Party Foods

Have you got an electric skillet?

Here is a recipe from my father - he always made it around the holidays.

Take a few pounds of Italian sausage (hot or mild or a mixture of both) and stab them all with a fork and parboil them just long enough to let some of the fat cook out.

Allow them to cool and wash off them off.

Slice them into bite size pieces.

Now put them all in a large electric skillet, turn it on low (simmer) and pour in a half bottle of port wine and cover the skillet…get the cheapest port wine you can find, it doesn’t help to buy the good stuff, trust me.

Simmer until the wine is almost gone and then pour in the other half bottle of wine and continue to simmer until all that is left is a thick sauce.

You can serve them straight out of the skillet - have toothpicks or small forks.

It make the house smell fantastic, they taste great, people can nibble all night and they even taste good the next day when you reheat them, should there be any left.

Plus, despite the simplicity of cooking and preparing, the effect is that you have created some horribly difficult, time-consuming recipe when in reality, it is very easy to make.

It will take, however, about 2-3 hours on simmer before they are really ready - but you can then leave them on very low heat for hours and hours and they still taste good.
Another good finger food at stand up parties is to make a good tuna salad, hollow out small tomatoes (or even cherry tomatoes) and fill them with the tuna salad. Easy to eat, tasty and looks nice on a table. Perfect for some color on the buffet table and simple to make in advance and put in the fridge until guests arrive.

I’m going to for sure serve the chili/cheese dip that romansperson suggested. Still working on other things, but I think they’ll all be warm - other than the crudite.

If you want warm stuff then Spinach & Artichoke dip is always good. There’s plenty of recipes around the net and they are all pretty much the same; drained frozen spinach, artichokes, parmesan, mayo and cream cheese with some variations. You use frozen spinach so it should be perfectly safe. It’s good with small toasts, bagel chips, crackers, whatever you want.

Whenever I make this for the boyfriend and myself we usually end up making a meal out of it.

Good suggestion - although I’m going to make my sister’s variation, which is spinach, mayo (miracle whip) and water chesnuts. Not hot, either.

I make a spinach/artichoke dip with jarred alfredo sauce, frozen spinach, canned artichokes and shredded cheese - chop, mix & microwave!