Meal Idea for New Parents (or anyone else you want to take food to)
On April 29, my brother and his wife welcomed their first son, B. He’s the first grandchild in our family and my first nephew!! Hubby and I were able to go to the hospital and meet baby B when he was about 12 hours old. He’s such a cutie and we instantly fell in love with him.
Last weekend was their first weekend home with the baby, so I went over there to help out. I watched baby B (who was napping) while C and J took a nap. I also cooked them dinner while I was there. I wanted to bring a meal that I could leave with them as well. Most people bring over casseroles or other freezer meals that new parents can heat up very easily. I wanted to do something a bit different. I decided to bring my crockpot French dip sandwiches.
I packaged it all up so they could prepare this any day they wanted to. I seasoned the meat with salt and pepper and wrapped it twice with saran wrap then once with foil. I then mixed all the liquid ingredients in a large jar. I cut a little circle out of decorative paper to put on the top and hand-wrote the instructions for them. I also brought a bag of rolls and some provolone cheese (forgot to include it in the pic).
The nice thing about this option is that they can freeze the meat if they want and have this after the rush of people bringing food passes. I also gave them a bag of frozen chocolate chip cookies. I just mixed up a batch of my favorite chocolate chip cookie dough and portioned them out using my cookie scoop and froze them on a cookie sheet. Once they were frozen, I threw them in to a ziplock bag and wrote baking instructions on the bag (I did this before with some M&M cookies too. That way they could pop a couple in the oven to have freshly baked cookies any time they want them!
One Year Ago: Samoas Bars
I am Jen the Beantown Baker. Engineer by day and baking maven by night. Hubby serves as my #1 fan and official taste tester. We got hitched back in 2006. Barefoot. In the sand. With the waves crashing behind us. It was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. 
This is the perfect recipe for all of the leftover ingredients I have! Hubby made me buy a 3-pound bag of cranberries because he loves them, but you only use 12 ounces for cranberry sauce so I’ve got about 2 pounds of cranberries left to use, plus lots of pumpkins and pecans. This is definitely being made this weekend!
Oh man. That does sound good. And I know it must be if you’re repeating it because I am the same way. I’m going to make a cranberry maple pecan cake on Friday… but this is really tempting too.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Oh, man! If I only had more time for Thanksgiving dessert table – this is certainly one I would try.
Oooh this cake looks so ooey gooey and delicious! I wish there weren’t already so many desserts coming to my Thanksgiving table because I’d totally make this!
Sues
This looks super delicious and your photos look great too! Happy Thanksgiving to you and hubby!
ooooh, my, i must try this 🙂 happy thanksgiving!!
What a fabulous recipe! All the flavors sound delicious to me.
This looks amazing! It looks so moisty yum, I should try to make this sometime, Love your blog! this is my first comment for you so I thought I’d show some appreciation for your blog, because I’ve been drooling over all your recipes for a while
Shandra-http://shandrita.tumblr.com/
Your photos are beautiful! The pictures I took of the actual cake didn’t look to appealing, the photos I took of the bite sized cake bites looked pretty though lol
Good job!!
What a great recipe! You totally had me at caramel/pecan/cranberry topping.
Just finally made this cake and it is astoundingly good! Truly the best dessert I’ve had in…oh, a very long time. Thank you for your post!
I tried to be good, I really did! This cake was so delicious, I not only had seconds, I had a piece for breakfast the next day and for a snack later that day. This one goes on my Christmas menu!
beantownbaker — December 1st, 2013 @ 6:52 pm
I doubled the recipe this time and you’ll remember the middle didn’t quite bake through. It also spilled over a bit, so next time, I’ll put a pan under the cake in the oven.