I made this up! And I love heart of palm!

heart of palm salad
Originally uploaded by Kit Pollard.

The other night I had a brief and unusual burst of creativity, combined with a not-so-brief or unusual craving for heart of palm.

I can't say enough good things about heart of palm. It is delicious tasting, has a texture that only does good things to salad, good for you, and so easy to snack on while cooking dinner.

And now I know that I can experiment with it.

Night before last, I was quietly reading when I started daydreaming about heart of palm. (Embarrassing as it is is to admit, I daydream about food pretty regularly).

I decided to buy some the next day. Then, out of nowhere, I had an idea: I'd stuff it. Pull out the center and put something in there. What - I wasn't sure. But something.

Fast forward to last night. I had the heart of palm on the counter, split in half, insides removed to form two little boats.

I just happened to have a bunch of grape tomatoes also sitting on the counter. I thought they'd look pretty on top of the creamy heart of palm. So I chopped a small handful. Then I chopped up the leftover heart of palm and added that to the mix. And I sprinkled in a few capers.

And voila! I created something new. Feeling like a culinary genius, I laid the hard of palm on a bed of romaine, spooned the mixture into the heart of palm boats, and drizzled a little olive oil over the whole thing.

So pretty! And so much flavor! Cooper even liked it (and sometimes he's hesitant...like when he tried my watermelon, chevre and black pepper salad - but that is a story for another occasion).

Now if I could only translate that confidence and success to the main course...