OK, I’ll just say this once. I am an olive lover. And have been ever since as a 7- or 8-year-old, I ate most of a can of black olives and drank some of the juice while “helping” my mother prepare a relish tray for Thanksgiving dinner. Granted I didn’t feel real swell after drinking the olive brine, but it didn’t leave me hating olives either.

And oh, how I loved those relish trays. Cut up carrots and celery, black olives, and home-made dill pickle spears. I can still see myself gently setting my mother’s rectangular cut glass dish full of tasty treats on the table just before company arrived.

After black olives, the next kind of olive I fell in love with were those salty, briny pimento stuffed Spanish olives. (A must for use in a perfect Tanqueray martini.) And then I found kalamata olives. OMG. How did I ever exist before kalamata olives!?!?

But then during our last visit to Italy, we spent a few days at a small hotel in Rome. When I asked for a pre-dinner martini in the hotel’s very small bar, the owner/bartender had to ask me how to build a martini, to which of course I dutifully acquiesced. I gave him my recipe and asked for the requisite number of olives. Now please note, I don’t speak Italian and our dear bartender only spoke limited English. He appeared very puzzled when I asked for olives in my drink. When the drink arrived, it was huge. And as for the olives, he brought us a whole bowl of olives. But olives the likes of which we had never tasted. They were Castelvetrano olives. And oh my, they were the best tasting olives we had ever encountered. So, you might ask, Patti, which is now your favorite kind of olive. And my response would have to be – whichever is in front of me at the time.

But, enough about me and back to the real reason for this post – this delicious and easy to prepare spread recipe. I found it on the sweetcaramelsunday.com. site. And I can’t begin to praise this spread enough. And the ease of preparation makes it every busy cook’s dream come true. Just blitz all the ingredients together in your food processor, scoop into a pretty bowl, cover, and refrigerate for at least 24 hours. Serve with crackers and stand back.

So, if you too are an olive lover and like to prepare dishes ahead of time, this is the appetizer spread for you. And as for me, I couldn’t be more delighted that there is still some left in our refrigerator.  

As always, peace and love to all.

1½ c. pitted kalamata olives

1 pkg. (8 oz.) cream cheese, room temperature

1 T. olive brine

1 T. dehydrated onion

1 tsp. granulated garlic

freshly ground black pepper

Roughly chop the kalamata olives in your food processor. Add the cream cheese, olive brine, dehydrated onion, granulated garlic, and black pepper and whirl until well combined.

Scoop into a pretty bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 24 hours before serving. Remove from fridge at least an hour before serving with crackers.