Thanksgiving Appetizer Extravaganza!

WELCOME to our 1st Annual Siggy Spice and Friends Thanksgiving Dinner! 

Today we start with Appetizers. 
Before we get going, I just wanted to say a huge THANK YOU to all those that contributed recipes!  I have had such fun going through them and I have added many-a-dishes to my Thanksgiving menu.  I hope you all find as much inspiration and joy reading them as I did! 
I am also including a "linky" at the end of this post in case there are some people who wish to share some appetizers!
We didn't have too much as far as appetizers, but WATCH OUT, we have some A-MAZING recipes coming up in the main dish, side dish, and dessert category!
I will start the sharing with an appetizer that makes it's way onto every holiday table we have.  I love, love, LOVE it! 

Baked Brie

• 1 round loaf of bread.  Sourdough, Rye, Tuscan, Shepherds Bread...your choice
• 1 wheel of Brie cheese that fits your bread bowl
• 1/4 cup or more Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• Garlic Powder to taste
• Fresh ground pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Using a serrated bread knife, remove the top of the bread bowl making sure to allow just enough height for the Brie wheel.  Using your Brie as a guide, carefully cut out the middle of the bread bowl so your cheese can fit in snugly.  Make sure you reserve the top of the bread bowl and the filling you removed.
Using a pasty brush, brush Extra Virgin Olive Oil all over the inside of the hole and sprinkle with garlic powder.  Remove Brie from wrapping, keeping the rind on, and set in bread bowl.  Set bread bowl on a cookie sheet and bake in oven for 20-30 minutes or until it is starting to puff up in the middle and is getting nice and melty.
Meanwhile, cube up your reserved bread from the middle and top of bread bowl into bite sized cubes. 
Remove baking sheet from oven and place bread cubes all around the bowl.  Lightly brush the cubes of bread with Extra Virgin Olive Oil and sprinkle with garlic powder and fresh cracked pepper.  Return the baking sheet with the bread bowl and bread cubes back to oven for an additional 15 minutes or until the bread cubes are nice and toasted.
Once you plate your appetizer, cut off the top of the rind to expose all that melty goodness!

Also, from me:

Cranberry Mandarin Brie Phyllo Bites

• 1 small wedge of Brie cheese
• 1/2 cup Cranberry Mandarin Sauce , click HERE for recipe
• 30 frozen pre-cooked miniature phyllo shells, defrosted

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Place phyllo tarts on a baking dish and put 1 tsp of Brie cheese in each tart.  Place in oven and bake for 15 minutes or until the cheese is nice and melty. Once plated, top Brie with 1/2 tsp of Cranberry Mandarin Sauce.  Beware, these are completely addictive!!!

Next up, the ever-amazing Laura from Real Mom Kitchen sends us some appetizer love with this gem!



photo courtesy of Laura at Real Mom Kitchen

Cranberry Cream Cheese Spread
Please click HERE to go to Real Mom Kitchen to get the recipe!


This last one amazes me!  I was not sure if I should put it under appetizers, side dishes, or table settings.  However, I figured that since so many of us do a veggie try as an appetizer, I would put it here.   Keri made this beautiful presentation and I am SO glad I now know how to do it!  Take a look, isn't it INCREDIBLE?!?!

photo courtesy of Keri

Cornucopia - submitted by Keri

I actually got this from Allrecipes.com (submitted by Becky), if you want to check user comments for
additional ideas. The trick to making this recipe a success is really perseverance because the aluminum
foil form has to be slick in order not to stick to the bread, but that makes it very slippery too! The bread
kind of wants to slide off the form. I just worked with it until it looked “okay” on the form and it all filled
in and looked much better after baking.

Ingredients:

• 3 (11 oz) containers refrigerated soft bread stick dough
• 1 egg
• 1 TBSP water
• Fill with whatever you want.  I chose fresh veggies.

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly spray a cookie sheet with non-stick cooking spray.
Tear off a 30X18 inch sheet of heavy duty aluminum foil. Fold it in half to 18X15 inches. Roll diagonally
to form a hollow cone, about 18 inches long with a diameter of 5 inches at the widest end (this will be
the cornucopia opening). Stuff cone with crumpled regular foil until form is rigid. Bend tail of cone up,
then down at the end. Spray outside of cone with non-stick cooking spray. Place on cookie sheet.
Beat the egg with water to make a glaze. Open and unroll the first can of breadstick dough on your
work surface. Separate breadsticks. Begin by wrapping one breadstick around the tip of the cone.
Brush the end of the next breadstick with glaze and press to attach it to the end of the first breadstick.
Continue spiral wrapping cone, slightly overlapping dough until there are 3 breadsticks left.
Pinch one end of the 3 breadsticks together, then braid. Brush bread around the opening of the
cornucopia with the glaze. Gently press on braid. Brush entire cornucopia with glaze.
Bake at 350 for 45 minutes or until bread is a rich brown. If parts darken too much, cover with pieces
of foil.
Remove from oven and let cool completely on cookie sheet on a wire rack. Carefully remove foil
when cool. If freezing, leave foil in bread for support and remove when thawed.

Remember on Tuesday we start the Main Dish recipes, tips, and techniques!  If you have anything you would like to contribute, you can still e-mail me for the upcoming categories.  Click HERE to see the categories and publish dates.
Now, if you have some appetizers you would like to share, please feel free to link-up below!  Make sure you link back to this post somewhere in yours so we can all share the linky-o-lovvee!

This post has been linked up at: Mommy's Kitchen, Cookbook Sunday, Nikki's Nifty Knacks, Frou Frou Decor, Simply Sweet Home, Tidy Mom, Make Ahead Meals for Busy Mom's, Eat at Home