How This Allrecipes Allstar Wins Thanksgiving With Her "Munchie Hour"

For many, going home for the holidays kicks off a time of honoring cherished traditions and reconnecting with loved ones. Catching up with former classmates and friends on the night before Thanksgiving is one particularly well-loved tradition. But for Allrecipes Allstar Jessica Formicola, those late nights at bars with old friends have been replaced by something more suitable for waking up early the next morning to run in the Turkey Trot. Formicola hosts a happy hour at her home the night before that she dubs the Munchie Hour. Friends help themselves to a spread of appetizers and drinks, coming and going as they please, in a laid back, meet-and-greet style. We caught up with Formicola to learn more about Munchie Hour and how to add the idea to your own extended Thanksgiving celebration.

What’s the basic concept of Munchie Hour?

It is a happy hour at our home. No dinner is served, just a whole bunch of appetizers. People can come through kind of like an open house. It is laid back and casual with drinks and food. Everybody brings something to share. 

How did the tradition begin?

Before we had kids, we would always travel to a family member's house for Thanksgiving. But once we decided to stay home, we changed the menu. I don't really like turkey, so we had king crab legs and tenderloin. My husband and I stayed in our pajamas  and grazed all day long, but on really decadent, amazing foods. 

Our friends asked us how our Thanksgiving was, and when we told them what we did, everybody was really jealous. So, the next year, we ended up hosting Thanksgiving at our house with these friends, but the same rules applied—we didn’t make a turkey, the food did not have to be traditional, we ate throughout the day,and everybody had to wear pajamas. 

But when we had kids seven years ago and family members started to want to come to us, we figured maybe we should give our children the benefit of a traditional Thanksgiving. So we moved our non-traditional Thanksgiving to the night before, and that was the start of Munchie Hour.

Who comes to Munchie Hour?

A lot of our friends are not from here, so they either don't have family in town, or, you know, aren't planning on traveling, so they come here. It’s like when you were in college: You would go home and everybody would go out the night before Thanksgiving. But now it’s at our house! 

Do you have any favorite recipes that always make an appearance?

We love a good charcuterie platter. My daughter now loves what she calls “meat flowers,” which are flowers I make with pepperoni. We do some sort of a baked Brie. My husband's also Italian, so it's kind of like half charcuterie, half antipasto. We always have shrimp cocktail, and I have a signature cocktail sauce that everybody really enjoys. We’re in Maryland, so I usually make crab balls with tartar sauce. I usually do some kind of a cocktail meatball, like grape jelly meatballs, or sometimes with cranberry sauce, in a slow cooker, because I can just throw in my homemade frozen meatballs. I provide those staples and everybody else brings some sort of chips and dip or something. The whole point is just to be relaxed and not stress out, which is why a lot of it is stuff that I can either do ahead of time or is easy to prepare. 

Why are these small moments outside of the big production of the holiday so important?

I think part of it is a sense of community. Our family still does not live here, so the people that come over, our friends, are our children's family. These people are really our support network, and it almost seems sad not to celebrate a holiday with them.

And it's fun for the kids too. My daughter and the other kids go in the arts and crafts room and make custom placemats and craft things that we can put out to decorate for the holiday. It's these core memories that she'll always remember and maybe take on to her family. It's creating your own happiness and not feeling like you have to do a holiday one way just because that's how you've always done it.

Allstar Jessica Formicola's Menu for Munchie Hour

• Charcuterie Board Meat Flowers
• Apricot Cranberry Baked Brie
• Shrimp and Cocktail Sauce
• Grape Jelly Meatballs
• Pumpkin Deviled Eggs