Caprese Stuffed Tomatoes!

With the warm summer days approaching I'm always looking for new cold dishes to prepare! I love fresh tomato recipes, especially when garlic and mozzarella are involved!

Antipasto Fritters!

Recipe **here**

This is a recipe I created for an assignment I had this month through the **Allrecipes.com Allstar Program**  I was asked to create a recipe using Sargento Shredded Cheese. I mentioned this assignment in this recent blog post here. This was a VERY easy assignment because I'm Italian...and what red blooded Italian doesn't like Sargento cheese!

Bacon Wrapped Pretzels!

When I first saw this recipe I said to myself, "How can this be bad?"...and you know what? It can't be bad...it's absolutely delicious! You just can't go wrong with bacon wrapped around a pretzel rod! And this is not just bacon! It's bacon coated with brown sugar, chili powder and cayenne pepper!

Reuben Dip!

When I think of a really tasty deli sandwich my mind always goes to a nice, thick, messy, dripping with dressing, Reuben sandwich! But I like my Reuben on white bread...

I know, I know! It should be on rye bread!

Cheese Crisps

Anything with the word 'cheese' in the title, will usually get my attention when it comes to recipes! And when I saw that this recipe only contained 3 ingredients, I was even MORE interested!

Cucumber Sandwich Bites!

I love tiny food! So I went looking for something I could do with a can of tuna fish and some seedless English cucumbers! And you know the first place I looked? You guessed it...Pinterest!

I loved the idea of using cucumbers instead of bread for sandwiches! The cucumbers added a nice fresh taste to the tuna salad. I topped these with baby spinach leaves and served the sandwich bites 2 ways!

My family thought it was cute and gobbled up a bunch of these as a snack! This is my recipe for the tuna salad...

Tomato Mozzarella Toast!

I'm just totally loving simple and easy recipes lately! I'm finding that recipes don't need to have a long list of ingredients to be flavorful! As with this recipe from the 'Riches to Rags by Dori' blog.

This is my version of her recipe. I made this using white

toast sprinkled with shredded mozzarella cheese topped with chopped fresh basil, sliced plum tomatoes, minced fresh garlic and a pinch of salt. Then I put it in the toaster oven to melt the cheese and it was done. A very light but VERY flavorful fresh tasting open face sandwich!

 

I loved every last bite of this! Give it a try!

Frickles?!?!

What the heck are 'Frickles' you ask? That's exactly what I thought when I saw the title of this recipe!

Cocktail Meatballs

Small baked meatballs in a thick sweet and savory sauce! Perfect as an appetizer or snack! Very easy to make with simple ingredients! I've made these many times! My guests loved them!

Crabby Patties...or Crab Cakes, if you're not a Square Pants Fan!

I love to order crab cakes whenever I go to a really good seafood restaurant! And 90% of the time I end up being very disappointed! Most times the crab cakes are either too fishy, too pasty, too dry or they just don't taste anything like crab! You would think they could get it right if they're specializing in seafood!

 Then one day,

Christmas Eve Dinner!

One of our family traditions is to have LOTS of different fish dishes to serve on Christmas Eve! This is a common tradition in many Italian households. It's called "Feast of the Seven Fishes". In my family we don't make all seven fish dishes...four or five is our limit! We usually make shrimp, scallops, sea bass, octopus, crab and/or calamari.

A Neater Sloppy Joe!

Sloppy Joe Egg Rolls

I love Sloppy Joe's except for the sloppy part! So I decided to make them into egg rolls! It worked great! It's less sloppy when it's wrapped up!

Cheesy Thumbprint Cookies with Hot Pepper Jelly

Recently I blogged about an easy and perfectly delicious way to make stove top hot pepper jelly without having to use canning methods. You can see that post **Here**

Then I stumbled onto a unique way to serve the hot pepper jelly by adding them to these savory, cheesy, thumbprint cookies! The cookies are very tasty all by themselves. They remind me of big, soft, 'Cheez-It' crackers. So adding the hot pepper jelly just made it twice as tasty! The thumbprint cookies are so very easy to make! They're just 3 ingredients...sharp cheddar cheese, butter and flour. And they bake up in less than 20 minutes. This makes a great little appetizer!

Here is the link to the cheesy thumbprint cookies...**Link**

Fried Stuffed Olives

I first saw this recipe on Pinterest.
There are actually lots of recipes on Pinterest for Fried Stuffed Olives.
So I decided to try this one from a food blog named Bell Allimento.

I didn't follow her recipe for the stuffing mixture because
 I didn't have some of the ingredients needed.

My filling ingredients were...

Oven Roasted Salsa

Wow...what a difference a little roasting makes! I never thought to oven roast my salsa veggies, but it really works nicely! I loved the bold flavors the roasting brings out!

Lick the Bowl Clean, Party Dips!

When ever I have a party I love to serve unique and delicious dips! I try to stay away from the same old, same old, basic dips! The two dips on this page fit the bill for me and my guests! When the dip bowls are practically licked clean, you know it was a big success...and with these two recipes, that's exactly what always happens when I serve them!

Cheesy Cauliflower Tater Tots!

Did you ever find a recipe that sounds really tasty but has an ingredient and recipe instructions that just doesn't appeal to you? That's what I saw with this recipe, but I didn't let it stop me because I just loved everything else about the recipe!

This recipe called for 4 egg whites...and the whipping of egg whites into stiff peaks! I do not like either of those things because I don't want to waste the egg yolks and I'm not that experienced at the stiff peaks egg white whipping thing! It also called for the use of a pasrty bag and star pastry bag tip...I don't own either of those! Plus that's just too much work for making tater tots!

So I used 1 large egg (including the yolk) and just beat it into the cauliflower mixture! Guess what? It worked perfectly! And I used a 10 oz. box of frozen cauliflower florets instead of fresh, to make it even easier! Just thaw and squeeze the heck out of the cauliflower to drain all the excess liquid!

Instead of the pastry bag I just plopped it onto a parchment lined cookie sheet using two spoons. Again, it worked perfectly!

These cauliflower tater tots were delicious! Especially if you're a fan of cauliflower like I am! They have a nice strong cauliflower flavor but are light,fluffy and cheesy! This is a low carb recipe!

Here is the link to the original recipe...'Cheesy Cauliflower Tater Tots'...and below is my photo of how mine turned out! And I included my easy version of this recipe!


Cheesy Cauliflower Tater Tots

INGREDIENTS;
1 Medium head of cauliflower - I used 10 oz. frozen thawed and squeezed dry
2 Tbls. heavy cream - I used light cream
2 Tbls. butter
1/3 cup shredded cheddar cheese
4 egg whites - I used 1 large egg with yolk
salt and pepper to taste - I used 1/4 tsp. of each
garlic powder to sprinkle ontop after baked - my idea

 MY EASY DIRECTIONS;
In a microwave safe bowl add cauliflower, light cream and butter. Microwave on high for 5 minutes.
Transfer cauliflower mixture to a food processor with cheese and pulse slightly until it's the texture of oatmeal. Add salt and pepper. Place back into bowl. Then add in egg and beat until fully combined.
Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Drop cauliflower mixture by the spoonful onto parchment paper...you should get about 14 tater tots.
Bake on center rack, uncovered, for about 18 minutes or until nicely browned.
Remove from oven and sprinkle with garlic powder.
Serve warm or room temp.

                                                       

Crab and Spinach Souffle's

I love to figure out ways to use up leftover stuff that I have in my freezer! I had some leftover imitation crab meat and some leftover frozen chopped spinach that was just sitting there begging to be used!

Antipasto Salad Bowl

When I have large family dinners (20-24 guests) for the holidays I always make my antipasto platter! Everyone looks forward to it! I serve this before the main dish.

Sauerkraut Balls!

Ohio is well known for their Sauerkraut Balls and now so am I because my guests loved this! This tastes like a cheese dog with sauerkraut! I served this with yellow mustard for dipping. This was a unique and very flavorful appetizer/snack! Perfect for any get-together! These can very easily be made a day ahead and then baked when needed!