Easy as 1,2,3

Fast Food Tip.

Hip Hostess loves to share easy, tried and true, entertaining tips with our readers. This past week we found ourselves planning a corporate event that required high volume turnaround of food and beverage, in a very restricted workspace. We decided on a mix of appetizers, some were prepared from scratch and some just needed a couple of store bought ingredients but still had that homemade taste.

We realized we had a clear cut winner when the servers were asked if Hip Hostess also had a bakery because the lemon tartlets where so fresh and delicious. If they only knew it was a very simple 3 step process. We purchased three ingredients; tartlet shells from savorypantry.com, English Traditional lemon curd and a blueberry garnish. Next we loaded the lemon curd into squirt bottles to make the assembly quick and easy for the sous chef. A tray of 25 tartlets took between 3-4 minutes to assemble, looked elegant and tasted delicious.

The great thing about this tip is the ingredients, with the exception of the garnish, have a long shelf life. You could put these items in your pantry and the next time you are invited to or hosting an event you know an easy, tasty dessert is at your fingertips. Since the filling and the tarts are about the same color they do require a garnish of some sort to bring a pop of color. You could use a number of things you have on hand such as blueberries, raspberries, mint leaves, whip cream or whip up a quick meringue.

I love it when a few items from your pantry can be easy, delicious and inexpensive not to mention rave worthy!