As promised, some recipes

Here are some recipes I have been meaning to post for a week.

First, a recipe I adapted from the What Can I Bring? Cookbook that the lovely Jamie gave me. Here is the Teresa version of the recipe which I ended up making double of:

Baked Boursin in Roasted Red Pepper Sauce:
2 c. Roasted Red Bell Peppers (I used a combo of jarred and home roasted)
1 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
2 cloves roasted garlic
a couple dashes Italian seasoning

1 pkg of Boursin or other herb flavored cream cheese (about 5 oz)

Put all ingredients except cheese in food processor. Pulse until chunky, not quite pureed. Put in baking dish and then add block of cheese. Bake about 15 minutes at 350 degrees. Serve with French bread.

Another requested recipe was for my hummus. First of all, I must say I hate tahini with a passion. I think the taste is overpowering, it is expensive, and it's shelf life sucks. So avoiding using tahini in this hummus but still getting a good flavor was important to me.

Easy hummus:
3 cloves roasted garlic
1 15 oz can garbanzo beans or chickpeas (drain)
1 tsp salt
1/2 teaspoon cumin
dash cayenne pepper
3 tbsp fresh lemon juice
3 tbsp olive oil

Combine all ingredients in food processor, pulse until you get a nice puree, adjust lemon juice and olive oil to taste. I also sometimes add in black pepper.

In case you don't know how to make the roasted garlic that I used in the two recipes...

Roasted Garlic:
Cut off the bottom and the top of the bulb, so that cloves are slightly exposed. Drizzle with olive oil, salt, and pepper and wrap in foil. Roast in a oven at 350 for about 40 minutes until cloves are soft.

And last but not least, the infused oils. I found out that making your own infused oils is actually very easy. For the garlic, just split open some cloves, and then put three times as much oil as garlic. For any with fresh herbs (like basil), just boil them for about a minute, cool them with ice or running water, dry completely, and again use 3 times as much oil as the ingredient. Close them up, and in a few weeks you will have flavored olive oil!

Did I miss any requests???? Please let me know. And a big thank you to everyone that came out last Saturday, you made my night so fun!

Oh, and I just must add that I am working on a BIG culinary project. I am not going to say yet what it is (I know I am terrible) because I am waiting on my local Whole Foods to see if they can special order me a few supplies. But if I can get everything I need I will soon be able to produce a delicious food staple myself that will really make me feel like I have accomplished a big milestone in my personal culinary life. Stay tuned.