HotApp – Page 2 – Rosemary and the Goat

Classic Falafel with Tzatziki Sauce

Falafel is not a hushpuppy!

After 12 hours on a plane and a 3 hour layover and then another flight to Tel Aviv we made it to your hotel in Israel. What a trip that was and were we ever exhausted.

For months now I have been watching different YouTube videos on the places we would be touring in Israel and have been really excited about the places we are going to be visiting.

I was pretty anxious about the kinds of food we would be eating. Was it all going to be the same — hummus, falafel, tahini, kanafeh, baba ganoush and kebabs (of course) just to name a few. We like everything so I didn’t think I would not be turning my nose up at anything except maybe the falafel. Ya know I do have this thing about chickpeas!

The food ended up not being my favorite part of the trip. But that was ok because I knew this trip was not “all about the food”.

November 4, 2018 By Sherry

Appetizers/ HotApp

Thai Chili Calamari with Orange Gremolata

Crispy Thai Calamari, hot, sweet, and delicious!

Over the years I have seen my husband order and enjoy calamari. I’ve never been a fan; didn’t like the chewy rings that seemed rubbery to me and even though its was fried I would take my “one good bite” and be done with it.

On our Michigan trip this past summer we stopped for lunch at Firefly Grill in Traverse City. This is the same restaurant that I had the Blackberry Bramble cocktail that I posted a couple of weeks ago. We ordered a few appetizers for lunch and Thai Calamari was one of them along with some dumplings and something else that didn’t stick in my mind like the calamari did.

October 11, 2018 By Sherry

Appetizers/ HotApp

Smokey Hot Redfish Dip (or Whitefish)

Loved the fish spread we had in Leland, Michigan.

On our trip around Lake Michigan a few weeks ago we saw “smoked whitefish dip” on (no kidding) every menu. By the time we reached Lealand, MI (Fish Town) and we were sitting in a little restaurant overlooking a small waterfall (dam) with all the little weathered fish shanties, old smokehouses and drying racks for the fish and wondering what this life would have been like in the early 1900’s, we decided it was time to try their version of smoked fish dip.

September 23, 2018 By Sherry

Appetizers/ HotApp

Cheesy Bacon Caraway Toast

An old favorite!

Talk about quick, that’s this recipe. Talk about old, this was one of the first appetizers I made as a newlywed. Growing up I don’t ever remember having “appetizers” before a meal. I remember dips we had but they weren’t really appetizers before a meal.

For our December bunco get-together, our hostess, Gail, decided it would be a fun theme to bring some appetizers we remember making or having in our early years of being married. (I’ve been married going into 49 years now and still searching for new and interesting appetizers to make.)

So, we had a spinach madeline with crawfish and FRITOS (I still buy those things), a Yule Tide Log, rum balls, and a cheese ball I remember making with pineapple, green peppers etc. Didn’t we all love cheese balls back then. What happened to that trend I wonder. Someone brought deviled eggs too. I remember early on in catering a lady wanted me to make deviled eggs for a cocktail party and I thought that was not very trendy at the time. Guess what, they were the first things to be eaten. We also had a peach half salad and Cheesy olive balls (cheese pastry with an olive hiding inside) then baked. Yum. Mincemeat pie was brought by one friend. I remember my grandmother making mincemeat pie and I would not ever try it.

December 18, 2017 By Sherry

Appetizers/ HotApp

Fontina and Mushroom Tarts

Little bites of puffed pastry and mushrooms.

With the holidays right around the corner this little appetizer will be a favorite of your guest.

Appetizers have always been one of my favorite things to make and when I catered most of the parties I did over the holidays were all appetizers. I would always have extras and they would be in my freezer at Christmas time and I could pull out so many different favorites for my family and it saved me a lot of time in the kitchen.

These days, since I’m not catering anymore, I have decide on some of my favorites to make or come up with something new to surprise my kids. I have a few special ones picked out already for Thanksgiving.

November 1, 2017 By Sherry

Appetizers/ HotApp

Sausage Cheese Dip

Cheese, Sausage and lots of other good stuff.

How many different cheese dip recipes have you tried? How many grandmothers would drive over an hour to pick up her twin granddaughter’s favorite cheese dip from Poncho’s restaurant in Memphis? Ours did and it wasn’t anything like the above dip. Their dip was so good but like most cheese dips and had lots of cumin in it and thin enough you might want to drink it.

I made this cheese dip when we had company over for the superbowl and I was in such a hurry to get things on the table I didn’t get a picture of chips in my acrylic cowboy hat that looks great piled full of chips or snacks.

When it comes to cheese dip, most of my life I used Velvetta cheese and Rotel tomatoes and simply melted it and ate it. Then I started using a stick blender on it so there were no hunks of tomatoes and even later I would put it cold in my Vitamix and blend the cheese, Rotel and add some water, cumin, black pepper and garlic salt. I really like the taste that cumin gives to cheese dip and when I make it thin enough we don’t even like it heated like in the “old” days.

May 6, 2017 By Sherry

Appetizers/ HotApp

Edamame with Garlic and Soy

Garlic Edamame, yum!

What a simple recipe I’m giving you today; so simple I’m doing it for myself tonight when my husband goes out with the guys.

How about some edamame to go with the Asian inspired dinner you are having or for the sushi you are making (or buying). Don’t just eat salted Edamame, you have to try the recipe I was first ate at Ozumo restaurant in San Francisco

So, read my “true confession – Edamame” here. and fine out more about the edamame saga. The restaurant that I went to and took my own garlic and mixed with their edamame now has Edamame in Roasted Garlic Butter on their menu for $4.50 a serving. I like doing the garlic in olive oil instead of butter and then I add a splash of soy sauce.

April 12, 2017 By Sherry

Appetizers/ Bread/ HotApp/ Side dish

Crawfish Hushpuppies

My contribution to a cajun or Mardi Gras dinner.

Mardi Gras is almost here. I’ve never been to a Mardi Gras and I guess I don’t care if I ever go to one but I do love cajun cuisine. When we were in New Orleans last summer we had all kinds of cajun food and a few things I made after I got home.

I picked up these decorations/props at my craft circle. There’s a room bigger than my whole house (maybe twice over) full of supplies that we can go back and get for any project our group is working on. The little jester, mask and beads came from the floral department. And, since they weren’t using them for a few days, I thought I would borrow a few things and use for props. Just look at that little girl with her hand out, just waiting for a hushpuppy.

My local HEB had a guy out front last week with a big contraption that he was cooking crawfish in; so I decided to buy them and not fool with cooking such a small amount. I only bought a pound which didn’t make nearly enough meat. I’m putting 1 – 1 1/2 cups of crawfish tails in the recipe because that’s what it is going to take to make these delicious. At $5.99 a lb, and I bought only a pound and got 3/4 cup of meat, I’d go for the ones you cook yourself next time because they are going to be about $2.00 a pound, maybe less depending on where you live or you can buy crawfish tails in the freezer section.

February 21, 2017 By Sherry

Appetizers/ HotApp

Walnut, Fig and Goat Cheese Phyllo Rolls

Crunchy and delicious!

I love just about every kind of sushi and even unagi which is freshwater eel. So, what does eel have to do with this recipe? Well, for years of watching cooking shows and hearing the word Umami I’ve been hearing “unagi” and thinking where’s the eel.

Over the last few years I’ve discovered how wrong I was and that the chefs are actually saying “umami” which is the fifth taste. We all know sweet, salty, bitter and sour but did you know there was a fifth taste called “umami” and it wasn’t a recent discovery.

I seems like a hundred years after Escoffier wrote his cookbook (where he identified this new flavor) scientist finally agreed with him on a new flavor “savory” or umami. Read this article called “Sweet,Sour, Salty, bitter and Umami” and you will find out everything you need to know about this new/old taste. There’s an article in The New Yorker you might be interested in reading; I don’t want to just copy what they said so go to their website and have a good read if you’re interested.

So, the umami part of this recipe would be the prosciutto which is a smoked meat and falls into the foods that have a lot of umami flavor. I’ve read also that if you crush up some dried seaweed (chips) into your hamburgers you will get a great tasting burger. Continue Reading…

February 15, 2017 By Sherry

Appetizers/ HotApp

Hot Spinach Dip with Tomatoes

Not your ordinary spinach dip. No Artichokes in this one and one of my favorites.

How many dips can you name from your years of cooking. Onion dip was on top of my list and way back when I used Lipton Onion Soup mix to make it. I can only imagine what a homemade version would taste like; will have to give that a try. Mexican Cheese Dip was always a favorite also. Adventurous wasn’t in my vocabulary back then. I knew onion and cheese dip, that’s about it.

Then one day someone tried putting spinach and artichokes together; who would have ever thought of that back in the day. Aren’t you tired of spinach artichoke dip? You will see it on just about every restaurant menu, but my Hot Spinach Dip with Tomatoes has a little different twist to it with jalapenos and some fresh chopped tomatoes; and I love the homemade pita chips made with butter, lemon pepper and cumin, baked until nice and crunchy.

January 31, 2017 By Sherry

Appetizers/ Entree/ Fish/Seafood/ HotApp

Sugar Cane Skewered Shrimp with Bacon and Pineapple

I finally found some sugar cane and wanted to use it.

I’ve always wanted to make something on a sugar cane skewer and now I have. And now that I have I may just save it for drink skewers. This recipe would have been much faster using ordinary wooden skewers. That said, don’t worry about looking for sugar cane, just get out those long pics.

Many years ago before using the internet, I use to look up newspaper food pages (usually on a Wednesday or Thursday) to see what foods were popular (I guess now we would say “trending”) in that area. The Courier-Journal in Louisville’s food pages can still be accessed. If you have time, try typing in some of your favorite city’s newspapers. The Citizen-Times in Asheville offers a 30 day free look. The Post and Courier from Charleston has free access to their recipes. If you want to see what’s happening on the other side of the US (from me anyway) Napa Valley Register offers free access too.

I just read an article about what was the favorite foods from each state. Results were crazy. In almost all states, by far, the winning type of food was pizza. Of course, Texas had Mexican food winning out as did Colorado and California. Hawaii’s favorite food was bakery items.

August 26, 2016 By Sherry

Appetizers/ HotApp/ Salads/ Side dish

BLT Stacked Tomatoes

One of my favorite foods from Savannah.

Do you find it hard to pass up a fried green tomato? Well I do and while visiting in Savannah back in April I saw them on every menu I looked at along with shrimp and grits and pimento cheese .

I grew up eating fried green tomatoes. My dad had the best garden ever and “organic” before most people even though of growing anything without a lot of pesticides. He made his own garlic spray that he would spray on his plants for bugs and he even hooked up a pump in the lake they lived on (after retirement) and use that water to water his garden.

Over the years of our gardening we would grow all types of tomatoes and I could not wait to see the first green tomatoes get big enough to pick and fry and believe me it was hard to pick them knowing in just a few days we would have beautiful vine ripen tomatoes. But, that was never a hard decision for me to make — pick or not pick.

Have you ever had fried green tomatoes with pimento cheese on top? I haven’t either but saw it on some menus in Savannah. I have posted a Fried Green Tomato with Black Eyed Pea Vinaigrette and a Fried Green Tomato with Ravigote Sauce.

July 7, 2016 By Sherry

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