Recipe Rescue: 24 Days of Thanksgiving; a Powerful Appetizer Doesn’t Mean a Lot of Work!

I don't serve our Thanksgiving meal until later in the day. I usually have a few stragglers that end up working part of the day. I am one who likes to include as many as possible so I turn the entire day into a food day frenzy and go hog wild. Thanksgiving is a day for us to do nothing and everything all at the same time. We eat, play games, welcome new arrivals to the day, eat and play games some more. We also spend time in our own little corners and bundled up talking about days of old.

I am often accused of making too much food, yet when I don't make this or that I hear about it all year long. This year will be just like all the others. I will cook and not cook, organize and destroy the kitchen a million times. In the end I will have a smile on my face and can guarantee you that I will have at least one melt down.

We started the day with a light breakfast, now lets break out some snacks. I will set light snacks out initially, then a bit meatier snacks come around 1 p.m., back to just light nibble choices and dinner around 5.

The number one rule to remember is that not everything has to be homemade. There are plenty of snacks that require absolutely no work, well, you may have to open a can or jar, but simple nonetheless.

Some simple idea's include an assortment of cheeses, nuts,  crackers and fruit. Of course you will likely be expected to also include the usual suspects such as olives, pickles, artichoke hearts etc.

For some easy throw together's there are lil' smokies in the crock pot, pinwheels, cream cheese ham roll ups, baked brie, puff pastry pockets and the list goes on.

Let's make some puff pastry pockets...

What You'll Need:

2 sheets of puff pastry thawed
and rolled out to a 1/4"
1 lb feta cheese crumbles
1 bunch fresh baby spinach
Kalamata olives

Putting It All Together:

Preheat oven to 400

Mix together the feta cheese crumbles and the chopped spinach, prepare the puff pastry.
You should be able to cut the puff pastry into 12 squares. In each square place about a teaspoon
of the cheese and spinach mixture in the center and place one olive in the center. take one side
and fold over to create a triangle of sorts and pierce edge with fork to seal.
back until the pastry has risen and is golden brown, this should not take more than 15 minutes.

there are many variations you could apply here, Swiss cheese spread and ham, cheddar cheese and salami, cream cheese and pickled jalapenos and a million other combinations.