks send thank you emails and that’s also great. I just always love me a good thank you note.

9. Wear socks. Some hosts are weird about wearing shoes in their house. They ban it for the kids or the allergies. Be ready! Wear stockings or socks under your shoes so you’re not padding about their house barefoot.

10. Don’t leave right after the food is served unless you warn the host in advance. Eating and running is frowned upon in my house and it may be in your host’s as well.

Mmmm. Sausage Stuffed Mushrooms

Thanks be to the Food Network website for an always successful recipe from Rachael Ray.
I’ve made it. And quite simply, it rules.

Straight from the site:

Ingredients
1 tablespoon vegetable or olive oils
24 large gourmet stuffing mushroom caps, stems removed and reserved brushed with damp towel
Salt and pepper

Stuffing:
1 1/2 teaspoons vegetable or olive oils
3/4 pound sweet bulk Italian sausage
4 cloves garlic, chopped
20 stems mushrooms, finely chopped
1 rib of celery and green, leafy top from the heart of the stalk, chopped
1/2 small onion, chopped
1/2 small red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
1 10-ounce box chopped frozen spinach, defrosted and squeezed dry
3 slices white bread, toasted and buttered, chopped into small dice (I like to give it a whirl in the blender)
1/3 cup grated Parmigiano or Romano, 2 handfuls

Directions:

Preheat oven to 500 degrees F.

Heat a large skillet over medium high heat. Add oil and mushroom caps and season caps with salt and pepper. Saute caps 5 to 7 minutes, until they are lightly browned and tender on edges.

Turn caps up and let juices drain away from caps. Transfer caps to a small nonstick baking sheet. Wipe out skillet and return to heat. Add a touch of oil and sausage to the hot skillet. Brown and crumble sausage for 3 minutes.

In a food processor pulse and chop the garlic, add mushroom stems and pulse to chop the mushroom stems. Add celery, onion and red bell pepper to the mushrooms and pulse to chop.

Remove mixture from the processor and saute veggies and mushrooms over medium high heat another 3 to 5 minutes. Add dry, defrosted spinach and stir into stuffing.

Add chopped bread and cheese to the pan and toss stuffing until bread is moist and stuffing is combined, 2 or 3 minutes. Fill caps with stuffing using a small scoop or large spoon.

Place caps in hot oven and reduce heat to 450 degrees F. Bake 6 to 8 minutes to crisp edges of stuffing and set stuffing in mushrooms.

Transfer stuffed mushrooms to a serving plate.

2 tbsp honey
2 tbsp vegetable oil
2 tbsp granulated sugar
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp paprika
3 cups whole almonds — salted or unsalted
1 tsp kosher salt if the almonds are unsalted

Preheat oven to 350°.

Put a piece of parchment paper on a baking sheet with rimmed sides.

Stir honey with oil, sugar, cayenne pepper, paprika and salt in a large bowl. Add the nuts to the honey mixture. Mix it all together until all the nuts are coated evenly.

Spread the flavored nuts in a single layer on the parchment covered pan.
Bake the nuts on the middle rack of the oven. Bake nuts for roughly 15 minutes, stirring roughly every 2-3 minutes until the nuts are toasted and shiny.

Let nuts cool for a minute out of the oven, stir to break up clumps.

Put the glazey nuts in a beautiful bowl and watch your guests go a little crazy.

Ready for guests who like to consume beverages?

Following, you’ll find a few tips and tricks so you’re prepared.

Drinks tools
A bottle opener, a corkscrew (or a corkscrew with a bottle opener on it), cocktail shaker and strainer should be a great start to your home bar. Leave it out on a table so they can pour their own drinks while you’re still running around getting the shrimp cocktail finished.

Coasters
Don’t forget to leave coasters out if you don’t want water marks on your horizontal surfaces. We have an entertaining drawer, filled with cocktail picks and coasters.

Bottles to have on hand
Red wine (I’m partial to (oops) Carmenere Merlot)
White wine (ditto with the (oops) Sauvignon Blanc)
Sparkling wine
Club soda, seltzer or tonic
Sodas, like cola, ginger ale and lemon lime soda
Cranberry, grapefruit or orange juice
Beer
Vodka
A good Gin
Rum
Bourbon
Single-malt scotch
Bailey’s or Kahlua are fun to have on hand
Dry vermouth
Sweet vermouth
Bitters
Sour mix
Flavored liqueurs, like Triple Sec or Amaretto

Here in the Napa Valley, no party is complete without a whole lot of fancy or bottled waters for guests to choose from. It’s good for those guests who are driving.

Ready? Now let’s get to celebrating!

This recipe from epicurious.com is a tasty, refreshing and light end to a big holiday dinner.

It says on the web site that this would be delicious with lemon pound cake and, really, who am I to disagree with that?

Ingredients
1 bottle red wine, like (oops) Carmenere Merlot
1 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar
1 cinnamon stick, broken in half
8 oranges

Directions
In a large saucepan, put the wine, 1 cup sugar, and cinnamon. Bring it up to a rolling boil. Stir until the sugar dissolves. Continue to boil until the wine is reduced down to 1 cup. It will take about 18 minutes.

Cool syrup completely. Cover and chill until cold.

Use a grater to remove the peel from 2 oranges. Mix the finely grated peel and 1 tablespoon sugar in a small bowl.

Cut off the peel and white pith off of all the oranges.

Cut between the orange membranes to liberate the orange segments. Work over a large bowl to catch all the juice. Divide oranges and juice among 8 bowls. Drizzle syrup over and sprinkle with sugared orange peel.

The epicurious folks say you can make this 1 day ahead. Cover orange segments and sugared peel separately and chill. Dee-licious!

Centerpieces are usually the last thing I think about.
I mean, there’s food to prepare! Drinks to put out!

But there’s something about a table set with beige and brown foods that seems sort of sad and colorless.

Quite simply?
My favorite centerpiece is a bowl full of apples or lemons.
About.com has a great step-by-step guide showing you how to make a fruit and candle centerpiece
Artichokes are surprisingly decorative.

This recipe is from the imitable Ina Garten. It’s fast, it’s easy and it’s so delicious, your guests will elbow each other out of the way for first place at the bowl.

Ingredients
1 pound roasted unsalted cashews
2 tablespoons minced fresh rosemary leaves
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 teaspoons light brown sugar
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted

Instructions
Preheat the oven to 350 °F.
Spread the cashews out on a sheet pan. Toast in the oven until warm, about 5 minutes.

Mix the rosemary, cayenne, sugar, salt, and butter in a big bowl. Toss the warm cashews with the spiced butter and serve warm. Dang, thats tasty.

So you need to open a bottle of wine for a party and are a little intimidated?
Avoid that entertaining faux pas by reading on!

Equipment:
You can get a fancy corkscrew that costs upwards of a hundred dollars, but all you really need is what the folks call a “2-stage corkscrew,” or a “waiter’s corkscrew.”

First:
Take off the foil on the bottle using the little knife on the corkscrew. Cut around the bottom of the lip of the bottle so you can pull off all the foil easily.

Open the corkscrew so the corkscrew part is out. Point the point of the screw at the center of the cork. Push down hard and start turning the corkscrew through the cork.

Keep turning until only the last half of the last twist on the corkscrew is visible.

Now hook the first part of the lever onto the lip of the bottle. Use the handle as a lever to slowly lift the cork from the bottle. Once the handle is almost vertical, use the second lip of the tool to fully remove the cork.

If you break the cork, it’s cool, don’t freak. It happens quite a bit, especially with wines that are older.

All you have to do is remove the broken chunk of the cork from your corkscrew and start again. This time, just place the screw inside of the bottle neck. Slowly turn into the broken cork. Hold the neck of the bottle tightly. When the corkscrew has gone through the cork by a few turns, you can pull the other half of the cork out.

Or, you can just make sure you get screw top wines like (oops) Sauvignon Blanc — grin.