Chocolate-It's What's for Dinner

This is another one of those things that you throw together but it looks fairly impressive. It's really not a lot of work - even the creme fraiche! Cucumber Salmon Stacks (Adapted from ???) 1 English Cucumber, sliced into 1/4" rounds 1 c creme fraiche (homemade of course)* 4 oz smoked salmon fresh dill Place a small dollop of creme fraiche on a cucumber round. Top a small wedge of salmon and some dill fronds. DONE! See I told you it was easy. *Remember basically if you know how to stir, you can make creme fraiche

Cucumber & Carrots (Adapted from Martha Stewart Hors d'Oeuvres ) 1/4 c carrot juice 2 cardamon pods (freshly ground) 8 oz cream cheese, softened 1 English cucumber In a small saucepan, simmer carrot juice and cardamon until reduce. Set aside to cool. Strain juice and add to softened cream cheese. Pipe cream cheese mixture onto cucumber slices. I used homemade cream cheese and I think some of the flavor of the carrot and cardamon was lost to the tang of the cream cheese but it was still very tasty. Definitely learn how to use a piping bag. These would be less impressive if there were just dollops of cream cheese on them. They really took little time to make but look like they took FOREVER to prepare.