Super easy appetizer or snack: warm olives with garlic, thyme and red pepper flakes

This past Saturday, a few friends came over to my place for a cooking date. We planned to make baked pockets with different types of filling, have some bubbly drinks and catch up.

Since I was playing hostess, I decided to serve a few snacks/appetizers while we were making our main dish.

I bought hummus, brie and olives. The hummus was served straight up, the brie was paired with pepper jelly, and the olives were turned into Warm Olives with Garlic and Red Pepper Flakes.

This olive appetizer was such a hit, that I decided to recreate it on Sunday so I could take photographs and share it with all of you! Hope you feel special ;)

Warm Olives with Garlic and Red Pepper Flakes

Ingredients
large pitted green olives
lemon juice
lemon zest
olive oil
garlic, sliced
red pepper flakes
fresh thyme sprigs

{Yes, you noticed there are no measurements: it's really up to you how much of each ingredient you want to use. There is (really) no way you can mess it up.}

Directions
1. Add all the ingredients to a small pan, reserving some of the lemon zest.
2. Cook everything together on medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the garlic turns golden brown and the olives start to blister slightly.

Serve the olives immediately topped with the reserved lemon zest!

I was thinking it might be fun to add crumbled blue cheese to the olives at the very end, but, of course, it'd make this appetizer quite messy!

Stay tuned for two more SUPER easy recipes I'll be posting later this week: Potato Balls in Tomato Sauce and Winter Salad.