More Wine, Less Whine

It’s been a while, but John and I finally hosted another wine and cheese night at our house over the weekend. Along with a few of our closest friends, we shared cheeses, snacks, and only the finest grocery store wines. Can you think of anything better than tasty treats and alcohol?! I can not!

In addition to the wines and cheeses on the table, I put together a couple of extra snacky items so that we’d have a variety of flavors to sample.

wine-and-cheese-night-fruit

The first item I started on was bacon-wrapped goat cheese dates. Because it’s a bit of an involved process, I wanted to knock these out first. I could easily eat these for the rest of my life and be perfectly content. You can’t compare the savory, salty, creamy, and sweet combination to anything else!

wine-cheese-dates
Basically, it’s impossible to take an attractive picture of anything wrapped in bacon…

To start, I poured out all of my pitted dates, then cut a slit in them from top to bottom. The goat cheese was stuff in the date, then wrapped in half a slice of bacon. They baked for about half an hour, while I prepped other dishes, and were ready to welcome our guests as they arrived.

As soon as the dates were in the oven, I got a start on my baked brie. It was simple and took all of two minutes, to wrap the puff pastry around the brie wheel. I didn’t have high expectations, but holy hell! SO SO much better than the pre-made ones that I’ve picked up at the grocery store. I made a strawberry balsamic reduction to pour over it, but I didn’t have the guts to pour it on when the brie came out of the oven.

wine-and-cheese-baked-brie

Finally, some simple tomatoes and mozzarella on toothpicks. I grabbed a bunch of fresh basil from one of my jars out back to sprinkle it over, sort of like a Caprese salad. Sort of.

wine-cheese-tomatoes

Thanks to the combination of fantastic friends, food, and wine, I couldn’t have asked for a better evening! It was a welcomed break after a stressful week and a perfect way to prepare for this week being the last week of school!

How was your weekend?!