by Marty Meitus
Scripps Howard News Service
Carol Frieberg didn't expect to be on this book tour. Initially, the tour for the new Betty Crocker's Entertaining Basics (Betty Crocker, 2001) was canceled after the September 2001 terrorist attacks. But then the powers that be at Betty Crocker's parent company, General Mills, rethought their stance and decided that the time was right for a tour after all.
"Now people are ready to look at important things such as spending time with the family and loved ones," says Frieberg, a home economist traveling on behalf of the cookbook. "A lot of people are cocooning, and we don't want to introduce something negative but something positive, and food brings us together."
The cookbook focuses on the basics of entertaining, right down to tips on how to set the table and how to pair food and wine. "I think people want to learn the right way to do things," Frieberg says on her swing through Denver. "They're not learning at home or in school, because cooking has become a lost art. I think cooking is important because food creates memories of home."
Entertaining is a headache for a lot of people, especially if they haven't done it much. Frieberg offers her four best tips for those new to the entertaining game:
- Prepare food for two phantom guests, in addition to your "real" company. That way you'll know you have enough food.
- If you think about your favorite restaurant, you'll recall that the food counts, but so does the atmosphere. Keep that in mind when entertaining at home. Even a napkin fanned out to fit in a goblet gives the table a special look.
- When you're presenting a dish that looks blah, sprinkle on top something that will perk up the looks: toasted sesame seeds and pine nuts, parsley or other herbs. Tucking herbs around the food on the plate takes only a moment but looks beautiful.
- Mix and match glasses, plates, napkins. It's very chic these days.
Each of the recipes in the cookbook is accompanied by a color photo, craft ideas for the table decorations and plenty of how-tos. Here are a couple of recipes from the cookbook:
Hot Crab Dip
4 medium green onions with tops
1 clove garlic
one 8-oz pkg. cream cheese at room temperature
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup mayonnaise or salad dressing
1/4 cup dry white wine or apple juice
2 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. ground mustard
one 6-oz. can crabmeat
1/3 cup sliced almonds
assorted crackers or sliced raw vegetables, if desired
Preparation:
Heat oven to 375 degrees. Cut and discard the tips of the green onions with the stringy end. Cut green onions into thin slices, including some of the green part. Peel and finely chop the garlic. Mix the onions, garlic, cream cheese, Parmesan cheese, mayonnaise, wine, sugar and mustard in an ungreased casserole.
Drain the crabmeat in a strainer. Flake crabmeat with a fork and remove any tiny pieces of shell. Stir the crabmeat into the cheese mixture in casserole. Sprinkle with the almonds. Bake uncovered 15 to 20 minutes or until hot and bubbly. Serve with crackers.
Hot artichoke dip (variation): Drain a 14-oz. can artichoke-heart quarters in a strainer, then coarsely chop. Stir into cheese mixture with the crabmeat.
Yield: 2 1/2 cups
Baked Brie With Sun-Dried Tomatoes
Ingredients:
1 Tbs. pine nuts
vegetable oil to grease pan
1 round or wedge (8 oz.) Brie cheese (with herbs or plain)
3 Tbs. julienne strips sun-dried tomatoes packed in oil and herbs (from 8-oz. jar)
1 Tbs. chopped fresh basil leaves, if desired
crackers, if desired
Preparation:
Heat oven to 350 degrees.
Spread the nuts in an ungreased shallow pan. Bake uncovered about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until golden brown and fragrant. Watch carefully because nuts brown quickly. (Or cook nuts in an ungreased heavy skillet over medium-low heat five to seven minutes, stirring frequently until browning begins, then stirring constantly until golden brown and fragrant.) Set nuts aside.
Lightly brush a round pan with the vegetable oil. Do not peel the white rind from the cheese. Place the cheese in center of the pan. Bake uncovered eight to 10 minutes or until the cheese is warm and soft but not runny. (Or place cheese on a microwavable plate and microwave uncovered on high about 40 seconds.)
Remove the cheese from the oven. Carefully move cheese to serving plate using wide spatula or pancake turner. Sprinkle the toasted nuts, tomatoes and basil over the cheese. Serve with crackers.
Baked Brie with Cranberries and Pistachios (variation): Omit the pine nuts, tomatoes and basil. Spread 1/4 cup whole-berry cranberry sauce over the warm cheese. Sprinkle with one tablespoon chopped pistachio nuts.
