Sunday, January 02, 2011

Slow cooked pork, not photogenic but delicious
New Year's day in Palm Springs with friends is a tradition. Our hostess slow roasts (8 hours) a pork shoulder with sauerkraut, a wonderful dish. Everybody brings something - this year I stuffed cucumber cups with an Asian coleslaw topped with shrimp. Crisp and refreshing, this appetizer is a good one when there's going to be a lot of food. 

For 40 pieces:

5 cucumbers peeled, cut into 3/4" pieces, centers scooped out
1/3 head cabbage, shred finely
4 green onions, tops and bottoms, minced
6 springs cilantro, leaves and stems, minced
40 shrimp, cooked and peeled

Dressing:
1/4 cup olive oil
1/3 cup rice vinegar
salt and pepper to taste

Mix cabbage, onions and cilantro. Toss with dressing and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. Fill cucumbers with cabbage mixture,  top with a shrimp and garnish with a cilantro leaf.

Scooping out cucumbers


Filling with cabbage mixture

Ready to eat

These can be refrigerated for several hours before serving however the thin dressing may leak out of the cucumber cups during this time. Store on a plate that will catch the dressing which you can drain off before transferring the appetizers to a serving platter.

Somebody brought cute little Turtle cookies that everyone liked. How simple can you get?

3 Ingredient Cookies


Waffle pretzels (square grid)
Rolo brand chocolate-covered caramels
Pecan halves, toasted or not
Place 15 or 20 pretzels on a microwave-safe plate. Top each pretzel with an unwrapped candy. Microwave on High for 20 seconds or soft and melty (time depends on your microwave). Press a pecan half into each one. 









4 comments:

  1. We just photographed some "Pretzel/Turtle" cookies for one of our recipe cards. What a coincidence or was Jodi at that dinner?
    That cucumber dish looks great. Can we steal it?
    Happy New Year!

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  2. Yes..please steal. I'd be honored. The little cookies were very good and so nice for a stand-up kind of meal. Easy to eat - no crumbs. Happy New Year

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  3. Yes..please steal. I'd be honored. The little cookies were very good and so nice for a stand-up kind of meal. Easy to eat - no crumbs. Happy New Year

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous10:53 AM

    that's funny - our new year's tradition is also pork and sauerkraut. My mother always made it on Jan. 1 and said that if you ate it - you would have good luck all year. So I've carried on the tradition even tho Megan hates sauerkraut (she's usually not here on the 1st anyway - she was in the Bahamas this year!) and my brother won't eat it because it makes him too thirsty and he thinks he's going to die. So Barbara and I happily eat big helpings with the eternal hope that this is going to be the lucky year. I wonder if your friend is German and has this dish as a family tradition.
    Nancy

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