Before you get too impressed with me, I did NOT spend 30 minutes to perfectly cut out this design in a slice of pineapple! Wednesday night I hosted a Business After Hours event at our office for about 150 South Metro Denver Realtors and Real Estate related vendors. They devoured the large trays of meatballs and  tortellini in marinara sauce. They destroyed the beautiful trays of sliced chocolate cake scattered with gorgeous bright red raspberries. There was hardly anything left of the huge display of sushi.  And the two beautiful edible fruit bouquets that I ordered from a local company were hardly touched. Figures. So I’ve been munching on the wonderful fruit left overs and couldn’t resist taking a picture of this beautiful slice of pineapple with a little melon ball to complete the center of the flower.

The first part of this week was spent enjoying leftovers from my Super Bowl party. Man was that jambalaya good. Thursday demanded that I try to use some things lingering in the fridge. I found this recipe over at Foodandwine.com. I had everything on hand. Don’t you love it when that happens?

 With a chicken breast in the freezer, feta cheese that I keep on hand for salads, a tomato that’s been basking in the sunshine on the kitchen counter, black olives from the relish plate from the Super Bowl party and some corn tortillas in the freezer, I was able to throw this super easy recipe together for dinner. 

Here’s the recipe and an absolutely horrible photo. I mean look at that – Tastespotting would reject that photo so fast those olives would spin. If you’d like to see a professional photo over at Food and Wine, here’s the link to the recipe.  http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/chicken-and-feta-tostadas

Chicken and Feta Tostadas – Food and Wine Magazine:

3/4 pound plum tomatoes, chopped
1/2 cup black olives, such as Kalamata, pitted and chopped  (I used plain old ripe black olives)
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley (you know me well enough by now that Cilantro was on that tostada)
1 roasted chicken, bones and skin removed, meat shredded (about 1 pound boneless meat) (1 chicken breast from my freezer, cooked and shredded)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon fresh-ground black pepper
2 tablespoons red-wine vinegar
3 tablespoons cooking oil, plus more for brushing tortillas
8 small or 4 large flour tortillas  (all I had was corn tortillas, so I briefly sautéed them in olive oil until they were crisp – I actually think this would have been better with flour tortillas)
1/2 pound feta cheese, crumbled (about 2 cups)
Directions
1.Heat the oven to 450°. In a large glass or stainless-steel bowl, combine the tomatoes, olives, parsley, chicken, salt, pepper, vinegar, and the 3 tablespoons oil.
2.Brush the tortillas on both sides with oil and then put on baking sheets, overlapping if necessary. Bake the tortillas until starting to brown, 2 to 3 minutes. Turn the tortillas and brown the other side, 2 to 3 minutes longer.
3.Remove the baking sheets from the oven and top each tortilla with an equal amount of the feta cheese. Return the baking sheets to the oven; cook until the cheese is just melting, 1 to 2 minutes longer. Top the tortillas with the chicken mixture. (oops, I didn’t notice this part, I put the whole kit-and-caboodle under the broiler)

This is a really easy and delicious recipe that will become a staple around our house.  And of course with tostadas, there are so many variations available if you don’t have all the exact items on hand. 

And speaking of Tastespotting.  Remember when I said I’d faint if they actually accepted a photo of mine?  Well they did accept the photo of my little Scallop Sandwich appetizer and I didn’t faint.  http://highlandsranchfoodie.wordpress.com/2010/01/02/a-gallery-of-new-years-food/