Leftover lunch

Last weekend I had an open house, and while I had hopes of a warm and sunny day so that people could lounge in my backyard, it wasn't to be. Last Saturday was pretty miserably cold and rainy, but despite all that, the party was still a lot of fun! Thanks to everyone for coming and helping to warm my new house!

Given that I was running around cleaning and getting prepared right up until the last minute, I neglected to take pictures of the food. But, all modesty aside, I think the spread was pretty good. I had fun thinking about what I would serve and there was a nice selection of choices.

Here's a look at some of the leftovers.


The tooth-picked items are chiorizo sausage stuffed inside a medjool date. A nice combination of the spicy and sweet, and pretty easy as well. All that's required is to pit the dates, and take the casing off the sausage. Tip: much easier to do this before the sausages are sliced into coins.

Also on a toothpick is a red pepper wrapped cube of manchego cheese.

Not pictured is the goat cheese and sun dried tomato bites.

On the cracker is the artichoke/olive bruschetta. I served this on crostini, and then we had the leftovers the next day over pasta with parmesan cheese. Really good!

None of the sweets made it to the plate, but I made these lemon bars on they day of, and they were yummy.

Artichoke-Olive Crostini
Adapted from Mario Batali

1 garlic clove, peeled and smashed
1 cup large green pitted olives
1 tablespoon capers, rinsed and drained
1 15-ounce can of artichoke hearts, drained
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1. Preheat the oven to 400°F. In a food processor, process the garlic, olives, capers, artichoke hearts and olive oil to a coarse paste.

Do ahead: The olive paste can be refrigerated for 2 days. Let it return to room temperature before using.

Sun-Dried Tomato and Goat Cheese Bites
From What Would Brian Boitano Make?

1 (8-ounce) log fresh goat cheese, chilled
1 cup pistachio nuts, finely chopped
20 sun-dried tomatoes packed in oil
1/2 bunch fresh basil leaves
Directions
Special equipment: 20 small skewers or cocktail toothpicks

Fill a pitcher with hot water. Dip a knife into the hot water and slice the goat cheese log in half lengthwise. Slice each half into 10 pieces making sure to dip the knife into the hot water in between slicing to ensure a nice clean cut. Roll each piece of goat cheese into balls approximately 1/2-inch in diameter and put onto a cookie sheet lined with waxed paper.

Add the chopped pistachio nuts to a shallow bowl. Roll a goat cheese ball into the pistachio nuts and coat 1/2 of the ball. Return to the sheet pan and repeat with the remaining goat cheese balls.
Drain the oil from the tomatoes and put onto a plate lined with a paper towel.

Skewer a goat cheese ball onto the skewer. Lay a basil leaf on top a sun-dried tomato. Fold the tomato in half around the basil leaf and add to the skewer with the goat cheese. Repeat with remaining skewers. Arrange on a serving platter, cover and keep refrigerated until ready to serve.

Date and ginger loaf

The thing I like about loaves is that they're basically cakes, but somehow so much easier.

I made this loaf especially for my dad, who happens to love dates. And I happen to love ginger, so I thought it was a good combination.

This is the kind of damp, cake-like loaf that keeps very well and holds its flavour. It's very good with a cup of tea or coffee. I made this loaf on a very cold, very wet early spring weekend and it was the perfect late afternoon snack, just before a nap.

Start by soaking the dates in hot water and an Earl Grey tea bag. Not the most visually appealling step of the process, I admit!

Then you add the steeped mixture into the other ingredients and stir it all up.

All ready for the oven!

And here's the finished product, complete with drizzled icing and more ginger. Yum! (Someday I'll figure out how to rotate the pictures on here!)

All ready for a tea break! Note the pieces of ginger studded throughout.

Date and ginger loaf (from the LCBO Food and Drink magazine)

1 c. coarsely chopped pitted dates
1 c. boiling water
1 tsp. baking soda
1 Earl Grey tea bag
2 c. all-purpose flour
1 tsp. ground ginger
1 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp. salt
¾ c. packed brown sugar
½ c. unsalted butter, softened
1 egg
½ c. finely chopped crystallized ginger
½ c. plain yogurt

Glaze
½ c. icing sugar
2 to 3 tbsp. water
3 tbsp. finely chopped crystallized ginger

1. In a medium bowl, combine dates, boiling water, baking soda and tea bag. Let cool to room temperature. Discard tea bag.

2. Preheat oven to 350ºF.

3. Grease and flour a 9x5” loaf pan.

4. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, ginger, baking powder and salt.

5. In a large bowl, cream together sugar and butter until pale and fluffy. Beat in egg. Stir in date mixture, crystallized ginger and yogurt until well combined. (Batter may look curdled.)

6. Add flour mixture to creamed mixture. Stir just until combined and dry ingredients are moistened. Scrape batter into prepared pan, smoothing top level. Bake for about 1 hour or until a toothpick inserted into the centre of loaf comes out clean. Let cool in pan on wire rack for 5 minutes. Remove loaf from the pan and let cool completely on wire rack.

7. For glaze, in small bowl, stir together icing sugar and 2 tbsp. water until smooth, adding a little more water if necessary to make the glaze thin enough to drizzle. Drizzle glaze over loaf and sprinkle evenly with crystallized ginger. Let glaze set before slicing loaf.