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Jenni is a blogger and marketing professional in Portland, Oregon. A Well Crafted Party is a blog about all the little things to celebrate in life. Follow Jenni or A Well Crafted Party with BlogLovin, RSS feed, Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest.
Cranberry Prosciutto Goat Cheese Appetizer held in front of sparkly pink and silver mirror balls
A Well Crafted Pantry

Easy Holiday Party Appetizer: Cranberry Prosciutto Goat Cheese Bites

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Are you hosting a holiday gathering this year and need a simple holiday appetizer to drive home the flavors of the season, while not taking forever to make? These Prosciutto, Spiced Cranberry, and Goat Cheese Bites take little time to put together and are the perfect holiday bite. These are a perfect QUICK appetizer to make for your New Year’s Eve get-together or any winter event.

First off… DO NOT USE STORE BOUGHT CRANBERRY SAUCE. Okay, fine, if you have to… you can use store bought, just avoid the cranberry sauce that retains the shape of the can. Use something with discernible berries. I do highly recommend taking the time to make the spiced cranberry sauce as it will give just a bit more depth of flavor and holiday flare than store bought. (I created my spiced cranberry sauce while making my spiced cranberry simple syrup by straining the berries from the syrup.)

Second… crisp your prosciutto. It makes a word of difference. While you can absolutely do this with prosciutto straight out of the package, the crispy, salty goodness that comes from taking the time to throw that prosciutto in a pan or airfryer will add to this recipe. You can sub bacon if that is more readily available, but I’d recommend a thin sliced bacon so that it doesn’t overpower the dish.

Cranberry, Prosciutto, Goat Cheese Bites

This is more of an assembly than a recipe.

Ingredients:

  • 1 Log of Goat Cheese – I used a plain goat cheese, however a honey goat cheese would be lovely in this.
  • Approximately 16 oz of Cranberry sauce of choice. The spiced cranberry sauce linked above worked really well with this as it had wonderful notes of cinnamon. However, a traditional cranberry sauce or even my pomegranate apple cranberry sauce would make for a fun addition.
  • 4-6 slices of Prosciutto crisped up in a pan and broken into smaller portions.
  • 1 Box of Fig and Olive Crackers (or a cracker of choice)
  • Fresh thyme for garnish.

Directions:

Take a cracker and top it with cranberry sauce and a spoonful of goat cheese. Top with crispy prosciutto. Sprinkle fresh thyme leaves on finished bites for a pretty and tasty garnish.

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overhead shot of spiced cranberry negroni cocktail with holiday baubles
A Well Crafted Pantry

Spiced Cranberry Negroni Holiday Cocktail

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Sometimes that eggnog and hot buttered rum just doesn’t hit the spot. When you want to serve a cocktail that feels like the holidays, but isn’t one of the classics you always see, try this spiced cranberry negroni for Holiday a twist on an Italian classic… and something your guests probably haven’t tried recently. The flavors of a classic cranberry sauce spiced with orange zest and cinnamon is paired with the bitter notes of clove, cinnamon, and citrus of campari, the freshness of gin, and depth of sweet vermouth to create a truly interesting holiday sipper.

Holiday cocktail in christmas bauble with pink and red decor

This post contains affiliate links marked with an asterisk (*). Affiliate links allow me to make a small commision with purchases made from links without an extra charge to the purchaser. Thank you for supporting A Well Crafted Party.

I know that the bitter notes of campari can be difficult for some, but hear me out on this drink. While a traditional negroni has either devoted followers or haters, this twist on the original offers a more balanced approach to appeal to the holiday guest. It may even be a way to convert some people over to join you for some amazing aperol spritz and negronis next summer when you host your next cocktail party.

Spiced Cranberry Syrup

Before you can make this cocktail you have to first make the spiced cranberry syrup. The best part of this recipe, is you have some tasty spiced cranberry sauce in the end as well!

Makes approximately 1 cup of syrup

  • 1 Bag of Fresh Cranberries rinsed and de-stemmed (16 oz) – you can substitute frozen, just decrease the water by 1/4 cup
  • 1 cup water
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 1 cinnamon stick
  • 1 zest of orange

Directions: Put all ingredients in a heavy bottomed sauce pan over medium heat. Cook, stirring so that sugar does not burn, until sugar is fully dissolved and berries have cooked and are bursting. Smash the berries with a spoon and continue to cook until liquid has reduced some and will coat the spoon slightly. This takes around 10 minutes. Turn off heat and let cool. Separate the liquid from the berries. Keep the cranberry sauce to use for a holiday appetizer. Reserve the liquid to use in the Negroni cocktail or other holiday drinks!

Cocktail in glass with holiday baubles

A Holiday Twist on the Negroni: Spiced Cranberry Negroni Cocktail

Makes 1 cocktail (scroll below for a batch recipe)

  • 1 oz gin
  • 1 oz campari
  • 1 oz sweet vermouth
  • 1 oz cranberry juice
  • 1 oz spiced cranberry syrup

Pour all ingredients into a cocktail shaker* over ice and shake. Pour into a chilled cocktail glass or over a large cube of ice* in a rocks glass—your choice!

Batch Holiday Cocktail Recipe: Spiced Cranberry Negroni Cocktail

Makes 6 cocktails

  • 6 oz gin
  • 6 oz campari
  • 6 oz sweet vermouth
  • 6 oz cranberry juice
  • 6 oz spiced cranberry syrup
  • 3 oz water

Mix all ingredients together in a pitcher and chill in fridge. Pour into a chilled cocktail glass or over a large cube of ice in a rocks glass—your choice!

TIP: I’ll be pouring these into ornaments and chilling in fridge. Guests can then pour the chilled drink directly from their ornament and into their glass! I use the clear ornaments* that can be cleaned out with soap and water. I remove the metal insert and use plastic wrap to seal the bauble and cover with the metal cap. However, I’m sure that some companies are making these baubles with caps on them just for this use now-a-days, I just haven’t used them before!

Holiday cocktail overhead shot with pink and red decor

This year, instead of having the boring old-standbys for your holiday party, spice things up with this Spiced Cranberry Negroni Cocktail. Suddenly your party will be more interesting and intellectual. Your guests will agree that you are the absolute best and no one else will have a holiday party like yours. I am sure of it. 😉

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friendship bracelet wine tags
A Well Crafted Party

Holiday Crafting: Friendship Bracelet Wine Glass Tags

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In the good year 2023, the year of Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, and The Barbie Movie, I say… lean in to the fun, the sparkle, the pink, and the friendship bracelets. Don’t just stop at the viral friendship bracelet Christmas tree garland (genius I say) but go ahead and keep on stringing the nostalgia to add fun sayings to other holiday essentials. Namely, the stemware.

This post contains affiliate links, marked with an asterisk (*). Affiliate links help this blogger earn money with purchases made without any added cost to those who purchase. Thank you for supporting my blog!

To say that this is a tutorial would be a stretch of the word to be sure. I simply found a friendship bracelet kit and used my stemware to estimate the sizing for each individual piece. I’ll give my best tips and links below, but this craft can be done with the simple kits found at your local craft store or more elaborate beads. You can use charms or words to make your bracelets unique. But, the key to this craft comes down to using stretchy string, tying a strong knot, and keeping each piece unique enough that it can identify a glass.

Wine Tag Friendship Bracelet Sizing

For my upcoming party I have two types of glasses that I want to help guests keep straight. One is a stemless champagne flute and the other a stemmed coupe glass. This required me to make two slightly different sized bracelets. I made a slightly larger bracelet (around 2.25 inches around) for the stemless glass so that it could go down far enough to not impede drinking but far enough up to not be annoying to the glass holder. The stemware had to be big enough to stretch over the bottom of the glass, but not large enough to get snagged or fall off. They ended up being more like 1.50 inches around.

TIP: When cutting your string go ahead and cut more than you need and measure to the glass often. It will make it easier to hold and to knot. You can then cut off the excess string.

Holiday Wine Tag Sayings

This was the most fun! Since these are much smaller than traditional friendship bracelets I had to stick with one holiday-centric word for each tag. Guests will be able to remember the word and keep track of their glass.

Suggested Holiday Tags: (This is not an exhaustive list– there are SO many options!)

  • Holly
  • Jolly
  • Santa
  • Elf
  • Joy
  • Merry
  • Bright
  • HoHoHo
  • Christmas
  • Noel
  • Star
  • Gift
  • Snow
  • Carol
  • Cheer
  • Bells

Holiday Friendship Bracelet Wine Tag Resources

I grabbed my beads on a holiday clearance rack while out shopping, but I’ve shared some resources below. I stuck to red and white for my colorscheme, because I want to use them throughout the years and tend to pull these two colors in most of my Christmas themes. However, you can mix it up to match your own holiday decor!

Dare I say that this would make for a fun gift as well? Or an added pizzazz to a cute gift of thrifted stemware? I’d find it charming!

May your drinks stay with their intended this holiday season and may this season of friendship bracelets, sparkling outfits, and powerful women live well into the new year!

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