Easy Appetizers

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.

Warm weather is here. Get out the shorts and outdoor dinnerware! Uncover the pool and get the suntan lotion out.

Summertime to me means, backyard BBQs, pool parties, and GREAT food! Get stocked up on some great summertime appetizers that are fun to make and fun to serve. Your guests, friends, and family will love you for it and think you are “Da bomb”!

Here are some ideas to get started. Enjoy the warm weather and the freedom that summer brings and where sunscreen!

Veggie Tarts – These mini muffin-size appetizer tarts are the perfect party food. Refrigerated Crescent roll dough makes it easy to create a finger food that even kids will like.

Spicy Roasted Chickpeas – Perfect for a BBQ party! Adding a dash of cayenne gets the mouth watering for these crispy, crunchy chickpeas.

Smoked Salmon Spread in Sourdough Bowl – These easy party appetizers are quick to make and low-fat, too. The cream cheese and salmon mixture is presented in a bread bowl for an extra festive look

Roast Beef Crostini with Horseradish Cream - Spicy horseradish gives these warm appetizers a hearty kick. The combination of warm French bread toast and cool roast beef creates a party food that complements any gathering.

Mushroom Caponata on Bagel Crisps – This caponata appetizer recipe blends eggplant, tomatoes, mushrooms and onions for to create vegetarian party food that everyone will enjoy.

For more great ideas for party planning and delicious easy appetizers, visit our Simple Appetizer Recipes page.

Memorial Day weekend is here and besides spending a few quiet moments to remember the brave men and women who died for our country in the line of duty, there will be picnics, BBQs and parties to get ready for.

Here’s a little help in that area… I’m listing 5 of my favorite Chicken Wings Recipes for you to try out. Chicken Wings – when done right, are a wonderful simple appetizer that everyone loves. Watch. You’ll see. They will disappear before your eyes!

#1. THE Original Buffalo Chicken Wings – Take a peak at the first recipe that started the popularity of chicken wings. Simple and easy appetizer to make.

#2. Apricot Onion Chicken Wings - I like this one because it blends the sweet with the tart and the combination will make this a real party pleaser.

#3. Coffee Chicken Wings – Ooo la la! This recipe is exotic, but oh-so-delicous!  You’ll love the smokiness the coffee flavor adds to the wings.

#4. Dragon Breath Chicken Wings – These wings you grill and they will spice up any party you might throw. The nice thing about this recipe is that they are as delicious served cold as they are straight from your grill.

#5. Diablo Canyon Chicken Wings – This is a wonderful simple appetizer recipe for the spicy-shy adult and kid. The flavor is a nice mixture of sweet and salty.

Enjoy your holiday and remember to be SAFE!

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

Well, the Mexican Holiday of Cinco de Mayo is here and I have some really great appetizers for you to choose from if you are planning a party or celebration. Here’s a little Cinco de Mayo history…

The 5th of May is not Mexican Independence Day, but it should be! And Cinco de Mayo is not an American holiday, but it should be. Mexico declared its independence from mother Spain on midnight, the 15th of September, 1810. And it took 11 years before the first Spanish soldiers were told and forced to leave Mexico.

So, why Cinco de Mayo? And why should Americans savor this day as well? Because 4,000 Mexican soldiers smashed the French and traitor Mexican army of 8,000 at Puebla, Mexico, 100 miles east of Mexico City on the morning of May 5, 1862. To continue reading about Cinco de Mayo history, click here. Otherwise, take a look at the list below of great appetizers for this well loved holiday.

7-Layer Guacamole Dip
Baked Tortilla Chips
Black Bean Cheese Dip
Chiles con Caso Dip
Chipotle Salsa
Cilantro Lime Shrimp
Corn Tortilla Chips

Read the rest of this entry »

Mother’s Day Appetizers
Mother’s Day is almost here and why not surprise your Mom with some special appetizers. All of the ones listed here are easy to make and taste delicious.

Your Mom loves you know matter what, but she’ll be so pleased that you took the time to prepare some fun foods for her. So show her some appetizer love with a wide variety of little foods to choose from.

And if you are a wine drinker, all these appetizers go well with a glass of the red or white. And, why not think of a wine gift to give your Mom?

Brie Appetizers - A wonderful selection of delicious appetizers using Brie cheese as it’s main ingredient. The delicious, creamy, texture of Brie marries beautifully with all kinds of flavors.

Caramelized Onion Tarts – Sweet and savory, these easy to make tarts dress up any occasion.

Caviar Parfait – A beautiful appetizer that will impress guests, please the palate, and best of all, is simple to make.

Cheddar Cheese Mushrooms – A huge crowd pleaser that keeps the foodie snitcher at bay, and at the same time gets your guests hungry for the main course. Everyone loves these!

Cilantro Lime Shrimp Kabobs – Get the BBQ ready and throw on the shrimp kabobs. This is a fantastic appetizer for everything from backyard parties to fancy-schmancy cocktail parties.

Cocktail Sandwiches - These little bites are super easy to make – a hold over from the 50s – using common ingredients.

Check out the Easy Appetizer Recipes website for a complete list of Mother’s Day Appetizers. You’ll be glad you did!

Wines of Burgundy

Saving on Food Costs

With the economy the way it’s been lately, prices everywhere are going up. And that includes food costs. As much as I love to make easy appetizers and share them with my friends, it really kills me how much it costs to buy a few ingredients at the grocery store!

So, I’ve been doing a little research and found this cool book that I thought all you Foodies out there would enjoy. You can download it here and learn all the tips and tricks for saving on dining out, buy groceries and generally, finding ways to help dig yourself out of debt. Fabulous stuff here.

It’s called Dining on a Dime and I’ve already, in just the first few chapters, found some very valuable and useful information to help me cut costs. Give it whirl!

Plus, if you like this one, there are more ebooks to learn additional ways to save money. Save money and eat more appetizers – that’s my new motto!

Oh boy, if you are like me and LOVE guacamole, then this delicious chipotle quacamole recipe will send you to the moon. Chipotle chiles give a smoky goodness to everything it’s added to. Which means it’ll give the same ol’ guac -  a lift and a twist. Try it, you’ll like it.

What you’ll need:

• 2 ripe avocados (peeled and pitted)
• 1 small white onion (minced)
• 1 medium tomato (minced)
• 1 TBSP lime or lemon juice
• 2 chipotle chiles (in adobo sauce and minced)
• Salt to taste

Combine all the above ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Cover and serve chilled. It’s best to serve within 3 hours of making this dip. Try these delicious corn tortilla chips to serve with the dip. Heat scale for chipotle guacamole is MEDIUM.

Delightfully serves: 4 as an appetizer and 2 as a meal!

For more wonderful dip recipes, check out this chip dip recipes page.

Little League Baseball Italian Potluck Party

We have a really fun group of parents for our little league team (The Bees). They all love to cheer for our kids, socialize with one another, eat, drink and generally be merry.

Last night’s game was no exception. The weather was clear and warm and thankfully not windy for a change, the kids were excited because they were on a roll (however, we all KNOW that it doesn’t matter who wins  – Right???? ), and there was going to be cake and pizza awaiting them after the game. How much better could it get?

Well, it did. Being the “Team Mom” I organized a potluck picknic for after the game. Timmy’s Mom brought cake to celebrate his 11th birthday, and because we have some Italian descendents in our group, the theme for the potluck naturally became Italian in nature.

I said I was going to bring my famous Sangria until my husband pointed out to me that Sangria isn’t exactly an Italian drink. Duh! Sounds Italian, I said! So I changed to 3 bottles of Italian red wine. Hubby made an awesome pot of spaghetti with Ragu as the sauce. This isn’t just an ordinary ragu. It’s specially prepared from learning how to make it from our dear Italian friends who live just outside of Milano. Secret ingredients and everything. It was a hit and we had only a little bit left over to bring back home with us.

But not only did we have wine and spaghetti, but we had a plethora of beautiful side dishes – foccaccia, bruschetta, zucchini fratta, antipasti, Ceasar salad and tiny skewers of what was basically Insalata Caprese. Oh… it was the kind of food that makes you want to keep eating even when you can’t stuff another bite down.

Pizza was ordered for the kids and then a rowsing happy birthday sung to Young Timmy with Patti’s unbelievable marble cake (I want the recipe, Patti!)  to follow. It was a foodie’s heavenly feast, no doubt. And did I take any pictures of this wonderful spread? Sadly, no! Too busy stuffing my face.

There’s just something about the combination of great kids, great parents, great baseball, great coaching, and great food that makes you know why life is worth living…

Oh, and we won! (but that doesn’t really matter, RIGHT?)

Happy baseball season everybody! Go BEEs!!!!

~BusyMOM

P.S. Thank you, Parents, for making this baseball season so much fun. And thanks, Tracie and Carrington, for the great pics!

For more great recipes – check out our Holiday Appetizers page.

Since I love deviled eggs so much, here’s a couple of great videos to watch on how to make a basic recipe for deviled eggs. Great idea for Easter or Mother’s Day or any kind of gathering… Enjoy!

For more great recipes – check out our Holiday Appetizers page.