Holiday Appetizers

With the holiday's being just around the corner I thought what a great time to list some holiday appetizers, many of these I actually make every Christmas, some are recipes I've been meaning to try.


Sweet & Sour Meatballs
These mini meatballs are a hit every Christmas in our home. Don't forget to put out some tooth picks or little Christmas colored toothpicks.

Meatballs
1 lb Ground Beef
1/4 cup Bread Crumbs
1/2 tsp S&P
1/2 tsp Italian seasoning

Preheat oven to 400C. Wash hands before handling meat, put all ingredients into a large bowl and get your hands dirty, that's right, squash and squeeze all that meat with your hands to evenly mix all the bread crumbs and S&P through out the meat. Grab a little chunk of meat and form into a ball around the size of a green olive, place meatballs into ungreased roast pan or any baking dish with lid, cover and bake for around 30-40 minutes, start checking on them after around 30 minutes, if your not sure if there done cut one open and make sure there is no pink to it.

Sweet & Sour Sauce
1/2 cup Ketchup
4 tbsp Vinegar
1 tbsp soy sauce or Worcestershire sauce
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
1 heaping tbsp Cornstarch
1 tbsp cold water
- You may want to cup up chunks of green/red/yellow peppers, these can be added to sauce after it is finished but before meatballs are mixed in, simmer for an additional 3-4 minutes.

Mix all ingredients except Cornstarch into a pot or saucepan, bring to simmer on medium heat stirring often, mix cornstarch with 1 tbsp of cold water in a small bowl before adding to sauce (this will prevent clumps) when sauce is simmering, mix in cornstarch mixture, allow to simmer for an additional 3-4 minutes stirring more often. Pour cooked meatballs into sauce and carefully stir, trying to not break the meatballs, use a ladle or a big spoon with holes to drain some of the sauce off the meatballs, place on platter or plate.

Garnishing Ideas
- Place big lettuce leafs on plate and pour meatballs on top (these meatballs taste good rolled up in iceberg lettuce leaves.
- If you have a big enough platter use cheese cubes to outline the shape of a stocking and pour meatballs inside outline.
- cut lettuce leaves to look like tree branches and use meatballs to look like bulbs on the tree, cut out a piece of cheese for the star and line meatballs on bottom for the trunk. (I've never done this but it just came to me as a neat idea, I will try it this week and take a picture to add below this recipe) if you come up with some others please email me and I will add to this blog.





Fruit and Fruit Dip
This is a recipe I learned while working in a deli years ago, its so simple and yet so good.

Fruit
Cut cubes around an inch in size of any of these fruits, the smaller fruits do not need to be cubed.
- Grapes
- Cantaloupe
- Honey Due Mellon
- Pineapple
- Strawberries
- Apples
- Watermelon
- Banana
- Any kind of sweet melon or fruit

Fruit Dip
You can adjust the amount of ingredients for this depending on how much you need, left over dip can be stored in sealed container in the fridge for a couple of days.
- 1 container (600g-800g or medium sized) yogurt (I use plain but have used strawberry and blueberry in the past and it was still yummy)
- 1 container dream whip or whipped cream (not can stuff) try to find roughly the same size as the yogurt as you will want to mix equal parts. Play with the mixture a bit to find a taste that works for you.
Place cubed fruit onto platter and fruit dip in a small bowl placed in center of fruit.





Deviled Eggs (this recipe makes 12)
6 eggs
3 - 4 cups water
half small onion finely chopped
1/2 tsp mustard
1/4 tsp hot sauce
1 hefty tbsp mayo or miracle whip
3 dashes of salt
1/4 tsp paprika

Boil water then add eggs carefully boil eggs for 9-11 minutes, I boil for 10 minutes exactly but stoves vary. When eggs are cooked drain the water and pour cold water over eggs with the pot tilted to the side to allow the water to pour out as it fills, do this for about 30 seconds to help cool the eggs quicker, peal off egg shells and rinse to make sure there is no little bits of shell on your egg, now you want to cut your pealed eggs down the center length wise
carefully scoop out yolks (yellow part) and put in a small bowl, mix in all other ingredients except paprika, mix well, with a small spoon carefully scoop mixture back into egg halves. sprinkle each halve with paprika.