It wasn’t until I read about it in one of my favourite online periodicals People that I identified “semi-homemade” as a trend. However, if it’s good enough for Saint Angelina, than it’s good enough for the rest of us urbanmoms! If you’re too lazy to click through, it turns out that for the twins’ first birthday party, Angelina Jolie used a semi-homemade recipe by buying a baker sheet cake and decorating it herself. Semi-homemade allows us to feel like domestic divas without spending hours in the kitchen, and it’s just the trend I’m looking for as we head into holiday entertaining.
For many of us, the arrival on our doorstep of the President’s Choice Insider’s Report is like a food porn magazine. Flipping through the latest edition of these products available across the country at Loblaws, Superstore and other grocery chains, I’m inspired to invite friends over just so I have an excuse to buy Chipotle BAked Dip, Crunchy Rippled Potato Chips in flavours like BBQ Baby Back Rips and Spicy Piri, and Mini Chocolate Coated Candy Cane Cheesecakes.
The Mission Fig & Pecan Gourmet Topper inspired my mother-in-law to update one of her classic appetizer recipes, and I bring you…
Semi-Homemade Cheese Spread
1 package of Imperial Cheese
1 8 ounce package of cream cheese
1 tsp curry powder
1 tsp worcestershire sauce
Blend all ingredients in a Cuisinart. Top with Mission Fig & Pecan Gourmet Topper. Serve and accept all the compliments.
This year I’m equally impressed by the Sensations by Compliments products available at Sobeys stores across the country. I asked their representative to give me a couple of semi-homemade recipe ideas with some of their new products, and she really came through. You could serve their Hickory Smoked Honey Ham with your own vegetable sides and feel like a completely virtuous hostess. Top it off by amazing your guests with the decadent taste of the Sensations by Compliments Chocolate Truffle Cake. Add a dusting of cocoa and garnish with seasonal berries and pass this off as your own!
Semi-Homemade Caramelized Onion, Pear and Brie Flatbread
1 onion, peeled and thinly sliced
2 Tbsp fresh thyme, chopped
1 Sensations by Compliments Regular Flatbread
2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 pear each, green and red, cored and thinly sliced
1/2 wheel double cream brie cheese, cut into thin slices
salt and pepper to taste
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Heat 1 Tbsp of olive oil in a saute pan over medium high heat and caramelize the onion, season with fresh thyme, salt and pepper. Set the flatbread out on a clean work surface and brush it with the remaining olive oil and spread caramelized onion evenly over the flatbread.
2. Fan the slices of pear around the bread in concentric circles all the way to the outer edges, season pear with salt and pepper, then sprinkle with slices of brie cheese. Bake in the centre of the oven for 10-12 minutes. The bottom of the flatbread should be crisp, brie melted and pears tender.
3. Let cool slightly, slice into 16 wedges and serve.
So this season, put your feet up, invite the Jolie-Pitts over, and and let your neighbourhood grocery store help you with your entertaining.
I love that term “semi homemade”.
I make a dessert that is homemade but is so simple that one could call it semi-homemade.
Take chocolate cookies.
Take real whipped cream (not the spray can stuff)
Layer the cookies…layer the whipped cream…layer the cookies…layer the whipped cream.
(you get the idea).
If you want to get fancy..garnish with shaved chocolated!
Refrigerate.
Serve.
I am a HUGE fan of semi-homemade products! I’m an awful baker, so this allows me to present something as my own, but not have to do all the work!
I love making Snickers Brownies:
Buy and make a brownie mix. Pour into pan. Drop mini snickers (or mars) bars into the batter and bake according to directions on the box.
So simple, easy, and delicious. I always get compliments on them…and they’re almost no work at all!!!
Semi-homemade, what a great concept! Combining prepared foods to make a delicious recipe, genius!
One of my favorite things to make is a brownie skor trifle. Definitely semi-homemade! Ingredients: 1 box of brownie mix and chocolate mousse, 1 container of cool whip, and 6 skor bars. Prepare the brownies and mousse according the directions on the box. Next, layer the ingredients in a trifle bowl -brownies, mousse, cool whip and 3 crushed skor bars, repeat all layers. Refrigerate until well chilled, approximately 6 hours. Enjoy!