HotApp – Page 6 – Rosemary and the Goat

Mushroom Asparagus Tarts

Finally this recipe makes an appearance.

I can’t believe I had this recipe ready to post in March 2010 but never got around to trying it. What a mistake, it is a delicious appetizer or even a brunch or main dish item.

Yesterday, I had a guy from our local camera shop come to my house and give me tips for taking better food pictures. (These may not be BETTER yet, I’m a work in progress when it comes to learning new things.) Like this recipe, it took be a year and a half to get around to using a gift card my husband had given me from the camera shop. But, I finally set things up and it was definitely beneficial and I hope my pictures eventually improve.

So, in anticipation for my visit I made these Mushroom Asparagus Tarts, a Sugar Plum Cake (will post that), some Rosemary Blue Cheese Wafers (coming soon), and a red cabbage and fennel salad (also to make an appearance). So I had all this food ready to take pictures of for my lesson and I just wanted to dig in and try some of it.

I could tell from the aroma of cooking the asparagus and mushrooms that this was going to be delicious, and how good they would taste with a glass of wine. I took this to our bunco group last night and everyone loved them. I can’t wait to make them again and may vary some of the ingredients and try tomato and caramelized onion for another time. I had four squares left and brought them home and it didn’t take long for my husband to gobble up a couple of them.

March 8, 2012 By Sherry

Appetizers/ Entree/ Fish/Seafood/ HotApp

Hawaiian Coconut Shrimp w/ Orange Marmalade Sauce

Delicious coconut shrimp from Hawaiian feast night.

I’ve blogged a coconut shrimp recipe before but this is a little different and one of the recipes from our Hawaiian feast on Thanksgiving weekend.

My first recipe was coated in an almond meal which can be pretty expensive to buy. This recipe has some Cajun seasoning (I used Tony’s) and hot sauce which spices it up a bit.

For my course on feast night I did three coconut shrimp per plate and then a little puddle of the orange marmalade dipping sauce. I have made orange marmalade before so I knew that part of my course was going to be easy. In fact, I did the orange marmalade a week before. The recipe for the orange marmalade just called for one orange but I used four because I wanted some extra jars of marmalade in my pantry for this winter.

One thing about making the orange marmalade though is it will only be as good as your oranges. I used Texas oranges when I made mine and they had a lot of seeds to pick out and they were not as orange color on the inside as I would have liked them to be. Look for naval oranges and I don’t think you can go wrong. I have been wanting to try blood oranges for this recipe; the color would be beautiful for a sauce or on your toast, scones or morning bagel. OR, even easier, just buy a good orange marmalade.

I think this would be a nice little appetizer to do during the Christmas holidays.

December 16, 2011 By Sherry

Appetizers/ HotApp

Oyster BLT Amuse

How about another Amuse Bouche (a two bite Amuse)

Back when my daughter and I were shopping for her wedding dress, we had dinner one night at the Parkside Restaurant on 6th street in Austin. If you have never been to sixth street in Austin it is a street full of restaurants, bars, bars and more bars. And tucked into all these college kid hangouts is this trendy restaurant, Parkside. I love their bar foods and also their mixed drinks. Their raw bar is the freshest around, their fried okra with ranch dip awesome.

We had several appetizers that night before moving on to another place for dinner. I was amused by this BLT Oyster on their menu and decided I wanted to recreate it.

I have never been an oyster fan, in fact, I have eaten raw oysters only once and cooked oysters several ways a few other times. But like I have said before; what isn’t good fried. Put the oyster on top of a slice of really good French baguette along with a couple of sauces, some arugula leaves, bacon and tomato and you have yourself one enticing little bite. So, I’m calling this an Amuse Bouche. I would probably make just one per person, serve it in the middle of a small plate with some sauce smeared on the plate and garnish with a few arugula leaves.

November 25, 2011 By Sherry

Appetizers/ HotApp

Bacon Wrapped Dates with Balsamic

Sweet and salty — Who doesn’t like that combination?

I’m always looking for new tapas recipes or quick bites of food that will be easy to make yet very tasty to the palate. This would be a great little Thanksgiving appetizer to tease everyone’s taste buds before sitting down to your fantastic Thanksgiving dinner.

I love eating tapas. What is a tapas you say? Well, it isn’t a particular kind of food. Anything can be a tapas as long as it is a small serving of just about anything served with a drink. While in Spain last year we had Pork in Whiskey Sauce which could have been a meal but it was served as a very small course with our drinks — so tapas. Or, like some cheese and breads served with a little paté — tapas. A tapas is just a small dish of a snack, appetizer or food.

I think I first had bacon wrapped dates at Mercat, a tapas restaurant, in Chicago. We ordered several tapas that night and what I remember about their dates is that they bought them out on a long skinny white tray. They also bought out a tiny little white porcelain pitcher that had my interest; now what was in that pitcher and what were they going to do with it’s contents. As it turned out, it was full of the smoothest, cheesiest Stilton sauce I have tasted and they proceeded to pour the sauce over the plate of dates.

This tapas was so wonderful, the sweetest of dates pared with the almond and blue cheese that it was stuffed with, then wrapped in a salty bacon to boot, was great. And then if that wasn’t enough to put a person over the edge, it was drizzled with a sauce that just made you want more than the one bite you knew you were going to get because you were sharing this tapas course with three other people and one of those people was your husband and the other your son and daughter-in-law. So, this was no time to be hoggish and ask for more.

November 12, 2011 By Sherry

Appetizers/ HotApp

Mushroom Turnovers in Cream Cheese Pastry

All I can say is YUM!

A little drizzle of truffle oil (optional) and you have a delicious appetizer.

I don’t know about your grocery, but my grocery store carries so many different kinds of mushrooms it is hard to choose just one variety. There are the white button mushrooms (this recipe), black mushroom, chanterelle, cremini, shiitake, porcini, portobello, clamshell, enok, morel, and oyster.

Over the years I have made some wonderful dishes with mushrooms. I make fabulous Pepperoni Stuffed Mushrooms that I actually won a contest with that recipe. My Balsamic Mushroom Panini appetizer is a fancy grilled cheese that is opened up and topped with sauteed mushrooms. A duxelle filling can be put into phyllo cups or can be put under the skin of chicken breast for a beautiful entree. Of course, mushrooms can always be sliced and used on veggie trays and what dish isn’t made better by adding some mushrooms.

May 15, 2011 By Sherry

Appetizers/ HotApp

Duck Crepe with Port Wine Cherry Sauce

A Delicious appetizer we had at Galatoires in New Orleans.

I knew when I tasted this dish I would soon be trying my own version at home. (Picture is of the crepe we had that night.)

Back in September on our Mother/daughter trip to New Orleans we had some of the most wonderful food I have ever tasted. Dinner our first night there was at Galatoires and since we were celebrating our birthday weekend (we celebrated every night), we chose this landmark restaurant as our first meal in The Big Easy. We shared this crepe and also tried their sweetbreads which were melt in your mouth delicious.

I’ve had duck before and probably quite often growing up. My dad would go duck hunting and my mother would bake the duck in the oven and all I remember is this dry bumpy skin that didn’t taste that good and occasionally finding a buckshot in your mouth that didn’t belong there. Then my parents started making creole duck which was kind of stewed and would fall off the bone in this spicy sauce and we would serve it with wild rice.

A whole new world of eating duck opened up to me when my son Paul introduced me to duck rillettes, duck pate, and duck confit. I have made duck confit before for a cassoulet recipe we did one Thanksgiving and also made the duck confit for this recipe. We used this Duck Crepe with Port Wine Cherry Sauce as part of our New Orleans FEAST meal that we did the day after Thanksgiving. (Every year we pick a different theme or country and everyone cooks — this recipe was my contribution.)

January 22, 2011 By Sherry

Appetizers/ HotApp

Parmesan Shrimp Toast

A fabulous appetizer from my catering files.

I have been making this recipe for about 10 years for parties I have catered and my own parties. Last year I finally let go of my Garden Vegetable Terrine (mold) recipe that everyone had always wanted. So, this year, I decided to share this recipe.

I came across this recipe in an old Southern Living cookbook from the 70’s. The original recipe was called Seafood Tart-lets and it called to cut out bread circles and press them into mini muffin pans, fill with the seafood mixture and bake in the oven. That just didn’t cut it for me when I was trying to make them for 50-100 people. So, I decided to try putting the mixture on a baguette slice and I’ve never looked back at the original recipe.

The old recipe called for canned shrimp (gasp) and the powdered type of Parmesan cheese. I always use fresh or frozen shrimp and chop them in about 4-5 pieces each. I use freshly grated Parmesan and Swiss cheese and top with a sprinkle of paprika. Fresh thyme makes a really pretty garnish also.

At one party I catered someone came up to me and said this appetizer was like “sex on toast” — whatever that is suppose to mean. I guess they liked it and these are always a crowd pleaser. I have yet to try substituting lump crab meat and have no doubt it would be just as delicious as with the shrimp.

November 22, 2010 By Sherry

Appetizers/ HotApp

Fried Eggplant Chips with Honey Drizzle

Another tapas recipe from Spain.

I’ve talked on and on about all the wonderful tapas we had on our trip to Spain and here is yet another recipe that I have tried.

I love tapas and you can turn just about any appetizer into a tapas. Make small portions and serve on small plates and you have a tapas. This tapas just happens to be made from eggplant and is drizzled with honey and will definitely be a favorite of your guests.

I’m not sure when I actually first had eggplant but I know it wasn’t anytime before I was about 40 years old. It’s hard to believe I had never eaten eggplant and it wasn’t a vegetable my dad ever grew in his garden (and he grew just about everything). Probably the first recipe I tasted using this dark purple, night shade vegetable was Eggplant Parmesan at some Italian restaurant and I now make Eggplant Caponata, PF Chang’s recipe for spicy eggplant and several other recipes.

One night at a tapas bar in Seville (our favorite bar) we kept ordering tapas that we saw other people ordering. Since we couldn’t read or speak any Spanish we just went by how something looked and said “we’ll have that”. I really thought this dish was zucchini chips but when I looked up the word later that night, I found out that it was eggplant and that the drizzle was honey.

October 15, 2010 By Sherry

Appetizers/ Entree/ HotApp/ Pork

Pork in Whiskey Sauce Tapas

Who ever thought little plates of food could be soooo good!

We returned from our cruise and time in Spain a few weeks ago. A couple of days in Amsterdam, cruising for 8 days and 9 days in Spain and I only gained 2 pounds. Didn’t think I would ever be glad to say I gained weight, but after the way we ate and drank for 19 days, I’m surprised my husband could fit me through the door.

My last entry had pictures of many of the tapas we had while in Spain. We had a Pork in Whiskey Sauce at this one tapas bar in Seville and I have tried to recreate that recipe and I must say, it was almost exactly like the one we had there.

A little more about our trip. We had some great Indonesian food in Amsterdam and were able to visit Van Gogh and Reich museum. Ann Frank’s house was a very interesting tour and we toured Heinken Brewery — who doesn’t like beer (me). In Brugge we tried steamed mussels and frites, Belgium chocolates (DELICIOUS), Belgium waffles with chocolate and a cup of coffee that was half chocolate, 2 shots of espresso and topped with a creamy hot chocolate.

Our food on the ship was wonderful and I got a lot of great ideas for tapas and things I might want to try for dinner parties. Our port calls were Brugge, Cherborg (did Normandy tour there), Lisbon, Gibratar, Vigo and the cruise ended in Barcelona. Then it was time to hit all those tapas bars I had been reading about. We spent two days in Barcelona making the Mori and Picasso museums and Gaudi cathedral and lots of shopping and walking, walking, walking (guess that is why I only gained 2 pounds). We flew from Barcelona to Sevilla (my favorite of all our Spain cities). Very cool city with streets just wide enough for a taxi to race down causing people to jump up on the curb (no sidewalk to escape to, so watch out).

October 9, 2010 By Sherry

Appetizers/ HotApp

Corn and Crab Fritters

Corn and Crab Fritters with Mango Butter

I first had these delicious little fritters at my son Paul’s house. He is a fantastic cook and so much more creative and inventive in his cooking skills that I will ever be. He made them again last summer for our 40th anniversary party and they were a big hit. So, I decided it was time I try making the recipe.

I picked up some fresh corn the other day and crab meat was on sale so I decided to try his recipe for the fritters. My daughter was home for the weekend and we had friends over for dinner and I thought these would be delicious with our Cuban Black Bean Rice dish and our Pork Medallions (Michael Symone’s recipe) and a Strawberry Dill Spinach Salad. I thought right.

September 12, 2010 By Sherry

Appetizers/ HotApp

Grilled Peach Prosciutto Kebabs

Fredericksburg peaches — I finally bought some good peaches!

Peaches, prosciutto, balsamic and honey. Perfect ingredients for a quick summer appetizer.

Seems like I am always late on making it out to pick whatever fruit is in season. I have missed picking blueberries for about four years in a row. I have missed raspberry picking season for years. But, I did manage to get in the blackberry patch this year and picked 12 pounds of berries.

So, when I received an email from a local farmer’s market about ordering Fredericksburg (Texas) peaches, I jumped on it knowing that if I didn’t another season would roll around and I would be complaining about the hard, tasteless peaches I would be buying at the market. I get so upset when I buy peaches at the market and they look beautiful, feel firm and ripe, only to have a mushy, mealy peach with no flavor when I cut into it later. Not so with these Fredericksburg Peaches.

July 20, 2010 By Sherry

Appetizers/ Food Stories/ HotApp

Roasted Serrano and Jalapenos on our Grill Partner

I Saw this grill at the Austin Food and Wine Festival and knew I had to have it.

We were at the Austin Food and Wine festival back in April this year and one of the vendors was doing sausages on this grill. My husband drug me over to see it and I knew that we just had to have this for our backyard cookouts.

Over Memorial Day weekend we used this several times. First we did these sausages and peppers. Then we cooked (my son and husband did all the cooking on this) some serranos and jalapenos that we did in a little chicken broth and soy sauce and then roasted them on this grill. Believe it or not I found out how to take the heat out of the jalapenos. The first night we did them we could hardly eat them because they were so hot. Then I tried something I had read online and it worked. (more about that later.)

June 6, 2010 By Sherry

Older Posts

Newer Posts