Easy Spread

When hosting a party there is always the concern of having food for the guests, but if you are like me you don't want to have to clean lots of dishes afterwards. Worry no more. I have developed a quick and easy way to have gourmet style food with next to no clean-up. For the first course when the guests arrive I suggest doing some sort of a dipping bread. Most large grocery stores have a bakery where you can purchase various styles of bread. I suggest using something like a jalapeno cheese bread or an asiago cheese loaf. This bread is usually a little more dense and tends to be thicker than something like French loaf. Once you have this loaf, put it in the refrigerator for about 3 hours. This will cause the bread to become a little more rigid and thus easier to slice. Then slice the bread into cubes close to the size of a photography film container. Once cubed, you can store these pieces back in the bag until time to use them. When you are ready to eat, take the cubes out and put them in a bakeware pan and put into a 400 degree oven. 3 minutes later the outside of the cubes should be slightly toasted and the inside warm. Then just take the tray out and serve with olive dipping oil and spices... A guaranteed hit.

Then, for the next course I recommend cutting up several steaks (filet mignon works the best) into similar shaped cubes. Then, you can grill the steaks outside or sauté them inside on the stove-top (I recommend marinating the steaks for 30 minutes prior to cooking). These can be served up with toothpicks and sauces for dipping. Finally, the only thing left is toothpick clean-up and the cooking pans. Bottom line: You'll thank me once you've tried it.