"appetizers" news and stories

Call this snack Celery, Peanut Butter and Blueberry Sticks, and kids might roll their eyes and say, "Give me a break." But call them Bugs on a Log, and they're sold. Blogger peekandeat substitutes blueberries for the sweeter raisin "bugs" some people use, which, she says, are lighter and more delicate. Cutting the celery into two-inch pieces makes these logs easy to grab and eat. When I was a kid, my mom stuffed celery stalks with cottage cheese or cream cheese and topped them with pimiento-stuffed olives. She lined them up in a crystal celery dish -- something I haven't seen on a table in years -- which somehow made us feel, even snacking on the simplest food, that we were being treated to something incredibly special. If only she'd called them Fiery-Eyed Longboats.

You can also add cream cheese, sunflower seeds and pine nuts to celery, as in this recipe.

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I'm a self-confessed deviled-egg worshipper. Even when I'm out at tapas bar Tía Pol, in Manhattan, along with the anchovies and chorizo, I order deviled eggs (or should I say huevos rellenos al pimentón de la vera). And yes, I have a custom plate for them, a sweet, corny gift from my mom back when I was in college -- the grass-green plate with little egg-shaped indentations also holds a set of salt-and-pepper shakers shaped like chickens. Deviled eggs are not exactly about hellfire.

However, we continue to try. In a New York Times story, writer Melissa Clark put an extra dose of devil in her eggs (above, as photographed by Andrew Scrivani) by adding a bit of tomato paste and smoked paprika, which, she says, made them "gently sweet, forcefully spicy and . . . smoky." Emeril Lagasse amps up the heat in his recipe with jalapeños, chipotle and his own Southwest spice blend. The devil, it seems, is in the details.

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It's party season, and that means if you have any social life whatsoever, someone will be asking you to bring something to a get-together. Certain foods are obvious no-nos unless you're aiming for cheeky: anything made with aspic, blood sausage or Spam, for example. In general, you want to avoid needlessly messy, borderline unhealthy and unintentionally labor-intensive dishes, as well as ones that simply don't travel well.

The following rules apply no matter what kind of party (potluck, New Year's Eve, birthday, tailgating) or crowd (young, old, football freaks, opera fans). If you can't cook at all, bring good cheese and crackers. That's the universal crowd-pleaser.

Hummus
It seems like such a no-brainer -- who doesn't like dip at parties? But this one has a fatal flaw: garlic. All it takes is one big scoop to render your breath intolerable. Great for family get-togethers, not for swinging singles mixers. How about salsa instead?

The ham isn't always the centerpiece of a holiday meal. The classic Spanish ham-and-melon pairing is the perfect appetizer to entertain your guest's taste buds.

Get this ham recipe along with many others after the jump.

'Sips and Apps: Classic and Contemporary Recipes for Cocktails and Appetizers'
By Kathy Casey
Photos by Angie Norwood Browne
Chronicle Books -- 2009
Buy it on Amazon

Kathy Casey isn't a mixologist, she's a "bar chef" -- a trained chef with mad cocktail skills. In "Sips and Apps," she ventures off the well-trod path of standard cocktail guides to explore cocktails with such seductive names as Black Feather and Clear Conscience.

But it's her appetizers that are sure to offer a new trick or two for your next cocktail soiree.

See what we tested and find out whether the book's worth buying after the jump.