The Most Hideous Gifts in the World

Ah, sorry it's been a bit. It's almost Christmas. But more on my mind right now is the fact that it's almost finals. Oh joy. To diffuse some of that stress and just cause I'm a little out there, I decided to have a white elephant party! 

Those biscuit tube things will never stop frightening me. They're so unpredictable. 

If you're unfamiliar with White Elephant (also known as Yankee Swap and Dirty Santa...) I will acquaint you. Pretty much everyone brings a horrible gift, throws it in a pile, and then picks a number to determine who chooses a gift first. The first person picks something out of the pile, and the second person can either steal their gift or pick a new one. And so on and so forth. Vicious rivalries can result. We experienced this. I won't go into details. 

Soooooo ugly! 

For this incredibly tacky tradition, I decided to make some all classy and refined - a baked brie! My mom always makes these for my dad's office Christmas party, so I guess I have this Christmas/brie association. Also, I was kind of afraid of them until recently. Brie, that is, not parties. Well, parties a little. Anyway. There's a lot of flexibility in baked brie, so you can play around with what you put inside. My mom does almonds and apricot preserves. I used walnuts and apple butter. 

Oh, and as for what I received in the exchange? Well...you'll have to wait and see. 

Eat it with crackers! 

Baked Brie

1 uh, Brie. Like President brand or something similar. 

1 tube of crescent roll dough (or just the sheet of dough in a tube if you can find that) 

2 Tbsp (approx.) apple butter

2 Tbsp. chopped walnuts

Preheat the oven to 350. Not 500 like I did. That'll mess up the cooking time. Roll out the dough, and put the brie on top of it. Don't try and pick the white stuff off, it's fine. spread the apple butter on top of the brie, and sprinkle the nuts over that. Fold the dough over the whole thing so it's all covered evenly. If you want to try and make it pretty, you can attempt that. Bake for 25-30 minutes (or, y'know, 10, if your oven is on 500. No. Don't do that.) until golden. Eat right away while it's all melty and delicious!