Quick Appetizers

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Appetizers or hors d’oeuvres don’t have to be extravagant or complicated. A friend recently asked me for easy appetizers that can be made with what you may have in your pantry. My “go to” quick appetizer is spooning a jar of spiced jam over an 8 ounce bar of cream cheese with crackers. Quick and simple!

Sweet Pepper Cream Cheese

               After leafing through my vintage cookbooks, I have compiled the following suggestions for making hors d’oeuvres quickly with what you may have in your refrigerator or pantry. If using wooden picks for items to be broiled, I recommend soaking cocktail picks for up to 30 minutes before use.

Hors d’oeuvre Suggestions

1. Cut stuffed olives in half and place on a cocktail pick with a small cube of cheese.
2. Serve peeled, cooked shrimp with tail on with cocktail sauce served in a hollowed out lemon cup.
3. Arrange any of the following on cocktail picks: sweet pickles or cornichons; a cube of luncheon meat or ham; lightly mbrowned whole, small mushrooms; cheese cube; half a stuffed olive; cocktail onion; or browned cocktail sausage.
4. Wrap any of the following with a third of a slice of bacon and fastened with a cocktail pick: stuffed olives, cooked oysters, cooked shrimp or a date stuffed with strong, sharp and salty soft cheese. Broil in oven.
5. Fill three inch celery pieces with: cream cheese mixed with drained crushed pineapple; pimento cheese mixed with chopped olives; flaked crab with mayonnaise and lemon juice; or mashed avocado slices with lemon juice, salt and grated onion.
6. Combine cream cheese with chopped green onion or chives. Form into a small ball and roll in finely chopped nuts.
7. Split cocktail sausages almost through vertically. Fill with choice of prepared mustard and a sliver of a pickle. Fasten with a cocktail pick and broil until browned.
8. Marinate one-inch cooked asparagus tips in prepared French dressing; roll in ham slices and fasten with cocktail pick.
9. Cream three parts of blue cheese with one part of anchovy paste. Scoop in a roll using a melon baller. Chill and wrap in a sliced strip of lettuce and secure with a cocktail pick.
10. Spread a combination of prepared mustard and horse radish on slices of Canadian bacon. Roll and fasten with toothpicks and broil.
11. Stuff prunes, dried apricots, figs or dates with cream cheese blended with crushed pineapple or a strong, sharp, salty and soft cheese such bc as stilton mixed with finely chopped nuts.