Amuse-bouche

I'm one of those people that can never pick ONE thing at a restaurant. I want to try everything. I love eating with groups of people cause that means there are more things to sample. If you don't want my fork on your plate, you'd better not go eat with me! My favorite dining companions are other foodies that just pass plates around so everyone can try everything. The hubs is used to my food obsession now and just shrugs when I order two entrees or several different sides "cause we're out of town and may never get to come back to this restaurant and I can't come here and say I didn't try _______." I guess that's why I've always loved the idea of amuse-bouche. Amuse-bouche is a French term for little bites of this and that. They're not really an appetizer or an hors d'oeuvre because they are only one bite. But it enables you to try a bunch of things without getting full on only one item. They are supposed to amuse your mouth. How can you not love that?

When the chic was very small, I used to make her these little tea sandwiches with all sorts of decorations and fillings (picture below). So, yes, I guess I've created my own food monster. She loved it cause said that it was what princesses ate. And throughout the past couple years, she's become my little eating companion and she also wants to try a little bit of everyone's everything. So, for her lunch tomorrow, I thought she would enjoy an amuse-bouche. This one did take a little longer than normal. I probably spent an hour in the kitchen getting it all together. But, since there was only one bite of each thing, I wanted to make each one of them special. I'm imagining lots of smiles when she opens her lunch tomorrow.

(left to right starting with top row) Strawberry filled with Nutella and topped with choc chips, Cheese and spinach ravioli, Cucumber filled with hummus, Mini hot dog, Heart Pb&J, Babybel cheese, Chic boiled egg, Snap pea stuffed mini pepper, Apple dipped in peanut butter and hazelnuts.

If you'd like a chuckle...here is the very first decorative lunch I made the big chic. I can't believe I actually found it! We've changed cameras and computers three times since then! I did get to look through lots of baby pics while searching for it though, which is always fun. This picture was taken after she had dropped the plate so some of the toppings are a bit messy. This was the summer of 2005.