Bringing Finger Foods to Share

When I hear the phrase, "Everyone bring finger foods to share," it always makes me groan a little inside.

Granted, I've been around the block a few times and have brought any number of offerings to a great number of events. But I'm not one of those homemakers that finds it easy to make something pleasing that won't break the budget. And I've experienced my fair share of failures - cupcakes that were dropped on the way into the meeting, brownies that were so gooey we had to eat them with a spoon and a tortilla and cream cheese pinwheel that reportedly tasted like crayons.

Pictured here are my go-to items, that never seem to fail to please: apples with peanut butter dip and pretzels with Nutella dip.

Here's the easy recipe: Mix 1/3 cup of peanut butter or Nutella with 3 cups of powdered sugar and 1/3 cup of milk and one teaspoon of vanilla. That's it! I sliced three apples about 1/4 inch thick for the plate above (dipping the apples in lemon-lime soda will help keep them from turning brown)and used about half of a bag of pretzels for the other plate.

Here's how I transported them, and I highly recommend this idea. I dropped the apples upside down on the kitchen floor just before taking this photo, but because everything was enclosed in the plastic bag it was no big deal. Phew. I'm off to celebrate a book group birthday. We're all bringing finger foods!

Copyright © 2012 Susan Verstraete.