After the rush of the holidays, I want nothing more than to hibernate in my house and be a bum. Seriously, I have laundry piling up that is threatening to overtake my office and spread to the kitchen. While I will have to break down and clean today, the severity of my post-Christmas laziness means that New Years Eve snuck up on me. We don’t usually do anything big, but we still like to have some food, drinks and hang with friends when we can. Don’t even get me started on my husband’s secret affection for fireworks…

Laziness+laundry mountain+entertaining=a problem.

I at least solved part of this conundrum yesterday. As I was shopping at the Wally-world, I saw these in the produce section by the sunflower seeds and shallots:

I remembered something I saw on Food Network the other night, and decided to experiment based solely on my hazy memory of late-night TV. I also grabbed a nice loaf of multigrain artisan bread from the bakery, and a log of goat cheese from the deli.

I got home, sliced the bread and spread the goat cheese on the slices. I then halved the dried figs (simply because their size scared me a little), plopped them on top of the cheese (2 halves per slice), then drizzled the whole mess with a little of our local Hummer & Sons honey. It looked a little something like this:

Creepy, I know. I served it up to my husband who looked at me like I lost my dang mind, and probably thought I should be banned from watching Food Network after 10:00 PM. Of course, I did the pouty-face, he gave the long-suffering sigh, but finally tried it…while making the most dramatic face possible.

To both our surprise, my goat cheese-fig-honey experiment was dang tasty. We both had seconds, and would have had thirds had dinner not been ready. Luckily for me, I still have plenty left to make more tonight, and this experiment required no cooking, or dirty dishes, other than a cutting board and a couple of knives.

So, if you need a no-fuss appetizer that looks like you actually know what you are doing, hit the Wally-world and use the time you’ll save to plan cocktails instead.

After all, we need to have priorities….