Crockpot: Herbed Turkey

Turkey is one of my all time favorite foods. Ironically, this was my first time cooking it--I've always been a little intimidated by the size and time the bird needs to cook. But when I saw the turkey roast on sale at the grocery store and remembered that my mother-in-law cooks her turkey roasts in the crockpot, I thought that I could do this. I mean, it's pretty hard to screw up anything in the crockpot, right? And I must stay, I've never tasted turkey more moist and flavorful before. I can't wait for turkey roasts to go on sale again. And maybe I'll even tackle cooking a whole turkey come Thanksgiving or Christmas.

Recipe adpated from here.

Ingredients:
3 pound turkey roast (I used Butterball), skin removed
1/2 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/4 cup chicken broth (I used low sodium)

Directions:
In a small bowl, stir together garlic powder, salt, paprika, Italian seasoning, and pepper. 

Brush the turkey roast with oil then rub the spice mixture all over the turkey. Place in slow cooker and pour in chicken broth.  

Cover and cook on Low for 5 to 6 hours or until turkey is tender.

Enjoy!

~Krissy

More Slow Cooker Recipes:
Alfredo Green Bean Casserole
Brown Sugar and Garlic Chicken 
Chile and Tomato Shredded Chicken with Cheese Sauce
Creamy Butternut Squash Soup
Hot Spinach and Artichoke Dip
Mashed Potatoes
Orange Chicken
Pumpkin Butter
Simply the Best Macaroni and Cheese
Tomato and Artichoke Chicke

Congo Bars, Chocolate Chip Blondies, or Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars?

I totally learned something new making this dessert. Originally I found a recipe on Pinterest for Congo Bars. Like most recipes I find there, I was attracted to the picture; I had no idea what a Congo Bar actually was. If you know me, I google everything. So I look up Congo Bars: basically blondies with chocolate chips and toasted coconut, at least traditionally. The recipe didn't call for coconut so I guessed it was really a blondie? Not a big deal. However, I've always stayed away from blondies simply for the fact that I thought they were just brownies without the cocoa powder, and being a chocoholic I prefer brownies. But as I'm making this recipe, it occured to me that I'm really making chocolate chip cookie bars. My mom used to make them every Christmas when I was a kid so I'm fairly familiar with them. I go back to Google and ask the search engine what's the difference between blondies and chocolate chip cookie bars. Answer: other than chocolate chips being optional in blondies and a prerequiste for the cookies, nothing really.

So whatever you want to call these bars--congo, blondies, or chocolate chip cookies--they are delicious.

Recipe adapted from here.

Ingredients:

2 3/4 cups flour

2 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2/3 cup butter, room temp

2 cups brown sugar

3 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease a 9x13-inch baking dish with cooking spray.

In a medium bowl, sift flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add eggs and vanilla and mix. Gradually pour in flour while mixing until well combined. Fold in chocolate chips with a rubber spatula.

Bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until the bars are a golden brown. Allow bars to cool before cutting.

Enjoy!

~Krissy

More Dessert Recipes:
Soft Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
Spiced Rum Brown Butter Cookies 
Brown Sugar Cookies
Baileys White Chocolate Chip Cookies
Apple Cider Cookies with Spiced Rum Glaze
Applesauce Cookies with Caramel Frostin

Spicy Parmesan Sausage Meatballs with a Whiskey Barbecue Sauce

I don't eat red meat so meatballs are generally off the table (quite literally) in our house. But Eric loves them and I wanted to come up with some variation that we both could eat. Then it donned on me: sausage! We both like sausage, especially spicy sausage. These things smelled so good cooking that Eric couldn't resist coming into the kitchen more than once to see if they were done yet.

Sausage meatball recipe adapted from here.
Whiskey sauce recipe adapted from here.

Ingredients:
Meatballs
16-ounce roll of spicy pork sausage
1/3 cup Italian bread crumbs
1/4 cup finely chopped onion
1/3 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

Sauce

2/3 cup ketchup*
2/3 cup brown sugar*
1/3 cup honey whiskey (I used Jack Daniel's Honey Whiskey)

*Or you can substitute out the ketchup and brown sugar for 1 cup of your favorite barbecue sauce

Directions:
Meatballs
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Lightly grease 9x13-inch baking pan with cooking spray.

Mix all the ingredients together in a large bowl with your hands. Roll the mixture into 1-inch balls and place in the baking dish in a single layer.

Bake for 12-14 mintutes or until thoroughly cooked.

Sauce
Mix together ingredients in a sauce pan. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat then reduce to a simmer. Cook for 15 to 20 minutes.*

Pour sauce over meatballs and serve.

*The cook time on this sauce should vary by taste. After 20 minutes of simmer, Eric thought the sauce still tasted too strongly of alcohol (I disagree, I loved it). Depending on your preferences, you could cook the sauce for longer to burn off more of the booze or pour in less whiskey to begin with. Just taste the sauce as you go until you find your perfect balance.

Enjoy!

~Krissy

More Sausage Recipes:
Black Bean and Sausage Stovetop Casserole
Cheesy Sausage and Potato Casserole
Pasta with Vodka Sauce and Sausage
Pumpkin Penne Casserole
Roasted Sausage, Potatoes, and Peppers 
Sausage and Bean Casserole
Savory Apples Stuffed with Sage and Sausage
The Tale of Two Quiches: Spicy Sausage and Spinach Quiche

Crockpot: Chile and Tomato Shredded Chicken with a Cheese Sauce

According to the recipe I was following, this was supposed to be a jalapeno popper pulled chicken. However, I did not get a jalapeno popper feel from this dish. Don't get me wrong, it was fricking amazing, and I can't wait to make it again and again. It just didn't remind me of a jalapeno popper.

Recipe adapted from here.

Ingredients:
Chicken
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 garlic clove, minced
2 tablespoons onion, minced
15-ounce can of diced tomatoes with green chiles
1 tablespoon chili powder
1/2 tablespoon cumin
1 cube chicken bouillon

Sauce
3 ounces cream cheese
1/2 cup pepper jack cheese, shredded
Milk

Garnish
1 jalapenos, seeded and sliced or diced


Directions:
Chicken
Grease your slow cooker with cooking spray. Place chicken breasts in the bottom of the cooker. Add garlic, onions, and spices. Pour the can of tomatoes over top.

Cover and cook on High for 4 hours or on Low for 8 hours. Shred chicken using two forks.

Sauce
Place cream cheese in a microwavable bowl and microwave for 30 seconds and stir. Repeat as needed until the cheese has melted. Stir in pepper jack until the shredded cheese has melted. Add milk a tablespoon at a time until you reach the desired consistency. (I liked my sauce thick and only added 1 tablespoon of milk.)

Now, you can serve this dish a variety of ways. The original recipe served the chicken on a bun with the sauce and jalapenos on top of the chicken. But you also put it in a tortilla (this is how I'm eating it next time), in a taco shell, or on a bed of tortilla chips. I had used up all our tortillas to make homemade tortilla chips so Eric and I ate the chicken on a plate basically (it was still really good this way too!)

Cheese Sauce (I'm totally in love with this sauce!)

Homemade Tortilla Chips

Enjoy!

~Krissy

More Crockpot Recipes:
Alfredo Green Bean Casserole
Brown Sugar and Garlic Chicken
Creamy Butternut Squash Soup
Hot Spinach and Artichoke Dip
Mashed Potatoes
Orange Chicken
Pumpkin Butter
Simply the Best Macaroni and Cheese
Tomato and Artichoke Chicken

Homemade Tortilla Chips

Tortilla chips are quickly becoming a staple in our house. We eat a lot of Mexican-inspired dishes that seem to call out for a side of tortilla chips. And if Eric's sweet tooth isn't acting up, he usually reaches for chips and salsa to snack on. I love chips and salsa too, but store bought tortilla chips are just too salty for me. I eat maybe a handful out of a family-size bag.

Last week I was making tomato and chile shredded chicken with a cheese sauce that begged for tortilla chips. Sadly, we had run out chips, but there were flour tortillas in the fridge. I have made my own chips from tortillas before, but not for a while. I had forgotten how good they are, and since I get to control the seasonings, they are no where near too salty. Considering that Eric mentioned that we should pick up extra tortillas at the grocery store instead of another bag of tortilla chips, I think he likes them too.

Ingredients:
Tortillas (flour, corn, or wheat, I used 8-inch but you can use whatever size you have on hand)
Olive oil
seasonings (salt, onion powder, chili powder . . . whatever you like, we tend to prefer a cayenne pepper and garlic powder)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease a cookie sheet with cooking spray.

In a bowl, stir together olive oil and seasonings. Set aside.

Cut your tortillas into 8 slices like you would a pizza. Brush both sides of the tortilla chips with the olive oil mixture. Arrange in a single layer on the greased cookie sheet.

Bake for 6 to 10 minutes, flipping the chips after 3 to 5 minutes.

Enjoy!

~Krissy

More Chip Recipes:
Baked Apple Chips
Banana Chips
Homemade Pita Chips
Kale Chips 
Pepperoni Chips
Potato Chips in the Microwave
Snowflake Tortilla Chips
Yellow Squash Chips 
Zucchini Chips 2.0

Basic Donut Glaze

For whatever reason, I went years without knowing how to make a basic glaze even though Eric kept begging for me to make glazed donuts. I don't know what my problem was because it's so incredibly easy and, as I've recently discovered, versatile.

Recipe from here. Make enough glaze to approximately a dozen donuts.

Glazed blueberry donuts

Ingredients:
1/8 cups milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup powdered sugar

Directions:
In a small sauce pan, heat the milk and vanilla over low heat until warm. Sift in powdered sugar into the pan. Slowly whisk the sugar in until well combined. Remove from heat.

Dunk donuts into the glaze, one at a time, and set on a rack. Allow to sit for 5 minutes before serving. You can also use this glaze on cakes, cookies, breads, or any other baked good.

Change up this glaze by adding different extracts such as peppermint or almond. You could also use juices such as orange juice or cranberry juice to flavor the glaze. Or, as I found out when making apple cider cookies with a spiced rum glaze, you can use alcohol.

Enjoy!

~Krissy

Apple Cider Cookies with Spiced Rum Glaze

Cake mix cookies. If you've never made them before you're missing out. Incredibly easy. Incredibly versatile. Incredibly soft and tasty. Basically, incredible. I think I'd rather use a boxed cake mix to make cookies than a cake.

Anyways, I was making my husband a bagged lunch for work the other day when I realized that all the leftover Christmas treats had finally run out, and I had nothing sweet to put in his lunch. So I decided to make cookies for him using what I had in the pantry, which just happened to include a spice cake mix and instant packets of apple cider--the two main ingredients in these cookies. The spiced rum glaze was an after thought (and perhaps my favorite part!).

Ingredients:
Cookies
1 boxed spice cake mix
2 eggs
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 packet apple cider instant drink mix (I used Apline Spiced Apple Cider)

Spiced Rum Glaze*
1/8 cups milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup powdered sugar

2 tablespoon spiced rum

Directions:
Cookies
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix all the cookie ingredients together (by hand or using a mixer). Roll dough into 1-inch balls and place on a cookie sheet.

Bake for approximately 10 minutes or until the cookie bottoms turn a golden brown. Place the cookies on a wire and allow them to cool completely.

Side note: I wish I had had 1 cup of walnuts or white chocolate chips to throw into the dough. I think either one would have really complimented these cookies. 

Glaze
In a small sauce pan, heat the milk, spiced rum and vanilla over low heat until warm. Sift in powdered sugar into the pan. Slowly whisk the sugar in until well combined. Remove from heat.

Dunk the top of the cookies in the glaze and place them back on the wire rack to dry. (I tried drizzling the glaze on the cookies and it didn't work.)

*The glaze recipe is going to make more glaze then you'll need for the cookies. I actually added the spiced rum to leftover glaze had from cinnamon rolls I had made for breakfast a few days before. If you want, you can make the glaze without the spiced rum so you can use it on something else. Here's how much you'll need for the cookies: 1/4 cup prepared glaze and 1/2 tablespoon spiced rum. Just stir the two ingredients together in a saucepan over low heat.

These cookies only made it into Eric's lunch twice. He couldn't stop eating them and went through the batch in three days I think. Of course, I might have eaten one or two.

Enjoy!

~Krissy

More Cake Mix Cookies:
Grasshopper Cookies
Chocolate Covered Cherry Cookies
Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies
Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip Cookies
Creamsicle Chocolate Chip Cookies
Yummy Butterscotch Cookies

Pepperoni Chips

This is one of those recipes that I tried just to see if it really worked. Don't get me wrong, I love pepperonis, and there is nothing better than a pepperoni with crisp edges on a pizza, but I don't have any real desire to snack on the little meats. Eric, on the other hand, will usually polish off a bag of pepperonis before I get around to making whatever recipe I bought them for. So I knew if these chips did work, I'd definitely have someone to eat them.

Well, I'm happy to report that it is incredibly easy to turn pepperonis into chips. But I'm going to be honest with you, these things are way too salty for my palette. Granted, I'm highly sensitive to salt. And if I had made a dip to go with them, maybe the saltiness wouldn't have been as pronounced. However, Eric absolutely demolished the entire batch. He loved them. And when I mentioned them to his parents, his dad's face lit up. He loves salty snacks. 

Recipe adapted from here.

Ingredients:
Thinly sliced pepperonis

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Place pepperonis on a cookie sheet or a pizza stone (we used a pizza stone) in a single layer.

Bake for 10 to 15 minutes or until the pepperonis are crisp.

Place chips on a paper towel-lined plate and allow to cool.

Eat plain or with dip.

Enjoy!

~Krissy

More Chip Recipes:
Baked Apple Chips
Banana Chips
Homemade Pita Chips
Kale Chips
Potato Chips in the Microwave
Snowflake Tortilla Chips
Yellow Squash Chips 
Zucchini Chips 2.0

Toasted Sesame Seeds

Last summer Eric and went to a Hibachi grill with a friend in Grand Rapids. I can't remember the name of the restaurant to save my life, but the food was unforgettable. The chef sprinkled toasted sesame seeds on everything and it just enlivened the flavor of the chicken, the veggies, and the shrimp.

Over the last six months or so, Eric will randomly comment on how good sesame seeds are. So a put a small jar of them in his Christmas stocking this past holiday. In truth, I was just as excited to eat them. Even though I haven't perfected my sesame chicken recipe yet, I still wanted to share how toasted sesame seeds.

Ingredients:
Sesame seeds

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spread the seeds out in a single layer on a cookie sheet. Bake for approximately 5 to 10 minutes or until the seeds are a light golden brown.

Enjoy!

~Krissy

More Recipes:
Roasted Butternut Squash Seeds
Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

Crockpot: Mashed Potatoes

Crockpot recipes require so little thought or attendence. And about the time you start to get hungry, your food is done and you can dig in. This past holiday season when your stove top and oven are full with food for Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner, Crockpots are a lifesaver. I hosted Christmas dinner and made mac and cheese in a slow cooker--the most amazing mac and cheese I've ever had, by the way. Well, my mom made these mashed potatoes in the slowcooker for Thanksgiving dinner. They were sooo yummy. And she didn't have to worry about boiling or mashing or whipping potatoes while making also the turkey, gravy, cranberry sauce, stuffing, or green bean casserole.

Recipe from here.

Ingredients:
5 pounds russet potatoes, peeled and cut into small chunks
1 1/2 cups chicken broth
1/4 cup butter, cut into pieces
1 cup sour cream*
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoons ground black pepper
1/2 to 1 cup milk, warmed.

Directions:
Place the potatoes, chicken broth and butter into your crockpot. Cover and cool on high for 4 hours or until the potatoes are tender. Add sour cream garlic powder, onion powder, salt, and black pepper. Mash potatoes with a potato masher or beat them with an electric mixer on low. Stir in milk a little at a time until you have the desired consistency.

Cover and set the crockpot on low or warm until ready to serve. (Do not keep the crockpot on for more than 2 hours).

Stir before serving.

*My mom said that the next time she makes these, she's going to use cream cheese instead of sour cream. I will let you know how it turns out when she does. (Or if I bet her to it and try it first!)

Mashed potatoes with Brown Butter

Enjoy!

~Krissy

More Potato Recipes:
Salt and Vinegar Roasted Potatoes 
Ranch, Cheddar, and Bacon Potatoes
Twice Baked Potatoes
Twice Microwaved Loaded Potatoes

More Crockpot Recipes:
Alfredo Green Bean Casserole
Brown Sugar and Garlic Chicken
Creamy Butternut Squash Soup
Hot Spinach and Artichoke Dip
Orange Chicken
Pumpkin Butter 
Tomato and Artichoke Chicken

Brown Butter Mashed Potatoes

Oh brown butter, you are one of the best culinary discoveries I stumbled upon on Pinterest. It's an easy way to change up a recipe and add complexity of flavor. So when I served mashed potatoes at Christmas dinner, I decided to change them up a bit by making brown butter to pour over them. So, so good. Between these brown butter mashed potatoes and my spiced rum cookies, I've got my mom hooked on brown butter.

Ingredients:
Unsalted Butter (2 sticks makes 1 cup)
Mashed potatoes (homemade, frozen, or boxed--garlic, cheesy, how ever you like your potatoes)

Directions:
Over medium heat, melt butter in a medium sauce pan. Continue to cook it until it turns a dark golden brown and gives off a nutty aroma, stirring occasionally.

Pour brown butter over mashed potatoes.

Any extra brown butter can be put in an airtight container and stored in the fridge or freezer (I have some in my freezer right now!)

That's 2 sticks of butter.

Enjoy!

~Krissy

Check Out More Brown Butter Recipes:
Spiced Rum Brown Butter Cookies
Brown Sugar Cookies
Pasta with Summer Squash, Tomatoes, and Brown Butter Sauc

Cranberry Sauce Three Ways: Traditional, Orange Zest, and Brandied

I may have mentioned once or twice how cranberry crazed I've been this winter season. Well, I'm not the only one. For Thanksgiving we went to my parents' house and my mom made two different types of cranberry sauces--orange (at my prompting, I love the cranberry-orange combination) and brandied. Both were phenomenal and of course I had to ask for the recipes. Then for Christmas I made traditional cranberry sauce with the recipe found on the back of the bag of fresh cranberries.

Traditional Cranberry Sauce

Traditional Cranberry Sauce
Ingredients:
12-ounce bag fresh cranberries, rinsed
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup cold water

Directions:
In a medium sauce pan, bring water and sugar to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally. Once the sugar has dissolved, add cranberries. Bring the mixture back to a boil then reduce heat to a simmer. Cook until sauce has thicken and the majority of cranberries have popped, approximately 10 minutes.

Serve warm or cold.

Orange Zest Cranberry Sauce

Orange Zest Cranberry Sauce
Recipe from here.
Ingredients:
1 12-ounce bag of cranberries, rinsed
1/4 cup orange juice (freshly squeezed is best)
Zest of 1 orange
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup water

Directions:
Combine orange juice, orange zest, sugar, and water in a medium sauce pan over medium-high heat. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Once the sugar has dissolved, add cranberries and bring mixture back to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook until sauce thickens and most of the cranberries pop, about 10 minutes.

Serve warm or chilled.

Brandied cranberry sauce

Brandy Cranberry Sauce
Recipe from here.

Ingredients:
4 cups fresh cranberries, rinsed
2 cups granulated sugar
1/3 cup brandy

Directions:
Preheat oven to 300 degrees

Pour cranberries into a 13x9-inch baking dish. Sprinkle the berries evenly with the sugar. Bake for 1 hours, stirring the berries halfway through.

Add brandy to the baking dish and stir until well combined. Serve warm or chilled.

Enjoy!

~Krissy

More Cranberry Recipes:
Chocolate Cover Cranberries
Cranberry Brownies
Sugared Cranberries

Parmesan Onion Rolls

These rolls were another Christmas dinner success. They were also an experiment (not to mention the easiest from scratch rolls I've made yet!) I had meant to combine two different recipes to make these then discovered that I didn't have all the ingredients I needed . . . so I kind of made up my own recipe according to what I had in the pantry. If they didn't work out, I knew I had a tube of crescent rolls in the fridge that I could pullout last minute if I had to. Fortunately, I didn't have to. In fact, after I let Eric taste test one, he asked if perhaps we could save these rolls for us and serve everyone else the crescent rolls.

Ingredients:
2 cups flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoon mayonnaise
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon sugar
1 cup French Fried Onions
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, shredded
1 teaspoon dried basil

Directions:
Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Grease 12-cup muffin tin with cooking spray.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add mayonnaise, milk, and sugar and mix until well combined. Divide the dough evenly between the tins.

In a medium bowl, mix together the French Fried Onions, cheese, and basil. Divide the mixture between the muffin tins and gently press it into the top of the dough.

Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until the rolls are a golden brown.

Enjoy!

~Krissy

More Bread Recipes:
Homemade Bread Sticks 
Sour Cream Dinner Rolls 
Pull-Apart Spinach and Cheese Bread
Pumpkin Bread!
Chocolate Chip Banana Bread in a Mug

Crockpot: Simply the Best Macaroni and Cheese

My mom bought Arya a reindeer outfit.

This past Christmas was not only the first Christmas dinner I hosted, but also our first Christmas as a married couple, our first Christmas with Arya, and our first Christmas in our new place. So it was a pretty exciting holiday for us. But I don't want to talk about any of that. I want to talk about how freaking amazing this mac and cheese is. It's the best I've ever had; it tops any restuarant, store bought, or homemade version I've ever tried. It's that good. Even Eric and his dad, neither big on mac and cheese, both loved it. My mom and mother-in-law asked for the recipe. And the fact that it's made in the crockpot, all the much better! On Christmas day it was a life saver when everything else had to go in the oven.

Recipe adapted from here.

Ingredients:
2 cups elbow macaroni
4 tablespoons butter, cut into pieces
1 8-ounce bag of shredded sharp cheddar cheese
1/2 cup sour cream (I used low fat)
1 10.75-ounce can of condensed cheddar cheese soup
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup whole milk
1/2 tablespoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Optional Bread Topping:
2 tablespoon butter, melted
3 pieces of sandwich bread, torn into bite size pieces
1/2 tablespoon McCormick Crusting Blend Garlic, Lemon, and Rosemary (or you can use garlic powder, basil, thyme, rosemary, whatever your favorite herbs are)

Directions:

Boil macaroni in water for 7 minutes. Drain.

Place all of the ingredients except the pasta, thyme, and optional bread topping in your crockpot and stir. Add pasta and stir again.* 

Cook for 2 hours on low. Stir in thyme.

Optional: After mac and cheese has cooked, transfer to a casserole dish. In a bowl toss together melted butter, bread, and spices. Top the mac and cheese with the bread and place under the broiler until the bread browns, about 5 to 10 minutes. 

*Since I was making this for Christmas dinner (and for the first time!) and didn't want to screw it up, I did not add the pasta to the crockpot. I made the sauce in the crockpot and add the pasta afterwards. However, I read many, many reviews on this recipe and none of them talked about the pasta becoming mushy. Next time I make this, I'll add the pasta right in.

Now, because I was so busy cooking and entertaining on Christmas day, I kinda sorta forgot to take a picture. But I did take a couple of pictures of some reheated leftovers (oh, it reheats very well) sans bread topping.

Enjoy!

~Krissy

More Crockpot Recipes:
Alfredo Green Bean Casserole
Brown Sugar and Garlic Chicken
Creamy Butternut Squash Soup
Hot Spinach and Artichoke Dip
Orange Chicken
Pumpkin Butter 
Tomato and Artichoke Chicken

Bacon and Cheese Deviled Eggs

Years ago I made these bacon and cheese deviled eggs for Eric and he loved them. (I'm not a big deviled egg person, ironic since I love egg salad). Well, we were over at his parents for dinner and his dad meantioned something about craving deviled eggs. Eric immediately perked up and said something along the lines of, "You should try Krissy's deviled eggs." And his mom's face lit up and she suggested I make them as appetitizer for Christmas dinner.

So along with chocolate covered cranberries and spinach balls, I made these deviled eggs for Christmas and they were a hit!

Recipe from here.

Ingredients:
12 hard boiled eggs, peeled
1/2 cup mayonnaise (I used low fat)
1 tablespoon honey mustard
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
4 strips bacon, cooked and crumbled
2 tablespoons cheddar cheese, shredded
Parsley for ganish, optional

Directions:
Cut each egg in half lengthwise. Spoon out the yolks and place them in a bowl. Set the whites aside.

With a fork, mash the yolks together. Stir in mayonnaise, honey mustard, salt, and pepper. Add bacon and cheese and stir.

Divide the yolk mixture evenly between the 24 egg white halves. Sprinkle with parsley if desired. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to serve.

These worked great for Christmas because I could easily make them ahead of time and just store them in the fridge.

Enjoy!

~Krissy

More Appetizer Recipes:
Baked Parmesan Tomatoes
Parmesan Garlic Wonton Crackers 
Cheesy Twisty Straws
Homemade Pita Chips
Sweet and Salty Chickpeas
Toasted Ravioli

Spinach Balls with a Spicy Tomato Dipping Sauce

Christmas tree in front of the State Capitol in Lansing, MI

This past Christmas I hosted my first Christmas dinner! It was me and Eric, my parents, his parents, and his grandma. Seven people. I've cooked for more, but never for a special occasion like Christmas. Even though I love to cook, I will admit I was a little nervous and a little overwhelmed. I was testing out several new recipes and I'd never cooked a ham before. But I have to say, everything came together perfectly. Not just the food, but the company. Eric's grandma was smiling and glowing (she told me that she didn't remember the last time she spent Christmas outside of her own home). Our dads were gabbing and so were our moms. And they were all vying for the dog's attention. Arya just has that effect on people.

I prepared chocolate covered cranberries, bacon and cheese deviled eggs, and these spinach balls for appetizers. I had made the other two recipes before (totally addicted to chocolate covered cranberries) but the spinach balls were a first. I can't even begin to tell you how good there were. I can't wait to make them again. Both Eric and I were keeping our fingers crossed that there would be some leftovers so we could munch on them later. And there were, just not as many as we have liked.

Recipe adapted from here.

Ingredients:
Spinach Balls
1 10-ounce pack of frozen spinach, thawed and drained (making sure spinach is well drained is very
        important)
2 tablespoon onion, minced
1 heaping cup stuffing with herbs
3 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Spicy Tomato Sauce
1 cup marinara or spaghetti sauce
hot sauce, to taste

Directions:
Spinach Balls
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease cookie sheet with cooking spray.

In a large bow, mix all the ingredients together until they are well combined. Shape mixture into 1-inch balls and place on the cookie sheet.  

Bake for 18 to 20 minutes or until the bottoms of the balls are lightly brown. Makes approximately 30 balls. Serve warm.

Spicy Tomato Sauce
Pour tomato sauce in a bowl, add hot sauce to taste. We like things spicy around here and added quite a bit.

I spent the five days before Christmas baking and cooking in preparation. I made these on Christmas Eve, put then in the fridge over night then popped them back in the oven at 350 for 10-15 minutes. Sadly, things were so hectic Christmas morning/afternoon, I forgot to take pictures of my food. So I don't have a picture of the sauce. But both my mom and my mother-in-law commented more than once how much the sauce complimented the balls.

Dinner table

Dessert table

Enjoy!

~Krissy

More Appetizer Recipes:
Cheese Puffs for Cheese Lovers!
Cream Cheese Rangoons
Hot Spinach and Artichoke Dip
Jalapeno Popper Wontons
Parmesan Zucchini Bites
Snowflake Tortilla Chips