Thanksgiving Appetizer Ideas

My family loves appetizers, and me personally I am a huge fan of dip :), so in an effort to change things up, I am putting some "different" recipes below, they stray from the traditional sausage and cheese platter, and cheeseball family. These are recipes that I have found online in the past but have added things to to change them some, and try to add a different flavor.

For this recipe, I took typical blue cheese bites and added a taste of fall with some apples, and rosemary goes well with turkey so it seemed like a natural progression.

1 cup crumbled blue cheese
1/4 cup chopped pecans

1 ounce cream cheese, softened

1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary leaves, crushed

2 Apples peeled, we use honeycrisp, because they are a little sweet.

1 (8 ounce) can refrigerated crescent dinner rolls

Mix blue cheese, pecans, cream cheese and rosemary. Cut each apple into 16 wedges; set aside.

Separate dough into 8 triangles. Cut each triangle in half lengthwise, forming 2 triangles. Spread 1 tablespoon cheese mixture over each triangle; place 2 apple wedges along wide end of each triangle. Roll up each triangle from wide end and place point side down 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake at 375 degrees 18 to 22 minutes or until golden brown. Serve warm.

Makes 16

I have an abnormal love of Fondue, maybe it's the Cheese :), My Hubby and I like to make fondue for date nights at home, because it is so much less expensive than going out for it. However, it also makes a GREAT appetizer. For this one, we add in Apple Cider instead of wine and it makes a sweet and savory dish.

2 cups apple cider

2 cups mozzarella cheese, shredded

1 1/2 cups provolone cheese, shredded

1/4 cup flour

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1/4 teaspoon onion powder

Bring the apple cider to a boil on the stove or in fondue pot, until the cider is reduced by half.

Add the remaining ingredients to the boiling cider whisking constantly

Continue to heat until the mixture is smooth and bubbling hot.
Turn down the heat and either serve it in the fondue pot, or in a warm dish and reheat as necessary to keep the cheese from getting too thick. Serve with French and Pumpernickle bread, apple slices, and veggies (carrots go very well).

Makes enough for 3 Cups.

Till next time,

My First Thanksgiving post...some side dishes

Hey everyone! With Thanksgiving shortly upon us I have decided to dedicate this weeks posts to sides and desserts,  another reason for this is because next week, I will not be posting much if at all, my family is moving, and we will be in the thick of packing and getting things ready to go :)

So here are 2 of our favorites to make, my Husband and I usually do our own Thanksgiving, since we are usually at family members houses for the holiday, and since we love Turkey sandwiches, we just go all out and make our own dinner too!

The first is for Maple Syrup Sweet potatoes, I am not a huge fan of sweet potatoes but the Hubbs is, and these I have found I can eat and actually enjoy!

2 1/2 large sweet potatoes

3 tablespoons butter

1/4 cup maple syrup

2 tablespoons brown sugar

2 tablespoons flaked coconut (optional)

1/3 cup chopped pecans

Place sweet potatoes in a large saucepan with water to cover them. Bring the water to a boil, reduce heat, cover and let simmer 25 to 30 minutes until tender.             

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Use non stick spray to grease an 8 inch baking pan.  When the sweet potatoes are cool, peel and cut them into large chunks. Arrange them in the baking dish. In a small saucepan, melt butter, syrup, sugar and coconut together over a low heat. Cook for 3 to 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Sprinkle mixture over sweet potatoes. Top mixture with pecans. Bake 5 to 7 minutes, until top is lightly browned.

This recipe Makes enough for 6 but we usually double it so we have left overs.

The next is Green Bean casserole, This is a tradition on many families tables, but in the words of Emeril I always kick my dishes up a notch and I have added a few suprises to mine and taken the flavor to a different place.

1 Bag (20 ounces) of frozen french cut green beans

1 Can of Cream of mushroom and roasted garlic soup

1/4 of a white onion diced fine

1 Jar of Pimento

1 Can of Water Chestnuts Diced

1 Can of french fried onions

a small bag of slivered almonds

2 teaspoons worstechire sauce

Pepper to taste

Coat an 8 inch baking dish with non-stick cooking spray, and preheat oven to 350 degrees, in a large bowl combine soup, onion, pimentos, water chesnuts, slivered almonds, worstechire sauce, black pepper and half of the French fried onions, add in green beans and mix till green beans are coated well with the mixture.  Put into prepared baking dish and bake for 25 minutes, stir and sprinkle with remaining onions, bake for an additional 5 minutes or until onions are golden brown.

We have also added some bacon into this recipe, if you do that, omit the worstechire sauce to avoid it being too salty. This recipe also makes enough for 6.

Enjoy!

Till next time,

Steel Cut Oats

Happy Friday everyone!

When I was nusrsing Abby, or pumping for her rather, I discovered these little nuggets of greatness, I was having a lot of problems with supply due to the fact that I was solely pumping, and a breast pump has far less suction than a baby does, so my supply would rise and fall all the time and it was frustrating to say the least.  Then I discoverd a tip to try eating steel cut oats for breakfast, and I wish I could explain to you the pure joy I felt when I began over producing milk the third day I was eating them.  They are fantastically healthy, and pretty yummy as well.

Steel Cut oats, often called Irish or scottish oats, are the raw oat that is used to make rolled oats or old fashioned oats, they are in the purest form and therefore have many more benefits than regular oatmeal.  They have much more fiber and protein, as well as a good dose of Iron.  On the flipside they are a huge pain in the butt to make on the stove.  However, with more research, I found tips to try making them in the crockpot overnight and the job of having these 6 days a week for breakfast when I was nursing was made so much easier.  We still eat them pretty regularly around here, and the kids LOVE them.  Plus a bonus is not having to "make" breakfast in the early am.  For the kids I usually serve them with fresh fruit on top and whole milk mixed in, with a bit of brown sugar.  For my Husband and I, I add in brown sugar or Honey and a tablespoon  of butter.  I have also found that greek yogurt mixed in makes them super creamy.

So here is the most simple recipe you will probably find on my blog (we double it so we can just heat and eat throughout the week).

1 Cups of Steel Cut oats
4 cups of water
2 tablespoons of butter

Mix together, set crockpot on low, and leave overnight.  I usually get up to give my son a bottle around 5am so I turn it down to keep warm at that time, and when we all get up for the day, it is the perfect temperature for the kids.  These usually cook up in about 8 hours on the low setting so if you are a night owl Like us I put them in around midnight.  But if you go to bed earlier, put them on anyway and they still cook up pretty well.

It makes for a perfect weekend breakfast as well, especially after a long week :)

Enjoy!
Till next time,

Baked Potato and Corn Chowder

Hi everyone!
I was inspired to make this recipe from the lovely ladies at Crockpot Girls, I have been working on a potato soup recipe for awhile, but never had the chance or the forethought to make it, and seeing the recipe gave me just the inspiration I needed :).

It was pretty simple to make and did not cost very much per serving at all it made most of a 4 quart Slow Cooker full of soup and broke down to about $3.00 a quart, I would say in our a house a quart is about 2.5 servings or so, if the kiddos are eating it, a quart makes about 4 to 5 servings, so it breaks down to a $1.50 or less per serving, add bread and it comes to about $2.00 a serving.

My Husband said it was better than Paneras, and obviously far less expensive, I hope you enjoy it as much as we did :)

5 pounds russet potatoes
1 quart Chicken Stock
1 stick of butter
1 whole onion Diced
5 to 6 cloves of Crushed garlic
1 Pint Heavy whipping Cream or 2 half pints if they are less expensive, which was the case when I bought them
1 Package of Bacon Bits (I used Oscar Mayer)
1 2 cup Package of Sharp Cheddar Cheese
1 Can of Corn (drained)
Dill, Parsley, Salt, and Pepper to taste

Dice Potatoes after washing them, leaving the skins on, Layer these with the onions so they are evenly distributed.  Sprinkle Dill, Parsley, salt and pepper over the top, and pour in the Chicken broth, Stir to make sure the spices are distributed, cover and let cook on Low for 3 to 4 hours or until Potatoes are tender, I kicked it up to high for about 2 hours to speed up the process a little, and then turned it back down.  Once potatoes are tender, Use a potato masher and break them down to your desired thickness, we always leave chunks in our mashed potatoes so I did the same for these.  Pour in cream, cut butter into chunks and add in, stir until butter is melted, Add in Bacon bits, Cheese and Corn and stir until evenly distributed and let cook.  Once all the ingredients are added you can serve it about 10 to 15 minutes later, but I covered it and let it cook on low for another 2 hours to let the flavors develop.  So I would recommend doing this if you can.

Serve with bacon, chives, sour cream and a sprinkle of cheddar on top, and a good crusty bread for dipping.

Till Next Time,