My mother was more interested in how her food looked and was presented, rather than if it was up to a certain standard. While the stay-at-home suburban mothers stuck to the Rum cheese ball that had rolled over some walnuts, my mother’s cocktail party had to be interactive. Guests were summoned to participate in cooking their own food in order to start a much more interesting conversation than, “What do you do?” Introducing Flaming Weenies and the Purple Cabbage hors d’oeuvre, where the conversation begins and the roasting of weenies keeps it going.
Ingredients:
One red cabbage
Two cans of Sterno cooking fuel flame (buy an extra one in case the first one runs out)
Three packages of cocktail weenie hotdogs
One box wooden tooth picks
Three green peppers, sliced in half with seeds cleaned out
Honey mustard and ketchup for dipping
Directions:
1. Hollow out the center of cabbage to fit one of the Sterno flames.
2. Cut a small slice off the bottom of the cabbage so that it sits flat on a serving platter.
3. Place the Sterno in the hole you cut out.
4. Stick toothpicks into raw cocktail weenies and stick other end into the cabbage.
5. Half the green peppers and fill them with the mustard and ketchup and place them on the platter around the cabbage.
6. Light the Sterno flame once the guests arrive.
Demonstrate to your guests how to roast a weenie, and then dip into one of the sauces, smile, and wink to your roasting neighbor while you start a more interesting cocktail conversation.
