Well we had a swell friend who helped us move all our crap (yeah Mom, I said it. CRAP) out of the Budget truck, up four floors, and into our house. He also gave us our new awesome bed frame for FREE!

So anyways, one night we had him over because he was going to finish up putting the bed together (and watch America’s Got Talent because he doesn’t have TV) and I wanted to make something special for dinner. I decided that I’d make a little Tapenade as an appetizer and then a delicious Mango Chicken dinner a la South Beach Diet.

I made it up as I was going so there are a few ingredients not in this picture that I decided to add after:

I also used lemon and garlic.

So I minced up the tomato in a grinder.

I did the same to the olives medley. I used about 10 Kalamata olives and 10  black olives and about 5 huge green olives.

I separated the tomatoes in one bowl and and added about 1/3 of the olive mixture into it and the rest of the it into it’s own bowl. Into each bowl,  I added the lemon juice of one lemon,1 garlic clove, minced mushrooms, cilantro and olive oil.

I also added capers to the olive tapenade. It added a little zing and I’m glad i did but I think next time I’ll add a few more. I did probably only 1-1/2 tbsp of them.

Next get some delicious Artisan bread and put some nice shreds of fresh parmesan cheese on top in an ungreased pan.

Doesn’t it look so pretty?

Bake them at 450 for a good 10 minutes or until the cheese is melted and the edges are browned.

I served everything on my pretty white stuff that I’ve not had for a while! I paired it with a cheap white whine that we’ve come to love. Oak Leaf is around $3 at your local market but it’s so tasty and paired really well with the parmesan cheese.

In the end we liked the tomato one more than the olive based…but have it as you like.

LOVIES