Cooking Fever

I'm reading Julie & Julia right now and whether it's the book or the extra time I have lately, I find myself wanting to try new recipes. I'm focusing right now on appetizers. Today I tried spinach-artichoke-tomato puffs. The mixture looks terrible -- in fact it made TD gag just to look at it. Spinach, artichoke hearts, sun dried tomatoes and goat cheese all processed till smooth. You're supposed to roll out puff pastry dough on corn meal, cut into 3" squares, put a tablespoon of filling in the center, fold the corners up and bake. I did not have cornmeal so I used polenta instead. It was not the right thing to use. The polenta is too granular and sticks to the dough so the bites are grainy. I think I'm going to try using crescent rolls and forget the fancy flaky pastry dough.

The other appetizer I tried was called tortilla bites and was a rolled up tortilla with spicy cream cheese spread, fresh spinach leaves on top of that, then grilled shrimp seasoned with a cajun spice and some grilled red peppers. I didn't have enough shrimp so I added some mahi mahi, which was a good substitute. In fact, if you don't like shrimp, you could do the whole thing with that. This was very good and actually pretty easy to make. You roll the tortilla tight and slice into 5 pieces, using a toothpick to hold each piece together. That was our dinner the night I made it. That and a small salad. Felt a little spa-like.

The Julie & Julia book is a great read, btw.