Man, I am getting in a lot of blog posts this week! I guess there is just so much good stuff going on in the food blogoshpere that I want to support and be a part of. Sometimes, I get so backed up with other food related posts that I wait until the last minute to get my entry in for a Foodie Event. I wish I had time to do them all! I just love the creativity in this community! Food Bloggers ROCK!

Which leads me exactly to this post and this Foodie Event which is called Eat To The Beat and is the brainchild of my friend
Elly from Elly Says Opa! Elly says she was inspired to create this event because her love of music is about as big as her love for food! I completely concur. I have always believed that my life would be so much better if it had a soundtrack. So since I have started working from home, I can listen to music all day long and it just makes my life so complete. I can’t imagine cooking without music, dinner parties or meals without some kind of music playing the the background. So in a way, I have created a soundtrack for myself!

Press Play:

As you all who are regular readers of this blog know, I do bellydancing and I love it. Due to this fact, much of my music collection is what we call in this house “bellydancing music”. If the music hails from the Middle East, North Africa, Turkey or any of the places in between it is referred to as such.

And as all of you know who read this blog, I love all the foods from those regions as well…coincidence? Most likely not.

So this gets me to the meat of this post. We were having friends over for dinner last week, and I wanted to create a fun atmosphere – so we did small plates – meze, antipasti, tapas, whatever you want to call it. I was really getting into all the dolmas or stuffed grape leaves people were making in the weeks leading up to it too – So I decided to combine Peter’s from Kalofagas and Mag’s from Hommus w/ Tabbouli to make my own version. I also made the Labneh from Mag’s blog as well, which is a soft Lebanese yogurt cheese, plus I re-created the Middle Eastern Meatballs with Orzo I had made last year. However, this time I made my own meatballs with the leftover ground meat from the gyros the week before. I just added and egg and some bread crumbs and baked the meatballs in the oven at 400 F for about 25 minutes. The meal was a huge hit and we had a great evening.

I chose this song, Desert Rose, click here to see the original video, the partnership of Sting and Cheb Mami, who is one of my most favorite artists and who is a very big star in his native Algeria and much of the “bellydancing music” world. His voice is unique and beautifully haunting. I also love Sting and give him major props for introducing Cheb’s beautiful voice to the western world through this song.

For more by Cheb Mami, click here.
To hear more of his music, click below.

Now for the recipes:

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Antipasto is always a special treat for us, especially during the holidays season - Italian coldcuts like salami, capocollo and soppressata are typical meats. For cheeses - a good parmesan, some mozzarella and for us goat cheese are often featured. Throw in some olives and grape tomatoes and some good bread and it is a delicious feast for the eyes and the stomach. It is a great spread to have around for the holidays when you have unexpected (or expected) visitors, or it is just great with a glass of wine to enjoy with good friends or family. Perfect for a New Year’s Eve celebration!

If you have leftovers, try making a panino. This one has the coldcuts, mozzarella, pesto and greens!

Buon Appetito!

*On a personal note, I will be taking a short hiatus from the blogosphere. Roberto and I are moving on Jan 2 into our new fabulous condo in St. Augustine, so I will be very tied up with all of that. I wish everyone a happy and healthy and SAFE New Years celebration!*

This year I really wanted to make some special Halloween treats! I love love love Halloween, it is one of my favorite holidays (after Thanksgiving, which is my all time favorite). This year I have been all about challenging myself in the kitchen and I had never made confections or really done much cake decorating. So when my cousin Michelle aka “ The Evil Tooth Fairy” and her partner Luke invited us to a Halloween party this past weekend I knew it was the moment to challenge myself in this way. Trick or Treat!
PS - Don’t forget November 1st is the last day to post your entry for the Royal Foodie Joust! Don’t forget to participate this month!!!

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This is my entry for this month’s Royal Foodie Joust!
The ingredients for this month’s challenge are:
chipotle peppers, zucchini and buttermilk.
The three items were picked by Marye of
Apron Strings and Simmering Things who was the Joust’s winner last month.

My inspiration for this dish is my love of spicy condiments and my love of all things Mediterranean. Harissa is a North African spicy pepper relish, often found in many forms on the streets of Tunisia. I love Harissa and usually get around to making it once a year. It is a wonderful treat gotten with quite a bit of culinary effort and time, but it is worth it. I keep telling myself that I really need to make a bigger batch next time, but always forget! Maybe next year!

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this dish! The fritters are nice and crispy on the outside and deliciously creamy on the inside, topped with the spicy Harissa and the cooling Greek yogurt it is a perfect combination!

If you want to join us this month for the Royal Foodie Joust, Click Here
for the details or just stop by the Leftover Queen’s Forum!

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This is a dish I created for the “Mediterranean Summer” class I taught at The Culinaria Food & Arts Studio in Ocala, Florida. This menu was designed to travel well so that one can bring these dishes to a picnic, summer BBQ or family gathering. I have always loved crostini with white beans and I wanted to create one that would stand strong in terms of taste by adding fried rosemary and prosciutto. I hope you enjoy it and bring it to your next picnic!

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I saw a recipe for fresh fig pizza with blue cheese in Vegetarian Times years ago. I have a huge collection of recipes I have torn out of magazines and newspapers, printed from online, etc etc over the years. These are recipes that have given me inspiration on creating new flavors and dishes. Every time I move, which seems to have been quite a few times over these past few years, I go through the box and get rid of the ones I will never make or have lost their lustor.

This recipe has stuck with me over the years and I finally decided to try my version of it. As you know from my recent post about figs, fresh figs are finally in season and so I have been eating quite a lot of them! Since Roberto is always looking for a good ITALIAN pizza crust - (no New York style crust, here)– to no avail yet in a restaurant, we have been trying to devise our own. The secret to a great Italian pizza crust is of course the high temperatures in which they are quickly cooked. So I decided to finish the pizzas by grilling them off at the end, in a 600 F grill to get it to the right consistency. It definitely got the Roman’s seal of approval. I also drizzled the pizzas with olive oil and balsamic vinegar when they came out of the grill to give it a little something extra!
Buon Appetito!

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Okay guys, this is the second to last installment of my recipes for my Mediterranean Medley class, which will be held this Thurday night! What a way to kick off summer, eh? But do not fear, I have been signed on to teach 3 more classes - 2 in July and 1 already in August, with more to come. So I will be posting some of those recipes as I go along.

This is the recipe for my version of stuffed grape leaves. I think this is the 2nd recipe that I ever created myself. Almost every country in the Mediterranean (minus Italy, Spain, France and Portugal - I think, correct me if I am wrong) have their own version of stuffed grape leaves. Some are served hot, some cold. Some are meat, some vegetarian. Some contain sweet elements like raisins or currants, some are mostly savory. So I created my own version based on what I enjoyed about the various kinds I had tried over the years. These grape leaves have had many incarnations, but this has been my tried and true version of them for the past several years. They are fresh and full of crunch! Some of you purists who are used to mushy grape leaves may not approve, but I trust if you try them, you may change your mind! I served them with Fattoush Salad and Baklava Ice Cream Bites recipes for which I will be posting very soon! Enjoy!

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As promised here is the next recipe for the class I will be teaching about Mediterranean food at the Culinaria.
This week’s Mediterranean Recipe of the Week is Baba Ganoush! I love this recipe. It is easy to make and delicious to eat. Baba Ganoush is very versatile - you can eat it with raw veggies, or toasted pita. Use as a sandwich spread or just eat if off the spoon! I will be preparing it for my class as a dipping sauce for lamb kabobs. A little unconventional, but I never said I was anything but!

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