Cresent-Wrapped Brie

If you're looking for a quick and delicious appetizer to make for this evening's New Year's Eve festivities this is it. Make Cresent-Wrapped Brie and impress all your friends - you'll never have to tell them how easy it was to make. Only four ingredients too! Have a safe and Happy New Year. See you in 2010.

Cresent-Wrapped Brie

from Pillsbury.com

1 - 8 oz. can Pillsbury Refridgerated Cresent Dinner Rolls

1 - 8oz. round of Brie cheese

Seedless Raspberry Preserves

1 egg, beaten

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Unroll dough; separate crosswise into 2 sections. Pat dough and firmly press perforations to seal; forming 2 squares. Place one square on ungreased cookie sheet. Place cheese on center of dough. With small cookie cutter or canape cutter, cut 1 shape from each corner of remaining square; set cutouts aside. Brush Seedless Raspberry Preserves on top of cheese. Place remaining dough square on top of cheese round. Press dough evenly around cheese; fold bottom edges over top edges. Gently stretch dough evenly around cheese; press to seal completely. Brush with beaten egg. Top with cutouts; brush with additional beaten egg. Bake 20 - 24 minutes or until golden brown. Cool 15 minutes. Serve warm with cracker, apple or pear slices.

What a fabulous Christmas!

What a fabulous Christmas!

A couple of months ago I emailed my in-laws and told them about Pioneer Woman's Cookbook and how Ree would be in Houston in December for her book signing tour. Since Ree wasn't coming anywhere near where I live, I asked them pretty please if they would get me the cookbook for Christmas and get it signed for me since they live about 45 minutes away from Houston. Being the best in-laws that a girl could have - they went. They stood in line for 5 hours to get my book signed!! I had no idea it would take that long or I would have never asked them to do that......well, yes I probably still would have since I love PW that much!! Well they came to visit us over Christmas and gave me my very own signed copy of Pioneer Woman's Cookbook. I also got a bonus PW T-shirt too - woo hoo! Thank you Chere and Ron - I love you!!!

Sugar Cookie Christmas Trees

Well after seeing lots of beautiful Christmas Sugar Cookies on blogs, I thought I would give them a try. This was my first attempt at royal icing and boy do I need practice! I began with Christmas trees since I thought they would be the easiest to decorate. I used this sugar cookie recipe from Our Best Bites. The cookies tasted fantastic and I will definitely use this recipe again. The royal icing is where I need help! I used this recipe I found on Good Things Catered and it tastes good, but I don't think I thinned it enough, because I had to use a toothpick to spread it out on the cookie. Katie is obviously a much better cookie decorator than I am! I used a Wilton #2 tip to outline the tree and a #3 to flood, but I guess I shouldn't use the word flood since mine was way too thick! If anyone has some cookie decorating tips for me, please feel free to email me - I need all the help I can get! Anyway, they turned out okay for my first sugar cookies, but one of my New Year's resolutions is to definitely become a better decorator in 2010! Merry Christmas!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake

I made this cake last week when we had our family over to celebrate our daughter's 16th birthday. She had requested a peanut butter pie, which we also had, but I thought we needed a cake too. I noticed this cake on several blogs a couple of months ago, including Smitten Sugar and Good Things Catered. I thought it sounded so good and I knew my daughter would love it since she is a huge fan of the Reese cup. I made this in my Wilton 6 inch cake pans because I didn't want a big cake, so I used the rest of the batter to make mini cupcakes. The amount of the frosting recipe below was fine since I was making a smaller cake, but you will want to double it at least for a regular size cake. I also added crushed Reese Cups to the middle layer of the cake. It was so tasty and everyone really liked it. I will definitely be making this one again!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake

Bake your favorite chocolate cake, into 2 - 8 inch rounds (I used 6 inch this time)

When cakes have cooled, level off and place one layer on a serving plate.

Spread frosting on layer and cover with chopped Reese cups.

Place second layer, leveled, on top of frosting and frost cake fully.

Garnish with more Reese cups and frosting.

Place in fridge. Remove from fridge about 1 hour before serving to let it come to room temperature.

Peanut Butter Frosting

1 cup confectioners sugar

1 cup creamy peanut butter

5 T unsalted butter, at room temperature

3/4 tsp pure vanilla extract

1/4 tsp kosher salt

1/3 cup heavy cream

Place the confectioners sugar, peanut butter, butter, vanilla and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Mix on medium-low speed until creamy, scraping down the bowl with a rubber spatula as you work. Add the cream and beat on high speed until the mixture is light and smooth.

Christmas Joy

I haven't really had any time to bake so far this week, which stresses me out because I am way behind, but I did make time to do a little more decorating for the holidays. I saw this idea on All Things Heart and Home and thought it was really cute. I picked up the wooden letters and the mini wreath at Michael's. More recipes to come soon I promise!

Christmas Banner

I thought I would take a break from baking and get a little crafty for the holidays. I have seen these banners on Etsy for birthday celebrations and thought one would look cute hanging from our mantle for our Christmas party. Katydid and Kid has a great tutorial if you want to make one too. I used Circus font for mine and picked up some cute Christmas scrapbook paper from Michael's. Sorry my pictures aren't the best, but I have a crappy camera. I was hoping to get a nice, new camera for Christmas, but we are getting a new roof for our house instead :(

Maybe next year Santa!

Corn Pudding

A few days before Thanksgiving I helped my cousin Patsy at an event she was catering. After tasting her corn pudding I knew I had my new side dish I had been searching for to take to my brother's house for our family Thanksgiving dinner. This is such an easy dish to make, but it's oh so tasty! It would be perfect dish to take to pot-luck also. I'm going to make it again for Christmas. Hope you like it too!

Corn Pudding

1 can cream style corn

1 can whole kernel corn, drained

2 eggs

1 - 8 oz. container sour cream

1 stick butter, melted

1 small box Jiffy Cornbread Mix, or 1 cup of any kind of cornbread mix

Mix thoroughly and pour into a greased or Pam sprayed baking dish. My baking dish was a

7 x 11 glass dish.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 - 40 minutes or until light brown.

Serves 10-12