Tag-Archive for » Appetizers «

Finger Food Friday: Creole Candied Bacon

I’m sharing another sweet, well savory-sweet, finger food recipe with you all today since we’re in full holiday mode and I’m sure plenty of you are either hosting parties or searching for creative edibles to gift to your friends and neighbors. This over-the-top bacon will meet both of those needs and many more–new brunch or Christmas breakfast item, creative Bloody Mary add-in, food therapy (or for some it may be bacon therapy), new Santa snack or all of the above. It’s just that good. When it comes to bacon, the first accompanying beverage that comes to my mind is [ ... ]

Finger Food Friday: Roast Beef and Swiss Sliders

Growing up, one of my favorite poor boys was a four napkin roast beef and Swiss dressed. Four napkins, because that’s what it took to wipe the gravy trails from my forearms. Dressed, because in my world a poor boy is not a poor boy without a generous slather of mayo and layers of crisp shredded iceberg lettuce and thinly sliced tomatoes and dill pickles I’m not a hundred percent sure when and where the Swiss cheese came into play, as the roast beef-Swiss combo is not a New Orleans standard. But I think Papa, my [ ... ]

Finger Food Friday: Garlic Dip

Garlic dip in its simplest form is a block of cream cheese and garlic. As much fresh garlic as you can stand. Back in the early 1970s, when I first mixed those two ingredients together, I knew I had found a finger food for life. I could devour an entire bowl of that dip in one sitting with the help of nothing more than a bag of chips. Or was it a tin of Charles Chips? Oh, and on those occasions when there were no chips to be found, a sleeve of saltine crackers worked [ ... ]

Finger Food Friday: Cheesy Garlic Bread

Now that football season is here, I know many of you are searching for one or two new items to add to your game-day buffet. I think my creamy, cheesy, garlic bread would be a perfect addition because it can fill a variety of voids. Need another finger food? Cheesy Garlic Bread holds its own as a meatless French bread pizza. How about a bread side to compliment your Creole-Italian themed menu? My recipe’s a tricked out version of the traditional garlic bread accompaniment. In search of a little something to help your guests [ ... ]

Boiled Shrimp

A seafood boil is a culinary tradition we carry out every chance we get. It’s a casual outdoor cooking event where we boil mass quantities of fresh seafood, sausage and vegetables in huge pots of highly seasoned water. When the cooking’s done, we usually spread everything out on a large table lined with newspaper and invite everyone to roll up their sleeves, grab a cold beer and dig in. We plan seafood boils for everything from christenings and birthdays to graduations and wedding rehearsal dinners. We also have boils to celebrate holidays and cheer on our [ ... ]

Finger Food Friday: Creamy Spinach Stuffed Mushrooms

A couple of weeks back, we made our annual pilgrimage to Pike’s, our local gardening center, for some colorful annuals to brighten up our patio, a wide assortment of herbs for warm-weather cooking and several vegetable and fruit plants for the kids’ garden. This springtime ritual is always an adventure. If we’d let them, the kids would spend hours and thousands of dollars filling our carts with everything edible. That sounds great, but their enthusiasm and lack of understanding of just how difficult it is for their mother–me–to successfully grow anything always leads to disappointment. One of many tough [ ... ]

A Besh Box and Grilled Shrimp with Vanilla Bean and Pecan Pesto

For Christmas, the hubby surprised me with a special gift–a Besh Box.  I was reading up on this latest endeavor by Chef John Besh in the weeks preceding Christmas and was contemplating buying one myself. But I don’t recall ever mentioning that to Larry. I shouldn’t be surprised, though, by his perfect gift-giving abilities. After 20 years together, the man can pretty much read my mind. He also follows the New Orleans food scene almost as closely as I do and knows that any food-related or New Orleans-inspired gift rocks my world. So this Besh Box is really cool. It’s basically [ ... ]

Finger Food Friday: Smoked Salmon Chips

Every year I approach the holidays with what I believe to be a good balance of excitement and caution. Excitement over the magic of the season and making the most of all the food, fun, family and friends that come with it. Caution not to overdo it. This year, let’s just say I got overly excited and threw caution to the wind. Put another way, I ate and drank too much and stayed up past my bedtime more often than not. It’s left me tired, bloated and a tad cranky. And with New Year’s [ ... ]

Finger Food Friday: Three Cheese Roasted Red Pepper Dip

Jarred roasted red peppers, cream cheese, shredded mozzarella and chips (oh, and craft beer :-)) are refrigerator and pantry staples in my house.  There’s a lot I can do with those ingredients.  Plus, they all have a healthy shelf life.  This time year, I find it especially important to have several flavorful and flexible items like those on hand.  Alone or combined, they can spruce up chicken breasts, dress up pasta, flavor French bread (think French bread pizza), spiffy up salad greens or seafood and create inviting and impromptu appetizers.  That’s basically how this finger food came to be.  Last [ ... ]

Finger Food Friday: Blue Cheese and Bacon Chips

Hello Finger Food Friday fans! My apologies to all for my lack of end-of-the-week, happy hour yummies. It’s just that lately there’s been no fun in our Fridays. The hubby and I have been working overtime and chauffeuring the kids here and there in between. Today, however, our plan is to chill. Hoping to hangout on the patio for a few hours and take in our beautiful weather (which is about to turn ugly thanks to that mean girl in the Gulf) and enjoy some much-needed downtime. I haven’t nailed down our menu as [ ... ]