Holiday Baking (part 2)

I promised you I’d share some of my savory recipes today – some of the family favorites that we enjoy during the holidays. I’m also going to share one that is brand new to us and that we’re trying out this year.

The new recipe we’re trying is a corn casserole recipe. It’s not something that was traditionally made at my house (or Grandma’s) when I was growing up, but I’ve had it when other people have made it and loved it. So, I decided to try my hand at making it this year… introduce a new tradition to the table, so to speak.

I’m excited to see how it turns out!

One of the old standbys we make every holiday is a sweet potato casserole. Mom has been making this for years and years – I think the original recipe is one that she clipped out of a magazine or the newspaper. After it’s debut at one of our family dinners, it quickly replaced the ultra-sweet marshmallow-topped sweet potato casserole that we used to eat. I absolutely LOVE it. I’d eat it every day if I thought I could get away with it. Of course, since my WLS surgery, I have to be very, very careful when I’m indulging like this or I’ll be curled up in a ball crying in a few hours. So, I enjoy it sparingly but I do have a tiny bit when we make it for the holidays.

Sweet Potato Casserole

4 cups cooked, mashed sweet potatoes (you can use one large can of sweet potatoes if you wish)
1/2 – 3/4 c sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup milk
1/4 cup butter, melted
2/3 cup brown sugar, packed
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup butter, softened
1/2 – 1 cup finely chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350.
Combine sweet potatoes, sugar, egg, vanilla, milk and butter (1/4 cup). Whip with hand mixer until smooth.
Pour into 2 quart baking dish. (8×8 or 9×9 works well)
For topping, mix remaining ingredients to form a crumble topping. Sprinkle over sweet potato mixture.
Bake for 30 minutes.

What about you? Any family favorites that you just have to make or it doesn’t seem like the holidays to you?

And, now, I’m off to bake and enjoy my family!!

Holiday Baking

I’m baking today.

Pies and breads and sweets in preparation for the big day on Thursday.

You’d think we were having an army over for dinner and not just the four of us.

But it sort of mushrooms – you think “oh, I’ll just bake a simple meal.” and then someone asks “but you’re going to make this, right?” and you say “yes, of course!” and pretty soon you have a feast on your hands.

But that is part of what Thanksgiving is about, right? Feasting? Well, it’s become that, anyway. It’s really supposed to be about GIVING THANKS for all the blessings we have, but somehow it has turned into a day about eating. But, I’m OK with that, as long as we remember to be thankful for the fact that we CAN eat all this food and that we are so BLESSED to have an abundance of food to select from and eat.

But, enough of the soap box. I thought I’d share with you some of the things I’m baking today:

Pecan Pie (one of those things that just popped up on the menu, unbidden but welcome) I’m trying this recipe from Tasty Kitchen because it seems very, very close to the one my mom makes. I used a combination of spiced pecans and plain ones. I saw that on Food Network this past weekend and thought it sounded like a really good idea.

Watergate Salad recipe

Watergate Salad (also known in our house as “green stuff”)
Well, this one is not baked, but I’m making it today. I’m also making it with sugar-free pudding, sugar-free cool whip and no-sugar-added pineapple so that it will be WLS friendly. A girl’s gotta have dessert, right?
Honey Oatmeal Bread – this is just because I haven’t made any fresh bread in a couple weeks and I thought I’d try a new recipe and see how the family liked it.
I’m also planning to bake a mincemeat pie this evening, but I’m cheating and using a jarred filling. It is what my mom always makes and I love it.
For Thanksgiving morning, I’m planning to make these for breakfast.

Mom made them a few weeks ago and said they were really good so I’m going to give them a try.

That’ll be enough baking, I think. Don’t you? Smile

Tomorrow I’ll share some of the savory recipes we’re planning for Thanksgiving.

Menu Plan Monday ~ Thanksgiving Week

I bet you thought I’d skip planning meals this week, didn’t you? I mean, at least two days are taken care of – Thursday’s turkey dinner and Friday’s leftovers, right?

Well, think again!

I didn’t want to spend my vacation week stressing about what to eat and rushing out to the grocery store (which will be packed with last minute shoppers) for something for dinner.

So, I planned accordingly, just as I always do. Now, I can relax and enjoy my family and crafting this week – and cooking, too!

Here’s what we have planned in our house for the week:

Monday: Leftover spaghetti or homemade pizzas (cleaning out the fridge for the big day!)
Tuesday: Low Country Boil (because I’m craving it)
Wednesday: ham, rice & black-eyed peas (using a ham slice, not a big ole ham)
Thursday: the BIG DAY! Turkey & the trimmings. We do potato balls instead of dressing & mashed potatoes. It’s SuperMan’s family tradition and I love sharing that part of our family with the girls. I’ll have an assortment of veggies: sweet potatoes, butter beans, green beans and maybe carrots. Add some yeast rolls and you have dinner!
Friday: Turkey & Dumplings (with the leftover turkey of course!)
Saturday: I’m hoping SuperMan is in the mood to make me some Brunswick Stew. He has an awesome recipe.
Sunday: probably eat out after church & then dinner will be with our Small Group from church

Since the girls are home with me this week, here’s what I’ve got planned for lunches:

BBQ sandwiches (I BBQed a pork butt on Saturday)
Chicken quesadillas (this may actually be Tuesday’s supper if we aren’t able to do the Low Country Boil)
Taco salads
Sub sandwiches (Little Bit will not eat any other type of sandwich, but she will eat a sub. Go figure)

I’m also planning to do some (minimal) baking this week. May try my hand at a pie (that is something I usually don’t do) and I’m thinking a Red Velvet or Carrot cake is in my future, too.

Other than that, I’m planning to spend my week being crafty, relaxing and just enjoying NOT working for a few days! I’ve got some knitting projects I want to work on and a couple scrapbooking ones as well.

We’ll also be going to see the Muppet movie when it opens – maybe wait until Saturday? And we are thinking about a trip to the bowling alley, too. Should be a fun week.

What about you? Other than the big dinner, anything special planned? And for my readers who are in other lands, what’s on your agenda this week as we Americans prepare to eat ourselves into oblivion?

The countdown begins…. one more week to go!

I can hardly wait –

I’m like a kid at Christmas –

Are you going?

Be still my heart.

The Muppets!

My most favorite characters in all the world.

An even BETTER Apple Crisp

I shared with you an apple crisp recipe not too long ago – it was one of the best ones I’ve had in a long time. But, I have continued to tweak the recipe and I think I have an even BETTER recipe to share with you.

I made it Sunday to have as dessert after dinner with friends. Everyone agreed it was fabulous. And, SuperMan and I have eaten leftovers for breakfast a couple times this week – it makes an awesome breakfast – think Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal but in the best possible way.

One of the secrets to the new and improved recipe is using Grape Nuts cereal as part of the topping. I found just plain oatmeal was a little too soft and not “crispy” enough for me. I wanted a little crunch, but didn’t want to use nuts (the girls don’t care for nuts) in the topping.

I just happened to be reading my December/January issue of Cook’s Country magazine and they had a recipe for a low-fat apple crisp. I decided to combine the top half of their recipe with the bottom half of my original recipe. I also added raisins for a little more fruity goodness…

The result?

Yummy.

If you are looking for something to add to your holiday menu, I would strongly suggest this little dish. The version below makes a 9×13 dish and I served it with frozen vanilla yogurt and caramel sauce. *swoon*

Here’s the recipe.

Don’t be afraid to try a little for breakfast! It’s so good… and it’s full of the same breakfast-y ingredients we eat anyway – fruit, oatmeal, cereal, etc. Why not?

Even Better Apple Crisp

Topping:

1 1/3 cup old fashioned rolled oats
2/3 cup Grape-Nuts cereal
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
6 Tbsp salted butter, diced into cubes and chilled
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp salt

Filling:

10 cups of apples, peeled, cored & sliced (I used honey crisp apples)
1 cup white sugar
1 Tbsp all-purpose flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup apple cider (or juice)

Instructions:

Place the sliced apples in a lightly greased 9×13 baking dish.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a medium bowl, mix together the sugar, flour, cinnamon and sprinkle over the apples.
Pour the apple cider over the apples.
In a large bowl, mix the topping ingredients, adding the butter last and using your fingers to mash the butter into the topping ingredients.
Sprinkle the topping over the apple mixture, spreading to evenly cover the apples.
Bake for 45 minutes or until the juices are bubbling and topping is a deep golden brown.
Let cool for 10-15 minutes before serving.

Note: I use my apple slicer to make my slices because I like big, chunky pieces of the apple in my crisp. You can use diced apples or smaller slices if you choose, I just prefer to have more discrete bites of fruit in my crisp.

Scrapbook Tuesday

More pages to share with you today – not much scrapping last week, and probably not much again this week, but I’m off next week and hoping to get a little time carved out to scrap some.

These are from our trip to NC in October. I still have a lot of pictures to crop and do something with – we took over 400 in four days!

more to come! as soon as I have time to get to them!

Menu Plan Monday ~ 14 November 11

Wow!

Can you believe it? Only one more week and it’s Thanksgiving!

And then, we’re rushing headlong into Christmas…

I can hardly believe we are here already. Seriously. Where has the last year gone?

I think we need to add another month in the calendar… something between Halloween and November that will allow us to get a little leg up on holiday preparations. It’s almost too much to jump out of our Halloween costumes, straight into Turkey Day and before you know it, we’re drinking eggnog and singing carols.

Somebody slow down the merry-go-round!

All this holiday craziness, added to some big work projects (for SuperMan and me) means that I’ve got to get my act together… menu planning becomes even more important. I don’t want to be caught unprepared and not knowing what to cook – that will just mean added (unnecessary) stress and angst and I have enough of that without going looking for more!

I’m working on something my mom told me to do a long time ago (and I’ve actually been working on it for a while now) – I’m compiling a list of all the different dinner ideas I have – things I know my family likes and that I can refer to when I’m at a loss as to what to cook (or feel like I’m stuck in a rut)

I’m not doing anything fancy with it (although the temptation to make a cutesy little list is there) – I’m just keeping a running list on index cards for right now. But, I’m finding it really helpful in coming up with some variety in our dinner planning. Especially when I’m cooking from the pantry and want to see what I can come up with based on what I have (and avoid a shopping trip!)

So, after referring to my ever-growing list, here’s what’s on tap for this week:

Monday: Stir Fry Chicken & Rice (using this yummy-looking recipe)
Tuesday: Spaghetti & Garlic Bread
Wednesday: Pork Chops & Rice
Thursday: leftovers
Friday: Homemade pizzas or Pizza Braid (with leftover spaghetti sauce from Tuesday)
Saturday: BBQ
Sunday: “Baked Chicken,” Rice & Gravy

That’s the week! What are you planning? Anything yummy?

You can check out more menu ideas over at orgjunkie.com.

Menu Plan Monday ~ 7 November (thoughtsalonglifeshighway.com)
Menu Plan Monday & some Random Thoughts (thoughtsalonglifeshighway.com)
Menu Plan Monday ~ 3 October (thoughtsalonglifeshighway.com)

What I’m Reading Right Now ~ November

Life has been so busy lately – haven’t had time, it seems, for much of anything – and yet I seem (somehow) to have managed to finish three books this month.

Granted, they have been short books… short and sweet ones. They’re part of a cute series of mysteries – the Cupcake Bakery Series by Jenn McKinlay.

I’m not sure how I ended up with the first one – maybe a Friday Freebie?

I read it pretty quickly – it was really cute and “light” (if a murder mystery can be light) and a great escape at the end of the busy days of October.

The story revolves around three best friends who own a cupcake bakery together… and the murder in which one of them becomes the prime suspect.

There were a few sub-plots involving the main characters, which continue throughout the three stories, developing as they go.

I liked this continuity of story, combined with the different murders in each book – the characters are just off-beat enough to be fun and while it is hard to believe these folks have this many murders surround them (you’d start to wonder – in real life – what was up if you had this many murders around you!) the ongoing stories and goofball characters they encounter keep you engaged and curious enough to see what is coming next.

There’s the hateful owner of the bakery who is their chief competition, the eccentric fashion designers, the couples who take the Valentine’s-themed baking class and can’t stop arguing, the geriatric gentleman who tries to win the raffle for a Valentine’s dream dinner so that he can “get a life” – the books are full of colorful characters.

I’m reading #3 in the series now, which is focused on a cooking contest in which one of the judges is killed. Of course, he was a mentor and close friend of one of the main characters and she feels compelled to investigate his murder at the same time she is competing against her nemesis (the hateful bakery owner) in this competition. Add to that the fact that her uncle is the investigating detective and her boyfriend is the DA (and her best friend and co-owner’s big brother) and you have some kookiness to come.

If you’re looking for something light and fun – a great escape from everyday life – this is a great series of books to read.

Journal Your Christmas – are you in?

If you’ve followed my blog for any amount of time – at least a year, anyway – you know that I have a yearly project that I do to capture our memories of Christmastime…

It’s a self-paced class offered by Shimelle on her website and is an online class which consists of daily email prompts and suggestions for creating your own scrapbook or journal to capture your holiday memories.

The first year I participated (2009) I created a combination of traditional and digital pages – here are some examples:

Cover of the album & first page

One of the prompts was to capture the weather:

And here are a few digital pages I did:

You can view more of these pages over on my flickr pages.

And the second year (2010) are here –

They are digital – which I liked because I could keep up with the prompts more easily. I also used my blog to write a lot of what I would later put in my journal as I took the time to do the actual scrapbooking.

Looking back at the pages, I am getting really excited about getting started on this project again. I am going to start scouring the digital scrapbooking websites to find a good kit that has some pretty pages and embellishments to use. I think this year I will print the whole thing as a bound book (last year I printed the pages and slipped them into page protectors just in case I wanted to add anything that was last minute and non-digital content).

One of the things I like about Shimelle’s class is that, while the prompts are similar from year to year, I have found that my albums are so different each year. Depending on what is going on in our lives, with the kids and our friends and family, and what traditions or memories are resonating with me for the year.

This year, I’m hoping to get the girls more involved – maybe let them do some of the journaling and capturing their thoughts about the holidays.

There are quite a few other holiday scrapbooking projects – December Daily (Ali Edwards), 12 Days of Christmas (Big Picture Classes), etc. – but I find that Shimelle’s seems to inspire me the most. I love the fact that her prompts are not simply scrapbook-focused prompts. I can journal, write a blog post, take pictures, whatever. If that is all I do, I’ve still captured the story. If I decide to take it further and make a scrapbook out of it, then that is even better, but it’s not necessary.

I also like the self-paced aspect. I don’t feel like I HAVE to do something every day… I can do as I have time and am inspired. Both years, I’ve found that I tended to do two or three pages at once and then nothing for a few days. But you couldn’t tell when the project was finished because the prompts are so diverse.

So, what are you going to do this year? Anything? How will you capture your family’s holiday memories past and present?

I’ll be sharing my progress over the next month or so – if you are doing a holiday memory project, I’d love to see what you’re working on, too! Post your blog link in the comments and if I have enough, maybe we’ll start a weekly link up to share!

Scrapbook Tuesday (thoughtsalonglifeshighway.com)
Journal Your Christmas (all the posts from last year)

My favorite fall dessert

Ah, fall… I love you.

My favorite Season of the year… also the peak harvest time of my favorite fruit to eat – apples!

I have been enjoying some really, really good apples this year.

My “connection” who lives in the foothills of North Georgia has been supplying me with a regular dose of freshly picked apples almost every week since September.

I am in heaven. I have been eating two or three apples a day. They satisfy the sweet tooth, the need for something crunchy, and they fill me up when I’m feeling snackish. Perfect.

Not to mention they are super delicious.

And when I have a few more than I know what to do with (which rarely happens) then I make this – my favorite fall dessert – Apple Crisp.

The kids even love it. Super easy, super quick to put together. Kind of like that cobbler recipe I shared earlier this year, except a little more “fall-ish” in flavor and texture. But I bet you could use this same basic recipe with some stone fruits – peaches, plums, nectarines – and have a yummy dessert, too.

So, here’s the recipe if you’d like to give it a try. I based mine off of this recipe but it was (I thought) way too big for a weeknight dessert so I cut it down some and ad-libbed my ingredients a bit.

Apple Crisp

Prep Time: 10 Min
Cook Time: 50 Min
Total Time: 1 Hr
Serves: 4-6

Ingredients

5 cups apples peeled, cored & sliced
(the thicker you slice them the more apple “bite” you will have in your crisp – less mush)

¹⁄₂ cup sugar (I used granulated honey, but regular sugar is fine, too)

2 tsp flour (all-purpose)

1 tsp cinnamon

¹⁄₂ cup quick-cooking oats

¹⁄₂ cup all purpose flour

¹⁄₂ cup packed brown sugar

¹⁄₄ tsp baking powder

¹⁄₄ tsp baking soda

¹⁄₄ cup butter cut into pieces

Directions

Preheat oven to 350.
Place your sliced apples in a greased casserole dish (I used 9×5 dish).
In a small bowl, mix 2 tsp flour, sugar and cinnamon. Sprinkle over apples.
In another bowl, combine the remaining ingredients, cutting the butter into the mixture until it is incorporated and mixture resembles a coarse blend.
Crumble evenly over apples.
Bake at 350 for 45 –50 minutes or until top is brown and crispy.

Serve warm with vanilla ice cream and a caramel drizzle (I used caramel ice cream topping) and you will be the hit of the family!

View recipe at plantoeat.com

Sweet Potato Casserole

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