save me from buying pillsbury!

[midtownDiner123]

i'm seconds away from buying every pillsbury product on the shelf so i can be done with planning thanksgiving appetizers. most guests are kosher (well, not strict but ideally most of the apps should be dairy free). here's what i have:

mixed nuts
rice crackers and lentil-walnut pate
pumpkin empanadas

we're a group of 8.

it is easy to make apple chips? cut up veggies? also, where can i buy ready made pastry dough?
thank you!

[Caroline1]

Phyllo dough is dairy free -- until you paint it with butter! But olive oil -- or any oil -- will work to make it crispy too. Despite Giada DeLaurentis' recipes on her show, you cannot make phyllo cups, fill them with a moist filling, and expect the phyllo to still be crisp more than half a minute down the road!

I assume your statement of no dairy means meat is okay? You can do a filling of ground (or chopped is better) meat, onions, pine nuts, currants, and a little bulgur well draned for a phyllo filling. Either roll the filling inside the phyllo or fold in triangles. Or you can simply use the phyllo to wrap really good cocktail weiners. In either case, I'd coat the phyllo well with a thin layer of olive oil on every sheet if you want the "crispy" to survive indefinetly.

[Morganna]

I'm very fond of pickle things. :) Olives, roasted and marinated peppers (or other veggies), cornichon dills, other small dills, pickled onions (there are some lovely cippolini onions that have been pickled with balsamic vinegar at our local Big Lots), all sorts of veggies get pickled. :)

Chopped liver (chicken liver pate) is also a great appetizer.

[MaggieRSN]

midtown, would something simple and easy like pita, broiled with oil to crisp it, conform to Kosher? If so, couldn't you serve something like a pita wedge/hummus platter...or isn't baba ghanouj prevalent in Israeli cuisine? I agree with dutchdot, though, since we're talking about Thanksgiving specifically, where the dinner is the event. Don't stress over appetizers; a few just to start the hospitality ;-). Good luck.

[Alice Letseat]

If you want something "fancier," you could always wrap smoked salmon around melon slices or grissini (very thin breadsticks). But you already have plenty for this kind of dinner!

[MaggieRSN]

Yum, alice. The melon sounds good before a substantial Thanksgiving dinner!

[coney with everything]

I think wonton or eggroll skins are dairy free, as well as rice paper wrappers. You can make spring rolls which are nice and light, or a meat filling for the egg rolls/wontons. All OK things at room temp.

Or sushi?? (I'd probably buy, rather than make, though!)

For pastry, do you mean pie pastry?

[bear]

Both Oronoque and Marie Callendar make decent frozen pie crust if you don't mind shortening. I'm not sure if Callendar's is dairy-free, but I'm pretty sure Oronoque is.

[dutchdot]

Puff pastry in the frozen food section will do the pastry thing, but it will have butter in it.

You can buy your veggies already cut up. Google apple chips. You don't want to fill everyone up prior to dinner, so don't hyperventilate.

[willownt]

The standard puff pastry actually does NOT have butter in it. It has shortening.