November 30, 2016

Aunt Peggy’s Cranberry Apple Casserole

laura.smoak@gmail.com Breakfast, Prep Ahead, Sides, Sweets 4 Comments

With Thanksgiving behind us, the Christmas season is in full swing in our house. Today I’m starting a four-part Christmas series, and I hope you’ll join us as we work our way through some of my favorite recipes for this time of year. Up first is my Great Aunt Peggy’s Cranberry Apple Casserole.

First, let me introduce you to my Aunt Peggy. Aunt Peggy was my mom’s aunt (grandmother’s sister), and she lived in small-town North Carolina about 45 minutes from our house. When my grandmother passed away my freshman year of high school, Peggy became like a surrogate grandmother. The bond wasn’t quite the same because there’s just no replacing Mima, but having her made the loss more bearable. We didn’t see her as much as my grandmother, but we always made a special trip to visit with her on Christmas Eve. Peggy also passed away about five years ago, and I miss those trips and visits.

Fast forward to today. I was reading through an old church cookbook Peggy gave to my mom years ago, and came across this recipe. I remember the first Christmas Eve I went to her house when she was making it. I was in high school, and she had the apple/cranberry/sugar mixture in the casserole dish and was finishing up with the topping. We (my mom, sister and I) immediately got her recipe and made it for several years after. For no real reason we just stopped making it, I guess because we would have other recipes to try out. Once I came back across her recipe, I knew I wanted to bring it to the blog to share with all of you.

You know the church cookbooks I’m talking about. The ladies of the church submit their recipes and it’s all compiled into a little bound book. The recipes involve lots of margarine, canned soup, sugar and any other processed food you know isn’t good for you, but it’s grandma’s recipe so OF COURSE I’M EATING IT. You may not know this about me (though I’m sure it won’t be a surprise), but I love reading cookbooks for fun. Like cover to cover. I’ve never actually read through a church cookbook like this, so when I saw it out on my mom’s counter I decided to check it out. Mainly because I wanted a laugh at how absurd some old recipes can be.

Back to the cranberry apple casserole. Guys, I have to admit. It’s a stretch to call this a casserole. I would categorize it under a crisp or somewhere else in the dessert category, but Peggy called it a casserole, so that makes it a side dish mmmmkay? The reality here, though, is that this is perfect as dessert with whipped cream or ice cream on top, but it also makes for a really really good breakfast…not that I’ve done that, but – ya know – I’m just thinking it could…okay, fiiine, I make this with hopes that I have leftovers for days, so I can have this for breakfast. Apples, cranberries and oatmeal make it a 100% justifiable morning meal.

This cranberry apple casserole is perfect for your Christmas table. In my not-so-surprising fashion, I’m going to list the reasons why:

I mean LOOK AT HER. She’s gorgeous, and that red is perfect for the season.
This can be made a day in advance and just reheated before serving.
It can be served hot or room temp. If you have a bunch of dishes to make for the big day, do this first. Once it’s done you can just leave it until mealtime.
It’s reallllllly good with vanilla ice cream on top.
^^that is worth mentioning again.
The leftovers last for days.

There you have it. I hope you’ll add this into your Christmas menu along with any other recipes that make you nostalgic for the past. Here is Peggy’s recipe as written. If you want to double the topping, I won’t be mad about it.

Cranberry Apple Casserole

Ingredients:

2 large (or 3-4 small/medium) sweet apples* – unpeeled and chopped
1 bag fresh cranberries
1 ¼ c sugar
1 stick butter – melted
½ c chopped pecans
½ c brown sugar (light or dark is fine)
¾ c quick-cooking oatmeal
1/3 c flour

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
Mix the chopped apples, cranberries and sugar and pour into a 9×13 baking dish.
Combine the melted butter, chopped pecans, brown sugar, oatmeal and flour, and spread evenly over the cranberry apple mixture.
Cook uncovered in the oven for one hour, or until the apples are soft and the mixture is bubbly.
Enjoy!

*I generally use Fuji, Honeycrisp or Gala apples

November 16, 2016

Pepperoni Pull-Apart Bread

laura.smoak@gmail.com Appetizer 4 Comments

Pepperoni pull-apart bread, meet readers. Readers, meet pepperoni pull-apart bread. AKA gooey, cheesy, bready deliciousness. AKA my lifeline for weeks 6-15 of this pregnancy.

In last week’s announcement post I shared how my stomach rejected the idea of anything resembling healthy food and could only be satisfied with all the things bready, pasta-y, cheesy, saucy or meaty. This pepperoni pull-apart bread checks off four of those five boxes, so guess who has two thumbs and discovered an untapped love for pull-apart bread – this girl. I’ve seen several recipes for sweet pull-apart breads, but knew I wanted a savory option, and I’m so glad this turned out the way it did.

Pregnant or not, this is just really good Fall food. Like so many others, our Saturday and Sunday afternoons often revolve around Carolina football (Heels and Panthers). Our weekend mornings are generally lazy and involve a late breakfast, so a big lunch usually just doesn’t happen. Enter the afternoon football-watching snack.

Bonus is that Anna Ruth has a blast helping make it. She’s becoming really interested in helping us in the kitchen, so I’m always looking for ways to get her involved. This is definitely not the healthiest snack for her, but getting her comfortable in the kitchen is something I find important.

The measurements here aren’t approximate. I generally use between 1.5-2 cups of cheese just depending on how heavy-handed I’m feeling that day. Also, you’ll see AR using a rolling pin on the dough. Totally optional/not necessary, but if you’ve got a kid wanting to help in the kitchen it’ll give them good practice for Christmas cookie baking 🙂

P.S. Thank you so much to everyone for the kind words and shared excitement of our news last week. The comments, messages, calls and texts mean the world to us!

Pepperoni Pull-apart bread

Ingredients:

1 tube biscuits with pull-apart layers (8-count)
Pepperoni slices
1.5-2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
2 tbsp butter – melted
2 tbsp grated parmesan
1 tsp dried oregano
½ tsp garlic powder
Marinara sauce for dipping

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray a loaf pan with cooking spray.
Separate each biscuit into three pull-apart layers. (You may have 1-2 that only give you two layers, which is fine.)
Set the loaf pan on one end so it is standing vertical.
On each biscuit layer, place a large pinch of cheese and 2-3 pepperonis.
Stack each biscuit layer in the loaf pan, and then work as needed to make sure they are evenly spaced in the pan.
Melt the butter and combine with the parmesan, oregano and garlic powder. Spread evenly over the top of the biscuits.
Place foil on top (not tightly covered – this is just to prevent the top from getting too brown), and bake for 45 minutes, removing the foil during the last few minutes of cook time.
Check to make sure the dough in the middle is done, and continue cooking at 5-minute increments until totally done (mine usually takes just the 45).
Let sit in the pan for a few minutes before lifting out of the pan and onto a platter.
Pull-apart and dip into the marinara – enjoy!

November 9, 2016

Blue or Pink – What do you think?

laura.smoak@gmail.com Life 18 Comments

Big changes are coming for the Peascoes! Andy, Anna Ruth and I are thrilled to finally announce we’re expecting baby Pea #2!! Due in late April, and feeling great (praise hands)!

I’m well out of the first trimester and ready to eat all the things again. My body does a weird thing during first trimesters – it totally rejects the idea of vegetables and anything with any nutritional value. For nearly 12 weeks my diet consisted of anything bready, pasta-y, cheesy, saucy, meaty, or any number of combos from that mix. It’s awesome, but also doesn’t exactly promote my idea of a healthy pregnancy. With Anna Ruth I didn’t have any set fitness goals, but this time I’m trying to be more on top of it. Eat a ton of fruit and veggies, and exercise four times a week minimum. We’ll see how I do!

Okay – I’m done with the pregnancy update, so let’s move onto the real reason you’re here!

Thanks to an awesome private imaging place in town we were able to find out boy or girl just before we were scheduled to have some family pictures taken. We used part of the photo shoot to snap these – enjoy! Images taken by Gain Composure Photography.