Elegant, but easy, holiday appetizers

Appetizers have been around for a thousand years – probably longer. The ancient Romans ate small portions of various foods before a meal – eggs, olives, mussels, and more. The French enhanced the appetizer and called them hors d’oeuvres.

Merriam-Webster.com defines hors d’oeuvres as "Any of various savory foods usually served as appetizers." The definition of appetizer is: "A small dish of food served before the main part of a meal."

So whatever you choose to call it – the tradition of eating a few bites before the main meal has been around for quite some time.

The holiday season, through New Year’s Day, is always a busy time with many parties and affairs. I enjoy entertaining, but don’t have a lot of free time during this season. Once I went so far as to purchase egg rolls from a local fast food chain and serve them as appetizers. But, homemade is always better, so I developed two appetizer recipes that don’t take a great deal of shopping time or prep time: Garlic Shrimp and Caviar Crème Cheese.

Garlic Shrimp Appetizers

Ingredients:

• 15 medium-sized, cooked, deveined shrimp
• ½ cup butter
• ½ tsp garlic powder
• ¼ teaspoon pepper
• ¼ cup minced sweet onions
• Parsley flakes to taste
• Basil flakes to taste

Method:

Over medium heat, melt butter in a skillet, then add onions, garlic powder, pepper, basil and parsley. Reduce heat to low and add shrimp. Simmer for four minutes on each side. Skewer the shrimp with toothpicks and arrange on a plate.

Caviar Creme Cheese Appetizers

Ingredients:

• 8 to 10 Carr’s Table Water Crackers or Carr’s Biscuits
• Philadelphia whipped Crème Cheese
• Romanoff Black Lumpfish Caviar (2 oz. is more than enough)
• 2 to 3 large, hard-boiled eggs (cooled in refrigerator)
• ½ cup minced sweet onions
• ½ tsp. garlic powder

Method:

Slice hard-boiled eggs with egg-slicer. Place one slice on each cracker. Top each egg slice with ½ tsp. of the *Crème Cheese Mix, then crown with approximately ¼ teaspoon caviar (Caviar is fish roe and should be gently spooned out of jar, as it is fragile.)

*Crème Cheese Mix: Blend ¾ cup whipped crème cheese with ½ cup minced sweet onions and ½ tsp. garlic powder.