Ham and Cheese Crescents

For a little variety, I like to serve two kinds of roll up crescent roll appetizers. I begin these Ham and Cheese Crescents just like the Prosciutto Pinwheels. I roll out the refrigerator crescent rolls and seal the center seam. Instead of herb cheese, I spread the dough with a tablespoon of mustard.



Next I sprinkle with 1/4 cup of shredded cheddar


and top with slices of deli ham,


Then I roll them up and roll the roll in sesame seeds. Got that? Roll, roll, roll.


Slice each roll into 5 pieces and bake for 15-20 minutes at 375 degrees.


Ham it up Crescent Rolls

8 oz. pkg. crescent rolls
8 slices ham
4 t. mustard
1 cup shredded swiss or cheddar
2 T. sesame seeds

Roll up. Seal the seams. Cut each roll into 5 slices. Place the slices on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 375 degrees for 15-20 minutes.

Dessert

Chocolate chip cookie-cupcakes topped with chocolate ganache, gingerbread cookie- cupcakes topped with cream cheese icing, creme de menthe brownies(I forgot to get a picture of these), and Best Ever Chocolate Cheesecake were the desserts on the menu for this party. I admit that I had no part in the dessert portion of the party...beyond contributing my Best Ever Chocolate Cheesecake recipe and drizzling the ganache on top before we put it on the table.

My sister had the idea to bake various types of cookies in mini muffin cups and top them with frosting. As we were racing through the store and throwing ingredients into the cart, she grabbed gingerbread cookie dough. I think that I might have said something about avoiding an "impulse buy" and that we should just stick to the menu. I had not ever seen the pre-made gingerbread dough in the store before now. As a woman who had just spent 3 days making gingerbread cookies, I secretly hoped that the Nestle brand would not be as good. I needed to justify the time spent slaving over my cookies. No such luck. The Nestle cookies were delicious. I didn't try to roll out and cut out this dough, but I assume that it would be fine for that purpose.

After pressing the dough into mini muffin cups and baking them, my sister made a cream cheese frosting and piped it onto the top of the tiny cookie-cupcakes.

Then we lightly dusted them with nutmeg and put them on a tray. They were pretty and oh-so-good.


Here's the Chocolate Cheesecake Recipe from Kraft Foods:

18 OREO Cookies, crushed
2 Tbsp. butter or margarine, melted
3 pkg. (8 oz. each) PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, softened
1 cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1 pkg. (8 squares) BAKER'S Semi-Sweet Chocolate, melted, slightly cooled
3 eggs
1 cup thawed COOL WHIP

HEAT oven to 325°F. Mix cookie crumbs and butter; press onto bottom of 9-inch springform pan. Bake 10 min.

BEAT cream cheese, sugar and vanilla with mixer until well blended. Add chocolate; mix well. Add eggs, 1 at a time, mixing on low speed after each just until blended. Pour over crust.

BAKE 45 to 55 min. or until center is almost set. Run knife or metal spatula around rim of pan to loosen cake; cool before removing rim. Refrigerate 4 hours. Top with COOL WHIP and drizzle with melted chocolate.

1st Family Christmas Party

On Friday evening, we celebrated Christmas with the first of 4 family Christmas dinners. I was blessed to see my grandpa and his wife and every single one of my dad's siblings, their spouses, and most of my cousins. It was no small feat to get everyone in the same place at the same time. My dad has 5 siblings. It was everything a family Christmas should be...great food, catching up with loved ones, fun games (Guitar Hero and Poker til' after midnight) and of course, great food. Oh, did I already say that? I couldn't possibly highlight every single dish and cookie from the night, so I have narrowed my report down to 3 categories. Favorite Tradition, Favorite First Timer, Favorite Recipe That's Been Around for a While, But I Just Discovered It This Year...let's just call this: Honorable Mention.

Favorite Tradition: My Aunt Becky's Santa Cookies. I love these cookies. I look forward to them every year. I stacked up 5 to take home with me soon after I walked in the door. That's one for each member of my family and an extra for me. Truth be told, before the week is out, I will probably eat every last one. These cookies go back to my earliest Christmas memories. And bless my Aunt Becky for taking the time every year, even now that we're all grown up. These must take some serious time. The cookie itself is soft and perfectly sweet. Santa has raisins for eyes and I believe that Aunt Becky actually paints on his smile. The rest is red sugar and a delicious frosting. Santa's beard is sprinkled with coconut, which may turn some of you off, but it absolutely makes this cookie for me. I love them! Did I say that already?


Here is my Favorite First Timer:

Making their debut at Christmas this year: Red Raspberry Cream Cheese Tarts. I'm not sure if that's actually their official name, but it is an accurate description. My other Aunt Becky made these. Two of my uncles married women with the same first name, so I have two Aunt Beckys. I also have more than one Aunt Sue, but that's completely beside the point. Phyllo dough mini tarts, seedless raspberry preserves, cream cheese, sweetened condensed milk and a hint of lemon...beautiful red raspberry on top. Not only is this recipe right up my easy and delicious food preparation alley, it was pretty too. I loved these little tarts. I'm not sure of the correct recipe name or even ingredients, but this was good. Maybe if we're lucky, Aunt Becky is reading and she'd be kind enough to post the recipe in the comments section of this post.

Last, but certainly not least, the Honorable Mention. This year it is Cinnamon Pudding. The shout out goes to my mom. I remember seeing this over the years, but I never took advantage of this heavenly sweet and spicy trifle. Honestly, I didn't eat it Friday night at the family dinner, either. I stayed through the weekend and I helped myself to this dessert as leftovers the next day. Whoa! Was I surprised! She bakes one of those cakes(from scratch) with the gooey cinnamon sauce on the bottom and then layers it with whipped topping. Oh, it is good.



I know, all desserts. The 2 lbs of giant shrimp I consumed at the party were also very good, but the desserts just seemed to stand out this year. I also managed to attend 3 other parties while back home this weekend. One of them was a holiday open house hosted by one of my sisters. I was able to help her prepare the appetizers, so keep watching this week... I plan to feature some of my favorite appetizer recipes before Christmas day! My gift to you : )

Tater Tot Casserole

Anyone remember this?

Randy: Napoleon, give me some of your tots.
Napoleon Dynamite: No, go find your own.
Randy: Come on, give me some of your tots.
Napoleon Dynamite: No, I'm freakin' starving! I didn't get to eat anything today.
I just can't say (or in this case, type) the words "Tater Tot" without thinking of Napoleon Dynamite. I just had to get that out of the way before typing "tater tot" 15 times in the following post.

I'm not going to claim that Tater Tot Casserole is the classiest meal that I've prepared in my kitchen, nor is it the healthiest. But let's not talk about what the Tot is not and let's examine what this casserole is... quick, easy, delicious, and (fun fact) the first casserole I ever made. I was around the age of 6. It was in a Cooking with Kids cookbook. This casserole also gave me the chance to use up the rest of a bag of economy size tater tots that I got a deal on 3 months ago and they're still sitting in the back of my freezer taking up space.

So here's the blueprint for constructing this casserole.

First, put 1 1/2 lbs. of uncooked, lean ground beef in the bottom of a 9 X 13 baking dish. You'll want to use lean beef because you're not browning it in the skillet and then draining off the fat. The fat stays in this casserole. Oh, and I should mention that I sprinkled a little salt over the beef.


Top with 1/2 of a chopped onion


And 4 cups of frozen, mixed veggies. I salt and pepper this layer too. Yes, I know that too much sodium leads to high blood pressure. I also know that if the dish is under seasoned, my husband is going to cover it with salt anyway. Tonight I beat him to the punch.


Now comes the cream soup layer. You can use cream of mushroom, cream of chicken...pretty much any cream soup that you have in your pantry. I found a cream of chicken and a cheddar cheese soup. I mixed them together and spread them over the veggie layer. I'm pretty sure the cheese soup "made" this casserole. It was even better than I remember from my childhood.


Now the step that conjures nostalgic recollections from my elementary school cafeteria of sweet grandma-type ladies in hairnets and blowing bubbles in my chocolate milk carton with a straw...arrange those tater tots!


Pop it in a 375 degree oven and go about your life for an hour. Then serve up this dinner and watch your family devour it. Even my picky one ate the vegetables since they were chopped up small and covered in cheesy soup and tater tots.


Tater Tot Casserole

1 1/2 pounds lean ground beef
1/2 onion, chopped
4 cups frozen mixed vegetables
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 can cheddar cheese soup
1 (32 ounce) package frozen potato rounds
Salt and pepper
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Spray 9x13 glass baking dish with cooking spray. Spread hamburger into bottom of pan, covering entire bottom, gently tamping beef down. Sprinkle with diced onions. Layer frozen veggies as next layer. Cover with the soup, straight from the can, carefully spreading with spatula to cover entirely.
Layer tater tots on top, covering entire top with tots. Bake at 375 degrees F (190 degrees) for 1 hour, or until hamburger is done. Check after 30 minutes; if tots are getting too brown, turn down to 350 degrees F (190 degrees C).

Smoked Pork Loin and Creamed Peas

Preparing Tuesday night dinner is usually a little hectic. We arrive home from my daughter's dance class and I rush to throw dinner together so that we can eat and clean up before bedtime begins. Tonight, I put out this Smoked Pork Loin to defrost. It was a gift. One of the gifts my grandma is giving this season is the gift of pork. We've got sausage and bacon and ribs all stashed happily away in our freezer. This came from Stonie's Sausage Shop in Missouri. They are famous for their smoked meats for a good reason. It tastes awesome! I've been to the shop a few times and sampled many of their products. It's ALL good.


Since there were no instructions on the package, I just decided to heat it in the skillet like sliced ham on a Sunday mornin'. You have to be careful to just heat it, not actually cook it beyond the point of being heated or it will dry out. It may not be a bad idea to put a little water in your skillet. My dad also claims that he microwaved his to perfection. To each their own.


I stared into the freezer trying to decide what side to make with our smoked pork loin. I had half a bag of peas and some corn grown and bagged from "back home". I decided on both. If the kids wouldn't eat one, they'd eat the other.

As the peas and corn were cooking away on the stove top I decided on creamed peas instead of plain steamed peas.(This is why I do not fit into my jeans).

I melted about a tablespoon of butter(or more) in a small skillet.


Then I tossed in some thinly sliced onions and sauteed them until tender.


Next I added about 2 tablespoons of flour and some salt.


I poured in about a cup of milk


and cooked and stirred until slightly thickened.


I poured the mixture over my steamed peas.



The sweet creamy peas were a perfect contrast to the delicious salty taste of the pork loin.


Since I was on a roll, I also threw a biscuit onto the plate. Get it? Roll? Biscuit? Ha. Ha. My husband brought leftover biscuits home from a breakfast he had at work. As I look at this I think, "Cracker Barrel." It looks like something you'd eat at the Cracker Barrel. Smoked meat, two sides, and a biscuit. Mmmm. mmm. Uncle Herschel's Country Dinner Special. Well, it was a hit. My daughter actually said, "My favorite. Mommy, I like this dinner better than watching t.v." Coming from her, that is a big compliment.