Christine's Cooking: Christmas Season Appetizer Night

I made many dishes tonight for guests. It was a bit of work planning (a child too so I had to consider that for spice, etc) and trying to fit what I could in my small (kitchen) home. It all worked out in the end, and was a wonderful, fun evening. Here's a list and links to recipes of what I made. Some are from my blog, others direct to the recipe I used:

Tortellini Skewers
Pepperoni Pizza Flatbread (no recipe, used small dry pepperoni, marinara sauce, fresh basil, grated mozzarella and then sliced bite size after baking)
Kicked-Up Classic Cocktail Meatballs
Pillsbury Mini Sausage Rolls
Cheese Tray with Mission Fig Jam and Sweet & Spicy Nuts and Pretzels, Grapes and Dried Apricots (see cheeses I used below)
Charcuterie Tray with Garlic Sausage, Proscuitto, Pepperoni, Nitrate Free Turkey Slices, Applewood Smoked Carvers Ham, Gypsy Salami, Kielbasa Sausage and Italian Wine Salami
Baked Brie en Croute with Raspberry Jam

Dessert:

Cookie Tray (All homemade, just not by me 😊 - I traded savory items I made and she gave me her baking)
Malibu Hot Chocolate (I used coconut whip cream and garnished with fresh grated nutmeg and cinnamon sugar)

My small dining room table was able to fit the "chips N dip" portion of the evening. I didn't make any of the dips or Antipasto, so this was relatively easy...

My kitchen hosted the "food" items. I had to figure out the layout and how I would present everything. I decided to label all the "unknown" food, like dips, jam, etc. as I know when I go to try things, I like to know what it is. Labeling also helped me remember all the items I had to use and not to forget anything, which would have happened if I didn't. I bought cheap Christmas plates, serving dishes, cutlery, etc from the dollar store. This helped as I labeled and set the trays out before I started, so I knew the room I had to work with.

When tonight started, I simply had to fill all the trays. I started making things like the jam and nuts a couple of days ahead. The day of, I got all the hot/baked items ready so that I could just fire them into the oven when guests arrived. This was the most work, the assembly of everything. It was also hard to find room in the fridge to store all the prepared trays. I took my time and just went one by one in my tasks and then it didn't overwhelm but it was an all day event. Good thing I'm off work.

Again I have to say that labeling helped immensely! Highly recommended. It also let me see if I had enough space for everything and if there was too much of one thing. I took a hot cheese dip off my list after looking at the trays with labels on them. What goes in the oven is also a consideration. I had 2 baking sheets and that was it for everything as I didn't want to do more than one load. I wanted all the food hot at the same time.

I started the meatballs (I used Kirkland brand from Costco) on the lowest setting on the stove early in the morning. I was doing them just like a slow cooker would.

These got a garnish of finely grated Pecorino cheese and parsley when it was serving time. These tasted fantastic! Loved this twist on the simple recipe of chili sauce and grape jelly. A keeper for sure.

For the sausage rolls I used Johnsonville cheddar minis and pre-browned them.

This let me pour off the fat before I rolled them up. I served with ketchup and honey mustard. I forgot to take a picture of those unfortunately. Everyone said they liked them with the honey mustard. They were pretty much all finished. Below is a picture before it went into the oven and then the finished pizza.

For my cheese tray, I used Aged Beemster Dutch Gouda (one of my all time faves), Irish Cheddar and Cranberry Goat cheese. I garnished with sweet gherkins and dill pickles, grapes, fig jam, peperoncini and dried apricots.

Below is the meat tray:

Below is the Tortellini Skewers:

There are a LOT of different components to doing appetizers only. I thought it would be easy when I suggested it to my guests a month ago, but in hindsight, it was harder. Dinner with 3 courses would have been much simpler to pull off. However, I was really happy with the end results. Consensus of the night was everyone loved the Brie cheese the best.