A belated and happy new year to you! I haven’t written much lately because I was tackling a backed up ‘to do list’, nursing sick children and helping my hubby Mr. K with work. But you have all definitely been on my mind. I hope you had a wonderful holiday season 
I wanted to give you a glimpse into my world holiday time. I was, ofcourse, busy entertaining friends and family. We love to have people over around here so we are often entertaining on the weekends. And the menu always starts with eye catching appetizers.
In one of our holiday parties I made up a recipe and it turned out so fantastic that I wanted to share it with you. This original recipe is easy and is a feast for the eyes. Here is what you will need:
Ingredients:
- Cream Cheese, or goat cheese if you prefer
- Persian Cucumbers
- Sun Dried Tomatoes
- Chopped Walnuts
- Crackers
- Nasturtium Blooms
- Black Pepper and Garlic Powder is optional
I’ve left off the proportions so you can decide how much is enough.
First, always choose thin and hard Persian cucumbers. Persian cucumbers are not meant to be fat and watery. They are meant to be crispy. If you can’t get your hands on Persian cucumbers, I suggest using any hard and crispy cucumber. Or if you use the a regular cucumber, don’t use the center which contains the seeds. Cut the cucumber up into very tiny pieces. Also chop up your sun dried tomatoes and walnuts. Mix them together into the cream cheese. If you like, you can also mix in some black pepper and garlic powder. I did not use salt because I used a salty cracker. In fact, I love to use a cracker packed with herbs in this recipe. It just adds a flavor punch to the overall taste.
The thing about this recipe, is that you can’t prepare it more than 20 minutes before serving because if you do, the part of the cracker under the cream cheese will get soggy and you definitely don’t want that. So, 20 minutes before you are going to serve, spread a little bit of this cream cheese mixture onto the cracker. Then you add your final touch by adding nasturtium blooms onto the cream cheese. The cream cheese mixture acts as the glue that helps the bloom stick to the cracker (as if you didn’t already know that 
) 
You can also top it with the leaf. The leaf is spicy whereas the flower is mild.
This appetizer is a definitely a conversation piece. Do you need another reason to incorporate nasturtiums to your Spring garden? If so, just ask… I’ve got plenty!
