Tapenade Stuffed Mozzarella Cheese Appetizers

Bite-sized food is one of the best ways to create a romantic atmosphere for your Valentine dinner. That way you can feed each other while talking and kissing in between! To that end, I created cheese appetizers using small mozzarella balls that I emptied and stuffed with homemade tapenade. The preparation is quite simple if you prep everything in advance.

I made the tapenade using kalamata olives. I love the way the blackish deep-purple color contrasts so well with the white mozzarella; they're also the best choice because of their rich and fruity flavor. I served the mozzarella appetizers on herb-Parmesan crackers, so they're easy to pick up and eat in one single bite.

Olive Tapenade Chicken Rolls

Olive tapenade is extremely versatile and can be used as a spread or filling in many different dishes. You can also use it in place of more traditional party dips such as hummus, guacamole, salsa or roasted bell pepper spread. In this recipe, I added goat cheese to the tapenade and used the mixture as a filling for chicken rolls. I served the dish with a mildly sweet carrot purée that makes an excellent foil to the savory flavor of the tapenade.

If it's not part of your culinary repertoire yet, you should definitely learn to prepare tapenade. It will open up a whole new world of easy to prepare, delectable dishes.

Salad Nicoise

If you're ever fortunate enough to go to Paris, you are bound to walk by many sidewalk cafés, brasseries, bistros and the like. As ubiquitous are the chalkboards that guard the entrances to these eateries, calling out the specials of the day. On almost all of them, you will find salade niçoise.

This is not the tuna salad that one traditionally finds in America, slathered in mayonnaise and sweet pickles. Salade niçoise hails from the Côte d'Azur; region of France, and is named after the city of Nice. It is a combination of tomatoes, potatoes, green beans, eggs and canned tuna packed in oil. It is typically topped with anchovies and Dijon vinaigrette.   Like many French dishes, the name may evoke visions of elegance and glamour, but in reality the dish is the result of the vegetables and proteins available in that region of France. Put another way, it's really just a fancy way of describing a tossed salad from Nice.

I personally love this dish, because it is easy to make and perfectly captures the flavors of  the Mediterranean. It won't replace the traditional American-style tuna salad, but instead provide you with a healthier alternative.