Have you had a Lazy Movie Day this summer?

I’m talking about one of those spectacular days where all you do is stay inside, camp out on the couch and watch movies. You don’t fold towels. You don’t return e-mails. You become one with your Inner Sloth, except for one tiny blip of productivity: making movie snacks.

Last Saturday, Jeff and I declared a Lazy Movie Day, and I finally had an excuse to make the Caramel Peanut Popcorn I’d bookmarked in “DamGoodSweet.” Freshly popped popcorn enrobed in sweet buttery caramel and studded with peanuts. I thought I needed to wait for a special occasion to make it, but this stuff brings the party.

© 2010 Rebecca Crump. All rights reserved.

OF COURSE we usually have well-balanced meals around here. Lean meats and vegetables. And fruit!

But sometimes it’s fun to share a pile of nachos for dinner. Like, when “Lost” is on. Or “Die Hard.” Or, when after roughly 72 icy, gray weekends in a row, Mother Nature smooths her furrowed brow and grants you a perfectly sunny Saturday. One that you just HAVE to celebrate.

Preferably with chorizo.

Continue reading: Chorizo, Bean and Cheese Nachos

© 2010 Rebecca Crump. All rights reserved.

“Have a nice glass of wine, and take your top off.” – Julia Roberts, on how to have a great Valentine’s Day

Last Valentine’s Day, I made a big mistake. Well, actually, four small ones. A lovely little set of pastel Conversation Heart Mini Cakes. Elisa Strauss (from Confetti Cakes!) linked to them on her blog. My photo of them popped up on other food and design sites.

They were cute, but they were so not for my man. All that fondant? I might as well have shown up for Valentine’s dinner in a turtleneck and sensible pants.

So, this year, it’s not about handmade truffles or homemade lollipops or anything that looks like it would fit right in at the unicorn-themed birthday party of a 4-year-old girl. Nope. This year, Jeff’s getting a huge candy heart full of the culinary equivalent of taking one’s top off: Sausage Balls.

© 2010 Rebecca Crump. All rights reserved.

When it comes to dips, I’m an equal opportunity glutton. Warm spinach and artichoke? Yes. Ro-Tel® Queso? Can’t pass it up. French onion? Give us some privacy.

But every once in a while, you find a dip that transcends the genre, and for me, that’s Seven Layer Dip. Black beans, sour cream (or Greek yogurt), chunky guacamole, fresh salsa, scallions, cheese and cilantro. It’s like a bean burrito in a bowl. And by that, I mean it’s like Heaven.

© 2010 Rebecca Crump. All rights reserved.

This popcorn will set your soul on fire.

That’s a good thing if you’re like me, and you like to crunch mass quantities of things when you are a.) anxious, b.) stressed, c.) frustrated or d.) home with the sniffles, watching the all-day Elvis movie marathon on TMC. You can’t eat a ton of this popcorn without gulping several glasses of water (or, even better, a glass of milk), since it’s tossed with a searing mix of spices: chili powder, cumin, paprika, cayenne, salt and pepper. A few pieces are pleasantly tingly. A few handfuls will turn your mouth into a blazing inferno.

If super-spicy isn’t your style, you can still experiment with other spice mixes to add loads of flavor to your popcorn. Replace the chili powder and cumin with garlic and onion powders for a Cajun corn. Take out the hot stuff, and add Italian seasonings and a little Parmesan for an Italian version. Try wasabi powder. Curry. Pumpkin pie spice. Your choices are only limited by your imagination. And if you draw a blank, there’s always butter

Continue reading: Spicy Southwestern Popcorn. A Cuppa Cuppa Burnin’ Love.

© 2010 Rebecca Crump. All rights reserved.

Last week, a rep from Domino® Sugar offered me a $20 Visa gift card to buy baking supplies in return for making something from the Domino® website. So, I figured I’d go there and choose from a list of cookies and cakes and other baked goods, but their recipe index is actually pretty impressive. A Winter Green Salad with Pear and Apple Cider Vinaigrette. A Double Café Diable with coffee, rum extract, cloves, orange zest and a cinnamon stick. And this Brie with Brown Sugar, Bourbon and Pecans.

Not bad, Domino®.

Around here, the holiday appetizer of choice is a plate of Holy, Sacred, Praise-the-Lord-and-Pass-the-Bisquick Sausage Balls. Which I love. But it pays to have a few meatless appetizers at your get-togethers. That’s why I chose this Brie en croute, an appetizer comprised of soft Brie cheese swaddled in a sheet of puff pastry and baked until the pastry is golden brown and the cheese inside is like molten cheese lava (arguably the best type of lava, with the possible exception of chocolate).

© 2010 Rebecca Crump. All rights reserved.

So, if you’re looking for a full-blown meatless meal, I got all antsy and posted these Wild Mushroom and Goat Cheese Quesadillas with Cranberry-Pecan Salsa a few days early. I couldn’t help it.

But today I wanted to share this Bruschetta with Tomato and Basil. I mean, it’s basically glorified toast, but it’s far from boring. Thin baguette slices brushed with olive oil, toasted, rubbed with garlic, topped with a tomato-basil mixture and whisper-thin pecorino and toasted a second time, just until the cheese melts.

These were our appetizer of choice last summer (especially when the grilling was taking a little long), but the red of the tomato and green of the basil would suit any holiday table.

Don’t worry that the tomatoes aren’t at their peak. They’ll be so drunk with red wine vinegar, salt, pepper and sugar that they’ll have plenty of flavor.

Once you start making bruschetta, you’ll find that it’s pretty addictive to try different toppings. Fresh herbs mixed with olive oil. White beans, tomato and rosemary. Garlicky spinach and gouda. Red onions and portobello mushrooms. Roasted red peppers and goat cheese. A slice or two (or seven) paired with a big bowl of soup can make a perfect lunch. Especially when you’ve been feeling a little guilty about all the grilled cheese sandwiches.

Not that I am.

DON’T YOU JUDGE ME!

© 2010 Rebecca Crump. All rights reserved.

OK, have you tried making a palmier (that’s pahlm-YAY)? You’ve GOT to do this before the end of the year.

You know how Megan Fox looks lovely and sophisticated and mysterious, and then she opens her mouth and reminds you of some girl you knew in high school? THAT’S what these palmiers are like! They look complicated, but they couldn’t be easier. Just roll out a sheet of puff pastry, top it with half a cup of sweet or savory ingredients, fold the ends toward the center, chill, slice and bake.

The more traditional sweet palmiers are filled with sugar and cinnamon, but I’m a fan of making savory ones, because they give a purpose to all the odds-and-ends in the refrigerator. That slice or two of deli meat. The leftover crumbled cheese. Half a red pepper. Folding these plain Jane items into puff pastry transforms them from a group of misfits into a bombshell appetizer greater than the sum of its parts. Megan Fox should be so lucky.

Continue reading: Savory Palmiers. The Return of the Party Pastry!

© 2010 Rebecca Crump. All rights reserved.

Visions of sugarplums might have danced in other kids’ heads, but we dreamt of a Christmas morning with a kitchen table piled with homemade buttermilk biscuits, butter, jams and jellies, eggs, bacon, country sausage, ambrosia, grits, orange juice, coffee with real whipped cream and, at the center of the table, Mama’s red-eye gravy and fried country ham. Country ham that Daddy fetched every fall from a farmer’s smokehouse. A farmer who’d spent at least a year on that ham – curing it in dry salt, smoking it for up to two months and hanging it up to age – just as farmers have been doing in the South since at least the mid-1600s.

Country ham is an art born of salt, smoke and sweat. But competition from the commercial ham industry has made all of that smoke and sweat a lot less appealing to many farmers. The tradition was dying until a few years ago, when authentic country ham was rediscovered by American chefs looking for a domestic alternative to European dry-cured hams. Soon, some farmers started marketing their product as “American prosciutto.” According to the The New York Times, the quality and flavor of these hams are comparable to the more respected (and expensive) hams of Spain and Italy.

The first time I saw that label, “American prosciutto,” on a country ham, my jaw dropped at the genius of the idea and the new price, about $1 an ounce. Luckily, these Pretzel Bites with Cheddar and Country Ham require only 3 ounces.

I hope we find a new ham bootlegger before Christmas.

© 2010 Rebecca Crump. All rights reserved.

So, here’s one last simple, tasty zucchini recipe: Grilled Zucchini Rollatini with Sun-Dried Tomatoes and Goat Cheese. Combine goat cheese, sun-dried tomatoes, thyme, Parmesan and olive oil into a spreadable mixture; place a heaping spoonful on one end of a grilled zucchini slice and roll. The subtly flavored zucchini is a perfect foil for the richness and tang of the goat cheese and the intensity of the sun-dried tomatoes.

The whole process takes just a few minutes using an indoor grill pan, so you could easily make a small batch of these and inhale one or two whilst your Eternal Love and Life Partner is outside prepping The Grill and fighting mosquitoes large enough to rape chihuahuas. Just make sure he gets the last of the ice cream. It’s the Duggar way.

© 2010 Rebecca Crump. All rights reserved.