Sausage and Apple Stuffing

I hope that everyone had a great Christmas! My husband worked both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, so we will be having our big holiday meal on New Year’s Eve. Today’s recipe is great for a holiday meal, but you can also use it as a side dish anytime of the year. Most people only associate stuffing with Thanksgiving, but I love it on Christmas and/or New Years and it’s great any time of year. So, Merry Belated Christmas, Happy New Year a bit early, and on with the recipe…

What You’ll Need…

11-12 Cups Toasted Bread Crumbs

1 Stalk Celery (Chopped)

2 Carrots (Chopped)

1 Apple (Chopped)

½ Onion (Diced)

2 Handfuls Mushrooms (Chopped)

3 Links Italian Sausage (Any kind you like.)

1 Cup Chicken Stock

3-4 Tablespoons Butter

Salt (To taste.)

Pepper (To taste.)

As you all know I make my own bread, so I make my own bread crumbs as well. You can use store bought bread crumbs for this if you like, but I think that homemade bread crumbs are better. If you choose to make your own bread crumbs line a baking sheet if about two loaves worth of bread. Toast the bread in the oven until golden brown and then let it. Once the bread has cooled break it into crumbs. You’ll need about 11-12 cups of “crumbs”; they’re more like cubes actually. You can do this a few hours in advance.

Once the bread is cubed and you are ready to start on the rest of the stuffing pre-heat your oven to 350. Now move on to the vegetables and sausage. Chopped up one stalk of celery, two carrots, one apple of your choice, half of an onion, and two handfuls of any mushrooms that you like. 

Once the vegetables have been chopped take the casings off of the sausage links and brown the sausage in a small/medium skillet. 

Next, melt 3-4 tablespoons of butter in a medium skillet and add the vegetables in order of cooking time. Onions, carrots and celery take the longest to cook, so add them first. After a few minutes add the apples to the pan. Lastly add the mushrooms and sauté until all of the vegetables are cooked. 

Add the vegetables, sausage, salt and pepper to the bread crumbs and mix them all together. Lastly, add one cup of chicken stock to the mixture. Stir the whole mixture one more time before move it to a greased 9x13 pan. 

Let the stuffing bake for 30 minutes, until golden brown.

Enjoy!

Cinnamon Rolls

Everyone loves cinnamon rolls, right? I occasionally make them and when I do they disappear quite quickly. This recipe is not my own, but it is the one that I use. These cinnamon rolls are delicious, simple to make, they don’t have yeast in them so there is no wait time, and they can be made in advance. These would be great for Christmas morning; just pull the rolls out of the freezer or refrigerator on Christmas Eve so that they can thaw. Pop them in the oven and have a sweet treat for your Christmas breakfast. We will be having them on New Year’s Day since my husband works on Christmas. Enjoy this recipe from Momswhothink.com. If you make them let me know what you think of them!

What You’ll Need

2 1/2 Cups All-Purpose Flour,

2 Tablespoons Sugar

1 1/4 Teaspoons Baking Powder

1/2 Teaspoon Baking Soda

1/2 Teaspoon Salt

1 1/4 Cups Buttermilk (For this you can use regular milk with some lemon juice.)

6 Tablespoons Butter  (Melted)

Cinnamon Filling:

3/4 Cup Brown Sugar

1/4 Cup White Granulated Sugar

3 Teaspoons Cinnamon

1/8 Teaspoon Salt

1 Tablespoon Butter (Melted)

Cream Cheese Frosting:

4oz Cream Cheese (Room temperature)

4oz Butter (Room temperature)

1 Teaspoon Vanilla

1 Cup Powdered Sugar

Start out by making the cinnamon filling. In a small bowl combine white and brown sugars, cinnamon, salt, and melted butter. The mixture should look like wet sand.

Next, to make the dough whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In a separate bowl combine the buttermilk and 2 tablespoons of melted butter. If you don’t have buttermilk you can make it by combining a tablespoon of lemon juice with 1 ¼ cups milk, allow the mixture to sit for five minutes before adding the butter to it. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir the mixture with a wooden spoon. When the dough looks shaggy knead it until it all comes together.

Now, flour the counter generously so that the dough doesn’t stick and roll the dough out. You can use your hands or a rolling pin. Make a rectangle about 9x12. (I actually use a tape measure to make sure that it is the correct size.

Once the dough is rolled out brush with the 2 tablespoons of melted butter. Sprinkle the dough evenly with the cinnamon filling leaving a ½ inch border. Press the filling into the dough. 

Loosen the dough from the counter carefully and roll the dough into a log. Start on the long side and pinch the seam to seal.

Grease a 9x13 pan before cutting the rolls. Slice the log into 8 pieces and place them into the greased pan.

If you are making these in advance this is the time to freeze or refrigerate the rolls. If you are making the rolls the night before you want to serve the rolls cover the pan and store in the refrigerator. If you are planning to store them any longer than a day do so in the freezer. If you freeze the rolls remove them from the freezer the night before you plan to bake them to ensure that they are thawed.

To bake the rolls pre-heat your oven to 425. Brush the rolls with 2 tablespoons of melted butter (You probably won’t use it all). Bake the rolls for 20-25 minutes, until the edges are golden brown.

While the rolls are baking you can make the icing, but you can definitely make it in advance as well. In a medium mixing bowl combine 1 cup powdered sugar with 4oz of cream cheese, 4oz of butter, and 1 teaspoon of vanilla. Make sure that the cream cheese and butter are both room temperature. Stir until combined. You can use a hand mixer for this part if you like.

Once the rolls are baked allow them to cool for a few minutes, burned mouths are no fun. Spread icing over top of rolls and enjoy! Store the left over rolls and icing in the refrigerator. I find that if you have left over rolls and icing that warming up the icing in the microwave before trying to spread it works great.

Enjoy!

Old-fashioned Apple Pie

Apple pie, who doesn’t love apple pie. It is perfect for Christmas or New Years and is actually quite simple to make. Now, I made this pie for New Year’s Eve last year and it was the best apple pie that I have ever had in my entire life. I can’t take credit for this recipe; I’m not creative enough to make pie recipes. I hope that if you have time you use this recipe to make an amazing pie. If you do let me know what you thought of it. So, on with the recipe from Momswhothink.com.

What You’ll Need…

Crust:

2 1/2 Cups All-purpose Flour

1/2 Teaspoon Salt

1 Cup Butter [Two sticks] (Chilled and diced.)

1/2 Cup Ice Water

Pie Filling:

8 Cups Apples (Sliced and peeled.) [About 3lbs, Granny Smith apples work best.]

2 Tablespoons Lemon Juice

3/4 Cup White Sugar

1/4 Cup Brown Sugar

1/4 Cup All-purpose Flour

1 Teaspoon Ground Cinnamon

1/4 Teaspoon Ground Nutmeg

2 Tablespoons Butter

1 Egg Yolk

1 Tablespoon Milk

Before you can make the filling you need a crust. You can always use store bought crust, but I don’t think that it would taste the same. If you choose to use store bought crust though, you do take a lot of time out of the process. However, for homemade crust, which I recommend, start out by combining 2 ½ cups of all-purpose flour and a ½ teaspoon of salt in a medium mixing bowl.

Once the flour and salt are combined “cut” in the cold butter. I find that it is easiest to cut the sticks of butter at each tablespoon mark and then long ways. Add the butter and to the flour mixture and combine until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. You can do this with your hands or a pastry cutter. Don’t over mix of the butter will soften. Once the butter is combined add the ice water a table spoon at a time and mix until the dough forms a ball.

Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate it for at least four hours, overnight seems to be better however. 

When you are ready to make the pie flour the counter, rolling pin, and dough before rolling the dough and then dividing in two. Roll the dough again to be a bit bigger than the pie pan.  Place one in the bottom of the pan and gently push the dough into the pan and onto the sides.

Now, onto the filling, first pre-heat your oven to 425. Once you have peeled and sliced about 3lbs place them in a large bowl and toss them with the lemon juice. 

In a spate bowl combine the sugar, flour, cinnamon, and nutmeg, once combined toss the dry ingredients with the apples, coating the apples well.

Carefully pour the apple mixture into the pastry lined 9 inch pie pan. Place small pieces of butter over the top of the filling. 

 
Once you have done this place the second pie crust on top, sealing the edges. You can use a fork for this, but you can just as easily use your hands. Carefully cut a few slits in the top crust so that the stem can escape during the baking process. 

In a small bowl beat an egg yolk with a tablespoon of milk and brush the mixture over the top crust. This helps the crust to brown. Now it’s time to bake! Place the pie pan on top of a baking sheet so that if and when the filling bubbles over it lands on the sheet and not the bottom of your oven. Bake the pie at 425 for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes lower the temperature to 350 and let the pie continue to bake to 40-45 minutes. The crust should be golden brown when it is done.

Store the pie in the refrigerator. Enjoy this delicious dessert by itself, with whipped cream, with ice cream, or for those of you who aren’t counting calories top the pie with vanilla ice cream and caramel topping.

Pork Chops with Creamy Vegetable Sauce

This week is another Crock-pot recipe, and this recipe was created by my amazing husband. About a week ago my husband and I were in the kitchen trying to figure out what to make for dinner. We had already decided on pork chops, but we didn’t know what to do with them. With some inspiration from Food Network Howard started to pull vegetables from the fridge and a few hours later a delicious dinner was ready.

What You’ll Need

2 6-8oz Pork Chops (There is enough sauce and vegetables in the end that you could stretch it to four pork chops.)

1 Stalk Celery (Chopped)

1 Carrot (Chopped)

Onion (As much as you like, ¼ - ½ an onion works well.)

1 Can Cream of Mushroom Soup

1 Teaspoon Oregano

1 Teaspoon Basil

½ Teaspoon Rosemary

2 Teaspoons Season Salt

2 Teaspoons Garlic Powder

Start off by washing and/or peeling your vegetables and then chopping them. The size of the final pieces is completely up to you.

Once the vegetables are chopped place the pork chops, vegetables, soup and spices into the Crock-pot. Put the Crock-pot on high and leave it alone for a while. (Before you walk away though make sure that the Crock-pot is actually plugged in.)

After the pork has been on high for three hours turn it down to low until you are ready to serve it. Total cook time should be anywhere from 4-6 hours, it all depends on when you start the dish and when you want to serve it.

We ate the pork over polenta, but I’m sure that it would be delicious over mashed potatoes or rice.

When serving spoon the polenta, mashed potatoes, rice or whatever you are serving the pork with onto the plate first. Place the pork on top of the starch and cover with the sauce and vegetables.

Enjoy!

(Sadly, at the moment I do not have an photos of this finished dish.)  Next week will be the first of two Christmas recipes, the first will be Apple Pie!