You don’t usually have dinner at a Christmas party. We all know it’s all about the starters! Take something unique this year. Something that everyone will want the recipe for!
Amber Eggett shares three holiday appetizers that will be gone before people go back for seconds.
Find more recipes from Amber on Instagram, @amberskitchen
Bacon Wrapped Jalapeños
Ingredients:
- 10 jalapeños
- 8 oz cream cheese, softened
- 2 Tablespoons brown sugar
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
- 10 slices of bacon
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Prepare a baking sheet by lining it with foil, then add an elevated drip pan on top of the baking sheet. (An elevated cooling rack usually works well for this step because it fits right in the cookie sheet.)
3. Prepare cream cheese mixture by combining the cream cheese, brown sugar, salt and onion powder. Mix well.
4. Prepare jalapeños by cutting in half lengthwise (wear gloves!) Then remove the membrane and the seeds. You can leave some of the seeds for some heat, or remove all seeds to keep the flavor mild.
5. Cut the bacon in slices in half so that there are now enough slices of bacon for each jalapeño.
6. Spread about two teaspoons of the cream
Cheese mixture into each jalapeño half.
7. Wrap each jalapeño with bacon and secure with a toothpick.
8. Bake at 400 for 21-25 minutes or until the bacon becomes crisp but not burned.
9. Remove from pan, and serve hot! Enjoy!
Pomegranate Fruit Salad
Any fruit or berries will do, but Amber likes to use:
- cubed pineapple
- halved seedless grapes
- diced apple
- cutie oranges, or canned mandarin oranges
- blueberries
- pomegranate seeds (especially in wintertime!)
- sliced kiwi
- sliced strawberries
- sliced bananas
- mangos
- peaches
- cantaloupe
- blackberries
- raspberries
Some of the fruit (excluding bananas and apples) can be cut up ahead of time and refrigerated. But don’t pour on the dressing until right before serving.
Ingredients:
- 5 cups of chopped fruit
Dressing
- 2 Tablespoons of honey
- juice of one lime
- zest of one lime
- 6-10 mint leaves, rolled up and chopped into small little ribbons .
Directions:
1. Add fruit to a large bowl. All fruit besides apple and banana can be cut ahead of time if need be. Just cover and refrigerate until ready to use.
2. In a small bowl, combine the dressing ingredients and pour over the fruit.
3. Serve immediately.
Red Pepper Jelly Dip
Ingredients
- crackers (Amber recommends rosemary crackers from Costco)
- ricotta cheese. You can use cream cheese instead of ricotta if you want.
- red pepper, sweet and hot jelly with jalapeños, (Costco’s is Amber’s favorite but use whatever you can find!)
Directions:
1. Put a generous dollop of ricotta cheese on a plate.
2. Spread some of the jelly on top of the ricotta
3. Put some crackers to the side to dip right in.
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