Apple Cider Cranberry Sauce & Goat Cheese Crostini Appetizer Recipe

Can I even just tell you guys how much I love appetizers? It’s just my favorite. A cocktail party is my dream. Tapas is so much fun. I just love having lots of little dishes, especially for entertaining. My favorite gatherings I’ve hosted have been ones where we just serve picky food.

So, here’s a new idea for your Thanksgiving or Friendsgiving table – goat cheese crostini topped with apple cider cranberry sauce!

These crostini are toasted in a pan with butter, giving them a gentle crunch with a soft middle. The creaminess of the goat cheese balances the tang in the cranberry sauce. And then, there’s the cranberry sauce. Sweet. Tangy. A little warm, with a hint of cinnamon.

Baked Camembert with Balsamic Vinegar Caramelized Figs

We’re continuing Friendsgiving week with the PERFECT and EASY fall appetizer you have to make this year, holiday or not. This appetizer is warm, and creamy, and a little sweet – but a lot good. I mean. Really good.

I love an easy appetizer that feels special but doesn’t require a crazy amount of effort (honestly, there’s only a few recipes I’m willing to make that do). But the flavors in this are perfectly balanced, with that tangy, creamy, sweetness. And literally you can put this together in 30 minutes with barely any hands on effort.

Quick and Easy Fall Grazing Board

You know how I love a good grazing board, right?! It’s the perfect easy appetizer to have when guests arrive – they’re so pretty and inviting. It’s perfect when your focus is on a meal and not a full blown dinner menu! Just grab a big platter and start filling it up!

Herlongwayhome Fall Grazing Board

Beyond pumpkins, because really, what’s more fall than plopping a few pumpkins on a plate? But beyond that, think about the colors and flavors of the season. 100% why I always go to Trader Joe’s when I’m putting together a grazing board – they have the best seasonal options!

Fall Grazing Board Details Upclose

Burrata and Tomato Chutney Appetizer

Now that our front porch is extra liveable space (reveal coming next week!), we’ve really taken to enjoying a cocktail and appetizer outside on Fridays and Saturdays. Trying to embrace the whole date night at home thing, which is so easy in our new outdoor space.

Last week, I made a batch of tomato chutney (which I want to put on everything right now), and toasted up some bread, served it with burrata and a glass of wine on our little porch. It was a nice change of scenery, and a fun appetizer that felt a little more elegant for a Friday night.

2 Minute Boursin Cheese Appetizer

Two minutes. Two ingredients. Okay, three if you count the crackers. This is the easiest “recipe” you’ll ever have for an appetizer and one that is so easy to just always have the ingredients on hand. This boursin cheese appetizer has actually replaced hummus as my go-to! Sorry, hummus. I still love you.

Whenever we’re having people over, I like to have a few things that are super easy to keep the stress at a minimum. A cheese board is always pretty simple when you have a formula, and I love this little tomato and boursin cheese app to add to the mix. You always need to have picky food to get your guests settled while you finish up anything else you’re making!

Creamy Roasted Garlic Hummus Recipe

I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve made hummus and it just hasn’t worked. I mean, it worked because blending chickpeas, tahini, garlic, salt and olive oil together forms a dip. But it didn’t work, ya know? My hummus just was never as smooth as I wanted it to be and didn’t have as much flavor as I wanted it to have.

But I think I’ve figured out a few tricks to get us that much closer to really flavorful and creamy hummus! For sure, roasted garlic is a must. Roasting the garlic imparts so much flavor to the hummus, but also grating 1 small raw garlic clove (or more depending on your preference) is key. But in my world, you can’t have too much garlic!

French Olive Tapenade Recipe

I am so excited to share this recipe with you today! It’s one that you could always have the ingredients for in your pantry and be ready to throw together in just a few minutes. Who doesn’t love a recipe that’s impressive yet fast to throw together?! And there’s something really elegant about a Provencal tapenade recipe. Makes ya feel fancy!

You all know how much I love salt, which I think is why I love a tapenade recipe – it really is quite salty! You want to serve this with plain baguette or butter crackers so that you don’t compete with the flavor (read: salt) of the tapenade.

3 Tips for Crispy Baked Buffalo Chicken Wings

You didn’t think I was going to talk about football eats without talking about buffalo wings, did you?! I think wings might be one of my top 10 favorite foods – they really take me back to college, being dragged out of my sorority house to go watch football at Buffalo Wild Wings. The good ‘ol days, eh? I particularly love this wing recipe because they’re baked, have no butter, and are still super crispy and really hit the spot.

I mean, look at these! Don’t you just wanna jump in and grab one? Too bad they were gone in like 4 minutes flat – hubby couldn’t wait for me to be done taking pictures of these.

The on going debate in our house, though, is drumstick vs. actual wing. Hubby prefers all drumsticks, and occasionally even asks for all drumsticks when we’re out. I actually prefer the wing!

How to Make Simple Guacamole

When I was getting ready to make this guacamole, I realized I didn’t have any tomatoes! Can you imagine my horror? Then I remembered an episode of TSC’s podcast where they interviewed Dr. Steven Gundry. Now, I don’t want to go down this rabbit hole of the Plant Paradox and what veggies are OK and which aren’t. But, he said in the episode that traditional guac does not have tomatoes. Never knew that! So, I remembered that moment from the podcast just in the nick of time before I ran out to buy a tomato to make guacamole.

I think part of me loves guacamole so much, and really avocado so much, because it’s such a good vehicle for salt. And y’all know how much I love salt! But really, I would encourage you, unless you have a health reason not to, to up the salt on your guac! It brings all the flavors together. I start with about 1/4 tsp of salt per avocado, mix all the ingredients up and then I taste with a chip. I think the key is to taste with whatever dipper you are serving, because if it’s a salty tortilla chip you have to account for it in the guac. Just taste as you go!

I love how a homemade guacamole tastes fresh – don’t you think? And it’s really so much better than a prepackaged guac from the store. I will say, though, if you don’t have the time or you can’t find ripe avocados (or yours haven’t ripened yet), the store-made Whole Foods guacamole is so, so good. I am game for buying their guac any day. Don’t buy the stuff that’s vacuum sealed in plastic, it’s not the same. Just make it!

Mushroom Risotto Arancini

I have to confess to you. I was very, very nervous to make these arancini. Basically, anytime a dish requires frying, I get a little nervous. It’s a method I’m not 100% comfortable with, and really, the internal guilt of eating something fried settles in when I am making it myself. BUT, these arancini were totally worth overcoming my fear for. This recipe calls for left over risotto!

If you recall, last week I shared a recipe for my 25 minute mushroom risotto, which makes a great dish for arancini! I took the leftovers from that risotto to make these little balls of utter perfection. You can make them ahead, too, and just reheat to serve!