Need a good (easy) appetizer!
 

Going to a small dinner party (4 couples) this evening and have been asked to bring an appetizer.
Any ideas for a guy that have much ability beyond the barbecue?
Thanks in advance!

How 'bout buffalo chicken dip?

2 big cans of chicken (like the big cans of tuna) get all white meat
1 cup ranch dressing
2 - 8 oz. bars of cream cheese
1 cup of "orange" cheese (pick your flavor just orange in color)
1/2 cup of Frank's Red Hot Sauce (not the buffalo kind)

Mix all ingredients in the smallest crock pot you have and warm it up

Mixing is the hardest part (think about the cream cheese bars) but I use a mixer and it isn't too bad.

Buy the "Scoops" style tortilla chips.

We leave the dip in the crock pot at the get together and people just scoop some out onto their plate. It is a good "grazing" appetizer this way because the crock pot keeps it ready (stir occasionally)

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1289141973.jpg



Servings: Makes 40 scallops
Ingredients
Seared Sea Scallops with Spicy Clementine Dipping Sauce

* 4 cups fresh-squeezed clementine juice or orange juice
* 2 teaspoons ancho chile powder
* Finely grated zest and juice of 1 lime
* 6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) butter , cut into 8 pieces
* 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
* 40 large sea scallops , patted dry
* Salt and freshly ground pepper

Directions
In a medium saucepan over high heat, bring clementine juice, chile powder, and lime zest and juice to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 1 hour; mixture should be thickened and syrupy.

Remove from heat and whisk in butter, one piece at a time, until incorporated.

In a large skillet over a high flame, heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil until smoking. Season scallops with salt and pepper. Cook 10 scallops 1 to 2 minutes per side, until dark golden brown. Remove to paper towels and drain. Repeat with remaining oil and scallops in 3 batches. Serve scallops hot with warm sauce.

8 oz brick cream cheese
cocktail sauce
can crab meat
crackers

pour cocktails sauce over brick of cream cheese, pour crab meat over this, serve with crackers

Just did a fancy dinner for my mom's birthday last night, appitizer was 2 kinds of cheese, crackers, and a selection of stuffed olives and kalamata olives. Started dinner w/ a Cesare salad (from scratch), dinner was salmon, asperagus, green beans, finger potatoes.

Ingredients (available at any nice grocery, e.g. Whole Foods)
Smoked salmon
Cooked jumbo shrimp
Mascarpone cheese ( a soft Italian cheese, similar consistency to cream cheese and sold in a tub)

Instructions:
The salmon comes already cut into slices, each slice should be around 2X3. Take one of these slices and lay it flat on a plate.
Put a dab of mascarpone in center of salmon, around 1 tablespoon
Put a cooked shrimp on top of the mascarpone so that the tail is just off the salmon
Roll up the salmon around the shrimp... the mascarpone will hold it all together. The shrimp tail will be sticking out to serve as a handle.

This is a great app, easy to make but classy looking and tasting.

A really good Salami and a sharp knife ain't bad...

http://italian-salami.com/images/salami_vari.jpg

And it's perfectly acceptable for a dude to bring that, them fancy appetizers are for the womens..
Bring a Salami, and at least you'll have one thing that the dudes will like.

Trader Joe's Five Layer Dip with a bag of baked chips and sea salt.

Do not do the scallops recipe posted above for your appetizer.

Scallops have to be eaten quickly after cooking, if you cook them and bring them to soneone's house to reheat in the microwave, they will be terrible. Rubber pucks.

If you make this for a dinner at home, note it is hard to get a good dark brown sear on scallops without over-cooking the interior (which should be nearly raw) on a home range. You have to salt the scallops, pat them very dry, dip the faces in flour, heat the un-oiled pan as hot as you can, then add oil and/or butter, and sear a few scallops at a time. A cast iron pan helps. If you drop 10 scallops at once into the pan, they will dump juice into the pan faster than the pan can boil it off, and the scallops will boil rather than sear. By the time the pan is dry and the scallops are properly brown, they will be rubber pucks.

Google "jimmy deans sausage balls".....
Super easy to make and are the most delicious thing out there......they'll be a hit :)

easy? pick up great cheeses and various meats. if the crowd is adventurous, maybe even a small hunk of Pate. add some assortment of good crackers and call it good.

Get a baguette (sp) some fresh mozzarella, fresh basil, olive oil and a couple of Roma tomatoes. Slice the bread about 3/4 inch thick, put a basil leaf on it, place a tomato slice on the basil and a small bit of cheese on the tomato then drizzle with olive oil.

Going to try Jeff's suggestion, but thanks for all the responses!
it will be a good thread to refer back to for the holiday season.
How about a few more easy recipes?

Uncle Dick's Broiled Zucchini
 

This a recipe from a favorite uncle of mine - a great amateur cook.

6-12 whole fresh Zuch's, about 1-2 per guest
fresh shredded Parmigiana, Romano, or both
fresh garlic
salt, pepper
butter

finely chop 1 clove garlic per Zucchini
melt 1 tbsp butter per Zucchini, and add the chopped garlic
clip tops from both ends of Zucchini, wash with cold water
carefully slice each Zuch in half lengthwise
arrange all cut halves on foil covered sheet pan
brush liberally with garlic / butter mixture, including chopped garlic as you go.
liberally coat all Zuch halves with the grated cheese

10 - 15 minutes prior to serving, place under HOT broiler until cheese melts & starts to brown

Remove from oven, carefully arrange on serving plate with tongs.

Serve while still hot and crunchy.


Great appetizer, with white wine; or as a vegetable for those that do not normally eat vegetables..

One pack of "Little Smokies" or equivalent, BBQ sauce of your choice, a pack of tooth picks and a Crock Pot.

If you want to increase the degree of dificulty, try something like this:
Bacon-Wrapped Little Smokies

Crockpot, frozen meatballs, 32 oz. Grape Jelly, 2 bottles Heinz Chili Sauce, 4 tbsp mustard. Heat and serve.

You guys are really, really not helping my diet any!

Take those smokies and put them in a mix of mustard and grape jelly. Much better!

You don't want to make anything and you won't. Get a platter (re bucket) of Popeyes chicken strips with dip or pickup a tray or two of Sushi rolls. Easy, cheap but damn good.