I need some good recipes for appetizers, for 8 people. Please, nothing too elaborate, because I have a ton to do this week already. But classy is good! And, no recipes containing alcohol, unless for the general edification of the board. Please help me out, O Dopers who know all!
OK, fine, since nobody else is helping!
I have great and wonderful luck at www.allrecipes.com. In the meantime I will try to think of some actual recipes myself, but I have a heckuva time with appetizers. They all seem to be very labor- and time-intensive.
I am a fan of sauteed portabella mushrooms as appetizers. For eight people, I’d slice up 8 mushrooms in half-inch slices (halve the mushroom, then slice each of the halves, so you get half-inch wide strips). Marinate in some teriyaki sauce (half a cup?), chinese five spice powder (maybe a tablespoon?), and some rice wine vinegar (1/4 cup?). Mix all that together and let it sit for 20 minutes to overnight, depending on how far in advance you want to do it. If you’re marinating for a while, make sure you mix the mushrooms around every so often so the mushrooms get coated.
When you’re ready to cook them, use a medium-sized skillet or frying pan (preferably non-stick) or a medium-sized wok. Drizzle some unflavored vegetable oil in the bottom just so they won’t burn (a tablespoon, maybe). Dump the mushrooms in the pan, marinade and all. Mix them around and let them cook for about 5 minutes, stirring frequently (or tossing them, if you have the pan-toss-by-hand-maneuver down). Once they get to about half the size they started, and all of the mushroom is black, they’re done.
Put in a serving bowl, discarding the marinade. Put out toothpicks and little plates. Yum, they are so good!
Another thing I like to do is make hummus (or you can buy it), and have pita chips (either buy pita chips or cut pita bread into triangles and toast it), baby carrots, celery,and sugar snap peas for dipping. You can buy many flavors of hummus, but it’s very cheap and easy to make if you have a food processor. Let me know if you’d like my recipe for hummus!
If you’re serving cheese and crackers, I’d suggest a tuna spread my mother would make. It’s easy. One 8 oz block of cream cheese, one can of tuna, one green onion (chopped), and a couple dashes of Tabasco. Put it all in a food processor and blend until smooth.
Transfer to a serving bowl (you won’t need that big of a bowl), and garnish with a green onion.
baby tomato and minin mozzarella ball ‘kebabs’ with basil dressing are nice:
buy some mini tomatoes and some of those mini mozzarella balls (they are the size of cherry tomatoes) put one tomato and one ball of cheese on a toothpick. put some olive oil and a bunch of basil in a liquidiser, add salt, pepper and maybe a clove of garlic, blitz it up and pour over the kebabs. They are really nice and refreshing - and no cooking! I had a few more recipes but i’ve just finished work, yay!.
I always like making stuffed mushroom caps.
Pick the nice fat white ones, wash them well, pull out the stem, and stuff the insides with a mixture of oil, minced onion, bread crumbs, cheese (mozzarella or feta is nice) and veggies (red or green peppers are my favorite). You want the mixture to be wet enough to stick together.
Bake them at about 350 for 10 minutes or so, until the cheese mixture is browned a bit. There will be a big puddle of mushroom juice and oil in the bottom of the pan - I dry my mushies off with a paper towel before putting them on my serving dish.
Are these eight people coming to your house, or do you need to pack an appetizer somewhere else?
This might sound stupid, but it’s incredibly easy and people like it.
Get some canned whole water chestnuts
Get some good quality bacon (not very fatty)
Get some of your favorite barbeque sauce
Get some rosemary stalks (classier and more fragrant than a toothpick)
Cut the bacon to the size needed just to wrap around a chestnut once, pin it in place with a small cut piece of rosemary stalk.
Place these into an ovensafe dish, and put about half a bottle of sauce into the dish.
Bake at about 375 until the bacon is cooked through and somewhat crisp.
They will be small, tasty, people will love them and they are easy.
Last party i made these they went fast so you might want to do 2 cans of chestnuts.
Note: not applicable if your guests are vegetarian, Muslim or Kosher.
The appetizers are going to be served here at my house. It’s a ‘progressive dinner’ deal; I serve appetizers, then go to someone else’s for soup, another’s for meal, and we all meet up in a big crowd for dessert.
Keep 'em coming, please! Good stuff so far…anyone have interesting things to do with veggies?
Some good ones I’ve used a few times (some are from allrecipes.com, which beefymeg already suggested).
Hot Jezebel
2 teaspoons prepared horseradish
2 tablespoons Dijon-style prepared mustard
ground black pepper to taste
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1 (12 ounce) jar apricot preserves
Directions:
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In a medium-size bowl, combine cream cheese, horseradish, mustard and black pepper. Taste the mixture and add more horseradish, mustard, and pepper to taste. Cover and chill this mixture overnight.
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When ready to serve, place the cream cheese mixture on a serving plate and pour the apricot preserves over the cream cheese.
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Serve with a basket of your favorite crackers (I used Wheat Thins for this one).
Black Bean and Mango Salsa
1 (15 ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 (7 ounce) can whole kernel corn with peppers, drained
1 medium mango, peeled, seeded and cut into 3/4-inch cubes
1/4 cup finely chopped onion
1/4 cup coarsely chopped fresh cilantro
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1 teaspoon garlic salt or adobe seasoning
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
Stir everything together and enjoy! This one is good to make the night before.
Baked Brie
1 pack refrigerated crescent roll dough (a la Pillsbury, but generic works just fine)
1 wheel brie cheese
Fruit preserves
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Cut the brie in half horizontally, so that you end up with two wheels of brie.
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Spread one half with fruit preserves – apricot works wonderfully, but you can also use black cherry, cranberry, blueberry, whatever floats your boat.
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Put the other half of the brie on top of the one with fruit, so you wind up with a brie-fruit-brie sandwich (rind side out, naturally).
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Roll out the dough, meshing all the triangles together. Wrap the brie in the dough, and place it on a cookie sheet.
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If you want a deep golden color, brush beaten egg over the pastry. Bake at 350 to 375 for 30 minutes, or until golden.
Are you going for classy? Or church-pot-lucky? Or Monday Night Footbally?
If it’s classy, I second the mushroom caps recipe. My nana use to make it with a mixture of minced mushroom stems, Italian bread crumbs, crab meat, and parmesean cheese, drizzled with olive oil, and sprinkled with more cheese. Then pop under the broiler until golden brown and bubbly.
beans). Melt in a crock pot or double boiler. Add diced green ortega chiles if you like. Serve with fresh tortilla chips.
For footballers, wrap little smokies (baby hotdogs) in strips of pop-n-fresh crescent roll dough, and bake per the instructions on the dough canister, until golden brown. Serve with sauces for dipping (mustard, bbq, ranch, etc).
For insanely healthy, slice vegetables like eggplant, carrot, zucchini, etc, 1/4" thick in whatever direction gives you the biggest area slices. Also use big sections of onion and green and red bell peppers. Marinate all in a mixture of lemon juice, garlic, black pepper and olive oil. Grill this on a Weber or a George
For a potluck type deal, make nacho dip with a half brick of velveeta, cubed into 1/2" pieces, and a can of Hormel chili (no Foreman.
For simple and easy, make an antipasta tray. Get Kalamata olives, marinated mushrooms, marinated artichoke hearts, sliced provolone cheese, maybe some smoked gouda or smoked cheddar also sliced, sliced proscuitto, sliced hard (not dry) salami, sliced pepperoni, and any other italian-sounding cold cuts from your local deli. Some ham and turkey are OK, too, especially if smoked. The success of this tray depends on the quality of the deli meats and cheeses you find. The weight of cheeses should equal half the weight of the meats. The volume of veggies should approximately equal the volume of the meat and cheese together. Roll up the sliced stuff, and then arrange everything on a platter, on a bed of green leaf or romaine lettuce. Serve with assorted crackers and/or sliced hors d’ouvre breads.
Egads… how did that get mangled??
The center three paragraphs should have read:
For a potluck type deal, make nacho dip with a half brick of velveeta, cubed into 1/2" pieces, and a can of Hormel chili (no beans). Melt in a crock pot or double boiler. Add diced green ortega chiles if you like. Serve with fresh tortilla chips.
For footballers, wrap little smokies (baby hotdogs) in strips of pop-n-fresh crescent roll dough, and bake per the instructions on the dough canister, until golden brown. Serve with sauces for dipping (mustard, bbq, ranch, etc).
For insanely healthy, slice vegetables like eggplant, carrot, zucchini, etc, 1/4" thick in whatever direction gives you the biggest area slices. Also use big sections of onion and green and red bell peppers. Marinate all in a mixture of lemon juice, garlic, black pepper and olive oil. Grill this on a Weber or a George Foreman.
What I’m doing tonight for our potluck at work tomorrow:
Coarsely chop equal parts green and black olives (I use Sicilian and Kalamata). Finely chop garlic to taste (lots!). Chop a bunch of oregano. Mix everything together, pack in a bowl, and add enough olive oil to cover. Slice a thin crusty baguette about half an inch thick, toast one side under the broiler if you like, and serve.
You could also do a tomato topping:
Coarsely chop Italian tomatoes (scrape out the seeds and pulp first). Slice a little onion very thin and cut the rings into strips. Finely chop garlic. Stack basil leaves, roll up, and slice thin to make long strips. Mix everything and drizzle with a bit of olive oil. Serve with the same bread or toast.
Now I have to go slice my bread …
some recipes at this thread 