Snowman Christmas Tree

Merry Christmas!!!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful day with friends and family.  With Christmas falling midweek, no travel for us.  We're enjoying a quiet Christmas at home.

When we cleaned out my Dad's house earlier this year, I brought home this white Christmas tree.  I love the ideas you find on Pinterest.  A perfect use for my little white tree.  This snowman was easy and fun to put together.  Here's what you need:

7 or 8" Styrofoam ball 

Dowel the height of the tree

Buttons for the eyes, nose and mouth

Top Hat

Scarf

Twigs for his arms

Ornaments for his buttons

Boots for his feet (I'm still searching for these)

Insert the ball into the dowel.  Using a twist tie, secure to the tree.  Glue the eyes, nose and mouth to the head.  Top with the hat and wrap his neck with the scarf.  Using a twist tie, secure the button ornaments.  My tree was already lit but if you have one that is not, add lights.  Plug in and enjoy!!!

Cranberry Feta Pinwheels

Are you ready for Christmas?  My shopping has been done for several weeks but the last minute things crept up on me.  The mailing deadline to get packages to California for my son and his girlfriend came and went.  Now before you think I am awful, we did have their big gift shipped.  What didn't get in the mail was a couple of smaller gifts.  We'll call them New Year's gifts, although I don't think they'll be there by New Year's either, since I haven't shipped them yet.  I decided to go homemade for my associates at work this year.  A cute mug, cocoa mix and homemade marshmallows.   If you've made homemade marshmallows, please share your recipe with me because mine were an EPIC FAIL.  Needless to say, they're getting cocoa and mini marshmallows instead.

Last week for my neighborhood holiday BUNCO, I made these pinwheels.  Fortunately, they were not a FAIL.  Everyone loved them, they were gone in a flash.  These are easy and beautiful for a holiday party!

 Cranberry Feta Pinwheels

1 carton (8 ounces) whipped PHILADELPHIA® Cream Cheese, softened
 1 cup (8 ounces) crumbled feta cheese (I only used 4 ounces)
 1/4 cup chopped green onions
 1 package (5 ounces) dried cranberries
4 flour tortillas (10 inches)
 Directions In a small bowl, combine the cream cheese, feta cheese and onions. Stir in cranberries. Spread about 1/2 cup mixture over each tortilla and roll up tightly. Wrap with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. Cut each roll-up into 10 slices. Yield: 40 appetizers.

Next time, I will sprinkle on the cranberries after I spread the cream cheese mixture on the tortilla.  It was hard to spread the cream cheese with the cranberries already mixed in.

Pumpkin Chip Bars - Secret Recipe Club

Hard to believe it's our final Secret Recipe Club of 2014.  This year has just flown by for me.  Seems I say that every year any more!!  Group B of SRC will be taking a break for the month of January!  Perfect for me because we're going on a cruise!  Warm weather vacations are the only thing that helps me get through these cold Nebraska winters!

I was lucky this month to be assigned the blog From Grandma Loy's Kitchen.  It was so hard to decide what to make.  She has an outstanding variety of recipes to choose from.  My recipe choice ended up coming down to a recipe to use that partial can of pumpkin in my fridge, Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bars!  Have you tried pumpkin with chocolate chips?  It's one of my favorite new flavor combinations! Nice this recipe only calls for 1/4 cup of oil and makes a delicious, moist bar. 

Pumpkin Chip Cookies
Recipe Courtesy of Grandma Loy's Kitchen

4 eggs
1 (15 oz.) can pumpkin
1/4 c. vegetable oil
1 1/2 c. sugar
2 c. flour
2 t. baking powder
2 t. ground cinnamon
1 t. baking soda
1 t. salt
1 cup semisweet chocolate or other flavor baking chips
3 T. sugar
1/2 t. ground cinnamon

Place eggs in a large mixing bowl.  Beat well.  Add pumpkin, oil, and sugar.  Mix thoroughly.  Combine flour, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt.  Mix well.  Add flour mixture to pumpkin mixture and mix until just moistened.  Stir in chips.  Spread in an ungreased 15x10x1-inch baking pan.  Combine sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle evenly over batter.  Bake at 350 degrees 25 to 30 minutes or till done.  Cool.  Cut into bars.  The recipe says 36 cookies, but I easily got 48.

Butternut Squash Mac and Cheese

 
We had our first neighborhood dinner group a few weeks ago at my house.  I am envious of those bloggers who are members of dinner groups and mange to find the time to take photos of their dishes.  Needless to say, that wasn't me.  I made  Butternut Squash Lasagna.   Between trying to make sure the lasagna was the right temperature to cut and  the wine was on the table, no pictures were taken.

Whenever I make lasagne, I never seem to have the proportions the recipe says I should have.  I made a full recipe and a half recipe.  After assembling an oversized 9 x 13 pan, I had leftover noodles and squash mixture. What to do with the leftover squash mixture?  How about a mac and cheese?  I added a little Monterey Jack cheese and topped with bread crumbs.  It came out perfectly and makes a delicious and healthy mac and cheese.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful Thanksgiving with friends and family!!!  It's a quiet day at home for Tim and I.  We still cooked up a feast and ate in the dining room.

Smoked Turkey Breast

Michael Symon's Stuffing

Brown Sugar Glazed Sweet Potatoes

Roasted Brussels Sprouts

Doni's Cranberry Sauce

Pumpkin Bread Pudding

We brined the turkey breast in this brine, used a local rub and smoked it in the smoker.  It was moist and delicious!  Michael Symon's stuffing is unlike any I've ever tried before.  The addition of the juice of an orange and the zest adds an interesting flavor.  We liked the stuffing but I think if I make it again, I would just a little less orange.  Doni's Cranberry Sauce is the recipe of my son's girlfriend's mother.  We enjoyed it when celebrating Thanksgiving with everyone a couple of years ago and it's now my go to recipe for Cranberry Sauce. 

I can't comment on the bread pudding just yet because we'll be enjoying it a bit later.  Perhaps, it will become a post of it's own.

Did you try some new recipes today or make the family favorites?

Nantucket Cranberry Pie

For November's Secret Recipe Club, I was assigned Sarah's Kitchen.  It was hard to decide which recipe to make, there were lots of tempting ones on her blog!!!  Always looking for a new cranberry dessert for the holiday season, I chose this Nantucket Cranberry Pie!!! Why is it certain ingredients like cranberries and pumpkin seem to be reserved for October and November.  Delicious and versatile, why don't we use them more often?

This isn't your typical pie recipe, there's no bottom crust and the top crust is more like cake batter.  The recipe didn't say what size cake pan to use and my 8" round seemed small.  I decided to use my 9" springform pan.  While my cake was baking, I was watching the finale of Master Chef Junior.  Are those kids amazing or what?  When I started smelling something burning, I checked the oven and there was cranberry juice all over the bottom of the oven.  The good news, I use an oven liner.  The bad news, it's a two piece one so some juice had seeped onto the bottom of the oven.  What a mess!!  It's been a while since I've had a kitchen disaster!!  Note to self, springform pan was a bad idea!  More good news though, I have two ovens, so I finished the baking in the second oven. 

Despite the mess in the oven, the pie was a success.  The tartness of the cranberries combines nicely with the hint of almond and buttery dough. 

Nantucket Cranberry Pie
Recipe Courtesy of Sarah's Kitchen

Butter, for greasing pan
2 cups (heaping) cranberries 
3/4 cups pecans, chopped 
2/3 cups sugar 
1 cup flour 
1 cup sugar 
1 stick unsalted butter, melted 
2 eggs
1 tsp almond extract 
1/4 tsp salt 
1 tbsp sugar for topping

Preheat oven to 350.

Butter a cake pan.  Add the cranberries and chopped pecans to the pan, top with 2/3 cup sugar.

In a bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, melted butter, beaten eggs, almond extract and salt.  Pour the batter over the cranberries.  Bake for 40 minutes, top with the tablespoon of sugar and continue baking for an additional 5 minutes.

Cranberry Jalapeno Jam

We planted four jalapeno plants this summer and ended up with more jalapenos than we could count.
After freezing, smoking, candying, giving some away and using as many as I could in recipes, I still had jalapenos left. 

Why not try jalapeno jam?  I wanted the jam to have a nice color and it seemed wrong to use green food coloring.  Wondering what else I could do, I ran across several recipes for Cranberry Jalapeno Jam.  Perfect, the cranberries will give the jam a beautiful red color. 

Top cream cheese with this jam and you have a delicious, quick appetizer.  I also plan to use mine to glaze chicken or pork!

Cranberry Jalapeno Jam

• 3 Jalapeno peppers, whole
• 2 cups whole cranberries
• 1 cup white vinegar
• 5 cups sugar
• 1 bottle liquid Pectin (3 oz)

Rinse whole cranberries and drain to remove excess water.
Trim Jalapeno pepper caps and tops, then slice lengthwise and remove all seeds and inner membranes. Discard tops, seeds, and membranes. Chop pepper halves.
Grind whole cranberries to a pulp with the food processor or grinder. Add 1/8 cup water to moisten the pulp slightly. Add chopped peppers and pulse or grind.  (I used the coarse chopping blade of a food processor.)
Spoon the cranberry and Jalapeno pulp into a stainless pot. Add vinegar and blend.  Slowly cook mixture for 10 minutes to blend flavors, then add sugar all at once, stir until dissolved. Cook the jam mixture, stirring constantly, until sugar is completely dissolved and boils. Once the jam mixture bubbles and the top foams, rising significantly, add liquid pectin. Boil hard for 1 minute, no longer.
Remove pot from heat. Ladle jam into sterilized half-pint jars, to within 1/2-inch of top. Add sterilized caps and screw rings on. Process in water-bath canner for 10 minutes. Yield: 6 half-pints.