Recipes

Oh I love to cook, and this is just what I want to make for my family! How they would love it, and you could just create it in so many different varieties!

I found this photo and tutorial over on Sweetapolita, yummy!

Looks pretty good, doesn’t it!

Tagged as: Recipes

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Next time you are having friends over for dinner, or even the next time you are going to a dinner party, here is an easy appetizer tray that looks super fancy, tastes great, and is super easy to make. Your friends will love it, and you will be the highlight of the party. Plus, you can customize it in any variety that works for you and your family, according to what fruit is in season.

To start with you need to have a really large serving platter. I  use all white serving platters and dishware because of the way they highlight the food. I have a room in my house that I keep all of my nice serving dishes that I don’t use on a daily basis.  They are clean and put away, and ready to use when I need them. Don’t worry if you don’t have a collection yet, that usually comes with time.

As you can see, this tray is really big. I only use it for dinner parties, never for every day.

 

 Next  gather your fresh ingredients.

 

You will need:

Crackers: 2 Kinds

Cheese: Soft or Hard

Fruit: Pick what is in season.

Meat

Olives and capers do well to, but only use one or the other. Nuts are good too.

Always start by picking your fruit, which is what will vary season by season.

Pick things that you like that are fresh and high quality.

For this tray I used 3 kinds of apples: Honey Crisp, Granny Smith, and Gala. For the crackers I used Melba Toast and Pepper Triscuits.You could also use baguette if you have fresh baked bread in your area. For the meat I used Lox, which is just smoked salmon. Lox has a mild salty flavor that pairs well with the sweet apples and the creamy goat cheese. But any Fresh salty meat would do, like Hard Salami, or even Honey Ham.  For the cheese, I used goat cheese and rolled it in chives and parsley.

Arrange your food in a semi-orderly fashion. Appearance is everything when it comes to food. By taking a little extra time to make sure that you chop everything the same size, and arrange things the same way, it will look much fancier.

Make your tray before your guests get there and when they arrive set it out for your friends to eat. Don’t worry if they don’t eat it right away, it will be gone before the night is over.

For this dinner party I made a simple Bolognese, with a green salad, and Fresh Bread sticks, and this dish went perfectly.

And the kids loved it. Even the salmon.

Hopefully you have leftovers that you can make anther tray for yourself the next day!

Some other ideas are:

Strawberries and Grapes, Baguette, Ham, and Cheddar for a Spring tray.

Orange Slices, Asian Crackers, Turkey, and Gouda for an Asian Inspired tray.

Pears, Walnuts, Stilton, and Wheat Crackers for another Fall tray.

Cantaloupe, Prosciutto, Baguette, and Swiss for summer tray.

Grocery stores have such a supply of fresh fruit, cheese, and fancy meat, that you can let your imagination run wild.

 

 

 
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Tagged as: Recipes

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