One of the fun things I did during my blog hiatus was attend the International Food Bloggers Conference here in Seattle, where I came across the Seattle brand Simple & Crisp.
Jane Yuan launched Simple & Crisp after she was looking for a healthy, gluten-free alternative to crackers. Her homemade, delicately dried, fruit crisps – they come in Orange, Apple, Pear, and, seasonally, Blood Orange flavours – are the perfect accompaniment to cheese, appetizers, cocktails and desserts.
Jane is also a marketing genius (as befits an ex-PR person) and has come up with the idea of challenging bloggers, photographers and foodies to come up with ‘perfect pairings’ for her crisps. If you want ideas of what to do with the crisps just search on the hashtag #perfectpairings on Twitter or Instagram, or anywhere really and you’ll be inundated with mouthwatering pairing ideas.
The idea I came up with takes one of my favourite salads up a notch.
I paired the crisp, sweet, yet slightly bitter oranges (think your favourite marmalade) with a salty swirl of smooth, creamy goat cheese, and some succulently sweet roasted beets all topped with crunchy pistachio pieces, savoury thyme and a little rich balsamic glaze.
The combination of bitter, sweet, savoury and salty flavours and crisp, crunchy, smooth and juicy textures made my mouth extremely happy. So much so that when the photoshoot ended I sat down in the the studio and ate EVERY. SINGLE. ONE of the props. It was lunch. I was hungry. What can I say?
Anyway, if you’re looking for ideas for appies for a holiday cocktail party, you could do a lot worse than try these. I’ve seen the crisps in the Seattle area at PCC and WholeFoods or you can buy them online at Simple & Crisp.
Full disclosure: In return for getting a discounted ticket to IFBC I am obliged to write three blog posts about either my experience or the sponsors. Additionally I was sent some free fruit crisps by Simple & Crisp when I mentioned I would like to blog about them. However, the choice to write about the company was mine alone and I did that because these things are flipping delicious!
