These mini lobster rolls are a delightful play on the New England classic!  You could cheat and use langoustine or shrimp – maybe even crab.  Just don’t call them Lobster Rolls.

Ingredients:

• 1 lb Lobster meat, cooked fresh or frozen.  Chop into smaller pieces suitable for rolls
• 1 1/2 Tab minced chives
• 1/8 tsp Dijon mustard
• 2 Tab lemon juice, fresh squeezed
• 1/2 cup mayonnaise
• 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1 tsp course sea salt
• 1/4 tsp Old Bay seasoning
• 12 dinner rolls, small – King’s Hawaiian are preferred
• 4 Tab Butter

Directions:  

1. Preheat oven 350°
2. In a medium mixing bowl, stir together mayonnaise, chopped lobster meat, lemon juice, minced chives, Old Bay, cayenne, Dijon and sea salt.
3. Pull the rolls apart and place on a baking sheet.
4. Coat the rolls with melted butter.
5. Bake in a 350° oven for about 5 minutes until warm.
6. Using a knife, slice a hole in the top of each roll.
7. Fill with the lobster mix.
8. Coat again with melted butter.
9. ENJOY!

Serves: 12 (not really – you can’t eat just one!)

Source: sugarandcharm.com

Went next door for cocktails last night.  Had my new favorite appetizer! Crackers – topped with bacon and brown sugar – a yummy, sweet, and porky treat!  Want a spicy-sweet flavor? Add a bit of ground black pepper or cayenne pepper over the brown sugar.  Bonus – you can freeze them and reheat.  There are those who use parmesian cheese, but I can’t imagine it being as good as brown sugar.
Ingredients:

• 1 package (13.7 oz.) club crackers (or any recutangler cracker)
• 1 lb regular sliced bacon, cut into thirds
• brown sugar –  don’t skimp

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 250° F.
2. Cover a rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil.
3. Arrange crackers on a rack over the baking sheet in a single layer.
4. Top each cracker with 1/3 slice bacon (to fit the top of the cracker).
5. Evenly sprinkle plenty of brown sugar over the top.
6. Bake for 1 hour or more until browned and crisp.
7. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Yield: 36 Serving Size: 1 cracker (no one will eat just one!!)

Source:  Nancy-Next-Door Oglesby and several on-line recipes

1. Or wrap bacon, cut in half lengthwise, around the center of the cracker making sure to cover the entire cracker.
2. Place the crackers on the rack with the bacon ends facing down. This will help to keep the bacon from unraveling.

These cheesy and easy four ingredient appetizers will remind you of brie baked ‘en croûte’—which is the French term for anything baked in pastry.  The original recipe I read put the cheese and jam in the unbaked pastry, then baked it.  What a mess! too hot jam, not quite cooked pastry.  Don’t try to short-cut this.

Ingredients:

• flour, for dusting
• 1 sheet (about 14 oz) puff pastry, thawed
• Dijon mustard
• 1/2 pound Gouda, rind removed, cut into 24 approximately 3/4-inch cubes – room temperature
• Lingonberry jam ( or raspberry, or apricot, or orange marmalade, or cherry, or, or, or)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 425°.
2. On a lightly floured surface, roll out pastry to an approximately 11-by-16-inch rectangle.
3. Trim edges straight to a 10-by-15-inch rectangle.
4. With the tines of a fork, prick pastry all over at 1/2-inch intervals.
5. Cut into twenty-four 2 1/2-inch squares (a 4-by-6 grid).
6. Press each square into the cup of a mini muffin tin.  (You can freeze them at this point, bag them, and continue when you need them.)
7. Spoon scant dab of Dijon into bottom of each pastry shell.
8. Refrigerate until pastry is firm, at least 15 minutes.
9. Bake until pastry cups are puffed, golden along edges, and beginning to set, about 15 minutes.
10. Working quickly remove from oven and press a cube of cheese into center of each pastry with the handle of a wooden spoon. (Cheese should depress pastry to reach bottom of cup.)
11. Continue baking until pastry is golden brown and cheese is melted, 8 to 10 minutes more.
12. Let cool in tins a few minutes.
13. Transfer to a serving tray.
14. Top with jam.
15. Serve warm.

Secret Discovery:  I bake them until brown, add the cheese, and set them aside. Then, just before serving, heat the oven, turn it off, and let the puffs sit in the oven until the cheese melts – no burned puffs!

Serves:  Makes 24

Source:  marthastewart.com
Baked, cooled bites can be frozen in an airtight container up to 1 month. Save the jam for later.  Reheat from frozen in a 425° oven until warmed through, about 10 minutes.

And More:
So, you don’t have Gouda, but there is that Brie getting too ripe in the fridge.  Put it in the freezer about 10 minutes to firm up and cut it into cubes.  Leave off the mustard, but the jam works.  So does chutney, fruity spreads, even sundried tomatoes or caramelized onions.  There is always something around.

No puff pastry.  Open a can of Crescent Rolls. Then roll out crescent roll dough and pinch seams together. Cut crescent roll dough into 24 equal-sized squares.  A quick spray of Pam will make these easier to remove from the pan.  That will freeze too.

Where will your imagination take you next!?

These lovely stuffed mushrooms come from an episode of Julia Child’s first cooking show: The French Chef. Simple and delicious, they make a great appetizer or side dish, and are lovely served as an hors d’ oeuvre or with anything from steak, to pasta, to risotto.

Ingredients:

• 8-10 Button Mushrooms (I had 2 boxes of baby bellas)
• 3-4 shallots or 1 large leek, finely minced
• 2 Tab butter
• 1/2 – 1 Tab flour
• 1/4 – 1/2 c cream
• Grated Swiss cheese

Directions:

1. Wash mushrooms.
2. Trim the stems, and remove them from the mushroom caps.
3. Chop up the stems very finely.
4. Squeeze juices out with a tea towel into a bowl.
5. Saute stems in butter.
6. Add the minced shallot (or leek).
7. Saute approximately 4-5 minutes, or until the shallots are translucent and the mushrooms separate from each other.
8. Add a half Tab or so of  flour.
9. Cook 1-2 minutes.
10. Add enough cream so that after it has cooked for a minute, it is a fairly thick mass, about 1/4 cup.
11. Season with salt & pepper and some fresh parsley.
12. Rub the mushroom caps in butter.
13. Fill them with the sauce,
14. Add some grated Swiss cheese on top.
15. Brown them under broiler for approximately 5 minutes (5-6 inches from broiler).
16. For a nice effect, serve them in a Chinese soup spoon.  They are a little messy.

Serves:  Good guess – they are really good.

Source:  west-east-south-north.blogspot.com

This dialogue is too fun not to include.

The Julia Child Bruschetta recipe that’s so good it brought my guests to tears. Olive Oil fried rustic bread topped with marinated tomatoes and basil.
If you’re the kind of person who likes to cook, you know the satisfaction you get from serving someone food and having them smile at the end of eating it. If they actually mumble out a “Soooo goood” as they’re eating it even better. Betty does that all the time when I feed her, (but she doesn’t count because she makes the same sounds eating a TV dinner or a pistachio she swept up from behind the fridge.)
So the MMMMMMmmmmmm sounds are good, but the Holy Grail of feeding someone is bringing them to tears. Reducing a human being to a quaking, sobbing mess whose greatest fear in life is no longer death … but the thought of never eating this delicious food again.
On August 22nd, 2014 such a miracle occurred in my kitchen. And then it happened again.
I thought it was just a fluke, like when people see Jesus in their Cream of Wheat, but when it happened a second time I knew I’d stumbled upon something pretty spectacular. Definitely more spectacular than a hairy fridge pistachio.
Do you want to know what this miracle food was? Bruschetta. But you knew that already if you read the title of this post
This isn’t just any bruschetta though, it’s bruschetta inspired by the movie Julie & Julia which if you don’t know, it’s a movie based on Julie Powell’s blog in which she chronicled her (successful) attempt to recreate every recipe in Julia Child’s “Mastering the Art of French Cooking“. GREAT premise for a blog.
In the movie the bruschetta looked and sounded so goooood. And if you watch the scene from the movie, Julie’s husband does exactly what you want people to do when they eat your cooking. He says, “This is  GOOOOD!”
The Bruschetta Recipe
So you want to learn how to make this bruschetta? Want to learn how to bring someone to tears with your food? Here we go.
First of all a few tips:
1. Use fresh, crusty bread.  Whole slices!  Not a baguette.
2.  FRY in olive oil.  I mean it.  You fry it.
3.  Don’t even attempt this if it isn’t summer and you don’t have fresh tomatoes.
Let’s get started …  You need bread, olive oil, tomatoes, basil and salt.  Dice a few fresh, local tomatoes. Extra points for heirloom and homegrown. Even if the home wasn’t yours.  Tear up a handful of fresh basil and add it.  Add lots if you love basil, little if you don’t. I used this sized bunch for around 5 small-medium tomatoes.
I  know you’re alarmed that there’s no fresh garlic in this recipe but there isn’t. I’m not going to second guess Julia Child. It’s is 100% delicious without the overpowering flavour of garlic. If you want to add garlic you can but I BEG you to try it without first.
Drizzle the tomatoes and basil with a good amount of olive oil and let stand for 30-45 minutes.  After 30 minutes, sprinkle with salt and pepper (I actually don’t use pepper but go nuts if you’re a pepper person) let sit for another 10 minutes or so.
Cover the bottom of a pan with olive oil until it’s approximately 3mm deep.  Just glug it in there.  Heat pan over medium/low.  Not too hot or your bread will burn, not too low or it’ll just soak up a bunch of oil and get gross.
To test if your oil is hot enough to fry place the end of a wooden spoon in the oil. If the tip forms bubbles right away, it’s at the right temperature to fry.
While the pan is heating, slice your crusty bread.  I make my own bread using the master recipe from this cookbook, The New Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day but you don’t have to make your own bread. Just use a fresh, dense, crusty loaf.
Fry bread slices in oil until browned or your tongue falls out of your mouth. Whichever comes first.  Remove bread from the pan and generously spoon the tomato mixture over the top.  But first, maybe, just look at the golden brown, toasty, olive oil drenched goodness.  Smell it. Love it.  O.K., NOW you can top it with your tomatoes and basil.  Just spoon it right on there.  Lots of it.
And now you eat it.
If you’ve watched the movie Julie & Julia you no doubt noticed the bruschetta love scene. I’m not sure anything in a movie has ever looked so delicious.  This is that recipe.

Ingredients:

• 3 medium tomatoes heirloom and a variety of colours if you can get them.
• 3 large stems basil
• 1/2 c olive oil good quality
• salt
• 4 slices bread hearty, crusty bread is best.

Instructions:

1. Dice tomatoes.  I seeded them too.
2. Shred basil leaves.
3. Mix tomatoes and basil in bowl with 1/4 of olive oil, reserving other 1/4 cup for frying.
4. Let this mixture sit for 30 minutes.
5. When the 30 minutes is up, add a generous sprinkling of salt to the mixture and let it sit for another 10 minutes.
6. Now is when you can heat up 1/4 cup of olive oil (your goal is to have 3mm of oil in the pan) over medium/low heat.
7. Once hot, fry your slices of bread until golden.
8. Remove bread from pan and top with tomato mixture.
9. Serve the bruschetta HOT.  With a box of Kleenex.

Notes:
You can cut the calories in this recipe by using less oil to fry the bread. It won’t be *quite* as good, but the snack will have far less guilt associated it.
To test your oil to make sure it’s hot enough, dip the end of a wooden spoon into the oil. If bubbles quickly form around the wood, it’s the right temperature.  If they take a while to bubble, it isn’t hot enough.  If the oil bubbles and spurts crazily, the pan is too hot.

 Servings: 2

Source: theartofdoingstuff.com by Larem