Kissed by a Goat

I went to a Christmas party tonight with the girls in my prayer group from medical school. We had a lot of fun! It started at 7 and I didn't leave until 10:30. We played dirty Santa, which was TONS of fun! The girl who got the gift I brought loved it and tried to hide it from people so that they couldn't steal it! I got a really cute necklace from my FAVORITE store (Ann Taylor LOFT) and it went perfectly with the outfit I had on! YAY!

We had chicken and deer sausage gumbo. It was really good. For dessert there was a pecan pie cake. Decadent! There were also appetizers of stuffed mushrooms (Super yum), cheese dip, topped crackers, Martha Washington candies, and more.

I decided to take a new appetizer called Goat Cheese Kisses. It was on the back of a real estate postcard my mom had. The recipe is from Eating Well. In the middle of goat cheese you put apricots. This took me back to my time in Kyrgyzstan. We used to get dried apricots all the time...I must say that those apricots we better than these store bought ones, but you can't beat fresh!

Anyway, I thought these "kisses" were different and tasted pretty good. The combination of goat cheese and apricots was pleasing and the nuts added a nice texture. The only drawback was that they were a bit hard to put together. When I tried to spread the cheese around the apricot, it stuck to my fingers rather than moving around the apricot. I don't know if maybe I would have had more success if I wet my fingers (like you would if making biscotti) or not. All in all these were good but I don't know if I'd make them again...my crown doesn't really have such "elegant" palates!

Goat Cheese Kisses

6 oz. goat cheese (I had 5 oz and this was plenty)

6 dried apricots, quartered (I used more than this)

3 Tablespoonts chopped pistachios or macadamia nuts

Scoop our a heaping 1/2 teaspoon* cheese. Form around a quarter of apricot. Roll in nuts.

*I stopped measuring and just used what I needed to cover the apricot. I'm sure it was MORE than 1/2 teaspoon!