(NewsUSA) – You barely saw your friends and family the last time you hosted a holiday soiree. As your guests mingled under the mistletoe, you baked trays of mini quiche and assembled shrimp cocktails, leaving little time to enjoy their company.
Sound familiar? If so, you might want to rethink your entertaining strategy — it is possible to throw an elegant gathering without spending all of your time in the kitchen.
Deana Gunn and Wona Miniati, authors of the cookbook ‘Cooking with All Things Trader Joe’s,’ say that it’s a simple matter of buying the right ingredients.
For example, making homemade puff pastry requires hours of folding dough on itself — but frozen puff pastry, which is available in most grocery stores, makes for easy and impressive appetizers. ‘Use the grocery store as your prep kitchen,’ says Miniati. ‘With the right purchases, you can make gourmet appetizers in minutes.’
Pastry Bites
Ingredients
Pastry Bites
- 1 sheet puff pastry thawed
- 3-4 tablespoons bruschetta or olive spread
Pumpkin Spice Turnovers
- 2 sheets puff pastry thawed
- 1/2 cup pumpkin butter or apple butter or any fruit jam
Instructions
Pastry Bites
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Cut the puff pastry sheet into nine equal squares. In the center of each square, drop a rounded teaspoon of bruschetta. Place squares evenly on a baking sheet and bake 15 minutes.
- Serve immediately.
Pumpkin Spice Turnovers
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Cut each puff pastry sheet into four equal squares. Place one tablespoon pumpkin butter in the center of each square. Fold the pastry into a triangle, then press and seal the edges. Repeat for each square.
- Bake for 15 minutes, or until golden.
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