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Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Black & Blue Crostini


Round #3 for Blue Cheese Week is coming a little later than initially expected. See, I am making these dishes the night before I post about them - and I had a little hang-up. The hang-up was BBQ Pork Sandwiches with Blue Cheese Coleslaw. Sounds great, I just need to perfect the recipe - because there was no way in H-E-double hockey stick I was going to share what I had with you. Yikes...

With all that said, I am really happy the sandwiches didn't turn out, because otherwise I may not have found these gems! These Black & Blue Crostinis are marinated deli roast beef placed on a crisp baguette, then topped with a Blue Cheese spread. Absolutely delicious!! If you take these to a party - they will be gone, no doubt in my mind.

Without further ado - let me share how to make these delicious wonders!

First I got the marinade ready - olive oil, garlic, fresh rosemary, red pepper flakes and black pepper to taste. I swear, some of the best recipes have the simplest ingredients.


The recipe calls for 1/2 pound of thinly sliced roast beef - I used deli-meat from my local grocers meat counter. I got the best quality they had because I am a meat snob...

meat!!

To marinate the meat I first made sure all the pieces of meat were separated and then I placed them in a freezer bag. After adding the marinade, I gently worked the bag of meat to make sure everything was getting the "Love of Marinade". Then I put the bag of marinating meat in the fridge and let the "love" do it's work.


Next up was the Blue Cheese Spread - again, completely simple ingredients. Cream cheese, crumbled blue cheese, blue cheese dressing and salt&pepper.

the only way the lighting could have gotten any worse for this picture is if the electricity went out...

Mr. Hungry Harp found Treasure Cave Crumbled Blue Cheese - with a Natural Smoke Flavor while at the grocery store. He called me and told me about it, I told him to get some - he told me it was already in his hand. I love that guy. ♥ 

The recipe calls for Blue Cheese dressing so I used our favorite one thus far - Litehouse Chunky Bleu Cheese. Delish! (I never use that word - but it totally fits here.)

After mixing the ingredients for the Blue Cheese Spread, it got placed in the fridge - right next to the marinating roast beef. Little did they know that soon enough they would be coming together to create love for my mouth! *Nom, nom, nom! (I use that all the time, my kids think it's hilarious)


While the meat and the blue cheese spread were chillin' (literally and figuratively), I started preparing the crostini. It's easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy, I swear. Heat oven to 350, slice some baguette bread, brush olive oil on both sides and add salt&pepper to taste.

Since the roast beef marinade has fresh rosemary in it I opted to use Rosemary Olive Oil on the crostini. It was perfect! I found these little gems at the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market in San Francisco and I am in love with them. The company is Sciabica's and they have an awesome line of flavored olive oils - one of my favorites being Habanero. >:)


Bake the crostini for about 10-15 minutes or until they start to turn a golden-brown.


After the crostini cools down, pile-on add the marinated roast beef.


Add a dollop of blue cheese spread.


Using the back of a spoon, press each dollop of spread down just a little to create a small bowl. Stick some fresh sprigs of Rosemary into each dollop and serve. Your guests will be WOWED!!

so pretty!

Roast Beef Marinade
Ingredients
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoons minced fresh rosemary leaves
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Directions
1. Mix all ingredients together, add meat and marinate for minimum of one hour.

Blue Cheese Spread
Ingredients
6 oz. cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese
2 tablespoons blue cheese salad dressing
Salt&pepper to taste
Directions
1. Mix all ingredients together, let chill for minimum of half hour.

Recipe adapted from Beef and Blue Cheese Crostini by Crisco

6 comments:

Kiri W. said...

Oooooh! I love blue cheese, what a glorious little appetizer.

Missy said...

I want these for lunch! Tweeted and buzzed you!!

Heidi {Young Grasshopper} said...

these are fantastic :)

Annieb said...

My husband will just love these, can't wait to try them!

Food for Hunters said...

Love crostini. These look delish!

iSa said...

Thanks for stopping by at Isa's Food Addiction Jess, I also love your blog! I can see you're great with the food, the writing and the camera! all the perfect ingredients for a stunning blog! Please feel free to link uo any of my recipes, I'd be honored :). Rgds from the tip of Africa!

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