This is a fantastic party dip, and the salsa? Is one of the best we’ve ever made, and-being from Texas-we’ve made a lot of salsas.  The warm goat cheese mixture is creamy, and tangy, and the whole delicious dish is just perfect scooped up with crunchy tortilla chips, pita chips or spread upon toasted, sliced baguette.  It was quickly become one of our favorite party foods.

Salsa Baked Goat Cheese

• 1/4 cup pine nuts or coarsely chopped walnuts or pecans
• 4 oz goat cheese, softened
• 3 oz cream cheese, softened
• 2 cups Roasted Jalapeño-Tomato Salsa below or other favorite salsa
• Chopped fresh cilantro, for garnish

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Toast the nuts on a baking sheet in the oven until lightly browned, about 7 minutes (the pine nuts will brown quicker than either of the others).
3. In a bowl, thoroughly combine cheeses and nuts.
4. Scoop it into the center of a baking dish, forming it into a flat disk. Pour salsa over and around cheese.
5. Bake cheese mixture just to warm it all the way through, 10 to 15 minutes.
6. Sprinkle with cilantro and serve with dippers.

This would be great without the nuts as well if you have an allergy or if they are too expensive-pine nuts can be crazy expensive!  You can make this quickly with any favorite salsa, but I think this salsa recipe has a really wonderful flavor.  It is great served warm or cold and can be made in advance.

Roasted Jalapeño-Tomato Salsa

• 1 1/2 pounds plum or roma tomatoes (about 10 medium)
• 1 to 3 fresh jalapeño chiles (1 to 1 1/2 ounces), stemmed
• Half of a small white onion (2 ounces), sliced into 1/4 inch thick rings
• 4 garlic cloves, peeled
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro, loosely packed
• 1 generous teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons cider vinegar

1. Heat the broiler. Place whole tomatoes and jalapeños on a broiler pan or baking sheet.
2. Broil for about 6 minutes, until darkly roasted and even a bit blackened.
3. Flip over the tomatoes and chiles and roast the other side for another 6 minutes or so.  Allow to cool.
4. Set the oven to 425 degrees. On a separate pan or baking sheet, combine the onions and garlic.
5. Roast in the oven, stirring occasionally, until browned and soft, about 15 minutes.  Allow to cool.
6. Add jalapeños, onions, and garlic to a food processor and pulse to chop.  Scoop out into a bowl.
7. Add tomatoes to the processor and pulse to a rough puree.
8. Pour tomatoes into the bowl with jalapeño mixture and stir.  Add water if needed to thin.
9. Stir in cilantro, salt, and vinegar.  Taste and re-season if necessary.

Three jalapeños in this recipe is HOT.  If you can’t handle hot, slice the jalapeños open vertically and remove the seeds before roasting or reduce the amount of jalapeños all together.  We have come to really love this salsa and make it often.  Three jalapenos for a double batch is the perfect amount of heat for us.  If you are making this in order to make the salsa baked goat cheese be sure to make a double batch so you have extra for snacking!  This salsa is also fantastic over a cheesy omelet or in migas.

Red Velvet cake is such a celebratory dessert.  I think it is the tangy buttermilk cake, the decedent frosting, and, of course, the totally outrageous color.  I made these cupcake for mrChaos’s sister on her birthday and they were absolutely wonderful.  If you aren’t afraid of a little Red #40 you will definitely impress a few party guests over the holidays with these.

This is a good recipe to make when you need a huge batch of cupcakes.  I generally shoot for filling my cupcake liners about 3/4 of the way and I got 42 cupcakes.

Magnolia’s Red Velvet Cake

• 3 1/2 cups cake flour
• 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 2 cups sugar
• 3 large eggs, at room temperature
• 6 tbsp or 3 oz (3 bottles) red food coloring
• 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 1/2 cups buttermilk
• 1 1/2 teaspoons cider vinegar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and lightly flour three 9- by 2-inch round cake pans, then line the bottoms with waxed paper or line a 12 cupcake pan with paper liners.
2. Sift the cake flour into a bowl. Normally I would skip this but cake flour tends to clump so, do it.  I use a mesh colander rather than a sifter.
3. In a large bowl, beat together butter and sugar until very light and fluffy.
4. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
5. In a small bowl, whisk together the red food coloring, cocoa, and vanilla. If the mixture isn’t combining set it aside for a minute then re-whisk.  Add to the batter and beat well.
6. In a measuring cup, stir the salt into the buttermilk. Add to the batter in three parts alternating with the flour. With each addition, beat until the ingredients are just incorporated.
7. In a small bowl, stir together the cider vinegar and baking soda. Add to the batter and mix well. Using a rubber spatula, scrape down the batter in the bowl, making sure the ingredients are well blended and the batter is smooth.
8. Divide the batter among the prepared pans. Bake for 30-40 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Let the layers cool in the pans for 1 hour. Remove from the pans and cool completely on a wire rack.  For cupcakes bake approximately 15-20 minutes, fitting two pans in the oven at once on the top third and lower third.  Rotate the pans after 10 minutes and check for doneness with a toothpick after 15 minutes.

The frosting is a double batch of my very favorite Vanilla Bean Cream Cheese Frosting.

Last year, I made the best chocolate pie for Thanksgiving.  This year, we made it even better by serving it in an Oreo cookie crust.  Once upon a time you could buy Oreo cookie crumbs in a box just like you can buy graham cracker crumbs, but alas, no longer.  You can still buy the pre-made chocolate shells but for a really delicious, Oreo flavored addition, crush the actual Oreo cookies.  No need to add sugar, just a little butter to help the crust hold its shape when sliced.

Oreo Cookie Pie Crust

• 24 Oreo cookies
• 1/4 cup butter, melted

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Place Oreos in a large plastic zip top bag and smash the heck out of them.  A flat mallet or rolling pin works great.  You could probably also use a food processor.  Try to get Oreos to a consistent crumby mush.  The filling should resemble moist crumbs (if you do this by hand there will be a few larger pieces in the mix, this is fine).
3. Empty crumbs into a mixing bowl and stir in melted butter until well combined.
4. Pat wet crumbs all over and up sides of pie dish, making an even surface.
5. Bake crust for 8-10 minutes or until hardened.  Cool before filling.

This is a great replacement for graham cracker crust and add a nice touch to the chocolate pie.  A peanut butter pie would also be great!

Ever had a craving?  The Mongolian Beef at P.F. Chang’s is definitely the stuff cravings are made of.  Luckily, you can also get your fix at the local Pei Wei.  What to do when you want to stay in yet crave that crisp, tender beef, sweet sauce, and just barely cooked veggies?  You make this recipe.

This recipe has been around the Internet for years and you’ve probably seen it before and put it out of your mind.  I mean, if it was possible to just make that delicious stuff at home, why would anyone pay to have it at a restaurant?  Let me tell you, this is the real deal.  Try it yourself, it isn’t hard-if it is a bit time consuming.  The best part is you can tailor it to your likes and dislikes.  I always find the restaurant dish a little too sweet and heavy on the sauce.  At home I cut the sugar back a bit and added only as much sauce as I wanted to my dish.

P.F. Chang’s (or Pei Wei’s) Mongolian Beef

• 2 lbs flank or skirt steak
• 1/4 cup corn starch
• 2 tsp vegetable or peanut oil
• 1 tsp fresh ginger, minced
• 1 tbsp garlic, minced
• 1/2 cup low sodium soy sauce
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2-3/4 cup dark brown sugar
• 1 cup vegetable or peanut oil
• 8 oz button mushrooms, quartered if large
• 1 bunch green onions, green part only, cut in half

1. Trim all fat and silver skin from meat.  Lay steaks out horizontally on the cutting board.  The grain in running vertically.  Make several vertical cuts to slice the slab into manageable sized pieces.  Then cut the meat opposite the grain (horizontal) into two bite-sized pieces.  Cut with your blade at a 45° angles to get wide diagonal slices.
2. Dust steak pieces lightly in cornstarch and set aside while preparing the sauce.
3. In a small sauce pan heat oil over medium high heat.  Add ginger and garlic.
4. Add soy sauce and water to the ginger and garlic before it browns.
5. Add brown sugar and whisk until dissolved.
6. Bring sauce to a boil and simmer about 10 minutes or until slightly reduced and thickened. Remove from the heat and reserve.
7. In a large skillet or wok heat 1 cup oil over medium high heat.
8. Working in batches, add the steak a few at a time to the hot oil.  Cook about 1 minute without touching the meat then flip each piece and cook 1 minute more.
9. Remove meat while still rare inside, and continue with next batch.
10. Once all meat is browned, pour off oil and wipe out skillet.
11. Heat skillet over high heat and add mushrooms.
12. Cook without stirring a couple of minutes or until mushrooms are slightly softened and browned.  Reserve.
13. Add steak to the hot pan and cook about 1 minute.
14. Add sauce to the pan and simmer and toss meat and sauce about 1 minute.
15. Add mushrooms and green onions.  Toss with steak and sauce and heat 1 minute.
16. Use tongs to remove meat and veggies to a serving dish, leaving excess sauce in the pan.  Serve over rice.

Be sure to use a very light dusting of cornstarch when you bread the steak pieces.  If there is too much cornstarch you will get a Swiss steak texture instead of a good sear.  It is still delicious but the texture won’t be the same as the restaurant dish.

This looks like a lot of steps, and it is, but it is really not hard and not even that lengthy of a process.  You basically cut and bread the meat, make the sauce, fry the meat, cook the mushrooms, then toss it all in the sauce and serve.  It is an especially fun dish to make for company-very impressive!