Take 2 slices of cheese (good deli cheese, not the crap that comes wrapped in cellophane), smear some peanut butter on one of them, and place the other slice on top. Basically, you make a peanut butter sandwhich using the cheese slices instead of bread.
Puree Mongol! This is an old recipe, but it IS very tasty. I add a touch of sherry sometimes instead of curry, if I had crab to add, it would make a scrumptious bisque.
Layer sliced strawberries, with whole blueberries, raspberries and blackberries in a bowl with a little sugar sprinkled between each layer. If you put them in a clear bowl, make sure to alternate the dark fruit with the red. Good luck keeping people from picking at it before serving.
I cook for conventions. For a recent event, in an attempt to anticipate the inevitable “is there a vegan/gluten-free option” question that none of the guests ever think to ask until the buffet is already cooked and set out* and we’re busy trying to prepare for the next event later in the day, I threw something together off the top of my head — that is, I made it up on the spot from ingredients we had on-hand:
One #10 can of black beans, drained, saving the liquid
Two 14oz cans of garbanzo beans
One big bottle of Mae Ploy Thai chili sauce
One heaping tablespoon of curry paste
All mixed up and heated on the stovetop. I slowly added the liquid from the black beans back into the mix to counteract the thickening/stickiness of the chili sauce. It was delicious. I gave it to the servers in a pan and told them to just hold it in reserve in case anybody asked for vegan/gluten-free options.
If you know your group has several gluten-sensitive members, why in Hell do you order an all-pasta buffet?
The Banh Mi Club (I posted it here awhile ago, and a bunch o purists got all hatey on it, but I think it’s mighty fine):
-Toast some bread–French if you want it to be more banh-mi-like, wheat if you want it to be more club-like.
-Mix some sriracha and mayonnaise together and slather on the bread.
-Add deli meats and bacon and lettuce.
-Add fresh cilantro.
It comes out tasting a bit like a regular club, a bit like a banh mi, and totally mighty fine.
Also: I occasionally candy some orange peels, cut them into tiny triangles, and bake them into the tops of brownies. It looks kinda like stained glass.
NO! It’s hot with butter, not cold (shudder) with mayo (double shudder).
My mother made “sludge”–Open can of soup. Add 1/2 cup of water. Heat to boiling. Add instant mashed potato flakes till it looks sludgey. Add anything else you like. Eat.
I’m not sure I’ve ever invented anything truly original. Every time I get what I think is a brilliant idea, I Google it, and see someone else has done it before. My favorite moment was “inventing” chicken paprikash pierogi. Then I find out they even mass market these.
Thai basil chicken sausages? Well, I stuffed them in actual casings, but someone else has done them (although I did it a few years before that article, I’m sure I couldn’t have been the first with the idea.)
One that may or may not be original is strawberry-xoconostle pie. Xoconostles are cactus fruit similar to prickly pear fruit (aka tunas), but much more assertively sour and less sweet. In fact, they remind me of rhubarb, which is whence the idea came. In Mexican cooking, they are often used in salsa. Which now gives me an idea! Let’s see if it exists. Yep, there’s a number of recipes for rhubarb salsa. (But none for roasted rhubarb salsa that I see, so hey! Maybe I got another original possibility here.)