Thanksgiving Appetizers

Can you believe that Thanksgiving is a few short weeks away? Well it’s time to start planning and prepping for the holiday. Over the next couple weeks I’m going to provide ideas and suggestions surrounding a theme. Today’s theme will focus on Thanksgiving appetizers. While your guest are mingling and giving you a few extra minutes to wrap up the meal, give them a few items to snack on.

Bacon Wrapped Dates

Ingredients:

• 18 (1 by 1/4-inch) pieces cream cheese
• 18 pitted dates (preferably Medjool)
• 18 salted and roasted whole almonds
• 6 slices bacon cut crosswise into thirds
• Brown sugar

Special equipment: 18 wooden picks

Directions:

1. Heat the oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Stuff 1 piece of cheese and 1 almond into each date,
3. Then wrap one piece of bacon around each date
4. Roll each wrapped date in brown sugar, coating evenly
5. Arrange dates, seam down and 1 inch apart in a shallow baking pan.
6. Bake 5 minutes, then turn dates over with tongs and bake until bacon is crisp, 5 to 6 minutes more.

Holiday Cranberry Chutney

Ingredients:

• 1 (12 ounce) bag fresh or frozen cranberries
• 1 1/4 c. sugar
• 3/4 c. water
• 1 large cooking apple, chopped
• 2 t. ground cinnamon
• 1 t. ground ginger
• 1/4 t. ground cloves
• Cream cheese, softened and lightly beaten

Directions:

1. In a saucepan, combine all ingredients (except cream cheese)
2. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly.
3. Reduce heat, simmer for 15-20 minutes or until apple is tender and mixture thickens
4. Cool completely
5. Store in the refrigerator
6. Serve over cream cheese with crackers

Stuffed Mushrooms

Ingredients:

• 1/2 c. Italian-style dried bread crumbs
• 1/2 c. Romano cheese, grated
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
• 2 T fresh Italian parsley, chopped
• 1 T. fresh mint, chopped
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1/3 c. extra-virgin olive oil
• 28 large (2 1/2-inch-diameter) white mushrooms

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Remove stems from mushrooms
3. Stir the bread crumbs, Romano cheese, garlic, parsley, mint, salt and pepper, to taste, and 2 tablespoons olive oil in a medium bowl to blend.
4. Drizzle a heavy large baking sheet with about 1 tablespoon olive oil, to coat.
5. Spoon the filling into the mushrooms, and arrange on the baking sheet, stem side up.
6. Drizzle remaining oil over the filling in each mushroom.
7. Bake until the mushrooms are tender and the filling is heated through and golden on top, about 25 minutes. Serve.

Tags: Appetizers, baking, Brunch, cooking recipes, fun foods, Holiday cooking, holiday dinners, Holiday ideas, Holiday recipes, Holidays, hosting, Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving appetizer, Thanksgiving ideas, Thanksgiving recipe

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 3rd, 2010 at 10:14 pm and is filed under Appetizers, Holiday Food, Holiday cooking, Holiday ideas, Holidays, Menu ideas, baking, baking ideas, baking recipes, buffet ideas, hosting. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.