so on one of my nights to "make" dinner last week, i totally cheated. it wasn't cheap, and i had to carry the food through a freak snowstorm, but i managed to avoid actually making anything. what can i say? i had a craving for good wine, sharp cheese and above all, i was feeling laaaaaaaaaaazy. so i headed to the st. lawrence market over lunch to get just a few things. i ended up with a lot of things–but i had a good reason for picking up each one…
chevre-stuffed jalapenos: james and i both love stuffed things, and spicy things and cheese. so those were a no-brainer.
dolmades: now, those are my personal favourite and they were right beside the chevre-stuffed jalepenos so…
beemster: we've really been into this cheese lately. a core part of the dinner plan.
french chaumes: i kinda needed a second softer cheese–you know, for contrast. when chatting to the cheese monger this time, i learned that in his opinion, la sauvagine was modeled on chaumes. what?! how had i never tried it then? discovering la sauvagine basically changed my life! there was no question, i needed to see if he was right. (he totally was, by the way! a must-try)
paprika-marinated olives: i had nicoise olives at home but we'd been eating those a lot lately…and hello, we'd never had paprika-marinated green ones before. did they always have those? i didn't recall seeing them before so it was the obvious olive choice for the night. in the end we did pull out the black nicoise olives too. again, contrast…
baba ganoush: james' favourite–got it just to be nice.
sun-dried tomato hummus: the baba ganough looked too creamy to be healthy so i only got a little bit of that and loaded up on a hearty sun-dried tomato hummus. i mean, this was really what the bread would be for. you have to a good dip on a tapas table, don't you?
pickled chilies: well, to add heat, of course. because the stuffed peppers were not meant to serve that purpose. two separate things entirely.
and that's basically how my plan to have cheese, bread and wine turned into a $50 dinner for two. consider yourself warned. shop with me and you'll come out arms full of fabulous things and wallet light. (more contrast!)