At the Cottage: Quick and Easy Flat Bread Hors D’œuvres

Today I celebrate another benchmark birthday. All I could think of is, I can’t really be THAT age! But what the heck, like wine, we only get better with age, right? — that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

JT organized a beautiful little cocktail party of our closest friends and family yesterday and it was lovely. Of course, I prepared a lot of the food and I’ll be posting about a few new things soon. In the meantime, here are a few great recipes from the Canada Day long weekend. Cheers!

An early morning paddle shows off the sparkly lake.

The old boathouse built by JTs grandfather in the late 1800’s

I’ve mentioned before that our cottage is rather remote and we don’t have very good grocery stores close by, in fact the closest is about 45 minutes away and it takes about 20 minutes just to get out to the main highway to get there so planning is essential. Recently we had our lovely friends Rae and Monica up for the weekend and so I put together a great menu plan that allowed for reinventing left overs. One such left over was a combination of several of the meals that resulted in 4 fantastic flat breads that we used as hors d’œuvres on Sunday night. Each of these flatbreads are fantastic on their own, but the variety is also quite lovely. Plus, all of the ingredients are available ready made if you aren’t as fortunate to have left overs.

Quick and Easy Flat Bread Hors D’œuvres

Italian Delight: Gorgonzola, Parmesan and Parsley with Walnuts

The sharp Gorgonzola was a lovely contrast to the candied walnuts

Ingredients:

• 1 naan
• 1 oz gorgonzola
• 1 oz grated parmesan
• 2 tbsp chopped walnuts candied with balsamic
• 1 tbsp chopped flat leaf Italian Parsley
• 1 clove garlic

Directions:

1. Peel the garlic and cut it in half. Rub one side of the naan with the cut side until it leaves the naan fragrant.
2. Add cumbled gorgonzola and grated parmesan. Sprinkle with the candied walnuts. (To candy the walnuts, simply add the walnuts to a saucepan with about 2-4 tbsp of balsamic and boil until the balsamic has thickened, cool on parchment and break apart to use)
3. BBQ until cheese has melted and then add the parsley. Cut into portions.
4. Serve warm.

Mediterranean: Caramelized Onion, Roasted Red Peppers and Goats Cheese with Pine Nuts

Sweet and tangy Onion against the creamy goats cheese was a lovely foil for the sweet red peppers

Ingredients:

• 1 naan
• 1/2 a large caramelized onion
• 1/2 roasted red pepper, skin off, sliced reasonably thinly
• 3 tbsp crumbled goats cheese
• 1 tbsp toasted pine nuts

Directions:

1. Evenly distribute the roasted red peppers on the top of the naan.
2. Add the crumbled goats cheese and sprinkle with the pine nuts.
3. BBQ until cheese has melted. Cut into portions.
4. Serve warm.

Mexican: Salsa and Cilantro

The sassy flavours of Mexican saturated the Naan well

Ingredients:

• 1 naan
• 1/2 cup salsa
• 2-4 tbsp chopped cilantro

Directions:

1. Evenly distribute the salsa on the Naan.
2. BBQ until warmed through. Cut into portions.
3. Serve warm.

Greek: Red and Yellow Peppers, Green and Yellow Zuchinni, Kalamata olives and feta

Tangy flavours and lots of texture

Ingredients:

• 1 naan
• 1/4 cup greek yogurt with 1 garlic chopped into it
• 1/4 red pepper, sliced
• 1/4 yellow pepper, sliced
• Green and Yellow zucchini sliced
• 2 tbsp Kalamata olives, sliced
• 3 tbsp crumbled feta
• pinch of dry oregano

Directions:

1. Spread the greek yogurt and garlic on the Naan.
2. Lightly sauté the red, yellow peppers with the green and yellow zuchinni strips (not too soft)
3. Evenly distribute the peppers and zuchinni on the top of the Naan, dot with the feta and Kalamata olives.
4. Sprinkle the oregano evenly.
5. BBQ until warmed through. Cut into portions.
6. Serve warm.

I’ll leave you with two amazing shots of the sunset from two different nights. This is what makes the drive worth it!

The sunset on Friday night; red sky at night, sailors delight!

Sunset on Sunday night, very surreal