First Try at Tapas!

For The Wife's mom, who likes to drag a barstool from another room up to the the kitchen counter and sit and talk and watch the food being cooked, we figured tapas was the ticket. Now, we have never really made a meal like that before; it's rare that we even go out for an all small-plates meal. People, we are hungry -- constantly, painfully hungry -- and tiny bits of this and that usually does not sound too appealing. Well, we ended up making six different things, and they were great. The starred dishes indicate Diane's favorites.

Bleu-cheese-and-walnut-stuffed dates with gray sea salt and pink peppercorn honey*

Icicle radishes from Whitton Farms with Plugra on sourdough

Lemonade Chess Pies with Jones Orchard strawberries*

Grilled and peeled asparagus with parmesan

Van Cheeseman's Shiitake mushroom skewers*

Dolmas with field roast and cumcumbery Greek yogurt