How one meal can do your work for a week!

Travel has made cooking a little rare at the ol' household lately, but I did cook a hell of a meal for friends on Saturday. I've decided to spread out the love and give you the courses over the course of the week, since this is shaping up to be a lentil skillet kind of week, and I'm sure all my thousands of readers don't need to hear about that again. So today I bring you:

THE APPETIZER

I'm pretty pleased with myself on this one. Two little apps, both fried, and perfect for cocktails. I know, I know what you're thinking: "Emily, if I'm having people over for dinner and already in my dressy apron (you do have a dressy apron, don't you?), then why would I take the time to fry?" Answer: It's delicious, it's a special treat, and it's actually not that messy.
The two things I made were blue cheese olives and prociutto wrapped turnips. Stay with me- you're going to like where this is going. The olives are large olives jammed with your favorite blue cheese. If you're a martini drinker, you may already have this motion down. Take each olive and dip, in order, in flour, beaten egg, and bread crumbs.
The turnips you cut into sticks, and parboil them. (Bring a small pot of water to boil, and cook the turnips about 10min. or until they're slightly soft. You can do this ahead of time). After they're cool, take a little piece of prociutto and wrap it around the turnip. Dip each piece into the egg from the olive recipe, then roll in sesame seeds (if you don't have them, you can use poppy seeds. If you don't have that, just use the egg wash).

Take a small saucepan and fill it with about an inch of vegetable oil. You'll know it's hot enough when you throw a tiny pinch of flour in and it sizzles, but don't let it get so hot it smokes. Fry the turnips first, a couple at a time, until they look crispy and brown, probably about 3 minutes. Drain on paper towels. The olives will go in next, and they only take 30 seconds or so to come out crispy and delicious.

This was a really fun way to start a party because you can either assemble them ahead of time and have your cocktails in the kitchen while you fry, or make your guests do some of the stuffing and wrapping for an interactive experience. It's just enough fry to feel like a treat, but not so much that you're stuffed for the main course and it's delicious with martinis or champagne.