Rosie Makes Appetizers.

It was a lazy Saturday afternoon.
Cold outside.
The kind of day when I turn on the instant fireplace
to give some warmth and coziness
and I can sort of feel good
 about things I accomplished over the week.
My to-do list, although still staggering,
 is almost at a manageable point.
It's the reorganization of the New Year and it can be overwhelming.
I'm very happy to have my oven fixed,
 so instead of finally baking something hearty
 on this cold day to celebrate the day and good fortune,
I decide to make a cold appetizer.

It starts with Cold Smoked Alaska Sockeye Salmon.

My "recipe:"
Triscuits
 Cream cheese
 Cucumber, thinly sliced
Salmon
  Red onion, chopped
Fresh dill sprigs
Capers
 Assemble.

Now, I could have just posted all these pictures and you probably wouldn't even notice that there are no capers involved whatsoever. I was out of capers. Quel horreurs! I know. I know. Rosie is slackin' off. There really is no excuse. So in the interest of full disclosure, I am disclosing that the round things in the pictures are peppercorns, not capers. I prefer capers to peppercorns, and don't suggest using peppercorns unless you really really like them. I just used the peppercorns to sub for the capers in the picture. And I probably could have left this explanation out and you never would have noticed. In fact, there have been times when I've sneaked certain ... objects ... into my mise en place and no one even noticed. Tell you what. Here's a contest for you. If you don't have a life, go back through my posts, checking out the mise en place and see if you can find: 1. A condom package. 2. My Smith & Wesson 38 special. Winners will receive a gift package from Rosie. Heh. I showed the photograph to Youngest Hawthorne and, without hesitation, he asked me, "Mama, why is your gun in the picture?" He notices things like that.

Anyways, you just have to pretend that little ball is a caper.

Excellent little morsel.

I love all the flavors and textures together.
Crunchy triscuit on the bottom,
then the creaminess of the cheese.
Cooling cucumber, the bite of the onion,
 smoky salmon, herbalicious dill.
And if I actually had capers in there,
you'd have this salty, tangy, pungent thing
 going on in your mouth too.
 Trust Rosie
 Make this and throw in the capers.