Appetizer

If you have any intention of serving a cheese board at your holiday get-together, let us suggest whipping up some of these easy and delectable Spanish Fig and Almond Balls. They would also make a wonderful gift for the cheese lover, wrapped in cellophane and accompanied by a wedge of good cheese.The recipe comes from Good Food and is based on a Spanish fig cake or pan de higo.

think you know saltLike most people with a deep love for something good, Bitterman can’t help wanting to share his passion. The Meadow, a specialty store that he and his wife opened in Portland, Oregon, has become a mecca for salt-lovers across the nation. His recently published book, Salted: A Manifesto On The World’s Most Essential Mineral, takes things one step further.

I am making Thanksgiving dinner in tandem with Emma this year, and since we’re working on the meal together, we have the luxury and time to make a few extra little things. This year, I was inspired by these tiny pie dishes I found at Crate & Barrel. What about an amuse-bouche, I thought — a small, whimsical bite with a traditional Thanksgiving flavor to start off the meal.

Need a last minute Thanksgiving appetizer? These bruschetta are the perfect finger food and, best of all, they’re light enough that they won’t spoil any appetites for the big meal.Fresh and bright with lemon, earthy with fresh thyme and just a tad sweet from the drizzle of honey, these bruschetta are the perfect hors d’oeuvre before a big meal.

When it comes to holiday dinners and entertaining, appetizers often carry the day. Yes, turkey is great, and so is stuffing, but what about those little nibbles beforehand?This recipe is similar to another recipe that involves cranberries and melted, gooey Brie cheese. But I wanted to try something similar with plums — roasted with cinnamon, honey, and a touch of brown sugar.

When I’m cooking for a big group, there are two things I know for sure: 1) I’m going to be worried I don’t have enough food and 2) I’m going to be short on time. That’s when last-minute appetizers like this come in handy.Prosciutto-wrapped arugula needs no cooking, uses two ingredients and requires minimal prep, making it a great option for those times when you need one more platter of food, but don’t have an extra hour to make it happen.

If you’re from the South, you know all about the deliciously sweet Vidalia Onion, Georgia’s official state vegetable. Since the discovery of Vidalias in the 1930’s, Southerners have come up with all sorts of tasty ways to show them off.Another Southern favorite is any quick and creamy dip that can be whipped up at a moments notice. You know we love our sour cream and mayonnaise! Call it retro, call it what you will, I just call it good.

We recently ran a tour of Kenny Lao’s kitchen in the East Village. Kenny, who owns Rickshaw Dumpling Bar in New York, cooks a mean dumpling and I felt like I was in great hands for my tutorial.We worked together to write up a recipe — as Kenny says, dumplings are not an exact science — with the hope that you might give it a whirl. Wouldn’t tonight would be a good night for dumplings?

This week we’ve talked about making tortillas (withwithoutinstant corn flour Want more smart tutorials for getting things done around the home? See more How To posts We’re looking for great examples of your own household intelligence too! Submit your own tutorials or ideas here!

We talk a lot about pairing wine and beer with food, but what about cocktails? Do you sip cocktails with snacks or with meals — or do you just drink them alone? If you drink them with a bite of food, do you have pairings that you love? Here are a few ideas for pairing cocktails with delicious snacks.What makes a good pairing of cocktail with appetizer? Do you look for complementary flavors, colors, or textures?

Summer is slowly coming to a close, but tomato season is still in full swing. In honor of the great tomato, here is a fresh and tasty appetizer perfect for outdoor entertaining. These tomato bites are the perfect marriage of juicy cherry tomato, dense mozzarella, and basil. You can even stick a toothpick in them to make them more party-friendly. Zoe Nachman is a graphic designer, photographer, and cook based in Atlanta, Georgia.

Poking around the fridge and pantry the other day, I unearthed several ingredients from my boyfriend’s heritage (Korean kimchi) and my own (Vietnamese noodles and rice paper wrappers) and I wondered, why not combine them into one dish? This is a little twist on the traditional Vietnamese gơi cuốn, or summer rolls, filled with fresh vegetables, golden tofu, and the spicy, tangy crunch of pickled cabbage.

We’ve had asparagus spears wrapped in prosciutto as an appetizer more times than we can count. They’re good (and easy), but we think these are better. We added a flaky layer of phyllo dough for texture; plus, you don’t have to pre-cook the asparagus.We did have one issue with our phyllo dough, though, which we’d love your comments on. Even though we studied this post on how to work with it, we’re not experts.

We sometimes forget about pimiento cheese, that Southern lunch staple of cheddar, mayonnaise, and pimientos that is much more than the sum of its parts. Well, cookbook author Denise Gee (whose book Southern Cocktails is another favorite) reminded us how good it can be with these summery, bite-sized appetizers.These cheery cherry tomatoes are part of her new book, Porch Parties, which is all about entertaining outdoors.

I don’t know why it took me so long to get around to roasting mushrooms. I love slow-cooked, savory mushrooms, dark with flavor, but I generally make them on the stovetop in a pan. The oven is an even easier route, though, and now that I’ve tried it I’m not going back!Roasted mushrooms are a lovely vegan main dish — strong and rich in flavor and umami. They can be dressed up with a little cream or garlic, or topped with a poached egg, like in this dish.

I think that every dinner party should start with something tasty to awaken the appetite, or to occupy your guests while the meal receives its finishing touches. I don’t want to overload guests with a too-heavy appetizer, though — you’re about to feed them dinner, after all. Here is one little bite that is a small yet delicious way to start a meal in late spring or early summer.

We have a serious love for party food that is both, super tasty and easy to make while being super inexpensive. For us, pretzel bites fall into that category. Their salty outsides and super soft insides make them irresistible and there’s hundreds of ways to get them dressed up for your next party. Here’s how to whip up a batch.Pretzel bites are the gift that keeps on giving.

I can’t take credit for this one. My dad made these figs. But I will certainly make them soon, because they were so delicious and so easy. And in case you’re thinking, “Ah, figs, cheese, nuts… been there, done that,” let me tell you, the syrup makes all the difference.There’s really not much to this dish. Mix some goat cheese with toasted, chopped walnuts and stuff the mixture into ripe figs. Then drizzle with the syrup.

We’re still getting fresh local tomatoes in in the Bay Area and will continue to do so into October. Such glorious abundance! So far this season, I have canned whole San Marzano’s, tomato jam and am about to make and can up some ketchup. Still, I have a large bowl of dry-farmed Early Girls sitting on my counter, perfect for slow roasting.This recipe works pretty well with out-of-season supermarket tomatoes, too.

Brussels sprouts haters and lovers alike: we have got a recipe for you both. Here’s a treat of a recipe to kick off fall flavors — an easy, quick party hors d’oeuvre, a finger food featuring everyone’s favorite little cabbage: the Brussels sprout.Of course, if you wrap anything in pancetta, it’s better, right? These look downright delicious. The recipe comes from a collaboration between two brands in Croatia — a small, lovely country in Eastern Europe.

Have you ever had a cappuccino — of tomatoes? Here’s a recipe that upends the traditional idea of a cappuccino and replaces it with tangy tomatoes and a froth of whipped mozzarella and cream.This recipe was developed as a pairing for Chablis. This wine, made with Chardonnay grapes, is one of our favorite types of wine to drink in the summer. Here are a few good tips on Chablis and Chardonnay; any one of them would go very well with this recipe.

Can you tell that we’re wild about radishes right now? They’re such a refreshing vegetable in the springtime, with their pleasant crunch and gorgeous color, creamy inside and scarlet outside. We threw together this very, very quick appetizer last weekend for some guests. We were subliminally inspired by Elizabeth’s afternoon snack suggestion, and these simple little tartines were a big hit.

Tuesday night some old friends who live upstate came for dinner, and surprised us with an armful of Morel mushrooms and a sack full of ramps. I’d planned a simple roasted chicken and vegetable dinner, but when I saw the gift I’d been brought, I clicked into cook-by-instinct mode, the kind of cooking we are about to start espousing in the second half of our online Kitchen Cure (today is the last day to sign up and catch up.)I had to practice what I’m about to preach.

Earlier today we told you about our cocktail party strategyWe’re basically taking a caprese salad and putting it on a stick, and no doubt you’ve seen a variation of these skewers on a buffet or two in your day. But they really are hard not to like, and they couldn’t be easier to throw together.We bought bocconcini, bite-sized mozzarella balls, to make the process even quicker, but you could also cut a big ball of mozzarella into chunks.

It’s a beet day! And with good reason: beets are in season and marvelously festive with all their scarlet coloring. Earlier today Sara Kate gave you a recipe for a wonderful salad with beets and frizzled onions. We take a step back now to the hors d’oeuvre course and offer one of our favorite appetizers, direct from New York City’s own Rick’s Picks and his famous pickles.

Remember the doce de abóboraWe love all manner of Indian sweets, many of which are made with milk. One of our favorite sweets is carrot halwa, an Indian dessert made with reduced milk and sugar (like dulce de leche) and shredded carrots. The Brazilian and Portugese pumpkin compote reminded us of that.We decided, impetuously, to experiment with adding milk (and a couple other things) to Patricia’s recipe for butternut squash compote.The results? Well, first of all, we were lucky.

While attending an olive oil workshop last week, we were inspired by some of the other participants’ tales of beloved olive oil-infused meals. One woman’s description of Italian fried sage leaves intrigued us so much that we couldn’t wait to return home and try making them for ourselves.

When Emma announced that she had been given some blue cornmeal last week, I gasped. The very same thing had just happened to me! Never one to let a coincidence go unexplored, I set to work finding the perfect recipe.Although I wasn’t very familiar with blue cornmeal, I suspected my gift was kind of special.

Remember when we contemplated the first meal cooked in our new apartmentWe love steaming artichokes and pulling off the leaves one by one to scrape between our teeth. But other than that, we rarely cook big, baseball-sized artichokes. So we loved the way this recipe highlighted their beautiful, floral shape, with stuffing tucked in every layer, ready to be scooped up with the leaves.There is one warning to this recipe. It is full of anchovies.

We just posted a great video about Hush Puppies, along with a similar story by Nathalie Dupree, known as the originator of the New Southern Cooking movement. Here, she shares her recipe for these little tasty tidbits of friend cornmeal.Get your oil vat hot!

This is not a combination we would have thought of on our own.We recently enjoyed a cheese plate at a restaurant, where a hard goat cheese was paired with a tomato garnish. At first, we asked the bartender who served us if he could swap the tomatoes with something else (the figs looked good), but he insisted. And when we tasted them, we realized there was something different going on.

They do take a bit of work, although that can be cut down by using pre-made dumpling wraps. But it’s a relaxing sort of work – chopping, mixing, and wrapping. They smell wonderful, too; the aroma of ginger, scallions and sesame filled my kitchen and I could hardly wait for them to be done! Step-by-step pictures below… This was my first time making this sort of dumpling, as you can probably tell from my awkward wrapping.

I couldn’t resist – here’s one more cheese ball recipe for your winter entertaining. This one is lighter and fresher, with a sharp garlic taste and soft chunks of Havarti blended into cream cheese. The taste of the cheese is a little milder, a little more subdued, so the bright flavors of garlic and parsley can lead out. I roll it in toasted pine nuts and serve with whole grain crackers.

For example, last weekend I needed a vegetarian dish to round out a meal. I had some garlic that needed to be used up, so I roasted it and mashed it to a paste with roasted acorn squash. With a little ricotta this made a delicious filling inside the crisp, flaky strudel. There was the sweet, pungent taste of garlic, and the earthy flavors of squash and sage, with a little crunch from toasted pinenuts.