Baked Brie

I have determined I am terrible at keeping up with my blog regularly, but my love for food is in full force.  After a successful bridal shower for my best friend Emily, whom I have known since pre-school, I was inspired yesterday to keep posting.
The recipe for baked brie below wasn't part of our wine and food pairing for Emily's 5 senses shower; however, it is perfect for entertaining (and I already had the recipe typed up)!  It is really a classic appetizer and always seems to go over well with guests.  If you have a large gathering, I would suggest making two....yes it is that good.
More recent recipes to come, but in the meantime, this is great to try for your next gathering:

Baked Brie
Ingredients:

• 1 egg
• 1/2 of a 17.3 oz. package of puff pastry (1 sheet), thawed (I use Pepperidge Farms)
• Apricot, Berry or Fig preserves or jam
• Sliced almonds
• 13-16oz. round of brie cheese
• Entertainment crackers

Directions:

• Heat oven to 400 degrees and beat the egg
• When thawed (but not warm) unfold the pastry sheet on a floured surface and roll pastry out to about a 14" x 14" square
• Spread generous amount of your favorite flavor of preserves / jam on the pastry within 2 inches of the edge of the square
• Place brie round in the center of the pastry
• Add additional preserves on top of the brie round and sprinkle with sliced almonds
• Fold edges of the pastry up and over the brie round.  I usually fold the four edges into the middle of the pastry which creates four more corners, or a smaller pastry square.  Lift the four "new" corners to touch and then twist one direction to make a flower shape.  Secure on top of the brie with a toothpick
• Brush pastry with beaten egg
• Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown.  Let cool for 20-40 minutes  and serve with crackers

Bon Appetit!!!    ....and I will post again soon! (fingers crossed)

A New Dinner Party Idea

Thanks to getting distracted in class the other day, I stumbled upon a brilliant website called...take a guess....Stumble Upon (www.stumbleupon.com)!  I saw my friend looking at this website and I just had to check it out, and what a great life decision this turned out to be!  I am sorry if this is old news to any of you.  I do realize I could be getting excited about finding a new trend that is a thing of the past and I am perfectly okay with it!

Anyway, Stumbled Upon is a site where you create an account, select from a list of interests, and then when you visit the site it shows different web pages, one at a time, that match the interests you select.  If you aren't interested in the page presented you simply click the StumbleUpon icon and are redirected to a new, random page!  So ten minutes ago I was reading about health remedies from common household goods, looking at photos of puppies that fell asleep in cute positions, and woohooing over beautiful photographs of cities I didn't recognize!

What does this have to do with gourmet getaways you ask?

Well, while looking at this amazing website, I stumbled upon a new idea for my next large dinner party! ...see what I did there?

Anyway, forget taco bars and ice cream bars at your next shindig.  How about a make your own pizza bar?!!?! All you need is a few types of flat bread, some oil, toppings of your choice, and a grill!
1. Set out a few types of flat bread as crusts (the website where I found this used plain, garlic, and wheat).
2. Have some oil and pastry brushes available so guests can spread oil on both sides of the bread
3. Set out various toppings for guests to choose from for their pizza: sauces, cheeses, meats, vegetables, herbs & spices
4. Once your guest is done assembling, throw that flat bread on the grill and let the cheese melt to pizza perfection.

The idea is so perfect but so rarely done!  I will try this out someday and when I do I will be sure to let you know how it goes.  If you are interested read more about it here and let me know what you think!

Bon Appetit!