Appetizers ... Not Only Cute ...

... but tasty, too!

There was a crab-fest at Emerald Lake on the weekend. Not being a seafood kind of girl, I took my own chicken skewers. Crab sure looks messy! I should have taken a picture of the tables in the aftermath! Good thing it was nice enough to eat outside, good thing everyone wore bibs, and good thing Erin thought to cover all of the tables with paper that could just be bundled up with all the mess inside and thrown away!

I took appetizers and these were them. I hadn't made either one before. They looked nice and they were really good, too, if I do say so myself. I'll make them again. Did I mention that they were really easy to make? Well, they are. Here are the recipes.

Greek Salad On A Stick

• 1 container of cherry or grape tomatoes
• 1 small jar of while pitted black olives - each one cut in half
• cucumbers (The recipe called for "Persian" cucumbers. Since I don't know what those are, I used the skinniest English cucumber I could find) cut in rounds or chunks
• 1 container of feta cheese - cut cheese into squares

Put one of each of the above on a toothpick in the order listed with the feta forming the base.

Dressing

• 2 Tablespoons olive oil
• 1 Tablespoon fresh lemon
• 3/4 teaspoon oregano
• freshly ground pepper

Shake the ingredients together vigorously and then drizzle over the skewers just before serving.

Drunken Grapes and Goat Cheese

• 1 bunch seedless grapes (green or red)
• 1 large package of goat cheese (I used goat cheese with fig - good choice, I think)
• 1/4 cup chopped and toasted pecans
• 2 cups Bourbon
• dash of freshly grated nutmeg (optional - I forgot to add this)

1. Marinate the grapes in Bourbon for at least 6 hours but up to 2 days.
2. Roll the goat cheese into 1 inch balls. Refrigerate these to set them. (I got 50 out of one pkg of goat cheese so then knew to marinate 50 grapes with just enough Bourbon to cover them). 
3. Shortly before serving, roll the cheese balls in pecans to coat. 
4. The recipe then suggested heating them at 300 degrees F for about 3-5 minutes or just until warm. We decided not to heat them for fear they would be too soft. 
5. So, skipping that part, we went straight to skewering them with decorative party pics as shown.

They were both VERY yummy!

ps: I never had a chance to "save" the Bourbon used to marinate the grapes. Some people drank it lickity-split!

Appetizers ... Not Only Cute ...