ColdApp – Page 5 – Rosemary and the Goat

Appetizers/ ColdApp/ Garnish/ Jams & Marmalades/ Morning Foods

Tangerine Kumquat Marmalade

Beautiful color marmalade.

Delicious scones and great marmalade.

I decided to do the duck appetizer over the holidays and wanted to try Thomas Keller’s marmalade recipe. You’re have to wait until Christmas for the duck appetizer but for now, here’s the Tangerine Kumquat Marmalade recipe.

Recently I found some fantastic little (or big) Weck brand jars at one of our local gourmet grocery shops. I love them, they have rubber rings and instead of the normal screw tops, they have clips that hold down the lids; so retro looking. You can find these online at Amazon, Crate and Barrel, or to to www.weck.com to order them.

I have never been a toast and jelly kind of person. Strawberry jam, even though it isn’t a favorite of mine, is a must for freshly baked Cream Scones. All kids and adults probably love peanut butter and jelly. Not me. I’m strictly a peanut butter and bread type of person.

A couple of years ago I did make some wonderful peach preserves. Aren’t preserves so much better than jelly anyway; you get those bits of fruit and rind that give it so much more intense flavor. Some habanero peppers even got slipped into a few jars of the peach preserves for some extra kick and was fantastic on top of different types of cheeses.

I just had to try some scones with this jam but you can try it on any type of bread, put it on a cheese or even incorporate it into some recipe. A beautiful marmalade that can have so many uses.

If you are interested in the difference between a marmalade, preserves, jelly, jam, look here.

BLAST FROM THE PAST: If you haven’t already tried this Sugar Plum Cake you need to make it for the Christmas holidays. It’s the best and I’m sure your family will love it. If you make it and like it, please leave a comment at the bottom of that page.

December 21, 2012 By Sherry

Appetizers/ ColdApp

Cranberry Avocado Salsa

Beautiful for the holidays.

Santa may want this under the tree instead of a plate of cookies.

You aren’t a Texan if you don’t like avocados. That’s an observation I made along time ago after moving here; with Mexican restaurants on just about every corner, guacamole is everywhere and there are good recipes and not so good recipes. You can’t go wrong with avocado, lots of cilantro, garlic, lime juice, jalapeño and a little salt and pepper. Sometimes I even throw in some chopped up tomato. Serve with a big bowl of warmed chips and I could make a meal on it.

I have made avocado finger sandwiches before (delicious), I love fried avocado and have even prepared it with an egg in the center, avocado egg rolls are delicious from The Cheesecake Factory. I have a recipe for deviled eggs (and who doesn’t like deviled eggs) that has guacamole mixed in with the mashed egg mixture and then a tad of salsa to garnish the top of the stuffed egg. (totally off topic)–Over Thanksgiving my daughter-in-law and I were talking about deviled eggs and how people shouldn’t mess with a traditional deviled egg. One of her friends and husband was over for Thanksgiving dinner and she brought deviled eggs. Delicious, (she messed with the traditional recipe) and she added minced jalapeño and cumin. They were so good. So I am taking back “messing” with the standard deviled egg. I will be adding cumin and jalapeño next week when I make some. But you can mess with salsa in so many ways.

Back to the avocado and cranberry salsa. My daughter made this one year for Christmas and the bowl was devoured in no time. I always love my daughter’s recipes, they definitely tend to be healthier than some of mine. This just happens to be one of Martha Stewart’s recipes. My dad was a big Martha Stewart fan and defended her even after she went away for awhile and when she returned, he was back to watching her cook.

So with holidays fast approaching this is a recipe that would be quick and beautiful to boot to take to a party or even to serve on Christmas Eve with some red and green tortilla chips. I think it would be delicious served next to a grilled pork loin, chop or tenderloin.

December 8, 2012 By Sherry

Appetizers/ ColdApp/ Salads

Tomato Crab Amuse Bouche

Amuse your guest with this crab salad

When I made crab cakes recently I decided to save some crab and the next day I made this delicious crab salad. What I did with the salad was make a cute little amuse bouche. Last year on several occasions I bought crab and was so disappointed with my finished recipe I did not think I would ever buy it again. I’m glad I did and I just love this little stuffed tomato.

A while back I was looking at a catering magazine and saw a little stuffed tomato that someone made and it was stuffed with some type of risotto. There was no recipe so I had to come up with my own version of what to fill the tomato with. What I really like about the look of this appetizer is that the tomato is blanched and peeled. I used campari tomatoes, blanched for about 3-4 seconds and then plunged into ice water and then slipped the peeling off. The crab salad was a perfect light filling. This little blanched, peeled tomato would make the perfect vessel for any type of salad you may want to put in it, just put up something at the market for a filling and you have a gorgeous appetizer.

This may have to be a knife and fork appetizer but would make a good first course to any meal if made bigger. I added a grilled shrimp to the top of each. In fact, I cut the shrimp in half because it was too big for the tomato.

September 29, 2012 By Sherry

Appetizers/ ColdApp

Pickled Shrimp in a Jar

Another recipe for a jar.

Have you ever been in a pickle for something to put out at a party or what to take to someones’s house when they say bring one of your favorite appetizers. Are you always looking for something other than a piece of cheese to put on a cracker like I am.

Have you had pickle thoughts, or looked at someone with a sour face and thought he must have been weaned on a pickle, or ever thought pickles are cucumbers that sold out because they were tired of laying around with nothing else to do. Or, if you are like me, I want to find some other things to pickle than that long green cucumber that makes the most yummy cucumber spread for sandwiches. Why ruin it pickling it.

Over the years I have pickled okra, yellow squash, beets, cucumbers, pickled vegetables and even slaw but I have never pickled a shrimp before so I’m really hoping this is going to become a favorite — a little recipe you can throw together in the morning, put it in some cute jars, buy some fancy crackers and pack it up and take it to a party and sit back and watch everyone enjoy themselves.

As usual I started looking at one recipe and ended up with three recipes with what I thought were pretty interesting spices for the shrimp so they all merged into this Pickled Shrimp in a Jar.

We we out on the lake recently with some friends who have a pontoon boat. We always go out around 5:00 in the evening, find a little cove, throw out some noodles and get in the water and float for an hour or so all the time sipping on some wine or beer. We all always bring food to eat and my husband had made a smoked brisket and we had a wonderful corn dish and some yummy ramen slaw. I had made this jar of shrimp early in the day and we pulled it out for a nice little appetizer to snack on while Hub sliced up the brisket. It was great.

September 16, 2012 By Sherry

Appetizers/ ColdApp

Macadamia Nut Encrusted Goat Cheese

You don’t have to be in Hawaii to enjoy these nuts.

I first had this appetizer at Tommy Bahama’s restaurant here in The Woodlands. I knew at first bite, it would be a favorite of mine. Some recipes are so easy to duplicate at home that I sometimes don’t think I even need recipes at all except then I would not have anything to play around with.

Six years ago I had the courage to ask The Moonshine Grill in Austin if I could bring this appetizer for my son and daughter-in-law’s rehearsal dinner we had at their restaurant. They probably thought that girl has “gall” but they agreed and in fact they put it on a tray for me with the bread slices and made it very pretty. Of course, everyone loved it.

If it weren’t enough that I brought one of our own appetizers for that night, I actually had the nerve to copy one of their recipes right off their menu — Corn Dog Shrimp with Honey Mustard and Blueberry Swirl. It’s actually still on their menu so it must be very popular. I’ve always heard that Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

On our recent trip to Chicago I actually emailed Leopold restaurant when we returned and told them how much we enjoyed our evening and asked for their recipe of chocolate pave. I didn’t actually say “give it to me” or anything like that. I smoozed and told them the food was wonderful and the dessert was the best and did they share recipes. A very nice person emailed me back and told me how they made it. So, it never hurts to ask.

July 21, 2012 By Sherry

Appetizers/ ColdApp

Baba Ganoush

Baba Ganoush. What a funny sounding name.

I can’t say that I have always known what Baba ganoush was. In fact, I am sure, at one time or other, I probably thought it was something some sheik in the Sahara dessert was yelling from his tent — “hey, bring me my baba ghnoush”. As far as I knew that could have meant his slippers, his camel, or his wife. I never really gave much thought to what it was or what you did with it.

Then one time I remember seeing this dip and thinking it was hummus and was told it was Baba Ganoush and it was made from eggplant.

So today I found myself with an eggplant (I was going to grill) that had been sitting out on my counter for a couple of days, and my husband doesn’t liked grilled eggplant anyway; so instead of making something he probably wasn’t going to eat, I decided to try this Baba Ganoush recipe. I had the tahani, lemon, garlic, olive oil and even some very nice pita I had bought down in Houston. So, why not make a little appetizer we can enjoy out by the pool at the end of the day while hub’s grilling our pork chops. Oh, how I like summer and nice weather here in Texas (when it isn’t scorching hot) and the main reason is that my husband does most of the cooking outside and he still LOVES his Kamoto Joe ceramic smoker.

Sometimes this dip is called Caviar d’aubergine and is a very tasty and easy to make spread that can be made several days in advance as it only improves with age. Hope you will try this.

Do you have your favorite dip/spread that guests drool over? If so, leave a comment on what they are.

July 11, 2012 By Sherry

Appetizers/ ColdApp

Fig and Cheese Bruschetta

Figs and Blue cheese – Yum!

What a easy and delicious little appetizer to serve at your summer parties.

Happy Memorial Day to everyone and happy birthday to my daughter, Alexis.

I’m always looking for recipes that are easy to throw together on a moments notice and this recipe is perfect for a last minute appetizer. I don’t find many things hard to make so sometimes If I say easy to throw together, I hope I’m not too far off and, you can make changes to this one and still have a tasty bite. (see note below)

Appetizers are by far my favorite things to make. I always loved catering cocktail parties because of all the fun little tidbits I could make for the guests to try. There’s just something I like better about trying a lot of little cocktail foods vs a big plate of food. With cocktail foods you can keep going back for more and no one really notices how much you have eaten. 🙂

This is another recipe I decided to try out on our bunco group. I hope they like it. (RESULTS– They were a hit.)

I had really hoped to find fresh figs in the market. I tried a couple of different places but had no luck. One store told me they had tried to get them but at the time they were $30/lb. So for now I’m using these dried figs and decided to drizzle them with a little fig balsamic vinegar. The balsamic and the honey paired great together.

My dad always had figs growing at their place and now my sister has the opportunity to go pick those figs anytime she wants when they are in season. I always wanted to try a fresh Fig Newton cookie with them but that’s still on my “to try” list of things.

The original recipe was just blue cheese spread on baguette slice with two fresh fig halves on top. I decided I would like to use Cambozola cheese (blue and Camembert mixed). I thought that would be too expensive so I bought a box of Camembert and a package of Magtag blue cheese. Not a good decision. I spent probably twice as much on the two cheeses as I would have if I had gone on and bought the Cambozola — live and learn I guess.

I chose to serve this bruschetta at room temperature. It would be good either hot or room temp.

May 28, 2012 By Sherry

Appetizers/ Bread/ ColdApp

Rosemary Blue Cheese Wafers

Blue cheese and rosemary, what a combination.

Délicieux!

We had some wonderful blue cheeses while in France so I decided this would be a nice little cracker to make upon coming home.

A friend made these from Ina Garten’s Paris cookbook and I loved them at first bite. Ina used Stilton in her recipe and I had thought about using a Roquefort cheese since that is from France. BUT, at our store they only carried one brand of Roquefort at $32.00 a pound. Yikes, I was not about to spend that much on a recipe I was trying out for the camera guy coming to my house that day.

So I bought another French blue cheese, D’Auvergne, which was around $16/lb and I only needed 8 ounces. This cheese is made in France and from cow’s milk which has a creamier taste than Roquefort which is made with ewe’s milk. I found this interesting — Blue d’Auvergne was created in 1854 by a producer of Roquefort. After noticing fungus on his bread, he tried to mix the same fungus with the cheese. A littler later, the farmer pierced the cheese so that the air could enter into it and help to develop the blue mould. These days the cheese is inoculated with Penicillin Roquefort. This cheese is best served at room temperature and is a perfect blue for salad dressings.

For anyone who does not know the different types of blue cheese, here’s a quick run down and I may have forgotten a few.

Roquefort is blue cheese from France

Stilton is blue cheese from England

Gorgonzola is from Italy

Cabrales comes from Spain and is a very pungent blue cheese.

Cambozola is one of my favorites. this cheese is German and they combine camembert with blue gorgonzola.

Bavarian is a mild and creamy German blue cheese.

Then you have the Irish bleu, the Danish blue, the Maytag blue which is American, and the list goes on and on.

So, when it comes to blue cheese, just choose what your pocketbook will allow.

I decided to add some rosemary to the recipe because I love the flavor with the blue cheese.

April 16, 2012 By Sherry

Appetizers/ ColdApp

Prosciutto Rolls with Fig Preserves

What delicious foods we have been eating here in France.

These are as delicious as they look and is one of the recipes I made before leaving for France.

I was hoping to post pictures of what we are eating in France each day but I’m not sure if I will be able to figure out my new iPad (got it the day we left for Paris and I was in line at the Apple store at 7:00 a.m.) before I get there.

So, here we are in France and this is our last day. We are back in Paris and will be leaving tomorrow. We have tried our best to try some of everything they had to offer.

In one of my Saveur magazines recently was a special supplement on The Wines of the Rhone Valley and my first thought was “hey, that’s where we are staying our second week in France” and one of our day trips will be to go check out the wineries in the Rhone Valley area. This recipe was in a supplement to the magazine and I’m not changing one thing about it. Why mess with perfection.

The wine that was paired with this appetizer was Cotes du Rhone Coup de Coeur: Domaine de la Janasse, 2010 (a white)

March 31, 2012 By Sherry

Appetizers/ ColdApp

Domaine Chandon Blue Cheese Spread

Quick little appetizer spread.

I made this appetizer last night when friends came over. It’s always a winner.

Don’t we all have those “go to” recipes when we want a quick tried and true lip smacking recipe? I know I do. I have to omit that I love making recipes that need a lot of ingredients, take a long time to make, and I’m complaining by the time I’m done because I’ve been in the kitchen all day, my legs hurt and I’m ready to go to bed before I even have a bite of what I have prepared. But, 99% of the time it is well worth all the trouble. This recipe will not keep you in the kitchen long and you will be sitting with your feet up relaxing before your guests arrive.

Don’t know why I haven’t posted this before now because I have been making this spread for about 15 years and with little change to the original recipe. Back on one of our birthday’s, my sister and I went to Napa to celebrate one of our “big ones”. We each took a friend instead of our husbands and had a great time in all the wineries. Not that it would not have been fun with our husbands, but it was a lot cheaper to not take them and we just needed some sister time.

February 18, 2012 By Sherry

Appetizers/ ColdApp

Smoked Salmon Stacks

What a quick little appetizer to make.

My only experience with salmon before I got married was with the canned variety being made into salmon patties (croquets) by my mother; and our favorite way of eating the crispy, pan-fried patties was with mushroom soup poured over them like a gravy and that would have been canned mushroom soup.

Then we moved to Texas where I discovered more varieties of fish than I could have ever imagined. We now have available all kinds of fresh fish and I’m constantly coming up with different ways of preparing it. Salmon is one of my favorites especially when my husband cooks it on the grill.

My friend, Peggy, can always come up with a little appetizer that can be throw together at a moments notice. We have been trading recipes for years and back in the summer she did a smoked salmon recipe where you put a softened whipped cream cheese with chives, parsley, lemon zest and lemon juice in processor until smooth. Then you simply squirt a small amount on one of the thick style potato chips, top with a small piece of smoked salmon and serve. Talk about quick!

January 29, 2012 By Sherry

Appetizers/ ColdApp

Layered Shrimp Pie

Great make-ahead appetizer for holiday parties.

Merry Christmas everyone and here’s a little appetizer you can plan for your New Year’s Eve celebration.

I remember my first shrimp appetizer I made as a newly wed. And, it wasn’t as delicious as this shrimp pie. My early years of marriage, I’m sure like most people’s, was full of quick little appetizers because most of us didn’t know how to cook and a fancy canapé might have been a Ritz cracker with some Cheese Whiz.

One of my first appetizers was taking a block of cream cheese and covering it with “gasp” canned shrimp and topping it with a bottle of chili sauce. Did you ever do the Pickapeppa sauce on cream cheese. Now, that’s still one I enjoy making.

Appetizers have always been one of my favorite things to make for myself and also for parties I cater. I love having a freezer full of leftover appetizers that I can pull out on a moment’s notice and come across as the perfect little wife. That’s funny because I’m so far from being perfect.

I decided to make this at the last minute for our bunco group in December. I had all the ingredients and this appetizer is fast to throw together with a lot of taste. It does have chili sauce in it but a lot of other tasty things. I hope you will add this to your collection of recipes to try out for your next party.

December 25, 2011 By Sherry

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