Cream Cheese-Stuffed Poached Pears & Chocolate

Oh we're getting fancy up in here!  Well, as fancy as I know how to be right now.

I recently got the chance to sample some Ghirardelli Intense Dark Chocolates through the Foodbuzz Tastemaker's program.  So I decided to whip up something simple and elegant - and honestly, I just wanted to play around in the kitchen!

Ingredients:

Peaches:

4 pears, peeled, cored, and quartered
1 liter water
1/4 cup honey
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Filling:


1 cup cream cheese
1/8 cup brown sugar

Chocolate Sauce:
 
12 oz. can evaporated milk
12 oz. Ghirardelli 72% Cacao Twilight Delight, chopped
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
pinch of salt

Place pears in a medium saucepan and cover with water.  Bring to a low boil under medium heat.  Stir in honey and cinnamon.  Poach the pears for about 20-25 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Make sure that the pears don't float up above the water or they will cook unevenly and brown from being exposed to the air.  Remove pears from liquid and place on a paper towel-lined plate to dry.

To make the filling, combine cream cheese and brown sugar in small bowl until smooth. Match pear halves by size. Spread about 1 rounded tablespoon cream cheese mixture on cut side of one pear half; press cut side of second pear half into cream cheese. Repeat with remaining pears.

For the chocolate sauce,  heat evaporated milk to boiling in a medium saucepan.  Stir in chocolate. Cook, stirring constantly, until mixture is slightly thickened and smooth.  Remove from heat and stir in the brown sugar, vanilla, and salt.



Playfully arrange the stuffed pears, as well as some without any stuffing, on a plate.


The chocolate was absolutely delicious.  I'm not really that big of a fan of dark chocolate, but combined with the refreshing pears and rich cream cheese filling, it really hit the spot.  It was a simple after-dinner dessert that really impressed both Andy and I!

Hope you guys have a great Monday!


*I was provided free samples of Ghirardelli's new line of Intense Dark Chocolates through the Foodbuzz Tastemaker's Program, but all opinions expressed in this post are my own.

Red, White, & Blue Dinner Party

If you guys hadn't noticed, I didn't do a post on Friday.  I decided to take the day off.  Why?  Well, Thursday afternoon, I got an e-mail from Foodbuzz's Tastemaker Program that my proposal for a "Red, White, & Blue-themed Dinner Party" was accepted... and I had to post it by Monday June 13th.  So yeah, needless to say, this girl has been busy planning, cooking, and writing this blog post! 

And I already have a special post planned for Monday (make sure to be back!), so that just left Sunday to post this.  What a turn-around right?  So I got busy and posted an open-invite on Facebook Thursday afternoon for some folks to come on over and eat.  We ended up with 6 guests (including me and Andy), so it was just the perfect number to pull off something elegant and summery.

Another plus to this dinner party, was that I received a stipend from both Cost Plus World Market & Foodbuzz to decorate and provide the food for this shindig.  Major score, right?  So I headed to World Market on Friday night to grab some awesome outdoor decor & food platters.  You can check out World Market's super cute and ever-changing outdoor line here through their eCatalog.

At first, I planned to make every part of this meal include red, white, and blue.  And then actually having to sit down and think about it... I didn't want to just throw things together haphazardly.  I wanted this dinner to be elegant.  I wanted it to be unique.  So I decided to incorporate the colors throughout the meal, sometimes separately, sometimes all together - in order to have a cohesive and delicious presentation.  So without further ado... let's check out how the dinner party went!

 

The tablescape - I found the cutest table runner at World Market and it really gives a pop of color to the back deck.  I kind of wish I bought solid colored plates, because you can't really see the clear ones very well, but they served their purpose.  I guess I went really blue with the decor, but I thought everything really went well together.

And now to showcase the eats!

Tri-Color Bell Pepper & Goat Cheese Crostinis

These were one of the easiest appetizers to make - and they were a big hit!

Grilled Tandoori Chicken Skewers... these are always a crowd fave, and the recipe can be found on my blog here

Grilled Shrimp Skewers with Blueberries, Cherry Tomatoes, & Halloumi Cheese

 

 

I was originally going for a surf and turf type meal, but after looking for a recipe with a blueberry reduction, I just kept finding pork recipes!  I guess pigs live on the "turf" too, so in a way, I guess it still is surf and turf!

Isn't this the cutest serving platter ever?!  Perfect for the pork chops!

Whole Foods was having a sale on the bone-in chops so it was just meant to be!

Everybody let me plate their dish (which I actually really enjoy doing!)

Good times definitely look like they are being had!

And now on to dessert...

My friend will probably kill me for putting this candid picture of her up here, but hey... she looks like she's enjoying this right?

The brownies went quick!

And a nice fruity cobbler to finish everything off

 Both desserts were topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, because hey... sometimes you can't have dessert without a little bit of ice cream to go with it!

I really want to thank my friends for coming over and experiencing this meal with me and allowing me to be my food blogger self and take pictures of the dinner!  Hope you guys enjoyed the meal as much as Andy and I did! 

So although I didn't have any meals that were all red, white, and blue... I think I did a pretty good job showcasing the colors in a cohesive and delicious menu.  I was really on the lookout for purple/blue potatoes, but my go-to places in Louisville were all out!  Maybe next time =)

And don't worry... I'll be posting some recipes of some of the eats from tonight later on this week - anything you guys are dying for the recipe of?  I'll post whatever is the most popular!

*Thanks to Cost Plus World Market & the Foodbuzz Tastemaker Program for letting this all happen.  I was granted a monetary stipend to conduct this post, but all opinions and recipes shared in this post are my own.