Roasted Red Pepper and Goat Cheese Canapes

Here is an easy and delicious appetizer you can make for your guests. Just like Bailey described in her Roasted Red Pepper Soup blog, char off a couple of sweet red peppers. The easiest way to do this is to put them on a cookie sheet under your broiler. Or you can char them on the barbecue. I once tried to char them right on the element on the stove top because I saw that on a cooking show. But what a bloody mess and I don't recommend that method because peppers release a lot of moisture and that all drains down into the area beneath your element and beyond. And I had no idea just how many nooks and cranny's there are to a stove until I tried it that way. But I did discover that the entire top of the stove lifts up. I can't tell you how sorry I was to discover this. Years and years of uncertainty lies in this domain. Better to buy a new stove than to clean this up. But now I'm just being a buzzkill. Do it on the cookie sheet under the broiler and I'll say no more about it.

Rotate them around until they are charred on all sides. Put them into a bowl and cover with plastic wrap until they are cooled down enough to handle. At least half an hour. Then the skin should easily peel off. Cut off the tops and discard all the seeds and slice them into 1/4 inch slices. Put the slices into an ovenproof dish and pour about 1/2 cup of olive oil over them and add 5 cloves of chopped garlic. They can just sit in the oil until 30 minutes before you're ready to serve them. Whenever you get a minute in the meantime, slice a baguette into 1/2 inch slices and toast them under the broiler and flip them and toast the other side. Just to golden brown.

Preheat the oven to 450 and slice or crumble some goat cheese over the red pepper mixture. Grind lots of freshly ground pepper over the lot of it.  Roast this off for about 20 minutes and at the last minute, turn on the broiler just to brown the cheese. Keep an eye on it and pull it out of the oven when the cheese starts to turn golden.It's goat cheese, so it won't go golden brown like a pizza. Just watch it doesn't burn.  Boom. Done. Don't let your guests touch the dish because it'll be so darn hot! They can just spoon this over the canape (that's foodspeak for those little toasts you made) and munch away. Sometimes the easiest things to make are the most delicious things to eat! And that's what I like! Enjoy. You'll make this one often!