party Archives - Chef Lindsey Farr

Brown Sugar Pecan Stuffed Pears

December 2, 2015

These Brown Sugar Pecan Stuffed Pears are d’Anjou pears stuffed with a simple mixture of brown sugar, cinnamon, cardamom and toasted pecans then wrapped in a flakey pastry, sprinkled with more sugar and topped with a warm butterscotch sauce.

I know you have all been waiting with baited breath for what I made with that all that pie crusts from my tutorials! Well here you have it!

These pears are Winter Comfort Food incarnate.
Simple in it’s construction but incredibly flavorful. The flavors all blend together in the oven and then the textures delight the tastebuds! Flakey, buttery pastry; warm pears that still have a little bit of firmness, crunchy pecans, and a silky smooth butterscotch sauce.

Nothing says “Welcome Cold Weather” like warm pears stuffed with brown sugar, cinnamon, cardamom and toasted pecans.

When baked the filling liquefies and becomes a delicious, sugary sauce.

And then because that isn’t enough sauce (really what is?) I poured on a generous quantity of my homemade butterscotch sauce.

And then I just kept pouring.

I can’t even with the butterscotch, brown sugar, pear, and cinnamon combo. Cannot.

Don’t you just want to dive in there face first like a baby dives into the cake at his first birthday party?
Just me?
Mentirosos. [Pardon me. I’ve been learning Spanish at work…I’ve learned all the key words like “liars” and “May I please borrow your scale”]

These pears would be a stunning finale to any dinner party or date night. You can prepare them in advance and then pop them in the oven for 30 minutes or you can bake them the day before an just warm them in the oven before serving.

Buffalo Chicken Blue Cheese Hand Pies

October 20, 2015

These Buffalo Chicken Blue Cheese Hand Pies have all the flavor of buffalo chicken wings and blue cheese stuffed inside a buttery pastry baked to flakey perfection.

Mmmm flakey perfection.

Get it girl.

Or should I say boy? Because that’s what we are celebrating here! David from Spiced is having a little baby boy, and these hand pies are my contribution to his MANLY baby shower.

David and I go way back. I love me some Spiced.

He is my go-to resource for “man-food”. He tosses around buffalo sauce, bacon and all things grilled like it ain’t no thang.

But it also always has a refined twist. It’s not just grilled meat on a plate caveman style. No, no. Everything he makes is beautiful and, yet, appeals to the tastebuds of those with a y-chromosome. {If it’s been awhile since High School biology, that is nerd speak for “men” 😉 }

All I can say is that this baby is one lucky taste-tester!

Tasked with creating man-food that was David-worthy, I had a momentary freakout and then remembered buffalo wings. Is there anything more manly than buffalo chicken wings? Psh. No.

Fine motorcycles, but those aren’t edible.

So I wrapped up all that manly flavor in a beautifully flaky, all-butter pâte brisée, which is fancy French for “pie crust”. {Not literally, but we can talk more about that some other time…today is about David…and mini David.}

Ice Cream Cookie Stacks

August 10, 2015

Layers of ice cream stacked on top of chewy cookies make the perfect Summer dessert!

Ice cream. Summer. Parties. (Preferably with a grill or a rooftop…maybe both, but beggars can’t be choosers.) Ice cream. It’s become my mission. Now that culinary school is over (tear), there is a huge void in my life where all that sugar used to be. I’ve decided that the responsible thing to do in this situation is to eat as much ice cream as possible. So you can imagine that when McConnell’s offered to ship me pints of ice cream to try, I was more than moderately excited. Oh happy day! Beacuse McConnell’s uses only local ingredients, cage free eggs, and grass-grazed milk, it means that their ice cream is happy ice cream; and you can taste the difference. Rich, creamy, incredibly flavorful – you can tell that this ice cream is made with love. The Eureka Lemon Marionberries ice cream is bright with a little tang but still incredibly creamy; the Salted Caramel Chocolate Chip is rich and flavorful with the perfect amount of chocolate chips; and the Double Peanut Butter Chip is, well, God’s gift to the peanut butter lover. How do you make fantastic, happy ice cream better? You add a cookie. Obvi. Now there is nothing wrong with an old-fashioned ice cream sandwich, but sometimes you want something a little fancier. Like a perfectly cylindrical ice cream stack kind of fancy. Layers of complementary ice cream flavors and a little whipped cream stacked on top of a chewy cookie. How could you go wrong? {hint: you can’t} You know that feeling when you walk into an ice cream shop and you want to try everything, and then, once you do, you want to order every flavor? Welcome to my life. #thestruggleisreal I have fixed that problem here. (You’re welcome.) There are endless flavor combinations but I stacked Turkish Coffee and Salted Caramel Chip on top of a chocolate chip cookie (hello, heaven); and Eureka Lemon Marionberry and lemon whipped cream on top of a sugar cookie. If you pull these sassy, little ice cream cookie stacks out at the end of a Summer party, you’ll be the talk of the town. You can pick them up and bite into them or you can use a spoon like a civilized person. No judgement. And because little stacks of cookies and ice cream weren’t enough to make your day bright, McConnell’s ice cream is giving away 6 pints of ice cream!!

In case you don’t win but you still want to have rich and creamy, happy ice cream delivered to your door, McConnell’s can make that happen. It will be like Christmas in August.

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Ice Cream Cookie Stacks {And a Giveaway!}

Ingredients

Ice Cream, slightly softened
Whipped Cream
Chocolate Chip, Sugar or Peanut Butter Cookies

Instructions

I used 1 ¾ x 1 ¾ inch ring molds to build a perfect cylinder, but you can also make them in a miniature cheesecake pan with removable bottoms. You can also make them in mini muffin tins but they will be more difficult to remove and will not be perfectly cylindrical.
Bake and cool your cookies. They should be slightly larger than the mold that you are using.
Press the ring mold over the center of the cookie like a cookie cutter; leaving the cookie inside the mold. This is your base.
Make sure your ice cream is soft but not melted. You can microwave it for 5-10 second to soften it if needed. Spoon a little of your first flavor into the mold and press it down with an offset spatula. Freeze solid.
Repeat the last step with your second flavor and freeze. If you are going to add a layer of whipped cream, leave a little space at the top.
I recommend freezing them overnight (without whipped crem) to make sure they come out of the mold easily without smearing.
When you are ready to remove the rings, gently but firmly press the cookie up through the mold like a push-pop. Place on a tray and freeze until ready to serve.

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All images and content are copyright protected. Please do not use my images without prior permission. If you want to republish this recipe, please re-write the recipe in your own words, or link back to this post for the recipe. Thanks!

McConnell’s Ice Cream graciously sent me ice cream to try, but, as always, the opinions and recipes in this post are my own.

So you like Ice Cream too?

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Parmesan Garlic Knots {Guest Post}

January 28, 2015

These Parmesan Garlic Knots are an easy, addicting appetizer for game day or any party! Soft homemade pizza dough knots topped with garlic, butter and Parmesan cheese! I know I’ll be reaching for another!

I am super excited to introduce you to one of my blogging Besties (Can you say that outside of High School? Not sure. Sorry, David!)!

David blogs over at Spiced, where he bakes and cooks up the most fantastic creations! He is my go-to for Manly Foods like this Roasted Potato, Bacon & Onion Pizza and this Bacon and Jalapeño Stuffed Pork Tenderloin, but he also bakes up drool worthy breads, donuts (& Apple Fritters!!!) and desserts like these Turtle Brownies. Just try and tell me you can resist those brownies dripping with caramel and pecans. I think not.

I know you are dying to reach in and grab one of these Parmesan Garlic Knots but I’m not quite ready to let Dave have you.

I found David on Instagram of all places! He left an hilarious comment on one of my posts and then I was intrigued by our shared love of reading The Complete Works of Sherlock Holmes over and over again (and food, obvi). I clicked over to his blog and I’ve been hooked ever since! I feel super lucky to have him as a friend, mentor and general flavor inspiration!

Hey there, American Heritage Cooking fans! I’m Dave from Spiced, and I’m dropping by today to bring you this awesome recipe for Parmesan Garlic Knots. As I’m sure you know, Lindsey is up in NYC settling into her gig learning how to be a pastry chef. I’m seriously jealous of her skills, and I’m sure we’ll be seeing the results of her classes here soon. But for now, it’s almost Super Bowl time…and that means we need delicious Super Bowl snacks. These Parmesan Garlic Knots are a favorite in our house, and I hope you enjoy them as much as we do!

Although Lindsey is up in NYC at the moment, she calls Atlanta home. I also spent a number of years living in the A, but sadly I didn’t know Lindsey back then. It’s probably a good thing since I would have been begging her to make me cupcakes all of the time. In fact, I was what you might call lazy back then. I played a lot of video games and made a lot of quick (aka “really bad for you”) dinners. After all, it was just me and my dog, so the thought of actually making a real dinner after a long day at work just didn’t sound like fun. (The weekends were another story, however…but there were still only 2 days and just 1 person to eat all of the food.)

Homemade Marshmallow Frosting Smores Sticks

November 10, 2014

An easy, finger-food dessert that is perfect for parties, barbecues, or just Friday Night. A thin layer of milk chocolate ganache is spread onto Graham crackers and topped with homemade marshmallow frosting!

Easiest cooked frosting ever. Seriously cannot believe how fast this was and how little work I actually had to do to make it. That’s my kind of frosting! And making it gives you free license to torch things!

It’s like I missed my calling as a welder or something.

When my husband and I were in Chicago last week, we took a little evening trip to Richardson’s Farm, which is home to the largest corn maze in the world. Yes, the whole world.

We did the whole shebang: took a tracker ride, braved the corn maze, ate some kettle corn, climbed a tower and watched some teenagers shine super powerful lights on people in the maze (hi-larious, btw), drank some hot cider, ate some more kettle corn, and warmed ourselves beside a campfire.

What was this idyllic little scene missing? S’mores. (Obvi.)

Before I had time to fully lament our lack of forethought, my husband was off to a neighboring campsite to commandeer us a s’more. {Just kidding, he asked politely.}

One lone s’more between the two of us.

And it was AWESOME.

We smelled like a campfire for weeks but it was totally worth it for that little shared bit of melty, marshmallowy happiness.

These Homemade Marshmallow Frosting Smores Sticks are my tribute. Nothing competes with a campfire s’more (except maybe these smores crumble bars) but these little S’mores Sticks come close.

Saucy Chipotle Maple Baked Chicken Wings

October 18, 2014

Juicy, tender Chipotle Maple Baked Chicken Wings are rubbed in a dry spice rub then baked to crisp perfection before being tossed in a Chipotle Maple sauce that will have you licking your fingers and reaching for more!

I created a monster with my Spice Rack Dry Rubbed Chicken Wings. My husband used to have to beg for us to go to a wing restaurant so he could order chicken wings and now he asks me to pick up a pound of mixed wings at the farmers market and I pick up two!

Dry-rubbed wings are delicious, but messy, saucy wings are even better! The sweet-spicy combo on these wings is out of this world!

First I rubbed a spicy, brown sugar chipotle dry-rub on the wings and then after baking we tossed them in a Chipotle Brown Sugar Sauce to amp up the flavor.

Messy, sweet and spicy, and totally addictive! We made a pound of wings just for the two of us and after the photoshoot, my husband said, “Is this it? Where are yours?”