Holiday Preparation Post #1 - Feta Salsa

Hello there! I managed to survive last week at work, and if I'm lucky, there won't be another one like that for a while - or if I'm really lucky, Ever.

As you can see from the title, I'm making good on my promise to post some things that might help you with the upcoming holidays.  Even if you don't have a hundred people join you for Thanksgiving, or throw elaborate parties during the holiday season, most of us do things beyond our normal routine.  (Yes, even here at Chez Ravell'd Sleave, we have been known to invite people to our house, or visit others.)

I don't know about you, but I like to try new recipes.  A few years back, we'd been invited to a Christmastime get-together, and it gave me the chance to try a recipe that I knew we would like, whether or not anyone else did.  It was a huge hit, and I've made it a few times since with similar results.  One of the best things about this recipe is that it's not just really yummy, but also very simple!

Feta Salsa

(Source:  Smitten Kitchen)

"Definitely consider this recipe as more of a guideline.  It works as is but is infinitely flexible should you want to use different herbs or add capers or skip something or other.  Also, if your store has more than one type of feta, I love trying all of them - some of our favorites are the Bulgarian and the French ones, but the everyday sturdy stuff works just fine, too."

Here are the ingredients that you will need:

1/2 pound feta cheese

2/3 cup sundried tomatoes in oil

1/2 cup of pitted Kalamata olives

2 tablespoons fresh dill

3 tablespoons flat-leaf parsley

2 scallions

1/4 cup olive oil

Crumble the feta into a bowl.  Chop the tomatoes, olives, dill, and parsley, and thinly slice the scallions.  Add everything to the bowl with the feta.  Gently mix the ingredients and drizzle with the olive oil. 

I usually add grape tomatoes, sliced in half, since we usually have those, and once I added pine nuts, and they worked really well, too.  Needless to say, if you don't have/want fresh herbs, you can use dried (but the fresh do give it a better taste), particularly if you are putting it in the fridge for a while so that the flavors can blend.

In my opinion, this is particularly good on fresh French or Italian bread slices, but crackers work just as well.  (It's also good if you want to sample it by just scooping some onto a spoon.  Just saying.)

On top of which, it's quite festive-looking!  Here's a picture to tempt you:

Enjoy!