Several years ago, I had the glorious pleasure of adding a "just like the locals" segment to a trip to Paris: we traveled by train to Nantes in the Brittany region and stayed 4 or 5 days with friends at their family home near the beach. I say "4 or 5 days" because, honestly, it was a stretch of time riddled with jet lag recovery, deliciously cheap French wine and one day blending seamlessly into the next. Breakfast was strong coffee and the leftover baguette from the night before, toasted and covered with jam. And a fabulous thing - apéro - started around lunchtime during those lazy summer days (well it WAS August, after all).
Apéro, for all intents and purposes, is cocktail hour in France, the word sort of a simplified version of the beverage - apéritif (French) or aperitivo (Italian). In whatever form, it's another reminder of how much more social, laid back, food/beverage focused, and so very cool our European neighbors can be. Apéro is that time well before dinner is even started in the kitchen (or a path is mapped to the local restaurant) when everyone gathers around, has a tasty beverage or two, and just interacts with each other. My cousin in Switzerland calls it "closing out the day and starting the evening," a ritual for transition from the work day to social/family time. Typical drinks are champagne, Campari, pastis, sherry or maybe some ouzo if you find yourself in Greece. Little nibbly food is served, sometimes as simple as a bowl of nuts and sometimes more elaborate like cheese, crackers or maybe those cute little cocktail weinies. Personally I have been getting a LOT of mileage out of the large packages of cocktail weinies, baked off in the over for 10 minutes and served with a blob of really good dijon. It seems everyone loves these for cocktail hour. But in the end, it's all about staving off the late afternoon munchies while priming your palate and appetite for dinner. I often wish I can keep this schedule all the time.
Spring is elusive in the midwest during March and April. It pokes its head out for a few days, lulls us into that warm sunny reverie and then disappears again. We had a lovely stretch of sun filled days late last week and into the weekend culminating with one of the more gorgeous Sundays I can remember. I got out and walked 5 miles and started Sunday apéro at a local French restaurant around 3. It was fabulous.
Monday, I was inspired. Although the weather fell off to wet and gloomy, my happy hour mindset remained and I ran off to my local SuperTarget for supplies. I have been ever-impressed with SuperT and their private label food items. Two weeks ago I stumbled upon their Archer Farms Organic Sea Salt Flatbreads and couldn't believe how great they were. The ultimate in simplicity, just wonderful crackers seasonsed perfectly with big flakes of sea salt. No, it wasn't the wonderful Brittany grey salt, but one can only be so choosy without making crackers from scratch! On Monday, determined to find some great apéro nibbles before dinner, I checked on the Archer Farms selection again and found: Apple Chardonnay chicken cocktail sausages, Chipotle Honey Mustard dip and added it to a mix of their Balsamic Almonds, cashews and Craisins (those are 3 different products that I mixed myself) and some sparkling wine. A generous apéro spread; I was hoping I wouldn't ruin my appetite for dinner!
The flatbreads are perfection (and organic, no less!), the sausages were delish, low in fat and well flavored. Although I thought I'd use the Chipotle Honey Mustard for a sausage dip, I ended up preferring good ol' Maille dijon for this purpose. But the next day, I discovered that adding a little olive oil and red wine vinegar to the dip loosened it up into a nearly perfect salad dressing. Or in my case, dip for a couple of chunks of sweet apple. The Balsamic Almonds are really stellar though - the perfect combination of tangy sweet balsamic with salt...oh! So nice! And when you mix those guys with roasted cashews (my favorite) and the Craisins, you end up with a lovely, balanced blend.
My passion for the evening cocktail hour is reinvigorated. Warm days are ahead of us. And Tar-zhay can join me for apéro anyday.
Apéro, for all intents and purposes, is cocktail hour in France, the word sort of a simplified version of the beverage - apéritif (French) or aperitivo (Italian). In whatever form, it's another reminder of how much more social, laid back, food/beverage focused, and so very cool our European neighbors can be. Apéro is that time well before dinner is even started in the kitchen (or a path is mapped to the local restaurant) when everyone gathers around, has a tasty beverage or two, and just interacts with each other. My cousin in Switzerland calls it "closing out the day and starting the evening," a ritual for transition from the work day to social/family time. Typical drinks are champagne, Campari, pastis, sherry or maybe some ouzo if you find yourself in Greece. Little nibbly food is served, sometimes as simple as a bowl of nuts and sometimes more elaborate like cheese, crackers or maybe those cute little cocktail weinies. Personally I have been getting a LOT of mileage out of the large packages of cocktail weinies, baked off in the over for 10 minutes and served with a blob of really good dijon. It seems everyone loves these for cocktail hour. But in the end, it's all about staving off the late afternoon munchies while priming your palate and appetite for dinner. I often wish I can keep this schedule all the time.
Spring is elusive in the midwest during March and April. It pokes its head out for a few days, lulls us into that warm sunny reverie and then disappears again. We had a lovely stretch of sun filled days late last week and into the weekend culminating with one of the more gorgeous Sundays I can remember. I got out and walked 5 miles and started Sunday apéro at a local French restaurant around 3. It was fabulous.
Monday, I was inspired. Although the weather fell off to wet and gloomy, my happy hour mindset remained and I ran off to my local SuperTarget for supplies. I have been ever-impressed with SuperT and their private label food items. Two weeks ago I stumbled upon their Archer Farms Organic Sea Salt Flatbreads and couldn't believe how great they were. The ultimate in simplicity, just wonderful crackers seasonsed perfectly with big flakes of sea salt. No, it wasn't the wonderful Brittany grey salt, but one can only be so choosy without making crackers from scratch! On Monday, determined to find some great apéro nibbles before dinner, I checked on the Archer Farms selection again and found: Apple Chardonnay chicken cocktail sausages, Chipotle Honey Mustard dip and added it to a mix of their Balsamic Almonds, cashews and Craisins (those are 3 different products that I mixed myself) and some sparkling wine. A generous apéro spread; I was hoping I wouldn't ruin my appetite for dinner!
The flatbreads are perfection (and organic, no less!), the sausages were delish, low in fat and well flavored. Although I thought I'd use the Chipotle Honey Mustard for a sausage dip, I ended up preferring good ol' Maille dijon for this purpose. But the next day, I discovered that adding a little olive oil and red wine vinegar to the dip loosened it up into a nearly perfect salad dressing. Or in my case, dip for a couple of chunks of sweet apple. The Balsamic Almonds are really stellar though - the perfect combination of tangy sweet balsamic with salt...oh! So nice! And when you mix those guys with roasted cashews (my favorite) and the Craisins, you end up with a lovely, balanced blend.
My passion for the evening cocktail hour is reinvigorated. Warm days are ahead of us. And Tar-zhay can join me for apéro anyday.
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