Twelve Tennis-Theme Tailgating Snacks For Your French Open Homegate

• Mix all but salad dressing and cilantro in a glass bowl.
• Pour dressing over mixed ingredients and blend well.
• Garnish with cilantro if desired.
• Serve with tortilla chips immediately.

• Preheat the oven to 400°. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. In a medium saucepan, combine the water, milk, butter and salt and bring to a boil. Add the flour and stir it in with a wooden spoon until a smooth dough forms; stir over low heat until it dries out and pulls away from the pan, about 2 minutes.
• Scrape the dough into a bowl; let cool for 1 minute. Beat the eggs into the dough, 1 at a time, beating thoroughly between each one. Add the cheese and a pinch each of pepper and nutmeg.
• Transfer the dough to a pastry bag fitted with a 1/2-inch round tip and pipe tablespoon-size mounds onto the baking sheets, 2 inches apart. Sprinkle with cheese and bake for 22 minutes, or until puffed and golden brown. Serve hot, or let cool and refrigerate or freeze. Reheat in a 350° oven until piping hot.

• Preheat oven to 375˚F/190˚C.
• Slice the rolls in half. Fold one slice of ham and one slice of cheese and place on the bottom bun.
• To make the sauce, melt butter in a small saucepan and stir in the flour.  Cook 1-2 minutes on low heat, do NOT brown. Add milk and whisk to remove lumps. Sauce will thicken fully as it reaches a low boil.
• Add dijon mustard and salt to taste. Spread the sauce over the ham and cheese then put the tops on.
• Bake 8 minutes until lightly browned and melty. Melt butter and garlic in the microwave, brush over the top of sliders

• Heat oil in a large skillet over medium. Add onions, salt, sugar, and pepper; cook, stirring often, for 5 minutes. Reduce heat to medium-low; cook, stirring often, until onions are golden brown and very tender, about 25 minutes. Stir in sherry, parsley, and thyme; cook, stirring often, until fragrant, about 1 minute. Remove from heat. Stir in 1 3/4 cups of the cheese; set aside.
• Preheat oven to 350°F. Place phyllo shells on a baking sheet, and fill each with about 1 tablespoon of the onion mixture; top each cup with some of the remaining cheese. Bake in preheated oven until cheese is melted, about 10 minutes. Place on a serving platter, and sprinkle with chives. Serve hot. 

For Wedge Fries

• Preheat oven to 450ºF.
• Place potato wedges, 3 tablespoons of olive oil and salt and pepper in a resealable bag and shake to combine. Transfer potatoes a Silpat-lined baking sheet and evenly spread out the wedges. Transfer to the oven and bake for 30–35 minutes, flipping once, until evenly baked and golden brown. (Note: After 10 minutes, slide the pan of sweet potato fries into the oven and let both fries bake together for the remaining 20–30 minutes.)
• Whisk remaining olive oil and chopped garlic in a large bowl. Add mixture to the hot fries and toss to combine. Taste and season with extra salt and pepper as needed, and toss to coat.

For Sweet Potatoes

• Rinse and dry the sweet potatoes. Cut unpeeled potatoes lengthwise into slices 1/2 inch (12 mm) thick, and then cut each slice into batons about 1/4 inch (6 mm) wide and 3 inches (7.5 cm) long.
• Place the potatoes on a baking sheet. Drizzle with the olive oil, sprinkle with 1/4 teaspoon salt, and toss to coat. Spread the potatoes out evenly. Roast at 450ºF, stirring with a spatula halfway through, until the potatoes are tender and browned on the edges, 20–25 minutes.

Guacamole

• Cut avocados in half lengthwise. Remove the pits and discard. Remove the avocado from the skin and place the avocado flesh into a bowl. Add lemon juice, lime juice, red onion, chives, jalapeño, salt and pepper. Mash with a fork until half smooth and creamy. Taste and add more salt and pepper if desired.

French Fry Bar

• Place additional toppings on the table along with the fries and guacamole. Pick the potato of your choice, top with cheese, and melt. Once cheese is melted, add desired toppings and enjoy responsibly, i.e. try your best to limit consumption to less than 5 pounds of fries per person.

• Preheat oven to 425. Lightly grease cookie sheet. Roll puff pastry out slightly. Place cheese wheel on top (leave rind on).
• Place preserves on top of cheese. Place almonds on top of preserves. Bundle Puff Pastry up and around the cheese. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Let cool for five minutes.

Prepare The Crusts

• Let the pie crusts stand at room temperature for 15 to 20 minutes. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Spray 48 miniature muffin cups with non-stick cooking spray. 
• Open and unfold one pie crust, then press out any fold lines. With a 2-½ inch biscuit cutter, cut out 12 rounds. Repeat with remaining 3 pie crusts.
• In the prepared mini muffin tins, press 1 round of pie crust into the bottom and up the sides of the cup. In a 4-cup measuring cup, combine the eggs, milk, and the salt. Whisk well. Set aside.

Mini Bacon Quiche

• In 12 of the mini muffin cups, add 1 tablespoon of cheese. Evenly divide the chopped bacon among the 12 cups, using about ½ teaspoon bacon in each. Top with a couple slices of green onion.

Mini Ham And Cheese Quiche

• In 12 of the mini muffin cups, add 1 tablespoon of cheese. Evenly divide the chopped ham among the 12 cups, using about ½ teaspoon ham in each.

Mini Spinach Quiche

• In 12 of the mini muffin cups, add 1 tablespoon of cheese. Evenly divide the wilted spinach among the 12 cups, using about about ½ teaspoon spinach in each. Evenly divide the chopped red pepper among the mini muffin cups.

Mini Mushroom Quiche

• In 12 of the mini muffin cups, add 1 tablespoon of cheese. Evenly divide the chopped mushroom among the 12 cups, using about ½ teaspoon mushroom in each. 

Finish And Bake

• Pour egg mixture into each of the 48 cups, filling to within ¼ inch of the top. Bake at 375 degrees until golden brown, about 25 to 30 minutes. Cool slightly and serve warm.

• Lay out three sheet pans with racks placed in each. Peel and slice the eggplant into one-inch thick slices. Lay out on one of the sheet pans. Do not peel the zucchini but slice as you did for the eggplant. Dice all tomatoes into large one-inch dice and lay out on the third sheet pan.
• Use one tablespoon of salt for each sheet pan. Sprinkle salt on both sides of the eggplant and zucchini. Sprinkle the last tablespoon over the tomatoes. Let all three pans sit for two hours turning every 30 minutes in a stacked formation as shown with tomatoes on top to press out additional liquid.
• After two hours, rinse salt from eggplant and zucchini and dry with paper towels and set aside. Transfer the tomatoes to a strainer over a bowl to collect more water until you are ready to use. No need to rinse off salt. Discard all liquid collected from the three vegetables.
• Take the now dried eggplant and dice into one-inch cubes. Do the same for the zucchini. In a very large skillet or sauté pan (ours was 12” across and 3” deep), heat two tablespoons of the olive oil over high heat until just shy of smoking. Add half the eggplant and sauté for 6-8 minutes until lightly browned.
• Remove to a large bowl and add two more tablespoons of the oil. Once hot, add the second half of the eggplant and once cooked, remove to the same bowl. Add two more tablespoons of oil and add half the zucchini and cook for about four minutes until browned.
• Remove to the same bowl as the eggplant and add two more tablespoons of oil to the pan. Cook the second half of the zucchini and add to the bowl. Add two more tablespoons of the oil and once hot, add all of the bell peppers.
• Cook for eight minutes stirring around with a wooden spoon. Remove to the same bowl as the other vegetables. Add two more tablespoons of the oil and reduce the heat to medium high. Once hot, add the red onions and sauté for five minutes then add the garlic.
• Cook for one more minute then add the drained tomatoes along with the fresh thyme, salt, pepper and lemon zest and cook over medium high for five minutes. Add tomato paste, balsamic vinegar and the entire bowl of the cooked vegetables. Gently stir, cover and cook over medium low for 20 minutes. Occasionally stir gently to make sure it doesn’t stick. After 20 minutes, remove lid and remove from heat.
• Stack the 20 basil leaves and with a knife, slice into thin ribbons and add to the mixture. Slice the bread and oil both sides then broil or grill and rub with a little raw garlic. To serve, top each grilled bread slice with a few spoons of the ratatouille, drizzle a little olive oil over the top and finish with some grated Parmesan cheese.

Cookies

• In a stand mixer, cream together butter and sugar. Add egg and vanilla. Combine flour, baking soda, and salt. (Confession – I don't mix this in a separate bowl.)
• Add flour to butter and sugar mixture. Mix well. Divide dough in half. Set one half aside. On a lightly floured surface, roll out half the dough.
• Cut into perfect circles and place on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Cook at 350 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes.

Royal Icing

• Combine meringue powder and warm water until dissolved. Beat for about 1 minute. Add powdered sugar and corn syrup. Mix at medium speed for about five minutes. Remove a small amount of royal icing to a small bowl and add a little bit of water – drop by drop – until it's the consistency you want. Don't try to get all the royal icing to the same consistency at the same time.

Icing The Cookies

• We rolled out enough dough to make almost three dozen tennis balls. We cut out the dough into circles and used the side of a butter knife to make light indents in the dough to guide us with our white lines later when our icing was done. To make the icing, I kept some icing white for the tennis ball lines and tinted the rest of the royal icing with lemon yellow and kelly green gel colors from Wilton. Use a tiny bit at a time until it's perfect.
• When our coloring was perfect, I started by filling in the white lines first.
• Next, I did a thin outline around the outside of the cookie with the green icing and then flooded the interior portion. My kids love to ice cookies and I let them. Perfection isn't the goal. They will look great, I promise!

• Bake cupcakes according to package directions. Remove from oven and set aside to cool.
• While cupcakes are baking, prepare the frosting. Add a few drops of yellow food colouring plus one drop of blue food colouring. Mix. Adjust amount of colouring to the amount of frosting used.
• Add coconut shavings to frosting for texture, decorate cupcakes and SERVE!

• Preheat the oven to 160C/140C Fan/Gas 3. Grease a 23x15cm/9x6in rectangular cake tin. Line the base and sides with a double layer of baking parchment.
• Put the cherries in a sieve and rinse under running water then drain well. Dry the pineapple and cherries very thoroughly using kitchen paper.
• Place all the fruits and nuts in a bowl with the lemon zest and gently mix together.
• In a separate bowl, cream the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, with a spoonful of flour to prevent the mixture curdling. Fold in the remaining flour and ground almonds. Lightly fold in the fruit and nuts then pour the mixture into the prepared cake tin. Level the surface.
• Bake for 2 hours, or until golden-brown and a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. Cover the cake loosely with aluminum foil after 1 hour to prevent the top becoming too dark.
• Leave to cool in the tin for 15 minutes then turn out, peel off the parchment and finish cooling on a wire rack.
• For the almond paste, mix the ground almonds, caster sugar and icing sugar in a bowl. Stir in the egg and almond essence. Knead in the bowl to form a stiff paste but don’t over-knead as this will make the paste oily. Wrap in cling film and set aside.
• For the royal icing, whisk the egg whites in a large bowl until they become frothy. Mix in the sifted icing sugar a tablespoonful at a time. You can do this with a hand-held electric whisk but keep the speed low. Beat the icing until it is very stiff and white and stands up in peaks. Cover the surface of the icing with cling film.
• For the fondant, place the gelatine, 2 tablespoons water, glucose and glycerine in a bowl set over a pan of gently simmering water and heat until the gelatine has dissolved (do not allow the water to boil or the gelatine to get too hot). Remove from the heat.
• Sieve half of the icing sugar into a large bowl. Make a well in the centre, add the gelatine mixture and using a wooden spoon mix together. Sieve the remaining sugar onto the work surface and tip the mixture onto it. Knead together until the fondant is smooth and pliable. Reserve a thumb size piece of the white fondant and wrap in clingfilm. Little by little, add mint green food colouring to the remaining fondant and knead to a pale pistachio green colour. Wrap in clingfilm to prevent it drying out.
• Roll out the almond paste on a work surface lightly dusted with icing sugar, to a rectangle slightly larger than the cake. Neatly cut out a 23x15cm/9x6in rectangle and place on silicon sheet dusted with icing sugar (this will enable you to slip the almond paste on top of the cake, once the cake has cooled).
• Roll out the green fondant on a surface lightly dusted with icing sugar, to a rectangle slightly larger than the cake. Neatly cut out a 23x15cm/9x6in rectangle and carefully place on top of the almond paste.
• Divide the royal icing equally between 3 bowls. Colour one bowl pale dusky pink and colour the second bowl a light gold colour, using the autumn leaf colouring. Leave the third bowl white.
• Spoon most of the white royal icing into a piping bag fitted with a number 3 writing nozzle. Pipe the outline of a tennis court on top of the green fondant, leaving a 2cm/¾in gap around the edge.
• On a sheet of greaseproof paper or a silicon mat, pipe the outline of 2 small tennis rackets (approx. 5cm/2½in long) and a tennis net about 12x3cm/4½x1¼in (it should be the same width as the court you piped onto the cake). Spoon the remaining white icing into a piping bag fitted with a number 2 plain nozzle and pipe the strings of the tennis racket within the tennis racket outline and the strings of the net within the outline of the net. Leave to dry until you can peel them off the paper.
• Spoon the pink icing into a piping bag fitted with the number 8 star nozzle and spoon the gold icing into a piping bag fitted with the number 7 star nozzle. Using the pink and the gold icing, pipe a decorative border around the edge of the fondant.
• When the cake has cooled, gently lift the decorative iced layer of almond paste and fondant onto the cake.
• Pipe a line of white icing across the middle of the tennis court. Peel the net off the greaseproof paper and stick it on the line of icing, so it stands up on top of the cake. Lay the iced tennis rackets on either end of the court and finally roll a small tennis ball from the reserved fondant.

• Preheat oven to 175C/350F. Prepare a 9×13 baking pan. Line with parchment paper and brush with coconut oil. Puree spinach, lemon juice, maple syrup, vanilla extract, and coconut oil in a blender.
• Beat eggs in a bowl. Whisk in spinach puree mixture. Whisk gluten-free flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a separate bowl. Sift the flour mixture into the wet ingredients. Mix well.
• Pour this batter into the prepared baking pan. Bake for 25 miutes. Let cool then break the cake into a coarse crumb. Put in the food processor together with the coconut milk and pulse until smooth.
• Form into balls and refrigerate for at least an hour to set. Make the frosting. Combine all ingredients in a saucepan and set over low heat, whisking continuously until thick. Allow frosting to cool then transfer into a piping bag with a fine tip.
• Pipe tennis ball lines onto each cake ball.