Tapenade

More About This Recipe

• When I was a little girl, my grandma Presley was the first person I met that cooked like an expert. Every dish she made completely blew me away. She was a southern gal so there were certain etiquettes we followed during and before every meal. We had normal breakfast, lunch and dinner times but she also introduced me to something she called tapas, between meals. She explained that tapas where snacks or finger foods that originated in Spain as part of their social culture. Of course, in my young and impressionable mind, this was fascinating. I loved the idea of making something inspired from such a far away place like Spain! Grandma Presley said that tapas could vary from many different ingredients such as chunks of tuna, cocktail onion, fruits sprinkled with spices, hot meat with meat sauce in a miniature clay dish, shrimp fritters, spicy sausage and cheese… the list goes on and on. One of the easiest to make and my personal favorite is tapenade. Basically it’s a bunch of finely chopped up olives served in a bowl. I like to serve my tapenade with cheese and crackers. You’ll find it’s a perfect tiny snack between meals that’ll keep you going until the next one!