Saturday Slumber Party

I've been having dificulty getting together with two close friends and we finally secured Saturday night to have a sleepover at my house. Of course, the last few days I have been in manic mode; cleaning, laundering, organizing, rearranging and planning furiously for the Thanksgiving festivities. I really had no business saying that I might make dinner, depending on how I felt. Well, I felt exhausted but I guess I'm not wired to host people in my home and not have food available. "I'll just make some hummus quickly, put out some vegetables and cheese," I thought to myself. I rummaged through the cupboards for tahini (check) but weirdly, among the 752 options of canned and dried beans I have on hand, I seemed to have used up all the garbanzo beans. I did spy a can of black olives, a vestige from Nicole's stay here this summer. Also some sauerkraut and Ramen. Not sure if I'll ever get to that. But I sure did use that arborio rice she left, thanks girl! I've never made tapenade but I had capers, anchovies and assorted herbs and spices. I arranged it on a plate with some rosemary crackers, cheese and carrots thus was able to satisfy my appetizer quotient for the day.

Speaking of cheese, my featured cheese was Chaumes, which is a soft cheese from France that has egg in it! In its package, it looked as creamy as brie but when I sliced it up, it had a more firm texture. Actually, the appearance and taste reminded me a lot of Muenster cheese, complete with the washed orange rind. It had more character than Muenster of course, mon dieu, it's French! I also some had pretty standard Vermont extra-sharp cheddar, one of my perennial favorites. I liked both but the Chaumes took on an unappealing, oily look after sitting on the plate for 20 minutes or so. Perhaps this was because of the egg but still, I'd probably wouldn't put it on a cheese plate again for that reason. Grilled cheese though? Oh yes.

Black Olive Tapenade

I can black olives, drained
2 anchovies
2 cloves garlic
1 t. red pepper flakes
1 t. dijon mustard
2 T. capers
juice of half a lemon
2 t. red wine vinegar
pinch of black pepper
pinch of thyme
pinch of rosemary
a couple of good glugs of olive oil, a few tablespoons?

Pulse in a blender. Wegman's sells an olive tapenade that is very smooth, I prefer it a bit more chunky but it is up to your taste. On the flip side, I can't stand chunky hummus, I like it really smooth with extra olive oil pooled on top, a la Mona's Cafe in New Orleans. Go figure. I'm sure this would be better with olives not from a can but that's what I had and the girls gobbled it up.