Cuisine: appetizers

White Bean Dip with Herbs

This White Bean Dip with Herbs is creamy and a nice change from hummus. Cannellini beans are White Kidney Beans, which are a little meatier than Navy or Great Northern beans, they have a nutty, earthy flavor. You can use any white bean for this recipe. Chickpeas, also known as Garbanzo Beans, which are used in hummus, are a bit grainier in texture. The fresh herbs and garlic shine through. You can serve it with vegetables or pita chips.

By Leslie Blythe

Shrimp with Mustard

There are a few cookbooks that were very influential to me in my early days of cooking. One of them was Wolfgang Puck’s French Cooking for the American Kitchen, published in 1981. The Austrian born Wolfgang wanted to make French cooking accessible to Americans, like Julia.

After cooking my way through most of the book one summer, I fondly remember the first time I made his Shrimp with Mustard. It was in the early eighties and my now-husband, Eric, was there with me deveining shrimp in my parent’s kitchen. I had just had foot surgery and had to sit on the counter with my feet elevated while they throbbed. Why was I throwing a FORMAL dinner party after foot surgery? I have no idea. Maybe my father, the retired foot surgeon can answer that question!

It is typically French, in that, it includes cream and butter. I have catered hundreds of parties, events, dinners, etcetera and I have been literally held hostage in people’s kitchens with hosts and guests demanding that I reveal the recipe for this delectable Shrimp with Mustard appetizer. I must say, it’s divine! Why? - because it contains CREAM and BUTTER!!!

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Bacon-Wrapped Grissini

These Bacon-Wrapped Grissini are crispy, sweet and salty. The breadsticks get wrapped in bacon and rolled in a brown sugar chili powder mixture and baked. They are so good that they don't last long!

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Deviled Eggs with Cornichon Tapenade

My friend Nick made these outstanding Deviled Eggs with Cornichon Tapenade from David Lebovitz's Drinking French. The tapenade, which is a Provençal name for a dish consisting of puréed or finely chopped olives, capers, and anchovies, gives these eggs incredible flavor. If you close your eyes, maybe you could envision yourself on the French riviera! It's worth a try anyway!

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Amish Cheese Pennies

Amish Cheese Pennies are a cheesy cracker popular in the 1950's. These have few ingredients and are bound only by butter and cheese. You are supposed to roll them out to the diameter of a quarter. So why are they called cheese pennies!? The nice thing is the recipe makes 4 rolls that you can keep in the freezer and make them whenever someone stops by, which, let's face it, is unlikely to happen any time soon!

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Socca

This recipe for Socca is from Drinking French, by David Lebovitz. I decided to make it because I have leftover chickpea flour from my Onion Bhaji recipe. Socca, farinata, torta di ceci, or cecina is a type of thin, unleavened pancake or crêpe made from chickpea flour. It originated in Genoa and later became a typical food of the Ligurian Sea coast, from Nice to Elba island. The great thing is that it's gluten-free. It has a very interesting texture and is really good served with an ice-cold rosé from Province.

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Onion Bhaji

This Onion Bhaji recipe comes from a wonderful chef and talented photographer from London. Her name is Dimple and she has a vegetarian FaceBook page that I have contributed to for years called Sharing Food With Shivaay Delights. It's a fantastic source for interesting vegetarian recipes.

Indian food is one of my desert island foods. I suppose I would have to add Italian too! Anyway, I have always loved onion bhaji. I saw Dimple make these online using a muffin tin, which appealed to me. I couldn't find my regular muffin tins, so I used a mini tin. I really don't like deep frying things. These came out very flavorful, though not quite as crispy as usual, it's lower in fat and just as good. The recipe calls for gram or chickpea flour. I am very lucky to live super close to a large Indian market, though Bob's Red Mill had this flour as well.

The next time I am in London, I would love to meet Dimple in person!

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Dill Pickle Hummus

I keep seeing Dill Pickle Hummus everywhere. Trader Joe's makes it, but I decided to concoct my own. My husband likes anything with pickles. When we were dating about 100 years ago, I remember going to the market and he bought a jar of pickles and ate the whole thing in the car on the way home! This should have been a tip-off!

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Fire Crackers

I came across this crazy recipe for Fire Crackers in Southern Living magazine. They are also known as Alabama or Cowboy Crackers. The recipe seemed so strange to me, that I decided to make them. Truth be told, I only used 1 sleeve of crackers. I thought it might be a bit much for my husband and me to eat an entire box of oil-saturated saltines! I like anything hot and spicy! You have to leave them overnight in a Ziploc bag before you bake them. And it turns out they are really good, especially with an ice-cold beer!

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Artichokes French

So after my Chicken French research, I found out you can "French" other things. This Artichoke French is superb using a can of artichoke hearts. It makes a wonderful hors d'oeuvre. I guess you could say I am not obsessed!

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