A Night Full of Wine & Apps!

Hi guys! I am SO excited about this post. On Friday night, my friend Amanda, her husband Nick and I did a crostini and wine night. We chose three different recipes we found to try and make for ourselves while paring them with different wines. We had so much fun making these and taking pictures for my blog and for Amanda to use when she starts her blog soon! These appetizers came out so well and it was fun to see what we all thought of the food by itself and then paired with a wine. We decided that we need to do theme nights like these more often because it was such a blast. Now without further ado - let's get into the crostinis!

                                                         Crostini #1: Pear & Brie

Our first appetizer was a pear, brie, and thyme crostini paired with a chardonnay. This one required the least amount of prep work and was all of our favorites (although they were all delicious - it was hard to pick our favorite!). The ingredients we used for this one were hard crostini's - we got ours from Wegmans, brie cheese, green & red pears, thyme, and drizzled balsamic vinegar.  

I've never had a red pear, and to be honest until we went to Wegmans to get pairs I had never even seen a red pear. Surprisingly, we all loved the red pear more than the green one. You were able to get more flavor from the red ones. Since this crostini had brie cheese we paired it with a chardonnay to that was able to enhance the butteryness of the cheese. Again, this one was the most simple out of the three we made. The only work was cutting up the pear slices, cheese, and reducing the balsamic to drizzle on top. I definitely plan on making these again next time we have a family dinner. I told Amanda that I felt so fancy making these because they're so dainty and cute but taste so sophisticated. Paired with the chardonnay? OUT OF THIS WORLD! 

Crostini #2: Steak & Bleu Cheese

Next up: STEAK! For this appetizer we used soft baguettes, sirloin steak, blue cheese, and parsley on top. Now I'm not the biggest blue cheese fan. You'll only see me dipping my pizza in the blue cheese dressing and that's as far as I'll go, so this one was making me branch out a little bit in buying blue cheese and having it on something other than pizza. 

This one was simple to make as well but required us (or Nick rather) to grill the steak.  First we baked the baguettes with a little seasoning and olive oil to give them a little bit of a crunch so it was able to hold the steak without getting too soft. Next, we spread the baguettes with cheese. The blue cheese we bought we able to spread rather easily - a little goes a long way. Lastly, we topped the baguette with steak pieces and topped with a little bit of parsley. Because this appetizer has steak, we paired it with a Yellow Tail Merlot. This smooth red went perfect with the medium-rare steak. 

Crostini #3: Grilled Caprese with Avocado

Our grand finale crostini was a grilled caprese with avocado on whole grain bread. No surprise that this one took the most time to prepare and make but it was well worth it! Since this crostini had the most ingredients on it and needed to be grilled we ended up buying fresh whole grain bread slices to work with. First we put oil and baked the bread for a couple minutes like we did with the steak one so it would be able to hold all the ingredients while it was on the grill. The second step was to cut the veggies and cheese. We had cherry tomatoes cut in half, avocado, fresh basil, and mozzarella balls cut in half as well. 

Once all the ingredients were prepped it was time to assemble and throw them on the grill. We probably put them on for no more than 10 minutes on a relatively low heat. Once we took them off the grill we added the chopped basil, and drizzled some balsamic vinegar on top and there you go! We paired this one with a sauvignon blanc. The sauvignon blanc wasn't our favorite wine but it worked with the appetizer. I also liked this one with a reisling that we bought too! 

I hope you all enjoyed reading today's post as much as Amanda and I had fun making and taste tasting them! Don't worry, Benson had to work football Friday night but when he came by to Amanda and Nick's after we had a whole plate waiting for him with the crostinis. He was bummed he couldn't be there to help make them but happy that we actually saved him some! ;) I can't wait to see what theme and wines Amanda and I do next! What do you think we should do!?