Cranberry Pork Roast

I got this recipe from Carolyn and it was the main dish at my Relief Society's Christmas dinner this month. It's a great recipe! And it's another crockpot recipe - yay! My family really enjoyed it tonight.

Cranberry Pork Roast

3 lb boneless pork loin roast
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1, 16 oz can whole cranberry sauce
1/4 cup honey
1 teaspoon orange zest (the zest from 1 orange)
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg

If necessary cut roast in half to fit into crockpot. Place in crockpot and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Combine the remaining ingredients in a bowl and pour over roast. Cover and cook on low for 7-8 hours. Remove roast from crockpot and slice or break into serving size pieces. Serve with sauce made out of juices (directions below).

Sauce:
Strain juices from crockpot into a saucepan. Thicken strained juices with 1 tablespoon Ultra Gel or about a tablespoon of cornstarch mixed with cold water and bring to a boil. Serve this with the pork.

My Potato Casserole

Tonight I came up with a "Funeral Potatoes" casserole that I really like. I used O'Brien Potatoes as the base and they are great because they already have the added flavor of onions and bell peppers mixed in with the potatoes. Wow, this casserole is rich though. Tonight we had it with Cranberry Pork Roast and it was a great side for pork.

My Potato Casserole

28 oz package frozen O'Brien Hashbrown Potatoes (cubed potatoes with peppers and onions), thawed
1 cup sour cream
2 cups grated medium cheddar cheese
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1/4 cup butter, melted
3 cups corn flakes, crushed

In a large bowl combine thawed O'Brien potatoes, sour cream, cheese, and soups. Pour into a greased 9x13 baking dish. In a bowl combine crushed corn flakes and melted butter. Sprinkle corn flake mixture evenly over casserole. Bake uncovered at 375 for 40-45 minutes.

Christmas Lunch

This really isn't a recipe, but I thought I'd share with you our traditional Christmas lunch. Every year we lay out a blanket in front of the Christmas tree and have a picnic with: sliced summer sausage (Hickory Farms of course, because it's SO good), crackers, a variety of cheeses, Hot Sweet Mustard (Hickory Farms too), and oranges. We all look forward to it. It is probably my favorite Christmas tradition.

This year's cheeses: Colby Jack, Butter Kasse (my favorite!), Gouda, and Brie

This year's Sausages: Beef Summer Sausage and Ham Sausage (ham sausage was a hit with the kids)

Christmas Morning Monkey Bread

I've tried a couple of different versions of this recipe, but this year I actually measured out everything the way we like it. These yummy pull-apart caramel rolls are one of my favorite things about Christmas morning. Since you make it the night before and it's ready to bake as soon as you wake up it's perfect for breakfast on Christmas and smells so good as it bakes. The rolls end up tasting almost like doughnuts. Mmmmm! Oh and of course you could make these during the day also, just let the rolls rise for about 8 hours before baking.

Christmas Morning Monkey Bread

15 frozen Rhodes Rolls dough balls
1 small package cook and serve butterscotch pudding mix
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon (optional)

At about 11pm the night before:
Grease a bundt pan very well. Place frozen dough balls evenly around the inside of the pan (it doesn't look like enough rolls, but they rise a lot overnight). Sprinkle butterscotch pudding mix over the rolls. In a saucepan combine butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon if using and bring just to a boil. Remove from heat and pour over the rolls. Cover with non-stick sprayed plastic wrap and place in a cold oven to rise overnight (rises for about 8 hours).

At about 7am the day of making:
Remove plastic wrap from pan. Turn the oven to 350 and cook for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown on top. (I put the rolls on the bottom rack for half the time to make sure the bottom browns.) Turn rolls out carefully onto a large plate or platter. Pull rolls off and enjoy.

*You can also make a glaze out of powdered sugar, a little melted butter, and milk to drizzle over the finished rolls. Makes them even more decadent and delicious.

Stained Glass Jello

Every Christmas Eve we seem to have a different Jello dish and this year was Stained Glass Jello. It looked so pretty on the plate! You can make it for different occasions with different flavors/colors of Jello.

Stained Glass Jello

4 small boxes of Jello (I used 2 lime and 2 cherry for Christmas)
1, 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk
2 envelopes Knox gelatin

For each box of Jello, dissolve Jello mix in a bowl with 1 cup of boiling water. Stir for 2 minutes. Pour into a loaf pan to set (this helps get the right size of Jello cubes). Chill in the refrigerator until set, about 2 hours. Repeat with all boxes of Jello.

After Jello is set cut the Jello into small blocks. Carefully mix the blocks in a 9x13 baking dish. Place in the refrigerator.

In a medium bowl sprinkle the 2 envelopes of Knox gelatin into 1/2 cup of cold water. Let sit for 2 minutes. Add 1 1/2 cups boiling water and dissolve gelatin in it by stirring. Add the can of condensed milk. Stir and allow to sit at room temperature until cooled. Pour cooled milk mixture over the blocks of jello in the 9x13 pan and chill until set or overnight.

Liz's Crescent Dinner Rolls

Oh man these rolls are SO good!! Tender and moist and fluffy and gorgeous. Seriously I love them. This recipe is my slightly modified version of "Liz's Crescent Dinner Rolls" from The Food Nanny Rescues Dinner: Easy Family Meals for Every Day of the Week by Liz Edmunds. That is a really great cookbook full of great realistic home-cook recipes. My guess is that this dough would also make great pull-apart rolls if you just form it into 24 round rolls rather than crescents.

Liz's Crescent Dinner Rolls

5 - 5 1/2 cups bread flour (I used 5 1/4 cups)
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons SAF yeast or other instant yeast
1 cups milk, warmed
1/4 cup + 1 tablespoon warm water
1/2 cup canola oil
3 eggs

2 tablespoons melted butter (for tops of finished rolls)

In the bowl of an electric mixer, fitted with dough hook, combine 5 cups flour, sugar, salt, and yeast. Mix briefly just to combine. Microwave milk for 1 minute to warm. Add warmed milk, warm water, canola oil, and eggs to the flour mixture and mix. Add 1/4 - 1/2 cup more flour if needed to form a soft dough that pulls away from the sides of the bowl (I used 1/4 cup more). Knead with dough hook on medium high speed for 5 minutes. Remove dough, form into a ball, and place in an oiled bowl. Cover with plastic wrap sprayed with non-stick spray and allow to rise in a warm place until doubled in size, 1 1/2 - 2 hours.

Grease a 12-18 inch sheet pan and set aside.

Punch down dough and turn onto a lightly floured surface. Divide dough into 3 equal parts. Roll each part into a circle about the size of a dinner plate. With a pizza cutter cut dough into 8 equal wedges like a pizza. Roll up each dough triangle, starting at the wide end and tucking and pinching the end into the dough. Place the rolls point side down on the greased pan. Repeats with remaining dough. All rolls should fit onto the one sheet pan in 8 rows of 3 rolls.

Cover with a clean damp dish towel or plastic wrap sprayed with non-stick spray. Let rise until doubled in size, about 35-40 minutes.

Preheat oven to 375. Bake rolls for 7 minutes on the bottom rack of the oven (this just helps the bottoms to brown). Move rolls to the middle rack and bake for 12-15 minutes or until rolls are golden. Remove rolls from oven and brush with 2 tablespoons melted butter.

Corn Flake Wreaths

I think these marshmallowy corn flake treats are super yummy! 2 of my children were not having anything covered in green goo, but the rest of us loved them. I hope someday they will be enjoyed at Christmas time by our whole family. At least everyone had fun making them and decorating them with red hots and mini m&ms.


Corn Flake Wreaths

8 cups mini marshmallows
6 tablespoons butter
green food coloring
5-6 cups corn flakes (I used 5 cups, but I think I'll use 6 next time)
non-stick cooking spray
red hots
mini m&ms

Set out a long sheet of wax paper and spray it with non-stick cooking spray.

In a large microwave safe bowl combine marshmallows and butter cut into small pieces. Microwave for 1 minutes. Stir. Microwave again for about a minute or until completely melted. Add about 15 drops of green food coloring. Stir in corn flakes until thoroughly coated.

Spray your hands with non-stick spray and plop large spoonfuls of corn flake mixture onto the wax paper. Put a hole in the middle of the mixture and stretch it out a little to form a wreath. Decorate with red hots and m&ms right away so they will stick. Let dry for about an hour and then eat. They store well for about 2 days before they get mushy.

My kids got a little crazy with the red hots and m&ms.:)