This month’s cooking theme for a meetup I’m a member of was the first of many I’d brainstormed in the middle of bikram yoga class. After nearly two years of cooking different ethnic foods, I thought it was high time we branched out a little more. Technically, “tapas” is a Spanish tradition, but we didn’t confine ourselves either to Spanish wine nor Spanish food, especially me.
A few months ago, I’d tried “Cabanero,” a delicious blend of a cabernet infused with habanero peppers. Not wanting to waste such a deliciously spicy wine on tender-mouthed people, I’d cut long colorful straws into 4-6″ sampling straws and submerged them into a shallow glass half-filled with cabanero. I got everybody’s attention and showed them how to take a sample.
Pictured to the right of the straw-filled wine glass was the “tapa” I brought. I’d sliced Granny Smith apples into disks rather than wedges and brushed a generous amount of fresh lime juice onto every cut surface. Then I put a blue cheese spread on them, which consisted of blue cheese, cream cheese, chopped green onions and walnuts. Very simple. Turns out, this was the first time other people actually wanted the recipe for something I’d bought. All these other times, I’d taken so much time to create more complex dishes. Never again!
The novelty of both a spicy wine and sample straw delivery turned out to be a fun party favor. And here I thought I was being practical. Not that I’m complaining. Once again, the variety of food and people blended beautifully. I always opt to eat in the dining room since I don’t have one at home, but the rest of the group were in the TV room, which was where we all gathered after the fact to vote on the next theme. Despite all the wine that had been consumed, no one thought “Ramen Noodle Challenge” nor “Healthy Diet” were good foodie themes. We agreed on “Brazilian” for the next time. I’m going to find the simplest Brazilian recipe and see how big of a hit it’ll be!