Dinner Party take two!

I would have to say that the ladies night in dinner party was a success! I will make this one short and sweet as there are a lot of photos and the recipes will be quite long on this one. Our menu consisted of the following:

Caramelized onion and bacon tarts

Goat cheese with a slice of fresh fig drizzled with a balsamic glaze

Brie with fresh pear slices sprinkled with fresh rosemary and a hint of kosher salt

I also created a cheese plate to go along with these that consisted of the following:
Old Amsterdam Smoke Gouda
Goat Cheese
Brie
Manchego
Pickled Peppers
Brioche Toasts
Rosemary Cranberry Crackers
Fresh Sliced Baguette
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Raw Honey
Dukkah Dipping Spices
Raw Almonds
Traditional Bruschetta
Artichoke Bruschetta

Our dessert to finish off the evening was a lemon curd filled puff pastry topped with a spoonful of fresh whip cream.

We started the evening off with a glass of Tango from Castoro Cellars Castoro Cellars and then we finished off with a glass of Grenache from Cass Winery Cass Wines. Both of these wines paired excellently with all the appetizers, you could have stayed with either one of the wines through out the evening. 

~RECIPES~

I made puff pastry from scratch but for someone who doesn't want to spend two days making puff pastry I would suggest buying it pre made. It is less costly and certainly less time consuming. Pre heat your oven to 400 degrees and line some cookie sheets with parchment paper. If you don't have parchment paper you can always spray them just be sure to remove the puffs as soon as possible so they don't stick.

For the tarts I rolled out my puff fairly thin, a little thinner then you would a pie crust. This dough has many layers and tends to puff up pretty high so the thicker you roll it out the higher your puffs will be. Cut out small circles about two inches in diameter. Line them on one of your prepared baking trays. For the sweet puffs you will want to sprinkle them with sugar ever so slightly and bake them for about 15 minutes, you want them to be a nice golden brown on both the top and bottom of the pastry. When they are finished allow them to cool completely. Slice them in half ever so carefully place a spoonful of lemon curd in the middle put the top back on and finish off with a dollop of whip cream.

For the savory tarts you are going to need to complete a little prep work first. You will need the following:

Crumbled cooked bacon
Caramelized onions
Chopped Rosemary
Sliced pears
Kosher salt
Sliced Brie
Goat cheese
Sliced black figs
Balsamic glaze (Trader Joes)

Roll out and cut the puff pastry just as you did before and line them on the baking tray. For the first one place a small amount of bacon and onion in the middle of the tart. Be sure to try and keep your ingredients balanced in the middle and not too top heavy they will topple over if you have too much.
Bake them at 400 degrees for about 13-15 minutes, the bottoms should be a nice solid golden brown.

For the other two tarts it is the same process slightly. Layer your cheese down first then your fruit, then sprinkle with your rosemary. Do not drizzle the glaze on the figs until after you have baked them. They bake for 13-15 minutes as well. Once the pear ones come out of the oven sprinkle with just a hint of salt, lighter is better as it is there to bring all the flavors together.

Plate them after they have cooled and enjoy!