My husband and I have four children and are on a somewhat tight budget, so "date night" doesn't happen very often. I was driving with him this evening and decided that on New Year's Eve, I'd like to try to get the kids to bed on time and ring in the new year with my husband. I've got one remaining bottle of bubbly mead that I brewed for my sister's wedding nearly five years ago. I'm trying to think of some relatively low effort, not too expensive vegetarian treats to go alongside. I had been thinking of making baked brie, but he asked me to make that to bring to his parents' house on Friday, so I'd rather not eat that twice in one week. The only reason I mention it is that this sort of thing -- gooey, rich and hot -- is the sort of thing I think he'd enjoy. Advance preparation would be a BIG bonus since I had back surgery this month and tend to be in more pain at night.
While I think of it, here's a photo of the baked brie that I will be making for his parents:
The original recipe, posted on
Crockpot 365, calls for a 13 ounce piece of brie in a small ceramic dish to be placed at the bottom of a crock pot. I made some modifications in the photo, using dried cranberries instead of apricots, dropping the sugar altogether, and quadrupling the cheese without scaling the topping up. I used the crock pot without a ceramic dish, so the cheese cooked more quickly than the original recipe despite being a much larger amount.
This Friday, however, I'm considering working fresh cranberries into the topping also, since it was still sweeter than I prefer and unsweetened dried cranberries are impossible to find. I'm concerned that they might not be fully cooked before the cheese is done, though, so I might precook the dried and fresh berries together on the stove before assembling the dish. Has anybody done anything like that?
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renaissance2010
cheerful
tired
