Category Archives: Appetizers

Apricot, Goat Cheese and Pecan Bites

Posted in Appetizers, Food and Drink by

I have been so incredibly busy lately, but I am still trying to maintain this blog as best I can!  Between school, work and play, I’ve had little time to try new recipes.  On top of that, I am having somewhat of a slump in the kitchen— burning lasagna and baking a turkey upside down (?!?!?) being just two examples of my misadventures this week.  I blame it on the hectic schedule of the holidays!

These little appetizers are almost impossible to mess up, and taste delicious.  Each bite includes all three flavors making the combination perfection.  I can’t take full credit for this recipe.  I work for a caterer who created it, so when I needed something for book club this week, this came to mind.

The trick is to use candied pecans.  Of course, my boss made those himself, but most grocery stores sell them already made.  The other key point is using honey to sweeten the goat cheese.  I saw that they sell goat cheese with honey already in it, so you could technically save yourself a step there too.

Ingredients:

  • 1 package dried apricots
  • 1 package candied pecans
  • 3 oz. goat cheese, softened
  • 1-2 Tbs. honey

Directions:

Combine the honey and goat cheese.  Place a dollop on top of the apricot.  Put the candied pecan on top.  Could it be any easier?

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Dr. Seuss Themed Baby Shower

Posted in Appetizers, Desserts, Drinks, Food and Drink, Main Dishes by

My best friend is having a baby in December, so we planned a Dr. Seuss themed party for her!  The menu included everything Seuss- from Green Eggs and Ham to Cat and the Hat cupcakes.

My favorite touch was adding a rhyme next to all the food items so that the food was identified.  I had fun making up the rhymes, and included some quotes from the books and finished it out to fit whatever food item I needed.  Everything was made in a Word document, and I copied and pasted some pictures from the Internet.  I’ve included the rhymes at the bottom of the post, so feel free to use them if you want!

The food included meatballs, pigs in a blanket, veggies, cupcakes, cookies, fruit snack/marshmallow kabobs.

I didn’t get any pictures of the meatballs, but they were so good, I want to include the recipe here!

Ingredients:

  • 2 (16 oz.) packages meatballs
  • 1 jar (8 oz.) grape jelly
  • 1 jar 16 oz.) spaghetti sauce

Directions:

Mix all ingredients in crock pot.  Cook on low 6-8 hours.  Switch to keep warm setting on crock pot and serve using tooth picks straight out of it.

All the food laid out on the table!

We had a separate table for all the drinks and gifts!

We used my recipe for Deviled Eggs and added food coloring to make them green.  I liked them a lot, but I think others were pretty skeptical about the coloring.

Cat in the Hat Cupcakes made from chewy Lifesavers, white frosting and half an Oreo!

Cute drink pitchers my friend’s sister-in-law made!

We got our invitations from this Etsy distributor and they turned out perfectly.  She will customize your order, and I got lots of comments on how colorful they were!

Here are most of the rhymes I used for the party.  Some of them are direct quotes from the books, while others take  lines from the book and then I made up the rest to fit the food item.

Green Eggs and Ham: I like them, I do!  Green eggs and ham for you, and you, and you!

Cat in the Hat cupcakes: If you haven’t had a cupcake today, you should, because cupcakes are fun, and fun is good!

Fruit bite hats (similar to the toppings on the cupcakes, but on skewers): Snack, snack, eat a snack, eat a snack of fruit bite hats!  (Adapted from Hop on Pop)

Meatballs: Big J, little j, what begins with J?  Jelly Jordan’s jelly jar and jam MEATBALLS begin that way! (Adapted from Dr. Seuss’s ABC’s)

Pigs in a Blanket: For Liz’s shower, we’ll have some fun, and eat hot dogs rolled up in buns!

Bowl of Goldfish: One fish, Two fish, Red fish, Blue fish, GOLD FISH!

Me with the beautiful mom-to-be!

Fresh Spinach Dip

Posted in Appetizers, Food and Drink by

I invited some friends over at the last minute, and I wanted to have something as an appetizer.  I had a bag of chips for dipping, so I figured I could mix ingredients I already had in my fridge and create some kind of a dip.  This turned out better than I could have imagined!

The best part of this recipe is that it used fresh spinach instead of frozen spinach.  While they are pretty equal when it comes to nutritional quality, I still prefer fresh to frozen anytime.  You can use frozen spinach in this if you want, just squeeze all the juice out before stirring it in.

On another note, I know I haven’t been posting as often as usual!  A lot has been going on in my personal life, but I’ll have lots of new recipes and books to read coming your way soon!

Ingredients:

  • 1 block (8 oz.) cream cheese, softened
  • 16 oz. sour cream
  • 1 red pepper, diced
  • 10 oz. fresh spinach
  • 1 pkg. onion mix

Directions:

Mix cream cheese, sour cream and onion mix.  Stir in red peppers.  Add spinach, a handful at a time and stir until mixed.

Spinach and Mascarpone Bites

Posted in Appetizers, Food and Drink by

This Sunday I drove to my hometown in Georgia to attend a baby shower for one of my best friends!  Her sister prepared the food, and everything was delicious and perfectly bite sized!

These were my favorite thing, so I asked her for the recipe so I could be sure to have it in my file for all the baby showers I will be helping throw in the future.

The key to this recipe is making sure that the super thin slices of lemon have the rind on them.  It adds the right amount of sour with the sweetness of the cheese and the beets.  I think I ended up eating six of them (I know that would not even be a whole sandwich if put together, but it seemed a little excessive when finger food is involved!)

Special thanks to Irene for sharing this recipe with me!

Ingredients:

  • package of thinly sliced bread
  • one container mascarpone cheese
  • 1 bag spinach
  • 1 beet, minced
  • 1 lemon, sliced into very thin slices with rind

Directions:

Saute spinach and beet in olive oil.  Set aside.

Spread mascarpone cheese onto bread and cut bread into triangular slices.  Top with spinach and beet mixture.  Top with lemon slice.

Up close look at the Spinach and Mascarpone Bites! Note the lovely champagne grapes in the background!

Beautiful set-up with cucumber dill sandwiches, petit fours, fresh fruit and chips!

Colorful Christmas Dip

Posted in Appetizers, Food and Drink by

What on earth is a Christmas dip doing being published in August, one might ask.  Well, my mom made this dip for our family gathering last weekend, and while it is Christmas colors, it is good any time of year!  This is what she called it on her recipe card, so I’m sticking with it.

I can definitely say that I appreciate my mom’s cooking more and more every year.  I can remember being little and wanting to go out to eat, but now there’s not much else I’d rather have!

It was a huge hit, and was very tasty.  So tasty, in fact, that I barely got any because I had school and missed dinner!  I did get enough to satisfy though, and still had room for dinner (and the salads I talked about here!)

Ingredients:

  • 1 (8 oz.) cream cheese, softened
  • 1 (4 oz.) package feta cheese
  • 1/3 cup prepared Arugula Pesto, or any store bought pesto
  • 3 cloves garlic, divided
  • 3/4 cup oil-packed dried tomatoes, drained

Directions:

Line 2 1/2 cup mold or bowl with plastic wrap, leaving 1 inch overhang.  Set aside.

Combine tomatoes and garlic in blender until smooth.

Beat cream cheese and feta on medium until smooth.

Layer 1/3 cream cheese, basil mix, 1/3 cream cheese, tomato mix, 1/3 cream cheese.  Cover and chill at least four hours.

Unmold on platter.  Peel off plastic.  Serve with crackers or baguette slices.

Mom tip: Between each layer of cream cheese, place in freezer 10 minutes to solidify and make spreading the next layer easier.  This may add time, but is guaranteed to take away frustration.

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Cheese and Salsa Appetizer

Posted in Appetizers, Food and Drink by

This is one of my all-time favorite recipes.  My grandmother makes it as an appetizer for all special occasions, and I love it every time.  I also remember making it in college a lot for parties on game day (Go Dawgs!)

When I was thinking about what to make for this month’s book club choice, Gone Girl, I kept thinking about a scene in which a local girl offers the main character a Chicken Frito Pie right after his wife’s disappearance.  I looked up the recipe for this, but it didn’t seem right for book club, so I made this instead.  It’s simple, quick, and always a hit!

Ingredients:

  • 8 oz. cream cheese, softened
  • 1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
  • 1 cup chunky salsa
  • 1 9 in. microwave-safe pie plate (I don’t have one, so I used a bowl.)

Directions:

Spread cream cheese into plate.  Top with salsa.  Top with cheese.  Microwave on high 2-3 minutes, or until cheese melts.  So easy and good!

This picture is pre-microwave. I took it to book club, so I melted it there because it doesn’t travel well. It needs to be served warm!

Handheld Caprese Salad

Posted in Appetizers, Food and Drink by

When trying to figure out a meal for my recent book club meeting, I was faced with a problem.  What on earth do you bring to a meeting where you’re discussing the memoir of a famed New York City chef, Garbrielle Hamilton entitled Blood, Bones and Butter?  I finally decided that since the author greatly appreciated simplicity when it comes to food, and spent a good portion of the book in Italy, Caprese Salad was a good choice.  I love the simply mix of tomato, mozzarella and basil, combined with the olive oil and balsamic vinegar topping.

Since the book was so heavily focused on food, I wanted my Caprese Salad to be a little different from the traditional.  I turned to my trusted website, Pinterest, and found lots of different people doing the salad like this.  It’s the perfect portion, and you get all the flavors easily into one bite!

Mom’s Boiled Peanuts

Posted in Appetizers, Food and Drink by

This weekend I’m staying with my mom, and she brought boiled peanuts.  They are my favorite- so addicting!  They remind me of being little and being at the beach.  We would stop on the way down to the Gulf of Mexico at a street vendor and buy a cup of them.  Just thinking of it makes my mouth water!

She says that she learned how to make them by meeting people near them in the grocery store.  They showed her how to pick exactly the right peanuts and how long to boil them.  I’m not sure how she gets herself involved in these types of conversations, but it’s pretty cool.  One additional tip: they taste best the second day and should be refrigerated after boiling!  Anyways, I asked her for her recipe and I thought her email was so perfect, there is no reason to type it out myself, so here it is:


Here are the directions that I use for boiling peanuts: 
Wash peanuts thoroughly.  Place peanuts in a large pot;  cover completely with water and bring to a boil.  Pour salt ( I use 1/2C salt/ 2lbs. peanuts) over top of peanuts and stir. Boil for 3 hours. Test for doneness. Add more water, if necessary, to cook longer. Taste test every 10 min. until tender. Add additional salt, if necessary.
Love,
mom

Jalapeno Crescent Poppers

Posted in Appetizers, Food and Drink by

Any of you that get on Pinterest have seen these before- the famous Pinterest Poppers.  I had to make them for myself though, so I thought I’d share them with you!  Usually with Pinterest, I click on the picture and I get a link to the blog to read the full recipe.  With this one, the link did not work, but the picture was pretty self-explanatory, so I just winged it!  Normally I would include bacon, but with these I did not because several members of my book club are vegetarian, and I made this batch for our last meeting!  If I were to make them again, I would plan on serving them immediately because they do not keep very well.  While they were still tasty an hour after coming out of the oven, they are best fresh.

Ingredients:

  • 1 tube crescent rolls (or two– they go fast because they are so good!)
  • 3 oz. cream cheese
  • diced jalapenos (fresh or pickled)
  • crumbled bacon (optional)

Directions:

Unroll crescent rolls and cut each piece of crescent roll dough in half.  Place a dollop of cream cheese in the center.  Top with jalapenos and/or bacon.  Roll up similarly to if you were rolling a crescent roll.  I tuck one end up, and wrap the long triangle piece around in a circular motion.  Bake at 350 for 10-15 minutes.  Crescents will just start to brown on top.  Serve immediately!

Bite sized poppers go faster than you think!

Onion Flatbread

Posted in Appetizers, Food and Drink, Jim's Specialties, Main Dishes by

This is the best flatbread I’ve ever had in my life!  Our regular contributor, Jim Lewandowski, has done it yet again!  This dish would work as an appetizer or for your main course, and I guarantee it will not fail to impress.  The puff pastry gives it a light flakiness that you just can’t get with pizza dough.  The caramelized onions, cheese and olives compliment the crust perfectly.  I could go on and on about how perfect this dish is, but I’d rather be in the kitchen making some more, so enjoy!

Topping Ingredients:

  • 1/4 cup good olive oil, plus extra for brushing
  • 2 lbs. yellow onions, halved and sliced 1/4 inch thick
  • 1 Tbs. fresh thyme leaves
  • 1 1/2 tsp. kosher salt
  • 1/2 tsp. black pepper
  • 2 whole cloves garlic

For dough:

  • 1 package of puff pastry
  • olive oil

To assemble each flatbread:

  • whole black olives, halved
  • cheese (fontina recommended)

For the topping, heat the olive oil in a very large saute pan and cook the onions, thyme, salt, pepper and garlic over low heat for 45 minutes, until the onions are sweet and cooked but not browned.  Toss the onions from time to time.  After 30 minutes, take out the garlic, chop it roughly, and add it back to the onions.

Meanwhile make the dough.  Gently take the puff pastry from the wrapper and roll out on a cookie sheet.  Coat edges with olive oil to prevent sticking. 

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Spoon the onion topping onto the pastry, leaving 3/4- inch border all around.  Top with desired amount of cheese.  Artfully arrange olives on top and brush the edge of the dough with olive oil.  Bake 15 minutes until the crust is crisp.  Serve hot.