Caffeine26's Profile

OLIVE STUFF. Trust me on this- it's like a chopped tapenade and is pretty much the greatest thing ever. It's one of those recipes you look at at go, "Eh. How good can it be?" Answer: Pretty darn.

Olives (a mixture- we use jalapeño-stuffed, garlic-stuffed, manzanilla, and Kalamata)
capers (if that's your thing)
Olive oil
Italian seasoning

8 oz. cream cheese
Baguette, cut into rounds or crackers

Chop olives (by hand) into 1/4” dice. You should end up with about a cup of chopped olives. Combine olives and olive oil (it should be about 1/4 of a cup, but don’t quote me on that) and Italian Seasoning (about a tablespoon). You want the mixture to be loose enough to pour over cream cheese, but not overly oily.

Serve over cream cheese and spread cream cheese and olives on baguette rounds.

This will keep in the fridge for a while- bring it to room temperature before serving.

I like Dr. Bronner's Sal Suds better than the regular castile soap for cleaning the house- it smells like a Christmas tree and one bottle lasts FOREVER. I'll use a drop straight on my counters and a squirt in a bucket of water (with essential oils in whatever mix I'm feeling) to do floors.

I'm all about keeping a variety of essential oils on hand- it makes housecleaning feel a bit less like work and more like being at a spa. Well, kind of.

By policed I mean pitted. Oh, Autocorrect. Awesome.

I thought that these were just a South Louisiana thing- my mom's been making them forever (I think they're from the Junior League of Baton Rouge cookbook River Road). Our recipe uses white wine vinegar, a ton of fresh lemon juice (1/2 cup) dried mustard, cayenne, pimento, and sliced black olives (no celery seed or sugar). They're really, really, really delicious.