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 Lisa and Summer from Lunchpailsandlipstick came to my Appetizer 2 class last week and we had a yummy-licious time! They picked two of their favorite appetizers they are featuring on their blog. Lucky you…. this time I will be sharing not one, but two recipes from this class. You should thank these two gals for that! 

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The first of their favorite appetizers is the Spinach Salad on Cheese Crisps. It is a light parmesan cheese crisp topped with a delicious Spinach Salad. Let’s take a quick walk through the process. 

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I used my microplane to finely grate fresh parmesan cheese and placed the mounds on a parchment lined baking sheet. As they bake in the oven, they become these light and airy crisps. They are such a great and tasty alternative to bread or crackers. 

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Next, I made a simple chopped spinach salad. This is pre-dressing of course! We tossed it in a delicious sweet and creamy balsamic dressing. 

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I suggest laying the cheese crisps on your serving platter before you assemble them. 

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Place a small mound of the salad on each crisp. Top each mound with some chopped, crisped bacon and an avocado wedge. Lot’s of great flavors going with these gems!

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The hummus I taught was a favorite of most everyone in the class! Hummus is so easy to make! You just need to combine the right ingredients to make it out of this world good! I use my food processor but you can use a blender too. 

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Only fresh herbs and ingredients in here!

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After a whirrrrrr….. there you have it…..hummus!

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I showed the class how to make a beautiful hummus platter. First start out with a wooden board or platter. I used hollowed out bell peppers to hold the hummus, but you can also use any bowl. Make sure you pick bell peppers that lay flat on the bottom. Some are misshapen. Now that won’t do!

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Fill the peppers with hummus.

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Lay your veggies and pita chips around the Hummus, making sure to lay different colored vegetables next to each other (Don’t put green veggies next to other green veggies. Get it?) Did you notice the beautiful colors of my carrots? They are heirloom carrots that you can find at your local grocery store or Trader Joes. They come in a package with red, yellow, orange and sometimes purple carrots. They are beautiful and tasty. I scrub mine real good, slice off the tops and bottom and cut them into sticks. I don’t peel them. I like the rustic look of the skins. Who wouldn’t want to dive into this? It will be the star of the party for sure! For the full recipes click here and here.

Be sure to visit lunchpailsandlipstick to check out their post. They are also offering an awesome Williams Sonoma giveaway! Click here to find out the details to enter. Good luck and bring on the parties!