By MARY ANN LIENHART-CROSS
County Extension Director, Purdue Extension Elkhart County

No matter the culture the holidays are all about family, celebrating and yes, of course, food. Hors d’oeuvre, finger foods and appetizers are wonderful any time of the year but are becoming more a part of many holiday gatherings.

I know that many people buy foods already prepared for all kinds of reasons but there are many easy to prepare appetizer and finger food recipes that don’t require a lot of ingredients and they are really tasty.  To me there are several bonuses to preparing your recipes.

One bonus is the great relationships with family or friends in the kitchen. Another is the fact that with a little knowledge you can make most of these foods healthier by being aware of the amount of salt in the ingredients that you add, and to always review the amount of fat to consider if a small amount can be reduced.

Hors d’oeuvres or canapes are types of foods that started out being served with drinks. The canape sits invitingly on its own little couch of crouton or pastry tidbit. The hors d’ is more of a free agent ready to meet up with whatever bread, cracker or vegetable is presented. While hors d’oeuvre freely translated means ‘outside the main works’ now days they often become the meal.

Food often looks more dramatic if some of it can be presented on several levels. Be realistic when developing the levels for the food and make sure to think about your guests serving themselves. Keep your mind open to using a variety of dishes and sometimes using them not as intended such as upside down. Keep in mind, too, what the hors d’ oeuvre plate will look like as it begins to have items removed. It may make more sense to arrange small plates which are easily replaced or replenished than one big one which may be difficult to replenish.

Make sure to make some of the family favorites, whatever they might be. Two items that come to my memory that have no preparation are shrimp with some tasty cocktail sauce and pickled herring just in vinegar or vinegar and sour cream. Another one I remember is celery with peanut butter or the best was pimento cheese in the celery.

A couple last thoughts: always to try to have some healthier choices like fresh carrots, celery, broccoli, cauliflower, various pepper strips and all the other fresh vegetables you enjoy. Mix them all together and serve with vegetable dip. Making the dip can make a big difference on flavor. This is one of my favorites: one cup of plain low-fat yogurt, one cup of a reduced fat salad dressing, one package of dried vegetable soup mix and at least one tablespoon of ground horseradish; stir all together and refrigerate.

You can use a pepper for the dip container or with a little more effort you can use a small cabbage head. To use the cabbage head, cut the bottom so it sits level, next you want to cut out a bowl area in the center where the dip will be placed. Now cut about one-fourth off the top, then take a small paring knife and cut around the side about 1/3 of the way in and continue making small cuts and removing the cabbage till you have a nice bowl shape in the center. All of the cabbage you have removed can be used a variety of ways.