Crostini: Your Entertaining Weapon

In my next life, I would like to come back as a crostini.

Should one be reincarnated as crostini, you can expect the following: unconditional love, under any circumstances. The uncanny ability to make someone inexplicably happy by doing relatively nothing. You light up the room (any, and all rooms). You bring people together. You’re a chameleon. People can’t get enough of you, and fight over you. You’re always the favorite at the party. The list goes on.

You can see why these little magic toasts are my go-to for any occasions that call for an appetizer. Or for no occasion at all. Like me, last Saturday. I walked all the way to Trader Joe’s solely to buy ingredients for crostini. And then I ate them all by myself.

But not before I photographed them.

If you’ve got a baguette, you’ve got crostini. You can throw the whole kitchen sink on them if you’d like, but I really like these two variations:

Crostini with greek yogurt & chive, heirloom tomato, avocado and parmesan:

For the yogurt & chive spread: (shameless confession: I bought mine at TJ’s) but if you want to make it from scratch, it’s very easy:

1 cup greek yogurt
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
1/4 cup chopped chives
1 TBSP onion powder
2.5 tsp garlic powder
Let chill for 4 hours up to overnight

Toast the crostini in a broiler with butter or olive oil, sprinkled with salt & pepper. Top with chive spread, sliced heirloom tomatoes, diced avocado and shaved parmesan. Finish off with a pinch of salt & pepper and a drizzle of olive oil.

Crostini with cream cheese and sweet onion jam:

One of my biggest weaknesses (other than crostini) is onion jam. Sounds pretty weird, right? It’s amazing on pretty much everything I’ve ever used it on, and this is no exception. I recently purchased a new brand at the Randolph Street Market called Wild Tree and I wasted no time putting it to good use. Simply top toasted crostini with cream cheese (brie would also be excellent) and the onion jam, and you’re good to go!