The Office Food Day

Who loves the Office Food Day? Lots of people, apparently, because we sure do have them a lot! It's actually quite fun- it's a great chance to share good food with the people you spend most of your life with, exchange recipes, try some new things, and break up the monotony of another day in the office. Our office has food days for all kinds of reasons, holidays, seasons, new or departing employees. Sometimes we have a theme- like Cinco de Mayo and all Mexican foods, and sometimes we don't. I've tried all kinds of different foods at food days, from ethnic baked goodies to pulled smoked lamb.

I've always been a fan of appetizers for food days. Sometimes I'll drag a crockpot filled with hot apps to the office, and sometimes I go with something cold, even better if it can sit at room temperature for a couple hours. It makes it easier for coworkers to graze throughout the day with small plates of goodies instead of piling everything on a flimsy paper plate at one time. For this food day I went with a cold app that can hold at room temp and actually tastes better that way. I grabbed a couple bakery baguettes to slice and toast and threw together a quick bruschetta topping and a slightly kicky tapenade made with Peppadew peppers- not hot like jalapenos or habaneros, but just a slight kick in the taste buds.

The bruschetta topping is a riff on Caprese salad, with diced fresh Roma tomatoes, fresh basil and fresh mozzarella pearls- little balls of fresh mozzarella that are so creamy. You always want to use fresh mozzarella in any Caprese dish. The more common blocks of mozzarella for shredding just don't have the right texture for this. I amp it up with some minced garlic and scallion, a little olive oil and Balsamic vinegar for an authentic flavor. Sinful Food's wonderful infused olive oils bring a big flavor impact to these toppings and make the baguette toasts extra delicious!

Get your Sinful Food oils and Signature Seasoning by clicking HERE.

Toasted Garlic Baguette with Two Toppings

Caprese Topping

4 Roma tomatoes

1 cup fresh mozzarella pearls, drained

1 scallion

2 cloves fresh garlic

small handful fresh basil leaves

Sinful Food Signature Seasoning

2 tablespoons Sinful Food basil olive oil

2 tablespoons Balsamic vinegar

Cut the Roma tomatoes into small dice, discarding the seeds and soft insides. Place in medium bowl.

Cut the mozzarella pearls into quarters, add to tomatoes in bowl. Finely mince the garlic and add to bowl. Cut the scallion in half lengthwise, then chop crosswise. Add to bowl. Cut the basil leaves into chiffonade and add to bowl.

Drizzle the olive oil, and vinegar over. Season with Signature Seasoning. Toss to coat everything, cover and chill.

Peppadew Kalamata Tapenade

1/4 Peppadew peppers, drained

1/4 cup Kalamata olives, pitted and drained

1/4 cup pitted green olives

2 cloves garlic

1 scallion

small handful fresh parsley

juice of one lime

one tablespoon Sinful Food olive oil, garlic, basil or Italian herb

ground black pepper

Finely chop the peppers, olives, garlic and scallions. Place in small bowl.

Remove parsley leaves from stems and chop; add to bowl. Squeeze the lime juice over, drizzle with olive oil, add 1/2 teaspoon black pepper. Stir to combine all ingredients. Cover and Chill

Toasted Baguette Slices

2 long French baguettes, sliced about 1/4 inch thick

1/2 cup Sinful Food garlic olive oil

Signature Seasoning

Heat the oven to 400 degrees.

 Arrange the bread slices on two large baking sheets. Brush with the olive oil; sprinkle with Signature Seasoning. Bake in oven until toasted and lightly golden. Cool before storing in airtight container.

To serve, arrange the toast slices on a platter. Place the Caprese topping and tapenade in bowls. Allow everyone to top their own bread so the toast stays crunchy.

This is the perfect party snack or appetizer, especially for larger groups.  I have made this recipe many times for wine tastings and holiday parties and catered events. It's always a very popular item on the buffet table and I've shared the recipes with lots of friends. The Caprese topping is great for all kinds of other uses and the tapenade is mandatory when making muffaletta or Italian sandwiches.

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Happy Hour Small Plates- Peppadew Tapenade

Small plates are hot right now. Lots of trendy nightspots are featuring these tidbits that are perfect for sharing with friends and gives you a chance to taste several different things rather than one big entree. They are also perfect for entertaining, especially this easy-to-fix tapenade, that includes one of my favorite things to make for entertaining- Peppadews!

This is super easy to throw together and keep in the fridge for at least a couple weeks, and the food processor makes quick work of it. So, to make my Pepper Olive Tapenade you will need-

• 1/2 cup Peppadews, packed
• 1 cup black olives- I like to use a mix of common black olives and Kalamatas, use whatever you like
• 1 cup green olives- any kind you like, again I use a mix of different green olives
• 2 cloves garlic, peeled
• 2 tb capers
• 2 tsp fresh thyme leaves
• small palmfull fresh parsley (leaves only)
• 1 lemon- juiced and zested
• 3-4 tb olive oil

Combine Peppadews, olives, garlic, herbs, capers and lemon zest in food processor. MAKE SURE that the olives are PITTED. Pulse/process until you have a finely chopped mixture. 

If you have one of these choppers they are perfect for a chunkier
tapenade and you won't accidentally over-process into puree

Scoop into bowl and toss with lemon juice (use an amount based on your taste- sprinkle in a teaspoon and taste it- add more if you like) and olive oil. 

This is the consistency I am looking for, finely minced

Chill well and serve with toasted slices of baguette or crackers, toss with pasta or with pita chips.

All the colors of the peppers, olives, herbs and pop of fresh lemon

A few things here- first of all, if you're not familiar with Peppadews, you need to meet these guys. They are a South African sweet/hot pepper that is bright red and so delicious. If you are lucky enough to have a supermarket with an olive bar, they likely will have Peppadews as well. 

If not, you can find them in the pickle aisle in jars. If you absolutely cannot find them you could use pimiento or roasted red pepper as a substitute but it won't have the same sweet/hot kick. When I shopped to make this recipe, incredibly, the store had NONE- not a single Peppadew. I had to go with sweet pickled cherry peppers but the flavor and texture were very similar. I just removed the stem and seeds and they pretty much were the same with very little difference in flavor. The cherry peppers are a little meatier and I think less "crispy" but they certainly were very similar in the sweet with a hint of heat character.

Olive bars- the bane of my existence! Gateway Market in Des Moines has the best gourmet olive bar anywhere, and I am officially grounded from going there- I can spend my entire grocery budget on those darn things. We have a chain of grocery stores in Iowa called HyVee and they also have nice olive bars and most have Peppadews on the bar. If you can, seek out an olive bar- you can mix and match the olives you want and not have to open a bunch of jars and cans to get 1 cup of olives. They are sold by weight so go crazy and mix it up! 

I chose a varied mix from the bar- Kalamata, big pitted and briney green olives, smaller black olives, and oil-cured red olives. I made sure to get all pitted olives so I wouldn't have to mess with pitting them. I also was careful not to choose any stuffed olives- while they are all delicious, they really wouldn't work with this dish.

Some of the olives I chose were marinated and the mix included chunks of Provolone. Of course I scooped a few of those in the tub- that's for snacking while I'm prepping the rest of the dish!

Soooo delicious. Fresh, herby, lemony and briney. Yum.

So what exactly is tapenade anyway? Well, simply put, it's a relish. It's an ancient French food typically made from olives, capers and olive oil, often flavored with fresh herbs, anchovies or lemon. There are about as many versions of tapenade as there are chefs, ranging from a pate-like spread to a chunkier relish style condiment. I'm looking for somewhere in between- I want to still see bits of the components and be able to pick out the flavors while still enjoying the tapenade as a whole. I also plan on serving it on toasted slices of baguette, similar to bruschetta. Once you've made it I'm sure your imagination will take you in different directions. Stop back and tell us what you're cooking with tapenade!