Baked stuffed apples Easy to keep warm in chafing dish... Not too unhealthy. For the "sinners" additions of a caramel or bourbon maple drizzle and icecream?

Along the same lines : poached pears?

Or a lighter chiffon pie of some variety? Or Martha Stewart's sour lemon cake? Or smitten kitchens apple salted caramel tart?

Bread pudding may work, but is rather heavy...

Lately I've made a orange infused chocolate low fat bundt cake with chocolate drizzles and fresh orange slices to squeeze on top of each slice. It goes over well and is a great counterpoint to the heavier fat bomb dessert my husband insists we serve.

Winter fruit compote?
http://www.cookingchanneltv.com/recipes/laura-calder/winter-fruit-compote-with-cognac.html

Here is a link that might be useful: Recipe

I like dessert to be sweet and truly dessert, so if you have to have a healthy alternative, what about an ice cream bar and those who don't want ice cream can eat the fruit and nut toppings.

Oh yum, that all sounds so good!

I think I will go with the baked apples idea, because, like my fruit summer dish, you can make it what you want. I think I might serve them with choices of:

greek yogurt
unsweetened fresh whipped cream
caramel sauce
artisanal granola
brittle pieces

Plus, there is nothing like the smell of baked apples during dinner!

Thank IheartGS, again!

One question - what type apple will look prettiest, and still taste good, after it is baked?

Pear halves poached in red wine with a side of soft whipped mascarpone cheese flavored with honey -simple and looks pretty.

I was going to suggest apples as well, but instead of baking them, make a compote...it's easy and it's just like apple pie without the crust, and people can take as much or as little as they wish. It can be served with ice cream or whipped cream and the cookies can be your "crust".

You could also do a pumpkin bread which has the texture of a really moist pound cake that also goes well with ice cream or whipped cream.

MTn- I'm glad my suggestions were helpful. I love honey crisp. They aren't as expected as Granny Smith. HC hold their shape and have a nice balance of sweet and tart. Your additions sound great!

Annie - you've given me a new dessert idea. Thanks.

the heavier fat bomb dessert

IHGS,
Don't be shy, tell us what you really think of your husband's choice of dessert. No offense intended, your comment struck me as funny. BTW, do we ever get to see a pix of a giant schnauzer?

Hh- hope its okay to reply here as this is veering off mtn's purpose.

I did word it rather strong... not what I intended. But does anyone else live with a man who can eat anything and never gain a fraction of a pound? I was an athletic woman that never had to worry about my weight. Exercise balanced everything. But now with my chemo and prednisone, I'm more aware of what I eat? The hubs still lives in oblivion. he is a cyclist who bikes to and from the hospital and competes on weekends. His daily caloric intake needed to just maintain his weight is ridiculous. So he uses any dinner with friends or family as an excuse for some ridiculous dessert like 5 layer chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting which is what he requested we serve tonight. I guess I let my feelings show there :) sorry.

Just for clarification-- I love a great dessert. Just not twice (or more frequently) a week. Oh and the baked apples and poached pears are divine additions to a meal.

As for the schnauzers, I'll have to take a few pictures when I get home and post in a different thread. everything I have on the iPad has stupid location tags etc. call me paranoid, but I'd rather that not be online. 89 pound clowns that occassionally masquerade as mustached gentlemen: That's what we have.

To me, it's about quantity moderation. I eat dessert everyday but it is something small and very sweet. A piece of chocolate or a very sweet homemade cookie. If I was at a party, I would eat a small amount of whatever I wanted, but would not eat something that was unsatisfying, which is often carbs that aren't sweet.
From mtn's dessert menu, I would have some whipped cream with caramel sauce and brittle.

No worries, IHGS, it isn't veering at all!

I have always battled with my weight, whereas my DH and 2 of my three kids have zero issues. However, skinny or not, there is no reason not to ingrain healthy preferences in your children and or spouse. It's a very personal decision, and where you choose to be on the healthy continuum can certainly vary.

I find that everyone appreciates eating lighter healthier foods, as long as the food is very good. For example, at all our kids' birthday parties, we will have huge fruit and veggie platters. Kids do eat them. Especially delicious ripe fresh mango, perfect kiwi, etc.

I think some people perceive a baked apple as a diet food. But people also always like individual desserts, and they like choosing what they put on something and exactly how much. I think there will be some people really excited that they can have a nice baked apple with a little greek yogurt and some granola (all the very best quality), and others will pile on caramel and whipped cream. To me, that is real hospitality.You can make a meal special by the quality of the ingredients and the presentation. A special dessert need not be terribly rich, IMHO.

PS Our realtor, at the closing, gave us a box of specialty chocolate from a local confisserie. My kids had never seen a traditional box of chocolates like that. They were really excited. We developed a little ritual around them. After dinners, we would sit around the table, they would each pick 2 pieces of candy from the box. I would cut them in three, and they would taste and discuss each one. It was a lot of fun, believe it or not, and no tummy aches. They actually told me, half amazed themselves, "you know mom, 2 pieces is plenty".

With apologies to Mtn for the continued hijacking...

I didn't think it was too strongly worded, I thought it was very funny. No need to apologize.

I love dessert but I don't have it often. If I ate chocolate, I wouldn't have any qualms about having that cake, even without being as fit and a calorie torching machine like your husband. I don't eat chocolate so that saves me from many desserts. Like Bumble, I don't waste my calories on things I consider subpar. I wouldn't turn down baked apples or pears, that's for sure.

Mtn-->One more dessert idea. I made this recently and it was a big hit with people who like a lighter dessert and want to avoid cream, frosting etc.

Here is the recipe from Marcella Hazan's Essential Italian Cookbook. It is not too sweet and tastes really good the next day too. Marcella called it a popular cake in Venice and said she made it for James Beard.

Polenta Shortcake with Raisins, Dried Figs, and Pine Nuts

Serves 6 to 8 (I got around 16 smaller slices out of a 9in round)

1 cup coarse cornmeal
Salt
1 ý Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Heaping ý cup granulated sugar
1âÂÂ3 cup seedless raisins
1 cup dried figs, cut into ü inch pieces
2 Tbsp butter plus more for greasing the pan
1 egg
2 Tbsp fennel seed
1 cup all-purpose flour
A 9-inch round cake pan
Fine, dry, unflavored bread crumbs

Procedure
â¢Preheat oven to 400ðF
â¢Bring 2 cups water to a boil in a medium sized sauce pan. Adjust heat to medium.
â¢Add corn meal in a steady stream by grabbing handfuls and letting it run through your partially closed fist. With the other hand, stir constantly with a wooden spoon. If you add it too fast, the corn meal can clump.
â¢Add salt and olive oil and continue to stir for about 15 seconds until the mush thickens and starts to pull away from the pan when stirred.

â¢Remove from heat and add sugar, raisins, pine nuts, figs, butter, egg, and fennel seed. Mix thoroughly to combine. Add flour and mix to form a cake batter.
â¢Smear cake pan with butter and dust with bread crumbs. Add cake batter and level with spatula. Bake 45 to 50 minutes.
â¢When cake is still warm, loosen its sides with knife and shake to drop onto plate. Turn cake over again onto serving platter. Serve when it becomes completely cold.

That box of chocolate does sound fun. I love discussing food and analyzing it while eating it.
I don't consider baked apples subpar at all, it's just that at the end of a meal that has already involved fruit, I want sweet so the apple would become unnecessary filler for me. I think it's a good dessert plan although I would throw in some cookies :-)

GWlolo,
You had me at figs.

Bumble,
Subpar to me is cheesecake and boxed mix cakes to name a few items. They are probably delicious but I just don't waste calories on them.

Here's a dessert story:
When my in-laws aren't having a store bought marble cake (I don't eat chocolate), they are having ice cream cake (I don't eat ice cream). It's all fine by me because it saves me calories for the wine I need when I get home.

Anyhoo, for a summer picnic I was (surprisingly) assigned dessert. I made a perfect fruit salad of blueberries, strawberries, and nectarines. But since I know their preferences, I also brought sliced strawbs with a little sugar sprinkled on them and a container of vanilla ice cream. I get to my SIL's and put my ice cream in the freezer. Turns out she bought TWO containers of ice cream, clearly afraid I would show up with only fruit. If she didn't trust me to bring the 'right' dessert and felt the need to buy it herself, why did I have to bring anything?

Like you, hhi, I dont eat those tyoes of sub-par desserts either. I`d much rather have a few decadently rich dates and walnuts than some cake. I really hate brownies, fudge anything and most chocolate.

In the summer my dessert staple is halved strawberries that i sprinkle just a bit of sugar over. Served with whipped cream, everyone raves about it and its the first dish to be emptied at parties.

Fall/winter desserts I serve are usually fruit & cheese pairings.

Baked apples and poached pears are beautiful ideas, so perfect for the season and they both pair well with the rest of your menu.

I have always used Crispen apples but Bon Appetit also recommends Honey Crisp and Gala. I'd think the red apples would make for a better presentation.

Speaking of presentation, as delicious as they are, baked apples just don't survive the baking process as nicely as pears. Clearly you anticipated this, Mtn, given your question.. one option is to wrap them in dough ala an apple dumpling. Of course, this adds carbs and calories. A great alternative (and preferable to my palate) would be to bake the apples wrapped in phyllo. Phyllo has fewer carbs and calories than a pate brisee and it is easily removed by those who are vigilant about minimizing simple carbs. I just love the little individual packages and they have that beautiful "rustic elegance" I always associate with you!

Have a great party!

Cake per se isn't subpar, bad cake is. I've had dried out homemade cake that was awful and freshly made box cake mix that was good ( the chemical taste usually emerges a day later- like perfume, it's the middle note).
I've had bad , i. e. mushy baked apples and hard poached pears and amazing, hot Krispy Kremes.

Desserts can be well prepared or not, whether you like them or not is a taste issue.

Are you doing the cooking or do you have someone who cooks for you? I ask only because if you are doing the cooking yourself, your best choice is something that is basically make ahead. A traditional French apple tarte is always good. Panna cotta with a raspberry coulis is light, pretty, and delicious and easy to make ahead. Add a plate of chocolates from that confiserie and you would be set.

Like you, hhi, I dont eat those tyoes of sub-par desserts either. I`d much rather have a few decadently rich dates and walnuts than some cake. I really hate brownies, fudge anything and most chocolate.

In the summer my dessert staple is halved strawberries that i sprinkle just a bit of sugar over. Served with whipped cream, everyone raves about it and its the first dish to be emptied at parties.

Fall/winter desserts I serve are usually fruit & cheese pairings.

Thanks, funky, and especially for saying I remind you of "rustic elegance"! How nice!

I love phyllo, but at least one guest can't eat gluten, so I don't want to go there. I am going to play around with how to make them as pretty as can be -- maybe cranberries would help.

thanks, all

Pesky -
I have a cheese platter question, which i do also want to do, if only to use this gorgeous wood plank I bought a while bank.
Anyway, when I serve a brie or similar, no one ever eats the rind, they just gouge it to death. What to do?

Because of the tandoori chicken/rice, I wanted to mention that slightly un ripe mango with a dipping tray of salt sugar and chile spice was a big hit at our last big dinner party.

So pretty Funky! I love the Honey Crisp apples and have been enjoying them the last few weeks. They are here for a short time. I actually made my first applesauce this year with honeycrisp

I love sweets!!! I have to be very careful and ration them or I could become addicted. Seriously.

And yes, I have one of those husbands who does not gain a pound and eats whatever he wants.

Mountain - I like your attitude and how you are teaching your children about foods and moderation. See, I could not keep the whole box of chocolates in sight. I make hubby hide things like that so I won't go "hog wild".

tina

Thanks, Tina. I have no willpower either, over say, tortilla chips, but chocolate is not a big thing to me.

Kiki, we will have mango on the fruit platter anyway, so why not? I usually like more of a themed menu, but I cant control the appetizers anyway,since they are pot luck, and I don't know these people so I have to make something a lot of people will like (ham w mac n cheese). I'd usually make a tenderloin too, with sauces and crostini, but two people are bringing beef appetizers.

Cyn, We have a woman that cooks for us Mon-Thurs and we hire her for parties like this one, too. She will do all of the cooking, except dessert, which I am doing. Even so, i want something make ahead. Thats one reason I like the apples, which I can just keep in my warming oven. I too love tarte tatin, but we have one person who cannot eat gluten and I think it would be nice to have a dessert she can eat, since id guess that is rare for her. We also have someone allergic to eggs! I could ignore that, but OTOH, its nice to find something that works for all when you can. Otherwise I love floating island desserts!

Bumble, you are right. We are foodies so we take our ingredients and recipes seriously. There are plenty of yummy cakes, but most adults I know appreciate something that feels and looks a little bit special, but is not something they have to pay for the next day at the gym!

GWlolo, I would love that cake. But I think Id have to eat it all by myself ( a distinct possibility). I think DH would like it to, but I would be less than confident serving it to this group of people whom I don't know well.

Oh Kiki - what you describe totally reminded me of eating green mangoes sprinkled with chilli and salt in the beaches of Madras, India.

Mtn- here is a presentation idea of how the street vendors sell it on the beach. Basically cut into wedges and use a paring knife to cut into teeth but don't cut through the skin. Sprinkle with a mixture of chilli powder and salt . Looks really pretty draped over whole green mangoes. Would work with mangoes that firm but more ripe as well. But oh the sour spicy taste of green mangoes!

Individual bread pudding with an aside of Carmel to drizzle and fresh whipped cream. There are always those willing to indulge and forego the dieting while dining elsewhere. I believe in healthly as well as organic eating, but knowing a hostess has taken the time to prepare various foods, I find it good manners to eat what is offered, with the exception of allergies. I 've never been a food snob in another persons home and wouldn't appreciate one in mine, just my 2 cents.

Why are baked apples considered diet food? Especially if one provides various degrees of toppings? I've never had anyone consider my offerings of poached pears or baked apples merely diet food.

I hope your dinner party went well. May I tell you about my experience last night?

Originally, the plan was for the dinner group to split and dine at two houses. A week ago, the husband of the other hostess passed away unexpectedly. I suggested postponing the meal but the others wanted to proceed, due to schedules and what not, so I said fine, everyone (except the widow) should come to my house. It would be 11 people now, and everyone was sticking with their original food assignment and I would do all the meat.

So as not to make the only single person feel like odd man out, I was putting 7 people, including my husband, in the DR and I would stay in the kitchen with the single and one couple.

At noon, I receive an email that one couple made a mistake and they weren't able to attend. Oooookay. Now I have the awkward amount of 9 guests (my DR table seats 8) and less of the potato dish, but someone else is also bringing that dish so I'm not going to worry about it since we usually have too much food.

I decide to keep 5 people in the DR so I clear the DR table, remove a leaf so they don't look so lost in there, reset the table, and keep the small table set for 4.

At 5:45, I get a phone call from another couple that they thought it was next week and they aren't even in town. Ummm, okay. But she was the other potato dish. The guests are arriving at 6:30 and both potato people canceled. Luckily, I had a bag of potatoes and Gruyere cheese so I threw together a scalloped potato dish.

Ai-yi-yi. I put the leaf back in the table and reset it for 7. After that it went smoothly. I knew we should reschedule but no, they all wanted to proceed. Even though it turns out 4 of them didn't even have the right date set aside.

GWlolo, Well all that did was send me off into trip planning mode again! Looks so exotic...

Patty_cakes, I was taught, too, that is it rude not to eat food prepared for you. People don't seem to think that way anymore. I try to eat at least a little bit of anything someone makes. OTOH, to me, genuine hospitality is about making what you think people will like and or accommodating dietary preferences or restrictions.

I ended up making a decadent dessert, and making the baked apples. I served the baked apples with fabulous greek yogurt, maple syrup and granola - no caramel or such, since those folks could just choose the decadent dessert. For the people that were into eating lighter, they were delighted. I myself loved it. Other guests indulged, but in many cases also ate a half an apple too.

IHGS, I think how they are viewed would depend on lot on the geographics and demographics. I don't think my guests perceived them as diet or lesser in anyway, but rather appreciated having an option.

HHHIreno,
OMG, what a trial! I can't believe some of your friends! Sheesh. You sure are flexible.

Ours was supposed to be a potluck, but I am too much of a control freak for that. As it was, I told everyone to bring just an appetizer. Well, one person said they'd bring a salad, so I didn't make one. They then brought cheese instead. One of three people to do so! Tons of cheese no salad at all.

Of course people brought desserts even though they weren't supposed to.

And the count fell by two and then grew by two.

In the end we were able to seat everyone in the dining room together for 18 to sitdown - moved our breakfast room table in. It was a lovely evening and we were glad we did it.

Gwlol those mangos are so pretty! Yum!

Control freak, yes me too! In the WORST way!! If someone asks if they can bring a dish, and if I'm familar w/the recipe, I'll go so far as to ask about the ingredients. If it's not 'mine' I've asked them to add/subtract what mine does/doesn't have. How bad is that?!?