Savory Snacks: Meaty Delights

Cookie parties are fantastic, they really are, but you simply must have some form of salt-laden snacky goodness to combat the sugar high.

In an unrelated note, children are not the only people who respond amusingly to sugar.

Back to salt. I'm a huge proponent of having at least one or two warm snacks. This requires a little bit more attention to timing, in that you should be pulling things out of the oven maybe 10 minutes after people start arriving or you should be cooking as the night goes on, depending on your personal style, the location/visibility of your kitchen, and the likelihood that you will forget about something and set your house on fire. Please do not set your house on fire.

I opted for foods that can be assembled at any time during the day and then thrown in the oven right before people arrive, with a bonus of making the house smell pretty fantastic: (1) Andouille sausage wrapped in puff pastry dough and (2) Bacon-wrapped dated stuffed with goat cheese. Men will eat these, women will eat these, even children will gobble them down (though they may make a face when first presented with a date).


The dates are simple, but look fancy. More importantly, they can be adjusted to accommodate whatever you have in your particular grocery store.

Bacon-Wrapped Dates (or other fruit) w/ Goat Cheese
(I'm not putting quantities since you can make as many or few as you need for the party)

Bacon, I chose the hickory smoked
Goat cheese, you can even use the light stuff at Trader Joes
Dates, prunes, or figs (make sure the dates are pre-pitted, it also conveniently leaves an empty place for the goat cheese)

1) Slice the dates open from top to bottom, but only on one side, you do not want to slice it in half!

2) Using a small spoon or pastry bag (I used a small spoon, it's fine), put a small amount of goat cheese into the date. Do not fill it to overflowing, you want to be able to almost re-close the date. If it's just covered in cheese, then it's going to be a pain to deal with later and much less pretty.

3) Cut a strip of bacon into 3-4 pieces and wrap around date (you want it to just barely go all the way around, you don't want too much bacon per date) and secure with a toothpick.

4) Arrange in a broiler pan and cook at 500 for 5-8 minutes, or until the bacon is cooked. Serve immediately, but they will be extremely hot.

It takes even less thought to put together these, which are essentially the fancy version of pigs in a blanket.

Andouille in Pastry Dough

1 package frozen puff pastry dough (you'll only use one of the sheets)
4 links andouille sausage (hot dog sized links)
Egg whites

1) Slice the sausage at an angle, wrap in a small triangle of pastry dough. If the pastry dough won't stick to itself, wet your fingers and run them along the connecting bits to get rid of excess flour, that will make it stick.

2) Brush the top of the pastry dough with egg whites. If you are short on time (like I was) you can skip this step, but they pastry dough will be rather pale instead of browning.

3) Arrange on a cookie sheet and bake at 425 for 13-18 min, or until pastry looks done/turns a golden brown.

4) Remove and serve immediately.

Optional: A great dip for this (I believe I picked this up from Ted Allen of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy fame) is mixing 1 part Major Grey's Chutney and 1 part dijon mustard. It's to die for.