Lemon Chili Olives and Spiced Honey Almond Nibbles Recipes
Posted Nov 17 2009 3:00am
Welcome to the next stop of our Gluten Free Thanksgiving Progressive Dinner Party! I will be serving drink nibbles, Lemon Chili Olives and Spiced Honey Almonds.
Holidays as a child meant many things. The preparations would start weeks before the holiday. There would be much frantic rushing to clean the house, a speeded up pace in the kitchen as vast quantities of food were prepared, lots of polishing of silver serving pieces and silverware.
And some rare appearances of special foods, you know the ones that only come out once or twice a year along with the fine china and real crystal glasses.
Not that these foods were truly unusual, we're talking about suburban New Jersey after all. No, just special to us because my folks didn't entertain frequently. With 6 kids in the family, special and expensive foods did not grace the table unless there was company, we had an abundance of plain foods.
At Thanksgiving the parade of dishes always began simply, with olives and crudites in the crystal divided dish. Oh, how we waited for those enormous black olives to top a small finger, the little green olives stuffed with peppers to suck out and chew, the occasional bit of carrot or celery to wash the olives down.
And loved to nibble on the mixed nuts that came from a can. The sound of the vacuum being released was always my favorite part. The nuts were always a bit too salty for me. But you could scoop out the cashews and use them for bargaining for more olives with a sibling.
Nowadays, nuts and olives are essential parts of my pantry, used frequently and plentifully on an almost daily basis.
But I still love to have that simple platter of crudites, olives and nuts to nibble on while the dinner finishes. And it helps to keep the party occupied somewhere else than in the kitchen with me.
The presentation has just gotten a bit more flavorful now.
I make these wonderful Honey and Spice Almonds
2 cups of raw almonds
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
Heat honey and brown sugar in large pan over medium heat till melted and small bubbles appear.
Stir in all the spices. Pour in the almonds and stir to coat well.
Lower heat and continue to cook the almonds till the glaze has melted, bubbled and reclung (is that a word?) to them. This takes approximately 5 minutes or so.
Spread onto parchment covered cookie sheet pan to cool.
And these:
One 16 .5 oz jar of mixed green and black olives - drained I used Tasso brand
1/4 cup kalamata olive oil
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes or more if you love heat
grated peel from one organic lemon
Warm olive oil in small pan till just body temperature. Go ahead and check, it should not feel hot to a fingertip. Remove from heat.
Stir in the red pepper flakes and lemon peel, then add the drained olives. Stir well to coat the olives.
Put the olives back into the olive bottle and squeeze the juice of the lemon over the olives. Shake the jar well.
Let marinate for at least 2 days, shaking the jar whenever you remember. If you are like me and won't remember, you can double the sauce recipe and just realize that you will have a lovely lemony spicy sauce left when the olives run out.
Feel free to nibble a few before your guests come.
Where to Stop Next
Don't forget to stop by the rest of our blogs this week for the more of our Gluten Free Progressive Thanksgiving Dinner Party. Here's the schedule.
Holidays as a child meant many things.
The preparations would start weeks before the holiday.
There would be much frantic rushing to clean the house, a speeded up pace in the kitchen as vast quantities of food were prepared, lots of polishing of silver serving pieces and silverware.
If you are like me and won't remember, you can double the sauce recipe and just realize that you will have a lovely lemony spicy sauce left when the olives run out.