Ravenous Rowie: Tapenade and Treats

Hello friends! How are things in your neck of the woods? It's a rainy cozy Fall day here! Just the way I like it!

Earlier this week a friend invited me and Ben over for dinner! I thought it would be fun to bring over a little somethin' somethin' for the hostess, so I spent an hour in the kitchen that afternoon whipping up some treats!

First, I was inspired by this post from Chocolate Covered Katie. I had plenty of good fillings sitting around, and I always have a stash of dark chocolate, so I went for it! Nut butter cups!!!

I melted some dark chocolate in a double boiler until it was completely smooth,

and then spooned a thin layer into some cupcake papers.

Make sure to spoon some chocolate up the sides a bit too, so your filling will be completely enclosed in chocolate! It doesn't always come out perfectly (at least for me!), but do your best. These are supposed to be fast and easy!

I put the chocolate coated cups into the freezer on a half sheet tray, and went to find my fillings. I decided to use regular old peanut butter, some Artisana almond butter, and some Artisana coconut butter. I did have to melt the coconut butter to make it useable, but then I got to lick the spoon, so it was OK.

After 10 minutes in the freezer the chocolate shells were hard, so I pulled them out and spooned in some nut butter! Be sure to keep the filling below the height of the chocolate you spooned up the sides! Freeze again.

While these were freezing again I decided to make some tapenade. We had a sad jar of green olives in the fridge, mostly used, but with not enough left for any practical use. I tossed these into my food processor with a big container of kalamata olives, a few cloves of garlic, and a small splash of my Sciabica's garlic olive oil.

Pulse until things are all chopped up looking, but not pasty. Make sure to scrape down the bowl, pulse, scrape, pulse....you get the idea. You really just want to make sure your finished product is still a bit chunky.

Are you waiting for more instructions? You're out of luck. That is the end! You're done! Just scoop it all out into a storage container (after immediately eating as much as possible out of the bowl) and put it in your fridge!

Do you see someone else who wants a bite? I do!

Ok, time to pull out the nut butter cups again! It takes a bit longer for the nut butters to harden, maybe 15 minutes. Just spoon a nice thin layer of chocolate over the top of each cup, smoothing it to the edges so it seals all of the yumminess in.

I chose to top each so I would know which filling was in each one. Almond, peanuts, and shredded coconut.

Plus, it looks pretty, so what more do you want?!

Same old song and dance...pop 'em back into the freezer!

I decided to bring our friend some tapenade, so I filled up a little jar, tied on a ribbon, and made a cute little label.

Being crafty is fun and oh-so nerdy! I love it!

Just before we left for dinner I pulled out one of each flavor of nut butter cups and placed them on a palm leaf plate from Marx Foods. You remember Marx foods, right? That's where the dried mushrooms from this post come from!