Great Party Recipes: English Muffin Mini Pizzas

Planning a party can be fun but intimidating. I personally do not recommend a sit down dinner event for more than four or six guests, unless that's the designated activity and plan for the evening. It can be hard to plan an entire dinner, especially if you're not a chef. You have to worry about drinks, appetizers, salad, entrees, desert. It can be overwhelming. Instead, why not try preparing a variety of appetizers that everyone can enjoy? It's much more affordable, and with a little prep time you can prepare many of the dishes in advance and just pop them in the oven for a few minutes to heat, or retrieve them from the fridge if it's a cool dish and voila! Instant bon apetite. For Christmas Eve this year, my girlfriend prepared several such appetizers (for lack of a better word) to serve at her friend's house, and they were all a huge success.

• 1 package of English muffins
• Prego traditional flavor tomato sauce
• Garlic powder
• Grated parmesan cheese
• Oregano flakes
• Shredded mozzarella cheese
• Pepperoni (optional)
• Mushrooms (optional)

PREP TIME: 10 minutes

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Farenheit.

Begin by cutting the designated amount of english muffins in half. Arrange on a baking sheet and broil them in the oven until they are slightly browned and toasted along the edges. Keep a close eye on the muffins while broiling because the broiler heats up way faster than the normal oven setting, which means your muffins will toast rather quickly and can burn quite easily.

Once they are lightly toasted, remove them from the broiler. Sprinkle garlic powder and grated parmesan cheese on top of muffins (just a light sprinkle of each). Spoon about 2 tablespoons of tomato sauce onto each muffin. The use of tomato sauce can be adjusted to suit your liking. Our family and friends enjoy a little bit of sauce and extra mozzarella but some people prefer the opposite--heavy on the sauce and easy on the cheese. After all the muffins are covered with sauce, top with shredded mozzarella cheese (again, to your liking). Sprinkle oregano flakes over top of each muffin sparingly. Oregano is a very potent spice, so remember that you don't need much. You can even sprinkle a little oregano into the palm of your hand, crumble it with your fingers and then sprinkle it over the muffins that way. You can also substitute oregano for parsley or Italian seasoning (my favorite) if you prefer. TIP: *You can also top with slices of pepperoni to offer a variety of mini Enligsh muffin pizzas for your meat-loving guests. Vegetarian eaters may enjoy mini pizzas topped with mushrooms.*

Place muffins on baking sheet (or cookie sheet) covered with a layer of tin foil about an inch apart. Insert in the oven and bake on 350 degrees until cheese is melted and bubbling. Toaster ovens can be used as well at the same settings.