Fig & Arugula Flat Bread

Last weekend as my friend and I wandered up Main Street in Park City, Utah for the Sundance Film Festival we were invited to "lunch" by a sponsor of the events.  Dear Lord, their idea of lunch and our idea of lunch...different planets.  Though, I am so thankful we popped in as they were serving up  an amuse bouche of the most amazing flat bread I have ever had the pleasure of trying, and thanks to a few ingredients I had on hand I decided to attempt a copy cat version.  I think I won, as it tastes pretty spot on.

 

What you need:

  Flat Bread

Fig Spread

Honey

Arugula

Gruyere Cheese

White Truffle Oil

Sea Salt Flakes

On a baking sheet I placed store bought naan (which is a freezer

staple, in this house.  These were smaller in size, found at Costco). 

I topped each naan with a heaping tablespoon of Fig Butter (Trader Joe's)

 

 Lightly drizzle with honey

My little Benny is obsessed with the honey bear. He carries

it around and pats it on the back, like a baby doll.  It is the cutest/

messiest little thing ever, as I am constantly checking 'baby' to

make sure it isn't leaking all over the house.  

 Top with slices of Gruyere cheese.  

My sous chef Logi used the slicer to slice all of the cheese.  She was so proud.

Place baking sheet in a 350 degree oven and bake for 6-8 minutes,

 until the cheese is melted.

Immediately top warm flat breads with arugula,

then drizzle on white truffle oil and generously 

sprinkle with sea salt flakes.

This can be served as an entree, or sliced small

as a starter (or lunch, if you are a vendor during Sundance)

I am patting myself on the back as this is so spot on to the deliciousness

we wanted more of last week!  The blend of sweet from the fig and honey is 

perfectly balanced with the tender bite of gruyere cheese, the pepper of the

arugula and the buttery love of the white truffle oil.  

Oh and it was on the plate to be gobbled up within 20 minutes.

Toffee Pretzel Crunch. Oh My!

I was making care packages this week to send off and deliver locally

as several friends needing the TLC of homemade treats.

I was thinking how tasty it would be to dip pretzel rods in toffee, but

then at a little Oprah light bulb moment and decided on this...

you can thank me later.

What you need to make this ridiculous treat:

3 1/2-4 cups Pretzel Crisps

2 sticks unsalted butter

1 cup packed brown sugar

1/4 tsp sea salt

1 1/2 cups semi sweet chocolate chips

Line a large jelly roll pan* with aluminum foil, and then thinly coat the foil

with butter (I just gently rub one of the sticks used in the recipe along the 

foiled surfaces. You will not use much) then place a layer of Pretzel Crisps 

along the bottom of the buttered pan.  I break up some of the crisps. Don't 

worry if the crisps are overlapping. 

* a jelly roll pan is smaller than a sheet pan, but larger than a 9x13 pan.

 In a saucepan over medium/high heat, begin melting the butter, brown sugar and salt.

 This is one pot you want to watch boil.  Continue stirring as the sauce boils 

and thickens.  Watch that it doesn't burn.  I stir at boil for a couple minutes.

Pour the boiling sauce evenly over the pretzel crisps.  

Place pan in a 425 degree oven.

The sauce will thicken in the oven. After 4 minutes I pulled the bubbling concoction 

out of the oven.  Check at 4 minutes. If it isn't super bubbly and darker in color, 

put it back in for 1 additional minute.

 Immediately sprinkle the semi sweet chocolate chips evenly 

over the toffee pretzels. 

The heat of the pan will quickly melt the chocolate chips.  If you

find that they aren't melting, pop the pan back into the cooling oven for 

1 minute and the chocolate will be ready to spread with a knife.

After the chocolate chips are evenly spread across the top of the toffee,

pop the pan in the freezer to set up for 30 minutes.

 After setting in the freezer, I pull the brick of toffee from the foil,

double checking that all foil pulled away, then use my hands to 

break into chunks.  I store in the refrigerator in a sealed container.

It packages up nicely, in boxes, to drop with friends and neighbors.

I buy bulk food safe boxes on the Internet.

Enjoy!!!

Maple Spiced Pecans

 The maple spiced pecans are the perfect addition to a roasted

butternut squash and quinoa hot dish.

Oh my goodness, these are the absolute best thing to ever happen to salads, snack mix and the palm of your hand (as you shovel in a hand full)...and making them is super easy too!

 Place 1 cup roughly chopped raw pecans in a saute pan, over 

medium heat.  Watch closely.  You want to heat them until the pan

starts to smell a bit nutty.  Watch closely though, as it can go from 

tasty to burnt very quickly.

 With the pan still on the heat, add 3 T. pure maple syrup, a pinch

of cayenne pepper and a generous crack of sea salt to the warm 

nuts.  Stir until all of the nuts are coated.  Remove from heat.

Pour the warm pecans onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet

and pop in a 300 degree oven for 7 minutes.  

Remove from oven, allow to cool, and then store them in an air tight

container.  They are seriously delicious.

 

Cookie Tip: Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Blossoms

It is written in the holiday handbook that cookie giving season cannot commence without the ubiquitous Peanut Butter Blossom cookies in the line up.  I think it's on page 7, if you need to see for yourself.

After Hershey introduced the dark chocolate Kisses, I didn't think these little cookie gems could get any better...until today!

Check out this little addition that seriously makes these cookies a bit more outrageous!

Make your favorite dough, according to recipe, then when it comes

time for the final pre-baking step (rolling dough balls in granulated sugar), switch it up

ever so slightly for ridiculous results!

Mix 1/4 cup granulated sugar with 1 T fine grain sea salt and roll the dough balls.

 Continue baking and dark chocolate Kisses adorning, according to recipe.

The tiny bit of sea salt makes every sugary bite of cookie all the more scrumptious!!!

We made these for Logan's preschool teacher...

we'll see how many make it to the classroom tomorrow!

At least it is going to be a lovely day tomorrow, so we will walk to school (and thankfully we live uphill from school). I pretty sure I will have 27 cookies to walk off by morning!

Making your life a little easier: Cookie Tip

Many apologies on the craptastic camera phone photo. 

Our camera is in Denver, and I am not...and the blog must go on!

I was making cookies the other night to take to a picnic in the park with friends, and quickly realized I needed to bring treats to a couple more events during our week, so I doubled the recipe, baked off what I need for said picnic date and scooped out the additional dough onto a lined cookie sheet and popped it in the freezer.  Once the dough was frozen (I went to sleep, so just handled the next morning), I popped the balls of frozen dough into a freezer safe container (you could also put the dough balls into a freezer bag).

So, simple as that, you have ready made cookie dough all prepped to pop in a pre-heated oven.  All the ease of those tubes they sell in the cooler section of the grocery store, without the crazy taste of tubed cookie dough (am I the only one who thinks they taste like plastic?)

Side note: I always sprinkle a bit of sea salt on my favorite chocolate chip cookie dough balls when I pull them out to bake.  The bit of salt with the sweet is magic to the taste buds.  Promise.