Rosemary Marinade for Easy Appetizers

Appetizers first appeared in culinary history as a way to appease Greek and Roman rulers as they drank wine while waiting for their meals. Before the advent of nibbles to counter the alcohol, they might have demanded the banishment, even death of tens perhaps hundreds of servers as their stomachs growled and their buzzes took hold. In an effort to stem this loss of staff, the Roman Senate formed a special panel to investigate possible solutions. The result was the app tisor, which literally translates to “little meal.” Around this same time period, independent of any panel suggestions, peasant cooks realized they could keep family members from milling around the kitchen and getting on their nerves if they gave the hungry diners a snack before dinner.

In this series of free cooking videos, our catering expert Anne Apra shares her recipes for the appetizers which have been most popular with her customers. Learn how to make rosemary marinade, seasoned spiced nuts and pita crisps in the easy steps outlined in these recipe videos. Anne does more than simply show you how to make these delicious treats, she demonstrates how to prepare them for a large group of people. Want to impress your party guests with citrus aoli or pigs in a blanket? Trust Expert Village for your catering needs.

"Hi. I'm Anne Apra and I'm a caterer. And I'd like to teach you some of my wonderful catering tips in a show I like to call catering tips 101. We're going to make a wonderful marinade for a dish that we're going to make a little bit later. So I wanted to give you a few tips on how to make a delicious marinade that you can use for chicken, for fish, for meats. I like to start with fresh rosemary which I grow in my very own garden. Perhaps later I'll show you a tip on how to cut them properly. And the secret to quickly and easily using your fresh rosemary is to take pieces at a time, grab it by the top and strip it. Like that. And have them sprinkle down to your waiting cutting board. It's always good to have all of your implements that you need for cooking at a finger tips notice. Have your knives ready, have a towel ready, have a cutting board in place, have a bowl ready so that you can put your finished products into so that you can save time and save energy which is what catering tips 101 are all about. Alright, so I have prepared here a good handful of beautiful fresh rosemary that I clipped just a little while ago. When you are clipping rosemary by the way try and clip in the morning. Any of your herbs because morning time is best for the herbs. They have their most pungent flavors, they're fresher, usually they've just been watered, so they're going to release a lot of flavor. Alright. I'm going to take one of my favorite tools. This is called a mezzaluna. Its a half moon knife and it works great for chopping herbs or garlic in nice uniform cuts. Which in catering is a wonderful treat. Also when you are cooking with rosemary, it can be tough to bite into so its good to cut them into small places or into small pieces and it also helps to release this wonderful aromatic flavor. I'm going to reserve them in a nice bowl here and know that if you don't have this wonderful tool called the mezzaluna, you can use a regular chef's knife which I'll demonstrate very quickly. Just put the knife towards the end and use it in a rocking fashion, holding it with one hand on the top and just rocking back and forth to create lots of symmetrical cuts. Here we go. Rosemary for marinade coming right your way."