everydaywithvj

8

The I remembered that at prior activities for this event the buffet table gets crowded, so I switched from two plates to two serving bowls that would fit on a round tray with the crackers. I carefully mounded the whipped cream cheese into the bowls, making a deep well in the center, and pulling the cream cheese away from the sides so the jam would fit around the cream cheese and look good. Good plan, right?

I was using two bowls, two tubs of whipped cream cheese, and two different jams. I opened the Fig, Honey and Walnut jam, gave it a good stir, and poured it into the well in the center and then around the edges. Ah, wait, there is more jam than I thought there was and it is almost covering the cream cheese. Not good but done and my sense of things is that if I try to somehow fix it, I will only make it worse. Good plan, right?

Second batch. this should be better. Put the cream cheese in the bowl, used a different spoon to mound the cream cheese and make a well in the center. Stirred the Strawberry, Onion, Balsamic jam and began to pour it in, intending to not bring it up so high that it covered the cream cheese. A big plunk of strawberry and onion had a different thought. Ooooops!  Oh well, it will taste OK, and if not, there will be plenty of other food. Good plan, right?

It was getting late. I put a spoon in each bowl, covered everything in plastic wrap, grabbed the crackers, we got in the car and went. I put the plate on the buffet table and poured the crackers onto the platter. Most of the people helping set up know that I compete in Preserved Foods and asked about each of the jams. I explained that it didn’t look the way I envisioned it would look when plated. They didn’t care, took a few samples, and declared it fine. Good, right?

The evening went well, and I got some thumbs-up. Towards the end, hubby brought me one of my bowls, washed clean. I asked whether one of the bowls had been empty. No. He saw that both were getting low, so he mixed them into one bowl, took the other bowl to the kitchen, washed and dried it, and brought it back to me. Honey, one was fig and one was strawberry-onion. He laughs. Oh well, a new taste treat. It is now time to start cleaning up and I look at the mess of whipped cream cheese and 2 very different jams – one sweet, and one savory – with two different colors – one brown with bits of yellow from the curry spice, and one dark red from the strawberry and balsamic. I quickly covered the bowl and took it to the car.

Once home I refrigerated the bowl and went to bed. This morning hubby let me know that he had put the “mess” (as I call it) into a Tupperware sealed container and washed the bowl. It will sit there until I get brave enough to taste the combination. Who knows? It might be a new flavor sensation – Fig, Walnut, Curry, Strawberry, Onion, Balsamic Jam.  Good plan, Right?

Next time I’ll just mix the jam into the whipped cream cheese and serve it that way.  Even better plan, Right?