Crock-Pot Roast

This has to be one of my favorite stand-bys...from growing up, when Mom was working full-time outside the house...always the best smell in the world when you open your door and come home at the end of a long hard day!


Ingredients:

1 Beef Roast (cut of your choice, and weight enough to feed your fam)
1 - 2 cans of Cream of Mushroom Soup
1 packet Lipton's Onion Mushroom Soup Mix (off brands work well also, this is just my favorite!)

Optional Ingredients:

2-3 red, or 1 white "baking" potato for each family member + 1 or 2 more for the pot or leftovers
Carrots (baby work well if you're tight on time)

Directions:

Scrub potatoes, and cut larger ones in halves or quarters. Peel carrots, and cut into largish chunks. Place roast in crock-pot fatty side up. Dump can(s) of mushroom soup on top. Open packet of soup mix and dump contents on top of soup and meat. Add potatoes and carrots. Plug in crock-pot, put on the lid, turn on to low and let it cook all day long.

I usually work with a fully defrosted roast, and cut the time in half (to about 4 hours). About 1/2 to 1 hour before serving, check the meat for "done-ness", and slice it up, trimming the fat. Return meat to crock-pot until time to eat! If your family prefers noodles, or mashed potatoes with their roast, simply leave out the potatoes and/or carrots. We love the flavor of the meat with the carrots and potatoes, and it makes it rather "stewy", but is a fast and easy dinner to come home to! Serve with salad.

Hope this makes some of those cold wintery nights better!

Cream Cheese Frosting

1/2 a stick of butter
1/2 a block of cream cheese
1 pound box of powdered sugar
1/4 t. of vanilla

Let butter and cream cheese sit out until soft. Then whip them together until smooth. Add sugar 1/2 C at a time until all in mixed in. Then add vanilla. Food coloring can also be added at this point.

This is excellent of sugar cookies, graham crackers, spice cakes, by the spoonful or however your little heart desires it.

Crisp Ginger Cookies

This is how we make gingerbread men around here. It makes a crispy (as opposed to the softer gingerbread men most people make), wonderful cookie that can stand alone or be iced if you like. I also double this recipe.

1/3 C molasses
1/4 C shortening
2 Tbsp packed brown sugar
1 1/4 C all-purpose or whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground cloves
dash of ground nutmeg
dash of ground allspice

Mix molasses, shortening & brown sugar. Mix in remaining ingredients. Cover & refrigerate at least 4 hours.

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Roll dough 1/8 inch thick or paper thin on floured, cloth-covered board. Cut with floured cookie cutter. Place 1/2 inch apart on baking sheet. Bake until light brown, 1/8 inch thick cookies about 8 minutes, paper-thin cookies about 5 minutes.

Immediately remove from cookie sheet & cool. Frost if desired.

Makes about 1 1/2 dozen 1/8 inch thick cookies.

Old Fashioned Pfefferneuse (Peppernuts)

1/2 C. Butter
3/4 C. granulated Sugar
1 egg
1/2 C. sweet (or heavy) cream
2 Tbsp. Honey
1/3 cup white corn syrup
1 tsp. oil of anise
1/2 tsp. Vanilla
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground cloves
1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp. pepper
1/4 tsp. all spice
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. cream of tartar
1/4 tsp. baking powder
4 C. flour

1. Cream together butter & sugar until fluffy


2. Add egg, beat well


3. Add other liquids


4. sift dry ingredients with spices & flour. Add half the amount of flour, missing well, add remaining four & knead thoroughly.


5. Store dough in tightly covered container in the refrigerator for one hour or longer. This helps the dough to season & the spices to blend. (The longer it can set the better. I try to let it rest for at least 2 weeks sealed in a gallon sized Zip-loc bag.)


6. Roll dough into thin ropes & slice with a sharp knife dipped in flour or cold water. Pieces should be about the size of a hazel nut.


7. Place pieces separately on a greased baking sheet.


8. Bake at 375 degrees for 10 minutes

This will make quite a few Peppernuts. I keep a big bowl of them setting on the counter when we have company.

*Updated 12/16 with picture. I just baked up all my dough & thought I'd post a picture of some of the results. I didn't have enough honey on hand when I made the dough, so I substituted 1 Tbsp molasses for 1 Tbsp honey. I'm very happy with the results. I think in all this made around 300 or more nickle sized cookies. But be warned, you will eat these by the handful & they are addictive!

Sarah's Gingerbread Cheesecake

To be honest, y'all, I just tweaked a "regular" cheesecake recipe to suit my craving for gingerbread. So, instead of a graham cracker crust, I subbed out gingerbread cookie crumbs (I suppose you can be extremely Martha Stewart-y and make your gingerbread cookies from scratch - I used Keebler gingerbread cookies that I bought in the store. Pepperidge farm makes some too). I added a bit of extra seasoning to the filling in addition to just vanilla.

Crust:
2 cups gingerbread cookie crumbs (I used slightly more than 2 cups because I squashed too many)
1/3 cup melted butter

Filling:
3 pkgs cream cheese
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 c sugar
Nutmeg and ginger (to taste - I sprinkled some in until I found a nice flavor I liked but wasn't overwhelming -- you could probably use Pumpkin pie spice instead - as it has ginger and nutmeg in it)
3 eggs

What To Do:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Mix crumbs and butter and press firmly into bottom of 9x13 pan (You could also use a 9" springform pan - and just up the cooking time by about 25 minutes. I have horrible luck with Springform though - I always crack my cheesecake that way).

Beat Cream cheese, sugar, vanilla, nutmeg and ginger with electric mixer on medium speed until blended. Then taste it. That's the fun part. If you need more spices - add more, if not, then....

Add eggs and mix just until blended (over blending puts too much air in your cheesecake. Not good).

Pour over crust.

Bake 30 minutes or until center is almost set. (Again, if you go the springform route, bake time is about 55 minutes usually).

Refrigerate 3 hours or overnight.

Pumpkin Turtle Pie

Found this recipe in a coupon flyer and have adapted it to a low-cal version. Gave it to the family and it's been voted in for Thanksgiving this year. It is rich, but very good.

1-8 0z container of fat free cool whip-divided
1/4 c + 2 TBS of sugar free caramel topping
1/2 c + 2 TBS of halved pecans
1 premade graham cracker pie crust
1 c canned pumpkin
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 small packages of instant vanilla pudding
1 c fat free milk

In pie crust, pour 1/4 c of caramel topping onto crust. Spread across the bottom of the pie crust. Sprinkle 1/2 c of pecans on top of caramel topping.

In a bowl combine 1 c pumpkin, 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg, 1 tsp of ground cinnamon, 2 small packages of instant vanilla pudding, and 1 c fat free milk with wire whisk. Slowly fold in 1/2 of the fat free cool whip.

Place in pie crust, and refrigerate for 1 hour.

After chilling for 1 hour remove from fridge, spread remainder of fat free cool whip on top of pumpkin mixture. Drizzle remaining 2 Tbs of sugar free caramel topping across the top. Sprinkle remaining 2 Tbs of pecan halves across the top.

Serve.

1 pie = 10 servings

Stuffed Mushrooms

8 white large mushrooms
1 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp lemon juice
3 tsp of grated Parmesan cheese
3 tsp of bread crumbs
3 slices of precooked bacon

Preheat Oven to 375
Serves 4

Clean Mushroom Caps with damp paper towel, carefully removing stems and set caps aside.

Carefully dice mushroom stems and place into a pan on medium heat to saute. Add lemon juice and garlic until mushrooms are nicely sauteed. Remove from heat.

In an empty bowl combine, bread crumbs, Parmesan cheese, and bacon (Crumbled). Mix ingredients together. Add mushroom mixture. Mix together, and carefully spoon mixture into mushroom caps.

Bake at 375 for 15 minutes. Remove and serve warm.

2 mushrooms = 1 ww point