Needed: Easy, Elegant Appetizers

[JessicaR]

Pears with prosciutto, arugula and blue cheese.

Take a pear (your favorite kind).
Cut it in 1/2.
Dig out the seeds.
Now cut each 1/2 into 4 pieces.
Take a ball of blue cheese about the size of a marble and put it into the divot left where the seeds used to be.
Lay an arugula leaf on the pear and wrap the pear slice with prosciutto (wrap it right around the arugula leaf and the blue cheese).
Secure the prosciutto with a toothpik.
People love this, think it is so very unusual and it takes like 10 minutes to put together.
The only thing that can be a bit annoying is if the prosciutto is sliced really thin then it can be hard to work with, so be careful of that!

This is right up my alley! Blue cheese and pears and prosciutto is a lovely combo. YUM. Thanks.

 

[wdwtweets]

If you want really easy bur fancy and festive, go with a cheese ball. You can either make one or buy one. Serve with crackers and voila!

 

[Bluestars]

Shrimp cocktail can be presented as a "Christmas Tree". All you have to do is purchase a styrofome cone (from any craft store) I get the medium size. Cover it with the least expensive green leaf from the produce dept (romaine, endive, etc) hold in place with toothpicks. I cut them down to very small pieces so you can't see them. Then I use grape tomatoes and the shrimp for the "ornaments". For the tree top, I've used a lemon cut into a star.

I've learned through experience to not use all the shrimp on the tree. No one likes to ruin the tree. So, I place the tree on a platter and surround the bottom with shrimp.

That's a great idea. I'll bet it looks wonderful and is a huge hit.

 

[Wendy31]

Thanks for the all the great ideas, everyone! I'm definitely using the shrimp cocktail tree idea the year we have fish.

This year, I ended up serving the following for appetizers:

baked brie cheese w/ orange marmalade on top
slices of tomato-basil cheese
grape tomatoes
sliced pears
nice crackers
mulled cider

Our parents actually gobbled the appetizers up, & my mom said they were "delicious" which is high praise from her!

For our meal, we had the following:

Crown Rib Roast
Sausage & Wild Rice Stuffing
Cream Cheese Mashed Potatoes
Sweet Potato Souffle
Bacon Wrapped Green Beans
Honey Mustard Glazed Carrots
(homemade!) Cranberry Sauce
White Fluff Fruit Salad
Yeast Rolls

Desserts were Gingerbread Trifle, Mocha Cheesecake, & Key Lime Cake.

Everything was good except that I used a full slice of bacon to wrap the green beans instead of a 1/2 slice, so it took longer for the bacon to cook so the green beans were a little overdone.

I wasn't enamored w/ the Crown Rib Roast, but everyone else loved it.

And my DH is a huge help!!! So, even w/ the baby, we managed to get it all done - except we were about 45 minutes late getting it all done!

Next year, my "theme" is Italian, & I'm doing lasagna!

 

[Disneyaunt4]

Thanks for the all the great ideas, everyone! I'm definitely using the shrimp cocktail tree idea the year we have fish.

This year, I ended up serving the following for appetizers:

baked brie cheese w/ orange marmalade on top
slices of tomato-basil cheese
grape tomatoes
sliced pears
nice crackers
mulled cider

Our parents actually gobbled the appetizers up, & my mom said they were "delicious" which is high praise from her!

For our meal, we had the following:

Crown Rib Roast
Sausage & Wild Rice Stuffing
Cream Cheese Mashed Potatoes
Sweet Potato Souffle
Bacon Wrapped Green Beans
Honey Mustard Glazed Carrots
(homemade!) Cranberry Sauce
White Fluff Fruit Salad
Yeast Rolls

Desserts were Gingerbread Trifle, Mocha Cheesecake, & Key Lime Cake.

Everything was good except that I used a full slice of bacon to wrap the green beans instead of a 1/2 slice, so it took longer for the bacon to cook so the green beans were a little overdone.

I wasn't enamored w/ the Crown Rib Roast, but everyone else loved it.

And my DH is a huge help!!! So, even w/ the baby, we managed to get it all done - except we were about 45 minutes late getting it all done!

Next year, my "theme" is Italian, & I'm doing lasagna!

If you don't mind I would love your recipe for gingerbread trifle

 

[wdwtweets]

That menu sounds delicious! Glad that the appetizers went over well.

 

[sdemore]

Would you adopt my family, we would love coming to your holiday meals