Berry Cream Hors d'oeuvres Recipe Created by Ruth Paget

Berry Cream Hors d’oeuvres Recipe Created by Ruth Paget

Monterey County California grows delicious organic raspberries and strawberries.  This simple hors d’oeuvres tastes great with Prosecco.  Using toothpicks makes it easy to enjoy the berries.

Serves 4

Ingredients:

-1 pint sour cream

-1/4 cup honey

-1/2 pint washed raspberries

-1/2 pint washed strawberries

-toothpicks

Steps:

1-Mix sour cream with the honey and place the mixture in a serving bowl.

2-Place the raspberries and strawberries in separated bowls with toothpicks set out for dipping berries in sour cream.

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Salmon-Green Onion Hors d'oeuvres Recipe Created by Ruth Paget

Salmon-Green Onion Hors d’oeuvres Recipe Created by Ruth Paget

If you plant an onion bulb, you can get all the free green onion you want when it starts to grow.  The flavor is strong and a little goes a long way.

California is fortunate in being able to get canned salmon due to our proximity to Alaska.  You can make salmon cakes using the same recipe you do for crab cakes by the way.

Serves 4

Ingredients:

-1 (14.75-ounce) can pink salmon

-1 bunch chopped green onions

-1/4 cup sour cream

-1 (4-ounce) can drained and sliced black California olives

-4 slices toast

Steps:

1-Mix salmon with their juice with spring onions.

2-Combine salmon-onion mixture with sour cream and mix till homogenous.

3-Place salmon mixture on toast. 

4-Place black olive slices on toast and cut toast into fourths to serve.

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

Click here for:  Ruth Paget's Amazon Books

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Prosciutto-Pineapple Hors d'oeuvres Recipe Created by Ruth Paget

Prosciutto-Pineapple Hors d’oeuvres Recipe Created by Ruth Paget

Prosciutto is nice, but you can use sandwich ham for this as well.  I used Dole® canned pineapple chunks for this recipe that encourages kids to eat some salty meat on hot summer days.

Serves 4

Ingredients:

-16 cubes canned pineapple chunks

-8 slices of prosciutto

-8 toothpicks

Steps:

1-Wrap prosciutto slices around two pineapple cubes and skewer them with a toothpick to make them easy to pick up.

Serve with pineapple wine from Hawaii or lemonade.

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

Click here for:  Ruth Paget's Amazon Books

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Smoked Salmon Sandwich Hors d'oeuvres Recipe Created by Ruth Paget

Smoked Salmon Sandwich Hors d’oeuvres Recipe Created by Ruth Paget

Smoked salmon seems to have a natural affinity with brown ales like New Castle Brown Ale.  This sandwich is especially good made on pumpernickel bread, whose bitter taste I learned to love in Germany.

Serves 4

Ingredients:

-3 tablespoons Dijon mustard

-1 tablespoon mayonnaise

-1 (6-ounce) package of Scottish smoked salmon

-1 small, peeled, and sliced red onion

-8 slices pumpernickel toast

Steps:

1-Mix Dijon mustard with mayonnaise.  Spread mustard-mayonnaise mixture on one side of the pumpernickel toast.

2-Lay ½ of the slices of smoked salmon on 4 slices of toast.

3-Place onion slices on 4 slices of toast with the smoked salmon.

4-Place the other half of the smoked salmon on top of the onion slices and top with the remaining toast slices.

5-Press down and cut the sandwiches into fourths.  Place a toothpick in the center of each sandwich to hold it together and make it easy to pick up.

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

Click here for:  Ruth Paget's Amazon Books

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Creamed Spinach Hors d'oeuvres Recipe Created by Ruth Paget

Creamed Spinach Hors d’oeuvres Recipe Created by Ruth Paget

A pound of spinach shrinks down to about ¼ of its original size when it is cooked.  It is packed with iron and is easy to blend with cream with an immersion blender.

Serves 4

Ingredients:

-1 pound fresh and washed spinach – a little water clinging to the leaves helps it to reduce when sautéed

-2 tablespoons olive oil

-3/4 cup heavy cream

-8 slices toast

Steps:

1-Sauté spinach leaves in olive oil until reduced to ¼ their original size.

2-Add ¾ cup cream to the spinach.

3-Insert immersion blender and purée to a smooth consistency.

4-Cover toast slices with creamy spinach.  Cut toast slices into fourths and serve.

By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

Click here for:  Ruth Paget's Amazon Books

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