Roasted Tomato and Ricotta Crostini

I found this recipe on Martha Stewart's website this week and pinned it so that I would remember it. A couple of days later, The Today Show had a guest chef who made these same crostini and they looked so good. I had to try them! They were super easy to make (but the tomatoes do take a little prep) and so delicious! I altered the Martha Stewart recipe by adding basil and garlic because everything becomes twice as good when you add those two magical ingredients.

Crostini means "little toasts" in Italian and is basically toasted baguette with any type of topping. Bruschetta is a common favorite, but these are a tasty mix between bruschetta and a caprese salad. The hardest part is finding a good baguette. Do you know where I can find an authentic French baguette in the U.S.? I miss that crunchy outside and soft, chewy, flavorful bread inside. All for less than one Euro on any street in France. We just don't make them quite like the French. Mmmm, I love bread!

All you need:

• grape tomatoes
• fresh basil
• ricotta cheese
• baguette

Things you probably have on hand already:

• olive oil
• garlic
• salt
• pepper

I brushed the baguette slices with olive oil and broiled both sides. Then, I rubbed them with a fresh clove of garlic and topped them with ricotta, basil, and a few of my roasted tomatoes. YUM!

Cheesecake Bites

Here's the recipe!

I have an interesting relationship with cheese.  I can really enjoy a good cheese.  I think I learned this during my 18 months in France.  The French make cheese like Americans make cereal.  They have an entire refrigerated aisle dedicated to every kind of cheese you can imagine.  I was always amazed at the variety and selection of cheeses. One of my favorite things to do was browse the selection and choose a new cheese to try that week.  When visiting Paris with Jacob, I asked him several times if we could just buy a chunk of cheese from a farmer's market and a fresh baguette for lunch.  It may be my absolute favorite meal.

However, I don't seem to appreciate melted cheese as much.  I have been slightly disappointed in the world-famous Chicago Deep-dish Pizza.  Don't get me wrong - It's good.  It's just that the deep dish is filled with melted cheese.  And it turns out that Chicagoans don't really like sauce on their pizza which is actually my favorite part.  I feel the same about quesadillas and really gooey mac and cheese.  I just don't like eating a mouthful of melted cheese.  

But back to the good stuff.  I love that Jacob can appreciate a good cheese like I can and sometimes we'll buy a fancy cheese and pretend we're back in France.  You can find some really good ones here, though the selection is generally quite a bit smaller (and we have yet to find a really good, authentic baguette!).  This weekend we wanted to share our love with some friends and hosted a "Cheesy Game Night" where each couple was invited to bring a yummy cheese to share.  We ended up with quite a good spread and some seriously yummy snacks.  

To go with all the salty snacks, I wanted to make something sweet and found these delicious-looking Chocolate-Covered Cheesecake Bites on Pinterest (because I DO love a mouthful of cheesecake).  The recipe was easy to follow, not too difficult, and turned out SO GOOD.  I was quite relieved that we had a few leftovers.  I will most definitely make these again.  These bites are not a last-minute kind of dessert because you do need to make the cheesecake the day before and freeze it.  But none of the steps were terribly time-consuming and they came out looking pretty good if I do say so myself.

  

I stuck pretty close to the recipe, though I did slightly more cream cheese and slightly less greek yogurt (a little closer to the original recipe that she followed).  I only dipped about a third of the cheesecake bites, left a third plain, and drizzled chocolate and peanut butter on a third.  I have never thought to put coconut oil in the chocolate to thin it out (I've only ever used shortening).  It worked so well and gave the chocolate a slight hint of coconut flavor which tasted really good.  I would definitely recommend making these.  You will not be disappointed.