#6: Grazing

Grazing: A Healthier Approach to Snacks and Finger Foods
by Julie Van Rosendaal
© 2005 Whitecap Books

Grazing is just as good for its recipes as it is for inspiration. I used it as a guide a couple weeks ago when I made my black bean & red pepper potato skins, and it has other great ideas for finger foods, quesadillas, skewers, and snacks that you can riff off of at will. Which I guess was the case with last night's creation.

Mini Toad-in-the-Hole

I must have read this recipe half a dozen times, but for some reason interpreted low-fat chicken sausage as chicken hot dog weiners, and so that's what went into these miniature toad-in-the-holes. They're like little hot dog cupcakes.



I think that because I used hot dogs, which I will assume have less fat than even the low-fat sausages, they got completely dried out in the first step.


It turned out that they didn't require any pre-baking before adding the batter; in the first batch the weiners were like dried out carbon vessels exuding a subtle whif of rendered chicken with every bite.


I tried another batch skipping the pre-baking; these turned out much better. Except I was full from eating almost all of the first batch, so I couldn't eat them.

I'll try to do another recipe from Grazing, as this doesn't really do the book justice. But I have to say, when I had the second batch as leftovers for lunch today, they were pretty tasty.