Deviled eggs always work.

Here is something I made this year. There was a demo from Boar's Head at the deli/cheese counters.I had several people from my potluck ask me for the recipe.

Gorgonzola Cranberry Cheese Ball
Gorgonzola cheese ~ 8 oz.
Cream cheese 8 oz tub (lite is fine or use regular)
Diced celery, red onion, red and green peppers, 2-3 TBS each
Dried cranberries, 1/2 to 1 cup
Walnuts or other mixed nuts, chopped

Let cheeses soften a bit. Mix all ingredients other than nuts. Make into a ball, roll in nuts, place in bowl/plate and chill.

My guests always absolutely love my mushroom canapes. I serve on thinly sliced toasted Italian bread, and garnish with a slice of smoked salmon. I never have any left.

Easy to prepare ahead of time, served room temp.

Here's a similar recipe.

Dee

Here is a link that might be useful: Duxelles

I agree with gsciencechick deviled eggs are easy to eat, cheap to make and a crowd pleaser. I made them for appetizers yesterday. I always add a bit of meat in mine as well as a tiny amount of green onion or sweet onion. It's whatever I have on hand whether it is ham, ground beef or sausage. Yesterdays deviled eggs were made with grilled Italian sausage (finely chopped after grill) and sweet onion. To the mayo I add a little Dijon mustard, sugar, S&P and apple vinegar. This morning the leftover's were yum with the leftover grandma biscuits, butter and orange marmalade.

This post was edited by jterrilynn on Wed, Dec 26, 12 at 22:32

Fruit and cheese is yummy to me. Couldn't be simpler.

Here's one I've made for years terriks. There's never any left over!

Crab Pizza

8 oz. cream cheese, room temp.
1 T lemon juice
1 T Worcestershire sauce
2 T mayonnaise
1 T horseradish
1 small onion, grated
6 oz. crab meat (imitation crab is fine too)
1/2 bottle chili sauce
1 sleeve of Ritz crackers

Mix cream cheese, lemon juice, Worcestershire, mayonnaise, horseradish and onion. Spread on shallow round platter. Cover with chili sauce. Flake and layer crab meat over top. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight. When ready to serve, place Ritz (or any cracker) around the edge of platter.

This is not even considered a recipe~place a container of soft cream cheese in a bowl and cover with a small jar of Jalapeno jelly. Some of the jellies are blended with peach, cranberries, etc., but it doesn't make a difference, just adds a bit of sugar to cut the heat. I like a restaurant style tortilla chip, but you can serve with crackers, too.

Hot taco dip is an easy recipe. Browned ground beef, tortilla chips, mexican cheese, salsa. Bake at 350 in a rectangular size( 8x!0 ?)cake pan for about 30 minutes. Top with sour cream, avacodo slices, diced tomatoes, and chopped cilantro. Serve with chips or Scoops.

Maybe this thread from the cooking forum will help....

One of my favorites....dried apricot with a dab of mascarpone cheese on top with a bit of nut (pistachio, walnut or pecan) on top....easy, pretty and tasty.

Here is a link that might be useful: Easy appetizers

Saw this (okay ate a lot of this) on Christmas Eve--little fruit kabobs. Chunk of pineapple and maraschino cherry, chunk of melon and a grape, that sort of thing. The trick, I think, is to use fruit that won't discolor quickly, as apples would once they are cut. People gobbled the fruit up quickly.

My sister made this for Xmas and it was very popular.

Spicy Cranberry Spread

Cook a bag of cranberries with about 1/2 a cup of sugar until they burst and cook down. Remove from heat and stir in minced jalapeno (to taste - depends on how much heat you like), chopped cilantro (a fistful?), and chopped scallions (1 or 2 scallions). Spread softened cream cheese on a plate and cover with the cranberry mixture. Serve with crackers or some type of chip.

For a reasonably healthy appetizer, I like these Turkish red lentil kofte. I serve them on individual lettuce leaves with a yogurt sauce (yogurt, mint, thinned with some lemon juice). To make them gluten free I use millet instead of bulghur.

Here is a link that might be useful: Red lentile kofte

That looks great, tishtoshnm. I am going to try those.

I think it's important to try to serve at least reasonably healthy foods to guests. A lot of people either need to or are trying to lose weight. All the temptations around make it very difficult and can really throw a person off a healthy diet long term.

May I second the suggestion of the lentil kofte? My SIL is Turkish and she makes these and they are yummy, with or without the yogurt sauce.

We host a Christmas Day dinner party every year and I like to have a number of easy appetizers out when our guests arrive.
Green Chile Roll-ups always go over well and are quick and easy to make:
1 8oz package cream cheese (will NOT work with the whipped or soft versions!)
1 4oz can of chopped green chiles (we prefer Hatch brand)
4 TBS diced red bell pepper
garlic powder and salt to taste
4 large flour tortillas

Stir together softened cream cheese, green chile and red bell pepper in small bowl. Add garlic powder and salt to taste. Spread mixture over one side of each tortilla and roll up. Wrap rolled tortillas in plastic wrap and chill for at least one hour in refrigerator. Slice into 1/2" -1" slices and serve.

I made these Ultimate Party Meatballs this year for the first time and they were a huge hit . . . and so darn quick and easy!

1 14-ounce can Ocean Spray Jellied Cranberry Sauce
1 12-ounce bottle Heinz Chili Sauce
1 2-pound bag frozen, pre-cooked, cocktail-size meatballs (I made my own meatballs ahead of time and froze them until I needed them for this recipe)

Directions:

Combine sauces in a large saucepan. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring until smooth. Add meatballs. Cover and cook for 15 minutes or until meatballs are heated through, stirring occasionally.

Makes 30 appetizer servings.

Slow cooker Preparation: Place meatballs in a slow cooker. Combine sauces and pour over meatballs. Cover and cook 4 hours on HIGH.

Lynn

Enjoying these ideas as we do an appetizer "meal" for New Year's Eve - so looking for some new appetizers myself!

tina

Love appetizer meals, Tina! We've done that for Christmas eve, New Years.. and hot summer nights!

A few easy favorites that disappear quickly:
Asparagus wrapped in flank steak (I marinate the flank steak with garlic and balsamic vinegar for about 20 min-- then grill. You can make an herbed aioli but they disappear at my house without)

Spinach stuffed chicken sliced into spirals (flatten and stuff chicken with spinach, onion, shredded parmesan..roll then coat the outside with green can parmesan and bake, slice when cool)

Grilled scallops wrapped with bacon (i especially like coating scallops with a mixture of hot sauce and pomegranate bbq sauce)

Baked Shrimp Scampi (I use Ina Garten's recipe)

Baked Asparagus & Crab spread (recipe below.. we omit the cashews)

Here is a link that might be useful: Baked Asparagus & Crab Spread

Thanks for all the suggestions. I should have mentioned in my original post that I am mayonnaise adverse, lol. Can't stand the stuff, so deviled eggs or anything with mayo are out for me. ;)

I am going to make Lynn's meatball recipe. I have seen a similar recipe posted several other places, and it sounds good and "holiday-ish" with the cranberries.