Spice up your gatherings this holiday season with these delicious finger foods. These will blow away your usual chip and dip and cheese puff menus :) Be sure to serve them at your next gathering, they don’t require a lot of work, can be made ahead and require nothing more than some paper towels to prepare, clean and serve!

1. Sweet Potato Pancakes with Mayo and Guacamole topping

Grate two sweet potatoes and one regular potato.  Add a little bit of salt and set aside for ten minutes.  After ten minutes, squeeze the water out of the potatoes, if you don’t do this properly, the cakes would be wet.  Take one onion and grate it into the mixture. Add salt and seasoning to the mix. Add two tablespoon of flour and add a few drops of water to get all the ingredients to come together. Take small 3 inch potions and flatten them using your palm.

This should make about 10-12 pancakes. Heat canola or vegetable oil in a deep skillet and shallow fry the pancakes until crispy on both sides.  Serve with mayo mixed with garlic and cayenne pepper and guacamole as toppings. So much better than your chip and dips isn’t it :)

2. Chicken Samosas

These are little pot stickers filled with minced meat, baked or deep fried. 

Take ½ lbs of minced meat (chicken or lamb). Marinate it with cumin powder, coriander powder, paprika, salt, ginger and garlic. Marinate it for 2-3 hours in the refrigerator for the flavors to seep in. Take one pack of Pillsbury readymade pie crust and unroll it. Cut semi circles of about 4 inch in diameter. Brush a layer of canola oil on one side and put the meat mixture in between. Roll it into a small triangle, sealing the sides with a little bit of warm water and pressure. Roll the remaining mixture also similarly and set aside. This can now sit in your refrigerator till you are ready for the party. When you are ready, preheat oven to 370 F. Brush the outside of the Samosas with oil and bake until golden brown (usually 30 minutes).  These can be deep fried also. I prefer to bake them as it is fuss free that way. Serve hot with a side of sweet and sour sauce.

3. Sangria

Good sangria is easy to make, you can prepare it beforehand, and is an easy way to finish that bottle of red wine you can’t finish otherwise!

Take two bottles of red wines. Don’t worry about getting any fancy wines, any table wine would do.  Separately, cut 2 oranges; squeeze the orange juice into the wine. Grate the zest into the wine also.  Add one to two shot of orange liquor (or any other fruity mix or liquor) into the wine. Cut one apple, one pear, one lemon into pieces and put into the wine also. Let it chill overnight so that all the juices mix into the wine well.  Put into decanters the next day and serve. Makes about 10-12  glasses.

This post was sponsored by Viva Towels.
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