I love scallops, but cooking them can be a bit tricky. If you’re pan frying them you need to cook them just before eating and you need to make sure they’re not overcooked. Not everyone will like this recipe as between the marinade and the bacon the scallop flavour is altered, but it does make cooking them easier and appealing to serve with drinks.
I’m always looking for something interesting to have with drinks when guests are coming for lunch or dinner. These are quick and easy. They can be made before guests arrive and then reheated and if you use GF plain flour, they work for everyone.
Homemade savoury biscuits are great to serve to visitors with cheese, dips etc. instead of bought biscuits. I make cheese and sesame ones and chicken ones, but I think I’ll give these French Onion ones a try.
I haven’t actually made these meatballs, but I do make a version with pork mince, chicken noodle soup and a dash of soy sauce that work really well. I make them for picnic lunches on driving holidays and to take to the F1 motor racing at Albert Park. Mine don’t have the cream cheese, but I think that’s a great idea and I’ll add it into the next batch I make.
Next time you’re thinking of cooking up some chicken wings for a large gathering, you might like to try this version. The onion, apricot nectar, French onion soup and soy sauce make a great sticky sauce for them.
If you’re a little tired of plain avocado dip, maybe giving this tomato version might be a good idea. As it says it makes a good size bowl and if you serve it with vegetables or gf biscuits it can be gluten free as well.
These are a great little idea – basically no chopping. Except for the chicken mince and the shallot the ingredients are things you’ve probably got in the fridge or cupboard. It’s just a matter of combining, shaping and frying the chicken balls and mixing up the sauce – easy as. While this recipe is for nibble size balls, you could easily turn them into patties for an easy entree.
Guacamole is a fairly common dip these days, but back in the mid 70s when I first tried it it was much more exotic. My sister-in-law and her partner loved to cook middle-eastern food and were much more adventurous with their eating than we were. Avocados were around, but they were pricey, so when they made this Mexican dip it was quite something for us to try. With the prices of avocados at an all time low at the moment I thought it was a good time to share this recipe which was published by the Woman’s Day in the 90s. It’s got a few more ingredients in it than the 70s version and I really like the suggestions for using it that they added.
When I’m looking for a lazy dip to make I simply mix a tub of spreadable cream cheese, with a packet or can of salmon and squeeze in some chili sauce, but this dip doesn’t take much more effort. You have to chop up the almonds and parsley, but the rest is just mixing the ingredients together…..easy peasy.
Running out of new ideas for salads this summer? How about going back to the 80s and trying out one of these from a leaflet that Kraft put out back then. While the salad dressings they mention may be available anymore, there’s enough other varieties around now that you can easily find a substitute.
Beb's Recipe Drawer 