Football and tailgating aren’t the only reasons that happy hour is such an easy way to entertain in the fall. It has to do with crisp cool afternoons and the new energy that fall and the start of the year brings. Lately I find I have all sorts of ideas for appetizers and snacks, some of them recipes I’ve resurrected from long ago.
Take for instance Jezebel
sauce, a sweet and spicy sauce—yes, it gets its name from the Biblical woman.
Years ago when I had huge Christmas parties, I used to serve Jezebel sauce on a
brick of cream cheese, but somewhere along the way I lost the recipe I really
liked. There are lots of versions of this southern staple online, but I never
found one I liked until recently. I think what got me is that the base is
apricot preserves—and I love apricot in any version. So here’s what you do:
Jezebel sauce
Ingredients
1 8 oz. jar apricot preserves
1 Tbsp. Dijon mustard
2-3 Tbsp. horseradish (not the
stuff in a cream sauce, but plain horseradish)
Fresh cracked pepper to taste
1 block cream cheese
Crackers for serving.
Mix together the preserves,
mustard and horseradish. Pour over cream cheese. Serve with crackers. The
Jezebel sauce tends to disappear faster than the crema cheese, so keep a little
back to refresh the dish somewhere along the way.
And if you’re serving blocks
of cream cheese with topping for an appetizer, don’t forget some people like to
top it with Pickapeppa sauce (not me). A real splurge to me is opening a can of
flaked crab, spreading it over cream cheese, and tooping with bottled cocktail
sauce. Today, you might try using the refrigerated faux crab (Krab). Caution:
all these get messy and sticky quickly, so have plenty of napkins and be
prepared to refresh the toppings.
Did your mom serve a relish
tray for an appetizer or with a big dinner? Mine did, though she was noted for
forgetting to put it out because she had so many other dishes. Next day, we’d
find it in the outdoor refrigerator. But a staple of any relish tray was
stuffed celery. I came across a recipe (who thought you needed a recipe to do that?)
the other day and tried it, liked it a lot. Here’s what you need:
Stuffed celery
Ingredients
10 oz.
or thereabouts of prepared cheese spread (I used a Pub Cheese from Trader Joe’s,
but you could use two 5-oz. jars of Kraft Old English spread
1 heaping
Tbsp. mayonnaise
1 tsp.
Worcestershire sauce
½ tsp.
horseradish
½ Tbsp.
dried, minced onion
¼ tsp.
cayenne (optional; I omitted it)
½ Tbsp.
garlic powder
¼ tsp. celery salt
¼ tsp.
black pepper
6-8
celery stalks
2
green onions, minced for garnish
Here’s the big deal: string
the celery. Wash each stalk and pat dry, and then peel the strings from the
back. Use a vegetable peeler or a paring knife. If you look, you can see the
strings—and see when you’ve missed some. This is important, because it’s no fun
to bite into a piece of celery and find yourself fighting with long strings.
Mix remaining ingredients except
the green onion. You can make a pastry bag by cutting a corner off a bag,
filling the baggie with cheese, and squeezing cheese into the inside of each celery
stalk. Or you can wing it and spoon it in with an iced tea spoon—I actually
used a marrow spoon and it worked great.
Cut each celery stalk into
three- or four-inch pieces and place on plate, being sure to keep them upright.
Sprinkle with green onion.
Note: The stuffed celery does not
keep well, but the cheese spread does. You can also serve it is a spread in a
bowl, with celery and crackers on the side. It’s that good, but I was initially
attracted by the idea of stuffed celery which I hadn’t seen in years.
Many years ago a friend gave
me this recipe for a sliced egg appetizer. I smiled sweetly, thanked her, and
thought, “Well, I won’t be doing that.” It just didn’t sound right to me. For
some reason, I got around to trying it—and it was not at all what I expected,
and was wonderful!
Sliced egg and parsley
Ingredients
2 cloves garlic, peeled
4 Tbsp parsley finely chopped
Salt and pepper
1/8 tsp. paprika
6 Tbsp. olive oil
5 hard-boiled eggs, thinly
sliced crosswise
Grated carrot and sliced
olives for garnish, according to your taste (that means I never use the olives
but I’m wondering what anchovies would do)
Lay out the eggs on a plate
and garnish with carrotd, olives, and whatever else you want. Sprinkle with
salt. Make a sauce of remaining ingredients and pour over the eggs. Refrigerate
until very well chilled. Will keep overnight but not much longer.
Watch for more happy hour
recipes next week. It’s the mood I’m in. Salut! Slainte! Santé! Prost!
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