Meze Plate

I had to go back a ways to find this.  All the way back to August 23.  It's not that I haven't been cooking, it's just that I've been doing too many other things I guess, like moving and traveling and celebrating my child's first birthday.  You know.  

So back in August I made some killer hummus.  No, I did not write down the recipe, but it had plenty of lemon juice and tahini and not too much garlic (my usual downfall).  I restrained myself and was very pleased with the result.  Unfortunately, I decided to serve it up with dollops of pesto and hot pepper paste which makes it look like a weird mask in the photo and really overpowered my hummus.  Ugh.  Live and learn.

I added some toasted homemade flatbread, colorful local carrots, cucumbers, a roasted squash salad and some marinated mushrooms for a quite satisfying lunch. 

I've also got a great idea for a fast healthy food restaurant.  Meze.  That's the Turkish word for appetizer.  Serve a great basic core of Mediterranean meze (flatbread with hummus, tabbouleh, baked goat cheese, olives, stuffed grape leaves, spanakopita, etc.) and add seasonal salads during the summer.  Customers pick a plate of 3-5 meze and it's a meal!  I would eat there.  As long as they didn't muss up the hummus.