She's baaaaaack

Sorry about the break, folks but I really, really needed it! There were so many things I wanted to do, NEEDED to do, and I was feeling challenged by the need to keep up with the photos here on this blog. Also, it was getting a little overwhelming to come up with something pretty to eat every meal of the day. I'm over that now because I'm getting back to my idea of just capturing what I eat. If it's gorgeous, great. If it's ordinary, great. It is what it is. I know you guys aren't sitting out there expecting me to fix some fantabulous meal 3x a day!

Anyway, I took some pictures of dinner last night, which was fabulous and I'm here today to share with you the beauty of a tapas dinner. If you are unfamilar with the concept of tapas, it's a Spanish term referring to tastes of different dishes. If you went to a tapas restaurant you would order several different dishes to share with folks at your table. It's a great way to eat because it's hard to eat too much. It's like having a dinner of appetizers. Well, my sister and I had gotten together eariler in the day and had decided to cook something but we weren't sure what. IN fact, when we went to the store yesterday afternoon, we had a completely different idea about dinner and we changed our mind as we were collecting ingredients. Here is our menu from last night:

Steak Crostini, with Italian flat-leaf parsley, a sour cream mustard with horseradish, topped with shaved parmesan

Caprese Salad which is toasted bread topped with sliced tomato, fresh mozzarella, fresh basil leaf, olive oil, and salt and pepper

Mini Ciliantro Crabcakes made with (gasp) canned white crabmeat, chopped fresh cilantro, roasted red pepper, red onion, coriander, nutmeg, and chinese five spice powder. Along with egg, mayo and panko bread cumbs as the binders.

Hoisin Haricot Verts, french green beans blanched then cooked in a saute pan with Hoisin Sauce and sesame seeds.

Cheesy Chicken Quesadillas, my sister's own recipe so I'm not sure what's in it besides chicken, chili powder, cumin, sour cream, cheese, green chilies, sandwiched in 2 tortillas then fried in a saute pan. Yum-O

My sister also made these divine Mini Chocolate Cream Pies which are made up of chocolate pudding to which she added coffee and Godiva chocolate liquer. Holy. Crap. They were good.

Here are pics from dinner:



Steak Crostini



Caprese Salad



Mini Crabcakes



Haricot Verts



Chicken Quesadilla





Chocolate Cream pies before whipped Cream and after.

This dinner was so delicious, both to the eye and the palate which only increases the pleasure of the meal. I highly encourage you to try a snacky dinner at least once a week. It's a lot of fun!