Appetizers!!!

Appetizers can be great, or they can be a real disappointment for a restaurant or even your own home. Today I will be teaching you how to make some basic, yet delicious appetizers. Last week I told you about the restaurant Bricco in West Harford. What I didn’t tell you is that they served an amazing appetizer plate there. Those appetizers reminded me of how sometimes my family and I will have an appetizer plate for dinner and still be satisfied.

Tomato Mozzarella Appetizer

Ingredients:

1 Large Tomato

Fresh Basil

2 Green Olives with Pits

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Salt & Pepper

Mozzarella

Very Little Balsamic Vinegar

Serves Two

If you can get real Italian imported mozzarella it makes the dish that much better. Firstly, chop your tomato into six slices. Next chop six 1/4-inch slices of mozzarella. Take a small plate and lay the slices in this order: Tomato, mozzarella, tomato, mozzarella, tomato, mozzarella, on each plate. Do this by fanning the ingredients out across the plate. Take your basil and chop or grind it into fine pieces. Lightly sprinkle this over the tomato mozzarella. Take one green olive and lay it right next to the last slice of mozzarella. Take your olive oil and lightly drizzle the tomatoes and mozzarella. If you would like, do the same with the balsamic vinegar. Be careful with the vinegar as it can easily overpower the dish. Put a dash of salt, and a small bit of pepper on the dish and your ready to serve.

Grilled Bread with Olive Oil

Ingredients:

Baguette or Rustic Country Bread

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Salt & Pepper

Rosemary

Take a sheet of aluminum foil and then slice the bread into slices that will fit comfortably into a child’s hands. Lay the bread on aluminum foil then take a brush and coat the bread in olive oil. Use a tad more than you think you need. Sprinkle a little bit of rosemary and salt and pepper. Finally put the bread on your grill. Grill it until on each side until golden brown. Place on a large plate and enjoy. No cheese, or butter necessary.

Artisan Cheese Plate

Ingredients:

A Sharp Blue Cheese

A 1 Year Old Manchego Cheese

Traditional Goat Cheese

A Soft Brie That is not Over Ripe

Slightly Crisp Red Grapes

Honeycrisp or Fuji Apples

Baguette

Crackers (Our favorite are Lahvosh Water Crackers)

Green Olives

Cherry Tomatoes

Serves 4

This is the simple way to make a delicious cheese plate. Firstly, cut a large piece out of each cheese and lay them on a platter. Next take your olives and put them in the middle of your platter, lay the tomatoes next to the olives. Next cut your baguette and lay it on the platter with some crackers. Thinly slice an apple and lay those slices next to the cheeses. Lay the red grapes wherever there is room on the plate. Finally lay a knife or two by the cheese to cut it. This may seem a bit casual, but the results are great.

Well that is it for today. I hope you enjoy my appetizers and try them for yourselves.

News and Connecticut

As many of you may know, I am moving to Connecticut. The reason being that my mother has accepted the position as the General Council at the Barnes Group. My family and I will be moving around the 4th of June. In honor of that fact, today I have decided to write a post about Connecticut, especially the Farmington Valley area. On top of being less than two hours from New York and Boston, and three hours from Maine. It is also beautiful and surprisingly entertaining to be there. I hope you enjoy my opinion of my new home!

Connecticut, given it is in the middle of everything mentioned above has an appreciation for food, is beautiful, and is just a fun place to be. In the Hartford area a great thing to do for a couple hours is to go to the Mark Twain House. In case you don’t remember who Mark Twain is off the top of your head, he wrote my favorite Huckleberry Finn, Tom Sawyer, and Life on the Mississippi among others. Tours guides are very knowledgeable and give great tours of the house. The Twain family occupied the house from 1874-1891. Another attraction is Bushnell Park where you can take a scenic walk or jog through the park. If you have kids there is a carousal from 1914 that is operational most of the time in the warmer months. These two attractions are both in Hartford so you should expect a few minutes of driving from the hotel I will be recommending.

The hotel I am recommending is The Simsbury Inn.It is a classic New England Inn with beautiful antiques. This is just north of the area I will be moving to. If you are looking for a fun place to spend a day, West Hartford Center, and Blue Back Square are good places. There is great food, a movie theater, coffee, and places to just walk around. As for restaurants, there are a lot more than other attractions. The Max’s restaurants are amazing and offer great food, service, and a large variety of food. From the Max’s Oyster Bar to the 100% american cuisine of Max Burger. Whatever you want these places have it. Southern Italian, yep, raw oysters, yep, burgers, yep. You probably get my point by now. The oyster bar can get expensive if you don’t pace yourself though. Outside of the Max’s restaurants I still have plenty of suggestions. If you are in the mood for great Northern Italian food,  I suggest Bricco. It can be challenging to get a table with them as they don’t reserve under ten people, but the food is worth the thirty minute to an hour wait. I hope it will be the next restaurant I get cook in. The  spinach mushroom lasagna and tiramisu are amazing. Everything there is real Italian food. It is like the north end of Boston, or LA. Salami isn’t thick and dry, artichoke hearts are tart and flavorful, and olives taste real. For pizza I recommend Harry’s Pizza. The pizzas are large and a bit pricy, but it is well worth it. I think most people would agree on that.

So thats sums up todays post. I hope you check back next week for some great recipes!

Sam