EASY PARTY FOOD IDEAS | Holiday Recipes | December 2024

Hey y'all! In today's video, I'm going to be sharing five holiday appetizer recipes. I absolutely love making finger foods. I have a pretty good solid list of like our favorite go-tos for any occasion that may pop up, but I love looking for different ideas and recipes. I just really enjoy switching it up, so everything that I made in this video was new to us, so I'm really excited to get this video out. I know with Christmas around the corner and then New Year's and Super Bowl, all of the things, I just really wanted to put this video together for you guys, and I hope that you enjoy it, and I do hope that it's helpful if you are looking for some different and fresh ideas for any occasion or even just a fun little night at home for no reason. I am passionate about just making any ordinary day special through the things I make in my kitchen, so I love sharing that with y'all. First up, I'm making a Nashville hot chicken dip. So we're starting off with a block of room temperature cream cheese. To that, I'm going to add in a half a cup of sour cream and a half a cup of mayo. I had a friend that recently had a pampered chef party, and I got this new like push-up measuring cup from there, and it has been the handiest thing. I've been loving it. So to that, I'm also going to add in a half a teaspoon of onion powder, a teaspoon of garlic powder, a teaspoon of smoked paprika, and a teaspoon of some cayenne pepper. Now, this dip definitely has a bit of a kick to it, but it is not overly spicy at all. My daughter ate so much of this dip, and she's sensitive to spice, so that says it all, but I'm also going to add in a quarter cup of some Frank's Red Hot Sauce. I'm going to grab an eight ounce block of Kobe Jack cheese. I did go ahead and hand shred that myself, and I'm just going to dump all of that into that same mixing bowl, and I'm just going to get this really good and combine with my electric handheld mixer. You could also do it in a stand mixer if you wanted to, or I'm sure by hand, and I did grab a rotisserie chicken for this dish. I love the lemon pepper ones from Walmart. Those are my favorite to grab, but I'm going to do one of the breasts and one of the thighs. That's all I like to use in recipes anyways, so half of this went into the dip, and then the rest of that I will shred and freeze for something later, a casserole, a soup, I don't know, but you do need two cups of some cooked and shredded chicken for this, so that's about exactly what I had there. So, there are so many recipes for this out there, and most of them call for breaded chicken, and this one just spoke to me most. I like that it used a rotisserie chicken. It kind of is close to like a buffalo chicken dip, which is always like a classic, high favorite to most people, but yeah, I just folded all of that together, and I got that dumped out into a greased casserole dish. I don't know the exact size for this one, but I would say it's closest to like a nine by nine, so now I'm going to make a buttery I didn't have any, but I did have these roasted vegetable ones in my pantry, so I figured I'd save a few dollars and just go with that. I knew the flavors would work well with it anyways, and it absolutely did. You need a half a cup of those, so I wasn't sure how many crackers to crush up, so I just did a whole sleeve, and I'm just using my little meat masher to get those crushed up. I am going to melt down two tablespoons of salted butter, so I'm just going to pop this cup in the microwave for about 35 seconds, and then I'm just going to take a half a cup measuring cup and get those crushed crackers measured out and dumped on into the butter, and I will save those crushed crackers to maybe bread some chicken here soon. They definitely will not go to waste, but I'm just getting those two things mixed together well, and then I'm simply just going to take a spoonful at a time and just do my best to evenly sprinkle this all over top of this chicken dip. Now, I do have my oven preheated to 350 degrees, and it's going to go in and bake anywhere from 20 to 25 minutes. Obviously, everyone's oven is different, but you'll know it's done when it's kind of bubbling around the edges and once it gets as golden brown as you would like on top. So, here's mine straight from the oven, and if you're new here, I don't do onions or green onions, but I do like the freeze-dried chives, so I sprinkle that over the top. You can also sprinkle on some chopped pickles. I decided to serve it on the side because I knew not everyone in the house would like that. You can also do a drizzle of honey or hot honey. I've actually never had the Mike's Hot Honey, but I really do want to give it a try because that is just right up my alley, but that right there is just the regular honey I already had on hand, and I was so excited to find these Tostitos Red Scoop Tortilla Chips. These do not have any dyes in them, and they taste so good. They're perfect for, you know, a Christmas party if that's what you want to make this for. I'm not perfect when it comes to food dyes, but you know, I try to make some changes when it comes to my kids, and yeah, I was just super excited to find that. So, here's the setup. You could totally put those chips like in a pretty little bowl to go next to it, but I didn't want those to go stale, and in reality, I was just making all of this for my little family of four, but here's that first scoop of the dip. It's kind of giving casserole vibes, which I'm here for it. I served it on a little saucer plate with a little drizzle of that honey. I did a good handful of those chopped pickles, and then, of course, a big handful of those tortilla scoops. I'm loving the colors. I'm loving the red and green, and this just came out so good. I was not too sure what to expect. It doesn't taste quite like anything I've had before, but all of these flavors work so well together, and I really do think that most people would really enjoy this. Next up, I'm going to be making some Dr. Pepper meatballs. So, to a small mixing bowl, I've added in one pound of ground beef, and then I'm just going to eyeball in some seasonings. I did some garlic powder, paprika, and just some salt and black pepper. I also cracked in one large egg to a little separate bowl, and I just lightly beat that and then added it on in. You'll also need a half a cup of breadcrumbs. I don't know what I was thinking, but I grabbed the wrong measuring cup. I grabbed a third, so luckily, I quickly realized. I just kind of eyeballed in a few more breadcrumbs to kind of make up for it, but here, I'm just getting everything combined together, and I did this until it was just combined. I didn't sit there for too long and overwork it. I didn't want to end up with tough meatballs, but now I'm going to get all of these formed. So, I just got a large spoon here that I use to kind of scoop up what I want, and then I'm just going to simply roll it in between my hands to form the perfect meatball. So, I was going to continue doing that until all of that has been used up. So, here's about what you end up with, so keep that in mind if you are serving more people. You'll want to double that. So, now I'm going to start on the sauce or the glaze, whatever you want to call it. So, it starts off with two cups of ketchup, and then you'll need two cans of Dr. Pepper. I spent way too much time driving around this town trying to find just two cans of Dr. Pepper. I didn't want to buy a whole case because we don't drink it, and looking back, I should have just bought a two liter. That would have saved me a lot of time, but oh well. So, now I'm going to add in about a tablespoon of some Worcestershire sauce, two tablespoons of some tomato paste, and then I'm going to do a teaspoon of some onion powder, and then just some salt and black pepper to taste. So, I'm just going to grab my whisk and get this whisk up. It's going to foam up pretty big, but I just kept on doing this until the mixture felt smooth and when I could tell that tomato paste was broken up the way that it should be. So, moving on over to the stove, I've got my large skillet out. I did add in a couple tablespoons of olive oil, and I let that skillet get nice and hot before I started adding in these meatballs. So, I'm just going to sear these for a few minutes before I get them turned on over. I am cooking these on about a medium heat. I really need to start making more homemade meatballs more often because my family absolutely loves these, and as you can see, the ingredients are very few to make these, and it's just very simple, and they taste a lot better than the frozen ones, and I'm in no way, you know, dogging the frozen meatballs. I do use them from time to time, and last year around this time, I made another holiday appetizer video where I made a really good recipe using the frozen meatballs. I was really happy with how that turned out, but just overall, I do like the taste of these better. So, if you have the extra time, I do recommend doing it this way, but as you can see, I'm just taking some tongs and getting all these flipped over, and as you can see, it's formed a beautiful golden brown crust. I absolutely love that. I didn't, you know, sear the sides. You can do that, but I thought, you know, top and bottom is good enough, and the recipe didn't say to do this, but I didn't want all that extra grease floating around in the sauce, so I'm just doing the little paper towel trick. So, I just got a big piece of paper towel folded up, and I'm just, you know, rolling around the tongs to soak that on up, and then I'll toss it. So, at this point, I've added in the Dr. Pepper sauce, and I'm gonna let the meatballs simmer in that, not only to finish cooking off the meatballs, but you also want that sauce to reduce down some and thicken. So, the recipe said 8 to 10 minutes. I'd say I worked on this anywhere from 15 to 20 minutes because I was kind of hoping that this sauce would get a bit thicker. I kind of expected it to caramelize a little bit better, so I was nervous at this point, but they ended up tasting incredible, so all was well. So, I just took a slotted spoon to place those on the serving dish. I stuck a little party toothpick into each one, and I decided to pour that sauce into a little side bowl so people can just, you know, if you are serving this for a party, just grab one, dip it in that sauce, and you will get so many compliments. The only thing I would do different next time is to double the meatballs so that the sauce to meatball ratio will be perfect. I wanted to include this next option in case anyone out there is looking for something really quick and easy and just a few ingredients, maybe like a last minute type of thing. So, this is going to be a cranberry pepper jelly dip. So, I grabbed this jar of pepper jelly, the Tabasco brand from Walmart. So, I'm going to go ahead and measure out a half a cup of that, and I'm just placing that in a regular size bowl. I'm also going to do a half a cup of this jellied cranberry sauce. Honestly, you don't even have to have the cranberry sauce. You can just use the pepper jelly, and that will still be amazing, but I saw this recipe, and I thought, you know, that's different. I've never seen that, and I already had the cranberry sauce in my pantry that needed used anyways. I really like the flavor of cranberry sauce, so this is what I'm doing. So, I'm just going to mix those two ingredients together, and I found it easiest to use a fork to kind of mash all that together. Next, I'm going to grab one of my favorite serving dishes. This is one that my mother-in-law got me for Christmas one year, and I placed a block of room temperature cream cheese in the middle. Philadelphia is my favorite cream cheese, so anytime it goes on sale, I stock up. So, I did take the back of my spoon, and I kind of spread it out just a little bit to give it more surface area for that cranberry pepper jelly mixture, and I'm just kind of, you know, pressing on it to make it kind of go down the sides to make it look aesthetic, and then I found these Ritz holiday crackers, and I thought they were just the cutest thing, and I just knew that would go up perfect with this, so I just kind of arranged it around the dip, and then I just placed a little cheese knife that came out of a charcuterie board kit that I have. I placed that in the middle so everyone can just kind of, you know, spread some on a cracker as they walk by. It truly is the perfect bite, and it just doesn't get any easier than this. I love the tartness from the cranberry sauce, and then, of course, that sweetness and just a little bit of heat from that pepper jelly. It's really delicious. Up next, I'm going to be making some Monte Cristo sliders. I've actually never had any sort of a Monte Cristo sandwich. I feel like it's not something very common where I'm from, but the very first time I ever heard about what these even are was in my high school French class. I remember my French teacher talking about them, and it's just kind of one of those things that stuck with me. I've always had it in the back of my mind, so I was excited when I saw this slider version, so I figured let's go ahead and give that a go. So, we're going to start off with a 12 pack of Kingston wine rolls. I did go ahead and get those split in half with a serrated knife, and I'm working with the bottom half first. The recipe does call for both top and bottom of these to be, you know, covered in some Dijon mustard, but let me just go ahead and say I overdone the Dijon mustard. It was overpowering, and I did actually have to like wipe some off after it was cooked, but other than that, delicious. But yeah, I have only ever had Dijon mustard in recipes. I've always enjoyed that, but I've never had it as like a standalone on a sandwich, and I don't know if it's just the brand I had or what, but it was just strong. I don't know, but the recipe did say to just use two tablespoons, but I had a really hard time spreading that small amount, so I kept on adding more, but okay. I said that. Let's move on. So, you're going to need some Swiss cheese. I really like the boar's head because it comes in these long slices, so I did three on the bottom, and then we're going to layer it with some ham and turkey. So, we're going to do 12 slices of ham and 12 slices of turkey, and I did go ahead and like count that out and get that laid out on a plate before I got started just to make this go faster. Now that the meat has been added, we're going to do another layer of the Swiss cheese, so three more of these big slices, and then I'm going to go ahead and put the top layer of those rolls over the top. Next, I'm going to grab four tablespoons of butter. I'm going to go melt that down in the microwave. I did let that cool down for a little bit before cracking in one large egg because I didn't want those to like scramble or anything, but I'm going to get those two things combined with a fork, and then I'm just going to take my silicone brush and just brush that over the rolls. I know that adding an egg to like a cider recipe is not very common, but it's just to kind of go with the theme of the Monte Cristo. It's basically like two slices of French toast, and then you make a ham and cheese sandwich and grill it, top it with powdered sugar, and do like a side of some sort of jam. From what I've read anyways, it's not like I'm an expert on this or anything, but yeah, so I didn't even end up using all of that butter and egg mixture, so I just cracked another egg in it and made some scrambled eggs on the side because I'm just big on not wasting anything, but now we're going to want to get this covered with some tinfoil, and I did add a few toothpicks just to keep the tinfoil off of the rolls. I didn't want it to touch, so that's going to go in the oven at 350 for 15 minutes, and then I'll remove the foil and let it bake uncovered for 10 more minutes. So here I am sprinkling those with a little bit of powdered sugar. In this little side bowl, I'm just doing some strawberry preserves for anyone that wants to kind of add that to their sandwich if they want to. I got these cut apart with just a metal spatula. I think these came out beautiful. They were definitely something different, and I personally loved the strawberry preserves on it, and other than that Dijon mustard, these came out really good, and I think they would be a great addition to any party. Lastly, I'm going to make some of the cutest little no-bake cheesecake cups. So I'm going to start off with these honey graham crackers. I added six of those to just a big Ziploc bag, and I'm just getting those crushed up good. You can also do this in a food processor. That's typically what I do, but mine was dirty, just to be honest, but I'm going to get that transferred on over to a small little mixing bowl, and this is optional, but I did decide to melt down a couple tablespoons of butter and get that added to it just so it's not so like dry and crumbly, and I also really like the flavor that that butter adds to it. So I'm just gonna do that until everything seems to be moist and good enough. I did also dice up some fresh strawberries and a few kiwis. I just did that off camera, and now I'm going to get started on the cheesecake filling. So to my KitchenAid mixer, I've added in a block of room temperature cream cheese, and then I'm going to add a quarter cup of regular sugar to that, and as you can see, I've got the whisk attachment on my mixer, and I'm just going to blend that until it's nice and smooth, and you definitely don't have to have a KitchenAid for this. You could definitely do it with a hand mixer. I did stop to scrape that down, and then I'm going to be adding in two cups of heavy whipping cream, which is this whole little container, and I'm just gonna let this mix until it gets thick. So it took a few minutes, took a little bit longer than what the recipe said, but once it kind of resembles like whipped cream, you know it's ready to be piped. So here's the consistency that I ended up with, and yeah, I'm going to transfer that to a large piping bag, and then I found these cute little cups from the Dollar Tree. That is somewhere that I rarely ever go, and I need to start going when they have so many good things for like parties and stuff, and I'm sure that these cups are meant to be disposable, but I absolutely washed all of these afterwards, and I am going to reuse them. I have so many ideas of things that I can do with these, but I got these on a tray. This is not the tray I'm going to serve it on. I just needed something to stick in the fridge because these do have to chill for a little bit, and I knew that I might end up making a little bit of a mess, so this is the first tray that I have them on, and I'm just going to add a little bit of the graham crackers into the bottom of the cups. I just use a small spoon, and I did about two spoonfuls into each cup, and afterwards, I'm just going to give each one of those a little shake just to, you know, kind of compact it a little bit and, you know, level it out, and now I'm going to start popping in the cheesecake mixture. Now, I have to say this is a good dessert, but this mixture right here, it just, it doesn't taste too much like cheesecake to us. It's kind of giving more of like a richer whipped cream. I read a lot of comments before I made this, and all the comments were good and bragging on it, and again, like, they all got eight. We enjoyed it. It's just, it didn't give the cheesecake flavor that we was looking for, so, you know, you could work on it. Like, I think if I was going to make this cheesecake mixture again, I would definitely add more sugar. I would at least double it. I think I'd add another block of cream cheese as well and probably a good splash of vanilla extract. I think that would taste even better, but I'm going to show y'all here in just a second a really good solution to this after I get done topping these with the fruit. I really do wish that I tested this recipe out before I made it and posted it, but I still love, like, the way this looks. I still think that it's, like, a really good idea, and after I show you the solution that I'm personally going to do next time, I will feel better, but yeah, I topped it with strawberry and kiwi, and then here's that solution. This Philadelphia cheesecake batter. I buy this at Walmart. I always tend to buy in December. It's, like, a tradition at this point, and it is just perfect. It tastes so good, and it's really easy. All you have to do is dump that into a piping bag, and there's just nothing else to it. It's super good. So, again, that's what I would do next time. I also really love the red and green from the fruit. Perfect for Christmas. These would also be perfect for, like, anything in the summer, but yeah, I'm just taking what's left in that piping bag and just popping a little bit of that on top. Made it look really cute, and then I'm just going to take the rest of the graham cracker crumbs and just sprinkle that over each cup. That made it look really nice, and then I'm going to get this transferred to the fridge for about an hour to chill, and then here's what they look like after that. These are the serving dishes that I want to serve it on. These can also be tiered on a stand, which I will show in a little bit, but yeah, I'm also going to add some little mini spoons to each cup. Again, I got these at the Dollar Tree. So cute. You're technically supposed to do this before you refrigerate it, but I just forgot. It's really no big deal, but yeah, I just think that these are so fun, and you can't tell me that it wouldn't make you happy if you saw this at the party that you were going to. Here's that stand that the trays come on. I got this whole setup at Walmart for pretty cheap last year. I love it every time I pull it out, but I think this is just such a beautiful presentation. I was really pleased with it, but that is going to end today's video. I want to thank you guys so much for watching, and I really do hope that each and every one of you have such a great holiday season. I hope everything is going smoothly for y'all, and I hope y'all get to enjoy all the good food this month. I will see y'all in my next video. Bye, guys.