Meet & Eat

I don't remember the last time I was under so much pressure. Is the place clean enough; tidy enough? Will I run out of the punch? Should I have gone with the (alcoholic) sangria instead of this fruity version.
Is the hummus any good....I must've tasted it a dozen times. What if the tarlets turn soggy?
And the biggest one: what if there are long periods of silence where one doesn't think of anything to say. Shudder.

Playing host to a group of confirmed foodies (whom one is meeting for the very first time) is not something that ones takes lightly.
Even an impending visit from the in-law-types wasn't ever so stressful.

My fears and worries vanished soon after TasteTinkerer walked in followed by Mythreyee and got the party going.
Each new arrival was then put through a guess-test. Who needs ice-breakers?
I didn't do quite as well as the others in matching the person in front of us with their blog identities. The only person I guessed correctly was Ashwini.

What followed then was one of the best afternoons in a really long time.
And no, there wasn't even one nano second of silence; the decibel level was quite high in fact. So high I didn't even realise when the husband escorted the kids away from the madness.

On to the food: we started off with a fruity punch (rasberry-cranberry, orange, and lemon juice with apple cubes; left to mingle overnight in the fridge), hummus & crackers and savoury tartlets inspired by Nabeela.

Sreelu brought along another appetiser but I'll let her tell us about it.
Hop over to her blog find out.
Shankari ,who initiated this meet and greet eat, wasn't able to join us. What a shame after all the effort she put into organising this event.

Meanwhile about that hummus:
In the food processor bowl, mix a couple of cups of garbanzo beans, 1 tbsp chopped garlic, 2 tbsp tahini sauce, 2-3 tbsp olive oil, juice from a medium size lemon, salt to taste. Pulse till well blended.
Adjust the salt and lemon juice levels.

I used a combination of garbanzo beans and white cannelini beans. As these beans are similar in texture, colour, and to some extent the taste, you couldn't tell that there were two kinds of beans in the hummus.

For the savoury tarlets: Thaw the pastry sheets. Cut each rectangle (each pack has 6 rectangles) into four pieces. Roll each piece slightly and line the moulds of a mini-muffin pan. Stuff with a mixture of roasted peppers, sundried tomatoes, and jalapeno jack cheese. bake at 350F for about 10-12 minutes.