Employee Meal 24 August 2011, Pâté de Campagne

Pâté de Campagne translates from the French as "Country Paste." How's that for demystifying something that sounds overly fancy or complicated. This is simple to make and can be eaten cold as an appetizer (sliced thin and served with toast points, gherkins, onion, and mustard) or sauteed for a hot sandwich. I don't have a typed recipe of my own for this, but this one looks pretty good. In the one pictured above we studded it with diced ham, pistachios, and green peppercorns (...mmm). A couple things: Make sure you keep all of the ingredients cold as you assemble it and go a little lighter on the spice mixture than this recipe recommends. And remember if you call it by the French name your friends will think you are a fancy gourmet cook (but you probably already are).