Mini Happy Hour Appetizers

Believe it or not we’ve had a few long weeks this summer. On one of those long week Fridays, we decided to have a spur-of-the-moment mini happy hour. We headed out to the grocery store, wine shop, and ran back home to start cooking.

Our theme at Christmas last year, was mini appetizer. It was a hit. Having an “As Seen on TV” taco bowl, we were enlightened to try making mini tacos and mini pizzas. Both of these recipes used tortillas and we used the same size cutout (the bottom of a can) for each one.

[recipe]

Mini Pizza

• 3/4 cup pasta sauce
• 1 cup of shredded mozzarella cheese
• 1 bag of mini pepperoni (we used a turkey pepperoni)
• 12, 2-inch can-sized cutouts of tortillas
• Fresh basil leaves

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Cutout tortillas using the bottom of a can.
3. Using a chapstick cap (or something similar) cut out mini pepperoni from the already mini-sized pepperoni (this will take some time). You’ll need about 60 of them, and we were able to get 3-4 mini pepperoni out of 1 big pepperoni.
4. Place tortillas in a cupcake pan.
5. Spoon pasta sauce over the tortillas. You’ll only need a little less than a spoonful.
6. Top with cheese, pepperoni, and some shredded basil.
7. Place in the oven until cheese is melted and crust is slightly golden brown.

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[recipe]

Mini Shrimp Tacos

• 12 shrimp, peeled and deveined
• Guacamole from 1 avocado
• 12, 2-inch can-sized cutouts of tortillas
• 1 cup of pico di gallo
• Taco seasoning

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Heat skillet over medium heat.
3. As discussed, we love taco seasoning on shrimp. Place shrimp in skillet and sprinkle some taco seasoning over the shrimp and stir until evenly coated. Cook until they’re done.
4. Fold tortillas over your oven wire rack. This is how they will cook. They will slightly increase in size, so keep an eye on them. Remove when they are slightly golden brown.
5. Add a shrimp to the tortilla, and top with guacamole or pica di gallo (or both!) and enjoy!

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