Tea time Baby Shower

This past weekend we celebrated one of my favorite mommies-to-be (and I actually am pretty much surrounded by them lately, it seems) with a Tea/Shower at our girlfriend's lovely loft in the ballpark neighboorhood. It was wonderful, and my co-hosts came up with all kinds of yummy munchies.

Here were my tiny tea sammies, on dark rye, filled with garden veggie cream cheese and finely diced ham:
and here is the whole spread, complete with diaper cake from the amazing Becca (it was her first one, isn't it beautiful?) She also made the artichoke balls, in front on the left, which I will try to get the recipe for (very tasty)
Behind the balls (HA, stop it!) on the riser-style serving dish are Amy's amazing Crostini with garlicky white bean spread, which was insanely good, imo... it is actually a Skinny B!tch recipe, from Skinny B!tch in the Kitch by Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin -

Garlicky White Bean Spread on Crostini
Makes 40 bite-sized appetizers
10 slices whole-wheat bread
1–2 tablespoons refined coconut oil, melted
1 15-ounce can cannellini beans, drained
2–4 cloves garlic
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1/4 teaspoon salt (or more to taste)
1/8 teaspoon pepper
2 teaspoons chopped fresh Italian parsley and/or bail
Additional chopped fresh Italian parsley and/or bail, or diced roasted red peppers for garnish
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Trim off crusts of bread if desired and cut each slice into quarters. Brush bread with coconut oil and arrange pieces in a single layer on 1 or 2 large rimmed baking sheets. Bake for 8–15 minutes until dry and slightly browned.
While crostini is cooling, combine beans, 2 cloves garlic, lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper in food processor. Puree, stopping to scrape the bowl as needed. Taste and add more garlic or salt as desired. Stir in the 2 teaspoons of chopped parsley and/or basil.
Top each crostini with about 2 teaspoons of bean spread. Top with a sprinkle of chpped hers or a couple of pieces of diced peppers, if desired. Arrange crostini on a platter and serve.

Yum!!

Becca also wrapped brie in pizza dough (or Kristen did, really, with some momentarily hillarious results due to improper dough-to-cheese ratios) instead of the usual puff-pastry, and I liked it better, I think.. it held up to all the cutting and digging that goes along with trying to actually SERVE yourself some of the brie...

Anyhoo - I have been lazy about this blog lately, but there are big posts coming - I have been doing testing for my first "truly simple, truly healthy, truly delicious" recipe, and let's just say that The Hub has endured some less-than-stellar versions of Mac and Cheese as I try to perfect my own recipe that actually fits that description.