Fancy-Funny Finger Food Night

August has arrived, and so we Texans are in the proverbial "dog days of summer."  I wanted sisters Chef E and Chef S to kick off their weekend with a cooking project... but what to do when the weather inspires anything but a hot kitchen?  The solution:  Finger foods!

I devised a plan.  While Chef E is growing more adventurous in her tastes, Chef S remains a challenge.  But what if we took some familiar foods and used them just a little differently?

Banana Bites

These banana bites were an easy sell.  The sisters love bananas and peanut butter separately- and currants are a "little sister" to raisins.  Perhaps that explains why Chef S couldn't stop herself from munching straight from the box... and ran off with it.  She earned the nickname "currant bandit" for the night.

Ingredients
-Your favorite peanut butter
-Bananas
-Currants

Method
 1.  Peel your banana(s).  Lay each banana on its side, on a cutting board.  Cut the banana into coins, 1/2 inch in size, and into as many coins as you want for servings.  Lay each coin onto one of its flat sides.
2. Use a butter knife to spread thick dollops of peanut butter on the top side of each banana coin.
3.  Sprinkle currants on top of each peanut butter dollop.
4. Transfer the banana bites onto a serving plate and enjoy.


Sweet and Savory Fig Jam Crackers

These ingredients were a little more exotic to Chef E and Chef S, but still didn't require too much "sell" from Chef Daddy or Mimi.  We took turns exclaiming "Canape!" as we assembled our tasty treats.

Chef E was curious about this fancy sounding Italian cheese and snuck a little sample during assembly.  She may have sniffed it suspiciously before braving a lick.  The cheese's flavor did not impress her on it's own, but she was surprised at its transformation when combined with other flavors.

Chef S was just as taken with the fig jam as the currants.  It took all our attention to stop her from digging fingers into the jar for a extra samples.

The last ingredient was bacon.  Yes... bacon.  Glorious, salty, smoky, crispy, porky, bacon-y BACON! Chef E was very skeptical.  Her nose crinkled a bit as I explained to her that we would sprinkle it over the buttery marscapone and sweet fig jam.  One bite, however, and she was a believer!

Ingredients
-Your favorite crackers (we used a multigrain cracker)
-Marscapone cheese
-Fig jam
-Your favorite bacon slices, cooked to a crispy texture and crumbled

Method
1. Lay as many crackers as you need for servings onto a cutting board.
2. Use a butter knife to spread a layer of marscapone cheese onto each cracker.
3. Use another, clean butter knife to spread a layer of fig jam onto each cracker, on top of the marscapone cheese.
4. Sprinkle bacon crumbles on top of fig jam.  (One bacon slice lasted us eight crackers.)
5. Transfer crackers to a serving dish and enjoy.


Both recipes were a hit for our fancy-funny finger food night.  Even Daddy couldn't deny their appeal.  We enjoyed other additions to our spread, but these were the standouts of our weekend.  I loved that these were simple enough for each sister to be very involved in their assembly and also kept a cool kitchen. 

One last lesson from our finger food extravaganza:  Using popcorn like this sure is funny, but a big flop in taste.  (I forgot the bell pepper I planned to "dot" the hummus with... and what was I thinking?)

Chef E gains big points for trying this bite.

What fancy and funny finger foods will your family create?