My oven is fixed-- TGIF Savory Palmiers from Ina Garten

I am one very lucky wife, to have a Mr. Fix-It kind of husband.  On Wednesday, my oven died.  Thank you for your sympathy-- you do understand the horror of not being able to bake, roast or broil. Fortunately, my husband was able to buy a new igniter , and my gas oven is working beautifully!  The timing could not be more perfect because, most Fridays, Craig and I look forward to having an end-of-the-week cocktail (usually an ice cold beer) and some a tapas style dinner.  I prefer to make something that doesn't take much time to put together, but has enough sustenance  to count as dinner-- sometime a side salad rounds out the meal  perfectly.

I don't use puff pastry on a regular basis, because I know that it's layers of butter that puffs up.  Still, puff pastry is such a versatile product to work with.  I have no desire to make puff pastry from scratch! I let Pepperidge Farm do all of the work!  I've made Ina Garten's easy Cheese Danish, which was a big hit with all of us.  I've also made Raspberry Palmiers, which are my son's favorite.  For Christmas, this year, I made Salmon En Croute (or you could call it Salmon Wellington) with Cremini Duxelles.  The Duxelles are so easy to make, and we loved them.  I had extra Duxelles that I decided to freeze-- though I wasn't sure if that was such a good idea. Before I made Ina's very simple looking Savory Palmier's, I decided to see if the Duxelles would thaw well and make an easy filling for pinwheel style h'ors doevres.  Enough chit-chat-- let's get on with it!

To make Ina Garten's Savory Palmiers, I toasted some pine nuts and I lightly rolled out a sheet of puff pastry.  I like to thaw my puff pastry, overnight, in the fridge. I've done quick thaws on my counter, too.  Either way, I try to keep the pastry chilled enough so that it puffs up nicely once the pastry hits a hot oven.

The top left photo shows mounds of thawed Duxelles. I know what you might be thinking-- it's not pretty. It could, potentially, resemble something an animal left that is having some intestinal difficulties.  'Nuff said. Cremini mushrooms, thyme, white wine, shallots and parsley... mmmmm. Delicious!

With another sheet of puff pastry, I made Ina Garten's recipe.   I make my own pesto, which I freeze and/or store in a glass jar in the refrigerator.  After slathering a layer of pesto,  I added the toasted pine nuts (which I almost burned... so watch the dry roasting in a pan very closely).  I sprinkled some chopped sun-dried tomatoes.  Ina uses goat cheese, but I only had fresh feta.  (I opted not to add salt, which was a wise decision.) So, that's what I used.  If you aren't sure how to roll up palmiers, I show you how here.

After a rough week, on a Friday night, I'm not going for perfection in how I rolled them.  These are for a private party of two people, and we aren't fussy.  Slice them up and put them into a preheated oven at 400F for about 14 minutes.  I would check these sooner, because it depends on your oven and the thickness of your slices.

Look at that sizzling butter! Allow them to cool for a few minutes...

I am happy to report that the Duxelles are excellent rolled up in puff pastry!  C'mon, how could it not be?  We really loved Ina's combo of sun-dried tomatoes, pest and toasted pine nuts. I did not feel that salt was missing at all.

I can't say that I favored one version over another.  

I look forward to having home grown tomatoes again.  I still love Ina's Tomato and Three Cheese Tart-- which is also made with puff pastry.  For those of you who watch The Barefoot Contessa on Food Network, you will understand when I say that Craig is my "Jeffrey".  It's obvious that Ina cooks for her husband with a lot of love.  My husband appreciates everything that I make.  We really enjoy our quiet little Happy Hours at home.  I hope you try these sometime-- while they're a bit indulgent on butter, we whip up a small batch of these as an occasional treat.

I have some baking and roasting to get busy with this weekend, now that my oven is back!

TGIF from our kitchen,