Asiago / Blue Cheese Crisps - RESTAURANT QUALITY Amuse-Bouche

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

...Yeah, I know, I have a bit of holiday overload myself. But, it is time to start blogging my Christmas Eve meal. For us, this was the "big" meal, with lots of prep work, time in the kitchen and it stretched my talents as a cook. These next several posts will be my Christmas Eve dinner. But, dare I suggest for you to consider these a germ of an idea to help celebrate...

HAPPY VALENTINES' DAY!!!

Christmas Eve is a romantic time for Jackie and I. I have told the story recently, but quickly, Jackie and I made the decision to get married on Christmas Eve many years ago. Since then, we try to remember those romantic times. This year, I wanted to do something special in the kitchen that would remind us that for the two for us, "It's A Wonderful Life".

We made a couple of decisions... First, This was not to be a single BIG elastic waistband dinner. Instead, we would eat and cook courses... many courses, throughout the day. And second, we would spend the time remembering restaurant meals. The places we have been would be remembered and talked about. The memorable dishes we have been served would be recreated and serve as the "Clarence" to remind us, "It's A Wonderful Life".

Which means I get to stretch my cooking chops. We have eaten very well over the course of our life together. New York to LA: England, Germany and the Caribbean; resorts, cruises and Celebrity Chef restaurants all had to be remembered, researched and recreated to make this work. Jackie and I spent a week playing Mr. Peabody and his boy, Sherman wandering through the Wayback Machine to decide the menu.

First up is an Amuse-Bouche. That's a French term for a pre-appetizer, literally meaning, "mouth pleaser". An Amuse-Bouche is different from an hors d'oeuvres in that they are generally small (only one or two bites), it is the same for all of the guests at a table and it is never ordered. It is offered free of charge. An Amuse-Bouche is an unexpected bonus. The first time we received an Amuse-Bouche was at a fancy dancy casino restaurant in Vegas. I am now a poker player, but in my mis-spent youth, I played a lot of blackjack and craps. In exchange for me paying the entire casino electric bill for a month, they gave me a comp of a free meal at the fancy-dancy place. That was indeed a wonderful trip that Jackie and I remember very fondly (Cirque du Soleil "O" and Sigfried and Roy were also comped... but I digress...).

So, at the crack of dawn I woke up, went to pee (I am old), and went back to bed for a couple hours. Then, at a civilized 8 AM, I had my coffee, and started to work on our Christmas Eve dinner...

For my Christmas Amuse-Bouche, I decided to make a very simple little snack I had first had at a casino in Kansas City. the restaurant is closed now, but I fondly recall the first time we had these little jewels. So incredibly simple and so tasty. I have made these many times, whenever we have a group over, they are always gone by the end of the night. Almost as addictive as blackjack.

Ingredient list for the basic crisp is just grated cheese. Either Asiago or Parmesan works best, You can add almost anything. Olives, minced spinach, bits of diced rib meat leftovers... anything except Brussels Sprouts (see the comments section at OURKRAZYKITCHEN ... click HERE for that discussion... But I digress again).

I chose to use some Blue Cheese and some walnut pieces as my accents to the basic.

It is also very easy if you fire these up on a cookie sheet with parchment paper covering.

Just as easy as it looks... sprinkle a bit into a circle and top with what you like.

I bake at 300 degrees. It took about 10 minutes for the edges to brown up and the center to start bubbling.

In the next few days, I will be tossing around the term restaurant quality and restaurant recreations. I tried to duplicate not only the taste but also the presentation look of the courses I made during the day. When plated, some plain cheese, some with just blue cheese accents and some with just walnut accents; and some with both blue cheese and walnuts... These were both restaurant quality and had the same look that I remembered.

Our bouches really were amused. So simple and so tasty. We spent an hour talking about Vegas, fun shows we saw, Jackie made a few very tasteless jokes about Roy (I made appropriate jokes about Siegfried) and it was a perfect start to our romantic trip down memory lane...

More Restaurant recreations and stories of our life to come over the next few days... We had LOTS of courses.

Despite having no Brussels sprouts as an ingredient, I am linking this recipe up with SIMPLE SATURDAYS at OUR KRAZY KITCHEN.

For some ridiculous reason,
they are collecting Brussels Sprouts recipes today