Tag: Appetizer

Very Hungry Caterpillar Fruit Salsa with Cinnamon Tortilla Chips

Posted July 29, 2021 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 0 Comments

As you may recall, the Very Hungry Caterpillar LOVES fruit. When he eats his week-long feast, fruit makes up most of his diet, so today we’re making a recipe that includes every fruit he ate Monday-Friday. Say hello to my 5 Fruit Salsa!

This salsa is composed of finely diced apples, pears, plums, and strawberries generously drizzled with a refreshing clementine white balsamic vinaigrette (the clementine is the 5th fruit). Of course, every salsa needs something to dip in it, so I baked up some flower-shaped cinnamon sugar tortilla chips.

This has to be of the easiest recipes I’ve ever made. Perfect to throw together before a party or as a snack! Munch on, little caterpillars! 😀

Very Hungry Caterpillar Sandwiches

Posted July 1, 2021 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 0 Comments

I was planning to do a Very Hungry Caterpillar menu next year, but after Eric Carle’s recent passing, I really wanted to do it now. It’s been comforting to spend the past month working on recipes inspired by his most famous character. It’s also given me an opportunity to talk with my 4-year-old about the Carle books we’ve read. I grew up with his books myself, and it fills me with warmth to know I’m passing on his legacy to another generation.

This Very Hungry Caterpillar menu is going to have a children’s party vibe, similar to last month’s Stuart Little menu. I know lots of people like to use Very Hungry Caterpillar as a birthday or baby shower theme, so I’m keeping that in mind as I plan.

Today’s super simple appetizer is just right for any kid who’s ever loved lunchables–we’re making Very Hungry Caterpillar sandwiches! I used spinach tortillas for the bread (don’t worry, you can’t really taste the spinach–at least I can’t). For the filling, I used American cheese and Genoa salami, but you can pick whatever meat/cheese combo your kids enjoy most. It took me less than 5 minutes to cut everything out, and the results were SO. FREAKING. CUTE. 😀

It’s super easy to scale the recipe up or down depending on how many you’re serving. There are about 5 sandwiches per hump in the caterpillar, so if you’re serving a small group, you can made individual caterpillars with one hump (just keep in mind you’ll need extra tomatoes for the heads). If you’ve got a large group and a big enough plate, you can add as many humps to the caterpillar as you want. A giant one would be lots of fun!

P.S. If your kids won’t touch anything spinach related (my 4-year-old is going through a no-green-things phase), you can make the same design using fruit or vegetables. For example, you could make a kiwi, watermelon, and mango body with blackberry feet and half an apple for a head. Or go the Caprese salad route with a cucumber, tomato, fresh mozzarella body and tiny basil leaves for feet. Have fun with it!

Mrs. Little’s Seed-Topped Banana Muffins

Posted May 6, 2021 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 0 Comments

Happy May, folks! I’m appreciating these few sunny spring days before there’s enough pollen to absolutely allergy-adle my brain. All the brightness and life outside has me in the mood for a fun new cooking project, so today we’re starting a menu inspired by STUART LITTLE! I just finished reading it with my 4-year-old as our first read-aloud chapter book, and he loved it (especially the roadster and Margalo). A light-hearted, kid-friendly menu would pair perfectly with the great weather. So let’s get started!

Mini Zopf Bread: Soft, White Rolls from HEIDI

Posted March 4, 2021 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 0 Comments

March is here and, with it, a new menu! For March-April, I’ll be making recipes inspired by the book HEIDI by Johanna Spyri. If you ever needed a sweet, wholesome read, this book’s for you. It’s a darling gem of a story about a little orphaned girl who goes to live with her grandfather in a cottage in the Swiss Alps, where she is a force for good in the life of everyone she meets.

If you’re familiar with the book, you know exactly what food we’re making today: the soft, white rolls! When Heidi befriends Granny, the goatherd’s grandmother, she learns the old woman cannot eat tough black bread. Since that’s the only kind of bread the family can afford, Granny hasn’t tasted bread in years. Heidi is extremely distressed by this, so when she’s served soft white rolls while staying in Frankfurt, she resolves to bring some home to Granny. At her departure, her friend Clara sends her home with a heaping basketful! The rolls are the most prominently featured food in the story–arguably synonymous with the book itself–so I knew they had to be the first item on the menu. Read More

Rustic Brown Bread from Jane Eyre

Posted January 7, 2021 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 0 Comments

Hello, 2021! If you guys caught my post yesterday, you’ve heard all about my blog plans for this year, so I won’t dive into the details here. The short, quick version is that I’m back to making 4-course menus for every book I cook here on the blog, albeit on a relaxed schedule. I’ll be spending 2 months on each book instead of 1 and posting a new recipe every other week. Read More

Apple Cider Crullers

Posted November 1, 2018 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 3 Comments

November has arrived and, with it, our brand new book of the month: The Legend of Sleepy Hollow! Normally I save spooky stories like this for October, but as I was rereading Sleepy Hollow in preparation for this menu, I noticed that pretty much all the food was perfect Thanksgiving fare: pies flavored with pumpkin and apples, dressed turkey, cider, and so much more! Thus, I decided to save this menu for November, when people would be hankering for classic autumnal flavors, rather than Halloween-specific recipes.

I’m starting things off with delicious apple cider crullers. When Ichabod Crane describes the delicious food served at the Van Tassel party, crullers are high on the list, as is cider, so I decided to make a recipe that combined the two together. I’d never made crullers before and originally planned to find a recipe online, but when I realized they’re made with choux pastry, I whipped up a batch of the trusty choux recipe from my cookbook, simply subbing apple cider for half the water. The icing was easy to improvise too: just make powdered sugar icing and use cider instead of milk for the liquid. These were scrumptious and fun, a big hit with everyone at our house. They were gone by the end of the day!

Scooby Snacks: Caramelized Honey Graham Crackers

Posted October 4, 2018 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 3 Comments

Zoiks! Halloween is just around the corner, and since it’s one of my favorite holidays, I always like to do a spooky menu here on the blog for October (check out my Edgar Allan Poe and Phantom of the Opera menus from previous years!). This year, I’m making a Scooby-Doo menu, starting with Scooby’s favorite treat: Scooby Snacks!

According to the creators of Scooby-Doo, Scooby Snacks are a sort of caramel-flavored cookie. However, Keebler’s boxed version and most of the homemade versions I’ve found online are honey or cinnamon graham crackers. Since I have something else in mind for our dessert recipe this month, I’m gonna stick with the honey graham cracker version.

The recipe I’m sharing today originally appeared on the Brown Eyed Baker Blog, though I made a few changes just to mix things up a little bit (I added cinnamon and vanilla and caramelized the honey). I LOVE Michelle’s recipes. They’re always reliable and delicious, and these grahams are no exception. They’re rich, crisp, and buttery—with an extra nuttiness from the caramelized honey. I caramelized it using a technique I found on Bee America. It’s a quick, super easy way to make honey-flavored bakes a bit more special, and I definitely plan on trying it with other recipes in the future. Maybe I should caramalize my honey-glazed grilled peaches next time I make them!

P.S. The Little Mister LOVES these. I’ve already started saying, “You don’t want to put your socks on? Will you do it…FOR A SCOOBY SNACK?” XD

Farmer’s Cheese

Posted September 6, 2018 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 0 Comments

Guys, I made CHEESE!! 😀 I’ve been inching my way towards trying cheesemaking for years, and this week I found just the right recipe to inspire me to take the plunge. And it was fun! I’m so glad I did it, and I’m definitely doing it again.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s focus: new book menu. Starting today, we’ve got a new book of the month, and it’s Sarah Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan! I read it beginning to end on a long car ride a couple months ago, and I just knew I had to make a menu for it.

Much like my Little House on the Prairie menu, I wanted this one to feature rustic foods inspired by farm life. I knew homemade cheese would make a perfect appetizer, but I didn’t want anything too complicated. Cheesemaking has simultaneously fascinated and intimidated me for ages, so as much as I wanted to try it, I avoided recipes with scary words like “rennet” and “calcium chloride.” After all, I figured farmers like Jacob Whitting in Sarah Plain and Tall often had to make do with little, so I wanted a cheese that I could make with just some basic ingredients.

That’s when I found out about farmer’s cheese. It’s a simple, relatively quick cheese that, though pretty flavorless on its own, is fantastic when you mix a few choice seasonings into the base. There are several varieties, but I like this version from Pocket Pause. It’s one of the more basic recipes I’ve seen, and it turned out great on my first try! It’s a little like feta, except denser and less tart. Depending on how long you drain it, it can have a similar crumbly texture to feta or be a bit more spreadable. I spread some on bread for a quick snack, but you can also crumble it on a top of a salad, serve it on roasted vegetables, or put it in a sandwich.

Ogion’s Fried Honey Basil Goat Cheese Bites

Posted July 5, 2018 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 4 Comments

Welcome to our Wizard of Earthsea menu! I wanted to start the Earthsea series for years, and a few months ago I finally got around to it. It felt a little slow at first, though this may be due to the fact I read it as an audiobook and wasn’t in love with the narration style. However, I stuck with it, and around chapter 5 things REALLY picked up. Forbidden magic, shadow monsters, dragons—I was hooked!

I wanted to start off our menu with a nod to one of my favorite characters: Ogion, the reclusive wizard who lives deep in the wilderness and acts as Ged’s first master. His gentle guidance and wisdom are a great foil to the rashness of Ged’s youth. Since Ogion loves his goats and has been known to serve cheese to his rare visitors, I loved the idea of making a goat cheese appetizer. I hunted through Pinterest for inspiration and came across this recipe for fried goat cheese balls with honey. It sounded just right for Ogion, so I whipped up a batch with a couple changes to make it my own: I mixed chopped basil into the cheese for a bit of freshness and swapped out the original Honey Bunches of Oats coating for panko crumbs. You can definitely try the cereal coating if you want (it sounds delicious!); I just felt like a simple bread crumb was more in keeping with Ogion’s humble home.

I know goat cheese isn’t everyone’s cup of tea and fried goat cheese with honey may sound a little odd, but oh my gosh, guys. The FLAVORS. There’s a bit of tang from the cheese balanced with just the right amount of freshness and sweetness from the basil and honey. You get two different textures too: the crisp outer panko layer and the creamy inner cheese. The flavors and textures all come together to make a perfectly balance bite that, despite having so many distinct components, feels simple and fresh.

So even if you’re not big on goat cheese, I recommend giving this one a try. I DEFINITELY think Ogion would approve. 🙂

Neelix’s Algae Puffs

Posted June 7, 2018 by Alison's Wonderland Recipes in Book of the Month Recipes / 2 Comments

When I first decided to make a Star Trek: Voyager menu, I started hunting through Memory Alpha for recipe inspiration. Unlike the other Star Trek series I’ve seen, this series features a HUGE amount of food, since the ship’s cook (Neelix) is one of the main characters. As I scrolled through his various creations, algae puffs jumped out at me. They appeared in S3E6 (Remember) when Neelix serves them to an Enaran diplomat, but it isn’t their significance to the series that got my attention. It was the fact that they reminded of a recipe I already make all the time! 🙂

Everyday for lunch, my husband packs a spinach and cheese omelet, which means we ALWAYS have a bag of spinach in our fridge. However, he doesn’t need a ton of spinach per omelet, and our grocery store only sells it in big bags (they technically have small bundles of organic spinach, but it’s rarely in good condition and costs as much as a bag). Which means every week I’m scrambling to figure out how to use up almost an entire bag of spinach before it goes bad.

Enter these delicious, healthy spinach muffins from SuperHealthyKids.com. They feature whole wheat flour, honey, and a whopping 6 ounces of spinach. I stumbled upon the recipe after I decided I couldn’t eat one more bite of sauteed spinach ever again in my life. And these are GOOD. I love them; the Mister loves them; the baby loves them. They’re gone in a day or two every time I make a batch.

When I read up on Neelix’s algae puffs, I knew this was the way to go. So buckle up, crew, we’re off to bake some tasty green muffins!