Olive Crostini

When I'm feeling particularly uninspired and needing some beautiful food photos and perfectly crafted recipes to choose from, I go to Elise Bauer's Simply Recipes. I can nearly always find something to get my creative juices flowing again. (Warning: some of the photography will make your mouth water and your stomach rumble.) And since last night I hosted BookClub at my house, I needed a little creative inspiration. A bite-sized somethingorother that, hopefully, would feature an ingredient in them that my husband doesn't like, since I was kicking him out of the house anyway. He's not a big olive guy, so olives are a popular choice. And when skimming through the appetizer recipe archives on Simply Recipes, I re-discovered this amazing recipe for Olive Crostini. I've made olivada several times before, to great success, but this was something really special.

Olive Crostini

1/2 c black olives
1/2 c green olives (w/ pimientos)
2 cloves garlic
1/2 c fresh grated Parmesan cheese
4 T butter
2 T olive oil
1/2 c grated Monterey jack cheese
1/4 c chopped fresh parsley
1 baguette

Chop olives in a food processor. Transfer to medium bowl. With machine
running, drop garlic through the feed tube of the food processor and mince. Add
Parmesan, butter, and olive oil, and process into a paste. Add butter mixture to
bowl with olives. Fold in jack cheese and parsley. Cut baguette into thin slices
and spread each slice generously with olive mixture. Cook under broiler until
bubbly and lightly browned - about 2-4 minutes.
Serve right out of oven.
Helps to make olive mixture in advance and spread right before you put in
the oven.
Makes approximately 24 toasts.

(I tweaked the recipe just a hair by browning the baguette slices in a 375 degree oven beforehand (about 5-8 minutes) to keep them crispy.)