Pre-Merry Christmas!

Pin It

The Christmas get-together for my step-dad's side of the family was this past Saturday. I'm talking aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces, nephews...the whole lot! Typically, my mom and step-dad provide the meat and beverages and everyone else brings sides and desserts. This year my parents purchased a honey-baked ham and honey-baked turkey and they were both savory. Between the potatoes, devilled eggs, salads (potato, cranberry, broccoli), broccoli rice casserole and rolls (just to name a few items) the meal turned out fantastic. This year I decided my contribution would be Swedish meatballs and a couple pies. Well, like I had shared last Friday, I had a hot New Moon movie date on Friday night...with my friend, Susan. Haha, that's a fun joke amongst me and my three best friends. We love to go on "dates" with each other. Anyway, I soon realized that my time was going to be limited as far as preparation for each of these items. So! I decided to perhaps just make one pie and bake some cookies? I had purchased some Otis Spunkmeyer frozen cookie dough from a friend's child's fundraiser and I thought that would make it easy. What I ended up taking was the meatballs, two pies AND the cookies. I was also responsible for the wine...but, amongst all the food...I forgot it after making a special trip to Byron's on Friday after work. Sheesh...I'm sure I'll be able to find the wine a purpose eventually though.

My Swedish meatballs are suuuuuuuper easy. One, two, three, four steps and you're done. These are the best meatballs EVER.You can find them (Rosina brand) at Wal-Mart in the freezer section, or in even larger quantities at Sam's. There are a few different flavors; I use the Italian ones for when I make spaghetti. In fact, I had an extra bag of the Italian ones this past Saturday and just used them in this recipe. Yum! Grab a bag of these and empty it into your crockpot/slow-cooker. Pop open a can of cream of mushroom soup, blop that on top. Pour out a half cup of milk into the mixture. Sprinkle a good amount of pepper, then stir the entire set of ingredients. Cover and place your crockpot on high for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Once the meatballs are hot, you can lower the heat while friends and family make their way through the buffet line of scrumdeliumptious food! These are ALWAYS a hit and easy peasy.

Next on my list of things to make was pie. I tried to get my mom and/or step-dad to choose a flavor, but to no avail. My step-dad's favorite flavor is allllllways apple. It doesn't matter what kind of apple either. Apple crumb or classic. Deep-fried or turnovers. It does NOT matter. So, as I was thumbing through my new Pioneer Woman cookbook I found an interesting recipe. Flat Apple Pie. Very unconventional. I forgot to take a picture, but this is what it looks like.

This recipe makes two pies and they went over EXTREMELY well with the fam. The only recommendation I would make, is to make sure your crust is completely closed/sealed at the bottom. Both of mine had holes/cracks in the bottom and some tasty apple juice goodness came streaming out and bubbled on my jelly roll pans.

Ingredients:
5 peeled & sliced Granny Smith apples
2 tbsp. flour
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1/2 c. sugar
1/2 c. brown sugar, packed
1/4 tsp. salt
1 recipe Perfect Pie Crust
6 tbsp. butter

1. Preheat oven to 375-degrees.
2. In a large bowl, stir together the apples, flour, lemon juice, granulated sugar, brown sugar and salt. Set aside.
3. Roll out two pie crusts into large circles. Place the circles on large baking sheets.
4. Place half the apple mixture on one crust and other half on the other crust.
5. Fold over the edge of each crust so that it covers 2-3 inches of the apple mixture. No need to be artistic - the more rustic the better.
6. Dot the tops of the pies with chunks of butter.
7. Bake for 30-40 minutes, until the filling is golden and bubbly. If the crust appears to brown too quickly, cover the edges with aluminum foil for the remaining baking time.
8. All to cool slightly, then slice.

Of course, after this I just popped some Otis Spunkmeyer frozen dough in the oven to bake while I finished preparing to leave and transport my goodies. They went over well, also. If you get a chance to purchase some of this dough I highly recommend the cranberry oatmeal. Very tasty and holidayish.

I'm sorry that I didn't take any pictures of the goodies this weekend, but between the rushing around for the Christmas party AND preparing for mine and David's short trip to Kansas City (to watch the Chiefs lose to the Denver Broncos) I just plumb forgot. I'll try to do better in the future! Hope everyone had a marvelous weekend and got some Christmas shopping done!