Category Archives: Appetizer

Appetizer / Budget-Friendly Weekend Fun / Cocktails / Drinks / Gluten-Free / Happy Hour / Pescatarian / Savory / Snack / Vegan / Vegetarian

Two Recipes for Summer

May 24, 2018

I realize that these recipes would have been much better suited closer to Cinqo de Mayo, but here we are. I have no issues indulging in margaritas and chips+salsa year-round, so I’m not about to hold onto these until next year so they can be posted at an “appropriate” time.

Appropriate schmrappropriate. Let’s all just live our lives, shall we? I did actually make this cocktail for the first time over Cinqo de Mayo weekend. There’s a Cali-Mex restaurant near us that has the best (let’s use that term loosely) Mexican food round these parts, but what I really come back for over and over again is this one cocktail — the Rosarito. It’s basically just a spicy margarita, so given that I figured it couldn’t be too hard to make, I decided to recreate it. If you like a margarita, this version with a little kick might be right up your alley:

The Rosarito
makes one large or two small cocktails

  • 1 hot pepper, sliced into coins
  • 1/2  oz agave syrup
  • 1/2 oz orange liquer
  • 3 oz tequila
  • 2 oz fresh-squeezed lime juice
  • ice
  • salt for rim (optional)
  1. Optional: sprinkle salt onto a plate, rub lime wedge across the rim of your glass, then dip into salt to create salted rim.
  2. Place 2-3 pepper coins into cocktail shaker with agave syrup. Muddle together with a wooden spoon or muddler (the more you muddle, the spicier it gets).
  3. Add orange liquer, tequila, lime juice and ice. Shake until very cold (at least 60 shakes). Strain into glass over ice. Garnish with lime wedge and/or additional pepper coins.

Notes: I have tried this with multiple types of hot peppers now. Jalapeños worked fine but were not my favorite, flavor-wise. My preferred peppers for this are Thai red chilis (also called Bird’s eye chilis). They have a solid kick to them, so keep that in mind while you’re muddling (it doesn’t take much to make this drink spicy!) I haven’t tried habanero chilis yet because I’m not a complete masochist.

In case you’re wondering why there’s a picture of a cheese board above this recipe, it’s because I realized I don’t have a picture of my finished salsa, aside from that picture above where it is very much not the star. Oh well, you guys know what salsa looks like, right?

Chipotle Roasted Salsa
makes a large cereal-sized bowl

  • 200g / 1/2(ish) lb tomatoes, quartered
  • Large handful mild peppers
  • 2 small to medium white onions, peeled and quartered
  • 4 cloves garlic, whole, peeled
  • 1-2 chipotle peppers in adobo (2 makes it spicy!)
  • cilantro
  • fresh lime juice
  1. Preheat oven to 425°f / 220°c
  2. Toss tomatoes, mild peppers, onions, and garlic in olive oil, salt and pepper. Spread onto a sheet pan and roast for 20-25 minutes, until just a little charred.
  3. Add roasted veggies and their juice to a food processor fitted with a steel blade, along with chipotle peppers, and blend together. Add cilantro and pulse to combine.
  4. Add lime juice and additional salt and pepper to taste.

Notes: I usually use 5-6 Roma or vine tomatoes, but any ripe tomatoes will work here. I use Padrón peppers for the mild pepper because that’s what is available here. Anaheim chiles, shishito peppers, or poblanos would all work. Bell peppers would do fine in a pinch, but don’t overdo it or your salsa will be overly sweet/mild. If you don’t have or can’t find chipotle peppers in adobo, add a few hot peppers to the mix before roasting (jalapenos, thai chilis, or habaneros if you dare) — remove ribs and seeds to lessen the heat.

Appetizer / Dairy-Free / Happy Hour / Savory / Snack / Vegetarian

Homemade Soft Pretzels

July 8, 2014

How was your 4th of July?  Ours was fun.  We had a BBQ which ended up going long into the evening and involved a lot of debauchery and a record consumption of Fireball shots (Not by me.  Ew.)  If I had to gauge the amount of fun our party was by how sticky our dining room floor was the next day, I’d say it was suuuuper fun.

At the BBQ we served grilled sausages with sautéed peppers and onions, the world’s largest watermelon, and my go-to Caesar salad.  The night before I also whipped up two batches of homemade soft pretzels (because sausages + soft pretzels — so American, right?  Yah.)  The pretzels were such a hit that I figured I should share the recipe with y’all, so you too can be the talk of the town at your next party.

Soft pretzels aren’t particularly difficult to make, just kind of time consuming.  And if you cheat a little and use a bread maker to make the dough (like me), it’s even easier.

IMG_3126

Soft Pretzels

makes 16 pretzels

  • 1 1/4 cups warm water (80-90°F)
  • 1 tbsp. salt (plus additional for sprinkling)
  • 1 tbsp + 1 tsp brown sugar, firmly packed
  • 4 cups bread flour
  • 2 1/4 tsp (1 packet) active dry yeast
  • Alkaline solution: 5 cups water + 1/3 cup baking soda
  • Egg wash: 1 egg beaten with a splash of water or milk
  1. Using a bread maker: To make the dough, place all ingredients (omitting the alkaline solution and egg wash) into your bread maker in the order listed above and use the dough setting.
  2. Not using a bread maker: Combine water, sugar and yeast in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook attachment and let sit for 5 minutes until the mixture begins to foam.  In a separate bowl, whisk together flour and salt.  With the mixer on low speed, slowly add in flour mixture until well combined and the dough comes together.  Increase the mixer speed to medium and knead the dough for 4-5 minutes, until the dough is smooth and elastic and pulls away from the sides of the bowl.  Oil a clean bowl with vegetable or olive oil and place dough in it.  Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place in a warm place for 50-55 min, or until the dough has doubled in size.
  3. Once your dough is ready, cut the dough into 16 equal pieces (cut into fourths, then cut each fourth into fourths again).  Quickly roll each piece into a long rope and twist it into a pretzel shape.  *Try to handle the dough as little as possible — the longer you mess with it, the tougher your pretzels will be.
  4. Once you have 16 pretzels formed, place them onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a silpat, cover them with plastic wrap, and let them rest for 20-30 minutes.
  5. Preheat oven to 425°.
  6. Make your alkaline solution by combining 5 cups of water with 1/3 cup baking soda in a wide saucepan, then bring to a boil (I used my Le Creuset braiser for this).  Once boiling, boil each pretzel for 3 minutes, flipping halfway through (you can do this in batches rather than going one at a time).  Place onto a wire rack to drain.
  7. Once drained, return pretzels to a baking sheet lined with a silpat or parchment paper.  Brush each pretzel with egg wash and sprinkle with coarse salt (I recommend using pretzel salt or sea salt for this — I used Maldon flake salt).
  8. Bake for 12-15 minutes, until golden brown.
  9. To revive pretzels the next day, brush with melted butter, sprinkle with a tad more salt, and reheat in the oven for 3-5 minutes.

IMG_3122IMG_3123IMG_3124IMG_3119Pair these with mustard and a cold beer and you’re in business.

 

Appetizer / Favorite Things / Happy Hour / Savory

Easy Appetizers for a Crowd

November 6, 2013

We had my sister, brother and their significant others over for Halloween last week.  And while I did have a big dinner plan, I didn’t know when everyone would be showing up exactly, due to work, traffic, etc.  Because of this, I put together a little cheese appetizer spread to tide us all over until everyone arrived and dinner was ready.

This is something I put together often — usually about once a week.  Alexis generally comes over on Fridays after work for happy hour, and I’ll throw together a quick appetizer spread with whatever I’ve got in my cheese drawer and in the cupboards.

cheese spreadFor this particular spread, I had Camembert, Comte, Emmenthaler, and a chunk of some sort of swiss that was leftover from a previous night.  I also put out some of my mom’s homemade tomato jam (it’s delicious), honey, salami, turkey, and one of the green tomatoes from our CSA box, that I sliced up.  I added a pomegranate that I had broken apart just to make things look festive and seasonal (not to mention colorful!).  Then I served it all with some Pumpkin Cranberry Crisps (these are Trader Joe’s seasonal take on the more expensive Raincoast Crisps — which I love), regular water crackers, and some broken apart Rosemary Sea Salt Flatbread Crackers (also from Trader Joe’s).

Obviously, the giant bowl of Halloween candy is optional for a gathering — but I’ll tell ya, it was quite the hit at ours!