So I’m a person who gets things done in the evening.

Apparently newborns also have this trait.

I knew this going in, but it still throws me off sometimes.  Like when I plan to do homework in the evening in my usual write-5-pages-in-two-hours-the-night-before-it’s-due fashion that used to raise my parents’ cortisol levels.  Or when I plan to write blog posts on a consistent Monday-Wednesday-Friday-yay-Saturday-Sweets! schedule.  Or when I plan to do actual cooking or cleaning or baking or reading or planning or showering or pretty much anything that is not hold baby, change baby, feed baby, rinse and repeat.

And I don’t really mind, because the little munchkin is oh-so-snuggly and happy to have all the attention to himself, but having three also means my days are that much busier.  So now when I think about what to make for a holiday party I don’t think up elaborate new recipes that may or may not be successful, because I don’t have time to fail at the moment.  I’m thrilled to get a batch of cookies baked – I don’t want to have to start over because raspberry pistachio was not as good a combination as I’d anticipated.

If, like me, you’re looking for something quick and crowd-pleasing this holiday season, I’m going to introduce you to the perfect appetizer.

I made these for the first time a few years ago and they’ve quickly become a requested staple at parties, and I am ever-so-happy to oblige since they are SO EASY and really quite cute, considering someone once pointed out for me the similarities between the end of a wiener and a certain end of a cat.  The vision has never quite left me, and returned tenfold when looking at these photos.

I’m sorry, I just had to get that off my chest – please immediately forget I ever said that.

Carl could pop these little fellas in his mouth all day, despite his dubbing them “mini heart attacks” due to their obvious nutritional value.  All you need to do is make sure you have a package of cocktail wieners and some bacon on hand, and you could whip these up for the most last minute of last minute guests.  Throw some barbecue sauce on a plate, grab some sticks (festive ones for extra points), and a hot, delicious appy is ready in minutes.  

While they bake, you are more than welcome to entertain hungry guests with your repertoire of wiener and sausage jokes (we all need a time to use those, amiright?).   If you’re the seafood sort, swap scallops for the wieners, but I promise your jokes will suffer :)

I like to precook my bacon slightly to make it less icky to work with and to speed up the appy cooking time – if you’ve never cooked bacon in your oven you need to start ASAP.  I avoided bacon for years because of the greasy splatters, forearm burns, and lingering smell, leaving packages of it for Carl to cook while I was at work so I would have cooked bacon to use in recipes without having to actually deal with getting it to that cooked state.  

Then I found out about cooking bacon in the oven. LIFE CHANGING, I kid you not. I have to speak in ALL CAPS every time I talk about it.

Lay out your bacon in a single layer on a baking sheet (line it with foil for super easy clean up), put it in a cold oven, turn the oven on to 400 degrees, set the timer for 17 minutes and WALK AWAY.  Cook it longer for crispier bacon, shorter for softer bacon, but COOK IT IN THE OVEN.  I cannot even express how happy oven bacon makes me.  For this “recipe”, if I dare call it that, cook the bacon for about 12 minutes so it is still soft and easy to wrap around your wiener (*Snicker, snort* I am such a child, I’m sorry).  

To avoid bacon shrinkage, I cook the bacon a day or two before and throw it in the fridge for when I’m ready to wrap.  Baby steps, people. I can really only be counted on to do one thing per day. You could probably do this all in one day, I believe in you.

I’m not sure this even counts as a recipe, but I’m counting it anyway.  Serve it with a cheese platter if you’re feeling ambitious, add a bowl of chips and some salsa, and you have yourself a par-tay.  Happy party season :)