Appetizer

Olive Poppers

We've been making these olive poppers for 20+ years, inspired by Palace Olive Poppers from Tom Douglas' Seattle Kitchen. They appear on Douglas' Palace Kitchen menu, and are always a crowd favorite at our house. They are a bit manually intensive to make, so we often make a large batch and freeze them for easy thawing and cooking down the road.

Chimichurri

Seed Crackers

We purchased a package of seed crackers from our local grocery store and loved them so much, that we went in search of a recipe to duplicate at home. We ran across this recipe from the True North Kitchen for Seed Crackers, otherwise known as Norwegian Crispbread. It was quite easy and super tasty. The trick is trying to get the batter thin enough to produce very thin yet stable cracker.

Easy Naan Bread

This recipe for homemade naan bread could not be any easier. There are 4 ingredients and the entire process takes about 10 mins, and they even freeze well.

Gougères

A gougère, in French cuisine, is a baked savory pastry made of choux dough mixed with cheese. There are many variants. The cheese is commonly grated Gruyère, Comté, or Emmentaler, but there are many recipes using other cheeses or other ingredients - you will see below that we prefer a blend of Parmigiano Reggiano and Pecorino Romano. Of the dozens of recipes available online, we consulted and pulled from several, to arrive at this one that works for us.

Sweet Potato Salad with Warm Pepita Dressing

Italian Wedding Soup

We tried this recipe for the first time over the weekend, and loved it. Note, we made a couple minor modifications to the original recipe from the New York Times, credited below

Ceviche Verde

Guacamole

This is now customized enough that I don't remember where the original recipe came from. I love having tomatoes in my guacamole. Not a lot of people add them, but I love the fresh taste they introduce. Tip: use really good Spanish paprika to maximize the smoky flavor. Warning: the paprika throws the pure green color off, but trust me the flavor is worth the "off color" effect.