Cranberry Crumble
This recipe doesn’t get used often, as we don’t usually have much cranberry sauce left over. However, this year I bought most of our meal, so we have LOTS of cranberry sauce left. This is an easy, quick dessert that is GREAT on cold or chilly nights. We LOVE it!
- 2 C. Cranberry Sauce (or 2 16oz can of jellied cranberry sauce)
- 2 1/2 C. Rolled Oats (quick oats work well too!)
- 1 C. Regular Flour (wheat flour is dandy too)
- 1 1/2 C. packed brown sugar
- 1/2 C. Butter, melted
Thanksgiving Casserole
This is an easy meal for me to make, freeze, and use up our holiday leftovers. Some would call it a Thanksgiving Shepherds Pie, but with the stuffing added in, it’s more like a casserole to me.
- 3 C. Stuffing
- 2 C. Turkey, chopped
- 2 C. Mixed Vegetables (I used grated carrots, peas, and corn)
- 1 1/4 C. Gravy (if you don’t have any leftover gravy, you can also use a can of cream o’ whatever with enough water to make up the difference)
- 2 C. Mashed Potatoes, warmed up (to make them easier to smooth out)
- Cheddar Cheese, grated
Summer Greek Pasta Dinner Salad
Ingredients:
1 box penne pasta
1 rotisserie chicken, cooled and shredded*
1 red onion, finely diced
1 bag of spinach leaves
1 lb. of fresh asparagus, steamed
2 lbs. grape tomatoes (we like tomatoes!), sliced in half
1 pkg. crumbled feta cheese
8 oz. kalamata olives, drained and sliced in half
1/2 c. pine nuts, toasted
Olive Oil
Greek Seasoning (I use the kind in the spice section at Wal-mart)
Directions:
Cook the pasta in boiling water. Be sure to season your water with 2T. of olive oil and 1t. of salt. It really does improve the pasta flavor, and helps the pasta to not stick together when you’re done. Drain well. Put the pasta into a large bowl and cool.
Add all of the other ingredients in with the pasta. Add 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil just to lightly coat the pasta (or to taste). Add 2 teaspoons of greek seasoning to the bowl of ingredients and toss it together. You can eat it right away, or let it sit in the fridge for a few hours and allow the flavors to blend together.
Serve and enjoy!
Notes:
If you’re going to use a rotisserie chicken, don’t throw out those bones! Boil them for a wonderful and healthy stock! It’s really easy – just put the bones into a pot and add enough water to cover them up. Cook the bones on low for a few hours (I usually put them on after dinner and let them cook all night long). Strain the liquid from the bones and let it cool. I then put the liquid into food saver bags and freeze them so that they’re available for another day. I love using this broth when I cook Jambalaya, or anything else where the water is going to be absorbed by food. Talk about an easy way to add flavor and nutrition!
Linzer Torte Cookies
It just wouldn’t be Christmas without Linzer Torte Cookies! I remember enjoying these fun treats at many Weinachts markets my family and friends attended. Steve is also a big fan of anything with fruit in it so these are an automatic winner in his book (plus, anything with sugar is perfect in his world). Here’s the recipe I normally use. At the end, I’ll share a quick and fast way to make them too.
INGREDIENTS:
1-1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
Powdered sugar (optional)
Seedless raspberry jam
DIRECTIONS:
Place flour, baking powder and salt in small bowl; stir to combine. Beat granulated sugar and butter in medium bowl with electric mixer at medium speed until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla. Gradually add flour mixture. Beat at low speed until dough forms. Divide dough in half; cover and refrigerate 2 hours or until firm.
Preheat oven to 375°F. Working with 1 portion at a time, roll out dough on lightly floured surface to 3/16-inch thickness. Cut dough into desired shapes with floured cookie cutters. Cut out equal numbers of each shape. (If dough becomes too soft, refrigerate several minutes before continuing.) Cut 1-inch centers out of half the cookies of each shape. Reroll trimmings and cut out more cookies. Place cookies 1-1/2 to 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets. Bake 7 to 9 minutes or until edges are lightly brown. Let cookies stand on cookie sheets 1 to 2 minutes. Remove cookies to wire racks; cool completely.
Spread 1 teaspoon jam on flat side of whole cookies, spreading almost to edges. Place cookies with holes, flat side down, over jam. Sprinkle cookies with holes with powdered sugar, if desired. Store tightly covered at room temperature. You can also freeze them for up to 3 months, but if you go this route wait to dust them with powdered sugar until you’re ready to serve them.
Thanksgiving Empanadas
I’m a huge – no massive – fan of multi use cooking. Meaning, I love (and work hard) to cook once and serve multiple times. But, no one wants to eat spaghetti for days in a row. In fact, I’m lucky if I’m able to get Steve to eat the same meal two days in a row. So, it’s not unusual for me to try and dream up creative ways to use our leftovers. One of our favorites is Spaghetti Subs – but that’s a recipe for another day.
Even with having lots of friends and family join us for Thanksgiving, I can almost always guarantee that we will have loads of leftovers. Granted, I almost always freeze at least a full turkey breast, and any other miscellaneous leftovers that freeze well. There are things though, which don’t freeze well and need to be used up. This year, my new concoction is what I call Thanksgiving Empanadas. One of the kids (Thomas’s girlfriend Sarah’s roommate, Tess – follow that?) came up with the name of “Heather’s Little Pockets of Heaven”. Whatever you want to call them, they’re easy and surprisingly VERY tasty. You can put almost any kind of Thanksgiving leftover into your filling mixture, we’ve tried a few variations and have yet to be disappointed. Here’s what we did this year:
INGREDIENTS:
2 c. leftover turkey, diced
1 c. leftover stuffing, slightly warmed
1 c. shredded potatoes, cooked (this wasn’t a leftover, but mashed potatoes didn’t sound right for this)
1 c. leftover green bean casserole
1 c. leftover cheese, grated (whatever is in your fridge will work)
2 boxes of pie crusts (the kind that are already made, you just unroll them and put into your pie pan)
1 egg
Salt, pepper, etc to taste
Preheat your oven to 350. Place a piece of parchment paper onto a cookie sheet (this will aid in clean up later).
Mix the turkey, stuffing, potatoes, green beans, and cheese together in a bowl.
Roll out your pie crusts and cut out 2-3” circles with a biscuit cutter, or cookie cutter. (You should be able to get 9-10 circles out of each pastry crust.) Use some flour if your cutter is sticking to the dough. The filling makes quite a bit, so generally I’ll stop after making 40 or so. If I’m feeling particularly frugal, I roll out the pastry scraps and cut out more circles rather than throwing them away.
Put about 1 tablespoon of the leftover filling into the center of a pie crust circle. Using a pastry brush (or your fingers if you don’t mind getting messy), brush a bit of egg around the bottom half of the circle and fold the pastry circle in half. Using a fork, crimp the edges of your pastry crust pocket to seal. Place onto your cookie sheet. .
Once the cookie sheet is full, brush each of your empanadas with a bit of egg (this will make them shiny and golden brown when they’re done). Put the cookie sheet into the oven and bake until the empanadas are golden brown. Don’t forget, since these are all leftovers, everything is already cooked. You’re just warming everything up and cooking the crust!
Because there is quite a lot of filling, I froze what was left in 2 cup portions to use for another day’s meals. I know the kids really loved these, and so having the filling on hand will be great when they’re over studying for finals, or when my grocery budget is shot and they’re over to hang out.
1…2…3 Pretzels
Before Silver Bella, there was Jingle Bella. In my searching for more information about it, I came across this recipe from the fabulous McFoof herself’s blog – and my life has not been same since. Neither has my waist line, but that’s another story!
After sharing some of these tasty treats with friends, I’ve been asked (and begged) to share this easy peasy recipe. I wouldn’t dare be the one to ruin your holiday treats, especially with one so absolutely easy! I’d imagine that this would be an ideal activity/treat to do with young(er) children as they can unwrap the candies you use and help you smoosh the M&M’s in too. Enjoy!
INGREDIENTS:
Tiny pretzels
Hershey’s Kisses
Plain M&M’s
Parchment Paper
INSTRUCTIONS:
Preheat oven to 250 degrees.
Place a piece of parchment paper on a cookie sheet (this may save you cleaning time later!). Place pretzels on cookie sheet, making sure they’re all flat and not laying all over each other. Then, place an unwrapped Hershey’s Kiss on top of each pretzel.
Bake pretzels for about 4 minutes; just enough to get the chocolate to melt. Too long and the chocolate dries out and won’t cooperate. Take the cookie sheet out of the oven, and set it onto something to protect your countertops (if that is something you need to worry about). Then, individually press 3 M&M’s into the chocolate to fill in the holes. Then, slide the parchment paper onto your table and reload your sheet or refrigerate to set the chocolate.
Yummy. Simple. Fast….gotta love it.
I’ve tried this yummy treat with Reece’s mini peanut butter cups (SOO yummy). They’re a little messier because of the peanut butter, but tasty none the less! This year, I used Rolos and pressed a pecan half into the softened chocolate for a turtle pretzel! Yum!
Grandma Rowley’s Divinity
INGREDIENTS:
4 C. Sugar
1 C. Light Corn Syrup
3/4 C. Water
1/4 t. salt
3 large egg whites, beaten
2 t. vanilla
nuts if desired.
DIRECTIONS:
Mix sugar, syrup, water & salt. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Stir, cover, and cook for 1 minute. Remove cover and cook to soft ball stage.
Add 1/3 C. of mixture to the egg whites. Continue cooking the remainder of the sugar mixture until it reaches hard ball stage. Add to egg white mixture. Beat until fluffy and add vanilla. Beat until it loses its gloss. (You’ll probably have to hand beat it for the last few minutes). Add nuts (if desired). Drop by the teaspoon full onto wax paper and cool.
** This recipe is from Aunt Carolyn’s recipe stash.
Mother Goose Popcorn
INGREDIENTS:
1 C. Sugar
3 T. Water
1 1/2 t. Vanilla
1/4 C. butter
Few drops of food coloring
4 Quarts popped popcorn.
DIRECTIONS:
Boil all ingredients together. Pour over 4 quarts of popcorn.
Enjoy!
** This recipe is from Aunt Carolyn’s Recipe Stash
Oreo Cookies
INGREDIENTS:
Chocolate Cake Mix
1/2 C. Shortening
2 Eggs
DIRECTIONS:
Mix all ingredients together and roll into 1″ balls. Put onto a greased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 for 6-7 minutes.
Cool and frost with cream cheese icing.
** This recipe is from Aunt Carolyns Recipe Stash.
Snickerdoodles
INGREDIENTS:
3/4 C. Sugar
1/2 C. Butter
1 Egg
1/2 t. Vanilla
1 1/2 C. Flour
1/4 t. Salt
1/4 t. Baking Soda
1/4 t. Cream of Tartar
2 T. Sugar
2 t. Cinnamon
DIRECTIONS:
In a large bowl, cream the 3/4 C. sugar and butter. Beat in egg and vanilla. In a seperate small bow, stir together flour, salt, baking soda and cream of tartar. Stir into butter mixture until well blended. In a third bowl, mix the remaining sugar and cinnamon together.
Grease 2 cookie sheets with shortening. Shape dough into 1″ balls and roll each in sugar/cinnamon mixture. Place balls 2″ apart on cookie sheets. Bake 8-10 minutes.
Makes about 36 cookies.
This recipe is from my Aunt Carolyn’s recipe file.
