Entertaining Ideas
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Christmas party menu
Hello! DH and I might be having my family over for Christmas Eve this year. Their will be about 15-20 people, but we don't have room to have a big sit down dinner, so I would like to keep the menu easy, but still good. I was thinking snack type food or appetizers. Any suggestions?
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Re: Christmas party menu
My family does heavy apps for Christmas eve.
We ususally do:
Meatballs (grape jelly/chili sauce kind)
Lil' Smokies in BBQ sauce
Chicken Drumettes (asian style or hot wings)
Pizza Dip (cream cheese layered with salsa, pepperoni, black olives, gr. pepper, onion, shredded cheddar cheese served with tortilla chips)
some kind of quick bread (lemon, cranberry, banana)
chips and dip
veggies and dip
chex party mix
we might add our new favorite that I made up this summer
Wonton Jalapeno Poppers
Ingredients
48 Wonton wrappers
48 Pickled jalapeno pepper slices
8 oz bar Cabot pepper jack cheese
water
Directions
- Drain liquid from 48 pickled jalapeno pepper slices
- Cut pepper jack cheese into 1/4 inch slices the short way to make rectangels and then cut each slice in half to make a square
- Put some water in a small bowl
- Place a wonton wrapper in a diamond shape in front of you on your work surface
- Place a square of cheese on the wrapper near the top corner, leaving space to fold wonton
- Place a slice of jalapeno on top of the cheese
- Dip your finger in the water and run it along the edges of the wonton
- Fold the wonton over the filling point to point and press the edges to seal, making a triangle
- Fold the left and right points of the triangle back and under to make the traditional wonton shape
- More folding directions can be found on the wonton package, the critical thing is to make sure that all the edges are sealed so that the cheese doesn't leak out when you cook the poppers.
- Completed poppers should be kept moist and covered with a damp towel during preparation.
- Fry the wontons in a deep fat (around 350 degrees) until gloden and crispy about 1-3 minutes
- Serve immediately (with salsa for dipping) for best taste, but wontons also hold up well to being a little cool.
you can make them ahead and either freeze them raw and deep fry or freeze them par fried and finish in the oven day of.
My first Christmas party I decided to do appetizers instead of a full meal and made the mistake of making too many hot appetizers (things that needed to be prepared right before people arrived). I was so stressed! It was a good learning experience though. The past couple of years I've just done a sit down dinner.
This year we are having more people at the party and I can't fit everyone at the table, so I decided to do appetizers again. However, this time my menu is much simpler. More cold apps since I can prepare them ahead of time. Here is my preliminary list:
Hot appetizers:
Stuffed mushrooms
Swedish meatballs
Chicken satay
Grape leaves and tzatziki (I buy these premade and just pop them in the microwave).
Cold appetizers:
Cheese and crackers
Bruschetta
Melon wrapped prosciutto
Shrimp cocktail
Stuffed olives
Dessert:
Italian cookies
Chocolate ganache cake with raspberries
Fruit and nuts
--
For drinks I used to do a signature cocktail, but now I just set out a table with an ice bucket, glasses, wine, beer, vodka, mixers (coke, juice, etc) and garnish.
I hope this helps.
We always do apps for Christmas Eve in my DH's family. Here is my huge menu for this year. We have about 30 people and I don't buy all of it, some is contributed.
Ham and swiss mini sandwiches with poppy seeds, cocktail weiners, crabbies (from Paula Deen), dried beef cheese ball w/crackers, ro-tel and chips, chicken salad tarts, finger sandwiches (pimento cheese and tuna), buffalo chicken dip, stuffed mushrooms, tortilla roll-ups, baked cheese dip with ritz, veggie tray, fruit tray, shrimp shooters, chocolate dipped peanut butter ritz, chocolate dipped potato chips, strawberry bread and other cookies, sausage balls. For drinks, I'm doing soft drinks, punch and a hot chocolate/coffee bar with flavored creamers, sugar, whipped cream, crushed peppermint, and shaved chocolate.
Here's what I made for my last Christmas open house.
HIT
pork tenderloin with dinner rolls and mustard
shrimp cocktail
hot cheesy chicken dip with tortilla chips
homemade salsa with corn chips
gingerbread cake with lemon glaze (so good I made it three times last season and I'll make it forever from now on http://www.joyofbaking.com/GingerbreadCake.html)
OK
bacon cream cheese croissants
dark choc mousse tarte
relish tray (olives & pickles)
MISS
mini quiche
veggie plate
My Pinterest
The Googlesites Paint Bio
Thinking of doing cosmetic updates to a dated home? These were our costs.
Just bookmarked the gingerbread cake. That looks fantastic!
Still working out what I'm going to do this year, but it's looking like:
* cocktail meatballs (also the chili sauce / grape jelly kind)
* homemade pita chips w/ various dips - alton browns onion dip, hummus, possibly artichoke pesto/bruchetta - possibly also crackers & cheese
* chic-fil-a platters
* mexican table in another room - vegetarian sloppy joes, 7-layer dip, chips
* various cookies: Kahlua Truffle Triangles (huge hit in the past), cranberry oatmeal cookies (another must), mississippi mud cookies...
In the past, I have done chili which was a huge hit, Spicy Grilled Shrimp (great both hot and cold), stuffed mushrooms.... I've learned over the past to keep it as easy as possible for myself.