What do you do with a drunken sailor? (Every time I start a sentence with “What do you do”, my mind goes to that song that our sweet Little Caleb use to walk around singing and we have no idea where he learned it, obviously not at Sunday School). I mean, what do you do with left over turkey or chicken and stuffing? There, back on tract! Well not being in the mood to cook last night, I kept walking into the pantry seeing if anything stood out to me! First of all you have to understand that to me Thanksgiving is all about the dressing! Yes I love and am grateful for family and friends, but truth be told, it’s the dressing that keeps me up at night just thinking about how good it will taste loaded with gravy, sitting beside a huge mound of mashed potatoes with cranberry sauce and green beans! That my sweet friends is, What makes Thanksgiving (besides all the family dynamics and who doesn’t want to sit by who and who doesn’t eat anything other than the salad and meat and who won’t speak to a cousin because they are rooting for the other ball team!) So to make this marvelous day of our own version of Christmas Vacation Dinner even better, my cornbread stuffing turned out…..awful!!! Ate maybe 5 bites of it and threw the rest out.

To drown my sorrow I ate pecan and pumpkin pie for dinner! Yep that was my dinner! I couldn’t even begin to think about having leftovers without dressing! Randy even turned on a Hallmark movie for me hoping to cheer me up! With two huge pieces of pie piled high with whipped cream, I was actually able to get through the night without going to the kitchen and attempting to make another batch of dressing! Back to Last night! Seeing a box of Stove Top (I keep it on hand for stuffing zucchini and mushrooms) Dressing I pulled it off the shelf and figured that I could add some shredded chicken to it and serve it with some gravy and maybe that would “fix” my craving for stuffing! When I looked at the back over it had a recipe that sounded very good so I ended up substituting the shredding chicken for the crab the recipe called for! They were delicious! I did add some sage and poultry seasoning to the mixture but besides that I followed the recipe and will make it again. Great way to use left over turkey or chicken!

Lesson learned: always have a box of Stove Top in kitchen, just in case….!

Looking through The Spirit of Christmas Cookbook from 1996, last night I came across this recipe which reads like the perfect Christmas morning coffee cake! I am going to make it for a Christmas get together since I don’t want to wait for Christmas to have it!

1/2 cup softened butter

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

2 eggs

2 teas almond extract

1 teas vanilla

2 cups all purpose flour

1 teas baking powder

1 teas baking soda

1 teas salt

1 cup sour cream

1 cup whole berry cranberry sauce

Glaze

1 cup powdered sugar

3 tables milk

1/2 teas almond extract

Preheat oven to 350

For cake:

Cream butter with sugar in large bowl. Beat in room temp eggs with extracts until well blended.

In small bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir flour mixture into creamed mixture, Alternating with sour cream. Stir until no lumps remain. Pour half of the batter into a greased and floured 9” tube pan. Spoon cranberry sauce over batter. Top with remaining batter. Bake until cake tests done. About 50-60 minutes, depending on your oven! Remove from oven and cool in pan 10 minutes. While cake is cooling in pan, mix all glaze ingredients together and stir until smooth! Remove cake from pan and drizzle glaze over warm cake!

Serves:10-12

Going to a ladies lunch at Chicken Salad Chicks tomorrow made me think we need to end our fun lunch with some cupcakes! Since Thanksgiving is next week, These Cupcakes seemed to just be what might “spice” up our gathering!

Duncan Hines Spice Cake Mix

4 eggs at room temperature

1 cup water

1/3 oil

1 small package instant vanilla pudding

Mix Al ingredients together and with electric mixer beat for 2 minutes. Fill cupcake liners about half full and bake in preheated 350 degree oven until cupcakes are done. About 15-18 min depending on your oven. made 22 cupcakes

Frost with you favorite cream cheese or buttercream frosting

I used cream cheese and sprinkled crushed pralined pecans (purchased at Costco)over the top!

1/2 cup (115g) unsalted butter,
softened to room temperature
1/2 cup (100g) packed light or dark
brown sugar
1 large egg, plus 1 large egg yolk, at room temperature*
1/2 cup (120ml) milk, at room
temperature*
1/2 cup (156g) molasses
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 and 1/3 cups (166g) all-purpose
flour (spoon & leveled)
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice

Preheat oven to 350.

Combine brown sugar, softened butter and mix for two minutes! Add egg and yolk, vanilla and molasses and mix well. Pour in milk and mix until combined! Add flour with baking soda, baking powder, salt and spices ! Stir with a fork and then gradually add to wet mixture beating until well combined. Using a large cookie scoop, drop into about 12 cupcake liners and bake in preheated 350 degree oven for about 15-18 min, or until cupcakes test done! Cool cupcakes completely and frost with cream cheese frosting or your favorite buttercream frosting that you might add a little ground cinnamon to (about 1/2 teas to if using 1/2 cup butter, 3 1/2 cups powdered sugar recipe) Cream cheese frosting is just 8 oz softened cream cheese, 1/2 cup butter to 4 cups powdered sugar adding whipped cream as needed to get to spreading consistency.

Today was a baking day here at the Gingerbread House. So much fun baking with friends and sharing lunch while sampling all the wonderful pastries! Thanks Peggy for the recipe, the hauling of all the necessary items over here needed to make these and the love that you put into making memories with friends!

Fruit Kolaches (aka Kolacky)

 

From Peggy Stodola                       Bake 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes

 

Ingredients for dough:

1 lb. cream cheese softened (2- 8 oz bars)

1 lb. butter softened (4 sticks)

1 lb. flour (4 cups)

 

 

Filing:  Solo cake & pastry filling (comes in various flavors, ie. cherry, almond, apricot, poppy seed).  These can be found in the grocery aisle with pie fillings.  

 

Instructions for dough:

Mix all ingredients together.  Divide into 5 or 6portions and form each into a flat disk.  Wrap each in saran wrap and put in fridge at least 4-5 hours (overnight is good).

 

Let the dough rest on the counter for about 30 minutes.  Take one disk of dough and roll it out on floured surface (or between two sheets of wax paper or saran wrap) to about 1/8” thickness.  Cut dough into 3” squares (or use a square cookie cutter). 

 

Put approx. 1 t. of filling in center of each square.  Bring up 2 opposite corners to center and fold one corner over the other (put dab of egg wash on the corner to make them stick).  Place on ungreased parchment lined cookie sheets.

 

Check at 10 minutes (you want them to barely be done; slightly golden on the bottoms. Remove from oven and place on cooling rack. Dust tops with sifted powdered sugar after kolaches are completely cooled. Store in airtight containers.

Some of you have probably already seen this recipe on FB but if not I wanted to post it for myself to keep and for sharing it with y’all! A great salad/side dish for the holidays. Just waiting for the fresh cranberries to appear in the stores‘. Can’t remember what site I stole it from but it sound so so good! Happy Fall Y’all!

Ingredients

• ▢ 2 cups sour cream (or plain greek yogurt)
• ▢ 2 cups pineapple tidbits well drained
• ▢ 2 cups mini marshmallows
• ▢ 1 cup pecans chopped
• ▢ 2 cups flaked coconut

Cranberry Sauce

• ▢ 3 cups Fresh Cranberries
• ▢ ¾ cup Sugar
• ▢ 1 cup water
• ▢ 1 Cinnamon Stick

Instructions

• Combine cranberries, sugar, water and cinnamon stick in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and let simmer 10 minutes. Cool completely (sauce will thicken upon cooling).
• Add 1 ½ cups cooled cranberry mixture from step 1 with remaining ingredients and stir well.
• Let sit 4 hours or overnight.