Day Eleven: The Beef Carpaccio Canape Disaster

A little success can go to one's head.

Or at least to my head.  

We had a few couples over for dinner last night, so I thought I would try something else from the MS Hors D'oeuvres Handbook.  I was confident, especially after the mango crab stacks went so well. I thought Beef Carpaccio Canapes (MS Hors D'oeuvres Handbook p.327) would go well with the homemade pizza we were serving. (They're both Italian, right?)  My confidence was short-lived, however, since the canapes went awry from the start. 

It was the bread's fault. 

The recipe called for white bread that was sliced "very thin".  I do not think regular sandwich bread is sliced "very thin", so I tried to cut it thinner myself.  I quickly discovered that I do not possess the ability to slice bread thinner than the bakery. The loaf I cut is in the foreground, the loaf the bakery cut is in the background.  Note how my loaf is completely mangled.

And yet, the mangled loaf did not deter me. I persevered (using the loaf from the bakery) and began cutting the canapes before the guests arrived.

Unfortunately, my guests were unaware of my canape disaster and were annoyingly punctual.  Luckily, the canapes are easy to assemble and I was able to impress them with my deft food-layering abilities and thereby prove that I actually made these fancy-looking things:

Martha made them look better, but I was just happy they were eaten and I wasn't left with a pound of raw, very thinly sliced tenderloin.

The canapes were a success, but I won't be letting it go to my head.