All posts filed under: appetizers

Rockfish and Red Grapefruit Ceviche with Quick Pickled Fennel

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I have a good friend whom I love to watch eat.  Ok, that sounds terribly creepy, but let me explain.  She will assemble a bunch of different ingredients, be it on a spoon, a cracker or a crostini, pop it into her mouth and then exclaim, eyes rolling back in her head: “oh my god that is such a Good Bite!!” Then excitedly, she’ll assemble it again, just the way she did it the first time and make sure everyone gets to experience that Good Bite! It’s so funny and such a pleasure when someone gets that excited about a bite of food, and that is exactly how I felt when I assembled this ceviche.  It looked like a wicked-weird combination of ingredients but when I built a little forkful of it: a little bite of fish, a chili pepper, a bit of grapefruit, a sliver of fennel and a lemon balm leaf; and tasted it, I found myself squealing just like my friend!  It was such a Good Bite!  I immediately called Eric into the kitchen …

Cool Tools: Molcajete | The Only Guacamole Recipe You’ll Ever Need

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  Chips. Salsa. Guacamole. Three simple things that tell me all I need to know about the meal I’m about to have in a Mexican restaurant.  If the salsa arrives and looks and tastes like ketchup, my hopes are dashed and I steel myself for the impending disaster that is surely to follow.  But when the salsa is that perfect blend of fresh, spicy, tart and salty, my tastebuds jump up and do a little dance! And the candle on the cake is when they make guacamole tableside in a molcajete! Ah, guacamole.  For me, it is the quintessential dip. I can eat it by the bowlful and god forbid I should run out of those amazingly light, salty tortilla chips! Why, yes, I would like more chips, please! I am a salsa and guacamole fiend! It’s no wonder I end up taking most of my main dish home in a to-go box! So this guacamole. This is the recipe. The only one you’re ever going to need.  I don’t mind saying that it’s the perfect blend of texture, heat, …

A New Succulent Garden and Blistered Shishito Peppers

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I kill succulents.  I kill them so often and so quickly that the garden center should probably have my picture on their wall with a notice saying “Do Not Sell Succulents To This Woman”.  But so far I’ve been able to elude them or they’ve just decided that they make a lot of money from me and my succulent exploits.  With that in mind, please know that this is not a tutorial on keeping succulents alive!  I wanted to rehab this terrarium from a couple of years ago that has been dormant for…18 months.  That means I was able to keep the succulents that were originally in it alive for 6 whole months.  This also means that I’ve had a big bowl of dirt sitting in my bathroom for a year and a half.  I saw this tutorial on West Elm’s website a while ago that showed how to make a succulent garden and suggested leaving the plants in their original pots–which seemed perfect for me!  At least this way, when I kill them, they …

Oscar-worthy Cocktails and Nosh!

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The 86th Annual Academy Awards are this evening and this year, I’ve actually seen quite a few of the nominated films! I feel like I have some skin in this game now!  I won’t be having an Oscar party, but you can be sure that I’ll be watching the show with a cocktail in hand along with some great snacks!  So, whether you are having a party or just looking for a few ideas for what to snack on tonight while you’re watching the show, might I offer a few suggestions? I’ve been to enough parties to know that people love deviled eggs!  Try these smokey, spicy  deviled eggs along with the frothy Lusty Lady topped with some Cognac-soaked cherries!  It just speaks Hollywood Glamour! This homage to Oscar Winner, Ginger Rogers is one of my favorites!  The Ginger Rogers is a double dose of ginger flavor, combining spicy ginger beer with ginger simple syrup. Or perhaps this fruity Blood Orange Margarita?  Awesome for a Mexican food-themed party! This Framboise 75  is a perfect choice if you’re feeling particularly fancy-schmancy! Who doesn’t love champagne? …

Manchego Cheese and Olive Crackers with Creamy Radicchio Spread

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The second recipe that I tested for the Food52 website this week is this delicious little bite of some unexpected ingredients.  The original recipe is here.  This recipe took a little more effort than the kalamata olive tapenade crostinis, but I was excited to learn something new:  making homemade cheese crackers!  I had no idea that making homemade crackers would be so easy–it’s basically the same process as making a pastry crust–and it can easily be made in a food processor.  The cracker is then topped with a mixture of radicchio and cream cheese. Radicchio is a very assertive (ok, bitter) lettuce, but it becomes wonderfully mellow when mixed with the cream cheese.  What I also loved about this recipe is that it uses castelvetrano olives!  I may have mentioned my love for these olives before–bright green and buttery, they were a perfect compliment both inside the cheese cracker and in the garnish. Do yourself a favor and buy the olives already pitted–it will make the process that much easier.  I found an enormous jar …

Crostinis with Olive Tapenade and Burrata Cheese

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The holidays are upon us already!  Where has this month gone?  Heck, where has this year gone?  Even though I love the holiday season, it is really easy to become overwhelmed with all of the things that need to be done–the decorating, the shopping.  But, what I really love, is the partying!  I feel like I haven’t done much cooking since Thanksgiving, so in order to get myself back into the swing of things, I volunteered to test a couple of recipes for the website Food52.  Both recipes I tested were not only flavorful and inventive, but were very easy to put together and perfect to make or take to a holiday party.  The first one is a crostini topped with creamy burrata cheese and an olive tapenade.  The original recipe is here and since I was testing the recipe I made it exactly as written and didn’t make any changes.  I think it turned out perfectly and I really loved how well the briny tapenade paired with the creaminess of the cheese.  If you’ve never had …

Spicy Asian Chicken Wings

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There are times when I look for any old excuse to make chicken wings:  Game night?  Monday Night Football?  A weekday ending in the letter “y”?  I never know when the craving for chicken wings is going to strike, but when it does, you can be sure that it will be for these sticky, spicy-sweet, Asian-style wings.  Today just happened to be a weeknight ending in the letter “y” and so it was the perfect excuse to whip up a batch! Unlike chicken wings from a restaurant, these wings are baked in the oven and then coated with a thick, smoky sauce that’s just spicy enough to make things exciting!  They couldn’t be easier to put together on a weeknight. I brined these wings for about an hour in a very simple brine of water, salt, lemon and garlic.  It’s not necessary to do this step, but it does add a base layer of seasoning to the chicken.  If you don’t have time to brine your chicken, you can simply season it well with salt, …