Dennys Food and Recipes: Labor Day, Football Tailgating: Check Out Some New Drinks, Appetizer Cheesy Zucchini No-Fry Fries with Smoked Paprika Dip Sauce

Photo:  Matthew Mead/AP

Dennys Food and Recipes: Labor Day, Football Tailgating: Check Out Some New Drinks, Appetizer Cheesy Zucchini No-Fry Fries with Smoked Paprika Dip Sauce: From Denny:  Ready to try something new for the Labor Day weekend and tailgating season?  Audition it on Labor Day and check out your reviews, and, if all goes well, you have some winners for the tailgating season.  I know.  I know.  The conventional wisdom is that you are not supposed to audition something new on your guests but my crowd likes to review.  Come on; put a little risk into your life!

I usually cook up standards I know most people enjoy and then introduce a couple of new things for review and comment.  It's a conversation starter and since my friends tend to be as opinionated as myself, well, they enjoy weighing in.  They even make suggestions to kick it up, tone it down or variations that I might not have considered.  Since I value their input it's all done in good fun.  For my guests to take home I also make copies of the new recipes with space for them to make notes while we discuss the food.

The first two drinks up for consideration are old standards with new twists:  a Planter's Punch and a Bloody Mary.  The new twist for the Planter's Punch is that it has some added Camus Cognac with the apple cider, apple juice and pineapple juice.  The new twist for the Bloody Mary is the addition of Lucid Absinthe with the spicy bloody mary mix, worchestershire sauce, horseradish, black pepper, celery salt and garlic salt.  These two drinks come from  Niccole Trzaska at The Liberty Bar in New York City.

This appetizer recipe is from Chef Sara Moulton, one of the busiest TV chefs.  Check out this link to her site for online cooking classes, links to her TV shows and awesome easy recipes.  Sara has enjoyed a long career:  a 25-year stint at Gourmet magazine (which had a run from 1941 - 2009), hosted several Food Network shows for a decade, hosts public TV's "Sara's Weeknight Meals" and has written three cookbooks, one of which is "Sara Moulton's Everyday Family Dinners."  Whew! All while raising her own family.  It's no wonder she specializes in quick and easy food...


Dennys Food and Recipes: Labor Day, Football Tailgating: Check Out Some New Drinks, Appetizer Cheesy Zucchini No-Fry Fries with Smoked Paprika Dip Sauce

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Dennys Food and Recipes: Super Simple Breakfast: Texas Hash, Sausage and Egg Casserole, More Casserole Links

                                                    Photo: Sausage Egg Casserole from AllRecipes.com

Dennys Food and Recipes: Super Simple Breakfast: Texas Hash, Sausage and Egg Casserole, More Casserole Links: From Denny:  Going to the beach for Labor Day?  Company coming and you are wondering what is easy to cook up for a hungry crowd?  Here are a couple of easy recipes for breakfast any time of the day.  They are also the kind of flexible recipes that you can add some of your favorite ingredients or seasonings to your taste...

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Dennys Food and Recipes: Summer Food: Raspberry Almond Cheesecake Tartlets

                                             Photo: Helana Brigman

Dennys Food and Recipes: Summer Food: Raspberry Almond Cheesecake Tartlets: From Denny:  Do you enjoy cheesecake but want an easier way to make it?  Then this recipe is for you.  I like cheesecake too but find it too large for just two of us to eat and too time consuming to make unless I plan on entertaining a hungry crowd.

A springform pan is an absolute must to make a proper cheesecake - and the patience of a saint to leave the oven door cracked open as it slowly cools down for hours so you can hopefully avoid it cracking straight down the middle like an ugly scar.  Usually, I've been pretty lucky over the years.  Of course, when I wasn't lucky it was evident that a wonderful fruit topping like blueberry or strawberry could hide a multitude of sins just like gravy on a screwed up dinner. :)...

Dennys Food and Recipes: Summer Food: Raspberry Almond Cheesecake Tartlets

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Dennys Food and Recipes: Summer Food: Blueberry Yum Yum Cake Says It All

Dennys Food and Recipes: Summer Food: Blueberry Yum Yum Cake Says It All: From Denny:  This sheet pan cake of creamy goodness only requires two cups of fresh blueberries.  First you make a simple syrup of water and sugar, add cornstarch to thicken, then add the blueberries.  Set the blueberry topping aside to cool while you create the crust.

The crust is a yummy combination of finely chopped pecans, butter and flour that you pat into the sheet pan and bake for about 10 to 20 minutes to make your tasty crust.  Set aside to cool.

To make your filling you combine the cream cheese and powdered sugar together and when that is well combined you add in the whipped topping, pouring it into the cooled crust.

After the blueberry topping has cooled then pour over the cream cheese-powdered sugar-whipping topping mixture.  Now set the sheet pan of blueberry goodness into the fridge to chill well.  Serve to screams of total delight!...


Dennys Food and Recipes: Summer Food: Blueberry Yum Yum Cake Says It All

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Shooting star Cooper says, "I'm the man!" What confidence! Who doesn't want to drink coffee every morning with him?  More products available in this name design for your pet or your man! 

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Dennys Food and Recipes: Summer Food: Cream Cheese Pastry Blueberry-Apple Cobbler and Traditional Blueberry Cobbler

     The Advocate photo: HEATHER MCCLELLAND 

                                                                                  
Dennys Food and Recipes: Summer Food: Cream Cheese Pastry Blueberry-Apple Cobbler and Traditional Blueberry Cobbler: From Denny:  Blueberries.  The awesome blue food we all love.  So, I went hunting for something interesting in the cobbler department for us this week.  The first recipe is from our local newspaper, a blueberry cobbler made with a cream cheese pastry and a filling that consists of a combination of blueberries, apple and lemon.  A cream cheese pastry always tastes great with a fruit filling, especially blueberries!  It's a simple and straightforward pastry recipe with flour, salt and butter but also with cream cheese and a bit of orange juice added to the pastry to spike up the flavor.

The filling calls for fresh blueberries, an apple and lemon juice and lemon zest.  While this recipe calls for sugar I often substitute brown rice syrup or agave syrup in its place for a lower glycemic index than refined white sugar.  Try it half sugar and half agave as an idea, whatever you like at your house, just try experimenting until you find that sweet spot Goldilocks zone for your taste buds!

The second recipe is a traditional blueberry cobbler made in a 9-inch square baking pan like you do for brownies and is from a local Louisiana blueberry grower.  When a recipe calls for margarine, well, I'm no fan of margarine, so I use clarified butter.  If you don't have the time to make your own clarified butter it's now available in grocery stores as I saw a jar in Trader Joe's just last week.

Also note that I use "Tablespoon" and "teaspoon" as an easier read so you don't get confused by small type - by writing it out instead of an abbreviation and also capitalizing Tablespoon.  There have been those moments when I was busy and scan read a recipe only to make a mistake with too much or too little of an ingredient so I changed all my recipes to reflect what I do here on my food blogs.  The whole point is to enjoy a good food experience!

Oh, and the Denny Lyon Gifts ads are from my Cafe Press store.  The profits go to my two favorite charities:  the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank that feeds half of Louisiana and St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital that has helped thousands of children on the Gulf Coast.  After all, should anyone go hungry in America?  Should any parent have to emotionally stress and experience financial ruin because their child got sick?  Thank you to those of you supporting my gift store effort!...

(As these articles post this week I'll add the links, so check back often!)

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Dennys Food and Recipes: BBQ Grilling: Try Grilled Summer Cooling Puttanesca Gazpacho

                                                 AP photo/Matthew Mead


Dennys Food and Recipes: BBQ Grilling: Try Grilled Summer Cooling Puttanesca Gazpacho: From Denny:  Fancy a cold soup to counter the ridiculous hot heat of the summer?  Gazpacho is everyone's favorite, especially when entertaining for large groups.  This version involves grilling all those delicious veggies like red bell peppers, poblano peppers, tomatoes, onions, cucumbers and a head of fresh garlic.

Let the charred peppers cool before removing the skins and the inside seeds and membranes. Squeeze the cooled soft garlic cloves out of their papery skins and into the food processor.  Add the delicious flavors of capers, Kalamata olives, anchovies, olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

Make the soup as chunky or as smooth as you like.  Chill well before serving.  To serve, garnish with yummy ricotta cheese and fresh torn herbs like cilantro and basil.  Then sit back and wait for the compliments to arrive!...

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Dennys Food and Recipes: BBQ Grilling: Butterflied Barbecue Chicken with Alabama White Sauce

                  AP photo: Matthew Mead -- Butterflied Barbecue Chicken With Alabama White Sauce

Dennys Food and Recipes: BBQ Grilling: Butterflied Barbecue Chicken with Alabama White Sauce: From Denny:  With all this ridiculous hot weather across the nation we are all left wondering if we are the ones getting grilled!  But wait!  Time to grill that famous summer BBQ chicken, this time with the Alabama White Sauce becoming so popular.

If you are not familiar with Alabama White Sauce it's based on mayonnaise.  Yucky mayonnaise, you say?  Hey, all that oil delivers the spicy flavor of this unusual sauce and the mayonnaise taste is completely changed by the following:  There is plenty of cider vinegar and lemon juice to cut the oil and the addition of cayenne pepper, black pepper and horseradish definitely spices up the taste.  The recipe for this sauce follows so you can make your own...

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