Creamed Spinach Casserole, Corn Pudding, Cherry Cream Crumble Pie

Holy shit, you guys.

Holy shit.

Kendra, I bet when you signed in to write your own last couple blog posts you noticed I had this draft up. I was totally preparing to write this big spectacular post about what I make at Christmas time - and then I was going to post a recipe for every day leading up to Christmas.

Awesome, right?

Yeah, well. The internet was down at work ALLLLL WEEEEEEKKKKKK and when I get home I am too busy actually cooking these things to write about them, or stirring Hamburger Helper, or trying to take the frozen pizza out without putting down my Jack-and-Coke.

So I'm going to cram it all into two posts - one dedicated to our Christmas supper at Christy and Jay's, and one for the desserts I brought to my in-laws' house this past weekend.

Christy is not a cook. Seriously. She will straight up tell you, let me clean up your mess, but you do the cooking. So, alright. We sat down the Wednesday before our Saturday night dinner to plan what we were going to cook. A lot of our menu came from my cookbooks - including The Book, which if anyone asks, I'll let Kendra handle that particular question. The Book is overwhelming, to say the least.

Here is our menu:

Garlic Studded Pot Roast (only difference here is we do ours on the stove-top) 
Creamed Spinach Casserole (pg 83 of the birthday edition of The Book)
Corn Pudding
Mashed Potatoes
Cherry Cream Crumble Pie (pg 266)

We also had rolls and old fashioned sweet potato casserole, which Christy did make. Good job, Christy!

Creamed Spinach Casserole

2 boxes or bags frozen chopped spinach, thawed
8 oz cream cheese, room temp
1/2 cup crumbled bacon bits
1 stick butter, melted
1 cup, plus 2 tbsp fresh shredded Parmesan

Mix all ingredients (except 2 tbsp cheese) in a greased casserole dish. Sprinkle the reserved cheese on top. Bake at 350 for 30 min or until bubbly.

(this was really, really good - but is GREASY. like when we took it out of the oven i was dubious. reheated, it smells really bad...but i'm not the biggest fan of cream cheese outside of desserts, or when i can straight up smell it. also: you had better like spinach)


Corn Pudding

30 oz frozen corn (changed from two 15 oz cans)
1/2 c. flour
1/2 c. sugar
1 tsp salt
1 c. egg substitute (this was initially a low fat/low cholesterol recipe that I revised - this is the only part I wasn't sure about. We ended up using like 4 eggs)
1 1/2 c. milk

Combine corn, flour, sugar, and salt. Pour into greased baking dish. In a separate bowl, mix egg and milk. Pour over corn but do not stir. Bake 45-50 min, stirring gently a few times during baking.

(This is really good, but VERY BLAND. Add salt and pepper and Tony's. Add some more.)


Cherry Cream Crumble Pie

Filling:

1/2 cup sugar
3 tbsp flour
2 15 oz. cans pitted tart cherries, drained
1 cup sour cream
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/4 tsp almond extract
1 unbaked pie crust

Topping:

1/2 cup quick cooking oats
1/3 cup flour
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 cup cold butter
1/2 cup chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 400.

In a large bowl,  combine the sugar, flour, cherries, sour cream, egg, and extract. Spoon into the pie crust, and bake for 20 minutes.

While pie is cooking, assemble ingredients for topping. Combine the oats, flour, brown sugar,and cinnamon in a bowl. Cut in butter until mixture is coarse and crumbly. Fold in chopped pecans.

After the pie has baked 20 minutes, remove from foil and crumble the mixture on top. Cover the edges of the crust with foil to prevent over-browning, and return to oven. Bake another 25-30 minutes, or until the topping has slightly browned. 

Allow to cool for 1 hour before serving.

(ok - this is awesome. it's ugly at first because it's PINK but it comes out great. bring ice cream.)

MERRY CHRISTMAS from some people who don't know how to use a self timer!