Lindrusso, how were Martha's appetizers?

[JodiL]

The "what's for dinner" thread got very long, so I thought I'd ask you directly how your husband's surprise dinner went? I just bought the Martha Stewart Hors D'eouvres Handbook and am anxious about reviews!

Thanks, Jodi

[lindrusso]

Jodi,

Hi there. I'm still recovering from all the cooking....I think I bit off more than I could chew!

But seriously, they came out pretty well considering they were all first-time recipes.

We both liked the Beef Empanaditas the best. The dough was very easy to work with. I still have a quite a bit of filling left over, so I think I will try assembling a few and freezing them unbaked. I've done this with a similar recipe (mushroom crescents) and it usually works fine.

The Fontina Risotto Balls were quite good as well. The only thing I didn't like about them was the coating of cornmeal. We did a thread of aversions and I forgot that I can't stand cornmeal in or on anything other than cornbread (I hate it when they use it for pizza or bagels). I think I'd roll the risotto balls in very fine bread crumbs instead.

The Fried Ravioli were very tasty as was the spicy sauce that goes with them. The recipe calls for frying basil leaves! I thought that was very strange but I had to try it. Suffice it to say that the huge mess it made in my kitchen was not worth the end result.

The Wild Mushrooms in Parmesan-Pepper Tartlets were quite tasty as well. This was my first attempt at tartlets. They can be time-consuming, but the shells can be made ahead and frozen.

All in all, I would make each of these recipes again. And my husband was a very happy camper!! He requested homemade ice cream sandwiches (using chocolate chocolate chip cookies)for dessert - they were the easiest part of the whole dinner!

I'm definitely going to have to buy this book!!