And the pickled or fermented foods aid in digestion, especially right before a heavy meal. |
Yes love antipasto. |
This just looks so random. I'd honestly just rather eat nothing until the real food comes along! |
Like Kimchi and banchan for Koreans. |
PP here whose family goes all out with the homemade salads/pickles for the relish tray. My mom makes a bunch of fillings like blue cheese, fresh herb cheese, etc. and uses this to stuff olives and little cherry peppers and marinated mushrooms. |
| My cousin got married a couple of years ago and his wife always includes pickled okra. It’s really good! |
|
I don't call it a relish tray, but I put out heavy finger food appetizers for guests who arrive early afternoon and have not eaten lunch. We serve turkey around 3pm, so you need something to tide you over.
I have various pickled things, olives, cheese, crackers. A breadstick would not be amiss. |
PP whose family takes the homemade pickles/relish seriously--our appetizer spread is legendary. In addition to the pickles, we order cheeses and charcuterie, order seafood (Crab dip, shrimp, stone crab claws), make a few hot appetizers, and make vintage punch in huge punch bowls and cocktail recipes. My dad is in charge of the appetizers/cocktails and he goes ALL OUT. Some people get full before the turkey dinner! |
This sounds so great! I would enjoy this much more than the sit down part of the dinner! |
what an excellent addition to the family lineage. your cousin picked wisely! can I say I never heard that a "relish tray" is a thing but I AM SO IN LOVE now. Probably don't have time to pull off something elaborate, but I'll at least do cornichons, black olives, celery. op, what do you do with the cottage cheese? |
are you guys Italian? My Italian relatives always bust out the heavy apps -- prosciutto, bacon-wrapped dates, stuffed olives ... we're doing thanksgiving the first time this year, and my DH was completely appalled when I mentioned we would be serving any appetizers at all. the idea that people would fill up ahead of turkey seemed to mortally offend him! |
The hot apps are usually pretty good, too, like scallops, fried shrimp, arancini, etc. |
Exactly! |
Sometimes he also does cold sliced steak, like a carving station. It's kind of crazy. But that's his thing. |
Arancini are like my favorite thing in the world. wow! |