Baby Shower Food

To answer your question, no. I'm not one of those people that's good at doing themed food for parties.  There is nothing wrong with those of you who are creative enough to put that together but its definitely not this girl. 

On top of the Rosemary Goat Cheese and Steak Crostini I made for my best friend's shower I threw in a few other simple things that I thought I should highlight.  I didn't take many pictures while making them since they're not beef based but they're tasty nonetheless!

Tortilla Roll Ups!
These are so simple its almost silly.  Whip up some cream cheese and chopped black olives.  While thats working, lay some dill pickle spears out on a towel to drain some of the liquid off. ( Nobody likes a mushy roll up)  Once they're relatively dry, slice them thinly length wise.  Take a flour tortilla, toast it lightly on a flat pan over low heat, shmear the cheese mixture, a little ground pepper and lay the spear on the outer edge of the tortilla and roll tightly! Slice on an angle and devour.

Audra's Chicken Dip-
Our friend Audra who is a fantastic caterer made this chicken dip for an event of ours and we all fell in love with it.  I cringed a little when I found out what was in it but all the good things are bad for us, right?Depending on how many people you're going to serve you can cut this in half.  My recipe is for 25-30 people.  2 cups cream cheese, 2 cups sour cream, 4 chicken breasts cooked slowly in 1 can of rotel then shredded, 2 cups shredded cheese, 1 jar salsa, 1 jalapeno, S&P to taste.  Decandent, dangerous, and delicous!

Bruschetta-
Dice 2 large tomatoes, 4 cloves of garlic, and 6-8 leaves of basil.  Toss together in olive oil and S&P. Let meld in the fridge for about an hour.  Serve over grilled or toasted sliced baguette.

And dont forget dessert! Mini Cupcakes from Baby Cakes

Thats it! Fun times, great shower, beautiful mom to be!!

Rosemary Goat Cheese and Steak Crostini

Hold onto your socks, people. This one is a doozy.  I recently made this for my best friend's baby shower and from what I could gather from the murmurs and finger licking... they turned out pretty good .

Remember this guy? Balsamic Steak well we're going to marinate round steak the same way. You can really use any cut you want since a lot of the fibrous tissue will break down in the vinegar. I used round because we have a lot of it and I was making this for around 30 people. 

I had mine in the marinade for 2 days but I think 6-10 hours would suffice.  While you're waiting on that, throw a couple fresh red peppers on the grill over high heat.  You want them to be black to a crisp without breaking the skin ( that's where all the yummy juices are hiding) so keep an eye on them but this is a pretty low maintenance process.  If you don't have a grill or its raining or snowing, Please don't go outside.  Simply stick them on your gas stove or under the broiler.   If you go the broiler route, I'd put a pan on the rack underneath to catch any smoke causing drips.    Once they're nice and black, throw them in a paper sack, wrap it up and wait for them to cool down.  From there you peel the peppers trying to catch as much of the juice as possible without the seeds, put into a bowl with a few cloves of chopped garlic and some olive oil and chill for a couple hours.  You can certainly add parsley to this for a pretty color.

Next, chop up a small handful of fresh rosemary ( now, I picked this because I love rosemary and beef but if you can't find it or you have another herb growing in your garden, by all means, use that! It's just a nice extra flavor)  and add it to your log of goat cheese.  I whipped mine up in my Kitchen Aid to make it a little more spreadable and airy.   ... are you starting to see where I'm going with this?

Grill your steak, about 2-3 minutes per side for round over medium heat.  Slice and taste :)  Slice up a large baguette on a slant, drizzle with olive oil and grill for a couple minutes until crispy.  Now we assemble! Baguette, goat cheese shmear, arugula sprigs, steak, roasted red pepper and another drizzle of olive oil and a little sea salt on top. Voila! Now eat!!