For Thanksgiving dessert, we had mini-pies — lemon and apple. I saw this idea on Pinterest, and had to give it a try. Cute and easy!

The only ingredients really necessary are canned refrigerator biscuits and pie filling. In fact, for the lemon pie, that was all we used.

Pull each biscuit in half (easier with flaky biscuits) so that you have two thin biscuits. Roll them out on a floured surface, then press inside a sprayed muffin pan. The roller that Ken is using in the picture is the Pampered Chef Baker’s Roller. It’s great for rolling out biscuits, crescent dough, and even pizza crusts.

Spoon with a generous amount of pie filling. I used the Food Chopper to chop the apple pieces in the pie filling into small chunks.

For the apple pie, we made a streusel crumble on top with equal parts brown sugar and flour, and a few tablespoons of butter mixed together. For the lemon, we skipped meringue (because I don’t really like it).

Bake for 15 minutes, or until crust is golden. Enjoy topped with whipped cream or a scoop of ice cream! I know we have!

 

 

 

 

Thanksgiving holds a special place in our hearts. Sixteen years ago, on Thanksgiving day, Ken and I had our first date. Our first meal together was Thanksgiving dinner, cooked by myself and eating late at night because of Ken’s arrival time. He had flown down to the United States to celebrate American Thanksgiving, and we had a great weekend together, experiencing many of the holiday traditions in Indiana.

With our family being at least 3 days drive away, Thanksgiving has most often been a holiday shared by the two of us — an anniversary of sorts.

For years, I cooked a turkey, made stuffing, glazed carrots, baked potatoes, green bean casserole, cranberries, rolls, pumpkin pie — all of the traditional Thanksgiving day dishes.

Then one year we happened to find that Cracker Barrel serves Thanksgiving dinner at a very reasonable price. We spent a few years eating at Cracker Barrel, and then even tried their Thanksgiving dinners to go.

When I found I was allergic to corn, potatoes, and carrots, the Cracker Barrel Thanksgiving dinner had to go. In fact, much of traditional Thanksgiving had to go.

That’s when we realized: if it’s just the two of us, why do we let cultural expectations determine what we eat anyway?

We began to rethink how we celebrated Thanksgiving.

If the traditional side dishes of Thanksgiving are out, who needs turkey? Our favorite celebratory meat is steak!

So for the past few years, we’ve eaten steak on Thanksgiving, along with our favorite sides, now that I’m not allergic to them anymore. Yesterday we added glazed carrots, green bean casserole, and blue cheese mashed potatoes. And dessert? I’ll tell you tomorrow!

Blue cheese mashed potatoes? YES. And they are delicious. They were inspired by the Blue Cheese Au Gratin potatoes from Old Hickory Steakhouse, but a whole lot less time intensive to make. They are a perfect side to a nice steak. Or even a not-so-nice steak!

Blue Cheese Mashed Potatoes

• 6 small or 4 large potatoes, peeled and quartered
• 1/2 Cup heavy cream, or milk
• 4 tbs butter
• 4 oz. blue cheese, crumbled
• Salt and pepper to taste

Bring water to boil in large pot and add prepared potatoes. Boil until fork tender. While potatoes are cooking, melt together heavy cream, butter, and blue cheese. Drain cooked potatoes and place in large bowl, pour cheese mixture over potatoes and mash together. Salt and pepper to taste.

To mash potatoes, I use a combination of a fork and a brief mix with a hand mixer (so they don’t become pasty), but what would be even better to use (if I had one) would be the Nylon Masher! I have other Pampered Chef Nylon tools and they are so much more durable than other plastic tools I’ve owned. And for only $6.50, it’s a great price!

 

Don’t forget, there’s just a few days left to join our Online Pampered Chef Party! The party closes November 30th!

It took a while for the concept of the Food Chopper to grow on me, and now I can’t imagine not having one. I bought one around 5 years ago because everyone always remarked that the Food Chopper was their favorite Pampered Chef product. In fact the Food Chopper is Pampered Chef’s most popular kitchen tool.

The Food Chopper makes quick work of chopping cooked meats, veggies (especially onions!), and nuts (back in the olden days when I could eat them). There are lots of soup recipes that require chopped this and that, and since I often cook soups in the slow cooker all day, I need to prep the ingredients quickly in the morning. The blades rotate each time the plunger is struck, so you don’t have to continuously rotate it to get even cuts. It also disassembles and washes in the dishwasher well — much better than a food processor.

Here’s my favorite Food-Chopper-related recipe:

Primavera Pizza

• 1 package pizza dough, prepared (I use the kind that comes dry in an envelope for less than $1)
• 2 tsp olive oil
• 2 T grated Parmesan
• ½ tsp garlic salt
• 1/4 tsp dried basil (or fresh chopped if you have it!)
• 1/4 tsp dried oregano
• 3 Tbs Ranch dressing (reduced fat is fine)
• 2 C chopped cooked chicken
• 1/4 C chopped red onion
• 1/4 C chopped green bell pepper
• 1 c chopped fresh baby spinach
• 8 oz shredded mozzarella

On a sprayed cookie sheet,  spread to edges to form round shape. Lightly brush dough with olive oil. Spread parmesan, basil, and garlic salt over each crust. Bake crust alone for 10 min @ 400. Remove from oven. Spread Ranch dressing on each crust. Layer chicken, bell pepper, onion, spinach, and cheese. Bake 9-12 more minutes or until cheese is melted and browned around the edges.

Lots of tasty vegetables in this surprisingly fresh pizza! And the Food Chopper makes it so much easier to prep! And if you buy one, it will help us with our adoption! Thanks for participating in our online Pampered Chef Party!

One of my favorite Pampered Chef products is their Egg Slicer Plus, but not just because it slices eggs.

I love it for slicing strawberries! It can power through a quart of strawberries in minutes for yummy strawberry shortcake.  In fact paired with the Core and More to remove the strawberry stems, and it’s even faster!  But in the wintertime, I still get plenty of use of it slicing mushrooms.

I was never a huge fan of mushrooms until I started cooking with fresh mushrooms, especially portabello mushrooms.

This is one of my favorite mushroom recipes:

Balsamic Chicken and Mushrooms

• 2 Tbs olive oil
• ¼ C balsamic vinegar
• 1 Tbs Dijon mustard
• 1 Tbs minced garlic
• 3 boneless chicken breasts, cut into 1 inch cubes
• 8 oz mushrooms freshly sliced
• ½ C chicken broth
• ¼ tsp dried thyme
• (Prepared rice, enough for family)

Mix vinegar, mustard, & garlic. Coat chicken with mixture. (Let marinade if you have time.) In a large sauce pan, sauté chicken in olive oil over med heat until done. Remove chicken; keep warm. Sauté mushrooms in same pan for 2 min. Add broth & thyme, scraping bottom of pan; cook mushrooms until browned.   Place chicken on steamed rice. Pour mushroom sauce over chicken.

The Egg Slicer Plus would make a great stocking stuffer or gift for yourself! And a portion of the proceeds helps with our adoption expenses! Thanks for participating in our online Pampered Chef Party!