Fix-It and Forget-It Christmas Cookbook (123 page)

Southwest Cranberries

Bernita Boyts

Shawnee Mission, KS

Makes 8 servings

Prep. Time: 5 minutes

Cooking Time: 2-3 hours

Ideal slow cooker size: 1½- to 2-qt.

16-oz. can whole berry cranberry sauce

10½-oz. jar jalapeño jelly

2 Tbsp. chopped fresh cilantro

1. Combine all ingredients in slow cooker.

2. Cover. Cook on Low 2-3 hours.

Serving suggestion: Cool. Serve at room temperature as a side dish or as a
marinade
for poultry or pork.

Cranberry Applesauce

Susan Segraves

Lansdale, PA

Makes 12 servings

Prep. Time: 20 minutes

Cooking Time: 3-8 hours

Ideal slow cooker size: 4- to 5-qt.

10 cups peeled, cubed apples (about 3 lbs. Granny Smith,
or
McIntosh)

2 cups fresh cranberries

½ cup sugar

½ cup maple-flavored pancake syrup

⅓ cup water

½ tsp. cinnamon

¼ tsp. nutmeg

1. Mix all ingredients in slow cooker.

2. Cover. Cook on High 3-4 hours or on Low 6-8 hours.

3. In cooker, mash apples and cranberries with potato masher.

4. Reduce heat to warm. Hold in slow cooker until serving time. Or chill if you prefer until ready to serve.

Serving suggestion: Use this as is for dessert, or as a topping for
ice cream
or
pound cake
. Or serve warm as
an accompaniment
to a turkey dinner.

For Christmas Eve I prepare plain sugar cookies. I also put out bowls of sprinkles and frosting for the kids to use to decorate the cookies.

Michele Ruvola, Vestal, NY

Homemade Applesauce

Renita Denlinger

Denver, PA

Makes 7-8 servings

Prep. Time: 10-20 minutes

Cooking Time: 3½ hours

Ideal slow cooker size: 5- to 6-qt.

10 large apples, halved, cored, and peeled

½ tsp. cinnamon

dash of nutmeg

dash of ground cloves

1 Tbsp. water

1. Spray slow cooker with non-stick spray.

2. Put apples in slow cooker.

3. Sprinkle cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and water over apples. Stir.

4. Cover. Cook on Low 3½ hours, or until apples are soft. If you’re home and available, stir the apples after they’ve cooked for 2 hours. It’s okay to mash them up a bit as you stir.

5. Serve warm or chilled.

Note:

This makes the whole house smell wonderful.

Cranberry Baked Apples

Judi Manos

West Islip, NY

Makes 4 servings

Prep. Time: 15 minutes

Cooking Time: 4-6 hours

Ideal slow cooker size: 4- to 5-qt.

⅓ cup packed brown sugar

¼ cup dried cranberries

4 large cooking apples

½ cup cran-apple juice cocktail

¼ stick (2 Tbsp.) butter, melted

½ tsp. ground cinnamon

¼ tsp. ground nutmeg

chopped nuts,
optional

1. In a small bowl, mix brown sugar and cranberries together.

2. Core apples but leave whole. Fill centers with brown sugar and cranberry mixture.

3. Set apples upright in slow cooker. (Don’t stack them.)

4. In the same small bowl, combine cran-apple juice and butter. Pour over apples.

5. Sprinkle with cinnamon and nutmeg.

6. Cover. Cook on Low 4-6 hours.

7. To serve, spoon sauce over apples and sprinkle with nuts.

Serving suggestion: A great accompaniment to
vanilla ice cream
.

Note:

This was one of our favorite recipes while growing up. When it’s cooking, the house smells delicious. I’m suddenly full of memories of days gone by and a much more relaxing time. My mother passed away in October, and I re-found this recipe among her collection of favorites.

Apple Schnitz

Betty Hostetler

Allensville, PA

Makes 6-8 servings

Prep. Time: 5 minutes

Cooking Time: 2½-6 hours

Ideal slow cooker size: 3-qt.

16 oz. dried apples

3 cups water

1 cup sugar

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

1 tsp. salt

1. Combine apples, water, sugar, cinnamon, and salt in slow cooker.

2. Cover. Cook on Low 6 hours, or on High 2½ hours.

3. Serve warm as a side dish with bean soup, or as filling for Half Moon Pies (see below).

4. For pie filling, remove apples from slow cooker. Mash until smooth with potato masher, or put through food mill. Cool.

Pie Crust:

4 cups flour

2 tsp. salt

4 Tbsp. shortening

¼ cold water,
or
more

1. Combine flour and salt in large bowl. Cut in shortening until mixture resembles small peas.

2. Add ¼ cup cold water to dough, adding more by tablespoonfuls as needed to make a soft pie dough.

3. Pinch off small pieces of dough, each about the size of a large walnut. Roll into round pieces, each about 8” in diameter.

4. Jag one half of the circle a few times with a sharp fork to create holes for the steam to escape while baking. On the other half, place a heaping tablespoon of Apple Schnitz.

5. Fold one-half of dough up over the half holding the Apple Schnitz, shaping the pie like a half moon. Press edges of dough together. Cut off remaining dough and crimp edges.

6. Bake at 350° for 30 minutes.

Note:

On a cold winter day, Mother would prepare dried beans to make soup. After the beans were soft, she added milk to the soup pot. She heated the mixture to the boiling point, then added rivels. While the beans were cooking, she cooked dried apples until they were soft. She served these Half Moon Pies as a side dish/dessert with the soup.

Caramel Apples

Becky Harder
, Monument, CO

Jeanette Oberholtzer
, Manheim, PA

Makes 8-10 servings

Prep. Time: 20-30 minutes • Cooking Time: 1-1½ hours

Ideal slow cooker size: 2-qt.

2 14-oz. bags of caramels

¼ cup water

8-10 medium apples

12-15 sticks, in case a few break