Three Aioli

I'm starting off this post by saying that I'm not a mayo person. I end up scraping it off sandwiches if there's too much of it, I'd rather use olive oil and vinegar in my tuna salads, potato salads, etc... But aioli (prounounced EYE-OH-LEE).....for some reason, it's a different story. Perhaps because it's got a fancy name - or when I have it, it's usually from a restaurant so I have this vision in my head of them whipping it up from scratch vs. squeezing off-white goop out of a bottle. Plus, it's flavored! - usually with garlic.....which....mmmm.....I'm speechless.

I've got a dinner party to go to tonight! It's BYOB - Build Your Own Burger. Everyone just brings their own fave burger building yummies - avocado, mushrooms, onions, cheese, etc - whatever the heck you want and we just make various different sliders. I'll probably go to the store to pick up a couple of avocados and onions for caramelizing but I wanted to make something special and different. So - I thought - AIOLI. Plus, we're having sweet potato fries, and it'd be perfect for dipping!

To increase variety, I ended up making a big batch of it, then flavored it three different ways: Smoked Paprika and Chipotle, Garlic, and Pesto. Yum yum yum yum yum....that, spread on a mini dinner roll, with a flat beefy meatball. HOORAH! How could you go wrong!?!?

Before I get into all the ingredients and such - note: if you're the one making the aioli, I guarantee that you'll burn the calories you'll end up consuming. It requires a good amount of elbow grease.

Ingredients
1 Egg Yolk
1 pinch salt
2 Cups Olive Oil
2 Tbs Lemon Juice
Salt and Pepper to taste

2 tsp Smoked Paprika
1 tsp Chipotle

1 clove garlic - mashed

3 tsp pesto

In a medium bowl, whisk together egg yolk and salt until well combined. SLOWLY - starting with one or two drops at a time, add the olive oil. Whisk consistently. Once you've started the emulsion, it should look a little thicker and a bit more opaque than the egg yolk you started out with, you can start drizzling the olive oil in a thin steady stream, while whisking the whole time. Alternate drizzling the olive oil and lemon juice depending on the consistency you want. Once all the olive oil incorporated, separate the aioli base into three different containers. Mix the Smoked Paprika/Chipotle, Garlic Clove and Pesto in each separate bowl. Keep refrigerated until serving.

Smoked Paprika Pumpkin Seeds

Back in mid October, I bought 2 gorgeously orange pumpkins, with the hopes of carving them for Halloween. While pictures were flying around with all the pumpkins my friends carved the week before, I, sadly, was not able to carve my own this year. As unfortunate as those circumstances were - I had to look on the brighter side --> I had 2 perfect pumpkins with a bunch of seeds inside! Oh the many possibilities!

Smoked paprika has recently become one of my favorite spices and what better way to use it? The deep rich and slightly sweet aromas of smoked paprika mixed with fresh toasted pumpkin seeds. With that in mind, who cares about putting candles in pumpkins to light up portraits of pet dogs, spooky faces and triangle eyes? (Although - I'm not going to lie...the idea of carving pumpkins WHILE snacking on their seeds does sound just a tad bit more fun.) That aside, I got so excited about these seeds, they were still crackling from being pulled out of the oven as I popped them in my mouth and took the pictures.


Seeds from 2 Pumpkins (about 3 cups)
1/2 Tbs Olive Oil
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp smoked paprika

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees F. Rinse the pumpkin seeds from their orange fibers and drain. Mix in the rest of the ingredients and pour out into one single layer on a baking sheet. Place on the top rack and bake for 10-15 minutes. Sprinkle with a little bit more smoked paprika as it comes out of the oven. Taste and add more salt if needed.