Christmas Baking

Baking plus a cloudy, cold day plus candles and Christmas music makes for my kind of day.  Kids have been in and out of the kitchen- I'm glad they like to help.  Much of our baking will be used as gifts but we enjoy snacking on it, too.  We've made several pans of gingerbread lately, pretzel treats and mom's Lemon Cranberry bread.  Some of our favorite Christmas recipes are here.

We dipped soft peppermint sticks in melted chocolate.  Probably the most fun for kids and certainly easy.

Last week we made a batch of these Oatmeal Fudge bars and gave most of it away.  Today Sam helped make another batch.  Maybe I should say I helped- he did most of the work.

Have you made the Muddy Buddies recipe off of a Chex cereal box?

  Addictive.  

It calls for peanut butter so we substituted soy butter.

And as an added bonus, I received this in the mail from

Amy at Hope Is the Word.  Her blog is full of book reviews.  Love it!  She also hosts Read Aloud Thursdays, which I occasionally link up to.  This is the first blog giveaway I've won.  Thanks Amy!

Bridal Shower

Earlier this week we had a bridal shower at our house for Lily, who is getting married in just two weeks!  We love Lily- she jumped right in last summer at church even as her fiancee (boyfriend at the time) was leaving for Ranger School.  It's been a treat to get to know her.  The only problem is, she'll be leaving town too after she gets married.  That's the bad thing about living in a college town.

(I am embarrassed to say I got food pictures at the shower but nothing else- I'll be sure to snap some photos of the bride at the wedding!)

My friend Julie makes the best cupcakes.  Just the best.  Lily requested caramel toffee latte cupcakes.  Delish.

Julie also brought her signature chocolate cupcake.  

Also delish.

The girls and I were particularly excited to make this recipe.  I was looking for something besides punch and found this in the Kroger coupon magazine, of all places.  

Kayla made it herself.  The rest of us taste-tested often before the shower.  It was really good!

Strawberry Agua Fresca

4 cups water

1/3 cup sugar

6 cups hulled strawberries 

1/4 cup fresh lime juice

mint sprigs, optional

Combine all ingredients except mint in a blender and puree until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture is smooth.

Pour into ice-filled glasses.  Garnish with fresh mint, if desired.

*It took about one and a half boxes of berries to get 6 cups.

*We made it ahead of time and it chilled well.

*We are definitely using this recipe for fruit popsicles this summer!

Favorite Christmas Recipes

To our kids-
It's Christmas baking day!  (again!)
I don't know what you'll remember about Christmas in our home.
Maybe the smell of sweet treats baking?
There are some things that you want to make every year- gingerbread and pretzel treats and our birthday cake for Jesus.
And some things that I want to make- lemon cranberry bread and Christmas cookies.  Just in case you are looking at a blog book twenty years from now and wishing for some recipes, here they are!

 
Pretzel Treats

Warm your oven to around 200 degrees.

Lay out pretzels on a baking sheet.

Unwrap Hershey Hugs and put one on each pretzel.

Bake in the oven for 2-3 minutes or until the chocolate is beginning to melt.

Remove from oven and immediately press an M&M (or two) on top of the melting chocolate.

Let them sit until the chocolate has hardened, usually several hours.

Mom's (Mimi's) Christmas Cookies

1 pound chopped dates

1/2 jar chopped cherries

1/4 pound walnuts/pecans

2 eggs

1 1/2 cup sugar

2 sticks butter

2 1/2 cup flour

1 t. baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

Cream sugar and butter.  Add eggs. Mix well.

Mix the dry ingredients and mix in a little at a time to the sugar/butter mixture.

Stir in the dates, cherries, and nuts.

Bake at 350 for 8-12 minutes.

*We have a nut allergy in our house so no nuts at all in our cookies.

 

Cranberry Lemon Loaf

 Beat until well blended:

1 8oz. block of cream cheese

1/3 cup softened butter

1 1/4 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla (we used 2)

Add three eggs, one at a time.

Stir in 2 Tblsp lemon juice

1 tsp lemon peel

Toss together:

1 1/2 cup chopped cranberries

2 1/4 cup flour

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

Add cream cheese mixture to flour/cranberry mixture until moistened.

Pour into greased and floured bread pan.

Bake at 325 for 1 hour, 15 minutes.

                             (We used mini-loaf pans and baked at 350 for around 30 minutes.)

Finally is our Christmas morning birthday cake for Jesus.  I don't have a picture but we make this each year.  Delicious!

Grandma's Sour Cream Coffee Cake

1 package yellow cake mix

1/2 cup sugar

1 cup sour cream

3/4 cup oil (scant)

1/4 tsp salt

3 rounded tsps brown sugar

2 rounded tsps cinnamon

4 eggs

Grease and flour tube pan.

Mix first seven ingredients with the blender well.

Add eggs one at a time.  Beat well after each one.

Bake at 350 for 50-60 minutes in tube pan. 

Glaze while still hot with 1/2 cup sifted confectioner sugar and 1 tablespoon warm water.

Cranberry-Apple-Oatmeal Goodness

I'm guessing there were more than 20 people at that Christmas dinner.
I don't remember if there was snow outside but inside Brian's grandparents' kitchen it was warm and there was a low hum of conversation among cousins, great-uncles, siblings, and probably more.

 

That's where I had this cozy, wintery dish.

A perfect blend of cranberries, apples, and spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves

Add some oatmeal, sugar, and butter

Then eat it while it's hot.

I always think of the Waters' clan when I make this but I also think of elementary school.  Strange combination, huh?  I think it's the cloves.  In our school, parents would do all sort of crafts and put them in a little Christmas store so that children could buy little gifts for their families.  It must have smelled of cloves in that room in Dutrow Elementary because I am immediately taken back each time I make something with cloves.

Anyway, Brian's great-aunt Helen gave me her recipe.

And here it is for you.  Enjoy!

Cranberry-Apple-Oatmeal Goodness

1 bag of cranberries

2 granny smith apples, pealed and diced

1 cup white sugar

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup chopped pecans

1 T each of cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves

1 cup oatmeal

1 stick melted butter

Mix all the ingredients and bake in a covered dish at 350 for one hour

*I used 3/4 cup of each sugar and think I'll try a little less next time.

*I also don't include the pecans, since we have a nut allergy in the family.

Black Bean Sweet Potato Chicken Chili

Last night Brian made some bread in the bread machine to go with our vegetable beef soup.
It was so good that we're making some more this morning.
 I do feel like I am cheating by using a bread machine.
However.
Throwing ingredients together in the morning and smelling it bake while we work on school is a really nice treat.
So, I'm ok with cheating in this case!
And in case you are looking for a new chili recipe for the chilly weekend coming up, I have just the thing.  Not sure how I stumbled on this one but it's a little different and really good.  I found the recipe here.

Black Bean Sweet Potato Chicken Chili

coarse salt and fresh black pepper

1 pound boneless chicken breasts or 2 heaping cups rotisserie chicken cut in bite-sized pieces

 

olive oil, for sauteing

1 small onion, diced

1 small bell pepper, cut into small, thin strips

3 cloves garlic, minced

2 cups cubed sweet potatoes

2 cans (14 ounces) diced tomatoes with the juices

1 can black beans, rinsed

 

1 cup corn

1 tablespoon chile powder

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes, optional

for serving:

shredded sharp cheddar or montery jack cheese

sour cream

tortilla chips

Instructions

1. Season the chicken with salt and pepper. Add 1 tablespoon oil to a Dutch oven or large soup pot set over medium heat and cook the chicken breasts on each side until cooked through in the center. Remove to a cutting board and cool.
2. Add 2 tablespoons oil to the pot over medium heat and cook the onion and pepper (season with salt and pepper) until tender about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and saute until fragrant.
3. Add the sweet potatoes, tomatoes, black beans and corn. Season with the chile powder, cumin, red pepper flakes, about 1 teaspoon coarse salt and 1/4 teaspoon black pepper.
4. Cut the chicken into bite-sized pieces and add to the pot. Bring to a simmer and cook about 35 minutes, stirring every so often and adding more seasoning as needed until sweet potatoes are tender.
5. Serve with shredded cheese, sour cream and/or tortilla chips.

Read more: http://www.cinnamonspiceandeverythingnice.com/black-bean-sweet-potato-and-chicken-chili/#ixzz2i5GbgxCQ

Saturday

Today has been a pretty good day.  Got some chores done, had a nice visit with a friend, ran some errands, and had a good dinner.  I'm still watching for that first lightening bug of summer- the race is on!   I think Brian saw the first one last year.  Maybe we'll see some on this camping trip we're getting ready to go on- more on that later.  Just looked out and saw one!

So here's my prize from the library- a coffee mug I can write on with chalk.  Also a nice bag for carrying books.  Trying out Agatha Christie for the first time.

The potatoes are growing!  I didn't plan on working on them this evening but I'm glad I did.  The kids were playing on the swings, laughing when their dad gave them big pull-backs.  It was nice to hoe the dirt and hill the plants while listening, first to them then to the quiet once they went inside.

You better believe I was looking forward to having some of this when I came inside.  Can you see Kayla's "K" in the fudge sauce?  She made Amanda's most delicious fudge sauce this afternoon.  Yum.  It might be loaded with sugar but at least I know what's in it!

Friday Afternoon

*It's starting to rain again- just in time for quiet time at our house.  I thought I might pull my hair out if the kids couldn't get out for a while today without getting soaked- which some of them did yesterday.  That was fine by me but a dry day is a little less work!
*There's a summer virus in the house- fever/headache/sore throat. Between that and allergies, we'd all like a little break.
*I'm starting to wonder if I'm a library nerd.  Possible, but I don't mind.  I signed up for the adult summer reading program like a good mom does when her son is volunteering with the summer reading program.  For every book you read, you get entered into the week's drawing.  Guess who won this week?  Don't know the prize yet.  This is not the first prize I've won at our library, either.
*Kayla and I went to the Goodwill Bookstore yesterday.  Jackpot!  That store is really a great place to shop for books.
*Here's another good recipe for you.  Lucy especially likes oatmeal- plain old oatmeal with some raisins on top.  Which is great except that raisins are sticky and get stuck in teeth.  So we tried this and liked it, some of us more than others.  (which is usually the case)  I adapted this recipe from allrecipes.com.

Baked Oatmeal

1/2 cup veg. oil  (I used 1/4 c oil and 1/4 cup applesauce)

3/4 cup white sugar (I cut the sugar to about 1/4 cup)

2 eggs

1 cup milk

1/2 tsp salt

1T baking powder

3 cups rolled oats

Blueberries or other fruit

Beat the oil/applesauce/sugar.  Mix in the rest of the ingredients.  Pour into a lightly greased pie pan.  Refrigerate overnight.  The next morning preheat the oven to 350.  Bake for around 35 minutes or until the edges are brown.

Two Potato Recipes

I've been trying some new recipes lately.  We're trying to move away from as much processed food, like everyone else! 

Kayla and I had these for lunch one day, just to try them out.  Yum!

To make them, cut thin slices in the potato, almost all the way through but not quite.

Brush with olive oil or butter.  

Sprinkle with sea salt and pepper.

Bake at 400 for 40 minutes.  

(That's what the recipe said.  I needed to bake them for at least another 15 minutes.  Maybe next time I'll up the temperature, too.)

Well this is not the most appetizing picture but they tasted really good.  They were even better the second time I made them and didn't burn them!

Sweet potato fries.  I got this recipe from my friend Julie's blog, Plant Pantry.

Baked Sweet Potato Fries

2 large sweet potatoes, sliced into fries (I leave the skin on)

2 T. olive oil (I usually use less to lower the fat content)

1/4 t. garlic powder

1/2 t. paprika

1/2 t. brown sugar

1/2 t. chili powder (I use less b/c my kids don't like them spicy)

1/4 t. sea salt

1.  Preheat oven to 400 degrees

2.  Spread sweet potatoes on a large baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil, tossing gently to coat.

3.  In a small bowl, combine remaining ingredients.  Sprinkle over potatoes, coating evenly and tossing as needed.

4.  Bake in over for 15-25 min. on each side, the smaller and thinner the fries, the faster they will cook. 

French Bread for a Rainy Monday

It's a rainy Monday.  Maybe one of the last "cool" days of spring?  Here's hoping anyway!
Seems like a good reason to make bread to go along with chili for our dinner tonight.  I love making this Cool Rise French Bread, a recipe I got from our Charlotte cul-de-sac friend, Podso.

Hope you have a happy Monday!

Cool Rise French Bread

2 C flour
2 pkg. active dry yeast (or 2 1/2 Tb. loose)
1 Tb. Sugar
1 Tb. Salt
2 Tb. softened butter or margarine
2 1/4 cups hot tap water

Combine dry ingredients to blend and add the hot water and butter. Mix with electric beater on medium for two minutes. Add one cup flour and beat on high for one minute or thick and elastic. Scrape sides of bowl and gradually mix in enough flour (about 2 more cups) to form a soft dough that leaves the sides of the bowl. Turn out onto floured board, round to a ball, cover with plastic wrap and a towel on top. Let rest for 20 minutes.

Punch down and divide into two equal portions. Roll into approx. 8 x 15 in. rectangle. Roll up tightly like a jelly roll, beginning with the long side. Seal edge and tuck in and seal ends. Place on greased baking sheet, seam side down. Brush with oil and cover loosely with plastic wrap.

Refrigerate from two to 24 hours. Remove, uncover and let stand 10 minutes while preheating oven to 400. Brush gently with cold water and slash tops of loaves at two inch intervals. Bake for 30-40 minutes.

Chili Cook-Off

 

A couple of weeks ago we had a chili cook-off and game night.  Games being bowling and ping-pong over at Va Tech's Squires.  Fun!  Kayla and Jack both entered, and this year, the Waters secured the coveted trophy.  The second place winner may or may not have solicited votes for himself but the first place winner did not- I don't know if she gave it a second thought.

First prize went to Kayla's Breathtaking Chicken Chili.

Second place went to Jack's Knock-Your-Socks Off Chili.

Sammy couldn't have cared less about chili.  He just bowled all evening.

Kayla's Chicken Chili

(we adjust amounts to our taste and need)

1 1/2 pound cooked chicken

3 cans navy beans

1 1/2 cup water

small jar of salsa

block of Pepper Jack cheese, cubed (we used Colby)

Add all ingredients except cheese to crock pot.  Heat for a few hours on high.  Add cheese.  Serve when cheese is melted.

Jack's Chili

This is roughly what we use.

2 cans pinto beans, drained

2 cans petite diced tomatoes

1 can crushed tomatoes

1 onion chopped

1 pound ground beef

salt, pepper, oregano

Brown the meat, add onions.

Cook all ingredients in a large pot or crock pot.

Simmer for a bit, then top with cheese.

Serve with chips or french bread.

Pretty basic but we like it.

Christmas Tea

Even though it was not a bit cold outside, today was the day for a small, Christmas tea with three ladies from church.  Kayla and I had a lot of fun getting ready.

 We got out the Christmas dishes and decorated the table.

We baked some lemon cranberry bread and Grandma's coffee cake.

The company was delightful.

Such a nice afternoon with friends.

The coffee cake is my slight adaptation of Grandma's recipe.  I usually only make it between Thanksgiving and Christmas.  It's always our birthday cake for Jesus on Christmas morning. 

Grandma's Sour Cream Coffee Cake

1 package yellow cake mix

1/2 cup sugar

1 cup sour cream

3/4 cup oil (scant)

1/4 tsp salt

3 rounded tsps brown sugar

2 rounded tsps cinnamon

4 eggs

Grease and flour tube pan (I used the mini-loaf pan this time- it made four mini-loaves).

Mix first seven ingredients with the blender well.

Add eggs one at a time.  Beat well after each one.

Bake at 350 for 50-60 minutes in tube pan.  30ish minutes in mini-loaves.

Glaze while still hot with 1/2 cup sifted confectioner sugar and 1 tablespoon warm water.

Mom's Christmas Cookies

The best thing about these cookies today, beside how good they smell and how pretty they are, is that I know my mom is baking them in her kitchen this afternoon, too.
She has made this recipe for years.  I don't know where she got it so to me, they are Mom's Christmas Cookies.  Enjoy!

Mom's Christmas Cookies

1 pound chopped dates

1/2 jar chopped cherries

1/4 pound walnuts/pecans

2 eggs

1 1/2 cup sugar

2 sticks butter

2 1/2 cup flour

1 t. baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

Cream sugar and butter.  Add eggs. Mix well.

Mix the dry ingredients and mix in a little at a time to the sugar/butter mixture.

Stir in the dates, cherries, and nuts.

Bake at 350 for 8-12 minutes.

*We have a nut allergy in our house so no nuts at all in our cookies.

Still delicious!*
 

Cranberry Lemon Loaf

It's a rainy day and at our house that means it's a good day for baking.
Today's recipe is from my mom, Cranberry Lemon Loaf.
We just ate two mini-loaves and I'd really like to eat more.  It's just that good.

Cranberry Lemon Loaf

Beat until well blended:

1 8oz. block of cream cheese

1/3 cup softened butter

1 1/4 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla (we used 2)

Add three eggs, one at a time.

Stir in 2 Tblsp lemon juice

1 tsp lemon peel

Toss together:

1 1/2 cup chopped cranberries

2 1/4 cup flour

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

Add cream cheese mixture to flour/cranberry mixture until moistened.

Pour into greased and floured bread pan.

Bake at 325 for 1 hour, 15 minutes.

(We used mini-loaf pans and baked at 350 for around 30 minutes.)

 One down, three to go.

 Chopping cranberries is the PERFECT job for a five-year old on a rainy day.

Chocolate Caramel Cake

As my kids say, "Oh yeah baby!"
It's my birthday today and that means it's time for the once-a-year-only Chocolate Caramel Cake.
My favorite.
My mom made this for me a few years ago because she knows how much I like caramel and chocolate.  I've made it every year since.

Chocolate Caramel Cake

50 caramels

3/4 cup butter

 1/2 cup evaporated milk

Melt together and set aside.

Chocolate cake mix

1 cup chocolate chips

Pecans (I don't include these.)

Mix a chocolate cake mix according to directions.  Preheat oven according to cake mix.

Pour half of cake mix in bottom of a greased 9x13 inch pan.  Bake 15 minutes and take out.

Smooth caramel mixture evenly over top.  Sprinkle with pecans (if you'd like).  Pour remainder of cake mix on and sprinkle 1 cup chocolate chips over entire cake.  

Bake another 15-25 minutes more.