Appetizer and Snack Recipes & Ideas

It’s too good!

Editor’s Note: If you’ve cooked this beloved recipe before, it might look a little different these days! We recently improved it to make it even easier to follow and more delicious.Anyone else grow up heating bread and cheese in the microwave on unsupervised afternoons at home?

Bonus: It’s so easy.

Baked brie in puff pastry takes “rich and luxurious” to a whole new level. Add a few friends and some good tunes playing in the background, and you’ve got yourself a bonafide party situation. When I make this appetizer as part of a big holiday gathering or for a cocktail party with lots of other nibbles, I often like to bake it in a pie plate instead of on a baking sheet.

Any time there’s an occasion for appetizers, be it game day, New Year’s Eve, a backyard cookout, or a fancy cocktail party, my husband’s go-to is pigs in a blanket. And last year, after years of simply buying a box from the freezer aisle, I decided to try my hand at making them myself. So, I grabbed a can of crescent roll dough (hello, buttery, flaky goodness!) and a package of mini cocktail sausages and got to work. And you know what I learned?

It might just be my favorite Ina Garten recipe of all time.

Bonus: There’s only 5 minutes of prep.

Everything’s bigger in Texas.

Better than the OG.

Meet your new go-to cake.

This old-fashioned recipe takes an unexpected turn.

Nothing beats this classic.

Easier than apple pie.

Apple crisp meets cheesecake.

Chocolate chips in every bite.

It never lasts more than 10 minutes!

Creamy, dreamy, fluffy hummus is 10 minutes away.

It's loaded with apple flavor.

It's the perfect way to use up your tomato haul.

It's salty, briny, spicy perfection.

It's a game-changer.

It’s easy to get caught up in planning the big Thanksgiving dinner and your dessert spread, so here’s your friendly reminder to not forget the appetizers. Because a pre-dinner nibble or two of something tasty is always a good idea (especially when partnered with a Thanksgiving cocktail!). As for what to make, we’re firm believers that Thanksgiving appetizers should look and taste totally impressive, but be shockingly easy to pull off.

Should we all just agree that we really go apple picking for the warm cider donuts and freshly pressed apple cider? Eating those fried donuts is one of my fondest food memories from the two years I lived on the East Coast, but unfortunately they’re harder to find now that I’m back in California. The best solution was to head into my kitchen and make a batch myself.

It uses a full pound of zucchini.

The cheesecake filling is dangerously good.

Pronounced poh-taazh, potage is a fancy term for a thick and comforting soup cooked in a pot. Typically, it also infers that the soup is made of vegetables and is puréed until smooth. Like many French dishes, it originates from peasants and farmers who were using the ingredients they had available — in this case, any mix of vegetables. Potage is often enriched at the end with some kind of dairy.

The no-bake cake that goes for the gold!

And they're ready in less than 30 minutes.

It’s just creamy enough.

It's a must before summer's over.

They're so quick and easy!

Esquites + creamed corn = heaven on a tortilla chip.

Here’s how to use up that bumper crop.

The cinnamon-walnut streusel is a game-changer.

As the days get longer and the weather warms up, my excitement for zucchini season grows. I love zucchini in any and all forms; whether they’re grilled, added to pasta, or shredded into savory pancakes.But my absolute favorite way to enjoy zucchini is when it’s breaded and fried into crisp, golden-brown batons. There’s just something about the crunchy outside contrasting against the tender zucchini center that can’t be beat.

So light and creamy.

Popular with kids and adults alike.

It's caprese's hearty cousin.

Ruby-red tomatoes may be the crown jewel of summer, but I say that fried green tomatoes are the season’s unsung hero. Turn stubbornly unripe green tomatoes into a crunchy Southern specialty. You can make the ultimate fried green tomatoes by dipping in tangy buttermilk, coating in cornmeal, and then frying until golden. Once you taste them warm with a spicy remoulade sauce, you may never wait for tomatoes to ripen again. These fried green tomatoes are extra crispy.

It only takes three ingredients to level up your iced coffee.

Deliciously dippable.

Puppy chow (also known as muddy buddies) is dangerous stuff. I had never even heard of the snack until my friend Beth, an Iowa native, left some at my house after a holiday gathering and I found myself eating handful after handful of the sweet, crunchy, nutty mixture. Why wasn’t there a warning label? It didn’t last the night.

The Italian dessert might make you forget all about gelato.

Cool, briny pickles straight from the fridge are one of the simplest pleasures of summer. Quick pickling is also a brilliant solution for preserving a plethora of summer vegetables from the market or your garden. Quick pickling doesn’t require canning or a bushel of vegetables. Best of all, you can adapt this simple formula for any fresh vegetables; try a mixture of vinegars and spices for a truly custom pickle pleasure. Here’s how to make these easy quick pickles in just 20 minutes.

Calling all banana bread lovers.

Meant to bee.

My grandmother kept a tidy little vegetable garden outside her New England home. While she did a decent job of growing summer squash, cucumbers, and some tomatoes, her best results always came out of her snap bean plants. This also meant my annual August trips to visit her were filled by snapping beans on her porch (a job reserved strictly for grandchildren) and putting jars of quick-pickled green beans in her refrigerator.

Get your toast ready.

It’s so delicious.

Cooler than the original.

It’s always the first to go.

Gotta love salad on a stick!

They’re so tasty!

You’ll never guess these aren’t fried.

It's the no-cook dish of my dreams.

“I already want to make another batch.”

For all the times I have ordered chicken lettuce wraps at restaurants like P.F. Chang’s, inhaled entire “appetizers” by myself, and sighed with happiness while licking sticky sauce from my fingers, it never once occurred to me to try making this dish at home. Partly, lettuce wraps have always felt like an indulgence that needed restriction to restaurant visits only.

Butter mochi is a staple at almost any party in Hawai‘i, and it’s easy to see why. The coconut custard glutinous rice cake is perfectly chewy, slightly sticky, and just dense enough, with a hint of vanilla and salt. Growing up Japanese-American, or hapa, in Hawai‘i, I’ve had my fair share of butter mochi.