Christmas is just a week away! Wow! Are you feeling as harried as I am? Such a busy time of year. The recipe I'm sharing with you today is so easy that it will make your holiday entertaining a breeze.
Today is reveal day for the Improv Challenge!
The premise of the Improv Challenge is easy: each month there are two assigned ingredients. The participants must make a recipe using both ingredients and blog about it.
This month's assigned ingredients were red and green. Pretty open to interpretation this month. I had planned to make a fun Christmasy dessert, and unfortunately, waited until the last day to do it (because I wanted to take it to our Advent dinner at church last night). Well, it didn't turn out so good. It was edible, but not good enough to take to church or share on the blog. Womp, womp! Time for Plan B! I hopped on Pinterest and found another little goody that contained red and green elements and would be perfect for Christmastime. Not a dessert this time though. A savory appetizer. I ran to the store quickly to get what I needed and whipped these babies up in no time. I got the idea from Betty Crocker.
Christmas Tree Appetizers
Ingredients:
Pita pocket bread or flatbread
Olive oil (optional)
Pretzel sticks
Guacamole Dip (I used Dean's)
Red bell pepper, chopped finely
Sliced cheddar cheese
Directions:
If you want to toast your pita or flatbread, preheat oven to 400. Cut pita or flatbread rounds into 8 pieces using a pizza cutter. Place on a baking sheet. Brush each piece lightly with olive oil. Bake for 10-15 minutes, or until bread is toasted and crunchy. Remove from oven and cool completely.
Place the "trees" on a serving platter. Break pretzels in half and stick a half into the bottom of each tree. Spoon a bit of guacamole dip on each one, smoothing it to cover the whole wedge. Place the chopped red bell pepper on each tree, making a zig-zag swag design, if desired. Cut the cheddar into small squares and place them on top of each tree like a star.
Serve and enjoy!
So easy, but everyone is going to love them. Look how adorable they are! They will make any Christmas party super festive.
I didn't give specific amounts in the recipe, because it depends on how many you need. I would plan on two to three trees per guest, depending on how much other food you will be serving. I used flatbread instead of pita pockets. The package contained 5 rounds, so that would give you 40 trees from one package.
You will notice that I used Dean's "guacamole dip" instead of real guacamole. Since this was "Plan B", I didn't have the time to make my own fresh guacamole. I thought about buying it pre-made from the deli, but then I remembered the dip (found with the chip dips in the dairy aisle). The dip is nice because it will not turn brown on you in a matter of minutes like guacamole will. That's nice if you are having a party where the food will be out all night for people to munch on. The Dean's brand does have some chunks of tomato in it, but they didn't cause any problem.
You don't have to toast the pita or flatbread if you would rather not. The Betty Crocker recipe didn't call for it, but I thought it would be nice. I really liked it with the flatbread being crunchy instead of soft. Just make sure you let the bread cool completely, or the guacamole dip will melt when you put it on. (Don't ask me how I know this!)
I had first thought of using yellow bell pepper for the "star", but then I saw the sliced cheese and thought that would be easier. I tried cutting a star shape out of the cheese, but I am horrible at free-handing stuff like that and it looked hideous. So I went with simple square/diamond shapes instead.
These are not only pretty, but yummy too. Unfortunately, I don't like bell peppers. so I didn't try any with them on it, but my two daughters did the taste-testing for me and gave them two thumbs up. I had some without the bell pepper and liked it a lot.
This will probably be my last post before Christmas, so I would like to wish all of my lovely readers a very Merry Christmas!
Check out all the other red and green goodies below and come back next month to see what I make with pork and rice.
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