Baked Brie Bites

My go-to appetizer to please any party goer is baked brie. It's cheap, easy and ALWAYS a hit. There has never been a time where I didn't end up with an entirely empty plate. So when I stumbled across this gem of a recipe while perusing an amazing food site, Tastespotting.com, I knew I hit the baked brie lottery! I decided to make it when my friends Abby and Zack came over for some drinks. Zack doesn't like jam, so I made some without (I know, he's crazy!).

Crescent Brie and Raspberry Bites
by Taste and Tell

1 tube refrigerated crescent rolls
Il de France brie (I am not a brie snob, so choose what you wish)
raspberry jam

Preheat the oven to 350F. Grease a mini muffin pan.

Unroll the crescent dough. Separate into 4 rectangles by pinching 2 triangles together. Slightly flatten out rectangles. Cut each rectangle into fourths, making 16 smaller rectangles.

Arrange dough in the mini muffin pan, forming small cups. Cut brie into small pieces, about 1/2 - 1 teaspoon each. Put one piece of brie in each crescent cup. Top each with 1/2 - 1 teaspoon of raspberry jam. (Definitely do not overfill your cups, no matter how tempting.. they will runneth over!)

Bake in preheated oven for about 10 minutes, until crescents are golden brown and cheese is bubbly. Remove from oven. Serve warm.

I think I could've cut these into even smaller pieces for the bites. More brie, less bread.

I prefer a rind-less brie.

See.. definitely could've gotten more bites out of that dough.

These pieces of brie may have been a little aggressive. Next time I'll go smaller.

Jam and jam-less.

They came out a little messy b/c of over filling, but I think next time I will experiment with baked brie balls! I'll just fold the dough completely over!

Book Club

At the beginning of the summer two of my neighbors, my sister and I all decided we needed to start a book club where we could get together every month and talk about a book, but mainly eat and drink (not to mention gossip). Last night we gathered at my place where I played host and we talked about the book, The Time Traveler's Wife, for maaaaybe five minutes. (half of us, I won't name names, didn't finish) Last month we read The Almost Moon and had a huge discussion about it...it's pretty effed up so there was much to talk about. Plus, Lara made a delectable spread of summer salads that we filled up on. So, how did I top her? HAH! I could never top Mrs. Newman and her homemade goodies...so here's my shot at it:

I didn't have much time between my hair appointment and our 7pm start time so I decided that pre-packaged food was going to have to suffice for the majority of my spread. I took Harris Teeter Moroccan hummus and Tuscan bruschetta and plopped them into two separate bowls and served them with Stacey's whole grain pita chips. I also had a veggie platter to tide everyone over while I whipped up my salad. I will spare you photos as I'm sure you all can imagine what those things look like :)

For the salad I cut up 2 avocados, 2 tomatoes, fresh basil and a ball of mozzarella cheese. While I was chopping and throwing the pieces in a bowl I was cooking up a box of sun dried tomato couscous which is the easiest thing to make since Easy Mac.
Once the couscous was ready I threw it in with the rest of the goodness, drizzled on some olive oil and balsamic vinegar then sprinkled some salt and pepper and a few tosses later it was ready to be consumed!

NOM!

While everyone was eating I had to whip up my oh-so-easy but omghowdidyoumakethis? dessert/appetizer (it can be used as either). It tastes the best warm so timing is everything. It's so easy and delicious you will nom your face off. Grab a wedge of brie cheese, your favorite flavor of jam (I like rasperry) and a tube of Pillsbury reduced fat croissants. Cut off the rind or crust, if you will, of the brie and roll it up into the croissant dough...make the ball kind of flat so the dough cooks all the way through. Throw it in the oven for 30 mins on 350. The brie will most likely leak out. Cover a plate with the jam, place the baked brie on top and serve with crackers!

Look at that ooey, gooey cheese!

And soon this, will look like this: