Play Date Canapes

Earlier today a few of my girlfriends came over with their kids for a play date. It's still hard to believe that we all have kids. It seems that only yesterday we were single and care-free, hanging out at Alki, chillin' at Starbucks, playing soccer at Celebration Park, or having lunch after church at the Burien Azteca. Now we're kissing away owies, changing diapers, laughing about the funny things toddlers say, and sharing what we put on the table for our men and kids. Play dates are a great time to share stories over a few simple dishes, like canapes (small open-faced sandwiches) and this morning I prepared a trio of these for my friends.

You have to start out with a yummy spread. As I've been cooking Russian food in the past few weeks I've noticed that quite a few recipes call for mayonnaise--must be a Russian staple. Here's something I came up with on my own that I like to use as a spread.

Garlic-Herb Mayo

1/2 head of garlic cloves, minced

1/4 cup dill, finely chopped

1/4 cup parsley, finely chopped

2 cups mayonnaise

Mix all ingredients together.

Easy, right? Yep. I was inspired by the herb-butter I learned to make in my Culinary Arts class at the Art Institute of Seattle--yep, yep, I did go to Culinary School--for an entire FOUR DAYS!!! It was a month long class held on Saturdays. I got into it simply on accident when I filled out a scholarship application and BSed about how I was going to apply my new knowledge of culinary arts in my ENGLISH class. Surprisingly I got that scholarship and got to spend some time in a professional kitchen with a French chef. I have to say that if I ever decide to change careers, culinary arts will be it. It was an amazing experience! It is where I also learned the term "canape," speaking of which, I have digressed...

For the canape recipes, I will not be writing the actual number of things you need because it all depends on how many you want to make. So if you want to make a lot of canapes, you're gonna need a lot of sliced bread, cucumbers, tomatoes, etc. If you're only gonna make one (which is rather silly), you'll need much less. Anyway, common sense.

Starting with the hardest one...

Eggplant-Tomato Canapes

baguette, sliced

Garlic-Herb Mayo

fried eggplant slices (read on for how to fry)

tomato, sliced

mozzarella or Gruyere cheese, shredded

chopped dill (optional)

Assembling the canape: Spread the bread with Garlic-Herb Mayo, top with a slice of fried eggplant, then with a slice of tomato. Garnish with shredded cheese and dill.

To fry eggplant:
1. Slice the eggplant, toss with some salt, and place in colander over a mixing bowl for at least an hour. This way the eggplant will release some if its bitter juices.

2. Heat some oil in a skillet (you will need to keep your jug of oil nearby as the eggplant takes in a lot of it as it fries) and place eggplant slices in hot oil. Don't forget to pat the eggplant slices with a paper towel to dry out moisture prior to frying otherwise when the moisture hits the oil you and your stove will be covered with a ton of oil sprays...

3. Fry eggplant until golden brown on each side. You will probably need to keep adding oil to your skillet as you keep frying.

4. After all eggplant slices have been fried, place back in colander over a mixing bowl and let it sit for a few hours as the excess oil drips out of the fried eggplant. You can even stick this whole contraption in the fridge overnight and let the oil trickle down into the mixing bowl. Eggplant is now ready to use!

***This is how much oil seeped out after 4 hours...

Smoked Salmon Canapes

baguette, sliced

Garlic-Herb Mayo

cucumber, sliced

smoked salmon slices

mozzarella or Gruyere cheese, shredded

chopped dill (optional)

Assembling the canape: Spread the bread with Garlic-Herb Mayo, top with a slice of cucumber, then with a slice of smoked salmon. Garnish with shredded cheese and dill.

Sprat Canapes

baguette, sliced

Garlic-Herb Mayo

cucumber, sliced

can of smoked sprats in oil, halved

mozzarella or Gruyere cheese, shredded

chopped dill (optional)

Assembling the canape: Spread the bread with Garlic-Herb Mayo, top with a slice of cucumber, then with half a sprat. Garnish with shredded cheese and dill.