Christmas Weekend

Randall had to work Christmas Eve so I took it upon myself to tease the Woody family with homemade pies and cookies for Christmas Day! Bare with me on the pictures and posts as this is my first REAL blog! ;0) I got these recipes from my sister, Katrina, www.bakingandboys.com.


My favorite one I made is the Cherry Berry Pie. www.cookiemadness.net is where my sister got the recipe and after seeing it on her blog, I HAD to steal it! This is by far my favorite pie!!

Cherry Berry Pie

Pie Crust Used:

This is from Good Housekeeping.

• 2 1/2 cup(s) all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon(s) salt
• 10 tablespoon(s) cold butter or margarine, cut up
• 6 tablespoon(s) vegetable shortening
• 6 1/2 tablespoon(s) ice water

• In food processor (I don't have one so I just used my hand mixer) with knife blade attached, blend flour and salt. Add butter and shortening, and pulse until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Sprinkle in ice water, 1 tablespoon at a time, pulsing after each addition, until large moist crumbs just begin to form.

• Shape dough into 2 balls, 1 slightly larger. Flatten each into a disk; wrap each in plastic wrap and refrigerate 30 minutes or overnight. (If chilled overnight, let stand 30 minutes at room temperature before rolling.)

Filling:

• 1 (14 to 16 ounce) can pitted tart cherries, drained, liquid reserved
• 1 (12 oz) package frozen raspberries, thawed, drained, juice reserved
• 2/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1/3 cup brown sugar, lightly packed
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 4 tablespoon softened regular butter

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
• Combine half cup of cherry liquid and half cup of the raspberry juice to make one cup combined. Set the juice and fruit aside.
• Combine sugars and cornstarch in a small saucepan. Whisk in the 1 cup of fruit juice and cook over medium heat until thickened and bubbly. Cook and stir 2 minutes more. Remove from heat. Stir in almond extract, vanilla and soft butter. Stir in drained cherries and raspberries.
• Fill pie shell with cherry-berry mixture. Roll out second portion of dough into a 12 inch circle and cut into 1 inch strips. Arrange in a lattice pattern over cherry filling, weaving strips crosswise over and under lengthwise strips. Trim pastry strips even with edge of bottom crust. Fold bottom pastry over lattice strips and seal. Flute edge.
• Shield edges of pie with foil to prevent excess browning if you feel you need too. Set pie on a baking sheet and bake for 45 to 50 minutes until crust is golden brown. Remove foil strip during final 15 minutes of baking time.

All ready for the oven!!! Do NOT make fun of my raspberry! I know it looks like a grape! ;0)

All done! And to think I had to wait 24 hours before eating this!! It was SOOOO worth the wait!

I'm not very good at the picture taking of my food yet but I'll get better with time.

I must say I am pretty proud of myself!!

And then I started the Double Crust Apple Pie. I just googled apple pie and found this one on www.countryliving.com/recipes.

Double Crust Apple Pie



Pie Crust:

• 2 1/2 cup(s) all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon(s) salt
• 10 tablespoon(s) cold butter or margarine, cut up
• 6 tablespoon(s) vegetable shortening
• 6 1/2 tablespoon(s) ice water

• In food processor (I don't have one so I just used my hand mixer) with knife blade attached, blend flour and salt. Add butter and shortening, and pulse until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Sprinkle in ice water, 1 tablespoon at a time, pulsing after each addition, until large moist crumbs just begin to form.
• Shape dough into 2 balls, 1 slightly larger. Flatten each into a disk; wrap each in plastic wrap and refrigerate 30 minutes or overnight. (If chilled overnight, let stand 30 minutes at room temperature before rolling.)

After peeling and slicing all the apples for the filling I took it upon myself to make a second batch of crust and I'm so glad I did!

Apple Filling:

• 2/3 cup(s) sugar
• 1/3 cup(s) cornstarch
• 1/2 teaspoon(s) ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon(s) nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon(s) salt
• 3 1/2 pound(s) Granny Smith Apples, each peeled, cored, and cut into 16 wedges
• 1 tablespoon(s) fresh lemon juice
• 2 tablespoon(s) butter or margarine, cut up
• 1 large egg white, lightly beaten
• 1 teaspoon(s) sugar

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
• In large bowl, combine sugar with cornstarch, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. (I doubled this part and it turned out PERFECT!) Add apples and lemon juice, and toss to coat evenly.
• On lightly floured surface, with floured rolling pin, roll larger disk of dough into 12-inch round. Ease dough into 9 1/2-inch deep-dish glass or ceramic pie plate. Gently press dough against bottom and up side of plate without stretching. Trim dough edge, leaving 1-inch overhang; reserve trimmings. Spoon apple mixture into pie crust; dot with butter.
• Roll remaining disk for top crust into 12-inch round. Center round over filling in bottom crust. Trim pastry edge, leaving 1-inch overhang; reserve trimmings. Fold overhang under; bring up over pie-plate rim and pinch to form stand-up edge, then make decorative edge. Brush crust with some egg white. Re-roll trimmings. With knife or cookie cutters, cut out apple and/or leaf shapes; arrange on pie. Cut short slashes in round to allow steam to escape during baking. Brush cutouts with egg white, then sprinkle crust and cutouts with sugar.
• Bake pie 1 hour 10 minutes or until apples are tender when pierced with knife through slits in crust. To prevent over-browning, cover pie loosely with tent of foil after 40 minutes. Cool pie on wire rack 3 hours to serve warm. Or cool completely to serve later.

Ready for the oven! Like I said I'm not very good at the picture taking yet.

That is a 6 inch ruler!! This pie weighed at least 4.5 POUNDS!! And yes that's about what you gain after eating a slice!! :0) But that's what makes it so GOOD!

ALL DONE!

Top crust didn't want to stay on top but this is just about the perfect slice of pie!

I must toot my own horn and say I did a DANG good job!! If I got into the pie business big enough, Sara Lee would have her hands full because this Sara Ann Apple Pie was BEAUTIFUL!!!

A lot of the Woody's love Red Velvet Cake and when I saw these Red Velvet Cheesecake Cookies on my sisters blog I knew I had to make them!

Red Velvet Cheesecake Cookies

Ingredients:

For the cookies:
1 box red velvet cake mix (I used Duncan Hines)
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 large eggs
1/2 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
For the cheesecake filling:
4 oz cream cheese, at room temperature
2 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
For the white chocolate drizzle:
1 1/2 cups white chocolate chips, melted

Directions:

1. To make cookies, in a large bowl combine cake mix and flour. Whisk until clumps disappear. In the bowl of a stand mixer, mix together cake mix, flour, eggs, oil and vanilla extract. Mix until smooth. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap. The dough will be oily. Refrigerate for at least two hours.
2. To make the cheesecake filling, using a mixer, combine cream cheese, powdered sugar, and vanilla extract. Mix until smooth. Using a teaspoon, scoop out cheesecake filling and place on a plate. Continue scooping out cheesecake filling into teaspoon balls until you have 10. Place plate in the freezer and freeze for at least two hours.
3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. To assemble the cookies, take about 1/4 cup of red velvet cookie dough and flatten in your hands. Place a teaspoon of cheesecake filling in the center and wrap the cookie dough around the filling. Gently roll into a ball and place on prepared baking sheet. Scoop onto lightly greased or parchment lined baking sheets. Only bake 3 cookies at a time. The cookies are large and will spread. Bake for 11-13 minutes or until the cookies begin to crackle. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes. Remove from baking sheet to a wire cooling rack and cool completely.
4. Melt the white chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl or over a double-boiler. Drizzle the white chocolate over the cooled cookies. Let the cookies set until the chocolate hardens. Serve and enjoy!
Note: if you are going to store the cookies for more than a day, you may want to keep them in the refrigerator. You can make the cookies smaller. Just use less dough and filling. You want to make sure you completely wrap the cookie dough around the filling before baking-so it doesn't leak. Enjoy!


We had a wonderful Christmas, all in all, despite the fact that Randall worked both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. The worst part was him getting called into work at 3:30am on Christmas Morning, but such is life I guess. Nicholas isn't even here yet and is getting spoiled already!! He got a swing, a pillow pet, a toy, and a few outfits. His great grandma gave us a gift card to Babies R Us, which will come in VERY handy!! I found out that my sister is AMAZING and will be flying my mom from Idaho to Iowa to be with us in March when Nicholas is born! Katrina, I'm not sure if you realize just how much that means to me!! I cry every time I think or talk about it!! Mom, your gift card was used already towards diapers and wipes, and a few snacks for me! ;0) I have an AWESOME family!! BOTH sides too!! I couldn't ask for better in-laws and I know for a fact Randall feels the same way!!!

Most of you have seen my latest belly picture on Facebook but for those of you who haven't.........

This was taken on Dec. 19th, which was 26 weeks. (Sorry I'm a little scary looking....we were just about to go to bed!)

I have to say that the 6th month has been by far THE BEST month of being pregnant!! I feel great and am loving every kick and movement!!

I'm sorry if you haven't heard yet but we have chosen Nicholas Raymond Woody! Randall's middle name is from his great grandpa and we figured there was no better way to honor Nicholas' great grandpa!!

Stay tuned for more updates on the Woody Family!!! I can't promise I'll be posting every day but I'll try to keep you posted at least once a week! Pregnancy wise our weekly marks are on Mondays. Our next midwife appointment is Jan. 9th.

We love each and every one of you!!!

Gotta Start Somewhere

This is going to be slow going at first but here is my shot at starting my very first blog!! Bare with me!! ;0)

Welcome to The Woody Family Blog!!