Overbooked and Underpaid: Notes from a Yes-aholic

Bruschetta (Overbooked Cook)

Tis the season to harvest Tomatoes and Basil. Which means 'tis the season to make Bruschetta.

This is the recipe I've come up with over the years after some tinkering.

Knock Out Bruschetta

Ingredients:

2 good sized garden tomatoes like beefsteak or 4 smallish "on the vine" grocery store tomatoes or one pint grape or cherry tomatoes or 6 roma tomatoes, chopped into small pieces.

2-3 tbsp balsamic vinegar (the older, the better)

2 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp honey

6-10 good sized leaves of fresh basil, chopped

coarse salt

freshly ground pepper

2-3 cloves garlic, pressed

1 small ball fresh mozzarella, diced into fairly small pieces

or

2 oz fresh parmigiano or asiago cheese julienned

Put everything except the tomatoes and cheese into a medium sized bowl and mix together thoroughly making sure the honey dissolves completely.

Cut the tomatoes into small pieces on a cutting board (not in a food processor) and try to drain off as much of the extra juice as you can before adding to the oil and vinegar mixture.

Add the cheese and mix all together.

Let sit for about 15 minutes before serving so that the cheese and tomatoes get sort of marinated. 

Overbooked version: serve with Breton Crackers

Full gourmet version: Using the best baguette you can find, cut it into diagonal slices. Then rub each slice with a clove of garlic (one clove should do several slices), brush lightly with olive oil and broil until lightly browned. 

Note: Eating Bruschetta can be a very messy business so I try to keep the bread pieces small enough for 2 bites. The same for serving on crackers - the less fragile the cracker and the fewer bites it takes to finish, the better.

Extra note: As the quantity and type of tomato vary, so will the exact measurements of the oil and vinegar mixture. There should be enough of it to coat every bit of cheese and tomato, and enough vinegar and garlic that you can taste the bite.

Asiago - Super Cheese (Overbooked Cook)

 

So today we are going to talk about easy, delicious, appetizers to take to a gathering when you forgot you promised to take something to a gathering. 

A gathering that is in 30 minutes.

Heck - you may even have forgotten there was a gathering in the first place, let alone that you promised to bring food to it.

But first a word about Asiago cheese. 

This is one of the all time great cheeses. It is usually a pretty hard cheese so it has a longer shelf life than a soft cheese. Which is very important for overbooked people because we need to be able to stock our fridge or pantry for emergencies and we need to be able to do that with stuff that lasts longer than a nanosecond before we throw it out.

Asiago is also a pretty affordable cheese that has a great sophisticated taste - a little sharper than a Parmesian, but definitely more mellow than a Romano.

And, most importantly for our purposes, Asiago generally slices well with a sharp knife without crumbling and it pairs beautifully with sweets and crackers.

So my all time best last minute hors d'oeuvre for emergency, panic stricken situations is as follows:

Sweet Asiago Canape's

Prep time 15-25 minutes - (add extra time if you have to run to the store and get these ingredients - the great thing is you can even take the ingredients with you and make these canapes on the spot if needed.)

Ingredients:

1-2 boxes of quality crackers - Breton and Carrs make several good varieties. 

(Occasionally I have also used thin cookies instead and that is even more delicious - check out Annas Thins here.)

1 wedge of Asiago

Jam or Honey (Raspberry and Peach Jam are particularly good for this)

To best serve these canapes you will need a pretty good sized tray so they don't overlap. The canapes themselves are incredibly simple - arrange several crackers on a tray, spread a little jam on each cracker, and then - with a very sharp knife - cut small pieces of cheese and set one piece on top of each jam covered cracker. The ratio of cheese to cracker is up to you but you can actually get away with pretty small pieces.

If you use honey instead of jam, put the cheese on the cracker first and then add a small amount of honey. Be careful not to add too much because the honey will just keep spreading out and spilling over the cracker if there is too much. When I make this with honey, I actually add the honey at the event.

If you have extra time and want an even tastier canape, add a small apple wedge, or a piece of walnut or a raisin.

Voila! A tasty appetizer that will impress everyone and they'll never know you how colossally disorganized you are!

(Unless they read this blog.)