Want a yummy and elegant appetizer that takes just minutes to prepare?  Try pear and camembert.   One of my neighbors gave me this recipe and now it’s a staple of mine when entertaining.

What you’ll need:

1  8-ounce wheel of brie or camembert cheese (straight out of the fridge–cold)

1  large Bosc pear (but any ripe pear will do in a pinch), peeled and cut into 1/4 cubes

2  tablespoons of brandy

1  teaspoon of chopped fresh rosemary plus a couple extra sprigs for garnish

2  tablespoon of balsamic drizzle (reduced balsamic vinegar, or just balsamic vinegar if you are in a super rush)

1  tablespoon of unsalted butter

1 tablespoon of honey

8 pretty walnut halves

How To Prepare:

1.  Using a long knife, cut the cheese in half crosswise, so you end up with a disc-shaped top and bottom.   Keeping the cheese cold will make slicing it easier and cleaner. Set aside.

2.  In a skillet melt the butter over medium heat and then add the chopped pear and cook until tender (2-3 minutes).  Stir in the brandy and cook for one minute more.  Stir in the chopped rosemary until combined.  Remove from heat.

3.  Place the bottom half of your cheese wheel on a serving plate then spread the pear mixture over it.  Set aside a couple tablespoons for garnish.

4.  Using the same skillet you used for the pears, heat the honey and balsamic drizzle (if you are using plain balsamic vinegar heat until simmering to thicken the glaze.)  Remove from heat and allow the mixture to cool for about 5 minutes.

5.  Pour half of the honey and balsamic glaze over the pear on the bottom half of the cheese wheel.  Put the other half of the cheese over that and top with the remaining pear and glaze.  Garnish with the walnuts and rosemary sprigs, then serve.   Most of my guests just a wedge of the cheese on a plate and eat it with a fork, but I usually offer pieces of sliced baguette or crackers as well.

Here are some other favorite holiday recipes of mine:

Crunchy Peppermint Bark

Sinfully Delicious Pecan Tartlets with Praline Topping

Fabulous Five Minute Fake-out Fudge (for the lazy gourmet)

Click below for more holiday recipes from your favorite Avon authors, including Miranda Neville’s English Mince Pie.

©2012 Great Ways to Procrastinate. All Rights Reserved.

You asked for it, so here it is once again~ my crunchy peppermint bark. It’s quick to make. Start to finish, about 15 minutes.

Each holiday season, my kids and I love to make Peppermint Bark to nibble and to pack in beribboned boxes to give as teacher or hostess gifts. And it never fails. Everyone who receives the treat bark MUST have the recipe. Now we just include a copy printed on a festive card. I just know you will want the recipe (my version takes only minutes from start to finish), so here you go!

(Note: White chocolate scorches easily. So, you can be “Martha” and use a double-boiler –or just check the chocolate’s progress in your handy-dandy microwave. Guess which I do?)
Yield: Makes just over 2 pounds or one cookie sheet full

Ingredients:

2 bags of Nestles white chocolate morsels (I’ve tried about every brand there is, and Nestles works best)
12 large candy canes
1/2 teaspoon peppermint oil (oil, not extract–you can find it at craft or baking stores with candy making supplies)
1 Ziplock freezer bag, gallon size

How to:

1. Line an 11-by-17-inch baking sheet with parchment and set aside. In a pinch, you can use aluminum foil (but you may have to peel off the bark instead of just lifting it off.)

2. Take the candy canes out of the wrappers and drop them into the Ziplock bag (Freezer bags are thicker–but you can double up on a regular zipper bags if you like.)

3. Hand the closed bag to the kids and let them bang it on the kitchen counter until the canes are smashed into 1/4 inch pieces. (No kids around? Roll a wine bottle over the bag a few times. I like to use a good bottle of red –more festive, you know. )

4. Empty the white chocolate chips into a microwave safe bowl and heat on high for 60 seconds. Microwave strength varies, so watch carefully. Take the bowl out and stir well. Heat it for another 30 seconds. Stir again. If the chocolate isn’t melted, continue at 10 second intervals to avoid scorching. (Note: the morsels hold form until you stir, so you can’t just look in the bowl to check if they’ve melted.)

4. Immediately stir the pieces of candy cane and the peppermint oil into the melted chocolate.

5. Pour the mixture onto the prepared baking sheet; spread evenly to about thickness of 1/2 inch.

6. Refrigerate until firm, a minimum of 10 minutes, or pop it in the freezer for 5 minutes.� Both cooling methods work, it just depends how hungry or time-pressed you are.� Break into pieces and eat some to check crunchiness (okay, just because you want to). Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator up to one week.

©2012 Great Ways to Procrastinate. All Rights Reserved.

This is tweak on a Paula Deen recipe, which means, of course, plenty of butter. Yum!

Tart crust: (or be lazy and buy Pillsbury Pie Crust and then pinch to size. It’s not quite as sweet but it works in a pinch.)

1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
2 cups all purpose flour

Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. incorporate egg, then flour.

Pinch off a ball of dough and place into each mini-tart pan. form crust around sides with your fingers, the thinner the better, but be careful not to have any holes or tears. set aside.

Sinful pecan filling:

2 tbsps butter, softened
1 1/2 c brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt
chopped pecans (about 2-2 1/2 cups)

Praline topping: (if you end up with extra, line a cookie sheet with foil and spray it with Pam. Place tablespoons of the Praline mixture on the sheet and cook at 350 degree for 7 or 8 minutes for real Southern Pralines.)

Fill uncooked crusts halfway with chopped nuts. using a squeeze bottle (or a Ziploc bag with a small hole cut in the tip, fill to top with the butter/sugar mix. Sprinkle more nuts on top.

~Makes 48 mini tarts. ~

Another helping of something sinful! As an extra treat, read the latest excerpt from To Sin With a Stranger by Kathryn Caskie, the first book in her brand new Seven Deadly Sins series–it’s in stores and available online now!

©2012 Great Ways to Procrastinate. All Rights Reserved.

©2012 Great Ways to Procrastinate. All Rights Reserved.

Another bookseller, librarian and reviewer contest opens September 1, so be sure to enter.  If you are a reader, you still have time to enter for your chance to win a huge bag full of romances signed by your favorite (and mine) authors!  But, you’ll have to read my sneak peek of the first in the Seven Deadly Sins series, To Sin With A Stranger, for the answer to the entry question.

My Kentucky Tribute Recipe

Now, I almost included my Bobby Flay-inspired Kentucky Hot Brown recipe, which is so delicious, but after a fairly mild summer, it’s sweltering here in Virginia today, so I decided to include a refreshing Mint Julep recipe (classic… and virgin as well) instead.  So, enjoy! (Derby style hats are optional.)

Sinful Mint Juleps for Two

Ingredients:

8 fresh mint leaves
2 teaspoons sugar
Couple splashes of water
Shaved ice
5 oz Bourbon Whiskey

Directions:
Place fresh mint leaves, sugar and water into two silver Julep cups.

Yeah, any drink glass will do, but the Julep cups are so elegant and you can pick them up for a song if you look around a bit.  With one quick Google I found  Bargain Mint Julep Cups.  I bet you can do even better.

Muddle the mint leaves, sugar and water together,  Muddle means to combine and bruise the ingredients in the bottom of the cups.  There is actually an implement called a muddler, which is like a mini baseball bat, but use whatever you have on hand…like a wooden spoon handle.

Fill the glasses with shaved ice, add the bourbon and stir until combined. Garnish the drinks with a sprig of mint, or a slice of orange or lemon.

A Less Sinful Mint Julep alternative~ Often I replace the bourbon with tea for a no-alcohol version of this Kentucky classic.  It’s sweet and so perfect for hot summer day.

©2012 Great Ways to Procrastinate. All Rights Reserved.

Winging its way to Georgia are signed copies of How to Engage an Earl (which just won the 2007 Cover Cafe contest for best two-image cover, by the way) and a signed copy of The Perfect Wife  by Victoria Alexander (a number 1 New York Times bestseller).  (pictured: Victoria Alexander & Kathryn Caskie, April 2008)

Congratulations on winning, Leslie!

In your honor, Leslie, I am sharing my favorite peach ice cream recipe.

Georgia Peach Ice cream

• About 2 1/2 pounds of fresh, ripe peaches – peeled, pitted and chopped
• 1/2 cup sugar  (up to one cup if you like your ice cream on the sweet side)
• 1 pint half-and-half cream
• 1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 (12 fluid ounce) can evaporated milk
• 1 and 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups whole milk  

Directions:

1. Puree the peaches with the sugar and the half-and-half cream in a couple of batches in a blender or food processor.  You can use canned peaches, it works in a pinch, but fresh is so much better. 
2. In a large bowl, mix together the peach mixture, sweetened condensed milk, evaporated milk, and vanilla. Pour the mixture into the container of a gallon ice cream maker. Add enough milk to reach the container’s fill line. This is usually about 2 cups. Sometime more, sometimes less.
3. I like to chill the containers mixture in the fridge at this point, but you don’t need to.  It just helps the ice cream freeze a little quicker when you drop it into your ice cream maker.
4. Follow the instructions to freeze the ice cream in the machine.  Scoop and enjoy!

©2012 Great Ways to Procrastinate. All Rights Reserved.

Ingredients:

• Butter (unsalted and only enough to grease the pan)
• One 12-ounce bag of semisweet chocolate chips
• One 12-ounce bag of any other morsel (I use butterscotch)
• One 14-ounce can of sweetened condensed milk
• One teaspoon Pure Vanilla Extract
• (8-ounces of walnuts to mix in if you like nutty fudge)

How to:

1. Grease an 8-inch square pan well with the butter. (I actually use a disposable tin pan because I can trim down the sides before cutting the fudge to make it easier to get nice perfectly square pieces. Plus, no pan to wash. This recipe is for the lazy gourmet, remember?)

2. In a medium pot, dump in both bags of chips/morsels, the can of condensed milk and the vanilla (and walnuts if you want them). Set it on the burner on low and stir. The chips will melt in about 4 minutes. When smooth and blended, pour the fudge into the pan. The fudge is thick and sets up almost right away, so be sure to spread it smooth.

(Note: This fudge is great plain, but to make it a bit more festive, I hit it with four toppings. Any topping that would taste great on ice cream will work, but I go for four standby toppings: crushed candy canes and Heath bars, pecans and sweetened cocoa. Prepare your toppings first. You won’t have time once the fudge hits the pan.)

3. Working quickly (you only have about a minute here) add your toppings–each topping covering one-quarter of the pan. Pat down gently to make sure it adheres to the fudge. Cover and pop it in the fridge. Once it is cool, cut into the one-inch squares. The fudge is rich, so you don’t want to make the pieces too big. Store in airtight container in the fridge.

©2012 Great Ways to Procrastinate. All Rights Reserved.

36 orange slices, peeled. (tip-If you can find seedless oranges, use those.)

1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips (about 9 ounces)
1 tablespoon vegetable shortening
1 tablespoon of Grand Marnier (optional)

Line large baking sheet with waxed paper.

Stir chocolate chips and shortening in top of double boiler set over simmering water until chocolate melts and mixture is smooth. Remove from heat, and stir in Grand Marnier if desired.

Holding the orange slice by one end, dip 3/4 of the slice into melted chocolate. Let excess chocolate drip off.

Place on waxed-paper-lined sheet. Repeat dipping remaining oranges into chocolate. Refrigerate until chocolate coating is firm, about 1 hour.

(Can be prepared up to 8 hours ahead of time. Keep refrigerated.)

©2012 Great Ways to Procrastinate. All Rights Reserved.