GREEN BEAN-MUSHROOM-BACON & CHEESE CASSEROLE

The traditional "green bean casserole" has always intrigued me. I see it mostly during the holidays and I want to enjoy it, although I'm not too fond of the mushroom soup sauce it usually has. This year, I set out to re-invent this holiday casserole and I absolutely love the final results.
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I used fresh green beans, sauteed sweet onions, portobello mushrooms, crisp bacon, a little cheddar cheese and my own white sauce. The resulting "green bean casserole" was delicious and we ate a ton of it. 1 pound of fresh green beans cut into 2" pieces
½ cup chopped sweet onion
½ pound of baby portobello mushrooms sliced
½ pound of bacon fried crisp (drained well & crumbled)
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese (loosely packed)
1 clove garlic minced finely
3 tablespoons white flour
1 teaspoon salt
scant ½ teaspoon black pepper
2½ cups milk
2 tablespoons butter

In a large frying pan, melt the butter and saute the chopped onions until they smell sweet; add the garlic and saute until it barely turns golden. Add the green beans and mushrooms (mixing well) and saute for a few minutes until they start to wilt just a little (don't cook them all the way through). Remove pan from heat and set aside.
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In a sauce pan, melt 3 tablespoons butter. When butter is hot, add (all at once) the flour, salt & pepper, stirring quickly. Cook on medium for about a minute (to remove any flour taste). Next, you are going to add the milk, a little at a time, whisking like a mad woman while you add the milk (this will eliminate lumps in the sauce). Once the milk and butter-flour mixture are mixed well, cook on medium heat (stirring every once in a while) until it gets nice and thick.

Remove from heat and stir in the cheese & crisp bacon. Add this mixture to the vegetables and stir well (but gently). Place in an lightly greased casserole dish and bake at 350 for about 30 minutes or until very hot.
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It was really tasty and the leftovers made a mouth watering lunch the next day.

OATMEAL CRANBERRY WALNUT COOKIES

If you are looking for one more easy cookie to round out your holiday baking, try these delicious cookies. They are light, crispy and buttery tasting (not the standard heavy oatmeal cookie).

1 cup butter (room temperature)
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon butter extract
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 cups quick cooking oats
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups Craisens (sweetened dried cranberries)
1 cup chopped walnuts
Beat butter, sugars, eggs and extracts for FIVE MINUTES (important to the light crispy nature of this cookie).
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In another bowl, mix the flour, oatmeal, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Add this dry mixture to the butter mixture (1 cup at a time) beating well after each addition.
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Stir in the dried cranberries and walnuts. Let this finished cookie dough sit for about 5 minutes.
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Roll the dough into 1" balls (dough will be a little sticky). Place the dough balls on lightly greased cookie sheet, about 2" apart. Bake in 350 preheated oven for 12-14 minutes (my oven took 13 minutes).

NOTE: Before you put the cookie dough balls on the baking sheet, look for the side that shows the most cranberries and put that side up (the prettiest side).

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NOTE: These freeze very well. I drizzled a vanilla glaze on my cookies (for the holidays) but that is not necessary. Makes about 4 dozen?

EASY FRUIT LADDER

I've made this fruit ladder a million times. It is super simple, fast, looks impressive on any dinner table and is delicious. The dough works beautifully, is very forgiving and never fails!! You can make this ladder with any pre-cooked fruit filling (home made or commercial).

I have had people tell me this looks hard to make, but trust me, it is not. There is just one little trick: roll the dough out into a rectangle and then move it to your baking sheet BEFORE you try to make the ladder. You can't move the ladder (and keep it's shape) after it is filled. This dough is the real secret to this recipe.

Preheat oven to 350°

1 cup butter softened
1 cup sour cream
2 cups flour

Mix ingredients with an electric mixer (the dough will be a little sticky before it is chilled). Divide dough in half (this recipe makes TWO ladders). Put each ball of dough in some plastic wrap and rough it into a large disk shape…cover well and refrigerate 1 hour (extremely important).

After an hour, remove from fridge and flour your counter top and rolling pin. Roll one of the disks into a rectangle about 15” x 10”. Pick up the crust rectangle (it will not break) and lay it on a lightly greased baking sheet.

Now I could describe, at length how to do this next step, but a picture will describe it much quicker:

 

Find the center of your crust rectangle, and spread your fruit filling in a 3” wide strip, long-wise, right down the center of the rectangle (keep the fruit about an inch away from each end of the ladder). Each ladder will take ½ can of commercial fruit filling.

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Cut the dough, on both sides of the fruit, into equal strips, but be sure you stay about an inch away from the fruit filling. Pull the strips back over the fruit (one at a time) in a criss-cross fashion (the strips just lay on top of each other, don't crimp). The only part that is crimped is the very first strip (on each end of the ladder), it should be pinched together.

 

Bake the fruit ladder for 30-40 minutes (in a preheated 350 degree oven) or until lightly golden. Run a spatula under the ladder to make sure it is loose, and then slide it off onto a serving plate. Drizzle it with a simple powdered sugar glaze and decorate with nuts (I like candied nuts), sprinkles, or any decoration you like.

 

I have tried lots of different fruits, cherry, lemon, raspberry, blueberry, apple strawberry, blackberry, etc. Commercial pie filling works as well as home made.

EASY MICROWAVE CANDY

This is the easiest candy I have ever made and better yet, my picky Hubby gives it two thumbs up!! It is fast to make in the microwave and is pretty enough for Christmas gift giving.

NOTE: Don't be tempted to use all one kind of chocolate. For some (unknown to me) reason, the blend of white chocolate, semi-sweet and milk chocolate produces the BEST chocolate taste EVER!!

12 ounce bag of good quality white chocolate chips

12 ounce bag of good quality semi-sweet chocolate chips

12 ounce bag of good quality milk chocolate chips

3 cups of your favorite whole nuts (see note)

 

Put the chocolate chips in a large, microwave safe glass bowl and microwave for two minutes at 60% power (imperative that you stir every 30 seconds). My microwave took about 2 minutes and 10 seconds.

 

Stir until all of the chocolate is smooth, then stir in 3 cups of your favorite whole nuts. I ended up adding five cups of whole mixed nuts and I'm fairly certain I could have added one more cup. This makes a LOT of candy!!

 

The recipe calls for spooning candies onto waxed paper, but I spooned mine into mini-cupcake size paper liners. Put them in the fridge to "set" for about 15 minutes and they are ready to serve.

 

NOTE: The candy will only be as good as the chocolate you use. I used Ghirardelli chocolate chips. (Note: You do not taste the white chocolate when they are all melted together (I don't like white chocolate), but the blend of the 3 chocolates is delicious.

 

NOTE: I used a mixture of whole roasted nuts (cashews, almonds, peanuts, pecans, Brazil nuts and hazelnuts...delicious.

OLD FASHIONED APPLE CRISP

I've been tweaking this apple crisp recipe for most of my married life. I've tried a variety of spices, crusts, topping ingredients, apple types, nuts/no nuts, oats/no oats, baking times, etc. After many years of trial and error, we are happy with this final version. The apples are cut smaller than for a pie (see note) and the topping bakes into a sweet, crispy, nutty perfection.

I like to make this in a 2 piece 10" tart pan because it is very easy to serve and makes a pretty presentation, but any 9" or 10" pie plate would work well also.

(1) 9" or 10" single pie crust, placed into a tart pan (or pie plate) and chilled until the apples are ready.

6 Granny Smith apples (see note)
½ cup granulated sugar
½ cup light brown sugar packed
¼ cup all purpose flour
¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

TOPPING
2/3 cup light brown sugar packed
2/3 cup all purpose flour
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
6 tablespoons butter
½ cup chopped walnuts

Peel and core the apples and slice them very thinly. Blanche the apples in boiling water for one to two minutes (depending on how thin you cut them). Don't cook the apples all the way through, they should still be slightly crunchy.

Drain very well and add the sugars, flour and spices (stir to coat evenly).

Make the topping: mix flour, brown sugar, cinnamon and cut in the cold butter until it is crumbly, stir in nuts. Place apple mixture into chilled crust and spread with topping mixture.

Bake in preheated 375 oven for 40-45 minutes or until the filling looks bubbly. Cool before serving (see note).

NOTE: I like to serve this before it has completely cooled. When it has cooled down enough so that I can hold my hand (without burning it) on the bottom of the pie pan, it is time to eat it. I serve it with vanilla ice cream.

NOTE: I cut the peeled and cored apples into quarters and then cut the quarters in half before I start slicing them. This gives me smaller slices that work well with this crisp recipe.

NOTE: I encourage you to use freshly grated nutmeg if possible, it makes a WORLD of difference (so mellow compared to pre-ground nutmeg).

NOTE: Place your unbaked apple crisp on a cookie sheet before putting it into the oven. The heat from the cookie sheet will help brown the bottom of the pie crust. It will also help with any potential spill-overs.

STURDY BUTTER CREAM FROSTING

Traditionally, butter cream frosting is made with butter, powdered sugar and flavorings, however, I find the recipes that use all butter, tend to be heavy tasting, hard to work with (it melts and sags too easy) and not the light fluffy frosting people expect.
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I've decorated cakes for years and I keep coming back to this easy, user friendly and fluffy frosting recipe, made with half butter and half white Crisco. Don't freak out about using Crisco in your frosting, you won't be able to tell it is there (100% shortening is what most commercial bakeries use to make that fluffy frosting we all love) and, as you can see, it pipes nicely.
.1 cup white Crisco shortening
1 cup butter (room temperature)
6 to 6½ cups of powdered sugar
½ cup whipping cream
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract (important)

In the large bowl of a stand mixer, whip the shortening and butter together for about 3 minutes on high. Add 6 cups of powdered sugar, the extracts and whipping cream to the butter mixture and whip ON HIGH for about 8 to 10 minutes.

After that amount of time, check the frosting for consistency. Usually, the frosting is perfect, but if your climate is different from my climate, you may want to add an additional ½ cup of powdered sugar.

Once you frost your cake, put it in the fridge to let everything "set". Remove your cake from the fridge about an hour before serving.

NOTE: This frosting works best in a stand mixer, although you can make it with a hand held mixer (it will just take a little extra time).

NO YEAST CINNAMON ROLLS

These cinnamon buns have NO yeast in them, but they sure taste like they do. I have to admit that when I first saw this was a baking powder dough, my first thought was, "uh oh, a heavy biscuit texture", but I was wrong; these are FAR from the standard biscuit taste. The dough has cottage cheese and buttermilk in it and it is super flaky, light, sweet and tender. I have tried a lot of cinnamon roll recipes over the years and I can honestly tell you that this recipe was a total surprise. It is SO tasty, SO easy and SO fast.

Don't freak out about the cottage cheese in the batter. You won't taste it, but it is totally essential do NOT leave it out. If you don't want to SEE the cottage cheese, pulse it in the blender a time or two.

MAKE THE FILLING FIRST1½ tablespoons melted butter
2/3 cup brown sugar (packed)
1½ teaspoons cinnamon
½ teaspoon allspice (I left out)
¼ teaspoon ground cloves (I left out)
1 cup chopped pecans
Mix well and set asideDOUGH¾ cup cottage cheese(4% milk fat)do not leave out1/3 cup buttermilk (do not leave out)
¼ cup white sugar
4 tablespoons butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all purpose flour
1 TABLESPOON baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
Preheat the oven to 400 and grease the sides and bottom of a 9" or 10" spring form pan with cooking spray. In a food processor, combine the cottage cheese, buttermilk, sugar, melted butter and vanilla; process until smooth (10 seconds). Add the flour, baking powder & baking soda and pulse in short bursts just until the dough clumps together in a ball (don't over-process). The dough will be soft and moist. Dump the dough out onto a lightly floured counter and knead it four or five times with floured hands (this is a beautiful dough, very easy to work with). Roll dough out to a 12" x 15" rectangle.

Brush the rectangle with a very light coating of melted butter (be skimpy & leave a half inch border unbuttered around the edges. Sprinkle the filling over the buttered area and pat lightly.

Starting with the long side, roll up the dough into a jelly roll shape and pinch the long seam to seal (leave the ends open). Cut into twelve equal pieces with a sharp knife (a sharp serrated knife works well). Set the rolls in the prepared pan, cut side up. The rolls should touch slightly, but its OK if there are small gaps. Bake at 400 for 20 to 28 minutes (mine took the full 28 minutes) or until golden brown. Set the pan on a cooling rack for five minutes. Remove the spring form ring and drizzle the glaze over the rolls. Yum!!!

GLAZE2/3 cup powdered sugar
2 to 3 tablespoons of cold milk (I used whipping cream)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ teaspoon of maple extract (not necessary but YUMMY)
Whisk all ingredients together. If it seems too thick to pour, add a little bit more milk (or cream).