Back in September I had the honor of celebrating my cousin’s birthday on a fun girls night out to the Dessert Lady in downtown Orlando. I will get to that in a minute, but first let’s talk fashion. My cousin Lindsay and her BFF Jennifer are total fashionistas. I really wish that I could be one of the cool kids like them when it comes to dressing, but for now I just pretend to be. These girls share in my love of thrift store shopping and have shared with me all their favorite places to shop, for which I am truly grateful. If you love fashion and want to find some things you won’t be able to find anywhere else, you should definitely check out their new online store. It’s like a clothing/jewelry thrift store, only online and without the grunge and odd characters. You can also find them on Facebook – Skunky Munky, LLC, like their page so that you will be notified each time they add new products.

Ok, back to the Dessert Lady. If you live in Central Florida and you love dessert, you really must check it out. I am pretty sure they were the best cakes I have ever had. The dessert menu is unreal and the portion sizes are ridiculously large. We had a 4 piece sampler dessert platter, which consists of half size pieces, and we still couldn’t finish it between the four of us!

We also shared a couple of appetizers. One of them was this tomato cream sauce with goat cheese served with toasty bread. It was so amazing, we all loved it. I knew that I was going to have to re-create this at home.

You could easily use a pre-made jar of sauce if you wanted to, even a vodka cream sauce would be great with this. However, this tomato sauce recipe is quite simple to make, and only a few ingredients. I made this a second time and served it over baked chicken with a side of pasta. It was lovely.

** The appetizer is Gluten Free, just serve with your favorite GF bread or tortilla chips.

Goat Cheese with Tomato Cream Sauce

•  8 oz goat cheese
• 1 shallot, diced
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 28 oz can crushed tomatoes
• 1 cup heavy cream
• salt and pepper, to taste
• loaf of crusty bread or tortilla chips

I found this goat cheese on a recent trip to my local Sam’s Club, it has such a wonderful creamy flavor. I used half of this for the recipe.

Heat olive oil over medium heat in a large skillet and then add the shallot. Cook for about 2 minutes. Add the can of tomatoes and let simmer for about 10 minutes or until it has thickened up, stirring occasionally. Add the heavy cream and salt and pepper, mix well and let cook for another 4 minutes. Pour half of this mixture in the bottom of a baking dish. Crumble goat cheese evenly over the tomato sauce like this:

Then pour the remaining sauce over the top. Bake at 350° for about 12-15 minutes or until hot and bubbly. Serve with slices of your favorite toasted bread. I used sesame French bread. I cut them into 1 inch slices, buttered them and baked them at the same temperature for about 8-10 minutes. You could also use tortilla chips or baked pita chips.