digsandthat.com

DigsMagazine.com be the perfect host/ess .

 

 

a home + living guide for the post-college, pre-parenthood, quasi-adult generation

11.10.2005

home
editor's note 
_____________

DEPARTMENTS
 
o lounge 
o nourish 
 
o host
o
laze
_____________

o BOARDS
o SHOP
o send an ECARD
_____________

about
contact
submit your ideas
search

 
..
need party help? Jump to the boards and talk about entertaining, cooking, etiquette and more.

copyright ©1999-2005
DigsMagazine.com.

good enough to eat edible holiday gift ideas by Christina Da Costa | 1 2 3 4 5 6
continued from page 1
.
easy tapenade
Olive tapenade is a seriously versatile condiment. In addition to sitting atop crackers, tapenade can be used to perk up sandwiches or scrambled eggs for brunch. It can also be thinned out with some olive oil and balsamic vinegar as an easy pasta dressing, served in a bread-bowl at a party, eaten with a spoon out of the jar…you get the picture. Include a gift card around the jar indicating its many uses and get the compliments later.

Ingredients
2 cans of black Kalamata olives (drained)
¼ cup olive oil
4 cloves garlic
1 Tbsp. mustard (Dijon is best)
2 Tbsps. capers (optional)
extra virgin olive oil

If you have a food processor, this is too easy. Simply pulse the olives and add the olive oil, garlic, mustard and capers through the feeder tube until you get a consistency of thick paste. Don't worry if it looks a bit runny -- it firms up in the fridge. If you don't have a food processor, it's still easy, but you'll have to do some chopping and blend the mixture in batches. Chop up the olives and capers (if using) and mince the garlic and place in a large bowl. Add the olive oil and mustard and stir until well combined. Place about half the mixture in a blender and blend until you get a nice paste. Put the paste in a bowl or directly into sterilized small jars or one big jar. This will last 3 months.

Sterilizing Jars (for Easy Tapenade and Beer & Herb Mustard)

Sterilizing isn't that difficult and for the Tapenade (left) and Beer-Herb Mustard (next page) recipes, it's not something to get worried about; both have high acidity and will keep just fine as long you store them in an airtight container. However, when giving gifts that involve foodstuffs it's always a good idea to be on the safe side. So here's a quick primer in sterilizing jars.

Wash jars and lids with soap in hot water and place on a cookie sheet in the oven heated up to 200F. Keep in the oven for at least 20 minutes and then fill them up, leaving about ½ inch space from the top of the jar (before the threads). If you're going to be canning the proper way, it's best to use new lids with jars like these jelly jars, but personally, I just reuse old jars and new lids and frankly, nothing bad has ever happened. In order to bypass fussing with separate lids, you can also use a jar like this French terrine; still, don't forget to do the sterilizing.

keep on walking: more great recipe ideas this way!

 

---------------------------> lounge . nourish . host . laze . home .