Appetizing Appetizers from The Florida Keys

About the Book

About the Author

After being raised in a suburb of Boston, Massachusetts, I moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania where I became a member of a gourmet dinner club where several couples met and planned menus and cooked monthly dinners which featured foods from different countries.  These dinners were a lot of fun and gave us the experience of trying foods which were unique to us and sometimes these new recipes became some of our favorites.  Each of us in the group felt encouraged and quite interested in having these dinners, as we tried recipes which were challenging due to cooking techniques as well as new spices. 

After moving to Miami, Florida, I joined another gourmet dinner group and continued creating and enjoying delicious meals and sharing them with new friends.   During this time, I also was asked to edit a cookbook for a non-profit group.  Living in Miami, this meant trying foods from many different countries and was a fantastic opportunity for me. I forgot about all the work involved with editing the cookbook, as I was having such a great time cooking the recipes.  Some of those recipes are now favorites in my household.

Entertaining in South Florida and then in The Florida Keys has offered me the opportunity to learn to cook with all types of seafood and try recipes which I hadn’t known while I lived in the Northeastern United States.  It also taught me to have prepared food in the freezer and refrigerator and items in the cupboard for unexpected guests who were on vacation and came to visit or for friends who happened to knock on the door to say hello.

Cooking and its challenges have made my life very interesting and have given me great satisfaction.  To me, it is creating and uplifting and gives me the chance of sharing my love of cooking with friends.  I read a cookbook as some people read a novel. I find it quite exciting to go shopping to buy ingredients for a new recipe and then go home and create an appetizer or an entire meal and share it with family or friends who are willing to experiment with me.  By sharing some of my cooking tips with you, perhaps you will feel free to experiment with a new recipe and enjoy the good feeling that it can give you when you taste your creation.

Holidays are also enjoyable, as I have had the opportunity to make dozens of different cookies, fudge and varieties of jam and place personalized labels on the jars to give as gifts to friends and neighbors.  Giving of myself is very important to me, as I am sure that it is to you.  It is a wonderful feeling to share your love of cooking with someone who may not have the time to experiment with a new creation.   It just makes you feel good to see the smile on someone’s face when you give them one of your homemade gifts in these busy times.

I hope that I can instill in you a love of being challenged to try some recipes whose ingredients you may have tried while living in or visiting The Florida Keys – or just to enjoy some really great food for yourself and your family or to share with friends.