Sweet & Tangy: Bruschetta with Gorgonzola Cheese and Honey

Honey and cheese is a fantastic combination. I’ve been served cheese plates in restaurants where they’ve drizzled a little over each wedge of cheese. The sweetness of honey pairs so well with the saltiness, nuttiness, or tanginess of cheese.

Honey really mellows out the tangy gorgonzola in this crunchy crostini. Even if you don’t normally like blue cheese, you may surprise yourself and enjoy this simple, yet scrumptious treat! (This worked as my "blue" hors d'oeuvre for the "Brown Bear" themed birthday party!)

Bruschetta with Gorgonzola Cheese and Honey
(As seen on Everyday Italian)
Ingredients
36 slices (½-inch thick) baguette bread, about 1 loaf
¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
8 ounces Gorgonzola, sliced
3 Tablespoons honey

Directions
Preheat the oven to 400° F.

Arrange the sliced baguette on a baking sheet. Brush with olive oil. Bake until the bread is pale golden and crisp, about 10 minutes.

Arrange the cheese on the toasts and bake until the cheese is melted, about 3 minutes.

Drizzle the toasts with honey. Place on a serving platter and serve immediately.

Signora DiVinici: Grape and Olive Compote

Another recipe that I tried for my niece’s birthday was from my friend, Christina. She recommended to me the historical fiction novel, Signora DiVinici to read. I recently received the book through an online mail order, and am hoping to find some time during my upcoming winter break to read it. Apparently the heroine cooks throughout the book and this recipe is included at the end.

As I was cooking for a crowd that included some non-olive-eaters, I omitted them and added some toasted walnuts instead. It was the perfect “purple” addition for my Brown Bear theme. I spread goat cheese on crostini and topped them with the grape and walnut compote. The recipe below is the original version with olives.

Grape and Olive Compote
Ingredients
2 cups red seedless grapes
1 cup olives
3 Tablespoons olive oil
3 Tablespoons balsamic vinegar
3 Tablespoons thyme

Directions
Toss everything in a glass bowl and put into 350°F oven for one hour – tossing every 20 minutes to coat.

Serve with goat cheese and crusty bread.

Mission Figs: Fig and Goat Cheese Crostini

The last week of October brought me and my husband a little getaway to the Bay. In a trip that was a fusion between work, school, and pleasure, we got to experience the pleasant fall weather in San Francisco, and a lot of time visiting with friends. It is rather ironic how just a year ago it seemed like we hardly knew anyone in Northern California, but now we have friends from SF to San Jose to Oakland. We were welcomed by all of these friends, and split our stay between Oakland and SF. Lucky for us, all of our hosts are fellow "foodies", so we had many memorable meals and abounding tastings of wine.



We stayed a couple nights with our friend Sarah at her fabulous Russian Hill apartment. When we arrived at her place she greeted us with a bottle of wine, hors d'oeuvres, and a plan to watch the sunset from her kitchen, before heading out to dinner. She has what must be one of the most spectacular views of the city and the bay! Her kitchen is a wall of windows, and you can sit at her kitchen table pondering life and watching the city and sailboats go by. The prime time to marvel at her view is when the sun is setting. The sun bounces off of Berkeley in the distance, and the reflection glimmers and twinkles, appearing as bouncing little flames across the cityscape.




Sarah prepared the perfect hors d'oeuvre, without even knowing my affinity for figs. I had actually placed myself on a mission for this trip, and was determined to eat as many figs as possible. This hors d'oeuvre is simple and tasty, and we devoured it before heading to our “real” dinner at hotspot Beretta in the Mission. (I actually could have tasted more figs for dessert at Beretta, but by the time we were offered the dessert menus it was late (particularly on EDT), I was full, and I may have been falling asleep at the table!)

A few days later we stopped at the Berkeley Bowl to pick up picnic supplies for a day in Napa, and I grabbed a couple containers of fresh figs. The ones that made it through the day accompanied me on the plane (in first class, nonetheless – not me, just the figs. Darn overhead bins getting full.) Upon arriving home, I gave half to my mother, and pondered over how I could savor mine. My mind went straight to Sarah’s crostini and I then set forth to replicate it at home.

After an exhausting day at work, I was able to put these together mindlessly and actually ate them as dinner. I’ll long for the next time I have fresh figs to work with. In the meantime I may try this recipe with fig spread, although I tend to pair that with blue stilton cheese. Thank you to Sarah for her generous hospitality and her ideal hors d'oeuvre idea!

Fig and Goat Cheese Crostini
Ingredients
* 1 French baguette, sliced into small ½ inch rounds
* 12 fresh figs, sliced
* 4 oz. fresh goat cheese
* 1 tbsp. honey (preferably lavender honey, if available)

Directions
Preheat oven to 350°F. Place sliced baguette on large baking sheet and bake for approximately 8 minutes, until bread is crispy. Spread goat cheese on baguette slices and top with 1-2 slices of fig, each. Drizzle with honey and serve immediately.

Two-for-One: Roasted Winter Vegetables & Soup, with Kate’s Toasted Baguette with Gruyere

I love making soups year-round, but the root vegetables of fall and winter give way for making soups with a thick consistency, and adding nothing more than a little seasoning and broth. Roasting the vegetables caramelizes them, making them soft enough to quickly puree with some broth. I make soups with all different variations of root vegetables, and this Ina Garten recipe combines them all.

This recipe is really a two-for-one. The first part leaves you with a colorful and delicious side dish of roasted vegetables. You can leave them as is to serve along with an entrée , or puree them into a soup. This is a great soup to make in the cooler months of the year, but for some reason I also find myself craving this soup in the spring with a light salad.

This evening we ate this soup with a variation on a grilled cheese. The crusty baguette and gooey cheese are a great compliment to the warm hearty soup, and I like to dip pieces of the bread into my soup bowl. The splash of chardonnay on the baguette is a nice touch that adds another layer of flavor, and freshly ground black pepper adds a little kick.

Her recipe calls for chicken stock, however I use vegetable stock. I puree the soup with an immersion blender in the stock pot, rather than transferring to a food processor.

Roasted Winter Vegetables & Soup
(From Barefoot Contessa Family Style)

Roasted Vegetables:
Ingredients
1 pound carrots, peeled
1 pound parsnips, peeled
1 large sweet potato, peeled
1 small butternut squash (about 2 pounds), peeled and seeded
3 tablespoons good olive oil
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

Directions
Preheat the oven to 425° F degrees.

Cut the carrots, parsnips, sweet potato, and butternut squash in 1- to 1 1/4-inch cubes. All the vegetables will shrink while baking, so don't cut them too small.

Place all the cut vegetables in a single layer on 2 sheet pans. Drizzle them with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Toss well. Bake for 25 to 35 minutes, until all the vegetables are tender, turning once with a metal spatula.

Sprinkle with parsley, season to taste, and serve hot.

Roasted Vegetable Soup:
Ingredients
3 to 4 cups vegetable stock
1 quart Roasted Winter Vegetables (see recipe above)
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions
In a large saucepan, heat 3 cups of vegetable stock. In 2 batches, coarsely puree the roasted vegetables and the vegetable stock in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the steel blade. Pour the soup back into the pot and season, to taste. Thin with more vegetable stock and reheat. The soup should be thick but not like a vegetable puree, so add more vegetable stock and/or water until it's the consistency you like.


Kate’s Toasted Baguette with Gruyere
Ingredients
1 French baguette
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
4 tablespoons white wine (like chardonnay)
1 cup gruyere, grated
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Directions
Preheat oven to 350° F degrees.

Slice baguette into thirds, and then slice each section in half horizontally. Place baguette slices on a large baking sheet, cut side up. Drizzle bread with extra virgin olive oil. Bake in oven for approximately 6-8 minutes, until bread is crispy. Remove from oven.

Splash white wine over baguettes, sprinkle with gruyere, and season with freshly ground black pepper. Turn broiler on high, and toast baguettes until cheese is melted and bread is toasted (approximately 2-4 minutes). Serve immediately.

Staple Hors d'Oeuvre: Kate’s Tomato Bruschetta

I think that we all have our “staple” dishes. The one that we’re called upon to bring whenever there is a family dinner, birthday party, or other kind of gathering. This staple makes us feel good, because it means that others enjoy our dish again and again. (Or, it alternatively could mean that no one else wants to make a particular dish that is necessary for a gathering, and we get stuck with it – Thanksgiving anyone?)

My staple genre happens to be hors d'oeuvres. And I love it. If my dinner every night merely consisted of hors d'oeuvres, I’d be a very happy woman. I love that you can try little bites of so many different foods, and go back for seconds on the ones you like. When my sister sent out the food sign-up for my nephew’s last birthday party, I asked if I could bring all of the hors d'oeuvres. After ensuring that no one else would contribute to the pre-dinner snacks, I went all out and put out quite the spread!

My go-to hors d'oeuvre happens to be one that is rather seasonal, and best enjoyed in the late-summer, early fall months. (If you’ve read my previous posts, you’ve by now garnered that it must include tomatoes!) I won’t disappoint, it does, and it is my version of bruschetta. There are so many different versions of this bite-sized treat. My take on bruschetta is the simple, yet delicious ingredients of a Insalata Caprese on top of a crostini. While I’ll admit to making this recipe year-round, the fresh ingredients are the star, and it tastes best when you’re using fresh baked bread, basil picked from the garden, tomatoes from the farmers’ market, and fresh mozzarella made that morning. I prefer to purchase my baguette and mozzarella from Zingerman’s, although your local grocery store should stock fresh mozzarella (check the deli section), along with a fresh baguette. Roma tomatoes are the perfect size to slice and place on top of your baguette rounds, but if I’m at the market, I’ll buy whatever kind of tomato looks the ripest and then cut the slices accordingly.

This is a huge crowd pleaser. I’ll put these out at a party, before a meal, and on an occasional summer night (like tonight!) I’ll make a platter and my husband and I will call it dinner. If you happen to have any leftovers – albeit highly unlikely – pop them in a 350°F oven for about 8 minutes. The cheese will melt and the bread will regain it’s crusty texture. It is a completely different snack that is equally delicious!

Kate’s Tomato Bruschetta
Ingredients
* 1 fresh French baguette, sliced into small ½ inch rounds
* 4-5 Roma tomatoes, thinly sliced (amount depends on the size of your tomatoes)
* ¼ cup fresh Basil leaves, thinly sliced
* 8 oz. fresh Mozzarella, drained, patted dry, and thinly sliced
* Extra Virgin Olive Oil, for drizzling
* Sea Salt, to taste

Preheat oven to 350°F. Place sliced baguette on large baking sheet and drizzle with Extra Virgin Olive Oil. Bake for approximately 10 minutes, until bread is golden and firm, but not burnt. Allow bread to cool for several minutes. Top bread with one slice of tomato, each. Sprinkle with sea salt. Top bread with one slice of mozzarella each, and sprinkle with basil. Drizzle with Extra Virgin Olive Oil and serve.