My last post was a long form one describing an apple appetizer born out of a gift of homemade muscadine jelly, and the template for this type of quick, throwdown starter.
Soon after I created and served the appetizer that inspired that post and decided to document the formula (at the urging of the Grill-Meister, we were dinner guests at the home of friends and former colleagues.
We enjoyed the pre-dinner drinks – sparkling wine for the ladies, a dry white for the men – along with some savory bites.
The children of the house came to hang out with us at the large island in the gorgeous modern/industrial farmhouse kitchen, right about the time The Grill-Meister was talking up the Glover Gardens blog, the recipes I’m sharing here and collecting for a cookbook someday, and my most recent 5-minute concoction, the Savory-Sweet Apple Appetizer. He showed a picture to our hosts, and I described “the formula” I use for this type of quick appetizer, along with the specific ingredients for this one. I didn’t realize the children were interested or even listening.
It was an uncharacteristically temperate evening in late August, so we moved outside to sip some red wine and wait for the Chicken Basque to finish baking so we could dine al fresco. The children remained inside, playing together, we thought. We had a lovely conversation about travel, jobs, pandemics, children and life, and were surprised when we were joined by the kids, who acted as wait staff and proudly gifted us with their own version of the 5-minute throw-down apple appetizer.
Our two chefs had asked their Dad to slice some apples for them when we went outside, having secretly developed their plan after hearing about my appetizer. They smeared peanut butter on their apples, scattered walnuts around them, then drizzled honey. The formula, as documented in the previous post, is:
Fresh ✚ Colorful ✚ Crunchy ✚ Creamy ✚ Sweet ✚ Salty (✚ Spicy) = Yum!
The kids, aged 6 and 10, had nailed it! The red apples were both their fresh and colorful components, and joined the walnuts for the crunch. Peanut butter was both creamy and salty, and the honey provided the sweetness. They didn’t do the optional spicy touch; perhaps when they are teenagers. 😊
It was delightful to be served by two smart and talented children who are obviously good listeners, and it proved the concept of knowledge transfer on this appetizer formula.
The chicken was good, too!
Chicken Basque is a hearty Mediterranean dish 
That goes well with a simple salad 
A tasty plate 
And tiramisu to close out the evening
It was a lovely evening, and such a rare occurrence these days to dine at someone else’s house.
© 2021, Glover Gardens
The appetizer looks delicious 🙂
Thank you so much! It was made with ingenuity and creativity, and we savored every bite. It also went well with the red wine!
How delightful younger kids are so savvy in culinary delights!
As children my sibs & I were taken to eat at least once or twice at great suburban NYC bistros and ristorantes. This was early 60s, my Mom was obsessed w Julia Child and French cuisine….and my Dad joined in. Kids sat on a long bench and watched for a bit. Boeuf Bourgignon, cassoulet, snails, artichokes, frogs legs, tiny sips of red & white, crusty, chewy breads!!! We were mandated to try new things one time. If we gagged, we didn’t have to eat it again.
So my only child is Katie. I had her at 43, soo-prize!!! She thrived, hated baby food, went straight from the baba to appie jooz, pasta, broc florets, cut up chick etc.
She had like 12 things she’d eat, but bottomless Doritos and pickles!
She never showed interest in eating or cooking til her 1st official job waitressing at Country Club w a real temperamental chef who apologized by making some rich, incredible employee dinner! Or he’d experiment for specials and let staff taste….her list grew. I waited tables thru 10 yrs, off/on w college. Kitchens and front of house (FOH) staff are family. They work, play, party, room together. So it gave her a bit of sophistication, an expanded palate and curiosity about…everything. and lifelong friends.
I worked as GM for large commercial kitchens w Marriott after college, it was in my blood.
But managing meals for 3000 at a sitting burnt me out. My husband probably thought he was getting a food freak-lol, nah I’m fried. And pregnant?
So i love food but not cooking daily but enjoy fam meals at holidays…..i let all the culinary zealots whip up sumthin’.
If you need a great bean dish or old school desserts, lemme know. This green beans recipe is soooo good we cant have a holiday without a triple batch!
Bonnnn apetit! I still hear Julia trilling that!
Maggie, your comments are so worthy of a blog post in themselves. Your mom sounds WONDERFUL! Mine was obsessed with Julia Child, too, but since we lived in SE Texas, all of our tastes were cookbook-based. It used to bother my Dad, because Mom would make something (really good, really sophisticated, really complex) a few times, perfect it, and never go back. And he was really a cornbread and pork chop-loving stand-up guy from Sweetwater, TX, who was lured into fine foods by my Mom’s intent focus on cuisine.
How delightful that you were gifted with Katie at 43, and that she had her own food journey. I worked with a temperamental chef once and that takes moxie (to stay), so it’s a good thing Katie’s chef was generous with the knowledge-sharing. I bet she has some WONDERFUL stories.
Even after a couple of years of ‘knowing you’ through the blog, I hadn’t realized you worked in commercial kitchens. I can see how presiding over feeding 3000 souls at a time could lead to burnout – that seems like when it would become work rather than something you love to do. That’s ultimately why I didn’t become a caterer when my friend Theresa (search the blog to read about her) proposed that we do it together, even though I had a short stint in my mid-20s catering events. I even catered my own wedding (the one to my son’s father, who’s now a cherished friend). My friend and I made the wedding cake from Martha Stewart’s Entertaining Cookbook, and I used my finger to push the boiling sugar down in the pan (whoops!) and spent the night before my wedding with my hand in a bucket full of ice. But it tasted good!!!
In closing, I DO need a great bean dish and old school desserts. We crave them here in the Glover Gardens blog. Would you share? I see you as a guest blogger with your recipe and the accompanying story… let me know, the pen is yours!