Easy Appetizers

Those cute little stuffed cherry tomatoes are so cheerful looking. But best of all, they are delicious, adding a nice touch to your repertoire of simple appetizers. Even if you think you don’t like tomatoes, I bet you’ll change your mind just a little if you tried this easy recipe. These cherry tomatoes are tiny, and stuffed with great flavor. Basically, the tomato acts like a little holder or a cup. And, they present nicely. Try it, you tomato-haters might change your mind!

What you’ll need:
- 48 cherry tomatoes
- Salt
- 1/2 lb sharp cheddar cheese (grated)
- 3 oz. cream cheese
- 2 Tbsp cognac or other good brandy
- 2 oz. pimiento stuffed green olives(chopped)
- Tobasco sauce
- 1/2 cup parsley (minced)

What to do:
First, cut a thin slice from the stem end of each tomato and scoop out center pulp. Yes, it’s a bit labor-intensive and you are wondering where is the “easy” part of this appetizer recipe? Well, what’s easy about it, is the eating part. REAL easy.

Next, sprinkle inside with salt and invert the tomatoes on a paper towel for 10 or 15 minutes. Combine the cheeses and cognac. Blend until smooth and then add olives and 2 or 3 dashes of Tobasco sauce. Fill the drained tomatoes with the cheese mixture, sprinkle with parsley and serve it up!

Serve this easy appetizer on your favorite party platter. Enjoy!

With summer just starting and the weather getting hotter every day, grilling your food outdoors is a lot more pleasant that slaving over a hot stove inside. I was reading Fitness magazine the other day and came across these fun grilling facts. Take a look:

- 76 percentage of women who like to grill
- 150 millions of hot dogs Americans eat over Memorial Day weekend
- 100 calories in a turkey dog
- 148 calories in a regular dog
- 49 percentage of grillers who think it’s acceptable to bring their own sauce to a barbecue
- 121 calories you save by grilling  a chicken breast instead of frying it

Now that you know all about the facts of grilling, here’s a really easy appetizer to grill while you are sipping cocktails on the patio.

Mushroom Bacon Bites

What you need:
- 24 medium fresh mushrooms
- 12 bacon strips, halved
- 1 cup of you favorite barbecue sauce

What to Do
1. Wrap each mushroom with a piece of bacon; secure with a toothpick.
2. Thread onto metal or soaked bamboo skewers; brush with barbecue sauce.
3. Grill, uncovered, over indirect medium heat for 10 to 15 minutes or until the bacon is crisp and the mushrooms are tender, turning and basting occasionally with remaining barbecue sauce.

This easy appetizer recipe makes 2 dozen. For more wonderful grilled appetizer recipes, visit our Simple Appetizer Recipes page.

Spanish Food
Spain is famous for many things, but one of the best things is it’s food! Spain produces a wealth of natural, healthy foods such as olive oil, fruits, vegetables, nuts and seafood. All of this forms the basis of its traditional recipes.

As my blog reader, you know that I love the Spanish food of Tapas. I am enamored with how you can create beautiful small plates with such simple ingredients. So, I decided to share with you some of those yummy ingredients that you can easily get by going to your local specialty market or by visiting my favorite place online for buying GREAT Spanish food, La Tienda.

Here’s a list of some delicious ingredients. Then visit my Tapas Small Plates page to get some great ideas for Tapas. Enjoy!

Jamón Serrano or Serrano Ham is the famous dry-cured ham of Spain, with Jamón Ibérico the king of Serrano hams. Depending on the recipe, its easy to replace with bacon, or your local ham – such as York ham or Virginia ham.

Chorizo is Spain´s spicy sausage. Other Spanish sausages include Morcilla, made from blood and similar to English black pudding, and Butifarra – a white sausage made from pork, tripe, and pine-nuts. If you can’t find it, you can always replace with a spicy sausage, black pudding, or white sausage from your
own country.

Piquillo Peppers – are small, pointed red peppers from the region of Navarre, which are canned and sold throughout Spain. Replace with canned, ordinary red peppers, or roast a fresh red pepper yourself.

Saffron – is derived from a certain strain of crocus, and used to flavor and bestow that golden-yellow color to dishes.

Cheese – Spain has numerous regional artisan cheeses and, when a certain one is specified, a description of its type follows in brackets, [hard, soft, blue, etc.] Use your local equivalent.

It’s great if you can use authentic ingredients from Spain for your Tapas and cooking Spanish foods, but if not, then use the equivalent. It’s all good!

I wrote a post not too long ago about the history of Tapas Small Plates because tapas are one of my favorite ways to serve appetizers. I think the Spanish did it up right – even from such humble beginnings.

Tapas Small Plates are a wonderful way to entertain guests. Not only does it satisfy the creative chef within, it also is a way to present many small packages of food that represent a wide variety of flavors, plus tapas are easy appetizers to make.

People LOVE appetizers, tapas are Spain’s way of serving them up. I have lots of great ideas and recipes for these Spanish appetizers. Just visit my page at Tapas Small Plates.

Below are a selection of some of my favorite Tapas recipes. And if you don’t have the time or inclination to make your own Tapas small plates, simple visit my favorite site for Spanish food and they will help you out. La Tienda has a wonderful selection for creating a Tapas party.

Bread and Olive Tapas – Delicious and satisfying tapas to make are simply chunks of bread with marinated olives.

Smoked Ham Tapas with Tomato, Garlic and Toasted Bread – (Pan con Tomate, Ajo y Jamon) – Delightfully fragrant and flavorful, this extremely simple smoked ham tapas is made with slices of toasted bread and a few other ingredients.

Figs and Ham Tapas – (Higos con Jamon) – Who would have thought that a combination figs and ham tapas could make such a yummy and simple appetizer?

I really, really love chips. Potato chips, corn chips, tortilla chips, you name it. Recently at a party, my hostess large warm potato chips. They were the best chips I had ever eaten. So, I asked her who made them and where did she get them. She told me she made them herself. Well. I had to try her recipe.

And that led me to making all kinds of different chips. The flavors or so good and serving them fresh from baking or frying them is the best! Below are some of my favorite chip recipes… Enjoy making them and eating them up!

Homemade Potato Chips – Are you the creative type? How about making your chips of the mixed variety? Make them not just with Russet potatoes – even though they are available all year. But, try making some of your chips from Finnish yellow or Peruvian purple potatoes.

Italian Bagel Chips – takes plain bagels and making them into something special. Add some wonderful seasoning and what seemed old and boring before has a whole new lift to it. Use these chips with a variety of dips and you’ll please even the pickiest of eaters.

Lemon Thyme Pita Chips – are a wonderful change from the same old chips everyone usually serves. This easy appetizer recipe will be the hit of the party. Your friends and guests will beg you for this chip dip recipe!

Corn Tortilla Chips – Fresh. Crunchy. And the flavor! You can’t eat just one. Plus, you’ll enjoy making these wonderfully flavored tortilla chips yourself.

Parmesan Cheese Crisps – This is one of my favorite easy appetizer recipes because of it’s crispy lightness and they way they melt in your mouth.

Enjoy with some wonderfully creative dips. Perfect  for Memorial Day, Labor Day, or any fun party you are planning.

Wow. Here is a beautiful easy appetizer recipe that will give your party table some extra ‘zazz. These shrimp puffs are easier to make than they look. A lovely appetizer recipe for either a friendly get together or works well as a fancy hors d’oeuvre for a cocktail party. Enjoy!

My friend, Cindy, is an awesome cook, baker, friend, wife, mother (did I say friend?) In fact, she and 4 other of our friends and I are all very close. Each of these incredible women adds a unique and wonderful perspective to my life.

The six of us have been getting together at least once a month for the last 10-12 years. I honestly don’t remember exactly how long it’s been. But within those years and those visits, we have formed a bond that I know will go on even past this life…Their friendships have carried me through tough times and each one of them has given me the gift of trust. A place that I can unburden myself and know that they support me. I sincerely do not know what I would do without them.

We’ve shared tons of laughter, some tears, weathered our children’s growing up days, the antics of our husbands, divorces, rekindled romances with past loves, more laughter, and of course FOOD! Our get-togethers are always about great food. If we don’t go out to some new restaurant, we meet at one of our homes and bring food that always amounts to an unbelievable meal. Cindy is a great cook, but so are Louise, Joan, Janet and Annie.

In this post, I wanted to share with you Cindy’s fabulous Texas Caviar Dip. This easy appetizer recipe is Heaven in a bowl. Since Memorial Day is just around the corner, this could work perfectly for a picnic or party. I added a couple of ingredients. Try it! You’ll like it! And tell the ones you are closest to how much you love them.

What you’ll need:
- 1 can of white corn, rinsed (or if you are really ambitious, cook your own corn and scrape off 16 ounces worth of corn kernals.)
- 1 can of black-eyed peas, rinsed
- green onion, chopped (to taste)
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- red onion, minced (to taste)
- 2 ripe avocados (not too ripe!)
- tomatoes, chopped (to taste)
- 2 Tbsp. red wine vinegar
- 2 Tbsp. olive oil
- 2 tsp. hot pepper sauce
- black pepper (to taste)
- 1/4 cup roasted pine nuts
- chopped cilantro (to taste)
- fresh lime juice

Mix all the ingredients and refrigerate or serve immediately. Serve with baked tortilla chips or corn tortilla chips. DEEEELish!

Well, Mother’s Day has come and gone… sigh… mine was a really nice one. My wonderful hubby and son went all out and provided all the meals – beautifully cooked and presented, allowed me to stay in bed and catch up on my reading, and then took me to my favorite place to buy plants. I spent the rest of the day in the garden. Pure heaven! I hope all you Mom’s out there had a nice day as well.

Mother’s Day also signifies that warm weather is here or about to be here… so it got me to thinking about what are some great appetizer recipes for warm weather? Parties will be outside for the next few months, what kinds of easy  appetizers work well when the weather turns hot? And with Memorial Day heading our way, I decided it’s time to start making my favorite salsas again.

There are so many different kinds of Salsa and you’ll find a few of those recipes here on this blog. But, this recipe for Fresh Corn Salsa is a wonderful combination of color, sweetness and texture. Everybody seems to love it – I never have any left over! Serve this beautiful Fresh Corn Salsa with some warm homemade tortilla chips and WOW! You’ll have a hit on your hands.

What you’ll need:

• 2 cups diced ripe tomatoes
• 2 cups fresh corn kernels
• 12 oz-can black beans, rinsed well, drained
• 4 green onions, sliced thin
• 1 or 2 green jalapeño, seeded, diced fine
• 1/2 bunch fresh cilantro, roughly chopped
• 1/2 lemon, juiced
• 1 fresh lime, juiced
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste

What to do:
Toss all ingredients in a large glass or stainless steel bowl to combine. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour before serving. Toss well before you serve it.

This easy appetizer recipe can be made up to 8 hours ahead of time.

I got this recipe from About.com and have loved it ever since. You will too.

*photo by Flickr user Luke Wisley

My Mom lives in Arizona and I live in California. As much as I would love to be with her this year on Mother’s Day, I can’t. Just wasn’t going to work out.

Happily, she is spending the weekend with a very dear friend of hers. They are planning to go to two different concerts, lunch with mutual friends, church and lunch again on Sunday. Mom is quite happy about this.

So, even though I would love to make all kinds of fun and easy appetizers for her and her friends, I’m doing the next best thing. I sent her a gourmet gift basket from the three siblings -  her children – to share with her friends and to let her know that we think she’s the best Mom ever.

If you need to do Mother’s Day long distance, sending a gift basket is a great way to show how much you wish you could be there. It’s easy to order on line and in most cases, they can deliver the next day. Below are some fantastic places to order gift baskets. Show Mom you love her…

GiftTree.com – is your gift company dedicated to making the gift giving experience simple and impressive.

Gourmet Gift Baskets – Mother’s Day Special Offer! 10% off any order. Please use coupon code LoveMom10. Valid Only till May 31st.

AppetizersToGo – Award winning gourmet appetizers shipped overnight.

I think Brie cheese is the food of the gods. It is so creamy, so sweet, and so blendable with other flavors. I love making Brie appetizers and sharing them with friends and family, so in this post, I want to share with you, dear Foodie, my top 8 Brie appetizers. Hope you enjoy them as much as I do!

#One: Amaretto Brie Appetizer – There’s nothing like serving this yummy appetizer. Especially when you watch everyone diving into it without leaving a trace behind. Appetizer or dessert? You decide.

#Two: Apples and Brie Appetizer – Easy to make ahead, just pop it in the oven right before serving. My mouth waters even when I’m writing down the ingredients!

#Three: Apple Brie Appetizer Soup – Well, this recipe certainly surprised me! It’s reminiscent of a Brie appetizer that’s garnished with apples, but this recipe, made into a soup appetizer is a new twist on an old theme.

#Four: Brie and walnuts is such a rich, delicious combination and this recipe for baked brie with curried California walnuts is perfect for Mother’s Day, wedding showers or any kind of fun and elegant gathering.

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