As it turns out I took a whole week off from blogging. A WHOLE week! Im going through severe withdrawal! It wasn’t the intention and I don’t remember having done that before, but it sure is kinda nice. 

Just busy cleaning the house—we need self-cleaning houses—and making notes of all the party food I’ll be prepping for New Year’s eve. Not to mention doing lots of grocery shopping with a whiney and bored 4-year-old trying to direct me to the candy aisle.

Going to cook lots of snacks on the Big Green Egg this year. Especially now that I got my hands on crispy fresh Jalapenos and decided to buy 4 pounds. Turns out they’re not spicy at all—not even mildly spicy. They’re more like bell peppers with a bit of an identity crisis. I’ll just make some poppers and put spicy pepper in the cream cheese or something.

Few other things I’m making this year are Indonesian meatballs, chicken & curried satay, spicy wings and mini kabobs. Oh, and jalapeno poppers.

Anyway, just wanted to pass along a few snack ideas that:

1) won’t cost you a fortune

2) won’t have you confined to your kitchen all day long

3) are definite crowd pleasers.

(clicking the photos will get you straight to the recipes!)

Aside from my basic guacamole with lots of Doritos, there’s always a Mexican layered dip. Always.

There’s also homemade salsa. Fast and flavorful.

And Chile con Queso! I’ve become really addicted to this stuff.

We have chicken satay in Indonesian version. And a curried version with pineapple.

Somehow a Dutch New Year’s eve includes potato salad. Or beef potato salad.

There are pepper & corn pies.

And mini snack pizza’s with artichoke hearts that are to die for.

What about savory cookies? Italian cheese cookies.

Or go for classy with these garden puree bruschetta.

Bitterballen. Must have Bitterballen.

Curried chicken puffs. This is a serious crowd pleaser, trust me on that!

Another simple and fast snack is hummus. You whip it up in under 5 minutes. Here are three different versions for you to try.

Whatever it is you’ll be eating, make sure you don’t spend the entire evening in the kitchen.

Remember: you’re not trying to impress family and friends with your fantastic cooking, you’re just trying to have have a good time, enjoy the food and each other. Stressing over silly snacks is not my idea of having a good time! Keep it simple. Keep it fun.

Happy 2011, everyone. May the best of your past be the worst of your future.

~ Kay