Appetizers – Page 13 – Rosemary and the Goat

Pimento Cheese Bruschetta

Born again cheese spread.

What is it about pimento cheese that makes me think of sitting on a stool at the counter in a drug store (hey, drug stores don’t have lunch counters any more.) having a pimento cheese sandwich on toast with some curly leaf lettuce and a nice pile of crispy dill pickles on the side.

I think pimento cheese is one of those southern things that some people not from the south have not experienced between two pieces of soft white bread or stuffed into celery. It is truly comfort food and most Southerns do not understand why it does not exist outside the south. This favorite sandwich is even served at the Master’s golf tournament in Augusta, Georgia and a Southern picnic wouldn’t be the same with out a pimento cheese sandwich.

Just thinking of little pimento cheese tea sandwiches cut into triangles makes my mouth water. What would an afternoon tea be without pimento cheese sandwiches? Of course anyone from the south knows that you can just as easily use a corn chip or cracker to scoop up this wonderful spread. Add it to grits, stuff celery, slather it on burgers or hot dogs or even use it to make a grilled cheese sandwich.

In my early years of making this mushy, cheesy spread, I simply used Velvetta cheese and added some mayo and pimento and I have to say, it needs a makeover or at least another idea for it’s use.

We have all had Italian and Spanish style bruschetta with tomatoes, cheese, proscuitto and just about every topping you can imagine. If you are like me, you’re always looking for a way to improve on an old recipe and that being the traditional pimento cheese sandwich. So why not Pimento Cheese Bruschetta topped with finely shredded lettuce and some crunchy bacon — a summer bruschetta! (Summer is on his way out, but this would be good any time of the year.) So, whether you try this recipe or your own recipe, try a Pimento Cheese Bruschetta for your next party.

September 18, 2011 By Sherry

Appetizers/ ColdApp

Watermelon Amuse

Are you amused by a bouche?

Have you ever seen watermelons growing in a field. What a beautiful sight to see all those plump juicy spheres covering acres of farm land. Makes you want to jump out of the car and go grab one.

When we were kids (I’m a twin and I use to refer to us as “we”) our grandfather once took us to the field where one of his trucks was being loaded with watermelons to take to market. This is the same grandfather that took us out into the hay fields to learn to drive while dodging the bales of hay. What fun.

Also the same “papa” who never bought a watermelon or any other produce from a farm stand on the way to Florida vacations without asking for a taste before buying anything. I so want to do that at the store because sometimes what looks like a delicious watermelon turns out to be a disappointment when cut open.

Recently I saw this watermelon cube on www.pinterest.com . It was sitting alone with a pool of balsamic in the center and I immediately thought why not add a pearl of mozzarella and a tiny basil leaf and have a cute little amuse bouche. An amuse bouche is suppose to be just one bite but it is hard to eat just one of these.

August 27, 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/ ColdApp

White Bean Hummus

Lots of people like hummus but not everyone likes Chickpeas!

So for that reason, I make white bean hummus. I think the flavor is so much better than using chickpeas and the reason I do not like chickpeas/garbonza beans… all started on my honeymoon.

Don’t you just love making things that you can simply throw everything in a food processor, stand back, flip the switch, and moments later have a delicious, healthy dip that can be used with pita, vegetables or crackers/chips. I also love eating a bowl of white beans that have been cooked long and slow with a ham hock stuck in for flavor, and cannot resist the urge to add a squirt of mustard and a big spoonful of chow chow on my beans. Weird, huh, but the mustard is actually good.

I remember as a kid my grandmother driving us through town and when we went by the jail house her telling us that the prisoners had to eat frozen white beans and bread. Now, I don’t know how she knew that, but for some reason it stuck in my head and that’s what I think of when I sit down to eat a steaming bowl of white beans with cornbread.

I think if you like hummus you will appreciate the flavor of this dip.

If you have tried this recipe and have any comments, please post them below. Thanks.

March 4, 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/ Entree/ Fish/Seafood

Bar-B-Q Shrimp

BBQ — Barbecue — Bar-B-Q Shrimp

However you choose to spell BBQ, it still is not going to describe this dish.

On our recent trip to new Orleans, my daughter, Alexis, and I took a cooking class at The New Orleans Cooking Experience. Chique Collier taught the class and I think this may be my favorite recipe I took away from the class. I can’t say enough about how great this Bar-B-Q Shrimp is and you are just going to have to trust me and try it.

When we first booked the class and I read the menu and discovered we were doing BBQ shrimp, I envisioned shrimp swimming in sweet thick, red sauce or skewered shrimp basted and cooked on the “barbie”. Not so. That would not have been what I would have wanted it anyway.

The shrimp in this recipe was marinated in oil, wine and lots of spices and finished at the end of the cooking process with some cream. The recipe called for heads on x-large shrimp which I can normally find in our stores, but I couldn’t find them over the Thanksgiving holiday this year.

Chique told us that typically BBQ shrimp recipes in Louisiana is made with lots of margarine and enough black pepper to completely cover the shrimp. This recipe is so much better than any recipe containing a pound of margarine and black pepper.

December 1, 2010 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/ ColdApp

Pepperoni Olive Kebab

Move over stuffed olives!

I have made stuffed black olives for years and have catered parties where I have had to hand pipe 200+ black olives with a cheese filling. Recently, I saw this cheese and pepperoni stuffed olive at www.finedinings.com and decided to give it a try at our block party back in October. I used wooden paddle picks on mine and also tried a couple of these little tidbits with rosemary skewers. I like them both ways but most of my Rosemary had new stems and they were a little limp.

While in Madrid we visited Mercado San Miguel https://www.spottedbylocals.com/madrid/mercado-de-san-miguel/and they had everything you could possibly imagine (see some of the photos at the bottom — one item looked like turtle LEGS but I found out they are barnacles). This store had every kind of olive you could possibly imagine, olives as big as golf balls, olives stuffed with sardines, ham, cheese, stuffed with roasted red peppers and mussels and artichokes. You name it, they had it. We bought several and I proceeded to pick them apart to see what was on the inside. What a nice little snack and wee had a lot of snacks all day long and like I said before I was lucky I did not gain more than 2 pounds on this trip.

So, I think the point is if you like olives, find something to stuff them with and serve them as a tapas for your next party.

November 12, 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/ ColdApp/ Food Stories

Tapas, Tapas, Everywhere!

We had wonderful, delicious, unusual, yummy tapas everywhere in Spain.

Tapas are small plates of food served along with drinks. I have read that originally in Spain, tapas were served as a cover for a glass of wine so flies and other objects did not get into the glass. That may be a myth, but it makes perfect sense. In the beginning the tapas plate probably contained olives and cheese and peppers but tapas have evolved into something you could enjoy for breakfast, lunch or a whole dinner. In a tapas bar you just keep ordering small plates until you are full which is so much better than to order some huge dinner and then try to consume the whole thing since you paid for it and all of us, of a certain age, remember the “clean your plate” comments from our mothers because of all the starving kids in the world.

This was one of my first tapas to try after getting back. We tried so many different kinds of olives stuffed with all kinds of different things. These are just extra large pitted green olives that I stuffed with strips of Serrano ham. And, I absolutely love my mini paella pans I found. I have 5″ and 3″ pans.

October 3, 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

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