Terribly Complicated and Totally Tasty: Roasted Red Pepper & Marinated Artichoke Canape

Yep. That's a mouthful (and a delicious one at that)! But take a deep breath and down the rest of that White Zin like you mean it, because this app won't run up your grocery bill or keep you from primping to the max for your guests (the invited ones).

For this masterpiece of ingenuity I simply:

Opened a jar of Trader Joes' marinated artichokes

Opened a jar of Trader Joes' fire roasted red peppers

Found an open jar of capers also from the fine purveyor mentioned above

Sliced an almost stale baguette (sorry TJ, you don't get the props for this one)

Drizzled Extra Virgin Olive Oil (TJ)

And peeled a couple of garlic cloves

Just fire up your oven to about 350 and place your slices of French bread on a baking sheet. Drizzle with Olive Oil and throw them in for just a couple of minutes. Take them out and rub the raw garlic clove briskly over the bread. The bread (now nice and toasty) will absorb the garlic flavor. Press harder if you want a stronger garlic flavor. Place a quartered artichoke on each slice of bread, and strip of red pepper and one caper. Now, they go back in the furnace, but this time put it on BROIL. Watch carefully, this will only take a minute or two for the bread to get a nice golden color. Then, remove from the oven and plate up for your guests. They'll never know this took you two seconds!