Hey and welcome back to my tasty corner of the paper. This week I am bringing you some super easy party foods to close out 2021 and welcome 2022. So pour that drink and grab a pen because these are definitely crowd pleasers!
Over the holidays we gather with friends and family to catch up and exchange gifts and there is always lots of food to be had. As the year draws to a close and New Years Eve is upon us, I thought you may like some appetizers that are super easy to throw together before the ball drops!
First are cranberry Brie bites. I got the inspiration from Pinterest, but I changed it up a little – of course! For this you will need:
puff pastry
Cranberry sauce in a can
1 wheel of Brie
Fine sea salt
Nonstick cooking spray
A few pinches of flour
The puff pastry comes with two in the box and if you use both sheets of pastry it should use up all of the Brie. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Follow the thawing instructions for the puff pastry. Once it’s thawed put a little flour on the counter and roll the puff pastry out a little. Cut into about 2 inch by 2 inch squares. Spray a muffin pan with nonstick cooking spray and place the squares of pastry in the muffin pan. Stretch out the pastry a little to make a small cup.
Next cut the wheel of Brie into little cubes and place one cube of Brie in each pastry cup. Top with a little dollop or slice of cranberry sauce and sprinkle with a tiny bit of sea salt. Bake for 15-20 min or until pastry is a beautiful golden brown.
The next appetizer is a family favorite and party pleaser for sure! Crab stuffed mushrooms are an easy, go-to appetizer and keto friendly too! For this you will need:
1 brick of cream cheese
8 ounces canned crab
20 ounces of baby portabella mushrooms
7 cloves of garlic freshly minced
1.5 tablespoons oregano
1 teaspoon paprika
Sat and pepper
1/4 cup Finely ground Parmesan cheese
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees and line a cookie sheet (or two depending on how big they are) with parchment paper.
In a bowl microwave the cream cheese until softened enough to stir easily. Drain the crab and add to the cream cheese. Next add the minced garlic, oregano and salt and pepper to taste. Mix really well, making sure there are no clumps of cream cheese.
Remove the stems from the mushrooms and place on the cookie sheets. Fill each mushroom cap with the crab mixture and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Bake for 30 minutes.
Each of these recipes could be changed or kicked up a notch. You could add pecans and/or rosemary to the cranberry Brie bites and you could replace the salt, paprika and oregano with Old Bay seasoning in the stuffed mushroom recipe. You could even change the crab to baby shrimp if you wanted to!
No matter what you do have fun doing it and know when you take these to your New Years party they will be big hits!
My hope for each of you this New Years is that your hearts and bellies stay full, cooking becomes a way to spend time together as a family and that my recipes continue to inspire you to try new things and think outside the box. Thank you for joining me and supporting me and as always I’m sending love from my kitchen to yours!
