Easy Triscuit Appetizers

This is the time of the year when we're all looking for quick and easy appetizer recipes. Something we can fix quickly for drop-by visitors...or that we can take to parties. I ripped an ad out of a magazine a while back. Although disguised as recipe pages from a food magazine, it was an obvious shill for Nabisco to sell their "new" Fire Roasted Tomato and Olive Oil Triscuit. While I don't usually succumb to such ploys, these looked interesting. I tried all three recipes for a casual happy hour this past week. Two of them were definite hits. (And they fit my definition of a good canape...base, "glue," and topping.)

Here they are:

Tomato Goat Cheese and Prosciutto Canapes
This is a nice complex combination of salty, sweet and tangy.

4 ounces fresh goat cheese
2 ounces Parmesan cheese, shaved into 24 thin slices
4 ounces thinly sliced prosciutto, cut into 24 pieces
24 Triscuit Fire Roasted Tomato and Olive Oil
24 cherry tomatoes
2 tablespoons olive oil
Salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Place the tomatoes in a baking dish. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast for 15 minutes, until tomatoes are slightly shriveled. Let cool.

Spread about 1 teaspoon goat cheese on each cracker. Place a slice of prosciutto on top of the cheese followed by a Parmesan slice. Top with a tomato and serve.

Italian Salami and Cheese Canapes
This is deliciously salty...almost bar food. Yummy for those partygoers who are drinking a good cold beer.

8 ounces sharp Provolone cheese, cut into 24 slices
24 Triscuit Fire Roasted Tomato and Olive Oil
Thinly sliced dry Italian salami, cut into 24 cracker size pieces
12 kalamata olives, pitted and halved

Preheat the broiler. Place the crackers on a baking sheet. Put a piece of cheese on each cracker and top with salami. Broil for 2 to 3 minutes or until the cheese is melted. Let cool slightly. Put an olive half on top of each cracker and serve.