Appetizers – Page 16 – Rosemary and the Goat

Spanakopita

(Posted by my daughter, Alexis.)

I like when football season rolls around here in Austin, but not necessarily because I’m a huge sports fan. Living in a college town, the city definitely becomes a little more alive during the fall. But mainly, the games are a chance to hang with friends, “watch” the game, eat some good food and partake in a few beverages.

Instead of the usual football watching fare(pizza, queso, etc), I wanted to make one of my favorite appetizers the other weekend for the TX-OU game. I thought that the spanakopita might resemble mini footballs. Think junior high. I remember guys folding notebook paper into “footballs” and flickingthem across classrooms through their friend’s hands forming a “field goal”. Well anyways, that’s what I imagined while making these. I tried to get a shot of one of the phyllo triangles being punted through the field goal when Texas kicked one of many field goals during that game.

November 9, 2009 By Alexis

Appetizers/ Bread/ HotApp/ Morning Foods

Dijon Ham and Cream Cheese Biscuits

Dijon Ham and Cream Cheese Biscuits for holiday brunch.

I can still smell my mother’s homemade biscuits baking away in the oven. She made the best from scratch biscuits. My sister and I use to have her bang the pan on the counter so the biscuits would flatten out and you would have two crunchy sides with no middles. These days, people want big fluffy biscuits and I think, now, I prefer that type of biscuit, but what I wouldn’t give to have one of my mother’s.

A couple of years ago I was flipping through one of my food magazines and saw an advertisement for a Cream Cheese Ham Biscuit. They were $24/dozen and the first thing I thought of was “I could make those”. I love the challenge to try and make something I have tried in a restaurant or seen in a magazine.

I found these biscuits at a local store, bought some, baked them and then baked mine. Mine were really close and after tweaking the recipe I think I would rather save my $24 and make my version.

November 3, 2009 By Sherry

Appetizers/ HotApp

Balsamic Mushroom Panini

I love mushrooms and this little tapas is a winner to go with a glass of wine while you sit in front of your crackling fireplace (or any other time).

One of the things we do every year on the day AFTER Thanksgiving is to have our family “feast”. We have been doing this for almost eight years now. We have another couple and their family come over and with our three kids and two of their spouses, we have a blast cooking.

This is just one of our tapas we did last year.

The mushrooms sauteeing with the butter and olive oil gives off the best aroma.

The baguettes (or bread) gets spread with mascarpone cheese and topped with sliced fontina. Then these get toasted on the panini, pulled apart and topped with the sauteed mushrooms.

This is the menu from our Spanish Tapas Feast last year. The menu has everything listed that we cooked and who was in charge of making the dish.

We have had themes such as “all oysters” (7 ways), sushi, Mexican, Italian (After our trip to Italy, we were inspired to do an Italian theme), we have had French Country and last year we did Spanish Tapas. Everyone is in charge of choosing one (or more) recipes to try. My daughter-in-law, Brooke, puts together the menus so everyone has a copy and we set about making our recipe for the evening.

We had a Spanish flag last year to go with our Spanish Tapas theme and everyone got their picture made with the flag either in their chef’s hat or holding some utensil or food. Someone is hiding behind the flag and that may be me. We had all Spanish wines.

This recipe was out of a panini book I have and if you don’t have a panini grill, then you can just toast the bread on one side and finish this off in the oven. They are delicious and I’m going to try a variation of this using puffed pastry and adding some asparagus as a garnish. Hope you enjoy these as much as we did.

Balsamic Mushroom Panini

Ingredients

3 Tbsp. unsalted butter
1/4 c. extra virgin olive oil plus 3 Tbsp.
2-10 oz. pkgs. bella or crimini mushrooms cleaned and cut in quarters
1 c. sliced shitake mushrooms
8 cloves garlic minced and then divided
1 tsp. fresh chopped thyme
1 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar
1/2 tsp. coarse ground black pepper
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
1 ciabatta loaf sliced 1/2" thick or other country type bread
1/2 c. mascarpone cheese
8 oz. fontina cheese thinly sliced

Instructions

Preheat panini grill to high heat. In a large skillet over medium-high heat, melt the butter and add 3 Tbsp. olive oil. Wen hot, add 4 cloves minced garlic and bella and shitake mushrooms. Saute for 3 minutes, then add thyme, pepper, salt and balsamic vinegar and cook for 3 additional minutes or until mushrooms are tender but not soft. Remove from heat and set aside.
Combine remaining minced garlic with remaining olive oil in a small bowl. Brush one side of 8 slices of bread with olive oil/garlic mixture. Spread mascarpone cheese evenly on the inside of 8 slices of bread, then top with 4 slices fontina cheese. Place fontina topped slices oiled side down on panini grill, then top with remaining slices of bread, oiled side up. Close panini grill and cook until golden brown and the cheese is melted, about 10 minutes. Remove from grill and pull sandwiches apart, leaving cheese on both sides. Lay out on serving dish and top each with mushrooms mixture. Garnish with more fresh thyme. Serve warm.
*Note-- sometimes I use a mixture of 3-4 kinds of mushrooms.

October 16, 2009 By Sherry

Appetizers/ ColdApp

Cheese Stuffed Rigatoni Bites

I love anything made with pasta and these little tidbits make a fun appetizer.

I didn’t make this rigatoni pasta (I used one I bought in the store). I did make the filling and fill the pasta. BUT tomorrow I am teaching a technique class at Williams Sonoma, demonstrating our KA pasta press. I took our demo model home so I could try it out before the class so I could get the hang of making fresh pasta. It was so much easier than I thought it was going to be. In fact, I took it home on Wednesday and kept putting it off until late Saturday afternoon because I thought it might be complicated. I don’t know why I did that because I’m always up for a challenge.

I have the pasta roller attachment for my KA and have made rolled pasta but never thought of making pressed pasta shapes like rigatoni, spaghetti, macaroni, fusilli, or bucatini. Within just minutes, I had the dough made and was whipping out all of the above mentioned pasta shapes. It was really a lot of fun. Then I though, what the heck, let’s throw in some spinach and make spinach pasta. I was beautiful.

Three years ago we were in Italy and took a cooking class. There were six of us traveling together and our villa offered cooking classes in their restaurant. Our chef/owner was Fredrico and we made about six kinds of pasta that day. When we were using the roller for the flat pastas, it was like the I Love Lucy episode when she was on an assembly line for a candy company. Instead of cramming the candies in our mouths like Lucy and Ethel did, our strips of pasta kept getting longer and longer each time we took them through the machine (this was a BIG machine) and we had the pasta over our arms in folds. It was hilarious. That was one fun day of cooking.

October 3, 2009 By Sherry

Appetizers/ ColdApp

Feta and Sundried Tomato Torte

Sun-dried Tomato Torte with baguette slices mixes lots of flavorful ingredients to make a great party spread.

I’ve been catering for 20 years and still my favorite things to make are appetizers.

We just returned from a trip to New York and we had some wonderful meals at DBGB, Gramery Tavern, and Babbo. I learned a new word this trip — amuse bouche. This is a tiny appetizer that the chef sends out to tickle your taste buds. I’m going to be trying one that we had at Gramercy Tavern real soon — as soon as they send me the recipe :). The night at Gramercy Tavern we had a potato amuse bouche that was served as soon as we sat down and then by the time we finished our meal, we had three dessert amuse bouche and then our main desserts we ordered, then they bought us a little crumb cake each to take home for breakfast. A fantastic meal we shared with friends also celebrating their anniversary. Our 40th, their 25th.

This isn’t a tiny appetizer but I think your taste buds will enjoy it.

September 29, 2009 By Sherry

Appetizers/ Bread/ ColdApp/ HotApp

Garlic and Oregano Naan

Na na na na, na na na na, hey hey-ey, my first naan!

The first time I ever heard the word naan I thought of the song “Na na na na, na na na na, hey hey-ey, goodbye”. I had never tasted naan until Christmas last year. We were in Austin celebrating Christmas and awaiting the birth of our grandson. We did a lot of cooking while there for the week, but one night everyone wanted to go for Indian food.

Our kids have been trying to get us to try Indian food for years and we have always said, “we don’t like curry”. So, being Christmas and all, we gave in and went to the Clay Pit that night. We knew right away upon entering that we were going to like it. The aroma was unbelievable.

We had three kinds of naan that night. I don’t remember what they were or what we dipped in them but they were wonderful. I do remember having a coconut dish for my entree that was really good.

So this week I have decided to make Naan to go along with that, my fabulous White Bean Hummus which I like better than traditional hummus. I’ll be posting that recipe soon.

September 18, 2009 By Sherry

Appetizers/ Dessert/ Morning Foods

Coconut Banana Puffs

Sherry Sherry bo berry

Banana fana fo ferry

Fe fi mo merry

Sherry…..

The Name Game…………….. Boy do I ever keep dating myself.This song was really popular when I was a teenager. When I first thought of making these little banana puffs I thought of this song. Don’t know why this keeps happening, but I will go to make something for the blog and something pops in my head that reminds me of what I am about to make.

I think I am having Thurberish moments. James Thurber once said on writing, “I don’t believe the writer should know too much where he’s going. If he does, he runs into old man blueprint”. Hey, maybe that’s me trying to not get old. My mind wanders all over the place sometimes. Today, it’s wandering in the direction of making these Coconut Banana Puffs.

These delicious little puffs of coconut are just waiting to be gobbled up. I have made these for many showers and parties that I have catered over the years.

You can buy your creme fraiche but you will pay $4-$5 for it verses the cost of whipping cream and one tablespoon of buttermilk and it is better homemade.

Mise en place and ready to go. (Everything in place). Bananas ready to take their dive into the creme fraiche and then a roll in the coconut. I’m not sure if it is the acidity of the cream but these will stay fresh and not turn dark for several days.

Look at that creme fraiche. It is so easy to make, why buy it? If you have never made creme fraiche, it may take 24 hours, but it is really easy. You mix the whipping cream and buttermilk, cover, let set 24 hours and when you come back to it you have this wonderful cream that you can use on top of soups, entrees, desserts or dip your bananas in it like I am doing here.

And ready for a dive into the coconut.

Now, ready to be eaten.

Coconut Banana Puffs

2018-01-23 08:03:14

I've made these for "decades" now and still live the tartness of the creme fraiche and the bananas and coconut. Such a light little dessert.

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Creme Fraiche Ingredients

1- 8 oz. carton whipping cream
1 Tbsp. buttermilk
3-4 bananas, cut in 3/4-1″ pieces
Sweetened coconut

Instructions

Put the whipping cream and the buttermilk in a bowl, stir and cover loosely with either cheesecloth, napking or paper towel. Set this on the counter for 24 hours. When you come back to this, it will be nice and thick. Put in the refrigerador and chill, it can be stored for up to 2 weeks. After it has become nice and cold, you are ready to make the banana puffs.
Have everthing in place — a bowl of coconut*, bowl of creme fraiche, and banana pieces. Take one banana at a time, dunk it in the creme fraiche and using a knife take off any extra that may drip off. Now pop this in the bowl of coconut and roll to cover and set in container to be refrigerated when you are finished. That’s it! Enjoy.

Notes

*Tip — I put just a little coconut at a time in a bowl instead of the whole bag. If you do it this way, you won’t end up having big chumps of coconut that have gotten mushy from tossing the bananas.

Rosemary and the Goat https://rosemaryandthegoat.com/

July 16, 2009 By Sherry

Appetizers/ ColdApp/ Sandwiches

Pink Heart Egg Finger Sandwich

I “heart” you finger sandwiches. Pretty and pink.

I have done these little sandwiches for bridal showers, baby showers and just because the are so cute. If you have an upcoming shower of any type, these are the perfect little sandwiches.

I love beets – period. On the other hand my husband says he doesn’t like “red” things on his plate and won’t try them. He does eat ketchup, tomatoes, and other red things. I think this is his way of saying “I don’t like beets”. I love the little heart cutouts for this sandwich and people are always thinking I hand carve them.

You’ll notice that only the outside is pink. The pinkness depends on how long you let them soak in the beet juice. These only soaked for about 3 hours. If you soak them overnight they will dye pink all the way to the yolk. Sometimes it may start to dye the yolk too so I usually remove after 5-6 hours. You can experiment with 4-5 hours first and if that isn’t pink enough soak longer on the next try.

You can make your own pickled beets (less expensive) or you can buy them already pickled. You will need a lot of juice if you are dying a dozen or more eggs. I would probably do at least 2 times the recipe below. My hearts were cut with a tiny aspic cutter made by Ateco (aspic or jelly cutters) 3/4″.

Egg Sandwich with Beet Garnish

Ingredients

1 can sliced beets
1 cup beet juice
1 cup vinegar
4 Tbsp. sugar
4 cloves
1 tsp. salt
12 hard boiled eggs peeled
White bread cut in 2″ circles

Topping for Bread:

Mayonnaise
Fresh basil chopped fine

Instructions

Bring all ingredients to a boil (except the eggs and the beets). Let cool then add eggs and soak a minimum of 4 hours. If you want the whites to turn pink all the way through, let them stand about 7-8 hours. Save your beets for another recipe or you can add back to the juice after you are finished dying the eggs.
Mix mayonnaise with fresh cut basil and top the bread circles with this mixture. Just before serving, slice the eggs carefully so you don’t lose any of the yolk. Top the bread slice with a slice of egg and then using a very small heart cutter, cut a slice of beet to go on top. You don’t want to put the beet heart on too soon or it will start to dye the yolk.

July 9, 2009 By Sherry

Appetizers/ Food Stories

It’s not always just about the food….(Missouri Trip)

It’s about getting together, having fun, food, and enjoying each other’s company.

A few weeks ago we took a road trip back to our hometown in Missouri. My husband and I both were raised there, met in high school, and we will be celebrating our 40th anniversary this summer. This trip was so my grandmother could meet her new great-great grandson and my husband’s mother could meet three of her new great grandchildren. One is our grandson from Texas, another baby is from California and one who lives locally. My mother-in-law wanted to be able to see them all together and everyone had a great time passing the babies around.

This was truly a celebration. My mother-in-law has 8 great grandchildren and 7 grandchildren. My grandmother has 3 grandchildren, 5 great grandchildren and 3 great-great grandchildren. So there were plenty of hugs and kisses going around.

My sister-in-law put up some tents in her backyard and had games for the kids to play. We did fajitas that night. One of my sons cooked and I helped with the stuffed grilled jalapenos, the guacamole, Mexican rice and the beans. So this may look like an ordinary styrofoam plate of Mexican fajitas but it was much much more. Everyone really enjoyed the food that night, being together, and meeting all the new babies.

This is no ordinary plate of Mexican food!

The next night we cooked at my twin sister’s house where we did bar-b-q ribs (while watching out for the tornadoes) and another night we got to feast on her homemade tamales and shrimp enchiladas. We have been sharing recipes for years and can never agree though on whose recipes are the best, but we have a good time trying different recipes. One night we tried this recipe for Grilled Provoleta.

Grilled Provoleta

I do this a little different than most recipes. My recipe goes like this. Have some provolone cheese cut at 1″-1 1/4″ thick. Let the cheese stand at room temperature about an hour before cooking so it will dry out a little and develop a crust. This will keep it from melting so fast. I like doing the cheese over a charcoal or wood fire rather than a gas fire because the flavor is better. Before cooking coat the cheese with olive oil and press in dried and/or fresh oregano.

Now this is the tricky part, I have a small 8″ round cast iron skillet hot on the grill. Spray the pan with cooking spray and also spray the grill. Put the round(s) of cheese on the grill for less than a minute. You don’t want to lose all your cheese melting through the grill. Just as soon as it has grill marks, I flip it over into the iron skillet and continue until it starts to melt and gets kind of crusty. Now you can serve this with a crusty bread but I like grilled naan the best. Hope you will try this. — Sherry

July 4, 2009 By Sherry

Appetizers/ HotApp

Parmesan Bacon Wraps

A favorite at parties I have catered

These tiny little pieces of bacon, Parmesan and cracker are to die for. I have been making these for friends, family and catering clients for twenty years now. They are so easy to make. They may take a while in the oven, so that’s why if you want to make plenty and keep them in the freezer for last minute appetizers.

These are good with a glass of wine or even a glass of orange juice for breakfast.

Here’s what you are going to need. Bacon, Parmesan Cheese and Club Crackers. Depending on how many you want I usually calculate things this way. There are 11-12 pieces of bacon in a pound and you cut that into giving you somewhere between 22-24 bacon wraps per pound of bacon.

Start by putting a small amount of Parmesan cheese on top of the cracker. Take 1/2 piece of bacon and wrap it around the cracker enclosing the Parmesan cheese. Line these up on a broiler rack (this will catch the grease that cooks out of the bacon.

I usually bake these at 250° in my two convection ovens. I use all three racks. If you don’t have a convection oven, still use all three racks and bake at 250° for 1 1/2 -2 hours or until crisp and brown. If you only have one broiler rack you can also put a cookie cooling rack inside a sheet pan (with edge). Make sure you use the sheet pan because you don’t want grease spilling over in your oven.

If you are serving these immediately, drain on paper towels and then heap up on serving dish. If you will be eating these later, cool on racks, then put in ziplock bags and freeze. When ready to serve, thaw and heat in 350° for about 10-12 minutes. Drain on paper towels before serving.

These will be a hit.

Parmesan Bacon Wraps

Ingredients

1 box of club crackers*
1-2 lbs. bacon cut in half
1 c. finely grated parmesan cheese

Instructions

Cut the bacon in half and sprinkle about 1 teaspoon of parmesan cheese on top of the cracker. Carefully wrap one half piece of bacon around the cracker and cheese and put cheese side up on a broiler tray or a cookie sheet with cooling rack on top. Repeat until you have made as many as you want.
Put the tray in a 250° oven and bake for at least an hour until they are brown and crisp. At this point I normally cool and freeze in bags until ready to serve. When ready to serve, put the bacon wraps on a rimmed cookie sheet and warm in 350 oven for about 5-8 minutes or until hot. I sometimes drain on paper towel if there is still a lot of grease.
Note: I have mades these for over 30 years and the last several years I started noticing that about every other cracker would break when I was trying to wrap the bacon. I wrote Kebler and they told me it was because the crackers are now 0 trans fat. So, if you can buy generic that still has the trans fat, they work a lot better. If not, then be very gentle wrapping them.

July 3, 2009 By Sherry

Appetizers/ ColdApp

Jalapeno Blue Cheese Spread

Ready for a margarita to go with this yummy spread.

Whether you are doing a south of the border meal or not, this appetizer is tasty, with a little crunch and spice.

One night at my sister’s house last week, in between tornado warnings, barbecuing ribs, and entertaining two babies, we whipped up this yummy appetizer.

You want a beautiful glass to serve this in and any kind of cracker will do.

Jalapeno Blue Cheese Spread

Ingredients

1 pkg. unflavored gelatin
1/4 c. water
3 oz. cream cheese
5 oz. blue cheese crumbled
16 oz. sour cream
2 jalapeno peppers chopped fine
2 Tbsp. vinegar
2 oz. pimientos chopped
1 c. pecans roasted
Assorted crackers

Instructions

Combine gelatin with water in a custard up, let stand. Place cream cheese and blue cheese in a 2 quart bowl. Microwave at 50% power 60-90 seconds until softened. Mix with sour cream until smooth, set aside. Microwave gelatin on high 30 seconds or until boiling. Stir in vinegar and blend into cheese mixture. Add the peppers, pecans and pimentos. Pour into mold (or margarita glass) and chill several hours. Turn onto red leaf lettuce line tray (if you have molded it in a dish) and garnish with jalapeno flower or slices of jalapenos. Serve with crackers on the side.

Recipe Notes

(Hint: have all ingredients ready before starting. The gelatin may set too quickly if you start adding cold ingredients and you don’t have everything else ready to fold in.) Also, anytime I use a mold, I line it with plastic wrap then all you have to do is flip it out and peel off the plastic wrap. I usually do this recipe in either small margarita glasses or one of the giant ones. I have substituted pistachio nuts for the pecans and then sprinkled pistachios on top. Either way, it’s unbelievably good. —

June 22, 2009 By Sherry

Appetizers/ ColdApp/ Sauces

Green and Yellow Tomato Salsa

Good friends, good wine, good food, what more could you want…

We had the perfect dinner a couple of weeks ago. A good friend came over while her husband was out of town in Colorado. We swam, cooked, ate, drank a lot of wine and had a deliciously good time. We love cooking together and trying out new recipes. I don’t think we have ever cooked anything together that we didn’t think was fabulous. When we do our day after Thanksgiving feast, we always come up with some great things to try.

This was the first time to use our new teak dining table and my new hanging lanterns and it all made for a perfect evening.

June 22, 2009 By Sherry

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