Honey-Drizzle Cheddar Cheese

It's Christmas time and I get to host Christmas Dinner for the second year in a row. The challenge is preparing it with a 4-year old and a 7-week old baby. I keep saying to myself, "keep in simple". How can you really keep it simple when you're preparing food for a dozen people? Simple would be having pizza delivered. I'm not going to go that route, of course. So after coming up with a menu that consists of a cheese & cracker appetizer, I decided to do something a little different. Enter a recipe from Kraft.com. I decided that I could do something different yet simple.

So easy. Take a block of aged white cheddar cheese, drizzle it with honey (or better yet - English Golden Syrup) and top it with a combo of chopped nuts and dates. I was a little nervous only because I'm not a huge fan of honey. But, I've gotta tell you, it was wonderful! I used hazelnuts since I had them on hand and they worked out really well. The balance of flavors between the ingredients was wonderful. This is definitely an appetizer that I'll put out again or even take to a friend's house.

Ingredients

1 8 oz. Aged Reserve Extra Sharp Cheddar Cheese

1/4 cup honey

1/2 cup chopped nuts (any kind: walnuts, hazelnuts, pecans)

1/2 cup chopped dates

1 apple, sliced
crackers

Directions

1. Place cheese on cheese board; drizzle with honey.

2. Top with nuts and dates.

3. Serve with apples and crackers.

Side Note:

I really should start concentrating more on food presentation. I primarily only use recipes that have a photo of the end product. I don't like leaving anything to the imagination in this respect. In the real world, do people spend that much time thinking about the presentation or are we all thinking more about the taste and temperature of the food we prepare?

http://www.kraftrecipes.com/recipes/honey-drizzled-cheddar-cheese-123518.aspx