Category Archives: Appetizers

Cheesy Mushroom Crostini

I’m excited to participate in this year’s #FoodBloggerLove event! This is the second year of the event for food bloggers who want to spread the love by helping to support their fellow food bloggers. It’s similar to other groups I have participated in… you get an assigned blog and then you pick a recipe to make and then share on your blog. My assignment was the blog Annapurnaz – a beginner’s guide to a perfect meal. Rita is the woman behind the blog and is a professor by trade but has a passion for cooking. There were many recipes that I was not familiar as Indian cuisine is not very common where I live. I need to venture out and try some!

I decided to stick with something that I knew would be a hit with my family and chose her recipe for Crispy and Creamy Mushroom Crostini. It was quick and easy to make and the perfect appetizer to enjoy before dinner. It would be great for dinner parties or events where you were going to have heavier appetizers. I’ll definitely be making it again! 

Cheesy Mushroom Crostini | Join Us, Pull up a Chair
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Cheesy Roasted Brussels Sprouts Dip

This recipe is one I had saved for years and I finally had a chance to make it and I’m kicking myself for not making it sooner. It was delicious, unique and would make a great dip to bring to a holiday party! I used to HATE brussels sprouts – my mom used to eat them all the time but would microwave a bag of frozen ones and I’d have to eat at least one. They were always mussy and gross. Over the past few years, I’ve found that I like them either roasted or sauteed….no steaming of sprouts in this house!

Cheesy Roasted Brussels Sprouts Dip | Join Us, Pull up a Chair

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BLT Deviled Eggs

I joined a new blogging group called The Fantastical Food Fight and I’m excited to share my first post, but first a little about the food fight. Each month, we decide on a theme – it could be as simple as an ingredient or a specific type of food. Then all the participants share their recipe on the same day! Fun, right?! This month’s theme was deviled eggs. I’ve been eating a lot of hard-boiled eggs for breakfast lately…still trying to do the low carb thing (it’s not going well), so I knew I could whip something up with what I had on hand in the kitchen. I had all the ingredients to make BLTs…so why not combine them? It was amazing and we all inhaled them with dinner the other night.

So you want to know something crazy, after blogging for 7 years, I have never made traditional deviled eggs! I’m really shocked, but I definitely will be experimenting more and I can’t wait to see what all my fellow bloggers share in the blog hop below!

BLT Deviled Eggs | Join Us, Pull up a Chair #fantasticalfoodfight

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Pepperoni and Cheese Dip – Secret Recipe Club

If you’re looking for an appetizer to take to your next party, this dip is for you! I’m excited to share today’s recipe from my Secret Recipe Club reveal, Our Table for Seven. Erin’s blog is all about her experience in cooking and baking. We have very similar styles and I found so many recipes that my family would enjoy – including Cheesy Chicken & Rice Soup, Grilled Cheeseburger Wraps and Pumpkin Scones.

Back to the dip, it tastes just like pepperoni pizza! It was the perfect snack while watching football yesterday (yes, I waited to make this recipe the day before I had to post it). Unfortunately, the Eagles lost….but we lifted our spirits by devouring this dip. Erin made this in a slow cooker, but I decided to whip it up on the stove top and worked out perfectly.

Pepperoni and Cheese Dip | Join Us, Pull up a Chair #secretrecipeclub

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Melon, Prosciutto and Mozzarella Skewers

A couple of weeks ago, my family had their annual picnic at my aunt and uncle’s house. Of course I needed to find a great recipe to bring and decided to poll my Facebook friends to see what I should bring. There were four choices and the majority chose these delicious and easy skewers. It was the perfect appetizer especially since it was another hot and humid summer day!

They’re really easy to make and only four ingredients! I cut the cantaloupe ahead of time and then it took me less than 10 minutes to put these together.

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BLT Puff Pastry Pizza – Secret Recipe Club

Welcome to July’s Secret Recipe Club reveal for Group C. I’m excited to share this recipe since it was such a big hit at our table! My assignment this month was Lynsey Lou’s Making Your Days Delicious. Lynsey and I have a few things in common – we both use our time in the kitchen to relax and we both checked out the “What’s Cooking” board on the Nest. I wonder if we ever chatted about recipes back in the day! She’s married and has a super cute son too.

After looking through Lynsey’s recipes, I finally chose the recipe for BLT Puff Pastry Pizza. I knew it would be a quick and easy dinner to through together for our busy Monday nights. My daughter started a lacrosse clinic that’s about 35 minutes away and I’m always looking for something that I can quickly throw together and have enough time to eat before she needs to be there. This was the perfect recipe! It was really good and I didn’t change a thing. We will definitely be making this recipe again and again!

BLT Puff Pastry Pizza | Join Us, Pull up a Chair

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Chickaritos – The Secret Recipe Club

Guess what?!? I have another reveal for The Secret Recipe Club this month! This month, since there’s five Mondays, the Club is doing an extra special reveal featuring Tailgating foods! As usual, we’re all assigned another blog and this time we had to pick a recipe of something you would serve at a tailgate party.

My assigned blog was Our Eating Habits. Jamie blogs about tried and true recipes she makes for her family and also restaurant reviews from Calgary. I went through Jamie’s blog and was going to make her recipe for Juicy Pork Burgers, but we’ve been having burgers lately so I opted for her recipe for Chickaritos. They were the perfect handheld appetizer for a Skincare and Sangria event I held at my house. They were so easy to make and went well with the sangria we were all drinking. My daughter loved them and had leftovers for lunch today! This was definitely a winner! I was thinking it would be great to make them in phyllo cups and they would be quicker to prep..and bited sized!

Chickaritos | Join Us, Pull up a Chair

3 cups cooked chicken, finely chopped
1 1/2 cups mexican cheese
4 oz can chopped green chilies
1 tsp hot sauce
1 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp smoked paprika
1/4 tsp ground cumin
salt and fresh ground pepper
1 pkg frozen puff pastry sheets, thawed

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. In a bowl, mix together the chicken, spices and green chilies. Unroll the puff pastry sheets and cut into 9 squares. Stretch out the squares slightly with your fingers.

Place about 2 tablespoons of the filling on each square. Wet the edge of one of the long sides of the square with a little water. Roll the puff pastry around the filling tightly and seal the seam. Place the roll seam side down on a baking sheet.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes until the chickaritos are golden brown and crispy. Serve with a variety of toppings – salsa, sour cream, guacamole, pico de gallo…anything!

Check out all the other great Tailgating Foods in the link below!

Pretzel Bites with Jalapeno Cheese Sauce – The Secret Recipe Club

Welcome to the August reveal for Group C for The Secret Recipe Club. If you don’t know about the SRC, you’re missing out! Every month, all the participating bloggers are assigned another blog and we need to select one recipe to make from our assignment. Then we all reveal our recipe and assigned blog on a Monday. It’s always fun to look through the links to see who had your blog.

This month, I received Ashley’s blog, Rainstorms and Love Notes. She shares recipes, writes about love and life and binge watching TV, her three cats and love for the Steelers (Go Eagles!). I went through all the recipes and found a great recipe for pretzel bites with a jalapeno cheese sauce. I loved the short cut in using canned French bread to make the pretzel bites. I’ve made pretzels from scratch before and it’s time-consuming. The sauce was really good and had the perfect amount of heat with the jalapeno. My daughter loved it too!

Pretzel Bites with Jalapeno Cheese Sauce - SRC | Join Us, Pull up a Chair

1 can French loaf bread
2 Tbsp butter
Salt for sprinkling

1 Tbsp butter
1 Tbsp flour
3/4 cup milk
1 clove garlic, minced
1 jalapeno, ribs and seeds removed, finely chopped
1 cup shredded Colby jack cheese
1 tsp cayenne pepper

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Remove the dough from the can and slice in half lengthwise. Cut each strip into small pieces and roll into small balls.

Bring a large pot of salted water to boil. Drop 10 pieces of dough into the boiling water for 1 minute. Remove the boiled dough with a slotted spoon and transfer to a piece of parchment paper to cool. Continue until all pieces of dough are boiled. Place on a foil covered baking sheet and bake for 25 minutes.

While the pretzels are baking, melt 1 tablespoon of butter in a small saucepan. Add the flour and milk and whisk until smooth. Add in the jalapeno and garlic. Continue to stir until the mixture starts to thicken. Once thick, remove from the heat and stir in the shredded cheese and cayenne pepper.

Melt the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter on the baked pretzel bites. Sprinkle with salt and serve. Enjoy!

Check out all the other recipes in this week’s group by clicking the link below!

It’s All Greek to Me Anniversary Blog Tour – Featuring Dakos

IAGTM Anniversary Tour Banner

I’m excited to once again participate in a blog tour featuring Debbie Matenopoulos’ cookbook It’s All Greek to Me. It was another opportunity to pick an authentic recipe and I chose Dakos, otherwise known as Greek Brushetta. This salad is served on top of hard bread, not slices like I’ve had before. It’s simple and so delicious. Even my daughter had a couple of slices of bread. I can’t wait to make it again this summer when my garden is bursting with tomatoes. It’s best to use very ripe tomatoes, you want the juices to soak into the crusty bread.

If you’re a regular reader, you might remember the zucchini fritters I made during the first blog tour.

Greek Bruschetta | Join Us, Pull up a Chair

1 large barley rusk, about 7 inches or so in diameter (I used a sourdough round loaf)
Extra-virgin olive oil, to taste
2 large or 3 medium tomatoes, cored and diced
1/2 teaspoon sea salt, plus more to taste
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 pound brine-packed Greek feta, crumbled small
2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill
2 teaspoons dried oregano

Lightly brush the flat top of the rusk with some of the olive oil. Mound the diced tomatoes on top
and season them with nearly all of the salt and pepper, reserving about 1/8 teaspoon of each. Layer the feta on top of the tomatoes and evenly sprinkle the dill, oregano, and remaining salt and pepper on top of the cheese. Finally, drizzle olive oil to taste over the top and serve family style.

Debbie’s Tip: Can’t find a barley rusk? No problem! Simply buy a large round loaf of crusty, bakery-fresh bread and slice it in half horizontally. If serving on a plate instead of in a bowl, cut a thin slice off the top half so that it will sit flat on the plate without tipping over. Brush the cut side of the top half with olive oil. Set the bottom half aside for another use. Toast on a baking sheet in a 400-degree oven until very crispy and golden, about 10 minutes. Watch carefully to make sure it doesn’t burn. To make the bread extra crispy, turn on the broiler for 1 or 2 minutes and crack the oven door slightly. Again, watch carefully because your bread can go from golden to charcoal in 10 seconds flat.

I’m rounding out the tour, but be sure to go back and visit all the other blogs that participated in tour to see many more amazing recipes!

IAGTM Anniversary Tour Schedule

Almond Crusted Chicken Bites – The Secret Recipe Club

It’s time for my reveal for this month’s Secret Recipe Club! This month, I was assigned Sid’s Sea Palm Cooking. I was Sid’s assignment a couple months ago (she made my recipe for crispy edamame) and was impressed with how many dinner parties she throws! I would love to drop in for one of her tapas nights! I was inspired by tapas and chose her recipe for Almond Chicken Fingers. I cut the chicken into bite-sized pieces instead of strips, and made them more kid-friendly. Both my kids gobbled them up…after dipping them in honey-mustard.

I have to apologize for my picture..darn daylight savings time!

1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized pieces
2 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted
1/2 cup almond flour
1/3 cup panko bread crumbs
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
1/4 tsp salt
Preheat oven to 500 degrees. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and place a wire rack on top. 
In a medium bowl, combine the almond flour, bread crumbs, paprika, and salt. Dip the chicken pieces into the melted butter and then coat with the dry mixture. Place on the rack and continue until all pieces have been coated. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until the chicken is completely cooked through. Serve with your favorite dipping sauce.