Really Easy Appetizers

With the holiday season approaching fast, it’s time to think about appetizers. If you’re going to a party, hosting a party, or making a big holiday dinner then you may need to make appetizers or bring them.

Appetizers don’t have to be super complicated. I’m sure there are many that are more elaborate and time consuming but we are going to look at making really easy and quick but yummy appetizers so you’re not in the kitchen all day making them.

Easy Appetizers:

1.      Toothpick Caprese Salad. Put a grape/cherry tomato on a toothpick then add on a bocconcini ball, and then piece of basil. Drizzle all of your Caprese toothpick salads with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

2.      Jalapeno Cheese Crisps - Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Cook some slices of bacon until crispy and chop and put aside. On a baking sheet place a mound of Parmesan cheese and then on top about a tbsp. of cheddar. Place a jalapeno slice and sprinkle some bacon bits on top of that. Make as many as you’d like. Cook until golden and crisp, about 12 minutes.

3.      Garlicy Dipping Oil – Whisk together ½ cup of olive oil, 4 cloves of garlic, pinch of red pepper flakes and sea salt, ground pepper, 1/3 cup of Parmesan, and a 2 tbsp. parsley. Serve with a sliced baguette.

4.      Apple Bacon Crostini – Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. On a baking sheet, place apple medium thick slices about a ½ inch apart. You can choose what type of apple you like (some may like the sweeter ones and some may prefer more tart ones like Granny Smiths). Top the apples first with a thin slice of sharp white cheddar cheese and then sprinkle some bacon bits on top. Bake until the cheese has partially melted about 7-9 minutes. Drizzle with maple syrup and sprinkle ground pepper on top before serving.

5.      Bacon Brussel Sprout Skewers – Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place a metal rack inside a baking sheet. On a skewer pierce a piece of bacon then pierce a brussel sprout. Repeat two or three more times depending on how long your skewer is. Place on the baking sheet and roast for 20-25 minutes. Sprinkle with pepper before serving.

6.      Pita Chips – Take some store bought pitas, whole wheat or white and brush with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Fry in a pan until crisp and golden on both sides. Cut into triangles and serve with dip. To make it a sweet bite, sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon instead of salt and pepper.

7.      Dill Dip (you can dip the pita chips in this) – Mix 1 cup of sour cream, 1 cup of mayonnaise, 2 tbsp. of dried dill weed, 2 tbsp. of dried onion. 1 tbsp. of dried parsley, 1 tsp. of garlic powder, and a pinch of salt. You can also make this with fresh dill and parsley. I’ve done it with a ¼ cup of each fresh.

8.      Baked Eggs in Portobello Mushroom Cap – Clean some Portobello mushroom caps. Rub them all on the outside with a little bit of olive oil and place a piece of  prosciutto inside them al. Crack an egg in a small bowl and slide into the mushroom cap. Sprinkle with pepper and fresh herbs of your choice. Bake for 20-30minutes at 375 degrees.

9.      Baked Wrapped Date – Slice a date lengthwise and remove the pit. Fill with goat cheese and close back up. Cut your back slices in half and wrap each date with back and secure with a toothpick. Arrange on a baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes at 350 degrees. Turn onto the opposite side and bake for 5-8 more minutes. Keep turning and baking for 5-8 minutes until the entire thing is crispy and golden. Place on a paper towel to cool.

10.  Deviled Eggs – Hard boil 6 eggs. Once cooled, peel the eggs and slice lengthwise. Scoop out the yolks and place in a bowl. Mash the yolks with a fork until crumbled. Mix in 2 tbsp. of mayonnaise and 2tsp. of mustard. Mix and mash until you form a paste. You can add more mayonnaise if you’d like it creamier. Taste and season with salt and pepper. Pipe the filling into the egg or spoon in with a small spoon. Sprinkle with paprika and fresh herbs.

DIY Advent Calendar

It’s November and it’s the start of our holiday blogs leading up to Christmas. We’re doing crafts, gifts, and foods that are inspired by one of our Christmas cards.

The first card is our four little Christmas trees card.

We’re going to share with you how to make an advent calendar. Big advent calendars with little treats/themes are so interesting to me. I’ve seen ones with nail polish, socks, jams etc. that you can buy and I’ve seen people make up personalized ones for people in their lives. My mom made one for me leading up to my Birthday (since my birthday is on the 26^th it worked perfect) but doing the same for a friend or loved one is something that I find so neat.

The advent calendar that we are choosing to show you how to make is really simple and can be made with simple items that you can find in your home.

You will need 25 toilet paper rolls, green, brown, and yellow paint and tissue paper, a glue stick, a metallic felt pen, and little gifts.

Once you have enough toilet paper rolls, paint one of them yellow, three of them brown, and the remaining of them green.

While they are drying, cut your tissue paper. You want to make sure that the tissue is slightly longer than the roll and has enough to go around the roll with a little flap to overlap. Cut two pieces per roll and then also cut two pieces to cover the tops, a big enough rectangle to go around the ends.

Once the rolls have dried start the long process of gluing the tissue paper over the rolls and the tops. Leave an opening at one of the ends so that you can put your gift inside. We covered one of the ends first and then rolled rest afterwards to cover up the scraggly ends. If you want to reuse this calendar then don’t glue the end piece. Glue the body of the roll and then use the green tissue to cover the end by attaching it with an elastic band or green thin ribbon.

When choosing gifts be creative and try to personalize it a bit for the person who is going to open it. You can pick candy, chocolate, jewellery, money, stationary, nail polish, lip balm, key chains, or anything that would fit or that you can make fit into the rolls. If you want to make a bigger calendar than use things like Pringles cans or mailing tubes and do the same process.

Now it’s assembling time. Glue your rolls together to form a tree with a stump and star on top.

Place all of your gifts inside the rolls. For the backing, we’ve picked a piece of white poster paper because that’s what we had but if you’re going to reuse this then you can get a heavier duty cardstock or cardboard in green to match the tree. Glue the backing on.

Once you have the backing on, then all you have left to do is to write the numbers on the tree. We are using a metallic pen to write a mix of numbers and words in random order. You can do your numbering however you like though.

Here is your finished advent Christmas tree calendar.

Christmas Traditions #1 -Cards

Ah! So October is over already and we’re on a countdown to Christmas already. Each year we do quite a few weeks of countdown to Christmas blogs and we’ve chosen Christmas traditions this year. Each week up until Christmas we’ll look at a tradition and explore it a bit and the places in the world where they are most popular. It’s only fitting that we take a look at a tradition that we are most familiar with and that is Christmas cards!

The tradition of giving out Christmas cards is largely dominant in North America and Europe (the UK in particular). The first Christmas card was created by Sir Henry Cole in 1843. A big tradition of the time was writing Christmas letters. It’s said that Sir Henry Cole had so many letters to answer from all of his friends that he asked a friend, who was an artist, sketch out a picture that he had created in his mind on cardboard which he had a greeting printed on. He then addressed each card with a personal little note and sent them off to all of his friends and that was the first Christmas card. Of course since then the Christmas card has changed and evolved greatly. You can find so many different types of cards each and every year. Some have cute little creatures on them, some are sparkly, some have beautiful scenes, some are 3D, there are so many to pick from. You’ll also see official Christmas cards that are sent out by the White House and the Queen. Another popular thing is charity Christmas cards in which the sales benefit a specific charity. A neat little fun fact is a that Jaqueline Kennedy painted two designs for Christmas cards which benefited the Kennedy Center; Hallmark still sells those designs each year because of their popularity. 

This year we’ve designed a new Christmas card. We’ve put a modern non-traditional spin on it by using bright different colours. So take a look, and see what we've come up with!