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Savory Snacks

Appetizers/Starters, Dinner, Lunch, Savory Snacks

Easy “Cheater” Ham, Salami and Cheese Stromboli

Here’s another idea for a picnic, potluck, biergarten meetup or a quick dinner that will feed — well, I’m guessing this will easily feed 10 people as a snack, maybe 4-5 for dinner. I made a cheater version of this stomboli because I bought the pizza dough at Trader Joes, though it’s not actually difficult to make pizza dough. If you do cheat, this stromboli will be ready in under an hour. Can be eaten hot or at room temperature and can be made a day or two in advance, if needed. Easy-peasy!
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Savory Snacks, Sides

Refrigerator Dill Pickles 5 ways:
Whole, Spears, Stackers, Slices and Relish

Have I ever told you about my complete and utter infatuation with the Dill Pickle? The Gherkin. The traditional accompaniment to the American burger. I have never met a combination of Vinegar, Dill and the standard ol’ cucumber that I didn’t love. Put them together and I am in heaven.

This infatuation has roots literally to the first years that I was on this plant (or any other planet, as far as I know). As my mum will tell you, I abhorred baby food. Anything mushing and unidentifiable, I wasn’t going to eat. No mushy carrots, no porridge, no yogurt. Blech. So there I was, one day at that age when one is just learning to speak and I was being a fussy little one, sitting in a high chair and pointing at the table. The family tried everything: does the want a piece of bread? Perhaps some of the soup that my sister was eating? Anything, anything? Finally, in my infant rage, I skipped the whole Mama and Papa as my first word and yelled “GURKE!” (the German word for pickle, think like gherkin). And yes indeed, I wanted a dill pickle. To this day, I have to pace myself from eating entire jars in one sitting. Yeah, I’m weird like that.

And while I have my favorite store bought ones, I also make my own. This is my basic recipe (though I make some spicier ones too). These Refrigerator Dill Pickles can be used for whole mini-cukes, spears, stackers and slices…. add a little bit of onion and it makes a great relish too. Now, if you’ll excuse me, there’s a fridge full of deliciousness.
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Dinner, Lunch, Pasta, Salads, Savory Snacks, Sides

Lemon-Dill Salmon Pasta Salad

Ahh, summertime when veggies are fresh and you really don’t want to eat hot food anyway, right? Right. So I made this lovely Lemon-Dill Salmon Pasta Salad with Cucumbers and Peas for lunch. Made it up on the fly as I had salmon for dinner last night. In the end, it turned out to be more “northern” influenced… these flavours remind me of Scandinavia, though I doubt this would be authentically Swedish or Norwegian. At any rate, it *is* delicious. I have plenty of leftovers so it may turn into dinner as well as lunch.
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Appetizers/Starters, Savory Snacks

Deviled Egg Footballs

The Superbowl is on Sunday so I’m trying out a few recipes in the run up to the big game. A friend shared this idea to my FB page last weeka dn I took it as a little bit of a challenge. One thing of note when making these: under-season (or leave out completely) with salt in the egg filling… pepper, parika, all good. But the bacon is so salty that you might want to add very little to the mixture, lest you have a salt-lick on your hands!
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