One of the coolest things about holidays, to me at least, is the appetizers. I think I could make a meal out of just them. I was thinking the other day about how to incorporate them more into the rest of the year. So I came up with some ideas for changing things up using some basic recipes.

One recipe that I use every Christmas is for Artichoke Dip. I recently saw a post for pretzels filled with artichoke dip and thought “how great would that be!” So let’s start with that. I have been told that mine is the best artichoke dip ever. I did not create the original for this, but did tweak it a bit to make it better. The original came from a friend I knew when I lived in Fredericksburg, Virginia. It’s easiest to do in a food processor, but if you do not have one make sure to finely chop the artichokes before adding the rest of the ingredients.

Artichoke Dip

2 14oz. cans of artichoke hearts (drained)

1 cup grated parmesan reggiano cheese

1 cup mayonnaise

1 tsp. garlic powder

A dash Worchestershire sauce

A dash hot sauce like Petes or Tabasco

Combine all ingredients in a food processor and pulse to chop and combine everything. Do not just turn on the processor and let it run without watching it or it will turn into a pureed mess quickly. Lightly grease or spray a 9″x13″ or 8″x10″ casserole pan and spread the dip out evenly in the pan. Bake in a preheated 350′ oven for 30 minutes until brown around edges and bubbly.

Now comes the fun part, changing it up a bit.

• Change out 1/2 of the parmesan for some feta or goat chevre’ crumbles
• Add some bulk sausage to the dip. I would use a hot Italian sausage and fry it up first. Then, use a slotted spoon to scoop it out of the pan so you get some of the fat but not a lot of it.
• Buy yourself some pretzel bread or knots. Scoop out the center of them and add some of the dip and bake on a cookie sheet for 20-30 minutes until they are golden and bubbly.
• Add chopped spinach (frozen, drained well)
• Use some refrigerator croissant dough and make little pockets filled with the dip then bake.
• Fill a bought croissant with the dip and a slice of ham or prosciutto for lunch.

Another appetizer that I make sometimes is the Sausage and Cheese balls made with Bisquick. I don’t use Bisquick I make my own biscuits https://cherrypielady7.com/?s=biscuits then add the cheese and sausage to that. If you have been following my blog you will know that I use only natural or organic ingredients, grass fed beef, and humanely raised pork, and chicken. Keeping this in mind if you were to make these and have them in your refrigerator they would make a quick breakfast for you or your kids.

The Standard recipe is:

3 cups Bisquick (I think Arrowhead Mills has a natural baking mix or make my biscuit recipe and use that).

4 cups shredded cheese (I use a combination of different sharp cheeses)

1 lb breakfast sausage (raw)

If you make my biscuit mix it doesn’t make a full 3 cups so, I adjust the cheese to 2 cups or 2-1/2 cups, but keep the sausage the same.

Basically, mix everything together and make little balls that you place on a cookie sheet and bake in a 350′ oven for 15-18 minutes.

So what if you changed it up a bit like this:

• Sub out the breakfast sausage for bulk Chorizo or Italian sausage.
• Reduce the sausage and cheese by half and bake regular size biscuits on 425′ for 10-15 minutes. Then fill them with a fried egg for a special breakfast.
• Make a delicious breakfast pizza: Reduce the cheese by half and fry out the sausage. Use some of the oil from the sausage on the pizza pan. Spread the dough out onto the pan, bake in a 400′ oven for 10 minutes, remove, top with scrambled eggs, the cooked drained sausage, and more shredded cheese, bake again for 10-15 more minutes. You could also add diced onion to the sausage while it is frying if you like.