OLD SCHOOL appetizers

Every get together when I was growing up included these two appetizers. I actually forgot about the pickle variety until this Thanksgiving when my sweet Seestor revived them for our pre-dinner snack fest. We've never had a name for them. I think we just called them "onion thingys", or "pickle and ham thingy's", cause we are a real classy bunch, and we like to eat lots of thingys.

This summer I brought the onion thingys to a picnic and my girlfriend called them Polish Roses......that was a new one on me. But she is right they do kinda look like roses, not sure where the Polish comes in. Sounds a bit racial to me...so I am going to stick with "onion thingy's".

To make these old school appetizers you will need:

12 green onions cleaned and trimmed to 8"

6 sweet gherkins

9 pieces of smoked deli ham

8 oz. package of cream cheese softened

This will make 24 pieces.

Rinse, and trim onions.

Cut the ends off the onions, trimming them down to approximately 8 inches.

Dry 6 gherkins on paper towel....I realize there are only 5 here I ate one. Polka-dot period. End of story....well not really I ate about 5.

The key to quick food prep, is....well...is prep. Get your stuff prepped and your life will be easier.

Cut each piece of ham in half.

Spread with a thin layer of cream cheese. Cheese will spread easy if it's room temperature.

Lay onion on ham slice, and roll her up.

Now for the Pickle Thingys.

Same procedure with the ham and cream cheese.

Make the lil gherky comfy.

Roll it up nice and snug.

Slice in half, this gives you a nice "pop in the mouth" size portion.

If you are lacking for table space you could stick your roses, sans the water, in a glass. Kind of a fun presentation....I still don't get the Polish thing. Feel free to fill me in.

Or a platter from Meijers works great too!

Enjoy!

Appetizer FLATBREADS

Pizza, who doesn't like pizza? Oh oops I mean flatbreads. Flatbread sounds hipper, saying flatsbread instead of pizza is nouveau. I like to think I'm with it. ("Like to think" is the key phrase there.) Anyway what could be better than serving every ones favorite as an appetizer. And you can adjust the type of pizza toppings depending on the flavors of the dinner you're serving. Or better yet serve several types of pizzas and a large salad and call it dinner!

I do make my own pizza crust, but I have found a great alternative that I like to use when I am time pinched, Naan bread. It's flat and it's bread! This is what makes these pizza's flatbreads...

I buy the large package of Naan at Costco, it provides enough bread to make 5 or 6 pizzas, that can be cut into 8 pieces each.

I don't want to beat this one over the head, but this is my new favorite, time saver. Petite diced tomatoes with garlic and oil. It packs a punch of garlic flavor with out taking the time to mince garlic.


Drain one 14.5 ounce can of tomatoes, add a heaping tablespoon of fresh or freeze dried basil.

Spread a thin layer of tomatoes over the bread and place thin slices of fresh mozzarella on top. If you only have the shredded variety of mozzarella, that will work just fine too.

Drizzle with olive oil.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes. Sprinkle with Italian spices and fresh grated Parmesan, cut and serve.

The possibilities are endless! Caramelized onion, goat cheese and bacon...be still my soul.

BBQ Chicken: slather on your favorite BBQ sauce, add chicken, and Monterrey jack cheese. Add red onion, or banana peppers to this pizza to jazz it up a bit. You name you can make it on these flatbreads. Blue cheese, bacon, and pine nuts! Oh add some caramelized onions to that one too.....HeeavenLY! I don't even need to make a print out for this, do I? Get creative, the skies the limit. Cut into smallish pieces, as to make sampling more than one, not guilt inducing.

Enjoy!

BRUSCHETTA stuffed MUSHROOMS- an appAteaser

I love stuffed mushrooms of any sort, and I love bruschetta. So what better than a mushroom stuffed with bruschetta! You can whip these babies up at a moments notice. Literally!

I prefer the smaller white button mushrooms. Feel free to use the larger variety. I just like to be able to pop them in my pie hole with out having to dirty any eating utensils. I'm lazy like that! Clean up the mushrooms, and take the stems out, leaving a nice divot for the stuffin'.

Now here's where things get fun. Feel free to make this recipe your own. If I have fresh mozzarella, cut up small cubes and tuck them in the mushroom.


Grab a 14 ounce can of petite diced tomatoes with garlic and olive oil. I love Red Gold brand, in particular, because they are a family owned company that uses tomatoes from small family owned farms in Michigan, and the Mid-West. And...well they are yummy too. I used to saute the garlic, and chop tomatoes, to make the bruschetta, now I pop open a can of these maters and I am good to go! I love anything that makes my life easier.

1 cup of Caesar Salad Croutons, measure them out, and then place them in a Zip-loc bag and take out all your aggression on the little suckers.

Now combine the crushed croutons and the can of drained tomatoes with garlic and olive oil. Toss in a generous tablespoon of Lighthouse Freeze Dried Basil or fresh if you have it.

Let the tomato and crouton mixture set for a few minutes to let the croutons soak up any juices from the tomatoes. Like I said before if you don't have mozzarella, no biggy. If you have fresh grated Parmesan cheese instead then add 1/4 cup to the bruschetta mixture. If you have neither...please no worries.

Take a teaspoon and scoop a spoon full of bruschetta mixture into each mushroom. Be sure to pack it into the mushroom, but also don't be afraid to pile the bruschetta up high. Pop these scrumptious morsels into a 400 degree oven for 15 minutes. Take out, and let cool for 5-10 minutes before serving.

Bruschetta Stuffed Mushrooms

printable recipe

12-15 medium sized white button mushrooms, cleaned and de-stemmed

1 14 ounce can petite diced tomatoes with garlic and olive oil

1 cup Caesar salad croutons, measured then crushed

1 generous tablespoon freeze dried or fresh basil

optional: 12-15 small cubes of fresh mozzarella cheese or 1/4 cup fresh grated Parmesan cheese

So easy a monkey could make them!

Try to refrain from adding any salt to this recipe. The monkey tried it once and it was too salty. The croutons add enough salt to the recipe with out adding more.

Happy Noshing!

Hors d'oeuvres = Appetizers Meatballs

In our home we say appetizer, what we mean by that is snacks...small plates..informal type pre-dinner food. We also have many juvenile sayings that we use. App-a-teasers, whores-De-vores, ors-DA-voo-vray's (Someone, whom I cannot mention said it this way once, and we laugh about it to this day...because they were as serious as a heat attack when they said it!)

This past Friday night we had a group of good friends over for an Appetizer Buffet. We each made two or three appetizers and had ourselves a feast. This is my favorite way to eat. Grazing. All night long eating a little bit of this a little bit of that. This week I thought I would share with you some of my tried and true appetizers. Starting with these meatballs. The recipe is from a past co-worker, she brought it to an office potluck. They are fabulous, festive and always a hit.

Cranberries, sauerkraut, brown sugar....sweet and sour is one of my favorite flavor combinations! I often make these meat balls weeks in advance and freeze them, so I am ready for any last minute Christmas get together or visitors.

Drain 1 pound of sauerkraut in a strainer, squeeze juice out with the back of a spoon.

Add 1 can of whole berry Cranberries, the drained sauerkraut, 1 cup brown sugar, and a 12ounce bottle of chili sauce in a sauce pan.

Stir to combine and bring to a boil. Cook for 5 minutes, at low boil, remove from heat.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

While your sauce is cooling, you can begin making the meatballs. Combine 2 pounds of lean ground beef, 1 package onion soup mix, 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper, 2 eggs, and 1 cup of plain bread crumbs in a large mixing bowl.

Squishing raw meat between my bare naked fingers gags me out. So I wear these handy dandy food grade gloves. Squish, Squish...combine all of the meatball ingredients together until everything is completely incorporated.

There's the squished raw meat...time to make the meat-a-balz-a!

Be careful not to make these meatballs too big. They are appetizer meatballs, they should be eaten in 1 maybe 2 bites. I use an Ikea kiddy spoon...just the right size to make bite sized balls. The meatballs will shrink up a bit while baking. Makes 70-80 meatballs.

Put on some good jams and roll out some balls! You should be able to fit them all in a 9x13 baking dish.

Spoon the sauce over the meatballs.

Bake in a 350 degree oven for 1 hour, then turn up the temp to 400 and bake for 15 minutes longer.

My mouth is watering. I still have a few leftovers from Friday night I think I might need to have them for lunch. Salivating heavily....not attractive.

Aren't they pretty on a plate, little cranberry, delicate strings of sauerkraut.

After I partook of a few, and the rest were cooled I placed them in a 1 gallon sized bag and froze them, for just such a time as Friday nights semi last minute gathering. (We planned it on Tuesday, but I didn't stress, because I knew I had the meatballs in the bag...Hee hee.)

I labeled them with my elegant writing, my eight year old has better penmanship than I do!

I learned the hard way...reheat the meatballs on stove top before putting in crock pot. Unless of course you remove them from your freezer early enough for them to thaw and then put them in your crock pot. Which is a organized and novel idea, of which I did not do. I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off trying to get Christmas shopping done, forgot to take them out of the freezer, came home tried to cram them in the crock pot, and realized "Hmmm this ain't gonna work!".

Confession: So you see even though I planned ahead, I still did not plan ahead......ARG!

So I quickly tossed them in a pan, with about 1/2 cup water, reheated them on low with cover on for 30 minutes, then placed them in crock pot. Presto Chang-O fab Appetizer Meatballs!

Appetizer Meatballs

printable recipe

meatballs:

2 lbs lean ground beef

1 package dry onion mix

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

2 eggs

1 cup plain bread crumbs

salt and pepper

sauce:

1 pound can whole berry cranberries

1 pound can sauerkraut drained

1 cup brown sugar

1 12 ounce jar chili sauce

What are some of your "go to" HOrs-Day-voo-vrays? And do you say appetizer, or hors d'oeuvres? I would really like to know!

Enjoy!