Easy Appetizer: Goat Cheese & Honey Crostini

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I have been accused, from time to time, of writing recipes that are (and I’m whining the accusation here, because that’s how I hear it in my head): 
“Tooooooo haaaaaaaard.”

Well, honey child, help is on the way.

For all ye who are culinarily faint of heart, yet unafraid of a few puns, I have the perfect recipe for you today.

You can serve this as an appetizer at a dinner party, and never feel the sting of cooking one thing. Promise!

The only hard work – and it’s NOT hard – it’s a pleasure – will be choosing the type of honey you’d most like to use.

And if you’re lucky enough to live in Asheville, North Carolina, (aka #Foodtopia)  that’s where The Asheville Bee Charmer comes in. And if you don’t live in Asheville, the very good news is that you can still shop for their honey online, at their website.

While attending the Food Blog Forum in Asheville, North Carolina, I had the lovely experience of meeting this woman, Kim, who runs a little store called The Asheville Bee Charmer.  The conference participants were participating in a tasting event at the Highland Brewing Company, sampling dishes from lots of local Asheville restaurants. I was on my way out the door when I noticed that Kim was standing behind a substantial selection of various types of honey, and was busy as a bee (ahem) offering tastes of honey to swarms of other food bloggers. I love honey, and I have a warm childhood food-memory attached to one type of honey, in particular: Sourwood.

Why Sourwood Honey? Sourwood Honey was always my mom’s favorite honey, and she would buy it whenever she ran into a jar, which was usually when we were traveling the backroads, somewhere in the mountains of my home state,  in West (by God) Virginia. Sourwood honey is fairly rare: becoming harder and harder to find. It has a slightly tangy edge to it – that’s the best way I know to describe it, that keeps it from being cloyingly sweet. I love that tang. And I can still remember the light pouring through that golden jar of honey, sitting on our kitchen counter. I can still remember biting down on the comb, and feeling the honey gush out across my tongue. Sweet, sweet memories, in every sense of the word. So, I screeched to a halt and asked Kim if they happened to have sourwood honey. They did, and she smilingly handed me a taste on a paper spoon.

“Tastes like Mom!” I said.

She may have begun wondering at that moment if she were speaking to a cannibal, with really disturbed tastebuds. But if that thought crossed her mind, she masked it well. Just smiled back at me.

At that point, I knew that before my husband and I saw Asheville in our rear view mirror, that we HAD to find her store, just in case she had a jar of Sourwood honey on hand there, that I could purchase. Yup. You could say we were drawn like bees to honey.
You could say that. If you were unafraid of the groans of anyone who might still be reading this, that is. 

The next day, we combed our way through a slightly funky, slightly cool area that is known as West Asheville, and found her shop, which by a happy turn of events for my husband, was located across the street from a vintage guitar store. So, he went across the street to play what he could play, and I sat down at Kim’s honey tasting bar, to taste what I could taste. (And BOTH my husband and I had a REALLY good time, each getting to do what we love!)

He came into the Asheville Bee Charmer to find me about 30 minutes later, toting his New Precious, a small vintage amplifier that my daughter has christened, “Baby Boomer”.  Meanwhile,  I had narrowed my honey selection down to 3 or 4 types, and was really struggling in my decision. There were no bad choices, however, and among those *almost* chosen, but not chosen, were Acacia Wood Honey, and Rosemary Honey. I finally settled on a Rhododendron Honey, and, of course, my beloved Sourwood Honey. 

Here’s what The Asheville Bee Charmer is all about (from their website): 

“Asheville Bee Charmer is a local honey store with a honey tasting bar. We carry local honey as well as honey carefully collected from around the U. S. We also have imported honey from around the world. We carry bee themed products from t- shirts, body care, jewelry and art. Most made locally here in Asheville.”

Kim mentioned that they had a wine tasting/cheese tasting/honey tasting party coming up, and it occurred to me that what would be nicer than a lovely creamy goat cheese Brie, served on a slice of baguette, and drizzled with some spectacular honey? The tang of the goat cheese, the sweetness of the honey, the crunchy crustiness of the crostini? Heaven. And it couldn’t be easier!

 

No recipe necessary! Just slice the baguette, slice the goat cheese, and drizzle with the honey of your choice.
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