I Made A Pie

a sweet potato pie. . . from scratch! Besides from making the crust (which I ended up having to do twice) this pie was super easy to make.

2 cups mashed sweet potato
1/2 cup of sugar (I think)
3 eggs
pinch of salt
1/2 a teaspoon each of nutmeg, allspice, and cinnamon
1 cup of sour cream

mix together, pour into an unbaked pie crust, heat the oven to 375, and bake for like 40 minutes (or if your oven sucks like mine does, it's closer to an hour)

It's super yummy - and because it's not super duper sweet or heavy it can be eaten with dinner.

Holiday Feasting - My Go-To Sweet Appetizer

The holiday season is upon us. And along with those holidays come the holiday parties, dinners, and open houses. And along with those holiday parties, dinners, and open houses come the "oh, just bring an appetizer "requests(because, of course, you just had to offer to bring something). . . And for those times I have a few super easy appetizer recipes up my sleeve.

This appetizer is the easiest of them all, the dip itself has just two ingredients, seriously just two -

Fluffy Fruit Dip

A friend in college introduced me to this super easy to make dip (you know it has to be easy to make if you can make it in a dorm room) and I've been using it to wow ever since

All you need:

• a standard sized tub of cream cheese (I like to get the whipped kind because it makes it easier to mix)
• a jar of marshmallow fluff (any brand will do you)
• some cut up fruit for dipping

Okay, so here was you do. . . you mix the cream cheese and marshmallow fluff together until smooth and then. . . well, and then you eat, cause it's really that simple. . . oh, and to make it even easier I buy my apples all ready cut.

Holiday Feasting - My Go-To Retro Appetizer

The holiday season is upon us. And along with those holidays come the holiday parties, dinners, and open houses. And along with those holiday parties, dinners, and open houses come the "oh, just bring an appetizer "requests(because, of course, you just had to offer to bring something). . . And for those times I have a few super easy appetizer recipes up my sleeve.

There is a chance that I may have posted this recipe here before, but it's a good one so here we go. . .

Super Simple Artichoke Dip

My mother has been making this recipe since the early 1970s (hence the retro post title) and it is always been a major hit.

All you need:

• a standard size can of artichoke hearts
• 1 cup of mayo
• 1 cup of grated Parmesan cheese (or as my roommate calls it, "sprinkle cheese")
• some crackers

First drain your artichoke hearts and then chop them up. How finely you chop them is totally up to you, personally I chop the heck out of those suckers. Next you mix the chopped artichoke, mayo and cheese together in a mixing bowl and then spread the mixture into a shallow baking dish (my mom uses a glass pie pan). Shove the dip under the broiler for 5 to 10 minutes, or until it starts to bubble and brown. Let the dip cool (seriously, I have majorly burned my lips from this dip in the past) and serve with crackers.

I sometime prepare the dip at home but wake to put it under the broiler until I reach the party, it travels well.

Holiday Feasting - My Go-To Fancy Appetizer

The holiday season is upon us. And along with those holidays come the holiday parties, dinners, and open houses. And along with those holiday parties, dinners, and open houses come the "oh, just bring an appetizer "requests(because, of course, you just had to offer to bring something). . . And for those times I have a few super easy appetizer recipes up my sleeve.

When the evening calls for an appetizer that is a bit more "fancy" you can't beat Brie en Croute (it even sounds fancy!). I know it sounds like it would be on the more complicated side, Brie en Croute could not be easy to make.

all you need -
8oz brie round
some sort of pastry dough (I use Pillsbury's Crescent seamless dough sheets)
some jelly or jam of your choosing (I use either my homemade pepper jelly or mango jam)
some fancy crackers
non stick cooking spray (or butter)

Preheat your oven to 350°F. Coat a cookie sheet with your non-stick spray (or butter). Roll out, spread out, or lay out your pastry dough and cut into two somewhat equal pieces large enough to fit your brie between (this is the en croute part if you hadn't already figured that out). Place your bottom piece of pasty dough on the cookie sheet, put your brie down in the middle of that, plop 3 or 4 table spoons of jelly/jam on top of you brie and spread it out a bit. Then fold up the extra dough from your bottom piece of pastry,then place your second piece of pastry dough on top of your brie and then sorta pinch and push and twist the top and bottom pastry pieces together officially making your brie "en croute". Pop that sucker in the oven for about 20 or 30 minutes or until your en croute looks nice a golden brown, cool for at least 15 minutes (though I tend make this right before I leave the house, so that it cools on the way to the function) and then serve with crackers.

bonus - if you have any extra pastry dough, roll it out and cut out some cute shapes, either with a cookie cutter or freehand, and then plop your cut outs on top to add a special touch.


Here is some different versions from Food Network if you want to fancy it up even more:

Dried Cherries, Pecans & Rosemary Brie en Croute
Holiday Brie en Croute
Paula Deen's Brie En Croute