I've become sort of the appetizer guy in my family when it comes to Thanksgiving and Christmas. While my sister cooks the main meal, others in the family always offer to bring something over: desserts and other pies, soda, wine, etc. I've been doing appetizers and snacks the past few years, and here are a few tips.

I think appetizers and snacks should be low stress and easy to make/set up. One of the best is a cheese and cracker platter. All you have to do is go to your supermarket and go to the cheese section (you know, the stuff beyond Kraft) and choose several good looking, nice cheeses. I usually go with a cheese nut roll (I've been buying a Port Wine cheese roll that everyone seems to like), a good aged cheddar, and maybe some Boursin. For crackers, it's amazing what is available, and I usually grab several different varieties: pepper crackers, rosemary crackers, and also plain ol' Ritz, which you can't go wrong with. Get a nice platter or tray, put the various cheeses in the middle, each with their own knife, and then spread the crackers all around the edge. Looks great.

A tray of varied chocolates is always a nice idea, not only because, well, it's chocolate but also because you can get many different kinds and they all look great in the bowl with the different shapes and different colored wrappers. Sure, I'd get a couple of nice dark chocolate's like Lindt or Godiva (or a great dark chocolate that I bought the other day that I can't remember the name of...two words, initials either B and S or S and B...Bergson Schaeffer, or something like that, in the light blue wrapper?), but don't skip over the Hershey's Milke Chocolate, white chocolate, and Resse's Peanut Butter Cups in the colored wrappers!

If you have chocolate, you also have to have nuts, right? Nuts are great because you can pretty much do what you want with them. I'll have a recipe later today for Rosemary-Maple Cashews, but let's face it: all you have to do is get a pound of mixed nuts (canned or fresh) and if you put them in a really nice looking bowl it makes all the difference in the world. And try the recipe Marisa posted the other day.

Of course, there are many other appetizer and snack recipes that you probably do with your family and friends: chips and dip, salad, soups, and other things. Give us your ideas in the comments, and keep it easy!