FOOD. It’s what my family is built around. Food plays a huge part in our traditions, get-togethers, and general acceptance and tolerance of each other.  Big holiday dinners are our fave – epic meal planning, multiple courses, tequila wine (lots of wine) — and everything is made from scratch (including the wine!).

I’m super lucky in that my in-laws live one street away from my parents, and over the past couple years we have tried to do at least one “fam-jam” dinner a year where we all get together and party enjoy each other’s company.  This year, my in-laws hosted Thanksgiving dinner, and we threw together a pretty impressive potluck.   If you didn’t know, we’re Canadian so I ‘m kinda late/perfectly on time with this post because we celebrate T-Givs on the 2nd Monday of October.

Anyway, they took care of all the sides, my parents did the turkey plus gravy and stuffing, my sister made the appetizers, and my husband and I brought the aforementioned gallons of wine.  (Hey, there’s 8 of us!)  We also had three different desserts… they were just there, lol.

Turkey love.

So, my sister was in charge of the appetizers and she poured her little Pinterest heart out all over our T-Givs celebration.  The presentation alone was amazing, but these goodies were also heaving on the tongue. (Weird description?)

You can search and of these three appies on Pinterest or the Google and find a recipe, but here are the ones she used:

3 Easy Peasy Holiday Appies

How cute are these?!

1- Bacon Wrapped Stuffing

This is so so good, and is made of stuff you likely already have prepped. If you want to mix up your stuffing game, this is an easy, crowd-pleasing way to do it. If you have meat-eaters in your house and aim to impress (or impress while giving minimal effort) this is the appetizer for you. Plus it makes your kitchen smell amazing.

2- Pumpkin Pie Cheese and Crackers

This is the easiest of the three, all you really need is a box of crackers, a block of hard cheese, and some cream cheese.  There are some overly intricate variations, but we stuck with the classic. You don’t even need to eat these to get compliments, just show up with them. You’re welcome.

3- Butternut Squash Soup Shooters

A little more time intensive, but for those of you with large food processors or a Vitamix  (can I borrow it??) it can be prepared in a snap. Bonus points for serving in fancy shot glasses. The ones above are my mom’s. I’m not adult enough to own fancy Bailey’s glasses.

Almost too adorable to eat. Almost.

After the appropriate amount of photos and my mom asking me if I was going “Instagram that goodness”, we devoured the appies before forcing our gluttonous selves to tackle the more traditional holiday feasting. Everyone did a great job on their parts, and there wasn’t much left over – which is a bummer, considering how much we all love leftovers (no sarcasm there).

Just looking at this makes me hungry!

My MIL’s pretty table setting.

What’s your favorite Thanksgiving or Holiday appetizer? Let me know in the comments so I can try them!!  From my family to yours, have a very happy Thanksgiving to all my US readers xo