no. 76 easy + delicious Thanksgiving appetizers

and my October in REVIEW

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Today I’m sharing some of my favorite apps to make for Thanksgiving. Well not just for Thanksgiving…these would be amazing for Christmas and new years as well, but since Halloween is over and we’ve got turkey day on our minds, let’s just call them Thanksgiving apps!

Here’s what we got on deck today:

1. Caramelized onion spinach and artichoke dip

2. Steak crostinis with herbed ricotta and buttery caper sauce

3. Fig and brie puff pastry tarts

They’re all delicious, decadent and fairly easy to throw together. But before we get into the recipes let’s talk about my October in REVIEW.

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In case you’re new here R-E-V-I-E-W is an acronym which stands for:

R - reading 

E - eating 

V - viewing 

I - imagining 

E - enjoying 

W - wishing 

It’s a monthly favorites of sorts. So here’s my month of October in review:

Reading - I know we’re technically past spooky season, but if you’re still in the mood for something with vampires, demons and monsters, I HIGHLY recommend checking out The Book of Azreal and all 3 books currently out in the Gods and Monsters series. It’s incredible. It took me a minute to get into the first book (The Book of Azreal), but once I got past the 50% mark I was *in it*. I adore this series so much because not only do you fall in love with both the FMC and the MMC, but all the side characters you end up loving too. You even start to rooting for the villains.  It’s amazing.  Next up I need to mention Zodiac Academy oh my GOD. The writing is so dumb and borderline reads as a CW show script from the mid 2000s, but good lord this series is so addictive. There’s 12 books total in this series and I’ve read 2 in the past week and just started the third one yesterday. It’s like a sexy Hogwarts meets Fourth Wing. There’s all sorts of fantasy creatures in this one: vampires, nymphs, sea creatures, dragons, unicorns (lol). It’s delightfully cringe but also hilarious. I honestly can’t explain much more, you just have to give it a try.  

Eating - Butter dates. Ok hear me out. These are so delicious. You take a gooey fresh date - not one of those dry crusty ones - and you cut it in half, remove the pit. Then take a fat slice of good quality butter and put it in the date like a little sandwich. Then sprinkle some flakey salt on top. It literally tastes like sugar cookie dough. I’ve started eating one a day as a little sweet treat. The carnivore bros have been doing this for years and it never looked appealing until I saw a random girl on tiktok try it and said it was amazing, so I had to give it a go. I’m so happy I did because now it’s one of my favorite treats. 

Viewing - Please tell me you guys watched Tell Me Lies this season. It’s seriously some of the best television out right now. The first season took me a minute to get into, but I ended up watching it again and I loved it. Season 2 is even better and the season 2 finale was 🤯 

Imagining - I’m in the process of putting together my Thanksgiving and Christmas menus. I’m the chef of the family so I take it upon myself to make all the food for both holidays. Sometimes I split the labor during Thanksgiving, but Christmas has always been my thing. I plan the whole thing a couple months out and start prepping like a week before. I’ll even order special ingredients online ahead of time if need be. I go all out with apps, entrees and desserts. I’m almost done finalizing things for both holidays, and I cannot wait to lay around, eat all the food and watch Christmas movies. I love Christmas time so much. 

Enjoying - I really enjoyed our recent trip to Idaho. We went mid October and it was perfect fall weather. We ended up going to the farmers market there, we went to a food truck fair with live music, had a little date night at a fancy hotel restaurant and I took my very first archery class! Archery was seriously so much fun and I can’t wait to do it again. It was oddly very meditative. I’ve shot guns before at a gun range but that tends to put my nervous system on overdrive bc of all the loud noises. I liked archery so much more. Since I’ve been reading a plethora of fantasy books lately, it’s convinced me I need to learn how to use a bow and arrow. I’m also a big Hunger Games fan and Katniss has always been one of my favs. 

Wishing - for a relaxing holiday season with friends and family. Developing new fun recipes for you and drinking lots of bone broth hot chocolate.

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Ok now let’s get into the juicy part of this email, the recipes.

Caramelized onion spinach and artichoke dip

Ok just so you know, you can totally save time by leaving out the caramelized onions in this, but it tastes SO much better when you include them. It takes this dip from really good, to next level. Another short cut you can take is by using frozen spinach instead of fresh, but every time I buy frozen spinach at the store it’s so gross and stemmy. Like the stems are so thick and girthy. I hate it. But if you’ve found a frozen spinach you love, go for it!

Makes servings 8-10

Prep time: 20 mins

Cook time: 1 hour

Total time: 1 hour and 20 mins

Caramelized onions:

1 TBS avocado oil

2 onions, thinly sliced

1/4 cup butter

1/4 cup dry white wine (optional)

Salt to taste

Spinach and artichoke dip:

8oz cream cheese, softened

3/4 cup mayo

3/4 cup sour cream

Pinch of red pepper flakes

2 garlic cloves, minced

Zest of half a lemon

6oz fresh spinach or 3/4 cup frozen spinach that’s been thawed and all the water has been squeezed out (measure AFTER squeezing all the water out) 

1 12oz jar of marinated artichoke hearts from Trader Joe’s, drained and excess liquid squeezed out 

1/2 cup mozzarella or gruyere cheese, freshly shredded

1 cup white sharp cheddar cheese, freshly shredded

1 cup finely grated parmesan

Salt and pep to taste

Procedure: