HOLIDAY APPETIZERS | EASY APPETIZER RECIPES | 4 MUST TRY PARTY FOODS

Can I just go sit in front of the TV with this and this is my dinner? It is definitely looking like Christmas around here. We've been spending some time decorating the house. I've kind of slowly did this over the course of the last week, just a little bit each day, which has actually made it a lot less stressful than like trying to do it all in one day. And then we got our Christmas tree. It's just definitely feeling like that festive time of year. So today I'm making some appetizers, or rather I'm sharing some appetizers. These are just easy, definitely crowd-pleaser snacks and finger foods that are always a hit. I feel like from like November to the beginning of January, it is like appetizer central and treats and all that stuff. But I love it because it's just a short window of time during the year when we can really indulge. I'm so glad you're here with me today. If we haven't met, my name is Ange and this is the menu made kitchen. We are starting with pimento cheese dip. If you've never had homemade pimento cheese dip, you are in for a treat. This is such a delicious recipe and it's so, so easy. So we're going to start with eight ounces of room temperature cream cheese. You want to make sure that this is really soft so that when it blends up, it blends up nice and creamy. And then we're going to add in a half a cup of mayonnaise. You can also do full fat Greek yogurt, but I find that the mayonnaise has the best flavor. And then we're just going to blend this in a food processor. You basically want to blend it until it's creamy and everything is smooth. Okay. So next we're going to add in one sliced green onion. You can do more onion if you like that flavor, but I find that this is the perfect amount for this recipe. And then for our seasonings, I've got three quarters teaspoon of seasoning salt and a half a teaspoon of black pepper. But for the seasoning salt, I used the salad Supreme seasoning by McCormick's. I absolutely love the seasoning. It's so, so yummy. And I use it in so many recipes. And then we're going to add about five to 10 dashes of green Tabasco. This really is just to taste. I really like the green Tabasco in this recipe. It just adds a nice flavor. And then we're going to add one cup of shredded Monterey Jack cheese. And then I also have one cup of shredded sharp cheddar cheese. Okay. So once you have all of your ingredients in the food process, we're going to pop the lid back on and I'm going to pulse this just until the cheese mixture comes together. I like there to be lots of texture in the pimento cheese dip, but you can definitely blend it as smooth as you'd like it. But this is kind of the consistency that I'm going for, for this dip. And last but not least, we're going to add in one four ounce jar of pimentos. You want to make sure to drain this really well. As a matter of fact, I usually put it in a paper towel and wring out as much moisture as possible. That way there's no liquid in the cheese dip. And then I add it to the food processor and pulse it like two or three times. I still want there to be little flecks of red pimento in there. Cause I just think it looks really pretty. And then of course you got to give it a try before you serve this to make sure it doesn't need any more salt or pepper. I actually added a little bit more of that salad supreme and some green Tabasco and it was perfect. You can see just how beautiful and thick this comes out. It's great on so many things, but I like to serve it with crackers and celery sticks. Okay. So I'm kind of crouched down here because I wanted to be able to show you my pimento cheese platter. Isn't that so cute? I've got some celery, different kinds of crackers on there. So when I was a kid, my mom actually bought the jar pimento dip and I would come home from school and cut myself up some celery. And that's what I would have for a snack. I loved it. It was so good. And then when I got married, I think I got a Paula Deen cookbook and that's when I discovered like the homemade version of pimento cheese dip. It's so good. I love it on so many things. You can put this in between sandwich bread or like on a wrap with turkey and lettuce. I mean, this can be used for so many different things. The flavor is simple enough, but it's also just cheesy and creamy. It's just perfect for so many things, but especially the holidays and getting together with other people. This is a fun dip to make. And it's so easy. Like you can have it whipped up in probably five minutes. Okay. We're going to give this a try because that's just what they do. I think I'm going to do it on the cracker first. So, Oh my word. It's just like one of those dips that you can't stop eating. It's so good. And that Tabasco sauce does not make it spicy at all. I got the idea from another YouTuber. Her name is Jessica Donahue. Um, she put hot sauce or Tabasco sauce in her pimento cheese dip. And I'm like, brilliant. It just gives that another layer of like tang and richness. It's so good. All right. So next up, we've got bacon wrapped water chestnuts. If you've never had a water chestnut wrapped in bacon, you guys, these are so delicious and they're super easy to make. So I'm actually cutting down the recipe for this video, but I have the full recipe on my website and you can find that in the descriptions below. I've got a pound of bacon here and I'm just going to cut the bacon into thirds. You want to do this because the water chestnuts aren't that big to begin with. And if there's too much bacon, then it just won't crisp up in the oven like it needs to. So next I've got some whole water chestnuts. I'm just going to take one of the chestnuts and I'll wrap it in one of the third slices of bacon. And then I'll take a toothpick and just secure it so that the bacon and the chestnut stay together while it bakes. I'm going to go ahead and finish assembling the rest of these and then we'll move on to the next step. All right. So now that we have all of our water chestnuts wrapped and secured, we're going to place them in a baking dish. I like to make sure that these are in a single layer, but if they overlap a little bit, that is totally fine. And then we're going to pop these in a 325 degree oven. We're going to bake these for 45 minutes. And while that happens, I'm going to get the sauce ingredients ready. Okay. So the best part about this sauce is it only has three ingredients and you probably even have these on hand. I'm going to use one cup of mayonnaise. I've actually never used anything else, but mayonnaise for this recipe. So I can't tell you if yogurt or anything like that works. And then we'll add in one cup of light Brown sugar. And then I'm going to add a half a bottle of this chili sauce. And again, I have the full recipe on my website. I'm just having this for this video. So you'll want to mix the sauce together until it's nice and smooth like this. And then once our bacon chestnuts are finished cooking the first round, I'm going to go ahead and remove the excess grease. I just use a handful of paper towels to kind of sop up the extra grease. I think this is much safer than trying to pour it into a dish. And then I just have some tongs here that I use to pull it out super easy and such a cleaner and safer way to get hot grease out of a pan. Okay. And then all that's left to do is we're going to pour the sauce over the top of the chestnuts and the bacon. We're going to turn the heat up to 350, and then we're going to bake this another 45 to 50 minutes. You really just want the bacon to be crisp and kind of chewy and the sauce should be reduced by about half. It'll be real thick and sticky once it's done baking. All right. These were so hot. I had to wait so long to even just be able to taste these. They stay hot for so long. So, um, you just gotta be careful when you bite into these suckers, because you don't want to burn your mouth off. My gosh. If you've never had a bacon wrapped water chestnut, it is delicious. I've had people try these who did not like water chestnuts and they will eat these all day long. These are so freaking addictive. Like you will not be able to stop eating these little jewels of gold. They're so, so yummy. And you saw how easy they were. They don't take very much time to put together. Like if you need a trusty appetizer, they will always be a hit. Bacon wrapped water chestnuts. They will win the hearts of everybody that you serve them to. It is such a great appetizer for all occasions and your guests will love them. You just, you cannot go wrong. Okay. So this is a new recipe on my website, cranberry brie and white cheddar pull apart bread. If you have ever had pull apart bread, you know how delicious it is. And this cranberry brie white cheddar is to die for. This is so, so delicious. So I'm going to start by grading a bunch of sharp white cheddar cheese. You can use really any kind of cheese for this bread that you want. I just really like the combination of the cheddar and the brie. And then I've got some softened butter here. It's really important that the butter is super, super soft. I actually put this in the microwave to even soften it up more. And then we're going to use some fresh herbs. I've got some rosemary and thyme. We're just going to do about a teaspoon or so each. You can also use dried rosemary or dried thyme, and you might just want to use a little bit more. And then we'll add this to the softened butter. And I just mix this together until it's nice and smooth. And the herbs are combined with the butter. All right. So I have an eight ounce wheel of brie cheese. I'm just using regular brie cheese, not the extra creamy kind. I find it's much easier to slice and place it in the bread if it's not too soft. So if you've ever noticed or worked with brie cheese, there's a very thin layer of white film on the outside of the cheese. And this is actually edible. Um, but I personally don't like it. I just, the flavor of it's kind of funky to me. So I'll usually remove it with like a paring knife. Um, I actually saw this tip on another channel on some of these YouTube videos. She used a potato peeler and it worked really, really well. So I just removed as much of the white stuff as I possibly could, but a little bit leftover is totally fine. Okay. So as you can see, I already started prepping my brie. I like to slice this into strips and then I'll cut them into little one inch cubes. I feel like that's the perfect size and it fits really nicely down inside the bread. All right. So it does not pull apart bread without the bread. And I've got a large loaf of sourdough here. I happen to love sourdough and I love it in pull apart bread recipes. I just found this at my local grocery store in the bakery section. And then I'm going to use a serrated knife and I'm going to slice one inch slices, but you don't want to go all the way to the bottom. You want to make sure that it's still attached on the bottom. That way it all holds together while it bakes. So I'm just going to finish slicing these into one inch slices, and then we'll turn it around and go in the opposite direction. Okay. So this is what you want it to look like the first round. You can see that it's still attached on the bottom. And then now I'm just going to go in the opposite direction. So at this point, you definitely want to be patient while you're slicing this. Just take your time. You're making this recipe for a fun party, so it should be fun. But if you get a little carried away at this point, then you're going to start tearing the bread and the chunks are going to fall off. So just take your time slicing it. And again, we're going to do the one inch rule. I'm going to do one inch slices and we'll just finish going across the entire bread loaf. All right. So now that we have that slice, this is exactly what you want it to look like. You can see these little one inch cubes. So at this point, we're going to spread the top with some of the herb butter that we mixed up earlier. I like to go through and spread it over the top, and then we're just going to add it now down in between the bread slices. You just want to do the best that you can spreading the butter. When it goes into the oven, it's going to melt and it will work its way into the nooks and crannies. So just do the best that you can, but making sure to get in between each of the slices. Okay. So now comes the fun part. We get to fill the bread with all of the cheese and the cranberry. So I'm going to take the white cheddar first. And again, just going in between the slices of bread, packing as much or as little as you want in there. But I like to use a lot of white cheddar cheese. And for this recipe, I did about a cup and a half or so. All right. So now that we have all the cheddar in there, I'm just going to do the same thing with the brie. This does not have to be perfect. Keep in mind that this is all going to bake and melt down. So during this stage, when it's looking really messy and you're kind of, your fingers are all coated in cheese, that's totally fine. It will be delicious and everyone will love it. I promise. So just pack this in as much cheese as you can fit in there. And then we will move on to the cranberry sauce. Okay. So I like to use a whole berry cranberry sauce for this, and we're just going to mix it up in the can so that you can kind of break up the cranberry sauce. And then we're just going to add a little teaspoon dollops again, just kind of placing it sporadically in between the bread pieces over the cheese, under the cheese, wherever you can find a place to put cranberry sauce. That's where you want it. And I end up using almost this entire can. So don't feel like you're putting too much cranberry sauce on there. It won't be too much. I promise. All right. So now that we have all that cheese and butter and cranberry sauce packed in there, and I just think that this looks so beautiful. It's just a festive appetizer to have. So I've got two large pieces of foil. I'm going to set the bread right in the center. And basically you just want to wrap this up like a present, making sure that no bread is exposed and it's nice and tight. We're going to pop this in a 350 degree oven, and I'm going to bake this for 25 minutes or so. And then I'm going to remove the foil, but you can just kind of unwrap it and then we'll bake it another five or 10 minutes until the cheese is fully melted and the top is crisp and it's warm and it is ready to serve. Oh my word. Heaven's gracious. I know I say this like every time you've got to try this recipe. It is so delicious. I was a little bit worried when I made this that the cranberry would make the bread soggy and it definitely moistens the bread, but it's not soggy at all. Especially if you eat it fresh out of the oven. This is not an appetizer that you'd want to like bake and then take to somebody's house. This is something that you want to have right fresh out of the oven. So if you're throwing a party or if you go over to somebody's house, which I always frown upon this, but if you go over to their house and put in their oven, so that way it's fresh for everyone to dive into, that's the best way to eat this particular pull apart bread because of the cranberry. I cannot wait for you guys to try this appetizer. It is just, it is incredible. I feel like I've got my fingers in all of it. Look at that. Look at the brie and the cranberry. Oh my gosh. Okay. So I just don't think it's a party without cocktail sweet and sour meatballs. And this recipe is so delicious and super, super easy to make. I actually make my own homemade turkey meatballs and it's super easy, but if you want to do frozen turkey meatballs, that's totally fine. So I've got a medium size bowl here. I cracked in one egg. I've got about three tablespoons of chopped up onion. I'm going to do a quarter cup of panko bread crumbs. And then I've got a little bit of salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Again, I just have the recipe for this video, but you can find the full recipe in the descriptions below. I've got a link there for you. So we're going to mix this together first. And then I'm going to add in my pound of ground turkey. You can also do ground beef if you want for this recipe. It really doesn't make any difference. We just happened to like ground turkey and this is what I had on hand. So you'll want to use your hands or you can put gloves on, but I like to use my hands to mix the eggs and breadcrumbs and the turkey together until it's well combined. So now that we have all of our meatballs prepped, I'm going to add two tablespoons of olive oil to a large nonstick skillet here. I have this on about medium high heat. We'll place all of the meatballs in the pan. I'm going to put these on one side for about five to six minutes until they're a deep golden brown. And then I'll use some tongs to flip them over and cook them on the other side for about five minutes. Okay. While those cook, I'm going to make my sauce. This is really easy. I've got three ingredients. We have some orange marmalade, some barbecue sauce and red pepper flakes. Really, really simple. Now, if you don't like any spice, just leave the red pepper flakes out. So for this recipe, I'm going to do one cup of this sweet orange marmalade. I'm also going to do a half a cup of the barbecue sauce. I happen to like sweet baby rays. That's my favorite. And then I do about between a quarter and a half a teaspoon of the red pepper flakes because my family likes it a little bit spicier. You'll just want to mix this together until it's nice and smooth. And then we can add it to our meatballs. So once you've added all of the sauce to the meatballs, we're just going to gently toss these together so that they're all coated. I usually turn down the heat to low at this point, just because I don't want to burn the sauce, but you definitely want to cook this another five to six minutes or so just until the sauce reduces a bit and everything is heated through. My sweet and sour meatballs are done and my home smells so good right now. It reminds me of what kind of reminds me of New Year's Eve when we make a bunch of appetizers, but these meatballs are so, so good and they were so easy to make as you saw. So let's give these a try because that's just what I do best. I got to try my food. Check it out. Don't this look so good? They're kind of sticky from the orange marmalade and then the barbecue sauce. And then when you cook them on the stove like that, the sauce kind of reduces a little bit and that's where you get that thick sticky sauce. You can also double the recipe for the sauce if you want to. Um, but I love it this way because it's just perfect. All right, here we go. That little orange zest right there. Oh my word. You guys, it's like the perfect amount of sweet, spicy, savory. Those meatballs are so tender. Oh my gosh. And this sauce would be so delicious on anything like little smokies or maybe you want to do chicken wings or like the smoked sausage rope. You could cut that up into slices and then pour the sauce over the top and do the same thing that I do with the meatballs. The sauce is so delicious. I mean, that's really where it's at. Everyone will devour these meatballs. I'm telling you they're going to be such a hit. Well, I hope that you enjoyed all of these recipes today and feel inspired to try something new. I would love for you to be part of my YouTube family, so make sure to tap the subscribe button and we will see you next time.