Peggy made this yummy dip. It includes one of my favorite melting cheeses, Fontina. So Good! Again, sorry for the less than less-than-stellar photo, I’m snagging these from a video since I forgot to get photos of each dish.

Peggy and I finally celebrated Anne’s June birthday on Wednesday night. I made a salmon bowl for the main course (recipe coming soon) and a Caprese-Fig Toast for the appetizer. It was inspired by the black Mission figs from the 5 trees in my own backyard and the green Kadota figs I found at Trader Joe’s. If you hurry, you’ll find both varieties at Trader Joe’s right now.

Fig-Caprese Toasts

• 4 ripe tomatoes, chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
• 1/3 cup fresh basil leaves, chiffonade, more for garnish
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon balsamic reduction, more for drizzling
• 1 baguette
• 1 package burrata, balls drained and sliced
• Ripe black Mission and green Kodata figs, sliced lengthwise

This last recipe was made by Cheryl. Cheryl is a true Hostess with the Mostess, who chooses to not select one of the recipes I email out to the group but to be a rebel and make one of her own. Something I absolutely love about her!

Just as with the mushroom recipe from last week, I need to give credit where credit is due. I usually report that the female of the couple is the one making the recipe, well, because that is usually how it goes. But when it comes to Tram and Steve. Steve is the one who loves to cook and is the master of the kitchen. Tram gets the credit for picking this recipe to bring but Steve gets all the credit for making it!

Lisa made these fluffy triangles of goodness. The adjustment I’m going to make to these is the exact opposite of the adjustment I made to the recipe, also using puff pastry, that Kim made in the last post. For Kim’s puff pastry, I adjusted the recipe to make half as many because they were too small and for this recipe, we’re going to make twice as many because these were honestly, too big for an appetizer party. Perfect size for a lunch dish though, if you want to make the original recipe and go that route.

Kim took on this recipe and the word on the street was that she didn’t really like it. I have yet to ask her what is what she didn’t like about it, but my read on it is that the resulting “bite” was too small. When an appetizer is too small, it can be tedious to make and deal with and not give the flavor punch you’re hoping for when you eat it. The original recipe calls for one sheet of puff pastry to be cut into 25 pieces. That made each pastry puff about the size of your thumb. I’ve changed the recipe to use both sheets of puff pastry that come in a package and cut into 12 rectangles each, resulting in less tedious work of topping them and a bigger flavor punch when you eat it.

I print out little place cards with the name of the recipe and the name of the person/couple who made it for them to grab and place next to their dish when they arrive. The place card for this recipe had Marissa’s name on it, but, truth be told, I made it. I had assigned it to her, knowing full well that after traveling the day before with a baby, she’d probably be too tired to cook. I bought huge mushrooms at Costco, so I doubled the filling. So happy I did! There was quite a bit left so the day after the party, I heated it up and tossed it with hot pasta! OMG! So good! Two for one… my favorite way to cook.

Recipe #8 was chosen and made by Anne. She was gracious enough to leave behind a gallon-size ziplock of these tasty little morsels for me and the family. We snacked on them right through Christmas! Thank you, sweet friend!

Photographer, Mary, chose to make these quick and easy goat cheese stuffed dates. I found a couple of other photos that Mary shared with me of the lovely party-goers. Those are included here. Mary, Thank You! <3

If you or your guests are not big fans of goat cheese, use half goat cheese and half cream cheese to tone down the tangy taste. Personally, I’m all the way Team Goat Cheese!

Amy made these Italian Antipasto Squares and they were the biggest hit of all the appetizers. Everyone thought that the bread layer was focaccia, but no, just simple crescent roll dough. I will be making them again and again!