Friday Night Eats

On Friday Christopher had the idea to re-live some cuisine we had together last year during our trip to Seattle. We ate at Lola's a modern Greek reconstruction restaurant and ate a unique Kalamata and Fig Spread on pita bread. We decided to make a party of it and invited Marlon over to help us re-create the recipe.

We bought raw pizza dough from the store and grilled the raw dough in a cast-iron skillet. The result was bread as tender as Indian naan but with a familiar American pizza dough taste. The resulting bread was used as the vehicle to sop up the tasty spreads. We made one savory and one sweet spread that went great with the Pinot Noir Marlon brought over. We all agreed the spreads were good enough to make again although the sweet spread was the most reminiscent of the spread from Lola's that we missed so much. We also made Strawberry and Whipped Cream Napoleons for dessert but that is a story for another day.

I included the recipe for the sweet mission fig and olive tapenade below. I excluded the salt from the recipe because we found the olives gave the recipe an ample salty taste. We also added 1T orange zest for another flavor dimension. The rich taste and the intriguing texture of the figs contrasts well with the salty black and purple olives in this recipe. I can't wait to share this appetizer with friends on the deck with a glass of Las Brisas wine this summer.

• 
  Fig and Kalamata Tapenade
  1.5 c chopped dried black mission figs
  .5 c kalamata olives pitted and chopped
  1/3 c pine nuts (toasted) (chopped and toasted walnuts would also work)
  2 T balsamic vinegar
  2 T extra virgin olive oil
  2T capers (blotted dry)
  1.5 t fresh oregano
  1/2 t black pepper
  1 T orange zest
  
  Chop figs and olives in food processor.
  Mix remaining ingredients together with figs and olives and serve.
  (Recipe found from Google Books.)

Birthday Bar Cookies

Last month my big sister had her 27th birthday party. Too celebrate, I made several types of bars cookies to bring to the party: cherry almond cheesecake bars (left,) mint chocolate brownies (middle,) chocolate caramel bars (right,) blondies, chocolate chips cookies, and raspberry bars. The crowd-pleaser was the chocolate caramel bars. I discovered this recipe in a cookbook my Grandma gave me a few years ago. Grandma was always being sent cookbooks in the mail that she didn't want and would reluctantly pay for the books instead of going to the trouble of mailing the books back. While these books were a nuisance to her, since she only cooked healthy recipes and swore she had allergies to flour and sugar, her hand me down mail order books opened my eyes to the great recipes of America's Test Kitchen as well as to the recipe for the chocolate caramel bars, from a Taste of Home cookbook, that I'm sure I'll be making until I'm a grandma myself:

Ingredients:

• 2-1/4 cups all-purpose flour, divided
• 2 cups quick-cooking oats
• 1-1/2 cups packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1-1/2 cups cold butter, cubed
• 2 cups (12 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips
• 1 cup chopped pecans
• 1 jar (12 ounces) caramel ice cream topping

Directions:

In a large bowl, combine 2 cups flour, oats, brown sugar, baking soda and salt. Cut in butter until crumbly. Set half aside for topping.
Press the remaining crumb mixture into a greased 13-in. x 9-in. baking pan. Bake at 350° for 15 minutes. Sprinkle with the chocolate chips and pecans.
Whisk caramel topping and remaining flour until smooth; drizzle over top. Sprinkle with the reserved crumb mixture. Bake for 18-20 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on a wire rack for 2 hours before cutting. Yield: about 4-1/2 dozen.

Snack time!

Dean's, (or Lehigh in some regions of the U.S.,) Over the Moon milk is everything milk should be! It tastes just like you always thought milk should taste like, but never experienced until you try this milk. It has a creamier taste and a more defined "milky" taste that other brands. Some say the fat free variety tastes just like drinking 2%, however I can't agree with that claim but I can say that I think this milk tastes better than any other brand on the market. This is impart due to being ultra pasteurized. Another perk of ultra pasteurized milk is that it has a longer shelf life. Try this product in 2% and it will taste like drinking half and half, goes great with homemade cookies.

Bridgford's Monkey Bread is a sweet and gooey dessert or breakfast food that goes great with milk. With a taste a lot better than canned cinnamon rolls found in the refrigerated section, this may become your new go to breakfast treat. Bridgford marketed the product after realizing monkey bread was one of the most popularly searched for recipes on the internet. The product heats in the microwave in less than 3 minutes. The product can be found at Walmart for under $3.00 and since there's so many pull-apart pieces it's easy to share with others.