This year, in addition to doing a blog post on the ridiculous amount of tasty treats I make every year (The Great 2017 Baking Extravaganza), I thought I'd do a second one featuring a fun thing I did for a close friend as well as the Christmas Day dinner I made for my mother and myself. I tried a number of new things this year and had a fabulous time doing it, so it occurred to me I should share.
The first thing is the fun project for my friend. I decided in addition to his normal Christmas gifts, I would send him Hanukkah presents. So I made eight different things and shipped them off, including instructions that he was to choose one gift per day to open for the eight days of the holiday. It was fun for both of us, I think!
One of the items was these Spiced Apricots in Dark Chocolate. Not only are they incredibly easy to make, they're incredibly tasty. Depending on where you shop, they're not cheap, however. Dried apricots go for kind of a lot of money. I got lucky and found a two-pound bag on Amazon for a reasonable price, so I went with it. Then you simply melt bittersweet chocolate in the microwave, dip the apricots and lay them on waxed paper, then sprinkle with hot smoked paprika (the source recipe calls for ground chipotle chili powder, but whatever). I got fancy and put them in little paper cups, but as long as they don't get too warm you don't really need to.
It had been a long time since I made Pickled Mushrooms, but as soon as I did I vowed I'd make more again soon. These are fantastic! This picture is from a previous batch, but they're the same. Sour but not too sour, and with just enough bite to make them interesting. It's entirely too easy to go through a whole pound of these without realizing it.
I'd never made any kind of Cranberry Muffins before, and these were a lovely way to start. The only problem I had with them was the quantity... I purposely chose a recipe that only made six muffins so I could send him four and have a couple left for home, but I neglected to realize the recipe makes six GIANT muffins. I made normal-sized ones (cupcake sized), and ended up with 10. These were moist, and stayed that way for far longer than I'd have expected.
There are as many recipes for Southern-Style Spiced Pecans as there are people who make them. This was the third or fourth kind I'd tried, and it's definitely a winner! They have just the right amount of sweet to hot ratio, and they're dangerously addictive. I made him a pound, and then immediately made another pound for myself... which I discovered I could not eat out of the big bowl or I would eat far too many at a time.
This is my own recipe for Pumpkin Pecan Butter. It's supposed to be canned, but I always freeze it because I had a traumatic childhood experience with canning and I just can't do it. Again, the picture is from a previous batch, but it still works.
Pumpkin Pecan Butter
Makes 8 pints
3 1/2 cups pumpkin puree (canned, not pumpkin pie filling)1 cup pecans, chopped (toasted)
1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
4 1/2 cups sugar
1.75 ounce pectin (one 1.75 ounce box Sure-Jell fruit pectin)
1/2 teaspoon butter
Wash five 8 ounce jars , lids, and bands in hot, soapy water; rinse and drain.
Fill a canner with water and place the jars in the rack; cover and bring to a simmer over medium heat.
Reduce heat and keep jars hot until you're ready to fill them.
Put the flat lids in a saucepan and cover with water; bring just to a simmer over medium heat. Do not boil. Reduce heat and keep them hot until you're ready to use them.
Combine pumpkin, pecans, and pumpkin pie spice into a 6- or 8-quart saucepan. Measure sugar into a separate bowl; keep close by.
Stir fruit pectin into pumpkin mixture; add butter and bring to a rolling boil over high heat, stirring constantly.
Quickly stir in sugar; return to rolling boil and cook exactly one minute, stirring constantly.
Remove from heat; skim off any foam with a metal spoon.
Ladle quickly into prepared jars, filling to within 1/8 inch of the top.
Wipe jar rims and threads with a damp cloth; cover with lids and screw rings down tightly.
Place jars in boiling water bath in canner for five minutes.
*This can also be frozen instead of canned if you'd like. After removing from heat, let cool almost completely and transfer to freezer containers or zip-top plastic bags, then freeze. It doesn't freeze solid, but you may have to stir as some separation can occur.
Serving Size: 1 (24.3 g)
Calories 59.6
Total Fat - 1 g
Saturated Fat - 0.1 g
Cholesterol - 0 mg
Sodium - 45.2 mg
Total Carbohydrate - 13 g
Dietary Fiber - 0.4 g
Sugars - 11.8 g
Protein - 0.3 g
There is a wonderful international market in town that does marinated mixed olives, and I love them! However, when I came across this recipe for Balsamic Marinated Olives I figured I'd give it a shot. They were really tasty, but not overall very practical. The olive oil congealed with refrigeration, leaving the olives dry. Letting them sit on the counter for a while before eating helped, but overall they were something I'm glad I made, but I'll probably just keep buying them from Russo's.
This was 5 Minute Microwave Peanut Butter Fudge, and it was definitely easy to make. It was also tasty, but it's not what I consider fudge as far as consistency goes. He described it as a naked Reese's Peanut Butter Cup, and that's pretty spot on. I'm not keeping it as a fudge recipe, but I am keeping it to use as the center for truffles, dipped in dark chocolate. I think it'd be great!
Wouldn't be the holidays (regardless of which kind) without chocolate-dipped pretzel rods, right? I kind of went overboard, as I am wont to do. They're really tasty, though! Often going overboard pays off.
Chocolate Peanut Butter Pretzel Rods
Serves 12
12 pretzel rods
1 cup creamy peanut butter
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 teaspoon coconut oil
1/2 cup white chocolate chips
Melt semisweet chocolate chips and coconut oil in microwave for 1 minute, stirring every 20 seconds, until completely smooth. Drip pretzel rods in chocolate, again spooning as necessary, to cover peanut butter (leaving some to show if desired). Let excess drip off, then lay back on cooling rack and refrigerate until firm, 30-60 minutes more.
Melt white chocolate chips in microwave for 1 minute, stirring every 20 seconds, until completely smooth. Using either a small spoon, a chopstick, or a knife, drizzle white chocolate over semisweet chocolate to decorate. Refrigerate a last 30-60 minutes until completely firm.
Wrap each pretzel rod in waxed paper or plastic wrap to store. Can be stored at room temperature or refrigerated if you prefer.
Alternative:
Instead of white chocolate, sprinkle with nonpareils, coloured sugar, or chopped nuts while semisweet chocolate is still wet for different looks and flavours.
Per Serving:
Calories: 368
Total Fat: 19.2g
Saturated Fat: 6.6g
Cholesterol: 0mg
Sodium: 309mg
Total Carbohydrates: 43.6g
Dietary Fiber: 3g
Total Sugars: 15.7g
Protein: 8.7g
We have now reached the end of what I dubbed "Hanukkah in a Box". Which ended up being two boxes because everything didn't fit in one, but whatever. Now we'll move on to Christmas Day dinner. Yes, there were only two of us. Yes, I made WAY too much food. But we had leftovers for a while, and I got plenty of mileage out of the ham and its bone.
Since I mentioned the ham, I'll make that first. It's appropriate anyway, since it's the entree. I wanted to do something a little different, and I was limited on available ingredients for a glaze since I decided the night before I wanted to glaze it instead of just baking it, so I ended up with Balsamic Dijon Glazed Ham. What a lovely choice it was! This is definitely a keeper, and I'm probably going to use the glaze on ham steaks for a regular weeknight dinner several times as well.
I didn't name this one, but I wholeheartedly agree with the sentiment. Cracked Out Grits Casserole is this delightfully sinful conglomeration of grits, cheese, and bacon. That would be enough to make you swoon, but then there's the added thing I'd not have considered: Powdered Ranch dressing mix. Sends it right over swoon and into toe-curling territory. Yum!
This is a picture from the last time I made Pecan Cranberry Salad, but I used the same bowl this time and it looked exactly the same. It was not, however, the same. Last time I used raspberry Jello and followed the directions as written. This time, I used orange Jello, boiled the cranberries in tart cherry juice, increased the sugar by 1/4 cup, and just threw the whole 20-ounce can of crushed pineapple in there. Amazing!
I adore spinach salad, especially when accompanied by warm bacon dressing. This particular Spinach Salad with Warm Bacon Dressing, however, did not impress me. The salad part was great, but the dressing was too much vinegar and not enough anything else. This is one that didn't get saved to my files, but I'm going to keep trying until I find a bacon dressing like the one my favourite bar/restaurant used to serve.
Dessert! No holiday dinner is complete without dessert, and this one practically demanded I make it. Individual Brownie Trifles, using brownies I made for the Baking Extravaganza, with fresh raspberries, sweetened whipped cream, and chocolate ice cream topping. Almost stupidly simple, but incredibly tasty. Perfect finish to a fantastic meal!
Oh yeah... In addition to the food above, I also made some Grands biscuits and heated up a jar of Aunt Nellie's brand sweet & sour red cabbage. I was too lazy to make biscuits this year, and the cabbage is a tradition that goes back to my maternal grandmother.
This was fun! I may do one of these food reports for every holiday meal... gives me content, gives exposure to the folks from whom I get some of the recipes, and also makes me appreciate how very much effort I put into things without realizing it.
What a fun Hanukkah and lucky guy!
ReplyDeleteI want the ham, myself. Everything looks wonderful. Looking forward to more in 2018!