Easy Old School Appetizer Ideas

[drews]

In the past I have been able to rely on the fine folks of this site to help me with various issues. So here is my latest DRAMA & I mean DRAMA. I am hosting my sisters for Christmas this weekend and I need a few very easy, very few ingredient appetizer ideas. I am already serving a ham for sandwiches, standard chips & dip, veggie tray and meatballs. Both sisters are picky but one is really bad so any "old school 1970's disco party" ideas are probably the best.
Also, if you have any suggestions for frozen appetizers that are good I would love to hear those too.


Thank you





RIP Plaidman

[Ironclad Alibi]

If you have a Trader Joe's near you, I have heard they trays of prepared appetizers.

Here is a recipe for cucumber sandwiches.

Using a small glass or cookie cutter, cut small rounds out of slices of bread. Use a fresh loaf of white bread. About 4 per slice the size of a cucumber slice. Cover them with Saran wrap until needed.

Peel and slice several cucumbers. Remove the bread rounds a few at a time. Spread mayonaise on one, cream cheese on a second, add a dash of seasoned salt and a cucumber slice to make a sandwich.

It is important to keep the bread and sandwiches covered with Saran wrap when not working with them and until serving since the bread dries out quickly.

If you serve these, Mrs. IA would like to know how they are received. It is her recipe.

[NecessaryCatharsis]

I don't remember the disco era, but the easiest appetizers that people make disappear I know are:

1) flour tortillas, spread with cream cheese and either red pepper or jalapeno pepper jam, roll, cut into wheels
2) mini crustless quiche - mix 1 cup milk, 3 eggs, clarified butter (about 1/2 a stick), add biscuit mix until you like the consistency (about 1/3-1/2 cup) Spray a mini muffin tray, pour each cup 3/4 full. Top with anything at all as your flavour (I like spinach and parmesan, but just about any meat, veg or cheese is good) Bake for about 12-14 minutes - If you don't have biscuit mix you can make your own, but for easy, buy the premade, you have to get the fat/dry mixed right and well
3) toasted candied nuts or seeds

[Kittish]

Do an assorted cheese plate, with 3 or 4 different kinds of cheeses. Serve with melba toast and maybe one other sort of bread or cracker. If you have cheddar, have fresh apple slices (toss them with a little bit of lemon juice to keep them from turning brown before arranging them on the plate). Maybe some grapes. Few ingredients, easy prep, and it'll go well with your other munchables.

Spinach artichoke dip is easy, you can even usually find it premade and frozen if you don't want to make your own. If you do want to make your own, recipes abound, including some for making it in a crock pot.

Cream puffs!! You have all manner of savory stuff going on, include one little bit of sweet. Buy em frozen, and set them out to thaw about an hour before people show up (or eat them frozen, good that way too!).

Deviled eggs, celery sticks with peanut butter, just almost anything wrapped in bacon and baked...

[Docmayhem]

Get a loaf of cocktail rye bread (may be hiding in the deli section of the supermarket)

Mix about 1/2 cup of Hellman's mayo with 2 tablespoons each of grated parmesan and minced onions. (you can do this part well in advance)

Spread the mix onto the slices of rye and then lay them on a cookie sheet. Bake at 400°F for about 10 min or until nicely browned.

Sounds a little weird, tastes delicious. Used to be one of my grandmother's standard party foods.

[cindybubbles]

I am hosing my sisters for Christmas this weekend

Hosting or hosing?

We can help with the first one, but the second one would probably be against site rules.

[MoonCat]

I was going to just give one recipe but then I found this

It's for appetizers you can make with Pillsbury crescent rolls. We used to make mini pizza slices with them. Now I want to try all of these too!

[Barracuda]

Bacon stuffed mushroom caps. You can find various recipes online--my favorite is stuffed with ground onion, ground mushroom (use half the stems you remove) that have been sauteed in butter with bits of bacon, then mixed while still hot with cream cheese and spooned into the mushroom caps (I like to cook the water mostly out of them with butter, salt, and pepper) and then baked with breadcrumbs on top.

[Teefies2]

just almost anything wrapped in bacon and baked...

AMEN AMEN AMEN !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Gizmo]

salmon or ham/bacon swirls.

roll out pastry and spread cream cheese on. add a layer of salmon or ham/bacon to cover and roll up (aka - like a chocolate swiss roll.

Cut into slice and lay on a baking tray and cook for about 20 minutes til pastry is done. They then can be frozen or kept for a few days like normal pastry items.

[Sunshine]

Sams has some nice meat and cheese trays,

[EricKei]

One idea I wanna try that I've seen is relatively simple -- breaded ravioli bites. Boil some small cheese ravioli as usual until fully-cooked, let them cool, and then dip into egg wash and breading, then broil in the oven/a toaster oven until the breading is golden brown; serve hot with some marinara on the side. I'm thinking about doing this with small meatballs, as well.

[Seshat]

Back in the '70s, I used to help my mother make several things for parties. Soooo - 70s era party snacks (from the Old Woman!):

(none of these actually had names, we just did them)


Toothpick Bites:

Get some cheddar cheese, not too mature. You want the stuff that won't crumble, but is still tasty.
Get a kabana or other yummy snack sausage.
Get anything that will go with both: pickles, olives, pineapple chunks (it was the 70s, pineapple was cool).

Cut the kabana into slices a good size to stick on a toothpick along with the other two. Cut the cheese into cubes that fit as well. If the pickles aren't tiny, cut them up.

Stick a kabana bit, cheese cube, and one of the third things, onto a toothpick.

For a 'party' look, arrange these by sticking them into a grapefruit or some such, so they're all pretty. If you can buy decorated toothpicks to do this with, it's even more 70s.



Flambe Fruit Salad:

Cut a watermelon or a pineapple open in such a way that you can scoop out the innards, cut the top into something pretty, and put the fruit back in.
Or just use a bowl for the fruit salad, if you prefer.

Make a fruit salad. Melon balls, berries, apple chunks, whatever fruit you like.

Put a small bowl of fine sugar - icing sugar (NOT icing mix) or caster sugar or some such - on a tray along with the fruit salad, and some extra-long toothpicks, and a tea light candle.

Your guests can stab a piece of fruit, dip it in the sugar, then caramelise the sugar over the candle before eating. Yum.

(This wasn't one I ever helped make, it was done at a party I attended, though.)



Hm. Thinking about it, most of the '70s era party stuff I know was for kids. I was 1-10 during the '70s.

[mrsdeb]

Get a pound of genoa salami, an 8oz tub of soft cream cheese, and a couple bunches of scallions.

Cut the scallions into lengths that are about the same width as the salami...if that makes sense.

Spread each piece of salami with the cream cheese, lay a scallion along the edge, and roll it up.

[Docmayhem]

Back in the '70s, I used to help my mother make several things for parties. Soooo - 70s era party snacks (from the Old Woman!):

(none of these actually had names, we just did them)


Toothpick Bites:

Get some cheddar cheese, not too mature. You want the stuff that won't crumble, but is still tasty....

We used to do this with cheddar, pineapple and maraschino cherries