Food for Guests

For informal meals when you are having guests or a luncheon meeting or any gathering where people are going to be sitting around a table talking, I like to serve grazing food. Meat and cheese platters are perfect for this.  People can eat at their own pace and everything is basically bite sized.  This platter is made up of Double Gloucester cheddar, Dolce Gorgonzola(best blue cheese ever), Brie and Greek Kefalotyri.  There is smoked sausage, sopresatta, prosciutto and thinly sliced rosemary ham.  I made deviled eggs and meatballs and added them too. I always scatter assorted nuts and olives around the platter too.  I forgot to take a pic but I made hummus and a smoked salmon spread to set on the side of the platter. For condiments I made truffle mustard and whole grain mustard, pickles and a blackberry jalapeno compote which is excellent with the blue cheese.

 I made an assortment of breads: garlic toasts, rosemary foccacia and french bread.

 A side of pesto pasta is always good too. The 'rachette' pasta holds the pesto and is fun to use in this salad.

I haven't heard yet but I'm betting that The Blog Tech, his wife and guests picked at this for hours.

Or maybe they rushed through it to get to the Kentucky Butter Cake I made for dessert. Man this cake got stuck in the pan!  Does anyone have a full proof way to get a stuck cake out of a pan?  I did all the stuff I was supposed to do and it still stuck.  I even placed it in hot water.  Maybe it's the sticky sauce that gets poured over the cake that caused it.

 I can't tell you how good this compote is.  I usually make it with raspberries but couldn't find any so I used blackberries instead.  You could make this with almost any berry.

2 C. blackberries
3/4 C. sugar
1 jalapeno pepper
juice of 1/2 lemon

 Place everything in  a heavy pot and cook it over medium heat.

 Keep an eye on it so it doesn't boil over.

 Crush the berries against the side of the pot to break them up a bit.

 Once it starts to thicken, it's ready.

Store it in a jar in the fridge.  It lasts a while. You can keep it mild by taking the seeds and veins out of the jalapeno or leave them in for some heat.