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That faux chile con queso made with Ro-tel tomatoes and Velveeta served over factory-made tamales or frozen taquitos. And, tater tots taste purt' dang good dipped in it, too!

I gotta also go with tater tots and the velveeta-salsa dip.

And I don't eat them anymore, but I used to LOVE those pillsbury orange breakfast rolls.

Sounds like your friend is a wonderful hostess, who thinks about what her guests (you!) would like, and serves it. I've been known to serve Chinese take-out appetizers as well as chicken satay from the local Thai restaurant. Always a big hit!

That delightful snack that only an industrial machine could produce--tater tots!!!!!

I love Amy's frozen meals: lasagna, pizza pockets, palak paneer; let me count the ways...

tatter tots! i will not buy them. cannot have them in the house. but there is a bar on W23rd that serves them, that's where i get my fix.

Well, they were second in the comments! I can only type so fast...

Totino's or Jeno's pizzas. The crispy crust gets me every time. Bagel Bites are good, too. Must be the nostalgia of them. My sister and I used to share the cardboard frozen pizzas during summer vacation when we just barely old enough to be trusted with oven privileges, and the Bagel Bites remind me of a high school friend. Her mom ALWAYS hand those things on hand and she never seemed to run out of them!

All frozen potato products rule- esp tater tots and waffle fries!

Tag along question...

where do you get the best frozen appetizers? Costco or Trader Joes?

For me, the answer is always Costco.

It seems like I'm an anomaly, but I'm just not a fan of Trader Joes. How does the board feel?

I second the Pillsbury cinnamon rolls, with the little packet of icing, hot from the oven, mmmmm! I haven't had them in years, I think we will have them for breakfast on New Year's Day!

My friend and I spent a weekend in Vermont living solely on items culled from the "Big Y" frozen foods section (ok, we may have also purchased a crudite platter). Hands down, the taquitos won. Her husband was horrified. And recently, the most popular items at our office holiday party, other than homemade lasagna, were microwaved vegetarian corn dogs that had been cut up into bite-sized pieces and served with mustard packets. Go figure.

I love Stouffer's French bread pizza. As for Trader Joe's, their selection of Tacquitos is good. Two other frozen snacks they do that are pretty good are tempura veggie "bird's nests" and shrimp wrapped in won ton skins.

pizza rolls are pretty good.

for some reason though I love those stupidly cheap generic frozen pizzas. sure they're not as good as a hand made pizza or even one from a delivery place, but they taste just like the old school pizzas. honestly, that taste of nostalgia is enough for me.

Another shout out for Pillsbury here: warm orange breakfast rolls, and (the now defunct flavor of) blueberry cream cheese toaster strudels (which I haven't eaten in 7 long years...but who's counting?).

Sara Lee used to make a frozen raspberry coffee cake that was a staple at our house every Easter to go with the eggs. I haven't been able to find it anymore though.

I almost always have the Ore Ida brand frozen "country style" fries and onion rings in the freezer.

I also keep a stash of the Pillsbury pie dough in the freezer for those mornings I wake up craving quiche or pot pie.

taquitos all the way.
Also, potato skins.

We get bags of the frozen pork fried dumplings at Wal-Mart. If you use the frying pan method of cooking they are just as good as your average Chinese restaurant.

I'm going to have to pick some up tonight

Taquitos
tater tots
cheese filled pretzels
mini corn dogs

Holy nibblies! I love Nancy's frozen quiches. They are very good quality. Also Phillips frozen crab cakes. Those TGI Fridays frozen potato skins. Oh God admitting this is bad. I love pizza rolls too. When we entertain I always try to make most of the nibblies myself. But if time is a concern I will go to Costco and buy some stuff. I did do a business open house 3 years ago where it all came from costco and I used a convention oven to bake it all off. Everyone was happy and we kept the wine flowing.

I like Bagel Bites and pizza rolls; also, mini pizzas for one for lunch once in a while (my mom used to get them from the Schwan's truck). One of my old coworkers brought vegetarian taquitos to a party, and they were so good and more tasty than regular taquitos. I didn't even notice they were filled with fake beef!
I used to love the El Monterey frozen burritos. I got the beef, bean and green chile ones, and when they were almost done cooking, I'd put a slice of cheddar cheese on top. Yum. I have a problem with most frozen burritos, especially "healthy" kinds because they have a weird aftertaste (as do most frozen meals, in my opinion!).

I love frozen eggrolls and crab rangoons. But my all time favorite frozen food is the lean cuisine stuffed cabbage roll with mashed potatoes on the side. It is remarkably good.

It sounds as if Trader Joe's is a treasure trove of frozen hot guilty pleasures. And it sounds like Costco is also a terrific source of frozen hot guilty deliciousness.

Tater tots like the rest of the crew and, to add to the Costco/Trader Joe's debate, I LOVE raspberry and brie filo rolls from TJ's.

Marie Callender's used to have this frozen chicken with rice, broccoli, and cheese sauce. Holy cow, it was so freaking good. I spent one year subsisting on this dish, plus frozen french bread pizzas and spaghetti-o's. It's a miracle I survived.

You know, I just don't get the tater tot thing. But that's probably because I only tried them the first time last year and don't have the childhood associations. That said:

Ore-Ida Toaster Hash Browns are heaven. I love them. I actually like them more than McDonalds hash browns, which is saying something.

Stouffer's Deluxe French Bread Pizza

And my all time favorite - Tower Isles Spicy Jamaican Meat Patties (I'm actually a little surprised not to see anyone pick them.)

One year, my grandmother ordered New Year's dinner entirely from Neiman Marcus. I don't want to know how expensive it was, but there were things on phyllo dough, crab cakes, some kind of soup, and cheesecake 'lollipops'. But none of us cared about that because there was a lemon chiffon cake sitting half-thawed in the fridge. We used cheap silverware and bent fork tines trying to stuff chewy, sweet, silky chunks in our mouths. YOM.