We planned to stop for Thanksgiving Day dinner with Joe's dad's side of the family. It's quite a long drive to see them (it ended up taking us a little over 3 hours to get there!), so I planned to do most of the cooking for that meal on the night before, on Wednesday.
Just as I was getting ready to get started, we lost power. We'd been having a snowstorm all day, so it was just a matter of time before our little hick town lost power. Luckily, we have a generator, but since it was the first time we were using it, there was a lot of trouble shooting on Joe's part. Needless to say, no cooking ended up happening that night.
That made for a VERY busy morning on Thanksgiving. Between shoveling/snow blowing, showers, getting ready, packing bags, making sure cameras were charged, and making sure the cats had enough food and water to be left alone all day, I had to find some time to make an appetizer AND a dessert for our family dinner! AAHHHH!! I didn't know if it would get done. Here is the original, Crock Pot Bourbon Glazed Kielbasa:
Crock Pot Sweet Glazed Kielbasa
(had to change the name since I didn't use bourbon)
Ingredients
1- 2 packages of Kielbasa, sliced
1 jar of apricot preserves
1/2 cup maple syrup
2 tbsp apple sauce (or bourbon)
Directions
1. Slice kielbasa into bite sized pieces. Optional: Fry in pan to get a little crust.
2. Combine everything in the crock pot
3. Cover and cook on low for 4 hours
I admit, I've never actually had apricot preserves before or apricots of any kind. I don't know what it was about this recipe that made me want to try it considering I had no clue about the flavor of one of the main ingredients. I lucked out because as soon as I opened the jar and had a little taste, I felt really sad that I'd missed out on apricots my entire life thus far!!
Anyway, I do love kielbasa, but I only like it grilled. Because of this fact, I decided to fry the kielbasa slices on the stove before putting them in the crock pot. They ended up looking like this:
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| Mmmm.. An extra step, but totally worth it!! |
Besides adding a little texture to the kielbasa, it also got a little bit of the grease out of them in the pan instead of the crock pot.
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| Cooking away while I get my next dish ready. |
So, this is the last picture I have of them. We left the house in a super rush because we were running so far behind. We got to the party late, so we put these on display and mingled as much as we could before dinner was ready. When I realized that I'd only tasted one kielbasa, at home, to make sure it was good enough to take with us, I sought out more.
Lo and behold, there was a bit of a line at the crockpot and once it was my turn, there weren't too many left!! Yay!! Everyone loved it! I was thrilled that it ended up being as tasty as it was easy. I really can't wait to make it again.
We were still on the hook for a dessert. We originally asked if we could make a pumpkin dessert, but there was already going to be a pumpkin dessert. Joe's mom makes a dish that I really love called "Lemon Lush." It wasn't really the right time of year for it, but it's always a hit on her side of the family that I thought I might bring it over to Joe's dad's side of the family. I hit up Pinterest for a recipe and found this recipe here.
Lemon Lush
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| I totally forgot to add the milk and vanilla when I took this picture. I was too rushed! |
Crust:
1 and 1/2 C flour
1 and 1/2 sticks butter
1 and 1/2 C pecans, crushed
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Mix and pat ingredients into 9x13" pan for 30 minutes (or until slightly browned) then cool completely.
Second layer:
8 oz cream cheese
1 C powdered sugar
1 C cool whip
1 tsp vanilla
Mix well (can use a mixer)and spread over cooled crust.
Third Layer:
2 small (1oz) boxes Lemon instant pudding (use 3 boxes for larger pudding layer)
3 C cold milk
Blend pudding mix with 3 cups of cold milk and spread over cream cheese layer. Top with 8 oz of cool whip then sprinkle with leftover pecans (pecans on top are optional).
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| Crushed the pecans in a plastic bag by whacking my big pan on it. It worked pretty well!! |
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| The crust ingredients. Might've been easier to work with if I had softer or more melted butter. |
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| It took a while to pack the crust down and I got all messy, but it was worth it! |
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| Quinn REALLY wanted to help. I let her dump ingredients into the bowl for the second layer. |
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| The second layer wasn't much of a layer. Maybe I did something wrong..? |
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| Onto the pudding filling. I don't know how I managed it, but I took a lot of pics of the process. |
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| I didn't check the size requirements and I ended up with less pudding than needed. Oh well, it was just kind of flat. Flavor was still perfect though! |
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| Quinn was dying to lick the bowl, so I let her. She did a really good job! |
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| The last layer being put on, followed by the rest of the pecans! |
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| The final product! |
Again, I didn't get a chance to get any pictures of just a slice of this deliciousness. We were so busy eating and hanging out, that I forgot to during the party. Then Joe took the leftovers with him to work, so I missed out at home, too!! But everyone loved it. I was asked for the recipe a few times. The guys at Joe's work loved it, too!
Even though I got this recipe online, I really should thank Joe's mom for introducing me to this slightly sweet, very creamy, and just wonderfully yummy dessert! I am pretty sure she makes hers with walnuts as opposed to pecans, but I opted for pecans thinking it would make it more Thanksgiving-y. Joe and I talked about it and we decided that we like it either way.
I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving, however you ended up spending it!
That's not it for my Thanksgiving treats! We have one more party, so at least one more dish to tell you guys about so stay tuned!!!
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