Apricot forks

by Karolina, 14th October 2012

Sorry for longer silence here on the blog...I'm guilty of catching some holidays :)
While I'll tell you more about it some other time...today a little, quick appetizer.

Taking advantage of last apricots this season, I made a quick and easy appetizer which is tasty and good looking at the same time.

Forks with apricot, goat cheese and bacon.
I really love the combination of fruits and meat - in this case smoky bacon. Goat cheese adds a bit of tangy, salty taste to it, which goes perfectly with smooth sweetness of apricots.
You can use as well peaches instead of apricots and Parma ham instead of bacon.

 It really is as easy as it sounds...

All you need to do is:

1. Prepare the goat cheese (preferably softer one) - add pepper (little bit of salt if needed) and form little balls
2. Roll the balls of cheese in bacon
3. Fork the rolled cheese
4. Grill quickly the apricot quarters
5. Fork the apricots
6. Serve - I served it with small salad, a few more apricots, walnuts
7. Gently sprinkle with balsamic vinegar and honey

This looks really lovely on the individual serving plates but I'm sure it will be stunning on one big serving dish as well.

All of it takes not more than 15 minutes to prepare.
So, go on - give it a try and let me know how you like it!

Speedy Hostess...

by Karolina, 9th May 2012

...or "how to be Entertaining Goddess in 5 minutes" :)

I decided to start new series of posts about entertaining.
Mainly because a lot of people say that they don't have time to cook, have guests, organize party...
I want to show:
 - that even with minimum effort and tiny bit of time you can create something nice, stylish & little special
- that to entertain you don't need hours of preparation and you can invite people anytime
- that you don't have to limit yourself to opening bag of crisps even if on a busy schedule

So today, I'd like to propose you this:

Pears with blue cheese and balsamico creme.
Sounds posh, looks good...do you agree?
Well, took me less than 5 minutes to prepare it. Seriously!
I actually made this today as improvised starter. And it will definitely stay in my last-minute entertaining ideas.

What do you need:
- pear (1 for 2 people - but you can vary it depending on amount of guests, portion size etc.)
- blue cheese (gorgonzola would be great as well, goat cheese would work as well)
- creme balsamico (I used ready made emulsion, but you can use normal balsamic vinegar or reduce it yourself)
- pepper

How?
Core the pear, cut it into bite size pieces, or slice it
Crumble cheese on top
Pour balsamico
Grind fresh pepper on top

(This would work really nice on bed of rucola as well - I didn't have any around though)

Tada! Ready!

This makes a nice change from typical tomato mozarella or melon and Parma ham (although I love it and could eat it every day :))

How do you like it?
How do you like my idea of Speedy Hostess posts?
I'd love to hear from you...