I thought I’d share a few recipes for new appetizer favorites I added to my holiday table this year.
Spicy Pecans
Beat 1 egg white with 1 T. water and ½ tsp. vanilla. Stir in 1 pound of pecans (I use a mixture of pieces and halves). Stir in 1 c. sugar, 1 tsp. salt and 1 tsp. cinnamon. Spread on a baking sheet. Bake 1 hour, stirring at 15-minute increments. These are great to add to a green salad or just for a snack. I made a cranberry salad topped with a cream cheese mixture and topped it with the spicy pecans. It was delish! Warning: these are addictive.
Spiced pecans on the left, Cranberry salad topped with spiced pecans in the middle to the left
Snowman Cheese Ball
Mix up your favorite cheese ball but shape it into balls like a snowman. Roll each part in finely shredded white cheese. I used Monterey Jack. Place the snowman on a bed of shredded white cheese. Use toothpicks to hold it in place. Use peppercorns or chocolate chips for eyes and mouth, a baby carrot for its nose, pretzel arms, tin cup hat, ribbon, etc. I served it with crackers and Raspberry Jalapeno Jam which was really yummy.
Raspberry Jalapeno Jam
6 c. raspberries
3 c. sugar
1/3 c. chopped jalapenos
3 T. lemon juice
Stir sugar into raspberries and let set 5 minutes (longer if you use frozen berries) for sugar to dissolve. Stir in jalapenos. Cook to 220°. Remove from heat. Stir in lemon juice.
White grape juice with Berry Sparkling Water, snowman cheese ball
Festive Holiday Drink
I had been wanting a beverage dispenser, so I broke down and ordered one from Amazon. I wanted to prepare a festive holiday drink. The directions for use of the dispenser says “no hot liquids” so my usual hot spiced cider was not an option.
Put washed and sorted cranberries into dispenser. (I froze some of the cranberries and added them to the mixture to keep the drink cold.) lime slices. Options are limitless for what goes in next. You can just use water or juice but you can add a little umph to it. Try frozen juice concentrate but mix in sparkling water instead of regular water. I used Berry Sparking Water. Since I used it for Christmas, I wanted a light colored drink so the red and green would shine through. Frozen white grape juice concentrate or lemonade concentrate works great and tastes great. I haven’t tried it with apple juice yet but I’m sure it would be yummy.
Note: If you use sparkling water, make your holiday drink in small batches. It doesn’t taste very good left over because it goes really flat.