It is looking like the trend for this blog is turning out to be "how food brings people together." Last night, was girl's game night. This involves some friends coming over bringing wine or something to eat and playing games. Well, the intention is to play games. The last two times it has been more, we ate, we drank and we chatted. We only realize that games were supposed to be played when people get tired and are ready to go home. Oh well, it is a really fun evening either way.
Being the hostess for this little get together, I provided several different food choices in case some people came only bearing wine (which is perfectly OK with me since I love to play hostess and cook). One friend walked in and we realized we made basically the same thing, a take on caprese salad. Her's was delightful and had wheat berries in it. Mine was grape tomatoes, basil and mozzarella. Here it is (it will feed about 6 as an appetizer or small salad):
1.5 pints grape tomatoes (halved)
4 cloves of finely chopped garlic
15 basil leaves (yes I did count them as I was using them)
4 oz. mozarella cheese
salt and pepper to taste
olive oil
1. Mix your halved grape tomatoes, chopped garlic and a pinch of salt in a bowl
2. make a chiffonade with your basil (yes fancy word to mean roll your basil leaves like a cigar and slice your basil into fine strips - video here I take no credit for the video besides finding it online).
3. mix your basil in with your tomatoes and drizzle a bit of olive oil over the mixture.
4. cover the tomatoes/basil with Glad Press 'n Seal (world's BEST food storage wrapping), or you can use any other plastic wrap. Let your tomato mixture sit in the refrigerator for 6-8hrs to marinate.
5. Just about when you are ready to serve your salad slice the mozzarella into 1/4 inch cubes and mix in with the tomato mixture.
6. Add a bit of fresh black pepper to the tomato/mozzarella mixture and serve!
To the Caprese salad I also offered a roasted garlic olive oil to dip fresh french bread in. To make roasted garlic olive oil:
Roasted Garlic
1 large head of garlic
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp dried basil
3/4 c. olive oil
Pre-heat oven to 350.
1. Cut the top off of your head of garlic, leaving all the skin on the garlic, so that the very tops of the garlic cloves show
2. put your garlic in a shallow baking dish
3. sprinkle salt, pepper and dried basil over garlic
4. pour 1/4 c. olive oil over garlic
5. cover garlic in pan with foil
6. cook for 50-55 mins and when done let sit, uncovered in baking dish for 10-15 mins to cool.
7. when cool, squeeze garlic out of skin (your hands will get sticky and covered in garlic, but it is so good that it is worth it)
8. pour remaining 1/2 c. olive oil over garlic and mash garlic into the olive oil.
9. serve with fresh bread.
Finally, I served a dip that I found in my cabinet from Tastefully Simple. It was a cheddar and chive dip. I thought it was just OK, my friends really liked it. Basically, you take the premixed seasonings and mix it with some cream cheese. I had a block of cream cheese that I wasn't planning on using any time soon, so I figured I should use it with this. I served it with crackers and people were happy.
Well, that is the food I prepared and for which I can provide recipes. Needless to say, no one left hungry or unhappy.
I love a good get-together with friends! So, here's to good eating!
No comments:
Post a Comment