Choosing the Best Appetizers

You are planning your big event and it is time to select what appetizers you want to serve. There are so many to choose from… how do you ever decide? Do you go for healthy or ethnic? What about those appetizers you know are not good for anyone’s health but they taste so good?

Budget is usually the first defining issue when choosing your party food. While you may want to serve lobster, you may end up with chips and salsa. It is a good thing there are so many recipes out there to give you ideas and will please your guests. Always be sure and label any foods that contain allergens so guests with food allergies will know which offerings are safe to enjoy.

There is an entire world of appetizers out there. When choosing party food, you can focus on a certain ingredient as your theme, such as seafood, cheese, or poultry. Seafood can easily be transformed into crab cakes, dumplings or you can wrap shrimp or scallops with smoky bacon. Poultry can appear on your table in dumplings, on kabobs or in quesadillas. Alternatively, perhaps you prefer to make a variety of delicious finger sandwiches.

If you do not want to use meat, you could make mushroom quiche, filo dough stuffed with feta and olives or asparagus rollups. If you want your appetizers strictly vegetarian, try vegetable spring rolls and dumplings or potato puffs. They are amazing!

Puff pastry is one of the great conveniences available in your freezer section at the market. Use them to make beef and mushroom turnovers, tiny beef Wellingtons, or cheese straws. You can even use it to enclose a wheel of Brie topped with delicious caramelized onions. Use it with little smoky sausages to create tiny hot dogs, forming the bun out of the pastry. Alternatively, you can form little pastry cups and fill them with seasoned chicken, sundried tomatoes or any other filling your heart desires.

If you want to wow your guests with your imagination, fill up tiny dishes with a scoop of spaghetti topped with a lone meatball. They will be amazed. If you like the cutting edge, try encrusting a chicken tender with pecans and serving it on a skewer with a sweet mustard sauce. Sliders are an extremely popular appetizer. These tiny burgers are topped with all your favorite burger fixings.

All these appetizer ideas should give you some great recipes. You can also use a single cuisine to create a party theme such as Mexican or Asian appetizers. A table full of empanadas, mini tacos and salsa with chips gives your guests plenty to eat. Likewise, you can set up a table of spring rolls, potstickers, samosas, and satay to satisfy your guests. For a unique Asian appetizer, try wrapping up a crispy water chestnut in apple smoked bacon. Yum!

No matter what appetizers you choose make sure, you make most of them ahead of time. It will save you a great deal of stress on the day of your event if all you need to do is reheat and serve. You want to have time to enjoy your party as much as your guests.

Make some shrimp appetizers and watch them magically disappear! Shrimp seems to be everyone’s favorite appetizer! When you buy shrimp, be sure to purchase them raw. Cooked shrimp is often overcooked and rubbery. Raw shrimp can be cooked just right at your home.