Went to a party Saturday night...

And was asked to make my special party dish. It's something I got from mom, and then changed to my own taste. It all starts with the right ingredients, of course.

Friday night, I went to HEB (our local grocery store) and got a few thinly sliced steaks. I cut them into strips and marinaded them over night in wine, and various kinds of pepper and spices. Before starting to make this party dish, I cooked the steak strips in a skillet, in butter and more spices. Then they were set aside and the construction process began.



The other ingredients are red and green bell peppers, cut in thin strips, home made honey mustard (provided by the wife of a good friend - not sure what she puts in it but it ROCKS), and Swiss cheese (use whatever you like, but Swiss is my favorite). Of course, you need a beverage to keep you goin' in the hectic cooking process. Blue Moon is a great little Belgian style wheat ale, brewed in Canada. I've recently discovered it at another party, picked up a 6-pack, and have since grown to appreciate it.



I spread some flour on my cutting board and open a can of crescent rolls. I use the garlic flavored. I think it gives the treats a special taste. You can see little strips of cheese on the upper left, pre-cut so that I can get a factory line goin' here.



The crescent rolls come in a sheet of 8 triangles. Usually, when I make these for my own pleasure or for a meal, I use a whole triangle and roll it up with a daub of mustard, a piece of cheese, and a good portion of sliced ham from HEB. Once I roll it up I pinch off the ends and bake it for 15 minutes at 375 degrees. For lack of a better tern, I call it a ham and cheese kolache. people love the hell out of those, and 8 of them from one of these rolls will feed about three people easily.



For this party, I'm borrowing an idea from mom. When she makes "pigs in a blanket" (where I got these ideas), she cuts the triangles in half to get more out of a roll. She cuts little Jimmy Dean sausages in half and rolls them up in half a triangle and bakes them. The resulting treats are wonderful. For this party, I'm taking her idea and switching it to my recipe.



I take half a triangle. Squeeze out a daub of honey mustard, lay on a small brick of cheese...



Lay on a few strips of bell pepper, and the fajita beef, and roll it up.



Two rolls of Pillsbury crescent rolls ended up filling my larger oven tray. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and set the oven timer for 15 minutes. I found that since I was doing twice the load of treats this time, 15 minutes didn't do the trick. I checked them at 15, and then let them cook for a few more minutes.



When I took them out they looked like this. Too bad there isn't a scratch and sniff button on this thing. The garlic smell of the rolls is to die for. They went down well at the party.

Denise also made her party dip. It's great. She blends in a package of Philly cream cheese, sour cream, and taco seasoning, spreads that out on a tray, and then covers it with chopped lettuce, chopped onions and tomatoes, and then a blend of cheeses. She says some folks put refried beans or black olives on theirs, but this is good as it is.



It always goes over well too. The objective is to take a chip and scrape it along the tray, so that you get all this cheesy goodness mixed with lettuce and 'maters in one big bite. It's WONDERFUL!



Sunday was a lazy day. We slept in and lazed around till about 4PM, and then headed down to the Ikea store in Round Rock. I picked up a few nice new beer glasses, and a few little ones for sippin' this or that. Denise got some hangers. Then we went to J.C.Penny's. While I we were there, Jerry Wiley called from Houston (I think), asking me what those shrimp are called at Pappasito's. He was gonna take some friends there and needed to know the details about the shrimp and the good queso dip. I was glad to be of service.

We'd briefly talked about goin' on down to Austin and slidin' in to Pappasito's too, but then decided to try Johnny Carino's there in Round Rock. First, we went to Rudy's and I got about $50 bucks worth of sausage, brisket and cream corn. We'll eat off that all next week. Then we went to Carino's and had a great time. Denise had the Chicken Milano, and I had the Spicy Shrimp and Chicken. Big succulent shrimp and strips of chicken breast in an Alfredo sauce, with noodles, mushrooms and tomatoes.

It was GOOD. Hers was good too. We started with salads and bread, and I went through two loaves before I was done. I had three Shiners; one at the bare before we got our seats, one with the salad, and one with dinner. Denise had to explain the Shandy concoction yet again. You should have seen the wide eyes of the other patrons at the bar.
The bar tender actually knew what it was, but the other drinkers were like"What did they put in there?" It's always funny.

So, I'm sippin' a Blue Moon in one of my new chilled glasses and she's havin a 7&7 while we watch Dane Cook on Comedy Central. Shit, I can't believe the weekend went by so fast. 7 new classes startin' at 8 friggin' AM.