10-by-14 rectangle. Transfer to prepared sheet; let dough rest 30 minutes while you cook the onions.
2. Warm 3 tablespoons oil in a large skillet over low heat. Add onions, salt and pepper. Cook 30 minutes, stirring often, until onions turn light golden but not brown. Remove from heat; stir in thyme.
3. Preheat oven to 425°F. Spread onions evenly over dough; dot with olives. Bake 13 minutes, until crisp and hot. Serve warm or at room temperature.
----
TIP
To pit olives, hit them with the flat side of a knife to break the flesh, remove the pit and set the olive pieces aside to garnish the tart.
----
Smoked Salmon Canapés with Horseradish Cream
I f you’re not using cocktail bread, use a 2-inch fluted round or other pastry cutter to cut slices of normal-sized bread into party-ready decorative shapes.
Makes about 20
4 ounces smoked salmon slices
½ cup sour cream
1 tablespoon prepared horseradish, or to taste
21 pieces pumpernickel “cocktail bread,” or 7 very thin slices pumpernickel or whole-grain bread
Garnishes: Freshly ground pepper, fresh dill sprigs, drained capers, lemon zest strips
1. Cut smoked salmon into 20 one-inch strips.
2. In a small bowl, combine sour cream and horseradish until blended. Spread cream evenly on bread rounds. Curl salmon slices on top of cream like a ribbon; garnish with a grind of pepper, a dill sprig and a few capers. Serve cool or at room temperature.
----
TIP
It’s easier to separate the salmon slices when cold.
----
Celery Cups with Blue Cheese Mousse and Bacon
A dinner fork is the best tool for blending the crumbly blue cheese with the cream cheese.
Makes about 20
6 slices bacon
3 ounces blue cheese, at room temperature
3 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
Salt and pepper
4 stalks celery
Fresh chives, snipped, for garnish
1. Cook bacon until crisp. Transfer to paper-towel-lined plate. Chop or break into triangular pieces.
2. In a medium bowl, beat blue and cream cheese until combined and mostly smooth. Season with salt and pepper.
3. Cut each celery stalk on the diagonal into five pieces to make twenty 2-inch-by-2-inch pieces. Using a small spoon, smooth about 1 teaspoon cheese mixture along each celery cup. Set a few shards of bacon into the cheese mixture in each cup. Sprinkle with chives.
----
TIP
Be sure to use block cream cheese, not the whipped kind.
----
Dinner
at 44 CRANBERRY POINT with
Bob and Peggy Beldon
I knew Bob and Peggy as high school sweethearts back when Peggy hung around with Olivia and Grace. Bob was a good friend of Dan Sherman’s, too, as I recall. They were on the football team and enlisted in the army together, leaving for Vietnam shortly after graduation.
Bob and Peggy were married after he returned from the war and they lived in Spokane for quite a few years. Every once in a while, I’d run into Bob’s mother, who’d tell me how they were doing, but Aggie died in the late ’90s. I heard nothing more about Bob and Peggy until the summer of 2002, when they moved back to Cedar Cove to retire. They bought the old Crockett property, which was a dilapidated, abandoned wreck of a place, a real eyesore out there on Cranberry Point.
When Bob and Peggy made an offer on it, the rumor was that they intended to turn it into a bed-and-breakfast. Well, the rumor was right, but I don’t mind telling you I was one of the skeptics. To my way of thinking, it would’ve been better to tear down that ramshackle old dump and build something new.
Bob proved me wrong. He must’ve worked night and day for six months. Some retirement! He told me he wasn’t interested in sitting around watching the grass grow, but I had no idea he’d turned into such a handyman. With only occasional hired help, he gutted the house, replaced walls and windows, re-roofed and painted the exterior.
Peggy did a lot of the interior painting and refinished the furniture they’d bought in junk stores. Not only that, she created the most
2. Warm 3 tablespoons oil in a large skillet over low heat. Add onions, salt and pepper. Cook 30 minutes, stirring often, until onions turn light golden but not brown. Remove from heat; stir in thyme.
3. Preheat oven to 425°F. Spread onions evenly over dough; dot with olives. Bake 13 minutes, until crisp and hot. Serve warm or at room temperature.
----
TIP
To pit olives, hit them with the flat side of a knife to break the flesh, remove the pit and set the olive pieces aside to garnish the tart.
----
Smoked Salmon Canapés with Horseradish Cream
I f you’re not using cocktail bread, use a 2-inch fluted round or other pastry cutter to cut slices of normal-sized bread into party-ready decorative shapes.
Makes about 20
4 ounces smoked salmon slices
½ cup sour cream
1 tablespoon prepared horseradish, or to taste
21 pieces pumpernickel “cocktail bread,” or 7 very thin slices pumpernickel or whole-grain bread
Garnishes: Freshly ground pepper, fresh dill sprigs, drained capers, lemon zest strips
1. Cut smoked salmon into 20 one-inch strips.
2. In a small bowl, combine sour cream and horseradish until blended. Spread cream evenly on bread rounds. Curl salmon slices on top of cream like a ribbon; garnish with a grind of pepper, a dill sprig and a few capers. Serve cool or at room temperature.
----
TIP
It’s easier to separate the salmon slices when cold.
----
Celery Cups with Blue Cheese Mousse and Bacon
A dinner fork is the best tool for blending the crumbly blue cheese with the cream cheese.
Makes about 20
6 slices bacon
3 ounces blue cheese, at room temperature
3 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
Salt and pepper
4 stalks celery
Fresh chives, snipped, for garnish
1. Cook bacon until crisp. Transfer to paper-towel-lined plate. Chop or break into triangular pieces.
2. In a medium bowl, beat blue and cream cheese until combined and mostly smooth. Season with salt and pepper.
3. Cut each celery stalk on the diagonal into five pieces to make twenty 2-inch-by-2-inch pieces. Using a small spoon, smooth about 1 teaspoon cheese mixture along each celery cup. Set a few shards of bacon into the cheese mixture in each cup. Sprinkle with chives.
----
TIP
Be sure to use block cream cheese, not the whipped kind.
----
Dinner
at 44 CRANBERRY POINT with
Bob and Peggy Beldon
I knew Bob and Peggy as high school sweethearts back when Peggy hung around with Olivia and Grace. Bob was a good friend of Dan Sherman’s, too, as I recall. They were on the football team and enlisted in the army together, leaving for Vietnam shortly after graduation.
Bob and Peggy were married after he returned from the war and they lived in Spokane for quite a few years. Every once in a while, I’d run into Bob’s mother, who’d tell me how they were doing, but Aggie died in the late ’90s. I heard nothing more about Bob and Peggy until the summer of 2002, when they moved back to Cedar Cove to retire. They bought the old Crockett property, which was a dilapidated, abandoned wreck of a place, a real eyesore out there on Cranberry Point.
When Bob and Peggy made an offer on it, the rumor was that they intended to turn it into a bed-and-breakfast. Well, the rumor was right, but I don’t mind telling you I was one of the skeptics. To my way of thinking, it would’ve been better to tear down that ramshackle old dump and build something new.
Bob proved me wrong. He must’ve worked night and day for six months. Some retirement! He told me he wasn’t interested in sitting around watching the grass grow, but I had no idea he’d turned into such a handyman. With only occasional hired help, he gutted the house, replaced walls and windows, re-roofed and painted the exterior.
Peggy did a lot of the interior painting and refinished the furniture they’d bought in junk stores. Not only that, she created the most
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