Appetizers...Bacon Wrapped Pretzel Rods and Cream Cheese Wrapped Olives Rolled in Crushed Nuts

I hope you had a fantastic Thanksgiving Holiday with family and friends! Knowing that most of our family would be eating two Thanksgiving dinners in one day on Thursday, we decided to go a different route. Our dinner was on Friday, Paul smoked a beef brisket and two pork butts. The kids were happy, we were happy. I'd call that a win , win situation. Paul and I put together 5 appetizers, a fruit tray with yogurt, a vegetable tray with spinach dip, cheese straws and the reason for this post, the two appetizers that were by far the favorite....Bacon Wrapped Pretzel Rods and Cream Cheese Wrapped Olives Rolled in Nuts. You have Christmas parties and New Years Eve parties coming up, somebody has to bring the crazy good appetizers, let it be you! Enjoy!

This appetizer is very easy to make with few ingredients, so far so good right? You're gonna need:

You can do this 3 ways.....You can cut the bacon strips in half and wrap the pretzel rods, you can cut the bacon strip length wise and wrap the rods or you can use the whole strip of bacon and wrap the rods. I used a whole thin bacon strip to wrap the pretzel rods. The amount of bacon you buy and the way you choose to wrap the pretzels will determine how many you make, I bought one package of bacon and had lots of pretzels left over. But that wasn't a problem for me, we love pretzels. Next time I'll buy 2 packages of bacon! Wrap the bacon around the pretzel Rods. In a shallow dish mix the sugar and chili powder together. Roll the bacon wrapped pretzels in the sugar /chili mixture.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Place the bacon wrapped rods on a cookie sheet, bake 20 minutes or until bacon is crisp. Turning once during baking will insure that the sugar will caramelize on both sides of the bacon. Watch carefully so the sugar doesn't burn. You can also put these on a baking rack on top of a cookies sheet to bake. I preferred just the baking sheet so the bacon would get nice and caramelized . Also, you'll notice when you turn the rods that they will get flimsy, don't worry, they firm up when they cool down. When you take them from the oven lay them in a single row to cool, not touching each other while they are cooling so they don't stick together.

Paul and I went to a dinner party at one of our neighbors houses a couple months ago. Our hosts Martha and Jeff served these appetizers.

Not only do these taste amazing but they look terrific on a tray! For this recipe you'll need:

1 Jar large Olives ( the largest olives you can find in the grocery store)

1- 8 ounce block of Cream Cheese, room temperature

Crushed nuts ( pecans, walnuts or almonds ) crushed finely

The best way that I can describe getting the cream cheese onto the olive is to envision someone making truffles. Dry the olives with a paper towel, with a knife slice a small portion of room temperature cream cheese and put it into the palm of your hand. Place the large olive on top of the cream cheese and wrap it around the olive. When its covered, shape it into a little football, making sure that the pimento is on one side so you know how to cut it, you want it cut in half not length wise.

After it's covered, roll it in crushed nuts. Put the wrapped and nut covered olives into the refrigerator so the cream cheese firms up. Slice when your ready to serve.