I was fortunate enough to travel to Paris the first week of March. Unfortunately, my goal of running and completing the Paris Half-Marathon was an utter failure. A knee injury the week prior prevented me from running. It didn’t however prevent me from enjoying the fine wines, food and beauty Paris has to offer…
I was perusing the aisles of a local fancy-schmancy boutique grocery store last week and saw a delicious looking bag of chocolate granola. I was tempted to grab it and put it into my cart because my breakfast consisted of one stale pretzel stick and I’d completely skipped lunch. So I was about as hungry as my dog (he’s ravenous 24/7) I glanced down at the price tag on the teeny-tiny bag and the $12 price was just a bit off-putting…
I decided to make a batch of my own.
So I ventured over to the bulk section, grabbed some items, and for a whopping $4.13 I had the ingredients for a delicious chocolate granola that’s not overly sweet and is actually sort of good for you.
I like this granola served over non-fat yogurt with a drizzle of honey and any sort of berry that’s in season. My kids like it with milk, chocolate sauce and whipped cream but I somehow managed to convince them that chocolate sauce and whipped cream give you horrible, awful, embarrassing gas.
They’re just fine having it with the milk.
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Crab Stuffed Cherry Tomatoes
Miniature Vegetarian Pizza with Roasted Pepper Tapenade
Hors d’oeuvre.
The word alone just sounds intimidating, doesn’t it? And try spelling it. After years of preparing the “hors d’oeuvre” I usually end up misspelling it. Okay, I always misspell it. Sometimes I switch the “o” with the “u” and inadvertently insert one of these: ☂ and occasionally one of these: ☞. The damn word confuses me.
Then I just Google it. And voilà!
Hors d’oeuvre.
But the hors d’oeuvre doesn’t have to be intimidating or complicated. I’m a sucker for a good hor d’oeuvre, and I’ve been known to make a light meal out of them, so if you invite me to your party just make sure you have plenty. Have some champagne too, I love champagne.
Here I’ll show you two easy, make-ahead hors d’oeuvres that will be a hit at your next cocktail party.
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For the miniature pizzas, you can go ahead and use a freshly made store-bought dough or make your own, which will yield a much tastier hors d’oeuvre.
There’s no real trick to making these delicious pizzas – whatever topping you use will taste pretty amazing. Unless of course you’re one of the few who enjoy the peanut butter/pork rind combo.
My preparation of choice was the indoor grill pan. Roll out pizza dough on floured board and cut with a 2 1/2″ round cookie cutter. Cook on lightly oiled grill over medium heat for about 1 minute per side. Easy, quick and flavorful. If your kitchen is sans grill pan, just place the pizzas on a greased cookie sheet and bake in a 400° oven for roughly 8 minutes, or until cooked through.
The pizzas dough can be cooked, topped, covered tightly in plastic wrap and kept in the fridge for a day or two before reheating in a 350° oven for 6-8 minutes. One 16 oz. ball of dough, will yield about 25-30 pizzas.
I made two variations of the mini pizza:
Pizza no. 1: Red pepper tapenade, caramelized onion with Gruyère cheese. When pizzas were removed from the oven I topped each one with a tiny bit of micro-greens. You can sub watercress.
Pizza no. 2: Basil pesto, oven roasted balsamic & garlic tomatoes with honeyed goat cheese.
Try them. Yum.
It was an unusually slow week for cooking around here. I think, okay I know, hot dogs made an appearance on the menu once. Or twice. It’s all good because I’m in the midst of taste testing several all natural, nitrate free local brands. I love hot dogs. Guilty pleasure of mine.
We had house guests during the week – and any excuse to get out and show off San Francisco is always fun for me. Just don’t call it “Frisco.” Really. Don’t.
Aside from the hot dogs piled high with crunchy jalapeño sauerkraut and onions, a quick dinner of grilled salmon with fresh herbs, a bottle of wine, followed by a walk down the hill to the newest addition to our neighborhood, The Ice Cream Bar made for a fun evening.
The Plague has reared its ugly head around here. Or something very similar to it. My family has taken turns getting sick and I think the drawing below sums up how we’ve been feeling this past week…
There’s just one thing that seems to make everyone feel better. Soup. Not just any soup, it’s got be French onion soup. For me though, the problem with French onion soup is that I always walk away wanting something more. I’m not always satisfied with the onions the bread and the cheese. So I added miniature turkey meatballs.
Instant hit.
If you can, make your own beef broth – it’ll make all the difference here. If you don’t have time, just make sure to use a good quality low sodium beef broth – some of them can be soooo salty.
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