Easy Foods To Snack, Munch Or Nibble For A New Year’s Eve With Friends
We've done it. We are all in the home stretch of this strange, almost universally awful year. And you know what that means - it's time to look ahead to 2021!
With New Year's Day so close at hand, now is the time to start planning. No, definitely not those pesky new year's resolutions we all forget about by the end of January... We're talking about planning the party! Clearly finishing up 2020 is something worth really celebrating - perhaps not with all your friends quite yet (better to be safe now than sorry later), but certainly with your household.
So gather up the kids and some supplies and let's get to work on some party snacks.
Cracker Stacks
Of course, meats and cheeses and crackers are the go-to spread for a party. Easy, classic, fun, and reasonably healthy, they hit nearly all the boxes on the checklist in one go. But why not make it a little more interesting for the holiday? Design some cracker stacks to look like analog clock faces, counting down to the new year!
Ingredients:
1 17 oz box Cheez-It Grooves Sharp White Cheddar crackers
1 16 oz bag Margherita Sliced Hard Salami
2-4 oz brick Colby Jack cheese
2 Tablespoons sour cream (or ranch dressing, or onion dip)
Tools:
Cheese grater sandwich bags, scissors
Instructions:
Using the widest holes on the cheese grater, shred up some of the colby jack cheese. Your goal is about a quarter cup of shreds. (Please don't just buy a bag of pre-shredded cheese, as it's coated in starch so that it doesn't stick to itself or anything else - that defeats the purpose of it sticking to the salami later.)
Open up that box of Cheez-Its and separate the broken chunks from the intact crackers. Use the whole ones for this recipe, but save the pieces and crumbs in a sealed sandwich bag for the next recipe! Go ahead and pulverize those broken pieces so you have mostly small crumbs.
Toss two tablespoons of sour cream (or ranch, or dip) into a sandwich bag, press out the excess air and seal the bag. Take your scissors and make a tiny, tiny cut at the corner.
For the base of the stacks, we started with Cheez-It Grooves sharp white cheddar crackers because they're very cheesy - their flavor helps make up for how little cheese we'll be adding at the end.
On top of each cracker, dot some of your sour cream and place a slice of salami. (If you'd rather take the extra cheesy route, you can melt a little of the cheese on the crackers before you place the sour cream and salami.)
On each slice of salami, place a small dot of sour cream in the middle. This is now the center point of your clock face. Those wide shreds of cheese you just grated can now become the hands of the clock, and your sour cream dot should hold them in place. If they're too wiggly, place a dot of sour cream at the ends also. Set them to whatever time you want - we think it's cute to count down from 11:00 to midnight, but it's also kind of frustrating when they're eaten up out of order - so to each their own.
Squash Fries
This is the reason we told you to save all those broken bits and crumbs from the crackers - they'll become part of the breading for these baked fries.
It's tough to measure out how much crumb you'll have to start with, because every box is a little different, but your goal is about 3/4 of a cup total. However much you're missing from that 3/4 cup, just add that much in Italian seasoned breadcrumbs (or whatever else you have on hand - we've also made up the difference with a "shake-n-bake" packet previously).
Ingredients:
3/4 cup crumbs (combined smashed Cheez-Its, Italian seasoned breadcrumbs, etc.)
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
1 teaspoon dried parsley
2 eggs, beaten
2 large yellow squash
Tools:
Shallow dishes for egg and crumbs, knife, cutting board, baking sheet, spatula, cooking spray
Instructions:
Wash and dry your squash, trim off any questionable pieces with a sharp knife, and slice the squash into strips about 1/2" thick. Thinner strips will cook up quicker and crispier, so please shorten your cooking time if you adjust the size. No one likes burnt fries, be they squash or potato in origin.
Mix together your crumbs, garlic salt, white pepper and parsley in a shallow dish.
Spray your baking sheet lightly with the cooking spray.
Drag the squash strips through the beaten eggs and allow any excess to drip off. Move immediately from the egg to the breadcrumb mixture, and roll the squash through the crumbs until well-coated.
Place your coated squash on the baking sheet and repeat until all the strips have been given the same treatment. Leave a little room between the strips on the baking sheet - it'll make turning them over easier later.
Bake at 400 for 20 minutes, turn them over with a spatula, and bake another 25 minutes. You'll know they're ready when they're golden and toasty looking.
What do you think? Do you think you’ll test out these recipes for your New Year’s party? Let us know over on our Facebook page or in the comments below. We’d love to hear from you.
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