Bruschetta

The bruschetta inspiration: Postinos

 OK, FINALLY we have made and purchased alllll of the necessary pieces in order to put together a pretty amazing bruschetta board (or plate, in my case).  As I mentioned in my previous post, K and I had date night at a local wine bar called Postino that is known for it's bruschetta.  We decided to recreate this at home, and admittedly 4 kinds of bruschetta requires lots of different ingredients.  It would be all well and good to just make one or two of these.  But if you are serving it as a meal instead of a little snack, or if you are having a party, it is nice to have the variety.  Although prepping the ingredients can take a little while, once you have everything prepped these come together pretty quickly, which is what makes them a great food for entertaining.  The four kinds of bruschetta we attempted were:

Brie and Apples with Fig Jam
Prosciutto with Figs and Mascarpone
Roasted Red Pepper and Goat Cheese
Salami with Pesto

What I bought (prosciutto not pictured)

Start out with a couple of loaves of good French or Italian bread (I make my own, but you can also buy it)
Slice into about one inch thick slices, brush both sides lightly with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.  Lay out on a cookie sheet and place in a 350 degree oven for 3-4 minutes.  Flip them all over, and then put them back in for another 3-4 minutes.  You want them a little toasty.  After this, you can start assembling the different bruschetta.

Toasty

Brie and Apples with Fig Spread

Ingredients:
Brie (I used double cream)
Granny Smith Apple, very thinly sliced (we used a mandolin slicer)
Fig Spread (Make your own, or you can usually find it in the fancy cheese section of the grocery store)
Honey

After taking the toast out of the oven, spread with a thin layer of fig spread, and then top with a slice of brie. Put it back in the oven for a few more minutes, until the brie is a little melty.  Remove from oven and top with  thin slices of apple.  Drizzle with honey.  DONE!

Prosciutto with Figs and Mascarpone

Ingredients:
Mascarpone Cheese
Dried black mission figs, sliced
Prosciutto
Fresh ground pepper

After toasts come out of the oven, allow to cool for a few minutes.  They can still be warm, you just don't want them too hot when you spread on the cheese.  After they have cooled down, spread with mascarpone, top with slices of figs and then a slice of prosciutto.  Sprinkle with just a tiny bit of fresh ground pepper.

Mascarpone and figs, just top with Prosciutto 

(This was the easiest one because this is the only one that I didn't have to make any of the ingredients for.  I also thought it was the most bland.  It might be that the mascarpone was not the best brand, I have not worked with that type of cheese before.  but in the future I might even replace the mascarpone with goat cheese)

Roasted Red Pepper and Goat Cheese

Ingredients:
Soft Goat Cheese
Roasted Red Peppers, diced (Make your own, or buy)

After toasts come out of the oven, spread with goat cheese and then top with the diced roasted red peppers.  Done!  So quick and easy.

I failed to take a close up of the Goat Cheese and Red Pepper - So this is the best I can do!

Salami with Pesto

Ingredients:
Pesto (Make your own, or buy in refrigerated section)
Salami, thin slices

After the toasts come out of the oven, spread with pesto.  Top with 2-3 slices of salami.  Done!

Finished Prosciutto and Fig on the left, just need to top the Pesto with Salami

Transfer all the bruschetta onto a large serving platter or two and serve to your dazzled guests.  Best served with wine.

 I personally think that making many of the ingredients from scratch improved these bruschetta.  Because they are very simple, the ingredients are all major stars.  If they are only mediocre, your bruschetta will probably also be mediocre.  Make sure that the ingredients you do buy are the highest quality!

Casual Happy Hour

It all started with an instagram

DIY: How make your own Roasted Red Peppers

One of the last things I decided to make for the bruschetta was the roasted red peppers for the Goat Cheese and Roasted Red Pepper Bruschetta.  We normally will roast these on the grill when we are barbecuing, but since we weren't using the grill right then I decided to make these in the oven.  You can of course buy a jar of these, but roasting your own is so easy and usually cheaper (right now I have been buying bell peppers for .88 cents each here in AZ, unbelievably cheap!).

Weirdly shaped peppers!

I roasted two of them, which made enough for 5-6 bruschetta.  I was surprised that it made less of a final product than I thought, so I was glad that I had roasted two and not one.

Nice and blackened.

Cut the peppers in half, removing the stem and seeds.  Place skin side up on a foil lined cookie sheet.  Move your oven rack to the highest position and turn on the broiler.  Put the cookie sheet of peppers under the broiler and roast until the skin is blackened.  This took mine 10-15 minutes, but watch them very carefully!   Don't go walking away and getting distracted.  The skin should be black in most places.  Then take them out and immediately put in an airtight container.

Pepper Sauna

If you don't have something with a tight fitting lid, just put them in a bowl covered tightly with plastic wrap.  You want them in a pepper sauna.  Leave them alone and don't open the container for 15-20 minutes.  Then you can take them out and peel off the blackened skin.  There you are, left with a beautiful roasted pepper.

Pepper fillet

 I chopped mine up and tossed them in a little olive oil, then stored them in a jar until I wanted to use them.

DIY: Pesto (Nut free)

Ok, so we are on our way to making the bruschetta, but I still have a few more things to make.  The next item is pesto, for the Pesto and Salami Bruschetta.  I absolutely love making pesto, it is a quick and easy favorite for summer, and can be whipped up and thrown on some pasta for an easy meal.  In this case it is the base of a very simple bruschetta.

Gather olive oil, Parmesan cheese, basil, garlic, and lemon 

I like my pesto super garlicky, so if you only like garlic a normal amount you might want to tone it down.  If you are the kind of person that looks at a recipe that calls for one clove of garlic  scoffs, and then uses 5 cloves, this is the recipe for you  (remember that since this is not cooked, the garlic flavor is very strong).  Also, most pestos use nuts, such as pine nuts or walnuts.  I don't include those because I don't really like them and I don't find them necessary.  I add a tablespoon of lemon juice both for flavor and to preserve the bright green color.  I notice that if I don't use lemon, the pesto starts oxidizing very quickly, and turns a less pleasant color.

Basic Pesto

2-3 cups fresh basil
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
1-3 cloves of garlic (one for garlic normals, 3 for garlic lovers)
1 Tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon salt or to taste

I like to grind my parm right in the food processor, so cut it into chunks and then pulse in food processor until it is a crumbly consistency   Add garlic cloves and pulse until combined.  Add fresh basil, then while food processor is running, stream the olive oil through the top feed until you reach your desired consistency (for me that was about half a cup, but you may need to add more or less depending on your preferences and how much basil you have).   Add lemon juice and pulse to combine.  Then add salt to taste.

The lemon juice is really great at maintaining that bright green color.  I also stored it in a mason jar, so the airtight environment might have helped preserve that as well.  I have had this in my fridge for a few days now and it is still a beautiful green color.

DIY: Fig Spread

The other night, K and I went on a date at a local wine bar called Postino.  They are one of Phoenix's favorites, and now have three locations in the metro area.  One thing they are most known for is their bruschetta.  I wasn't aware that bruschetta was such a thing until coming to Arizona - they really, really love their bruschetta here!  Most wine bars offer "bruschetta boards" where you have a menu with many choices of different kinds of bruschetta, and you can get a combination of several of them to try.  Most Phoenicians will claim that Postino has the best bruschetta in town, and I have to agree it is pretty damn delicious.

Bruschetta Inspiration at Postino

We have an out of town friend coming to visit, and K asked if I thought I could recreate our bruschetta at home.  I have already written about how I love to make bruschetta as a quick easy appetizer, and I was up to the challenge of trying out some new recipes   And because I am extra ambitious (Read: unemployed and bored), I decided to make several of the ingredients from scratch.  I was totally going to buy everything, but I realized that A.) with four different kinds of bruschetta, that grocery bill was going to add up fast and B.)  Homemade is almost always better than store bought.

Get 10 ounces of dried Calimyrna figs

Stem and quarter

Grab a fresh lemon

The first item that I decided to make at home was a fig spread for the Brie and Apples with Fig Spread Bruschetta.  I stumbled upon a recipe from none other than my hero, Ms. Martha Stewart herself.  After reviewing to make sure I wasn't getting in over my head (you have to watch that with Martha), I decided to give it a try.  This turned out to be ridiculously easy and delicious   Even if I wasn't making bruschetta, I would like to have this on hand for throwing together easy appetizers.  Putting this out with some cheese and crackers would instantly elevate it to a cheese platter.  Or just spread it on toast.

Squeeze that lemon

Simmer the figs with sugar

Throw the cooked figs in a food processor

Fig Spread
(From Martha Stewart)

10oz Dried Calimyrna Figs, stems removed and quartered
3 Tablespoons Sugar
1 Tablespoon Fresh Lemon Juice
1 1/2 cups water

Combine figs, sugar and water in a saucepan, bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and cover, let simmer until most water has evaporated and figs are easily pierced with a sharp knife ( Martha says 20 minutes, mine took closer to 35 - so just keep checking them after 20 minutes)

Transfer to food processor, add lemon juice and puree until you reach your desired consistency.  Add up to 1/4 cup of additional water if needed (I didn't as there was still quite a bit of water left in the pot of figs).

Blend figs with lemon juice

For some reason I was afraid this was going to turn out bland and horrible, so I was very surprised when it was delicious.  I immediately put it on a cracker with cheese. 

Amazing

Heaven

Stay tuned, I will post the recipe for the bruschetta soon!

Oh, and Wine Wednesday

Well, as most of you know, it is No Spend Month, so I don't have as much wine laying around the house as usual.  My wine cellar is empty.  And by wine cellar, I mean the Cool Select Pantry Drawer in my fridge where I normally keep between 0 and 1 bottles of wine.  But I was reminded that it is Wine Wednesday, and I can not neglect my duties.  However, I totally slacked and forgot to take a photo of my most recent selection, so you guys are going to have to deal with an empty bottle.  It's fine, just pretend its artsy.  Plus, it gave me a chance to play with my new camera.  Please forgive me for not instantly being an amazing photographer, but the last time I took a photography class I was 17, and these newfangled digital cameras are complicated!  I'm working on it.

Look, I even went outside for this one!  Yeah, I know it's overexposed.

So, this is a really great and very inexpensive wine.  Yellow Tail Pinot Grigio.  It's everything you love about Pinot Grigio and nothing you don't.  It's well balanced, crisp, not too sweet.   It's also usually between $5.49-$7.99, and probably one of the best wines in that price range.  It's a great everyday wine.

Wine:  Yellow Tail Pinot Grigio 
Year: ?
Region: South Eastern Australia
Purchased From: Target
 Price: $5.49
Verdict: 4/5

What to do when you are waiting for an important phone call that you may or may not be getting

Today, there was a possibility that I would be getting a sort of important phone call between 11-12.  But it had not been confirmed that I would actually be getting that call.  So I spent an hour feeling like a teenage girl who is hoping her sort of boyfriend would call, carrying my phone around the house with me and checking it every 3 minutes to make sure the volume was up and I had no missed calls.  What should you do while waiting for an important call that you may or may not get?

1.  Practice talking a bit just to make sure your voice is working correctly.  "Hello!  Hellloooooo?  Hello."

2.  Watch funny video on youtube so that you sound super relaxed and friendly when they call.

3. Turn off music to watch video.  Leave it off in case they call.

4. Make sure all communications went though.  Send follow up email.

5.  Decide they are never going to call if you just sit here in silence.  Turn music back on.

6. Realize you are starving because your vegan/gluten- free dinner last night was not filling at all.  Decide to fry an egg.  Think that if they are going to call at all, it will probably be while you are in the middle of frying an egg anyway.

7.  Send your boyfriend status updates via text and email every ten minutes throughout the hour.

8.  Waste time on the internets.

9.  Check email again.

10.  Watch the clock turn to 12:01.  Think of various ways things could have gone horribly wrong and assume that you will never hear from them again.

Changing Perspective

I just made myself some hot chocolate.  Hot chocolate, people!  It is actually cold here in the desert.  Ok, cold might be an exaggeration compared to some places, but I will tell you that it is currently only 6 degrees warmer here than it is in Fairbanks, Alaska.  That is sort of cheating, it is really warm in Fairbanks right now. But, it's eleven degrees colder in Portland right now than it is here.  And it's snowing.  Wait, what was I talking about?  The point is that its sort of cold here, but you won't hear me bitching about it because I would take this over 110 degrees any day.

This is exactly the kind of photo my angsty teenage self would take.  We didn't have instagram back in those days, you whipersnaper!   I had to wind the film myself!

I have been in a bit of a funk recently, and having a hard time keeping my negative thoughts at bay.  I've been asking myself what would make me happier.  One of the things I have been missing about Portland is that I could walk out my door and walk down the street, and it would almost always make me happy.  It could be walking through the hills of my SW Portland neighborhood and looking out over the city and Mount Hood, or it could be the Portland Waterfront, only a few blocks from our apartment near downtown.  It could be the nighttime treks that we took home after a night out, after the streetcar shut down.  It could be walking down NW 21st, popping into shops and cafes.  It could be the Irvington neighborhood in NE Portland, while I marveled at those huge, old houses, wondering who used to live there.   No matter where it was, I loved being there.  And I haven't found that feeling in Phoenix.  But I have to admit that I haven't been trying very hard to find it either.

So far the best part about Arizona is the sky

 So today, I decided it was time to try a little harder.  I took a short walk in my neighborhood to let a little sunshine in and try to clear away the cobwebs.  I realized that the awe of everyday beauty was sadly lacking in my life.  So I gave myself an assignment to try to find something beautiful or interesting.  Although I didn't quite recapture the everyday beauty that I used to find in Portland on this particular walk, I did see a few things that I found instagram worthy.  And when I stopped to check the mail, I got a letter from my BFF. Then at the end of the walk, I saw a beautiful hummingbird.  So I ended the walk with my spirits significant;y lifted, and I felt like I had successfully completed my assignment.

Speaking of that hummingbird, I tried tot take a photo, but that thing was fast.  I am so excited because soon I will be able to take photos with a REAL CAMERA!  K got me a super awesome camera for Christmas  but it arrived damaged and needed repairs so we had to send it off to Canon to get fixed up.  I just checked on the status and it should be here tomorrow!  So, these may be some of the last iphone photos you have to endure.  But probably not, I bet I will still sneak an iphone photo in now and then.

Zoomed in close up of the hummingbird