Tag Archives: appetizer

warm-n-cheesy belle-iciousness…

26 Friday Oct 2018

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While we were making our favorite, crowd-pleasin’ feta dip once again, we decided to switch it up a bit…and put some heat to it!

We made a few changes just for the heck of it and came up with this bit of belle-iciouness…

Warm Feta Dip

8 oz. cream cheese, softened

16 oz. crumbled feta

2 T fresh thyme

3 T olive oil

3 T honey

1/2 c chopped marcona almonds

Sliced cucumber, crackers or pita wedges for serving

Combine cream cheese and feta and place in a medium baking dish

Chop thyme and sprinkle over cheese mixture, then drizzle with olive oil and honey

Coarsely chop almonds and sprinkle over dish.

Bake at 350 degrees until bubbly (about 20 minutes)

Serve with cucumber slices and/or crackers or pita triangles.

Enjoy!

a&a

a belle-icious last minute appetizer…

21 Friday Sep 2018

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We love it when a belle or two drop in for a visit…or being invited to a last minute get together. Impromptu moments require just a few tricks up your sleeve so you’ll always have a lil something to put out or take along.

This delicious hors d’oeuvres is one we’d forgotten about and are so glad we rediscovered it in our repertoire of easy, tasty recipes. We just brought it along to a spontaneous get together and it was a great hit!

The best part is it can be made with ingredients that you likely will have or can keep for quite some time in your larder.

We also like the fact that it’s easy pick up food, no muss no fuss!

Apricot goat cheese delight

Ingredients:

Dried apricots

Goat cheese

Marcona almonds (preferably salted)

Honey

Fresh thyme (optional)

Take out your platter and lay out your apricots. Top with a dollop of goat cheese. Place an almond on each apricot. Drizzle with honey. Sprinkle with thyme if desired .

So delicious….just sayin

Bon appétit, belles!!

a&a

a broccoli recipe to make you melt…

30 Friday Sep 2016

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While we are fans of the occasional patty melt, and maybe even a tuna melt here or there, we don’t tend to keep the diner staple in our regular recipe rotation.  But…we found this version a few weeks ago, and even included it in our Belle-ringer post (number 68), and thought it was worth a try!

From Smitten Kitchen, these broccoli melts looked too good to ignore…and belles, are we glad we didn’t!   We decided to put the recipe to the test and it passed with flying colors!!


Broccoli Melts

1 lb broccoli, washed and chopped into small chunks

2 T olive oil

3 cloves garlic, minced

Red pepper flakes to taste (a pinch or two…)

Finely grated zest of 1/2 lemon

Juice of 1/2 lemon

Course salt

1/2 c grated pecorino Romano cheese

8 slices provolone

8 slices bread of your choice

Steam broccoli for 2-3 minutes until tender.  Drain and pat dry with paper towels, squeezing out as much liquid as possible.  Wipe pan dry and heat over medium heat.  Add olive oil and allow to heat for 1 minute, then add garlic and pepper flakes.  Cook for 1 minute or until garlic turns golden.  Add the broccoli and cook 1-2 minutes more.  Season with salt.  Transfer to bowl and add lemon zest, juice, and pecorino.  Add salt and pepper flakes to taste.

Heat broiler.  Arrange slices of bread on tray and toast lightly on both sides.  Spoon broccoli mixture onto each bread slice and top with a slice of cheese.  Place under the broiler until cheese melts and begins to brown.  

The process:


Steam the broccoli, then drain, pat dry and set aside.  Dry pot/pan and add olive oil. Sauté garlic and pepper flakes


Add broccoli back to pot, then add lemon zest and juice (note the shameless plug for BuDhaGirl and Bezels & Bytes) 😉


Add pecorino Romano and season to taste with salt and more pepper flakes if desired


Spoon mixture onto your choice of toasted bread slices and top with provolone


Run under broiler until hot, bubbly & slightly browned.  Serve.  Prepare for applause.

Tip:  we used crostini toasts and served as an appetizer, but can totally see using larger slices of bread to make this a perfect, hearty side to a bowl of soup as the weather chills!

It’ll make you melt, belles!

a&a

“amazing” bleu cheese appetizer…oh, the belleiciousness!

26 Friday Aug 2016

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Many years ago, a dear California friend gave us each a copy of the Junior League of Pasadena cookbook, Dining by Design…an oldie but a goodie!!  We had several recipes which caught our eye all those years ago, but as other cookbooks, blogs, and influences came around, we moved on and forgot about some of our favorites…this one in particular!!  We both served this to rave reviews for a couple of years.  We think it’s time to bring it back!!!


“Amazing Bleu Cheese Appetizer”

12 oz bleu cheese, crumbled

4 cloves garlic, crushed

1/2 c olive oil

4 T red wine vinegar

2 T lemon juice

1 c chopped onion

1 c minced cilantro


Whisk garlic, oil, vinegar, and lemon juice to make a vinaigrette.  


Combine bleu cheese, onion, and cilantro in large bowl

Pour vinaigrette over cheese mixture and gently toss to combine

Allow to marinate in refrigerator until ready to serve.  Give a quick toss into a serving bowl or spread out on a platter.


Serve with sliced French bread or apple slices (or both)


Or get creative and use it on top of grilled beef or a salad

They say…even people who don’t like bleu cheese LOVE this!!  We have witnessed this miracle first-hand!

It’s a must-try belles…you won’t regret it

a&a

the belles’ latest addiction…parmesan-asiago dip (a super-bowl-worthy dish)

05 Friday Feb 2016

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Addiction is a terrible thing and we would never want encourage any sort of obsession…until now. We have been hoarding this recipe for some time, only sharing the finished product…watching eyes widen, mouths water and hands reach for more…and more. We were first introduced to this dip of sorts at a dinner party at the home of one of our favorite belles and her husband. This particular husband is a man’s man with his fishing, hunting, entertaining, wining and dining…but to top it all off, he can cook better than most experienced chefs we know! And the love of his life is smart enough to let him do just that, genius belle that she is…

Any-who, he started us off with this asiago dip that, from the get-go, we couldn’t move more than an arms-length away from for fear that it might be absconded with. Imagine our poor manners that evening as we inhaled our new-found love like it was going to be our last meal…rest assured, we would have died happy.

Come to find out from our favorite “recipe dealer”, this divine concoction only needed a few ingredients and required minimal skills to prepare. That is pure music to a belle’s dainty ears.

Now…you do need a food processor…but once you have that covered, you’re in business!

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In that dahlin’ food processor, place:

1 1/2 cups olive oil (it can be run-of-the-mill olive oil…we used Luccini)
1 1/2 lbs. parmesan (cut into chunks)
1/2 lb. asiago (cut into chunks)
3 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
1 tsp. crushed red pepper
2 tsp. dried oregano (or use 1 tbsp. fresh oregano)
2 green onions, chopped

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Process until it resembles course meal. Let stand, covered, at least 4 hours. You may refrigerate at this point if you’re planning to serve at a later time, but bring back to room temp when ready to serve.

Top with an extra couple of chopped green onions and black pepper for garnish.

Now, you might find that you want to eat this stuff right up with a spoon, but we sliced up a baguette to have alongside…belles should at least TRY to practice restraint!! Before we could snap a decent photo, we ate it all up…so we had to borrow a pic of the finished product from Pinterest…

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Maybe next time we’ll be able to control ourselves…but don’t count on it!

a&a

belles are cheesy…warning included…

13 Friday Nov 2015

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We love cheese…we admit we are addicted..after we read this, now we understand why…

But everything in moderation…life is too short not to enjoy!

We recently helped host a little fete and our job was the charcuterie platter. What a great assignment/exercise!  We enjoyed every moment of putting it together. We thought we’d share how we went about it.

We decided to use a basket and started playing around with some containers.. 

   
And a few leaves from the yard (fatsia)  

Then we collected a few cheeses, crackers and condiments…

   
 
For this display, we used in the way of cheese:

Saint Angel, an aged Gouda (we prefer 5 year but they only had 3 year and it was delicious nonetheless), a good Parmesan, and and a blue cheese (Bleu d’Auvergne here which is similar to Roquefort).  

We always place our cheeses first, it is easy to build off and fill in from there. We then started adding the crackers, breads and fruits. 

We used sliced baguette, Alessi breadsticks, Blue Diamond nut thins (we like the pecan) Mary’s Gone crackers (addicting…just sayin’) in black pepper, La Panzanella Rosemary crackers, Raincoast crisps hazelnut and cranberry. We also added grapes, cashews and dried apricots.

   

  
Now it’s time to add a few more goodies..

We filled in with a couple of pears and some hydrangea from the yard, and them a little charcuterie in the form of  Soppressata, prosciutto, and Genoa salami.

We also added some honeycomb which was absolutely incredible and we will use from here on out. It was a hit!  Another taste thrill were the Pepedew peppers and they add a great pop of color. 

   
Off to the party we go….

  
Ta da!! 

Here is a smaller version we did for a tailgate at Ole Miss a few days later 

 
No matter the occasion …a charcuterie platter is always a good idea!!

a&a

fall football food…a belleicious Friday friend-1-1

16 Friday Oct 2015

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Fall, football, food and Friday…four of our favorite things…and making sure the feasting is worthy enough is extremely important!

We discovered this Reuben Dip while playing on Pinterest. There are a number of versions so we picked our favorite elements and created our own rendition.

REUBEN DIP

1/2 pound pastrami or corned beef (we prefer pastrami…just sayin’)

1 pound Swiss cheese, shredded by hand or in food processor (about 3 c)

(IMPORTANT COOKING FACT:  always use bulk cheese and shred yourself when you want proper melting to happen. The pre-shredded kind has a coating on it which hinders its melting smoothly)

1 cup sauerkraut, drained

1 package cream cheese, room temperature

1 cup sour cream

1 cup Russian dressing – recipe follows  (most recipes call for Thousand Island … We think this is soooo much better )

Combine all ingredients and heat at 350 for about 35-40 minutes until hot and bubbly. Please don’t have a hissy fit like yours truly when it comes out a bit soupy. Let it rest for a few and it will absorb it and be the right consistency .

Serve with pumpernickel squares or (as we did) Wheat Thins.

Gather your ingredients…

Assemble…

Enjoy…

And now for that dressing recipe…

RUSSIAN DRESSING

1 tsp. garlic powder

8 ounces chili sauce (or ketchup if you are in a bind)

1 1/2 cups Hellman’s mayo

1 tsp. black pepper

2 tsp. Worcestershire  sauce

(This makes plenty of extra because you will want to have some for dunking purposes.)

A hearty dip that will be a sure hit and all-around winner!

a&a

a tailgate-worthy recipe…for the football frenzied belle

02 Friday Oct 2015

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We are ever on the hunt for easy, delicious recipes that tickle the tastebuds.

Sometimes we discover new and wonderful ingredients…and boy did we find a winner in Captain Rodney’s Boucan Glaze!!


Via Pinterest

The classic, ringin’-belles-all-over-the-place recipe:


Via Pinterest

While this belle-icious Cheese Bake is not exactly “lite-n-lean”, it’s a taste thrill that’s worth the calories!  And just for giggles, we thought we’d like to make a cheese ball version. It turned out to be quite scrumptious…check out the results:
So here’s what we did…

Captain Rodney’s Cheese-“belle”

8 ounces cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup Hellman’s mayo

1 bunch green onions, chopped, green parts included

1/2 teaspoon cracked pepper

4 cups shredded sharp cheddar

2 cups shredded Colby and Monterey Jack blend cheese (1/4 cup reserved)

1/2 cup pecans, toasted and chopped (if you have the extra time sautée the nuts with a pat of butter and a teaspoon of brown sugar until caramelized…allow to cool.)

1/3 cup Captain Rodney’s Boucan Glaze

Combine all the ingredients except for 1/4 cup of the cheese blend and the Captain Rodney’s Boucan Glaze.  Form into a ball and refrigerate for three hours or overnight.  (At this point, the cheeseball can be wrapped in Saran twice and frozen.  Bring to room temperature before proceeding.)

Roll ball in remaining cheese and drizzle with glaze. Serve with crackers and celery.


We’ll take a cheese-belle over a cheeseball any ole day.

a&a

leprechaun trickery?…a lesson to the overly-confident belle-chef

11 Wednesday Mar 2015

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Believe it or not, even though we seem to be attached at the hip…sometimes we belles do seperate for brief periods of time. It was spring break time for the teen belles, so SHE (petite belle and family) traveled to a far away island for some tropical r&r…

(the evidence)

(the evidence)


…while I happily (but a tad jealously) stayed home with a light schedule and a couple of free days.

So, with a bit of time on my hands, I took the opportunity to get a lil ahead of the game and tackle an Irish recipe for the blog…hoping to give us all a plan for a St. Pat’s Day meal. Now, not tryin’ to brag or anything, I have been told that I’m a pretty dang good cook on more than one occasion…and I feel like I know my way around a recipe…and even have enough know-how to tweak and adjust with confidence.

Looking for something classically Irish, I picked a Guinness stew that seemed perfect for the occasion. With absolutely no hesitation, I took to cooking. Three and a half hours later…most of which was cooking time, I opened the Dutch oven to discover…a complete and utter disaster. The liquid had totally evaporated, it was on the verge of being stuck to the bottom of the pot, and it looked revolting!! I dared taste it…NOT GOOD…BITTER…YUCK!! Still, because I’ve been doing this kitchen gig for a while now, I didn’t panic. I resorted to tweaking, adding liquid, seasoning, stirring. I tasted again…blech!! Had I failed? Surely not! Leprechaun trickery? Likely!!

So, I did what every good cook would do…I got rid of the evidence. Straight to the trash it went. I didn’t even give the dogs a chance at it (…it was that bad). So, now what? I was over the whole stew idea…and I realized it might be better to simply recommend the ace-up-my-sleeve Corned Beef and Cabbage that we posted for St. Patrick’s Day last year…
IMG_2549Make it…it’s tantrum (and Leprechaun) proof. (And if y’all have any Irish mains that are tasty, and foolproof as well, please share with us!!!)

All was not lost, though. I might have been conquered by the stew, but I did come across two additional treats that you will want to make all year round!

First, an appetizer…

IMG_2202Via Pinterest
Hot Reuben Dip from recipegirl.com

This appetizer is drool-worthy and perfect for any time…even if you’ve just had a hissy fit and take to eating it with a spoon because no one is around…just sayin’. We especially like the drizzle of thousand island over the top of it to raise the yum factor.

And, of course, we love any excuse for a sweet treat…so this cake should do the trick.

IMG_2203Via Pinterest
Baileys Irish Bundt cake from aspicyperspective.com

I mean…do we even have to say anything? Words just don’t do this cake justice…but a fork will!!

So, traveling belle and humbled belle are back in their rightful places…and we have more March menu ideas (of the liquid variety) headed your way tomorrow! Could a belle ask for more??

a&a