[2] Sneak spinach onto your “garlic bread” (photo © Good Eggs | SF).

[3] The spinach gets camouflaged with diced avocado (photo © Tio Gazpacho).

This appetizer, first course or snack elevates the humble garlic bread we know and love into a fancy (and nutritious) affair.

Garlic bread is toasted and topped with garlic butter or garlic-infused oil. Crostini are toasts topped with any variety of spreads, vegetables and proteins.

The California Avocado Commission fused the two concepts to create garlic bread loaded with avocado, spinach and tomatoes.

It has so many veggies, you can even serve it as the “salad course.”

You can adjust the toppings as you wish: Use different greens, add bacon and/or green onion, etc.

Prep time is 10 minutes, cook time is 10 minutes. It is very easy to make the balsamic glaze rather than buy it: Just reduce a bottle of balsamic vinegar (not the top stuff) into a syrup.

For a wine pairing, California Avocado suggests Petite Syrah.
 
 
RECIPE: GARLIC BREAD CROSTINI

Ingredients For 4 Servings

 
Ingredients For The Balsamic Reduction

1. PREHEAT the oven to 400°F. Melt the butter, add in 2/3 of the garlic, season with salt and pepper. Place the bread on a baking sheet and liberally brush it with the garlic butter.

2. MAKE the glaze. Pour the vinegar into a pan, add the brown sugar and stir over medium heat, whisking constantly until the sugar has dissolved. Bring to a boil; reduce the heat to low and simmer until the liquid is reduced by half and coats the back of a spoon, about 20 minutes. Cool. If not using that day, store in a jar in the fridge.

3. SAUTÉ 2 teaspoons of oil and the remaining garlic for 1 minute, in a small skillet. Add the spinach and stir just until it begins to wilt. Remove from the heat, squeeze in a few drops of lemon juice, stir and spread the topping on the prepared bread. In the same pan…

4. ADD the tomatoes and peppers; sauté for 2 minutes. Place atop the spinach; season with salt and pepper or for more heat, cayenne or chile flakes. Bake for 10-12 minutes. While the bread bakes…

5. CUT the avocado into bite-sized chunks. Toss the avocado with 1 teaspoon oil, more salt and red pepper as desired and a small squeeze of fresh lemon juice. Top the baked garlic bread with avocado and drizzle with balsamic reduction/glaze. Serve warm.
 
________________

*A large Hass avocado, about 8 ounces, is recommended for this recipe. If using smaller or larger size avocados adjust the quantity accordingly.
  

No doubt you’ve cut lemon and lime circles and twists for garnish, and wedges to squeeze over beverages, salads, seafoods, and so on.

We have long used a channel zester to carve vertical lines in fruits and vegetables, creating a design in the fruit and strips of peel for garnish.
 
 
THE GROOVY JOYS OF CHANNEL ZESTING

James Beard said: “Two of of my best friends are a stripper and a zester.”

When you use it to cut channels (grooves) into, you can create edible art—not to mention ingredients for recipes and garnishing.

 
 
CITRUS TRIVIA

Zest is the colored, outermost skin layer of citrus fruits; its volatile (essential) oils make it highly perfumed.

Zest is rich in antioxidants: flavonoids, bioflavonoids and limonoids. It is used to flavor sweet and savory dishes; it can be candied for pastry use or as a sweetmeat (e.g., candied grapefruit peel).

[1] Grooves cut with a channel zester.

[2] When sliced, the groves create flower-like slices (photos #1 and #2 courtesy IdTryThat | WordPress).

[3] Elaborate channeling creates beautiful food art (photo courtesy The Eddy | NYC).

Give a channel groover to an arty cook. You can get it in any kitchen gadget department or online.
 
 

CHECK OUT WHAT’S HAPPENING ON OUR HOME PAGE, THENIBBLE.COM.

May 12th is National Nutty Fudge Day; November 20th is National Peanut Butter Fudge Day.

Here’s a recipe that covers both holidays! For National Nutty Fudge Day, add the honey-roasted peanuts.

An American confection, fudge was a happy accent in the 1880s, created by a woman trying to make caramels.

Read the history of fudge and you’ll see that it wasn’t so easy to re-create the accident.

Over time, however, recipes and techniques were perfected. The original recipe(s) used cream and butter. Today, everything from sweetened condensed milk to non-dairy milks are used.

You need just three ingredients to make this peanut butter fudge from Justin’s, an artisan specialist in nut butters.

Ingredients

 
Preparation

1. BRING the sugar and almond milk to a boil in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir constantly for 2 minutes, then remove from the heat.

2. MIX in the peanut butter. You can add the optional mix-ins and stir, or use them as a topping, pressing lightly. Spread into a greased 8″ x 8″ pan and refrigerate until set. Cut into squares.
 
 
> THE HISTORY OF FUDGE

> THE HISTORY OF PEANUT BUTTER
  

Talk about memorable fall foods: This beet marmalade recipe from our colleague Hannah Kaminsky of Bittersweet Blog is an eye-opener.

With its beautiful color and rich flavor, it’s a condiment that goes well:

 
The flavor is earthy yet sweet and zesty, with layers of flavor from the caramelized onions, orange zest and maple syrup. It may well convert beet haters to beet lovers.

If you like to make food gifts, add this one to your repertoire.

While the recipe specifies red beets for a ruby-color marmalade—a color that’s ideal for Thanksgiving, Christmas and Valentine’s Day—you can also make it with orange beets as a change of pace.

You can make canapés, or put out the ingredients and let people assemble their own.
 
RECIPE: BEET MARMALADE

Ingredients For About 2 Cups

 
For Serving

________________
*Grade B is the darkest and most flavorful maple syrup. Here are the four grades of maple syrup. You can substitute what you have, as long as it’s 100% real maple syrup.
 
Preparation

1. PREHEAT the oven to 400°F. Wrap the beets completely in aluminum foil and roast for about an hour, or until fork tender. Let cool before peeling. The skins should just rub right off with a bit of pressure.

Meanwhile…

[1] Beet marmalade on a cracker with goat cheese (photo by Hannah Kaminsky). [2] Red and [3] orange beets (photos courtesy Good Eggs | SF).

3. ROUGHLY CHOP the cooked beets and place them in a food processor along with the caramelized onions. Add the orange juice and zest, maple syrup and and salt. Lightly pulse all of the ingredients together until broken down and thoroughly combined but still quite chunky.

4. SERVE warm or chilled.
 
WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN JAM, PRESERVES & MARMALADE?

Check out our “spread sheet”: a glossary of the different types of bread spreads and fruit condiments.
  

[1] Divine rum cakes in 6 flavors from Rum Sisters. [2] This expresso cake from 1812 House: a coffee lover’s dream cake. [3] A duo of small espresso bundt cakes with caramel sauce.

We’ve tried lots of rum cake. But the Rum Sisters make the best we’ve tried in recent memory.

The business was begun by two friends who shared a love of baking, cake and alcohol.

Not to mention the skills to make truly great whiskey-infused cakes.

Not to mention the premium ingredients, including fine rum, bourbon, Irish whiskey and Kahlúa.

These rum cakes are so good, we ate the whole sampler box—6 mini bundts-in two days. When there was not a crumb left, we cried plaintively: More! More!

There’s a tempting selection:

 
Cakes are $25 (small) and $50 (large). Get acquainted with all six flavors in the Sumptuous Sampler of mini bundts, $30. (Regular folks might split one with a cup of tea, or eat half at a time.)

Head to RumSisters.com.
 
GIFT #2: ESPRESSO CAKE FOR COFFEE LOVERS

Matthews 1812 House is a second-generation family business. The Matthews family started in 1979 in the family farmhouse in Cornwall Bridge, Connecticut (the house was built in 1812).

From a line of two fruitcakes, “baking racks in the hallways and people sorting apricots and pecans on the dining room table,” the company now has a dedicated facility a mile away, and a full line of specialty cakes into cookies, bars, and other sweet treats.

The moist cake has a bold coffee flavor, a hint of cinnamon, and less sugar than most bundt cakes. That’s why you can easily add caramel sauce, ice cream or whipped cream.

A large bundt cake is $29.00; two mini-bundts, called Duo Cakes, $15.00, are packaged with espresso caramel sauce that fits nicely in the top wells.

Order at 1812House.com.