The traditional Thanksgiving meal of turkey, stuffing and cranberry sauce, has been a staple at most Thanksgiving celebrations for many years. Although this classic feast is pretty difficult to top, it can be fun to mix things up sometimes! If you are having your meal later in the day, you may want to consider appetizers for your guests to snack on before the meal. Also, not all of your guests may be fans of pie, so having some alternate options for desserts is always a good idea. Below are a few options for Thanksgiving appetizers and desserts.
Appetizers:
- Turkey Meat and Cheese Tray- It’s not a party without a meat and cheese tray! This simple, yet festive display of various meats, cheeses, and crackers, will have your guests enjoying turkey in a whole new way. Select a few types of meats, cheese, and crackers to lay out in the shape of a turkey. If you don’t have a large enough platter to serve, you can rent a platter from Front Range Event Rental!
- Turkey Cheese Ball- This recipe is just as easy at the meat and cheese tray. Simply use your favorite cheese ball recipe, and use a variety of food items, such as veggies, nuts, pretzels, crackers, and candy corn, to decorate. Check out Pinterest for tons of cheese ball recipe options, if you don’t already have one you love.
- Turkey Pumpkin with Fruit Kabob Tail- Have a left over uncarved pumpkin from Halloween? Or are your Thanksgiving pumpkin decorations looking a little bland? Time to get a little fruity! Grab some skewers and your favorite types of fruit, the stick each skewer in the back of the pumpkin to create the tail. Use a pear for the face, and a wedge of pineapple for the beak. If you don’t have any pumpkins left, you can also use melons or pineapple!
- Pumpkin Deviled Eggs- There are a few different recipes you can use for this festive treat, but a standard deviled egg recipe will work just fine. Once you have made your filling, pipe the filling into each half egg. Pat down your filling to make it smooth, then use a toothpick to draw the pumpkin indentations. Decorate with paprika, and small pieces of green onion to represent the stem.
Desserts:
- Chocolate Covered Pretzel Turkey- When making this, you will need to decide if you want to make one big turkey, or several individual turkeys. Using large pretzel rods and melted chocolate, you can easily assemble this fun treat. Decorate with sprinkles, candy corn, and candy eyes, to create your chocolate covered pretzel turkeys! For making the one big turkey, use a vase, and decorate with a turkey face, then fill with chocolate chips so the pretzel rods will be able to stand up. For individual turkeys, dip the pretzels in the melted chocolate, then pour a bit extra around the top to attached the candy corn as the tail.
- Pumpkin Pie Cookies- Tired of the same old Thanksgiving pumpkin pie for dessert? Mix it up a bit with pumpkin pie cookies! This gives you a similar flavor, while adding some excitement to the traditional Thanksgiving dessert. Simply decorate sugar cookies to look like pie, or make mini pies with cookie crust. Check out Pinterest for all sorts of recipes for this great dessert option!
- Rice Krispies Treat Turkey Legs- This is a great dessert option if you have kids that love to help with the cooking! Make rice krispies treats like you normally would, or make two batches, using cocoa-krispies for the second batch. Then take the krispies treat and form into the shape of turkey legs! Use the cocoa-krispies for the ‘meat’ of the legs, and the regular rice krispies for the ‘bones’, dipping in white chocolate to finish the effect. Otherwise, shape the entire leg out of regular rice krispies treats, and dip in chocolate. If you want to get super creative, try shaping a whole turkey, with a hollow center for chocolate treats!
Year after year, the same old Thanksgiving meal can start to get a bit boring. But by trying out any of these new, fun recipes, your Thanksgiving celebration is sure to be a hit! Many of these recipes can be a great way to get the kids involved in the meal prep, while also being quick and easy crowd pleasers. Thanks for reading, and Happy Thanksgiving!
