After spending a year at our jobs, or even looking for other jobs, it’s great to have an excuse to take a break and recharge.
And guess what? In a lot of situations you don’t get a choice…many jobs and employers are running on minimum staff and are not necessarily focused on staffing requirements for a week or so.
If that’s the case you should take the opportunity to take a breather and break bread with family and friends.
And if you’re going to break bread, do it in style and with lots of colour. The recipe below isn’t too expensive but makes a real conversation starter. It’s easy, its’ colourful, it’s light and you can really only get away with these colors at Christmas.
So take a look and let us know how it went.
In the meantime enjoy your holiday, whether it’s compulsory or voluntary it’s a good idea to take a break.
Menu Pomegranate Landscape
POMEGRANATE AND CRANBERRY RELISH
1 cup sugar
1 serrano pepper (more if you like spicy, less if not)
½ cup roughly chopped fresh basil leaves
¾-1 cup pomegranate arils or seeds (reserve a few for garnish)
finely chopped fresh basil, for garnish
CROSTINI
½ cup extra virgin olive oil
Sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
8 ounces low-fat cream cheese, softened
INSTRUCTIONS
- Place the cranberries, sugar, and seranno peppers in a food processor
- Pulse on and off several times until cranberries are coarsely chopped. Don’t over-process
- Add basil and pulse a few more times. Not too much, you want basil bits to be visible in relish
- Transfer to a storage container and add pomegranate arils
- Refrigerate for at least 2 hours or till ready to use.
- For the crostini, preheat oven to 350˚F.
- Place baguette slices on prepared pans
- Brush lightly with oil
- Sprinkle lightly with salt and a grind of pepper (don’t leave this step out!)
- Bake for 14-18 minutes or until golden, rotating pans halfway through baking time.
- To assemble bruschetta, whisk cream cheese until creamy
- Spread about ½-1 tablespoon on each crostini
- Top with a scoop of the relish.
- Garnish with basil
