Holiday Recipes

from our MBU Community

Looking for a recipe to share with your loved ones this holiday season? Look no further — our MBU community has you covered! Check out some of our faculty and staff’s favorite recipes below.

Kasey’s Corn Casserole

recipe by: Kasey Cox, Director of Theatre

Ingredients:
1 can of sweet corn
1 can of creamed corn
1 stick of melted butter
3/4 cup of heavy whipping cream
1 box of corn muffin mix

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Mix all ingredients together in a bowl
3. Spread out the ingredients evenly in a 9x13 baking dish
4. Bake for 40 minutes (or until golden brown)

Taira’s Biscuits

recipe by: Taira Schertz, Director of Student Life

Ingredients:
3 cups of all-purpose flour
3 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
3/4 cup cold butter
1 egg
1 cup of whole milk

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
2. The secret to excellent biscuits is COLD BUTTER. Really cold. Many times the biscuit dough gets worked so much that the butter softens before the biscuits even go in the oven. Try cutting the butter into small pieces and stick back in the fridge pulling out only when ready to incorporate into the dough.
3. Combine the dry ingredients in a large bowl.
4. Use a pastry cutter to cut cold butter into flour mixture. Don’t go too crazy here — you want to see small, pea-sized pieces of butter throughout the dough.
5. Add in the milk and egg and mix just until the ingredients are combined. The dough will be sticky but don’t keep working it. You should be able to see the butter pieces in the dough.
6. Turn the dough out onto a generously floured surface. Sprinkle some flour on to the top of dough so it won’t stick to your fingers and knead 10–15 times. If the dough is super sticky just sprinkle on some additional flour.
7. Pat the dough out to 3/4–1 inch thickness and cut with a biscuit cutter or glass. I ended up with nine this time but depending on who is snacking on biscuit dough, I can get up to 12 biscuits.
8. Place the biscuits on a lightly greased baking sheet or parchment lined baking sheet and bake for 10 to 15 minutes or until golden brown on top.
9. Brush the tops of the biscuits with melted butter

Kim’s Ravishing Rice

recipe by: Kim Cochran, Director of Early College Partnerships

Ingredients:
1 large onion (chopped)
1 bell pepper (chopped)
1 cup celery (chopped)
1.5 tsp butter
1 lb spicy pork sausage
4.5 cup water
1 box (2 pkgs) instant chicken noodle soup
½ cup white rice
½ cup slivered almonds
dash of paprika

Directions:
1. Saute onion, bell pepper, and celery in butter. Set aside
2. Brown and drain sausage. Set aside.
3. Boil water and add soup mix and rice. Cook for 8 minutes or until water is mostly absorbed. Do Not drain.
4. Mix all ingredients (except almonds) in a 2.4 quart baking dish.
5. Top with slivered almonds, top with paprika (enough to add color)
6. Bake uncovered for 30–35 minutes in 350 degrees.

Rice Bake

recipe by Abby Kassebaum, Director of Alumni Engagement

Ingredients:
1 box of long grain rice
1 can of diced water chestnuts
1 cup of pecans
1 lbs of cooked sage sausage

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Combine all ingreditents and place in a 9x13 pan
3. Cook for 30 minutes

Lemon Blossoms

recipe by Cynthia Sutton, Director of Undergraduate Admissions

Ingredients
4 large eggs
1 (3.5 oz) package instant lemon pudding mix
1 (18.5-oz) package yellow cake mix
3/4 cup plus 3 tablespoons for glaze vegetable oil
4 cups confectioner’s sugar
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
1 zested lemon
3 tablespoons water

Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 350 °F
2. Spray miniature muffin tins with vegetable oil cooking spray. Combine the cake mix, pudding mix, eggs and 3/4 cup oil and blend well with an electric mixer until smooth, about 2 minutes. Pour a small amount of batter, filling each muffin tin half way. Bake for 12 minutes. Turn out onto a kitchen towel.
3. To make the glaze, sift the sugar into a mixing bowl. Add the lemon juice, zest, 3 tablespoons oil and 3 tablespoons water. Mix with a spoon until smooth.
4. With fingers (gloved because of COVID), dip the cupcakes into the glaze while they’re still warm, covering as much of the cake as possible, or spoon the glaze over the warm cupcakes, turning them to completely coat. Place on wire racks with waxed paper underneath to catch any drips. Let the glaze set thoroughly, about one hour, before storing in containers with tight-fitting lids.

Whipped Cranberry Jell-O

recipe by Rebecca Duke, Director of First-Year Composition and Instructor

Ingredients:
1 cup of hot cranberry juice
1 raspberry Jell-O packet
2 cups of smooth cranberry sauce (canned works well)
1 container of whipped cream

Directions:
1. Dissolve the raspberry packet of Jello into 1 cup of hot cranberry juice, whisking until fully combined
2. Let the mixture chill in the refrigerator until partially set
3. Stir in 1 container of whipped cream. Place back in the refrigerator until fully set.

Cosmopolitan Cranberry Sauce

recipe by Janet Mayfield, Secretary of the President

Ingredients:
2 small lemons
1 orange
1 (12 oz) bag of fresh cranberries
1 cup of sugar
2/3 cup of water
1/2 cup golden raisins
2 tablespoons of orange juice

Directions:
1. Grate 2 teaspoons of lemon zest and squeeze 2 1/2 table spoons of lemon juice. Grate 1/2 teaspoon of orange peel.
2. In a 2 quart saucepan, combine cranberries, sugar, water, raisins, lemon peel, lemon juice and orange peel.
3. Heat to a rolling boil over medium-high heat.
4. Reduce heat to a medium-low and cook uncovered, stirring occasionally.
5. Cook for 5 minutes or until most cranberries pop then remove saucepan from heat
6. Stir in orange juice.
7. Allow cranberry sauce to cool slightly before transfering into a serving bowl.
8. Cover and chill for 3 hours (leave up to 4 days)

Mountain Dew Apple Dumplings

recipe by Erin Roach, Digital Content Specialist

Ingreidents:
1 stick of butter (unsalted)
1 cup of brown sugar
2 large red apples
2 table spoons of ground cinnamon
2 cans of cresent rolls
1 cup of mountain dew
1 cup of sugar

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
2. Butter a 9x13 glass pan
3. Core and slice apples, removing the skin
4. Put the apples in a plastic bag, add cinnamon and a sprinkle of brown sugar. Shake the apples in the bag until fully covered.
5. Roll 1 apple slice in the cresent roll. Repeat until all 16 cresent rolls are filled.
6. Mix semi-melted butter, sugar and brown sugar together.
7. Put spoonful of mixture on top of each cresent roll.
8. Pour mountian dew in between rolls (do NOT put on top of the rolls)
9. Bake for 20 minutes.