This recipe is one that I made out of my Betty Crocker cookbook. The one my mom got me for Christmas last year (or was it 2 years ago?) and I’ve read through but never cooked from? Yeah, that cookbook. Anyways, I’ve *finally* cooked out of it. I’ve made the following Corn Bread Topped Italian Sausage pie, and 2 or 3 other recipes that you’ll read about here in the near future.

No more preamble necessary, let’s get on to the casserole, shall we?

1 lb Italian sausage, onion, green pepper, garlic, tomato sauce, frozen corn, sliced mushrooms, cornmeal, flour, milk, sugar, vegetable oil, baking powder, salt, egg, cheese

Whew. For having so many ingredients, it was actually pretty simple to put together. I suspect it would have been even easier, and dare I say faster, if I wasn’t taking pictures of the process lol Anyways, start by preheating the oven to 400 degrees. Then we can start on the Sausage Pie part of this dish.

In skillet, place 1 lb Italian sausage.

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped. Or 1 teaspoon of the already minced stuff if you’re like me!

Add chopped green pepper,

and chopped onion.

Cook over medium heat until the sausage is no longer pink. Drain and return to pan.

Pour in your 15 oz. can of tomato sauce.

And your frozen corn. The recipe called for 9 oz of frozen corn, thawed, but I used 12 oz because that’s the size bag I had.

Add 1 jar of sliced mushrooms that’s been drained. And might I just ask, why do recipes always call for sizes of products that just don’t exist? At least not in my grocery store. I had a 4 oz can of mushrooms, but the recipe called for a 4.5 oz can. I highly doubt that 0.5 oz makes that much of a difference, but it does serve to annoy me.

Anyways, heat this mixture to boiling, and remove from heat. While that’s cooking, you can go ahead and get started on the cornbread mixture.

In a small bowl, pour in 2/3 cup corn meal.

Apparently a few pictures went missing… they’re not on Flickr, and not on my computer even though I distinctly remember taking them. Anyways, this picture shows the addition of 1/3 cup flour, 1 Tbs sugar, and 2 teaspoons baking powder.

1/4 teaspoon salt

Two tablespoons vegetable oil.

Add 1/2 cup milk.

And one large egg.

Beat vigorously with spoon for 30 seconds.

Stir in 1/4 cup cheese. The recipe called for shredded pepper jack cheese. I used Cheddar Jack cause it’s what I had.

Pour your hot sausage mixture into an ungreased 2 qt. casserole.

Pour the cornbread topping mixture over the hot sausage mixture and spread it out as evenly as possible. Some of mine seeped through to the lower layer of sausage.

Put it in the oven, uncovered, and bake for 20-25 minutes or until the cornbread topping is golden brown.

Here’s what it looked like dished out onto my plate. In the end, it was a decent meal. At first, I thought the cornbread had kind of an “off” taste, but that could probably be attributed to the fact that it’s not Jiffy cornbread like I’m used to.

It’s a dish that I’d consider making again, but only if I had company because while it was good, I wasn’t real interested in the leftovers.

Here’s the recipe again so you don’t have to pull it out from between the pictures.

Sausage Pie

1 lb Italian sausage
1 medium onion, chopped (1/2 cup)
1 small bell pepper, chopped (1/2 cup)
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 can (15 oz) tomato sauce
1 box (9 oz) frozen whole kernel corn, thawed
1 jar (4.5 oz) sliced mushrooms, drained

Corn Bread Topping

2/3 cup cornmeal
1/3 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup milk
1 tablespoon sugar
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 large egg
1/4 cup shredded pepper jack cheese

Heat oven to 400 degrees.
In 10-inch skillet, cook sausage, onion, bell pepper and garlic over medium heat 8 to 10 minutes, stirring frequently, until sausage is no longer pink. Drain. Stir in tomato sauce, corn and mushrooms. Heat to boiling; remove from heat.
In medium bowl, stir all topping ingredients except cheese. Beat vigorously with spoon for 30 seconds, Stir in cheese.
Spoon sausage mixture into ungreased 2 qt casserole. Pour topping over hot sausage mixture, spreading evenly.
Bake uncovered 20 to 25 minutes or until topping is golden brown.

I had originally planned on sharing one of the soup’s I’ve made recently, but in light of the upcoming holiday, I thought I’d go ahead and share these cookies instead. I’m sure there are plenty of people out there who are super organized and have already plotted out exactly what they’re making and when. They might even have most of their holiday baking done already. I’m not one of those people, however, so I’m gonna go out on a limb and guess that a few of you might not be either.

I made these cookies to rave reviews… the recipe is adapted from one I found in a Hershey’s Classics cookbook I have at home. The best thing about these cookies is that you can make them with any kind of baking chip you like. The original recipe called for chocolate chips, I used peanut butter chips. I have plans to make them with mint chips, and with a cherry flavored chip that I found at Walmart this year. That’s another reason I decided to share these cookies this week– even if the chocolate peanut butter combo ain’t your thing, the sky is the limit with these. The specialty swirled chips are great in these cookies, white chocolate chips, I don’t think you could go wrong with any flavor you dig up.

So let’s get started.

Flour, cocoa, baking soda, salt, butter or margarine, granulated sugar, brown sugar, vanilla extract, eggs, peanut butter chips

Because I like to follow the directions AND dirty every bowl in my house, first I mix together the dry ingredients. In a small bowl, put 2 1/4 cups of all purpose flour.

1/3 cup cocoa

1 teaspoon of baking soda

and 1/2 teaspoon of salt.

Give that a quick stir together and set aside.

In another bowl (this is where my penchant for dirtying every dish I own comes in), put 1 cup (2 sticks) of softened butter or margarine

Add 3/4 cup granulated sugar

3/4 cup brown sugar

and 1 teaspoon of vanilla.

Beat on medium speed until blended. Or if your mixer is like mine, which goes fast and FASTER, the lowest speed you’ve got it good!

Add the eggs

and beat until they’re well mixed into your batter.

Then you can start gradually adding the flour mixture you set aside earlier.

Beat until that’s well incorporated.

Add a little more…

Beat until that’s combined…. it’s fun to watch your cookie dough get more chocolate-y! Keep doing that until you’ve added all of your flour mix. I suppose you could do it all at once, but you’d probably end up with chocolate colored flour all over your kitchen if it’s not there already.

Next, dump in your entire bag of peanut butter chips.

And use a spoon to stir them in to the dough until they’re fairly well distributed.

Finally, drop the dough onto an ungreased cookie sheet. The recipe called for dropping by rounded teaspoonfuls, but that just sounded teeny to me. I used a tablespoon, and was very generous, and the cookies turned out to be a good size, in my opinion.

Bake at 375 for 8-10 minutes. Pull them out of the oven while they still look slightly less than done, and they’ll be nice and soft and not overcooked! Let them cool slightly on the pan, then remove. The recipe calls for a wire rack, but I don’t have one. I’ve never had any issues cooling my cookies on wax paper. I may or may not have recently bought a wire rack though, so maybe I’ll find out soon if it really does make a difference!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip Cookies

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup light brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
2 cups (12 oz. package) peanut butter chips (or chocolate, white chocolate chips, flavor of choice!)
1 cup chopped nuts, optional

Heat oven to 375
Stir together flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla in large bowl on medium speed of electric mixer until creamy. add eggs, beat well. Gradually add flour mixture, beating until well blended. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts, if desired. Drop by rounded teaspoons onto ungreased cookie sheet.
Bake 8-10 minutes or until set. Cool slightly, remove from cookie sheet to wire rack.

I’m not sure if this pie has an official name or not, so I just decided to put Chocolate Mint Pudding Pie in the title. I’ve just always called it a chocolate mint pie, and I’ve demanded requested it every year, usually for Thanksgiving, for a very long time. Last year, my mom made it with sugar free ingredients, and I whined, so I decided to make it myself this year. Well, apparently, signals got crossed so this year we ended up with two chocolate mint pies. Trust me, this is NOT a problem! We usually have it at Thanksgiving every year, but it would fit in with your upcoming holiday gatherings just as well.

It’s beyond simple to make, and still delicious. You’ll see. Here’s what you’ll need:

Ready Made Chocolate Pie Crust, Milk, Chocolate Pudding Mix, Cool Whip, Mint Extract, Green Food Coloring (optional)

First up, prepare your crust.

Oh wait, in this pie, that just means taking the lid off of your crust. Woohoo! I like it already.

Next you need to make your pudding, according to the package directions for pie filling. Unlike my previous experience with cook and serve pudding, it does not matter if you choose cook and serve or instant pudding for this pie. The only important thing is that you follow the package directions for PIE FILLING, not for pudding. Let me say that again, follow the package directions for pie filling! okay, ready to move on??

I had instant pudding, so I poured the packet of pudding mix into a bowl.

My package called for 1 3/4 cups of milk. Check your package directions, they might call for a different amount.

Pour the milk in with your pudding mix. Admire the bubbles it makes.

Whisk together. Note to self: Buy new whisk… this one was only $1, and for very good reason. It’s nearly impossible to use properly.

Pour into your “prepared” pie crust.

Make sure it’s distributed evenly, and refrigerate at least one hour or until set. Or you can do it the way I did, and put it in the fridge while you go take a nap. Just keeping it real.

When your pie filling has set, or when you get up from your nap, take the cool whip out of the fridge.

Add your mint extract… how much depends on how minty you like it, and whether you’ve got imitation or real mint extract, or maybe you’ve got peppermint extract. Some are stronger than others. So start with a little… you can always add more, but if you’ve made it too strong, you can’t take the mint back out.

Before you stir, add a few drops of food coloring. Now the food coloring is entirely optional, but it will help you know if you’ve got your mint extract thoroughly mixed into your cool whip. And don’t feel married to the green color. The first time I made these pies, I was left to my own devices in the kitchen, and we took blue mint chocolate pies to Thanksgiving. But don’t listen to me, everyone thought it was weird.

Mix it well, and give it a taste. YES! You have permission to stick your finger in the cool whip and taste it. In fact, it is REQUIRED. Add more mint extract if it’s needed, or more food coloring if you’re not satisfied with the color. When you’re happy with the color and the flavor…

Get your set pudding pie out of the refrigerator,

and spread your mint green cool whip on top. And that’s it! Hopefully you’ve saved the lid from the pie crust, so you can put that on top of your pie, and you’re ready to take it to your holiday gathering. Or to just grab a fork, whichever floats your boat! I didn’t get a picture of a slice of the pie because I didn’t take a camera to the family gathering with me. Besides, I’m not capable of removing a slice of pie from the pan, so you would’ve just gotten a picture of chocolate and mint goop on my plate!

See, it’s easy as pie! HAHA, I crack myself up. Seriously though, it couldn’t be easier to make and it is quite good!