party food – Simply Delicious: The Cookbook Project

5-3: Cheese Fondue

Jamie Martin Group 05: Eggs & Cheese, Section 1: Appetizers & Starters April 16, 2025April 15, 20251970s, appetizers, asparagus, black pepper, blanched, brandy, broccoli, celery, cheese, cheese sauce, cornstarch, cubed, diced, dinner, dips, egg-free, Emmental, fairly easy, fairly expensive, fondue, garlic, grated, green bell peppers, Gruyère, hors d'oeuvres, Jarlsberg, kirsch, liquor, melted, mushrooms, nutmeg, party food, red bell peppers, slurry, steamed, Swiss, tender-crisp, untested, vegetables, vegetarian, white bread, white wine

Hello! In case you were in the mood for more fondue after 14-1: Chocolate Fondue, here’s your opportunity.

5-3: Cheese Fondue is the last new recipe I have for Group 5, and is a NEW BOOK recipe (hence why it’s being covered last). I also got to use my mini electric fondue pot again, which is exciting.

Did you know there are actually 4 types of fondue? We’ve covered chocolate and now cheese, but not yet oil or broth.

Someday I’ll figure out how to cover 7-15: Pork Fondue (since I don’t eat meat), but I don’t see any broth fondue recipes in what I’ve got left, so we may never get all 4 varieties. Simply Delicious wasn’t hip on hot pot, evidently.

Also, happy 11th birthday to this beast of a project.

16-6: Tosca Cake

Jamie Martin Group 16: Pies & Cakes, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods March 30, 2025March 30, 2025all-purpose flour, almond extract, almonds, baked goods, boiled, breakfast, brunch, butter, cake pan, cakes, chopped, creamed, dessert, Easter, eggs, fairly easy, fairly inexpensive, flavorings, glazed, granulated sugar, melted, milk, Mother's Day, nuts, party food, pecans, peeled, Scandinavian, sliced, spring, stand mixer, Swedish, toffee, untested, vanilla extract, vegetarian, walnuts

Happy Sunday! Spring has sprung here, so I present to you a lovely, light cake option, 16-6: Tosca Cake. They even used tulips in the picture!

Tosca cake (or toscakaka) is a well-known thing, essentially a Swedish almond cake. There’s a million other recipes out there for it, but we’re here to talk about this one, so let’s do that.

Lots of brunch occasions in the springtime…this could be a great dish to bring with you or to serve at your own table if you have any upcoming plans. You can even play with flavor extracts if you want to give it that extra something.

14-1: Chocolate Fondue

Jamie Martin Group 14: Hot Desserts, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods March 27, 2025March 27, 20251970s, apples, bananas, black cherries, blackberries, blueberries, boysenberries, cherries, cherry liqueur, chilled, chocolate, chopped, cognac, dark chocolate, dessert, easy, egg-free, fairly inexpensive, favorites, fondue, fruit, gluten-free, Grand Marnier, hot desserts, kiwis, liqueur, mangoes, melted, nectarines, orange liqueur, papaya, party food, peaches, pears, peeled, pineapple, plantains, raspberries, raspberry liqueur, semisweet, sliced, strawberries, untested, vegetarian, whipping cream

As promised, I did keep up at least for another week–here’s this week’s dessert, 14-1: Chocolate Fondue.

Alas, there was no party to serve it at–it was a random Thursday (tonight actually) and just the two of us. But with a mini electric fondue pot and a pre-prepared fruit bowl from the market, any day can be fondue day. This, my friends, is the future.

15-46: Mousse Casablanca

Jamie Martin Group 15: Cold Desserts, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods March 24, 2025March 26, 2025biscotti, chilled, chocolate, chocolate curls, chopped, cold desserts, creamed, crème anglaise, crushed, custard, dessert, egg whites, egg yolks, eggs, expensive, fairly easy, garnish, gelatin, granulated sugar, half-and-half, maraschino cherries, meringue, mousse, nuts, party food, semisweet, soaked, stiff peaks, untested, walnuts, whipped, whipping cream

We’re closing in on the 11th anniversary of this project, and if I ever have hopes of finishing it (which I still do), I need to figure out a strategy. I’ve spent enough time in my real life learning how to “professionally” manage projects, so I’ll apply some of that here and aim to knock out at least one recipe a week until I finish everything non-meat-related. Then I might just dump the rest online and call it a day.

You don’t care about any of this–you’re here to read about 15-46: Mousse Casablanca, right? Everyone wants to “jump to the recipe” already.

Blah blah something about how this is fancy and 80s.

Here’s the thing with this recipe–it seems too “kiddy” to be an adult dessert recipe, but is also something you most likely wouldn’t serve to kids (unless you grew up as a quasi-adult like I did). I’m not sure who this is supposed to be for?

11-11: Lobster Thermidor

Jamie Martin Group 11: Fish & Seafood, Section 2: Main Courses April 24, 2024July 13, 2024all-purpose flour, bay leaves, Béchamel sauce, black pepper, boiled, broiled, butter, carrots, cheese, Christmas, coral, dinner, dry mustard, expensive, fairly hard, fish bouillon, fish stock, French, garlic, leeks, lobster, melted, Parmesan, parsley, party food, peppercorns, reduced, roux, salt, seafood, serving shells, shelled, shellfish, sliced, split, strained, the sims, thyme, tomalley, untested, whipping cream, white wine, XMAS 23

Still catching up on things I made for holidays past, but at least now I’m up to 2023. 11-11: Lobster Thermidor isn’t just the grand meal we had for Christmas 2023 (XMAS 23), it’s also the final recipe I have for the Fish & Seafood chapter, as well as a famous fancy dish you make in the Sims. I feel like finally making it (and posting about it) is quite the celebration in and of itself.

It’s a very indulgent dish, and took us a while to put together as it became difficult to find whole lobsters for a while, at least out here on the west coast of the US. Once we finally found a frozen cooked pair at Costco, it was game on.

14-37: Chocolate Soufflé

Jamie Martin Group 14: Hot Desserts, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods April 21, 2024April 21, 2024all-purpose flour, butter, chocolate, dessert, egg whites, egg yolks, eggs, fairly easy, fairly inexpensive, favorites, granulated sugar, hot desserts, meringue, milk, paper collar, party food, soufflés, stiff peaks, temper, TGV 2022, Thanksgiving, unsweetened, untested, vanilla extract, vegetarian, whipped, whipping cream

I debated about doing two desserts back-to-back, but I think it makes more sense to just do all the TGV 2022 recipes together and be done with it already. Plus, this one came out really well and I want to tell you about it. So, with that in mind, here is 14-37: Chocolate Soufflé, the Thanksgiving 2022 companion dessert to 16-21: Apple Pie with Crumb Topping.

The blurb here reminds me of one of my favorite tropes: the endangered soufflé, otherwise known as soufflé humor. Whatever happened to that?

16-32: Glazed Fresh Fruit Cake

Jamie Martin Group 16: Pies & Cakes, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods February 21, 2024February 19, 2024almond paste, almonds, blackberries, blueberries, cakes, chilled, dairy-free, dessert, eggs, fairly hard, fairly inexpensive, flavorings, fruit, fruit salad, garnish, gelatin, gift ideas, glazed, gluten-free, granulated sugar, grapes, grated, mandarin oranges, nuts, party food, springform pan, strawberries, summer, untested

I grew up in Southern California, and lived there up until about 10 years ago. At one of my last jobs before I left, I was often gifted with a Porto’s Bakery fruit tart, which was (and I’m sure still is) delectable. 16-32: Glazed Fresh Fruit Cake reminds me of those fruit tarts, and makes me excited for warmer weather days ahead (check with me again about that when we’re in the middle of summer).

Glazed fruit tarts aren’t unique to just Porto’s or Simply Delicious, and there’s even different options for glazing your fruit tarts, depending on what you’re going for.

15-15: Tiramisu

Jamie Martin Group 15: Cold Desserts, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods February 19, 2024February 18, 2024biscotti, biscuits, brandy, chilled, coffee, cognac, cold desserts, cream cheese, creamed, dessert, easy, egg whites, egg yolks, eggs, espresso, fairly expensive, folded, instant coffee, Italian, layers, liqueur, mascarpone, meringue, party food, powdered sugar, soaked, stiff peaks, untested, vegetarian

If you’re still in the “indulgent” spirit, 15-15: Tiramisu comes highly recommended. I remember when tiramisu had its big moment around the time this book was published, so it’s not surprising that it was included in this book.

This is a great one to make in advance of a party or dinner…just don’t sneak too many bites before you serve it!

16-19: Midsummer Cake

Jamie Martin Group 16: Pies & Cakes, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods March 30, 2023March 30, 2023almond extract, almonds, boxed cake mix, butter, cakes, creamed, decorative, dessert, easy, egg yolks, eggs, fairly inexpensive, French, frosting, fruit, garnish, granulated sugar, grated, liqueur, mint, nuts, orange juice, orange peel, oranges, party food, sliced, spring, strawberries, summer, toasted, untested, vanilla extract, vegetarian, zested

We’re barely into spring, so what better way to celebrate that than to jump ahead to summer with 16-19: Midsummer Cake? We’ll call it being super proactive–you’re already thinking ahead for summer. Like when you go shopping for spring clothes and the summer stuff is already on the shelves. Look at you being so productive. Such a trendsetter!

There’s no rule saying you HAVE to make this in summer–it could be a great spring dessert as well. In fact, strawberries are generally considered more of a “spring fruit” more so than a summer one (depending on where you live), so maybe we should update this to be a “Spring Cake”? I can’t go with “Mid-Spring Cake” because that sounds like something you make in the middle of a jump.

14-28: “Hot Love”

Jamie Martin Group 14: Hot Desserts, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods February 15, 2023February 15, 2023chocolate, chocolate curls, cookies, dessert, easy, fairly expensive, fruit, garnish, grated, hot desserts, ice cream, liqueur, macaroons, orange juice, party food, raspberries, raspberry liqueur, raspberry sauce, shortbread, simmered, soft peaks, untested, Valentine's Day, vegetarian, whipped, whipping cream

I’m a day late, but had intended to post 14-28: “Hot Love” for Valentine’s Day, because how could you not? Apologies for procrastinating on it, but at least it’s there for Valentine’s Day 2024 (and beyond).

This one used to make me giggle every time I looked at the card as a kid–it felt cheesy to me even back then (but also sort of intriguing in that “is this what grown-ups do?” kind of way). I pretty much still feel the same way about it (grown-up question and all).

What is the plate in the picture above resting on (besides a book)? A cabinet on its side? A locked trunk? What’s in the box!?

Can you tell I’m not much of a romantic?

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