When my husband was living in New York City right out of college, he threw an annual Super Bowl party, the signature elements of which were a big pot of chili and a sign on his apartment door with the number of the game in Roman numerals. After he left New York for law school — which was the best thing he ever did because that was where he would meet yours truly — a friend took over the Super Bowl party hosting duties, maintaining those two key elements, of course.

There is nothing wrong with a big pot of chili for a Super Bowl party. To the contrary, there is something very right about eating chili while watching the big game. But no one, not even men, can live by chili alone. A Super Bowl party has to have options.You need some small bites and a few killer dips to round the main event.

When I entertain a crowd — be it for a cocktail party, book club or to watch the game — I am always looking to serve bite-sized foods, ones that don’t require a fork and knife. As we all know, eating finger food is so much easier than trying to cut into a big hunk of something while simultaneously holding a drink and a balancing a plate on your lap.

A party host’s secret weapon for making delicious and impressive hors d’oeuvres, in my view, is frozen puff pastry. I am all for cooking as much as possible from scratch, but in the case of puff pastry, I don’t even bother. Making puff pastry is incredibly labor-intensive. The frozen stuff is convenient, easy to work with and produces reliably terrific results for both sweet or savory dishes. If you are willing to pay top dollar for quality, the very best frozen puff pastry is the all-butter DuFour brand. I can find it at my local Whole Foods but it costs something like $14 a package, which is a lot. Trader Joe’s puff pastry is also all-butter and gets very good reviews at a lower price point. Most of us are familiar with the Pepperidge Farm variety, but that one contains vegetable shortening so in my view, it is not as tasty.

This puff pastry concoction is my take on the traditional pigs-in-a-blanket. Instead of crescent roll dough, I wrap the small sausages in squares of puff pastry. And instead of cocktail franks, I use mini Apple and Maple Chicken Sausages. The brand I favor is Sausages by Amylu, but you can use any brand you like. We use chicken sausage because we don’t have pork in our home, but it has the added benefit of being leaner than pork sausage. And since we are covering this sausage in puff pastry, you might as well cut the fat where you can.

To jazz up my little chickens-in-a-blanket, I add a slice of my favorite Cabot Creamery Seriously Sharp Cheddar and a crunchy slice of apple to each roll. The cheese melts and the apple softens in the oven, leaving you with a deliciously sweet yet sharp bite. I guarantee that your guests will not be able to resist these and no one will miss the cocktail frank-crescent roll combination.

Full disclosure time: this post was not sponsored in any way, but I do work with Cabot Creamery Coop on a regular basis and have, on occasion received their products at no charge. As always, all opinions expressed herein are entirely my own.