Christmas Dinner - Garlic Knots and Apple Pie

Christmas Dinner was pretty much full of what I consider the Christmas basics: ham, lasagna, salad, and smashed red skin potatoes. We also added in brussel sprouts and garlic knots to the mix. For dessert we had an apple pie with a cinnamon roll crust and crumble topping and homemade peppermint/candy cane ice cream. The garlic knots were the star of the show in my mind although the pie was delicious too. Those recipes are below although be warned, it wasn't until the apples were peeled and sliced and I was about to start making magic happen when I realized I didn't even consider looking up a recipe for the pie! I winged the apple pie when making it so I've put my best guesses for measurements in the recipe. You can't really screw it up so go with your gut!

Garlic Knots

2 tubes (12 oz each) Pillsbury Golden Layers Refrigerated Buttermilk Biscuits
1/3 cup olive oil
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon garlic powder
2 teaspoons parsley flakes

1. Preheat over to 400 degrees.
2. Combine olive oil, garlic powder, parsley in small bowl (I also added a touch of melted butter)
3. Roll each biscuit into a 12 inch rope, brush with olive oil mixture, tie into a knot and tuck ends under. Place onto a greased baking sheet.
4. Bake 8-10 minutes or until golden brown. Makes 20 garlic knots.

**This recipe is doubled to accomodate our crew but can easily be halved.

Original garlic knot recipe: http://realmomkitchen.com/609/easy-parmesan-knots/

Apple Pie with Cinnamon Roll Crust and crumble topping

Crust:

1 Pillsbury refrigerated pie crust (not the frozen kind)

1 tablespoon melted butter

2 tablespoons cinnamon

1 tablespoon brown sugar

Pie:

6 apples

2 teaspoons lemon juice

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 tablespoon flour

1 teaspoon cinnamon

Topping:

1 package of instant oats (I like to use brown sugar and cinnamon)

1 tablespoon flour

3 tablespoons brown sugar

2 tablespoons softened butter

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2. Unroll the pie crust on lightly floured surface. Brush with melted butter and sprinkle on cinnamon and brown sugar (as much or as little as you'd like). Roll the pie crust back up and cut into 1/2 inch rolls. 

3. Lightly grease a 9-inch pie plate. Place about 4 cinnamon rolls near each other and press into plate. Do not leave any gaps between the cinnamon rolls. Continue until the bottom and sides of the plate are filling with smashed cinnamon rolls and your crust is ready.

4. Peel and slice apples and coat with lemon juice. Toss apples with sugars, flour, and cinnamon and pour into prepared cinnamon roll crust.

5. In a small bowl, combine all ingredients for the crumble. Sprinkle on top of apples.

6. Bake at 400 degrees for about 40-45 minutes or until filling is bubbly and apples are tender.

AEM

Christmas Brunch

The whole gang was over for brunch on Christmas morning and I decided it was a perfect time to test out some newly found recipes. On the menu was fresh melon, egg casserole "muffins" (sausage and cheese, bacon and cheese, bacon) and mini cini rolls. I didn't regret any of these decisions!


Egg Muffins

1 pound breakfast sausage
1 pound bacon
16 large eggs
1/2 cup skim milk
1 tsp baking powder
salt & pepper to taste
Shredded Cheese

1. Preheat oven to 375 F.
2. In a large saute pan, over medium high heat, brown Italian Sausage for about 5 minutes, or until the sausage is no longer pink. Cook the bacon in the oven on a foil-lined tray for about 10 minutes at 400 F.
3. Whisk together eggs, milk, oil and baking powder.  Season with salt and pepper.
4. Lightly spray a 12-cupcake pan with cooking spray. Spoon out the sausage and/or bacon into each cup
5. Add the egg mixture over sausage/bacon
6. Sprinkle with shredded cheese.
7. Bake for 15-20 minutes.  

*This is a doubled version of the recipe which I needed for our crowd, it can easily be cut in half to only make a dozen
**I made the meat about 2 days in advance and put it in the fridge to help save me some time on Christmas morning. Worked brilliantly! 

Mini Cinnamon Rolls

1 8oz tube reduced fat crescent roll dough
1 tablespoon butter
cinnamon
brown sugar
1 teaspoon maple syrup
1 tablespoon skim milk
3/4 cup powdered sugar

1. Preheat the oven according to the crescent roll directions. Unroll the dough to get the first 4 triangles and lay them flat. Pinch the seams together, flip the dough, pinch those seams together.
2. Roll out the dough to smooth the seams until it is about 1/4" thick. Brush with butter and sprinkle with cinnamon and brown sugar. The amount of brown sugar/cinnamon you use is up to you! Roll it up with the cinnamon/brown sugar on the inside and cut into 8 pieces.
3. Spray a mini-muffin tin with cooking spray and place mini cini rolls into the tin.
4. Repeat steps 1 and 2.
5. Bake according to the suggestion on the crescent roll package or until the tops are slightly brown.
6. As they bake, whisk together the syrup and milk, add powdered sugar. Drizzle the icing over the baked cinnamon rolls.

AEM

Original Egg Muffin Recipe: http://www.snackinginthekitchen.com/2010/05/mothers-day-2010-brunch.html

Original Cini Roll Recipe: http://iowagirleats.com/2011/11/23/8-minute-mini-cinnamon-rolls/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%253A+IowaGirlEats+%2528Iowa+Girl+Eats%2529

Christmas Table

Our tree this year was red and silver with kiwi/lime accents so I wanted the table to go along with the same theme since they are basically in the same room. I found a pretty tablecloth that fit perfect, I used the china for the first time, and even the poppers matched! The flowers are courtesy of my mom and I love the way cranberries and candles float in a shallow bowl. 

AEM

Mike's Birthday

Mike hit the big 3-0 this year! To celebrate I fell back on an old favorite and by "old" I mean about 6 months ago! At our wedding, the groom's cake was a chocolate cake with peanut butter filling (because Mike loves Reese's) in the shape of a piece of Bazooka gum (because Mike loves gum). We didn't get to enjoy more than a bite of it at the time and I couldn't get my mind off it so I found a local bakery to make a followup so we could all relive the experience. This time, it was int he shape of a Reese's package with mini Reese's cups surrounding it. Soooooo good!

AEM

Festive (Ugly) Light

We have the UGLIEST light over our dining room table. It was there when we moved in and we just haven't gotten rid of it yet. Partially because it seems like a pain to replace it and partially because we don't often use the dining room so it's offensive nature is typically hidden. I decided to decorate in an attempt to shield some of the heinousness and hoped the decor would not just draw attention to the awful thing. It could still use some perfecting and the light didn't want to cooperate but here's what went down.

I used ribbon and silver balls. I cut a long piece of ribbon, maybe about 2 feet long. I put one end of the ribbon through the hole in the top of the ball and put the ball in the center of the ribbon. I folded the ribbon in half and added in about 5-6 other balls with about 3-4 inches between each ball. Every ball except the first has both ends of the ribbon strung through it. I made three of these ball ribbons and tied one to each support on the light. Then I used little pieces of ribbon to tie it together and make it look like one mess instead of 3.

When it was done it looks a little unfinished to me so I found some extra red ribbon laying around and added bows. I'm not 100% pleased with the way it turned out but in my mind, it was much better than that horrid light!

AEM

Life gave me lemons, so I made Limoncello

We have a lemon tree in our backyard and apparently it starts producing a ridiculous amount of lemons just before Christmas. After giving a ton of them to my neighbors (by "giving" I mean almost forcing/begging them to take them) one of them suggested making limoncello. I laughed and thought it was a funny and interesting idea and left it at that. Later that night I looked up recipes and realized it is super easy to make so I got to work!

 

Limoncello

12 lemons
1 750-ml bottle of vodka or grain alcohol (I used Everclear)
3 1/2 cups water
2 1/2 cups sugar

1. Use a vegetable peeler to remove the peel from the lemons. Mine peeled well with no pith (the gross white stuff) but if yours down, trim that pith off. Place the peels in a 2-quart pitcher. Pour the alcohol over the lemon peels, cover, and let sit at room temperature for at least 4 days.

2. Stir the water and sugar in a large saucepan over medium heat until the sugar dissolves. It should take about 5 minutes. Cool. Pour the sugar syrup over the alcohol/peel mixture. Recover and let stand overnight.
3. Strain through a mesh strainer and discard the peels. Transfer into bottles and refrigeration until cold. I put ours in the freezer.

Original Recipe: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/limoncello-recipe/index.html


AEM

Christmas Puppy Chow

Well it seems as though I've been gone a while but have no fear, I'm back! And ready to give tons of updates about the trouble I've been causing. In addition to going crazy with the amount of cookies I made for Christmas (4 dozen sugar, 7 dozen chocolate chip, a mountain of tiny ginger snaps) I also whipped up some Christmas Puppy Chow. Delicious and easy!

Puppy Chow 

9 cups Chex Mix (I use Rice)
1 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1. Pour chocolate chips, peanut butter, and butter into a bowl and microwaved uncovered for 1 minute. Stir. Microwave another 30 seconds or until mixture is stirred smooth. Stir in vanilla.
2. Pour mixture over cereal and stir until evenly coated.
3. Add powdered sugar and stir until coated (or put mixture into a 2 gallon plastic bag, add powdered sugar and shake)
4. Spread on wax paper to cool. Store in airtight container.

**I also added about a 1/2 cup or so of red and green Christmas M&Ms to make it a little more festive.


Original recipe: http://www.chex.com/recipes/RecipeView.aspx?RecipeId=45860&CategoryId=340

AEM