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The Holidays are a great time for families to come together.  My fondest memories of this time of year are some of the great meals my mom creates.  She continues keeping the family together with her incredible cooking and I have her to thank for my passion in the kitchen.  With holiday entertaining on the front of everyone’s mind, I’m sharing a few special dishes that are fairly low impact in the kitchen, but receive generous praise at the table.

For the first course I take great pleasure in serving these small bites.  My idea stems from a dish served at the Patit Creek Restaurant in Dayton, WA.  The mixture of sweet and salty pairs incredibly with this sparkling wine.

This pairing is sure to get everyone into the holiday spirit.

24 whole Dates – pits removed
3-4 oz Chevre
8 pieces uncooked bacon – cut into thirds

1. Carefully cut the date open – like a hot dog bun.
2. Using a spoon, and your fingers fill each date with approx. 1 tsp of the chevre – or more if it will fit!
3. Wrap each stuffed date in a piece of the bacon, and secure with a toothpick
4. Broil the bacon wrapped Dates until the bacon is cooked – approximately 10-15 minutes.

In some of my culinary pursuits, I stumbled across a similar recipe where the dates are stuffed with chorizo. Swap chorizo for the chevre, OR serve a combination of chorizo-stuffed dates and chevre-stuffed dates to really spice up your holiday get-together.

Now, on to the main course. This stuffed meat and cheese pastry is one of my favorites and though it may seem a bit unconventional, the final product will leave you with a feeling of a true culinary artistry. The savory flavors are perfectly matched by a bold Syrah, such as Tertulia Cellars – Les Collines Syrah.

1 lb sliced ham (lunch meat)
1/ 3 lb sliced hard salami
1/2 lb fontina – grated
6 oz cream cheese
6 oz chevre
1.5 lbs  ground bison (or ground sirloin) browned and drained
2 6 oz packages baby spinach
2 eggs
2 slices fresh bread cubed
2 TBS flat leaf parsley chopped
10 cloves garlic minced
Pastry for 2 pie crusts
1 TBS olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
dash of Nutmeg

NOTE:  I use a 9″ Springform Pan – if you have a 10″ you may have to increase the amounts of salami, fontina, and chevre/cream cheese mixture.

1. In a large skillet brown the ground meat, season with pepper.  Add onion and 4 of the minced garlic cloves, cooking until onion is transparent.  Add the parsley and bread cubes. Set aside.
2. In the same pan over med-hi, heat 1 TBS olive oil.  Add the rest of the minced garlic and cook for one minute.  Add all of the baby spinach and 2 TBS water.  Cover for 1 minute. Then uncover and stir – once it’s bright green and wilted remove it from the heat and let cool for 10 minutes.
3. Add about 1/2 of the beaten eggs to the spinach and stir.
4. If using homemade pie crust or purchased pie crust, utilizing 2/3 of the dough a floured surface and rolling pin: form into a ball and roll out to 16″ circle about 1/8″ thick.  Carefully place in a 9″ Springform pan.  With fingers lightly press into bottom and sides of pan. Trim edges to be just higher than the edges of pan.
5. Beat both eggs.  Brush bottom of pastry crust with egg.
6. Using 1/2 the ham cover the bottom of the pastry, overlapping slices.
7. Spoon in the ground meat.
8. Top with spinach and egg mixture.
9. Spread the grated fontina over the spinach.
10. Layer the salami slices on top of the fontina.  Overlap to cover the cheese completely.
11. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
12. Mix the chevre and the cream cheese.  Add a dash of nutmeg.  Spread this mixture on top of the salami.
13. Layer remaining ham over the cream cheese mixture.
14. Using your remaining pie crust, roll into a 9″ circle.  Cut design out of center. Place over filling in the pan and press/crimp edges to seal.  Brush top of pastry with remaining egg yolk.
15. Bake at 375 for 1 hour.  When removed from the oven, tent with foil and let cool for 5-10 minutes.   Carefully remove the “springform.”

Serves 8-10

No holiday entertaining would be complete without a sweet finish – and chocolate mousse paired with Cabernet Sauvignon is the ultimate end to a delicious meal with family and friends.

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Written on November 26th, 2008 by Lindi Kauer and American Winery Team . Filed under Holiday Wine Series, Recipes
Tags: holiday recipe, Holiday Wine Series