Appetizers/Horderves

On Christmas Eve my family always has ham sandwiches and appetizers.  We all bring one thing to share.  Sweet breads like cranberry and pumpkin.  Fruit cake, veggie stuffed mushrooms, pizza ryes, Bbq cocktail weenies, shrimp dip with chips, veggies and dip, cheese, sausage and crackers and other yummy things.  I am always looking for new ones to take!

That sound good Sue.  Thanks Lindsey your dip sounds good I will have to try that one also.  I like our cheese ball recipe for dip.  You can use it for veggies also.  I like to use it with Wheat-thin crackers.  In the past we use to celebrate the holiday with my inlaws and we would have Italian Beef every year. My sister-in-law made it and all she did was go to the deli and get sliced Italian beef.  She put it in au ju in a crock pot and put some peperochinies in it. It was really good and was really easy. Time was spent on other things. I usually brought a strawberry dip of 1 pkg. cream cheese and 1 jar marshmallow creme.  I put it in a bowl in the center of a plate. On the plate I put the strawberries.  they were circled around the dip in the middle.  Then I put a strawberry on the top of the dip. It looked so delicious.  Don’t pull the tops off of the strawberries.  Those were the handles to dip them in. All you have to do is wash the strawberries.  So, simple.

   I also made a dip of 2 pkg of cream cheese about 1 cup of peppers and 3 Tbls. chopped onion, 1 can of crushed pineapple drained well. and 2 teaspoons of season salt. you can make 2 balls and roll them in chopped pecans. My mom loved to put nuts in the ball also. I also use the wheat-thins for dipping them in. (I like the ranch ones) (bad me!!!).

   I also love to make baked beans for any function.  I usually get the large can of Bushes.  However, any brand will do.  I just like the bigger can instead of a ton of small ones.  I drain off their sauce and make my own.  Equal amouts of Brown Sugar and Ketchup. Sometimes more Ketchup. and a little dab of Sweet Baby rays to give it that smoke flavor.  I am sure I could use liquid smoke or something but that is what I have done and it turns out great.  I lately have been staying away from sweet baby rays so I have just been using ketchup and Brown sugar.  I will have to come up with a substitute to make it have that smoke flavor without to much smoke or chemicals.  

   I do like the taco bar thing and that works great at our house but if you are keeping it simple then sometimes cutting and putting things together isn’t all that simple.  It is a great idea though.

     Good luck with what ever you choose. I am sure it will be delicious.