Goat cheese crackers with tomatoes and balsamic reduction

I’d like to think I’m an expert at utilizing what is already in my fridge for cooking and preparing various foods. A couple of my friends wanted to get together spur of the moment, but I wanted to make sure I had something for them to snack on! So I looked in my pantry and found some crackers, score! Then I noticed I had a block of goat cheese I could use, along with some cherry tomatoes. My idea was to make a Bruschetta-like appetizer.

All you need for the balsamic reduction sauce is balsamic vinegar and a pan. You can get fancy with other recipes, but this works just fine. You are going to reduce the vinegar by about 75%, so keep that in mind when pouring your balsamic into a saucepan. If you need a 1/4 cup of reduction, start with about 1 cup of vinegar. For this amount of food, I used 1/2 cup of balsamic vinegar.

Pour balsamic vinegar into a saucepan and bring to a boil over medium high heat. Use a spoon to dip it into the pan, touching the bottom and remove. At first, the vinegar will slide right off the spoon. When it’s ready, it should stick to the spoon, almost like syrup. Doing this throughout will help you gauge how much your vinegar has reduced.

Be sure to stir every so often to prevent burning. Once boiling, reduce heat to medium low and simmer softly until sauce reduces 75%. Take a second spoon and dip again when you think it is ready. Compare it to the first spoon. Starting out with 1/2 cup of vinegar should take about 20 minutes to reduce.

While you are waiting on the vinegar to reduce, slice the cherry tomatoes in half.

When the sauce is ready, prepare the crackers by spreading the goat cheese on each individual cracker. Add the tomatoes. Top by drizzling the reduction sauce with a spoon.