Goat Cheese, Pesto, Dried Fruits, and Pine Nuts OH MY!

YUM!

This is delicious and the world's easiest and fastest appetizer to put together!  The original recipe came from my sweet friend Janet in North Carolina which she served as a starter before a fabulous dinner at her home(full dinner on  later post).  I switched things up just a bit.  The original recipe called for dried cranberries, to that I also added chopped dried apricots.  This is a winner Janet, thank you!

Goat Cheese, Pesto, Dried Fruits and Pine Nuts

2-4 oz packages soft goat cheese

4 - 6 T. Pesto

1/2 C dried Cranberries

1/4 C dried Apricots, diced

1/3 C Pine Nuts, toasted

Your favorite crackers

Spread goat cheese in the bottom of low profile serving dish or plate.  Spoon pesto on top and spread to cover goat cheese.  Sprinkle mixture of dried fruits on top of pesto.  Sprinkle toasted pine nuts over dried fruits.  Serve with crackers or toasted baguette slices.  

Takes less than 5 minutes to prepare!  Goat cheese is a breeze to spread if you remove it from the refrigerator a few minutes before you assemble this.

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Scones with Dried Apricots and Lemon Rind, served with Lemon Curd

When you forgot to bacon, you're out of bread and the Bisquick box is empty, you get creative.

I love scones, let me be specific, I love fresh scones.  Everytime I order them out, I find myself asking why would anyone want to eat something so dry and tasteless.  I kept thinking there has to be something I'm just not understanding here.  The English love them right?  So what is my problem.  Then I made them myself, and oh what an amazing difference!  And let's just say Lemon Curd could probably improve the taste of pickled Herring (yuck).  So here is my experiment, and now I "get it".  These were moist, flavorfull and really pretty!

Scone Recipe:

2 C flour

1/4 C sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt (I had lemon sea salt and used that)

1/3 C butter, very cold and cut into tiny pieces

1 egg, lightly beaten

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 C whipping cream

1/3 dried apricots, small diced

grated rind of 1 lemon

2-3 Tbls. powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Line a large cookie sheet with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, wisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.  Add the lemon rind and the butter pieces and cut into the flour with a pastry blender or two knives until the mixture looks like coarse crumbs.  In a measuring cup, combine the whipping cream, beaten egg and vanilla.  Add this mixture to the flour mixture.  Stir just until combined.  Do not overmix.

Knead the dough gently on a lightly flour surface just until it comes together.  Pat the dough into a circle about 8 inches in diameter.  Cut the dough into desired sized triangles.  Place triangles on cookie sheet a couple of inches apart.  Brush the tops of the scones with a little cream to help them brown.  Bake for about 15 - 18 minutes or until lightly browned and tested for doneness.  Remove from oven.  Turn oven to Broil.  Sprinkle tops of scones with powdered sugar.  Return to oven and watch closely to brown further.  Remove to rack to cool.  Serve with Lemon Curd. 

I used a jar of  Dickinson's Lemon Curd.  Have you read a recipe for lemon curd?  Yikes!  The jar is well worth every penny.

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