Am I the only one that considers ordering pizza to be the weirdest, most awkward social experiment? By nature, it’s designed to be shared with a group. But that also means that you and your friends all have to agree on toppings.

I don’t know about your group of friends, but mine have pretty varied tastes. One person wants mushrooms, somebody else stand them (too bad, because they’ll miss out on chicken stroganoff!).

Somebody else wants olives, but another person would rather have anything but olives. Oh, and then somebody wants a chicken pizza and the pepperoni lovers give them the side eye.

This usually results in ordering ALL of the pizzas and having leftovers for days (and spending way too much money).

With game day coming up, I came up with a fun option where everybody can get their way. It’s not quite the same as a regular pizza, but this crostini pizza bar is a fun appetizer to pair with other game day food like healthy buffalo chicken dip and my football themed charcuterie board.

By the time you load your plate up with snacks, you pretty much have a meal, right?

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Disclosure: This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of the Michigan Apple Committee. All opinions are 100% my own. #MIApples

I’m not on TikTok. The only TikToks I see are the ones my friends text me, or the ones popular enough to eventually make their way onto Instagram. Honestly, if I signed up, I’d probably spend way too much time on it, so I’m OK staying off of it.

This means that most of the current food trends fly right past me, because most of them originate on TikTok. But once in awhile, some, like jarcuterie and breakfast charcuterie boards are popular enough that even I can’t ignore them.

One of the original TikTok trends, Dalgona coffee, has made it’s way into my repertoire, and when I’m not making caramel iced coffee, I’m still making Dalgona coffee (more like still trying to make my way through the HUGE jar of instant coffee granules I bought).

And recently, of course, I haven’t been able to miss the butter boards making the rounds on all forms of social media. Whether you love them, hate them or haven’t tried one yet, I’m sure you’ve also realized they’re impossible to ignore.

Give me room temperature salted butter any day of the week, and I’m in. And with it being apple season (also known as autumn) here in Pure Michigan, I thought I would combine butter with APPLE butter made from Michigan Apples to create my own spin on this wild, fun trend.

Grab some friends, and, for those over the age of 21, a round of bourbon apple cider cocktails or caramel apple mules, and let’s dive in to this butter board recipe!

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What are your thoughts on Thanksgiving appetizers? I think it kind of depends on what time you eat your main dinner.

I know some families that will do an appetizer lunch earlier in the day, but then have their main dinner with bourbon glazed turkey and grandma’s old fashioned dressing and all the other trimmings later in the evening.

My gathering usually eats our meal around 3pm, so we keep appetizers pretty simple (maybe a very small charcuterie board idea) so that we don’t fill up too much before the main event. I mean, I like to save some room for Thanksgiving salad and Thanksgiving fruit salad, because I’m a weirdo.

This simple baked goat cheese cranberry appetizer for Thanksgiving is a little something to nibble on that won’t fill you up terribly.

Plus, like my cranberry tart pie, this appetizer with goat cheese is a nice way to incorporate cranberries into this seasonal meal if traditional cranberry sauce just isn’t your favorite thing.

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Nothing makes my eyes light up at a party like seeing a big spread of appetizers. There’s a reason New Year’s Eve is one of my favorite days, and it’s definitely the savory baked brie, jarcuterie and other New Year’s Eve food!

My absolute favorite kind of appetizer spread? The kind that you get to assemble yourself, like my DIY elote cup bar or even individual charcuterie cups. And if your group of friends and family is anything like mine, everybody has different tastes.

Some people don’t like onions, others can’t get enough. Somebody hates tomatoes, whereas I make my Detroit style pizza recipe with pickled tomato sauce.

I think we can all agree that lots of options never hurt anybody, and that’s what I’m giving you today with this smoked salmon platter!

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Earlier on in this whole 2020 “experience,” I was really craving the two things that weren’t available for carry-out or curbside pickup: Lebanese food, and sushi.

My favorite restaurants for each of those things were closed, and others in the area simply don’t compare.

But if 2020 has proved anything, it’s that we can be resourceful. My homemade kafta recipe stood in for Lebanese takeout, and the sushi craving was momentarily quelled by this little snack (although I often had several for a light lunch).

While I spent one day of culinary school learning to roll sushi rolls, let’s just say I don’t really have enough training to want to go down that path at home.

So, I swapped the rice for crostini, but my stomach said I still did justice to the flavors I was craving.

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It’s totally unplanned, but apparently I post a new baked brie recipe every other December on this blog! In 2015, it was my holiday baked brie recipe with mushrooms, pomegranate seeds, and honey. In 2017, it was my baked brie with grapefruit & pistachios.

Since it’s December 2019, it looks like I owe you a new version of baked brie to go along with the rest of your New Year’s Eve finger foods, like individual charcuterie cups and my smoked salmon platter.

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You might not have been expecting a recipe like this from me this fall, after my admission last year that I don’t really like pumpkin (heck, I made my Halloween food ideas platter using mostly mango).

But some weird part of my personality has a hard time accepting that there could be foods I don’t like. I PRIDE myself on being the least picky eater anybody will ever meet!

So, just like I forced myself to eat one olive per day for a month until I liked olives (really, I did that, and it worked), I also make it a point to try foods I “don’t like” at least once a year.

It’s easy to remember my yearly taste test with pumpkin, because let’s face it: Americans are pumpkin crazed in the fall.

While pumpkin coffee drinks don’t sound appealing to me (yuck, give me an apple cider mule any day, though) and pumpkin pasta sauces are just too much to handle, I settled on a small bite pumpkin appetizer (designed for holiday entertaining) this year (and also discovered that pumpkin creme brulee is quite good).

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When the spring weather finally starts to roll into Michigan, I’m usually in the mood for light and simple meals involving as little actual cooking as possible. After all, the less time spent in the kitchen means the more time there is for bike rides and dog walks.

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Here in Michigan, we take eating and entertaining outdoors pretty seriously in the summer months. It’s because we can’t take it for granted. It’s not like we have mild temperatures all year – a backyard barbecue in February would just lead to frost bite all around.

So in the summer, nearly all of our meals are eaten outside, just because they can be. Whether it’s a weeknight dinner for two, or a big backyard gathering with friends and neighbors, all food tastes best when eaten outdoors. It’s a proven fact.

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Fun fact: both houses I’ve owned have come with random culinary delights already growing in the yard. My first house had out-of-control mulberry trees, and a single very oddly placed garlic plant. My current house came with a pretty sizeable chive plant right by the deck, which I’m finding very useful. I mean, chives can add a smidge of onion flavor and a fun green color to just about any savory dish, like these Feta Terrines with Spring Vegetables.

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