Appetizers – Rosemary and the Goat

Blue/Goat Cheese Bacon Date Dip

Yum, Yum, Yum—what more can I say?

The first time I tasted a stuffed date was at Mercat a la Planxa in Chicago. The appetizer was a Medjool date stuffed with a Marcona almond, wrapped in bacon, and served with a blue cheese fondue. The presentation —pouring a little pitcher of warm bleu cheese over a tray of stuffed wrapped dates—had our mouths watering before we even took the first bite.

After that first “date”, we traveled to Israel, and I came home with 25 pounds of Medjool dates. With those dates (after giving a good amount to my kids), I tried my first Amaretto Date Nut Shake (here on the blog), Bacon Wrapped Dates with Balsamic, dates wrapped in prosciutto instead of bacon, and of course, Green Beans and Brussels Sprouts with Dates. The prosciutto-wrapped dates are especially good because you don’t have to overcook the date just to get the bacon crispy.

My go-to date appetizer has always been some version of wrapped—often with an almond and blue cheese tucked inside—and I almost always overcook them. Until now.

January 7, 2026 By Sherry

Appetizers

Oven Fried Mushrooms with Sriracha Dipping Sauce

“I helped! Shake ’n Bake, all grown up—and with mushrooms.”

That old-school shake-in-a-bag magic, updated for crispy baked mushrooms that are anything but retro and add a touch of Sriracha for a little zing.

“Baked, not fried” brings back a memory from the 60’s: a Shake ’n Bake commercial, a little girl with the most exaggerated Southern accent, and that unforgettable line—“It’s Shake ’n Bake… and I helped.”

I’m flashing back to 1969—bell bottoms, corduroy pants (snake skin print), oven-fried chicken. I didn’t even use Shake ’n Bake back then. Now the shake-and-bake idea has gone to culinary school (I did) and grown up into something better.

January 1, 2026 By Sherry

Appetizers

Lobster and Shrimp and Snails Oh My!

Ooh la la! Until we meet again!

After my French dinner party last week I knew I had to post one of the recipes and the escargot was the easiest thing on the menu.

The first snail that I ever ate was on a cruise that started in Amsterdam and made it’s way to France, Portugal, Belgium, Spain, and Gibraltar. On this cruise I tasted my first escargot and my first really good paté (now, my son Paul’s paté is the best ever). And, at every stop we tried all the local cuisines. After that first taste of escargot and paté, we ordered both every night for the rest of the cruise.

Fast forward many years and I’ve made escargot several times. We made it once for a Michie French Family Feast and several other times when I could find the snails. Along the way, I have learned to buy my French snails from Amazon. Typically escargot is baked and served with French bread to sop up all the garlicky butter. (Papa G hates the word sop, but that is what you do if you want a good bite.)

October 18, 2025 By Sherry

Appetizers/ Beef/ Beef/Veal/ Desserts/ Fish/Seafood/ Game/ Lamb/ Legumes/ Pork/ Poultry/ Salads/ Soup

Michie’s Family Feast

The history of our Michie Feast!

In case you aren’t familiar with my blog or our family who loves to cook, this post will show you a little of how it all started — our love for food and family. So take a minute to look at one or two of our “family feast” dinners and if you get a chance look under “stories” for some “it’s not always about the food” stories/dinners.

So, our Michie feast started one Thanksgiving (before all the grandsons (6) ). This was the first year my husband started frying our turkeys. After buying something like 3 gallon of oil, we wanted to use that oil again before the kids all went back home.

Our first Michie Feast would have, of course, been a fish fry with my dads famous hushpuppies (see blog for recipe). Then the next family feast came the oysters (fried, smoked, Rockafellow, and raw of course). After that it didn’t matter that we had all that oil to find a use for; we just wanted to make a special meal together where everyone cooked a dish, presented it to the group (whoever was in town for Thanksgiving), pairing it with wine/cocktail of their choice. Friends of ours would be there every other year and occasionally one of the kids brought some extra guests.

June 3, 2025 By Sherry

Appetizers/ Egg Dishes/ Morning Foods

Avocado Toast #2

Take 2!

Back in 2016 I made an avocado toast after having something similar at Willa Jean’s restaurant in New Orleans. Well this is take 2.

I love boiled eggs in/on just about anything. Who doesn’t love a good egg salad, deviled eggs, or boiled eggs and cottage cheese (my favorite lunch)? Potato salad would not be the same without chopped boiled eggs. And what would a good ham salad be without some chopped egg?

This avocado toast is done with a baguette and with the grated boiled egg it is easier to eat with your hands than a knife and fork. I love the other version with the toasted French bread and perfectly poached egg but you will want to eat that one with a knife and this new favorite version of mine is a little messy, so you will want to lean into your plate while eating it. I love a squeeze of lime over the finished toast and I didn’t have any red onion or I would have added some finely chopped to the layers.

June 20, 2024 By Sherry

Appetizers/ Entree/ Fish/Seafood/ Food Stories/ Game/ HotApp/ Pork

Friday night fights!

Friday night fights!

(There isn’t a recipe today but just a little story about how we love frog legs and our fried fish and another look at a few of our family favorites.)

On any given Friday night when we were kids (my twin sister and brother) we would probably be in front of a black and white tv watching The Gillette Cavalcade of Sports (Boxing). I guess that was my dad’s favorite sport to watch. (I learned a lot about Gillette razor blades every Friday night.) Many of those Friday nights would involve a fish fry with family friends or if my dad had gone frog gigging then he would have taken out his boat that he made to float ditches and gigged us some frogs. This boat was made from welding two car hoods together and was perfect for going down some of the bayous like Black Island or Wolf Island or any of the ditches full of rain water and overflowing with croaking bull frogs ready to give it up for a delicious dinner for our family.

Our dad could pretty much do anything. I’ve called him a Renaissance Man in one of my post about his hushpuppy recipe (which is the best hushpuppy you will ever put in your mouth.) Even though a lot of our meals were things like fried pork chops, fish, meatloaf, duck and other game, delicious stews and soups; just simple good food, there was a lot of love and care that went into preparing all those meals. Our mother was a stay-at-home mom and had lunch ready for my dad every day and then a nice meal ready every night about the time he came home.

October 22, 2023 By Sherry

Appetizers/ Fish/Seafood/ HotApp

Scallops and Shrimp with Jalapeño Cream Sauce

All Shrimp or scallops or both and with or without pasta.

This recipe can be made as a first course appetizer or you could add some pasta for a main course.

The scallop shells I used to hold this recipe came from a friend who was cleaning out things she never used and I volunteered to take them off her hands. I will have a perfect place to put them when I get my very large pantry (top on my list for things I wanted in our new home); but for now they are in a under the bed box until I’m ready to use them again.

There are all kinds of cute little dishes hiding under my two beds right now (until we get out of this 800 sq ft house) that I want to use for dinner guest; especially my cute little glass espresso cups that will hold some kind of yummy decadent dessert and my tiny stemmed glasses that would be a great vessel for my date nut shake or mini chocolate martinis.

My first thought for these shells was to use them for a first course appetizer with one very large scallop with some kind of sauce poured over it. There are several other sauces I want to try once I can get larger scallops. Since I couldn’t find the extra large scallops, I had to settle for sea scallops so then decided to add shrimp to the recipe.

January 9, 2023 By Sherry

Appetizers/ Entree/ Game/ Lamb

Lamb Chops with Huacatay Sauce

I love these little chops!

What’s not to love about these cute little lamb chops; a very tender piece of meat, a beautifully Frenched bone and they look just like little “meat lollipops”. They make a perfect appetizer or several for a meal. For an appetizer these little lollipops can be eaten with your hands; no knife and fork needed. And, who doesn’t like eating meat off the bone?

When my mother use to fried bread pork chops or pork steaks, my favorite part was what was left on the bone and I couldn’t wait to eat that part of the chop/steak. We never had lamb growing up, never; and I guess that’s why it took me well into my adulthood to even try them. I have to say that I don’t buy them often unless I’m at Costco and then I will pick up a couple of packages and throw them in the freezer for something special I may be doing.

These would be great added to your holiday celebrations. My mouth is watering just thinking of making these again. I may be experimenting with some different sauces and dips for this little tidbits of juiciness.

December 17, 2022 By Sherry

Appetizers/ ColdApp

Pork Belly, Apple and Maple Glaze Crostini

Nice little app for your guest.

Don’t you just love using apples in recipes this time of the year? Fall weather is just begging for something homemade from apples whether it is something as simple as sautéed apples, an apple cake, apples cooked with your pork roast or as in this recipe a delicious appetizer made with pork and apple as two of the main ingredients.

Once I went on a field trip with one of my kids when we lived in Chicago (had to be one of the boys because my daughter was only about 3) and we went to an apple orchard somewhere in the north Chicago area. All I remember about that trip was some kid getting hit on the head with a falling apple and we got to see cider/juice being made in the mill at the orchard.

My favorite apple use to be Jazz but I don’t see those in the market right now. I like just about any apple that is juicy and tart and especially crisp. Delicious apple has to be my least favorite of all apples; just don’t see how a mealy soft apple appeals to anyone.

October 10, 2022 By Sherry

Appetizers/ HotApp

Cambozola, Apple and Prosciutto App

Good and easy!

A tapa, pintxos, meze (platter), pupu, zakuska, Hors D’oeuvres, canapés, antipasto, amuse bouche, finger food, charcuterie, and even crudites are all words for appetizers from all over the world. Who doesn’t love munching on something while having a great vintage cocktail before dinner?

I love appetizers and cocktail parties. I feel like I have master my cocktail making and I’ve been making appetizers all my married life and that’s 53 years now. I love a good “surprise” amuse bouche from the chef and I’ve never met a tapa or pintxos (I have a few of those on this blog I tried after returning from a Spain trip) I didn’t love. I remember one of my first amuse bouches was from Gramercy Tavern and the waiter brought out a tiny little dish filled with salt and it had a tater tot resting in the middle of the dish. Well, that tater tot was filled with a black tapenade and later after returning home the chef actually scaled down and sent the recipe to me. I still have not made that dish but I will one day soon.

August 23, 2022 By Sherry

Appetizers

Girl’s Trip Charcuterie Board

Charcuterie, Charcuterie, Charcuterie!

It’s been almost two years since we moved from The Woodlands to Round Top, Texas population 90. Not sure if that 90 includes us or not but we are here and enjoying all the activity that goes on in the area.

So, it was about time for a girl’s trip to happen and Waco was a good place to meet up for a weekend of fun and laughs with old friends from The Woodlands. I though, after watching numerous You Tube videos on making charcuterie boards and seeing them on Instagram all the time that we needed to make one together; and our first night there would be a good way to relax. I gave everyone some links to watch on the making of charcuterie boards and then a list of things we all needed to bring and the rest is history. Of course, cocktails were involved — White Lady, French 75 and Chocolate Martinis along with some Fuzzy Navels and Pina Coladas.

Charcuterie (shar-KOO-ta-REE is a term that dates back as far as the 15th century and means products of a fancy pork butcher). A charcuterie basically refers to various meat products. In France you would probably have more meats, terrines, pates, gallotines, etc. A cheese board refers to a selection of cheeses etc. These days anything can be put on a charcuterie with meats, cheeses, sweets, jams, nuts, fruits all artfully arranged on a board to make a beautiful presentation for your guest.

My husband bought me this beautiful 18×20 walnut/resin (blue river running through it) from Woodlab.com and I couldn’t wait to use it. Maybe in the future I will use it for simpler things that are a lot less expensive than filling this board with meats, cheeses, nuts, jams/preserves, candy, breads/crackers, honeys and even some pate son Paul made for me. Hors d’Oeuvres have always been one of my favorite items to prepare especially for dinner guest.

May 8, 2022 By Sherry

Appetizers/ ColdApp

Crab and Shrimp Endive Appetizer

Cool appetizer for these hot summer days.

I always thought of Fall starting when school starts back. I remember when we (twin and I and I’m always saying WE instead of me or I) couldn’t wait to get a package from our local JC Penney’s, Sears, or Montgomery Wards catalog department with a new dress. Yes, we actually wore dresses back then and seems like the ones I remember that came in those little brown packages were plaids and then maybe madras and then paisley prints.

Well, fall doesn’t officially start until September 22 so I still have time to get another summery appetizer in before I start thinking of heartier things to make and serve with my cocktails.

September 12, 2021 By Sherry

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