Snack Time!

Snack trays are one of the best things about holidays.  I just love putting together pretty trays of delicious treats for my Dear Honey to nibble on throughout the day.

This tray is pretty straightforward.  Two type of crackers and some crostini.  It really makes the bowl of caviar on ice stand out, don't you think? 

And yes, I know about the spoon - honest.  (Hanging my head in foodie shame...) It's just that I couldn't find my mother of pearl caviar spoons anywhere, so I settled for the least reactive metallic spoon I had.  Since it wasn't super high-grade caviar, it was an okay choice.

So - time to make the crostini.  You'll need a baguette, some olive oil, and some fresh black pepper.

Slice the baguette a little thinner than 1/4-inch thick.

You get quite a few slices from a baguette loaf, so you may only need half a loaf depending on how many people you are serving.

Lay out the sliced bread on a tray - just to keep the counter clean, we won't be cooking with this tray.

Pour some olive oil into a bowl and get out your pastry brush.

Brush the olive oil on the top of all of your little baguette slices - make sure you don't miss the edges.

Crack some fresh black pepper over the slices before the olive oil soaks in so it will stick to the bread.

Let the bread sit there for about 10 minutes while the olive oil soaks into the bread a bit.

Brush on a second coating of the olive oil, making sure to get any places that you missed the first time around.

Get out a good rack.

Place the olive oiled and peppered baguette slices on the rack.

Put them on in a single layer, not too crowded.

Pop them in the toaster oven for about 5 minutes - depending on your toaster oven.

Run back into the kitchen and quickly pull them out of the toaster oven after forgetting that the timer went off 2 minutes ago.  Whew - that was close!  Let them cool for a few minutes.

Put the crostini on a tray, hopefully a cute little retro tray that reminds you of holidays when you were a kid and brings a smile to your Dear Honey's face.

And there you have it - Crostini.

Now mangi! Eat!