Saturday night has always been a night for traditions. When I was a child, it was a bath followed by popcorn and a movie or story read by one or the other of my parents. Later on it was hunkering down with a good book, a tradition that continued through my college years. In those days, more often than not, my reading ritual was accompanied by Dick Bartley's Solid Gold Saturday Night. There were, of course, the Saturday nights I prepared a meal for a male friend, someone who'd take me to movies when I was between boyfriends, which seemed to be all the time in those days.
These days, Saturday nights are usually cocooning at home nights. We've amassed a pretty good sized collection of DVDs. My husband, a cinematography major, is into film noir at the moment. I am into any movie that takes place in Europe.
And we are into finger foods. Amuse bouche. Appetizers. Hors d'ouevres.
Instead of a full-fledged supper, that is. This is something that was not so long ago relegated to Christmas or New Year's Eve. Now we do it all the time.
More often than not, this casual meal includes deviled eggs, raw vegetables and dip, and something with cheese, roasted red peppers, sun-dried tomatoes and olives. The Italian Market where we do most of our shopping has a great antipasto bar, and I will often concoct something based on whatever the bar is featuring that day.
Tonight, I made roasted red pepper and goat cheese toasts, very simple but tasty. Slice a baguette, spread it with goat cheese (I add some cream cheese to make it spreadable) and top it with red pepper you have roasted yourself, or spooned from a jar. Bake at 375 degrees for 5 minutes and then top it with a fresh basil leaf.
Another favorite is goat cheese with sun-dried tomatoes, bundled into puff pastry sheets or - gasp - croissant or biscuit dough. I've made my own dough, but in these days of 12-hour work days, that is not often possible.
On finger food nights, I try to go heavy on the protein, low on the carbs. Tonight was an exception, because I had this goat cheese to use up, and it's much better when paired with bread or crackers.
Now to find just the right DVD to watch . . .
14 comments:
I love food traditions! Last year we were into pizza on Saturday night, sometimes homemade but often purchased from a traveling pizzamaker who sets up in our village that evening.
Finger foods sounds like a good one too, though, especially as they would enable us to get to watching a DVD if we want to without it being too late.
It's also our dinner party night too, so lots of them are taken up with that.
Our Saturday's are always the big meal of the week - best cut of meat, fanciest sides, starter, etc.
Sunday is our more casual day, with a risotto, pasta or soup in winter, and, this time of year, homemade pizza.... Yay!
I love your finger-food theme...
We're doing more and more small things. Even the healthy foods seem a little sinful (and so better) when they're in small bites.
BC, I do not recall seeing one of those pizza carts, but I have certainly heard about them. Next time, maybe. I just like the idea of getting a pizza that way some time. There was a time when Saturday was our entertaining night, too, but as our jobs became more demanding, that changed. We are too tired!
Katie, for some reason big Saturday meals have not caught on at our house. We do that once in a while, still. It is usually my stew or onion soup night, in winter anyway.
Tanna, I think you are on to something there!
Like Katie, I often do a "big" cooking on Saturdays, which is when we often entertain. Then, on Sundays, we have "fridge dump" -- leftovers, sometimes concoctions made from a week's worth of accumulated leftovers, or total pantry inventions. I like your Saturday tradition -- much more elegant!
Think I'll be starting this tradition this weekend...the Bears and the Cubs, ya know, those great Chicago teams.
Gotta have fun food for "the game"
Funny, even when we had people in for dinner on Saturdays, it was always casual, like lasagna or beef stew, Lydia. I never did anything terribly elegant on Saturdays.
CF, I have to admit that football games on TV put me to sleep, especially if I have just eaten.
My husband and son latched onto the Christmas Eve hors d'oeuvre tradition years ago -- despite my efforts to explain it was not "easier" than preparing a traditional holiday meal, but it made for a simply, cozy night by the fire. Perfectly suits my idea of a perfect Saturday night too!
Hi Mimi, I love your Saturday night theme. I usually do something fast and light and make it a night to relax with a movie or book after a busy day of cleaning and errands. I think I'll have to start thinking more of a tapa theme. I usually try to fix something Sunday that has to cook awhile and will have leftovers for the week. Today it is a good pot roast with lots of veggies from the Farmers Market.
Cora, it is not easy at all. I literally spent all afternoon the day before Christmas making deviled eggs, bruchetta, roasted red pepper dip and other little things.
Hard work, but my kitchen in winter is a joy, as the window looks north over the horse barn and a sky that is usually filled with geese and whistling swans that time of year.
Judy, looks like we posted at the same second!
Your weekends are like mine, and so is your strategy! Great minds...
Great tradition, Mimi. We love a simple meal of assorted cheeses, a fresh loaf, some fresh fruit, marinated veggies and wine. And we put on a DVD also :)
Mimi...I get a wonderful log of goats cheese at Costco for under $6, so it is with great pleasure I see your recipes! My usual goats cheese concoction is one big slice of fresh tomato, topped with goats cheese, topped with pesto, topped with fleur-de-sel and fresh ground pepper, and perhaps a drop or two of good olive oil. Oh my goodness. Bliss.
I love the idea of a meal of finger-foods! I mean, an official meal, not the "grazing on party leftovers" type of meal we sometimes do. They're such fun foods.
Post a Comment