Creamy Tomato Basil Cucumber Bites

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Little treats to enjoy while socializing or as a prelude to a feast have been around for centuries, but in the United States the actual word “appetizer” began to appear during the 1860s, most likely as an English alternative to the French word “hors d’oeuvre” for a description of a first course or snack plate.

After the repeal of prohibition in 1933 cocktail parties became popular and countless appetizer recipes for snacks to enjoy with drinks began to appear. Around the same time, the modern model for the three course meal of appetizer, main course and desert emerged in restaurants.

For this recipe, tomato, basil and cucumber star in a garden fresh appetizer. The basil and tomato are the signature flavors and are bound together with cream cheese and sour cream. The mixture is placed on a slice of fresh cucumber and can be served before a hardy meal or as part of a slew of snacks to be enjoyed while sipping on cool beverages at gathering with friends and family.

BEHIND THIS BITE

Creamy tomato basil cucumber bites

This is the first of several appetizer bites I made recently for a gathering of friends. Here I use a cucumber as the mode of delivery and tomato and basil as the star flavors of this garden-fresh treat. When I decided to make these appetizers this was the first one I thought of.

As I was shopping for the ingredients I realized it would be easy to create a number of snacks by swapping out ingredients and changing the delivery method for each bite. The cream cheese and sour cream are the constants that all the snacks have in common. I was able to provide three different, but similar hor’s douvres in this manor. It’s an easy way to create a variety of tasty treats for getting a party started. Look for the Jalapeño-bacon version of this for my next post.

Eat well, cook often ...

THE RECIPE

Creamy tomato basil cucumber bites

Makes 32 snacks, 20 minutes (30 minutes inactive)
1 pkg Cream cheese (8 oz)
1 C Sour cream
2 Tbs Fresh basil, minced
1 C Tomato, seeded, diced
32 slices Cucumber
Extra Basil for garnish

Make spread
In a large bowl mix together cream cheese, sour cream, basil and tomato until well incorporated. Adjust seasoning if necessary. Cover and let flavors meld for at least 30 minutes.

Build appetizer
On a slice of cucumber place a dollop of the spread and garnish with extra minced basil.

Italian Style Spaghetti Squash

Squash has been dated as far back as 7,000 B.C. in parts of Mexico and South America. According to The Oxford Companion to American Food and Drink, explorers from Europe originally thought squash were melons and were delighted to find them everywhere they went in the new world. Another example of a modern food staple of the western world that was discovered in the Americas. I'm starting to think that the diet of most Europeans before they began exploring consisted of grass, tree bark and the flesh of what ever animal they weren't currently using as transportation.

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Today, squash is divided into two primary families, summer squash, most abundant in late summer, and winter squash, which thrives in the fall. Summer squash, such as cucumber and zucchini, have edible skin, soft seeds and require little cooking. Winter squash, like pumpkin and acorn, have tough skin, hard seeds and require an ample amount of cooking time.

For this recipe, I use spaghetti squash, a winter variety, which resembles its namesake pasta when cooked and removed from its skin. The first recipe features a hearty mixture composed of sausage, onion, fresh peppers and store-bought traditional pasta sauce that tops the squash – which works well as a delicate and tasty substitute for spaghetti pasta. The dish can easily serve as the center piece of a meal. The second recipe features spaghetti squash tossed with basil pesto, this dish works best as a side.

BEHIND THIS BITE
I have been waiting all summer to cook home-grown spaghetti squash and substitute it for none other than - spaghetti! My Dad had planted it in the garden, and I knew that there would be copious amounts by the fall.

There always is.

Gardeners all over northern Indiana have little stands out near the road to display and sell their leftover bounty from the garden. It starts with tomatoes, cucumber and zucchini in late summer, then slowly, as fall sets in – the pumpkin, acorn and spaghetti squash slowly take their place.

What amazes me about these stands is that they are unattended. There is only a list of prices, like four cucmber for $1, and a jar or container to put the money in. You could take as much as you wanted and not leave a dime or even steal the money in the jar – but that rarely happens. It's a karma thing. I bought three tomatoes at one of these stands recently and written on top of the money jar was "My God is Watching."

A fresh vegetable stand in Northern Indiana.

I almost left double the amount.

These stands are a great representation of the openess and optimism of the rural Midwesterner. People in other parts of the country might call it naive, but I believe that comes from the somewhat-synical world view that most urban dwellers must develop to survive in places dominated by grift and the grifter.

In more than a decade living in New York City, I saw nothing that I could compare to these goodwill vegetable stands. Don't get me wrong, there are many awesome things created purely from goodwill in the Big Apple. You just don't find the buying and selling of goods at a road-side stand based on an honors system. They were a site to see last summer, my first in the Midwest since the late 1990s, and a great source of fresh vegetables at a price grocery stores or farmers markets couldn't compete with.

Eat well, cook often ...