Apple Pie Cream Cheese Waffle Pockets

These quick and easy to make Apple Pie Cream Cheese Waffle Pockets are stuffed with cream cheese & your favorite apple pie filling...

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Pillsbury. 

 The opinions and text are all mine.

Who else is excited that turkey day is almost here?? I have to say I really look forward to Thanksgiving each and every year- especially since I started hosting our family's Thanksgiving dinner almost 4 years ago. 

Now, it isn't a huge production. 

Usually I am only hosting about 8 total for the big dinner, but this year our Thanksgiving dinner table is going to be even more intimate. It will just be my husband and I and the two kiddos since my parents and my sister and her husband are heading to my sister's in-laws for the day. 

At first, I was a little bummed. I mean, I really love hosting this big dinner each November. But then the thought of a smaller dinner with just the husband and the kids grew on me. 

Less pressure (who cares if the house isn't 100% spotless?), more flexible (dinner doesn't have to be ready right at 1:00), and it even leaves a little more time to enjoy a little tradition I started last Thanksgiving with my daughter- making an easy yet special breakfast together for everyone to enjoy while watching the Thanksgiving parade on television.

Last year, my daughter and I made these Turkey Shaped Cinnamon Rolls. Except I cheated a little and used our favorite refrigerated Pillsbury Sweet Rolls® instead of the cinnamon roll dough from scratch. 

With a turkey in the oven and four side dishes waiting to made, there was no way I was making homemade cinnamon rolls that morning too! ;) 

Easy Cranberry-Almond Cream Cheese Coffee Cake

This Easy Cranberry-Almond Cream Cheese Cake Coffee Cake is so simple to make yet so impressive- perfect for your holiday morning breakfast...

Am I the only mother who happens to have this far fetched fantasy of having her family sit down to a perfectly prepared holiday breakfast before the gift unwrapping frenzy begins each Christmas morning? I mean, honestly it is a fantasy. And maybe just a little cruel to the kiddos to do so too. ;)

But even when I know that I will be up before the crack of dawn on the 25th.  And I know that there is no way my kids (and perhaps even my husband) would sit down to a nice family breakfast without scarfing their food down just so they could get to those presents quicker, I still would like to prepare a special breakfast for Christmas morning without missing all of the gift opening to do so.

Enter this delicious and holiday perfect (and easy to make!) Cranberry-Almond Cream Cheese Coffee Cake...

Chocolate Cheesecake Fondue

So over the summer, I FINALLY closed out a storage unit I had in another state for over two years.  Just about my entire life was packed into that storage unit, including some of my most prized culinary treasures.  I knew opening each box would be like a little Christmas morning for me...  "Oh, I forgot I had this!" and... "Awesome!  I was hoping that I would find this!"  But I don't think I was more excited than when I opened one box in particular and there was my electric fondue pot.  Finally!  I could make fondue again! This fondue pot had witnessed many an evening with me as the dinner party host.  Sometimes brimming with gooey cheese, other times with a steaming broth for cooking meat, but most often bubbling with a sweet and creamy concoction perfect for dipping marshmallows and bits of fresh fruit in.  So, how did I christen my newly rediscovered fondue pot??  With a Chocolate Cheesecake Fondue, of course! ;)

What you will need:

16 oz (2 packages) of cream cheese

2.5 oz of unsweetened baking chocolate, finely chopped

1/2 cup of sugar

2 tbsp of Kahlua (or another dessert liqueur)- optional

Put both the bricks of cream cheese in the fondue pot and turn the heating setting to medium heat.  When the cream cheese is partially melted, add the Kahlua (you can add a smidge more, I won't tell) and stir.  Continue to heat and stir the cream cheese mixture until all the cheese is smooth and melted.  

Add in the chopped baking chocolate and the sugar.  Continue stirring until the chocolate is completely melted and your fondue looks very much like what you see above. :)

Serve your fondue with lots of fun dippers.  We had marshmallows, cherries, strawberries, and chunks of angel food cake.  Graham crackers would be fabulous too!  

If (and that's a big IF) you happen to have any Chocolate Cheesecake Fondue leftover, it makes a fabulous spread for graham crackers the next day.  Just take out your refrigerated leftovers about 20 minutes before you are ready to serve to let it soften a bit. 

So how about you?  Do you fondue too?

Pssstttt... This will also be a perfect recipe if Frankenstorm does make an appearance in your neighborhood and you lose power- just use a fondue pot that requires only the heat of a candle. ;) It will take a little longer to come together, but it will be worth the wait.  Trust me. ;)

Bring your favorite chocolate dessert to Roxana’s home baking #chocolateparty and win amazing prizes from OXO, Calphalon, Keurig, Imperial Sugar, Honey Ridge Farmsand Land O Lakes® Butter