okra: Love Gorged

My Valentine's day was brimming with food. Here's the delicious report:

We had a mini Valentine celebration at work. I was initially recruited to make a cake, but to my delight I found out Tuesday afternoon that someone else was going to make it instead. While I like making cakes, I wasn't really looking forward to making icing or scouting the baking isle - it has been super cold and it makes me feel like cuddling up and staying at home*. So, I improvised little savory polenta snacks instead, which turned out to be a hit. I think it was a good contrast with all of the super sugary standard Valentine treats.

{I cut the polenta slices into hearts using a little heart cookie cutter. I wrote out the super easy recipe, it's included at the end of this post.}

{I put Hello Kitty valentines and tattoos in everyone's mailbox at work. Graham delivered this very cute handmade valentine from Natalie.}

Valentine's evening, I whipped up a valentine dinner for two. Keith's loves pesto, so I decided to make a simple pasta with *lots* of pesto. The pasta included (aside from lots of pesto)sun-dried tomatoes, Kalamata olives, giant garlic stuffed green olives, fresh oregano, feta cheese, and a little sauteed red pepper and garlic. We ate some great bread with it that I picked up at the store.

{Here's the uber-Valentine table! Lots of food and lots of candles. And of course, Keith's super-pesto pasta.}

I was really excited to give Keith his valentine present. I got him a pair of herringbone patterned Vans. Unfortunately, his feet are wide and they don't fit quite right. But, luckily, I got them at Zappos.com and they make exchanging for another size very easy.

{Here's what they look like. Pictures from Zappos.com.}

Keith gave me some things that I had been ogling over, which were on sale even, but I still couldn't seem to bring myself to buy. I also received two manga books.

* I did have to brave the cold to get to the grocery store, but it was surprisingly fun. Keith was kind enough to go with me. They were playing ridiculous "oldies" in the nearly empty grocery store. It's so much better to have someone to laugh at you while you dance in the isles. I also bought tofutti cuties, non-dairy ice cream sandwiches. Oh, yes. And my favorite soup, as well as my favorite vegetarian maple and onion baked beans were on sale! Yay!

Red Pepper and Garlic Polenta Snacks

By Kristin
Preparation time: Approx. 45 minutes
Yield: About 15 (depending on how thickly you slice the polenta)

1 package prepared polenta (though if you are ambitious and not in a hurry, it's not very hard to make yourself)
About 1 Tbs. olive oil
1 red bell pepper
About 1/4 cup Kalamata olives, pitted
About 1/4 cup feta cheese
About 2 Tbs. minced garlic (more or less depending on your tastes; I used pre-chopped garlic, packed in water, for convenience)
Pinch of fresh coarsely ground black pepper (optional, but highly recommended)
Fresh oregano (optional)

About the polenta: You can buy polenta already made in a plastic sleeve; it's kind of a tube or sausage-like shape. You can find it in the produce section of the grocery store, it is always kept refrigerated.

To make:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Add about a tablespoon of olive oil to a skillet or saute pan, over medium high heat. While the oil heats, wash the red pepper and dice it, removing the seeds and ribs. Once the oil is heated, add a couple of tablespoons of minced garlic. Just before the garlic begins to brown, add the red pepper. Cook the mixture until the liquid from the peppers evaporates, and they begin to brown. (The pan must be fairly hot for them to cook fast enough without losing their color and becoming too soft. Stir them frequently so that the red pepper will cook evenly, without burning. After cooking, the peppers should be fairly dry and have an intense red color, with some browning.) Set the peppers aside, to cool a bit.

Open the end of the polenta package (Over the sink! It might squirt!) and slide it out of the sleeve. Gently drain the liquid; pat polenta dry with a paper towel. Slice the polenta, about 1/8 of an inch thick, or you can make it thicker if you like, up to about1/4 of an inch. Place the polenta on a lined baking sheet (I like to use my silicon baking mat for this. Or you can use foil.). You may very lightly brush the polenta with olive oil if desired (they brown a little more), but it is not necessary. Bake the polenta for about 12 minutes to permit it to warm and to evaporate some of the liquid in the polenta, but do not allow the polenta to shrink too much or completely dry out (you don't want it to become hard). Variation: You can grill or saute the polenta. This is especially good if you:
1. Have more time
2. Are serving these immediately (i.e. hot)
Baking them does reduce the amount of oil used and the preparation time. Additionally, I personally think they taste better baked if you plan to refrigerate these and serve them later.

While the polenta is baking and the red peppers are still cooling, slice the olives and crumble the feta cheese into small pieces. I have found that it is not uncommon for "pitted" olives to still have a few pits left. I think that the smaller slices are more appropriately sized, but if you like larger olive chunks, I would at least cut them in half to avoid an unpleasant surprise.

Once the polenta has finished baking, remove it from the baking sheet with a spatula and place it on the plate you plan to serve it on. The pepper mixture should be cool enough now to handle. Scoop a teaspoon or so of the red pepper and garlic mixture onto the tops of the polenta rounds. Then, put a few olive slices on, and a sprinkling of feta and fresh coarsely ground black pepper. Place a single, tiny oregano leaf on the top of each polenta.