My family is huge and crazy. Well, the people aren’t huge. The amount of people is huge. But the people in my family are definitely crazy. As Mark Twain once said, “In one way or another, all men are mad.” I think he was on to something there.
Here’s a little taste of Christmas in my family (both sides): (oh, and the box of Cocoa Puffs you see is totally a Christmas thing! I do not buy those normally! And my Certain Little Someone eats them as a special snack, and not for breakfast.)
And in my huge family – as in any family – it’s a matter of course that we each differ from each other in many ways, and occasionally (of course, only very occasionally) disagree on matters of minor importance. But one thing we all agree on: we love Christmas! My parents did a great job of creating very special Christmas memories that we all treasure to this day, even as we get deeper into our thirties and um, forties (hoping my oldest sister doesn’t read this. Ahem.).
Our traditions are too numerous to count, but one of our favorites is having sticky buns for breakfast Christmas morning. My mom started making these when I was a little girl, and she taught each of us to make them. They’ve been a part of our holiday season for as long as I can remember, and this time of year doesn’t seem complete without them.
This year, we didn’t have time for such a breakfast on Christmas morning, because it happened to be Sunday, and Sunday means church. Especially Christmas Sunday! Can’t skip church on Christmas Sunday, that just doesn’t seem right. Anyway, we (or I, rather) decided that Christmas Eve morning would be the perfect day to have our traditional Christmas breakfast. And the fact that everyone in the family agreed with and listened to the middle child should be a sign to you of the importance of this tradition.
I convinced my littlest sister (already an amazing little baker at the age of 19) to make a couple batches of sticky buns for us all to eat on Christmas Eve morning, and she did a phenomenal job! Fluffy and sweet and soooo delicious!
I am going to give you my mom’s recipe in all its unaltered glory, as we ate it on Christmas Eve. (When I make them, I usually adapt the ingredients to be healthier, and I cut down on the caramel glaze to be cheaper (and healthier). Also, I leave out the nuts for my DH’s sake. ) In my normal day-to-day life I don’t eat this much sugar or refined flour, but for Christmas? Bring it on!
Mom’s Sticky Buns
Ingredients
6-7 cups flour
1 package dry yeast
2 1/4 cups milk
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter
2 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
8 TBSP butter, melted
3-4 tsp cinnamon
2 cups chopped nuts, optional
Caramel Glaze:
1 cup butter
2 cups brown sugar
2 TBSP corn syrup (I usually omit this.)
1/4 cup milk
Instructions
In a mixer bowl, combine 2 cups flour and yeast.
In a saucepan, heat milk, 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 cup butter, and salt, until warm. Stir to melt butter. Add to dry ingredients in mixer bowl; add eggs.
Beat at low speed for 1/2 minute, scrape bowl, then beat 3 minutes longer. By hand, stir in enough flour to make a soft dough.
Knead, adding flour as necessary, until dough is smooth and elastic. Place in greased bowl, then turn greased side up. Let rise, covered, until double, about 1.5 hrs.
Divide dough into 2 parts. Roll out each half. In bowl, mix 1 cup sugar, cinnamon, and 8 TBSP butter. Brush half of mixture onto each rectangle of dough. Roll up jelly-roll fashion, seal long edge, cut into 1 inch slices and place in a greased pan whose bottom has been covered with a caramel glaze (below) and nuts (optional).
Bake at 350F for 20 minutes.
Caramel Glaze:
Bring ingredients to boil in a medium saucepan, boil for 1 minute. Place in 2 9×13 pans and cover with chopped nuts.
My friend Sheila of Alice and the Mock Turtle knocks my socks off with her creativity. Her active mind is always churning with ideas and new ways of looking at things to come up with such unique solutions and fun stuff of all kinds.
One of her recent blog entries totally blew me away with its simplicity and just sheer genius! She used empty tea bags to create individual instant coffee bags and dressed them up for gift giving. I didn’t even know you could buy empty tea bags!
Anything with the word coffee instantly grabs my attention, so I was all over this idea like white on rice (or brown, I guess I should say) and I started thinking about how I could incorporate this into my gifts from the kitchen for Christmas.
And since I can’t leave well enough alone, I began dreaming of different flavored coffees – my own coffee blends, so to speak – that could be placed into these little tea bags for sheer coffee-drinking pleasure. Cardamom-Orange Coffee to Go is the result of that mental brainstorming.
Sheila had found these amazing press-and-seal tea bags that you can iron after filling to create a completely sealed envelope of coffee. For some reason which I can’t remember now, I opted to go with Teavana’s PerfecTea paper filters instead. These tea bags don’t require any ironing (not my favorite chore), but neither do they have any way to seal them at all. I found that for my own use, simply folding over the top (as they were designed to do) was sufficient, and not even one teeny tiny coffee grind found its way into my coffee.
For gift-giving, though, I wanted to be sure that the envelope didn’t spill, so I simply used a doubled length of thread and a needle to make a running stitch through the top of the folded filter. I left a 3″-or-so length of thread on either side and tied those together into a knot. Not only did this keep the coffee grinds from spilling out of the bag, but it also created a useful handle for pulling the filter in and out of a cup of hot water. And it gathers, so it can be used to help squeeze out all the coffee goodness! The whole process took maybe 30 seconds for each coffee bag (and I am by no means a proficient sewer!).
Unfortunately, it’s too late for you to order the tea bags in time for Christmas at this point, but they may be available at your local Teavana store (or other tea specialty shop). If you can find the tea bags, filling them up is super quick and easy, making them a great Christmas gift or stocking stuffer!
Some gifting suggestions:
in a coffee-themed basket for a coffee lover (with mugs, coffee-themed decor, flavored syrups, etc.)
in a tin full of home-baked goodies
with homemade (or storebought if you’re running out of time!) biscotti
by itself in a jar, as Sheila suggested, together with cream and sugar
in a portable re-usable coffee mug (I did this for a friend)
I had some small “transparent archival plastic bags” (similar to these, except not self-sealing), that I used to hold the coffee bags, both to help keep the coffee fresh, and to give it a nice clean look. You can just use a plain old zip-top plastic bag if you don’t have anything like that, or a jar, like Sheila used.
And just to make it all the more elegant for gifting, I even created some tags to go with my original coffee blend. I made it into a PDF just for you, friends! Cardamom-Orange Coffee {to go} label
Now… what to put in the coffee bags?! You can just use some plain good quality coffee beans, like Sheila did, or you can get all adventuresome with me and try out some exotic homemade naturally infused flavored coffee blends! I’ve been working on this cardamom-orange coffee flavor for a couple weeks now, so I’ll share it with you, but the sky is the limit as far as what you can put into the coffee to flavor it. Pretty much any spice or dried (dried to the point where it can be powdered) fruit can be added to the coffee beans to produce delicious flavored blends. If you experiment and come up with an awesome new flavor, tell me about it so I can try it, too!
And here’s a tip: the easiest way to get dried orange zest is to take the peels from an orange or clementine and set them out in a single layer on a plate to dry. When they’re completely dry, run them through the coffee grinder. I even just added a couple of the pieces of orange peel into the grinder with the whole coffee beans.
Combine all 3 in a coffee grinder and grind until fine. Brew in 6 oz of hot water.
To use the tea bag, just place about 3 tsp of this coffee blend into the bag, seal as desired (or as required by the manufacturer), then place in a coffee mug. Pour 6 oz of hot water over the coffee bag and allow it to steep for several minutes, or until desired strength. I found that the tea bag filter limited the strength of the coffee, so any more than 6 oz of water resulted in a rather weak cup of coffee.
Once you have your little tea bags full of this yumminess, you will have super QUICK coffee at the ready wherever you are. You can fill your to-go cup with hot water , place one of these babies in there and run out the door!
Just as EASY as plain old coffee! OK, dealing with the paper filters is a little more effort, but not much.
Purchasing the filters is some additional expense that I normally don’t have, but for gift-giving, it can’t be beat! Definitely a CHEAP option for all the coffee-lovers in your life. And it’s way CHEAPer than buying the famous nationwide-brands line of naturally infused flavored coffee blends. Or even their instant coffee (does anybody really pay that much for instant coffee? You do? May I ask in the name of heaven WHY?!)
Infusing your coffee with natural elements like orange zest and cardamom is a lot HEALTHY-er than purchasing the artificially (read: chemically) flavored kinds available elsewhere.
Here’s yet another last-minute Christmas tray to bring to any festivities this weekend. Yesterday, I brought you a Christmas tree fruit tray. Today, it’s aChristmas tree veggie tray! Same concept, different produce.
1/2 yellow pepper, optional OR chunk/slice of cheese
Instructions
Wash all produce thoroughly. Trim broccoli and cauliflower so you have only the florets, with very little stem (just enough to hold on to).
Using an oval or rectangular tray, place a line of cauliflower along the bottom narrow edge to form the “snow”.
Place a handful of pretzel sticks, centered above the cauliflower, oriented lengthwise to form the “trunk”.
Place a line of broccoli across the tray, above the pretzel trunk, trying not to leave any white space.
Above the broccoli, and forming a slightly shorter line, place a row of grape tomatoes, touching edge to edge.
Continue alternating broccoli and tomatoes, creating shorter lines as you go, until you get near the top of your tray.
Form a star but cutting a yellow pepper into strips OR use a star-shaped cookie cutter to form a star from a slice or chunk of cheese. Or just go without, like I did!
Serve your Christmas tree with a bowl of homemade dip on the side. Unfortunately, I have no specific dip recipe for you (I was in too much of a hurry to take measurements), but I can tell you how I made my Ranch-like version of dip: I dumped equal parts cream/yogurt cheese (homemade from yogurt) and plain yogurt in a bowl and mashed it together well until it was creamy. Then I stirred in garlic powder, freshly ground black pepper, dill, parsley, chives, and a bit of salt until it tasted right. Then I refrigerated it for a couple of hours before serving.
Just as QUICK as any other vegetable tray!
And just as EASY, but with so much more presentation!
It’s CHEAPer than the fruit tray, because these veggies are cheaper than those fruits.
And it’s very HEALTHY, too, nothing but veggies! (Well, except the pretzel sticks, which I don’t normally buy, but didn’t have time to come up with anything more creative. Carrot sticks? Celery sticks? Right shape, wrong color. Let me know if you come up with something!)
Some of these ideas take a little more work, which makes me question if it’s a good thing or not. Or at any rate, it makes my DH question! Me? I love all the holiday craziness. Bring it on, people!
But if you’re really frazzled, and don’t have the wits or time to come up with a dish for the holiday party this weekend, I’ve got your back. This particular Pinterest-inspired fruit tray is dead easy and perfectly brainless. A little on the pricey side this time of year, but whatever. Totally worth it.
Christmas Fruit Tree
Ingredients
1 lb green grapes
2-3 Granny Smith (or other green) apples
1/2 cup blueberries
1/2 cup raspberries
1/2 Bosc pear
Instructions
Use an oblong tray for best results. Place a paper or towel in the middle of the tray, if desired, to drain fruit and help stabilize it. (You don’t want the edges of the paper towel to show.)
Core the apples, then cut them into quarters, then cut each quarter into 4 slices. Place in a bowl of lemon water (fill a bowl of water and splash in a TBSP or two of lemon juice).
Trim the sides of the Bosc pear so that it resembles a tree trunk (we’re not going for perfection here – just as close as you can get). Place it near the bottom of the tray, with the peel facing out.
Pile the grapes on the tray, above the pear. Shape them so that there are fewer on the top and more on the bottom, like a triangle.
Line the apple slices around the edges of the grape tree, forming the branches.
Place the blueberries and raspberries randomly among the grapes to form the ornaments.
For an extra touch, you can use a star cookie cutter to cut a star shape out of a pineapple wedge, or piece of cantaloupe. If you have a large enough pear or apple, and a metal cutter, you could use that as well. Place that at the top of the tree. (I just went without.)
This is so QUICK to put together. I washed all my fruit and sliced the apples at home, then brought it all to the function I was attending (my piano students’ Christmas recital). I formed the tree probably in 5 minutes or less.
Such an EASY, yet festive and creative, fruit tray to bring to any holiday function! Party-goers will love it, and you will have put very little effort into it (yeah, baby, that’s what I’m talkin’ about!).
It is NOT CHEAP this time of year! Unless maybe if you live in Florida or California. The apples aren’t expensive, but the grapes and berries. Oh my! I never pay that much for those fruits, since I usually only buy them in season. Oh well, totally worth it for a Christmas splurge.
Now you can trick out your canisters with the best of them, and transform your empty egg cartons into muffin holders. We’re going further into upcycling gift wrap territory by using an even lowlier receptacle: the lowly shopping bag.
Not a plastic one. I haven’t figured out how to beautify those yet. No, I am speaking of the lovely, sturdy brown paper bags that you can find at places like Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, or even a few mainstream grocery stores.
And it doesn’t take much to beautify a brown paper bag, honestly. In fact, all you have to do is cut it apart and wrap it with the outside facing in. Does that make sense to anyone here?No? OK, I’ll try again.
Step by step transformation of a grocery bag into wrapping paper:
Remove the handles. Just pull ‘em off!
Cut straight down along one corner of the bag, all the way to the bottom.
From there, cut off the bottom of the bag.
Lay the bag out flat, with the designs from the outside facing up.
Lay your gift on top of the bag and wrap as you would any present.
Clear now? OK, good.
This works best if you are wrapping a box, which makes it a little more difficult for using to gift from the kitchen. It’s easy enough, though, to line a cardboard box with tissue paper and place carefully wrapped homemade goodies inside. Some things I think would work particularly well wrapped this way:
a selection of homemade chocolates and truffles (you can find some great recipes in our HealthyHolidays free eBook!)
themed gifts such as a spaghetti dinner (with noodles and sauce), ice cream fixings, or movie night
And of course, it’s limited only by your creativity! Whatever you need to wrap up can be wrapped in this style. Furthermore you can dress it up in a lot of different ways. I had some fun when I was wrapping presents the other night for my family, coming up with some different ways to dress up the paper bag.
Use fancy or plain string and tie it in the old-fashioned way with a big ol' bow on top.
The easiest way to dress up brown paper: pretty fabric ribbon in any design or color. You can also write directly on the package in a coordinating marker or pen.
Cut apart old Christmas cards, and punch holes into them. Tie them onto the package for instant - and free - decoration.
Add natural elements - either real or fake - like cinnamon sticks, poinsiettas or sprigs of pine boughs.
Tie on a candy cane for embellishment. Other ideas: trinkets and small ornaments.
If you go to Trader Joe’s, their bags right now actually have some adorable designs on the side panels that make great gift wrap for small gifts! If you don’t have Trader Joe’s bags, you can accomplish the same thing by drawing designs with markers.You could also use stamps and other tools of the scrapbooking trader for a similar effect. (Hint: Set your kids to the task!)
Check out the fun print from the side panel of the Trader Joe's bag!
I find that the brown paper actually has a rustic elegance that is easily adaptable to both fun and glitzy looks. I even prefer it to wrapping paper, and plan to wrap the majority of my presents in it this year!
It’s almost as QUICK as using a roll of wrapping paper.
It’s almost as EASY: the paper is definitely more stiff and is therefore a little more difficult to work with. However, that same quality also makes it a lot sturdier.
It’s certainly CHEAP! I love taking trash and turning it into something useful and beautiful.
And it’s HEALTHY, I suppose. Healthy for the earth, at any rate.
Cranberries and oranges are my go-to flavor combo this Christmas. What it is about those two ingredients together, I don’t know, but they taste like Christmas to me; there’s something almost magical about it. I’ve been combining them in all sorts of things, but the easiest for sure is this delicious oatmeal.
It’s easy to get in a bland old boring oatmeal rut. Well, it’s easy if you’re not me. I personally never make oatmeal the same way twice because I’m weird like that. But I have heard that it can be easy to get into the afore-mentioned oatmeal rut.
All you have to do, my friend, is add a few fun things to your oatmeal. In this particular case, very magical, very Christmas-y cranberries and oranges. From boring to exciting in one easy step.
Cranberry Orange Oatmeal
Ingredients
2 cups water
1/2 cup fresh or frozen cranberries
1 tsp orange zest
1 cup oats
dash salt
1/4 cup raw sugar or honey
Instructions
Bring water to a boil in a saucepan over high heat. While it’s heating, add the cranberries and orange zest. Once it’s boiling, reduce heat to medium and add oats and salt. Stir and bring to a boil; then reduce heat a little more and allow to simmer until thickened. Stir in sugar or honey.
Serve with a pat of butter and additional honey or sugar, if desired. Garnish with orange segments.
There’s no wonder that oatmeal is one of the most popular breakfasts: it’s QUICK! If you choose to use them, steel oats can take longer, but soaking them overnight in the liquid will help them cook up pretty quickly the next morning.
Oatmeal is also EASY. Anybody can make oatmeal. And anybody can make cranberry orange oatmeal.
This is the time of year to make CHEAP cranberry orange oatmeal! Both cranberries and oranges are in season right now, so snap them up at the cheapest prices they’ll be all year round.
Cranberries are some of the HEALTHY-est berries you can eat (and one of very few actual berries), especially because of its high levels of antioxidants. So eat ‘em up!
Homebaked goodies are a delicious frugal gift this time of year (that everyone loves, even if they groan at the thought of one more sweet treat), but there’s always the dilemma of how to present them. You saved all that money by making the gifts yourself, only to go and spend a fortune on the packaging? Doesn’t make sense, does it? That’s why I’ve learned to put together some pretty creative – and even elegant – packaging without spending a dime. I just scrounge around my house and come up with junk that does a decent job of containing my kitchen creations, and then dress it up a bit for the occasion.
It looks a lot better than it sounds, I promise.
Last week, I showed you how to make a cute little muffin (or truffle) holder using a humble egg carton. This week, we’re going to take a plain old can to new heights of fashion it never even dreamed existed.
And it doesn’t matter what kind of can. Ideally, it should be large enough to hold approximately a dozen cookies (although vegetable cans would make cute little mini-gifts, too), so we’re thinking more along the lines of a canister. For example:
coffee tin
oatmeal container
formula can
large can of pumpkin puree
It can be metal or cardboard, doesn’t really matter. Just so long as it’s cylindrical, hollow, and capable of containing cookies, it will work.
Here’s how you turn it into a rock star:
First, clean the container. Nobody wants your coffee grinds in their Christmas cookies. Sometimes a simple rinse will suffice, especially if it’s a more fragile cardboard container. As long as there’s no residual dust or goo from the original contents, then you’re good to go.
If it has a wrapper, peel it off. It will just get in the way.
Here’s the trickiest part of the whole thing, so pay attention:
You will need to cut your paper to fit your canister. I used scrapbook paper this time, so that’s what we’re going with in this example (but I’m sure you can figure out how to adjust these instructions to any kind of paper you choose to use!).
First, measure the height of the can, then mark that measurement on the back of your decorative paper.
Use a ruler to help you draw a straight edge the length of the paper, using this measurement as your guide. Cut the strip of paper.
Glue each end of the strip of paper and press it firmly onto the canister, wrapping it around as tightly as you can, and smoothing out any wrinkles as you go. My piece of scrapbook paper didn’t quite fit around the circumference of the canister, as you can see.
If you find yourself in a similar situation, you have several options:
Make a focal point out of the blank space by using some complementary paper to fill it in. You can even write a greeting here or use it as a gift tag, or use it as a backdrop for a big dramatic bow.
Cut another strip of the same paper and glue it over the gap for a more seamless look.
Find a larger piece of paper that will fit all the way around.
I went with option #1, as you can see. If you want to do the same, here’s how:
Measure the space, adding about 1/2″ on either side, and cut out your piece of complementary paper. Glue it on, smoothing out wrinkles as you do. You may need to clip it on with some clothespins to hold it in place until the glue dries. You can leave it at this, and simply tie a big bow around the canister, and centering it here. Or you can add some embellishments if you have a lot of scrapbooking materials. I took yet another piece of complementary scrapbook paper and centered a square of it on this patch. I wrote “Merry Christmas” on it to add some festive flair.
Here’s what it looks like with a bow. I think it doesn’t even need the Merry Christmas label, but it’s too late now.
On to the last bit now. If your container has a lid, you will want to decorate it, too. This part’s a little bit tricky, too, because you’ll want to cut out a circle that fits inside the rim of the lid. Trust me, it won’t work to try and glue a circle that goes all the way to the edge. The best way that I found to do this is to set the lid upside down on a surface, and place the paper (decorative side down) on top of it. Feeling the inner edge with your fingers, trace your pencil around it. Cut out this circle, then glue it (decorative side up, naturally) on to the top of the lid.
Yes, I know, I should have chosen papers that complemented the lid color!
If you don’t have a lid, or don’t want to deal with the lid, no worries! The solution is quite simple. Simply poke a hole on either side of the canister, about an inch down from the top. Make sure the holes are lined up halfway through the diameter of the can, so it won’t wobble when you’re done. If you have a metal can, you will need to use a hammer and a sharp nail to make the holes, but if your can is cardboard, any sharp object will do the trick. (Just be careful, I dont’ want you to poke your eye out!) Once you have your evenly spaced holes, thread some ribbon through them and tie a bow to form a handle. Cover your treats with tissue paper or a tea towel.
Voila!
This is a pretty QUICK project, too (unless you have to dig out all the papers from their hiding spot like I did).
It’s also very EASY, and very forgiving. Pretty paper covers a multitude of errors!
Very CHEAP, almost free (especially if you use clearance scrapbook paper!).
No need to pull out the food coloring. God has already given us some pretty amazing colors in the food He created for us, so there’s no reason for us to try to mimic them with cheap – and unnecessary – imitations. For example: cranberries and pistachios, a deep magent-like red, and a lovely dark sage green. Gorgeous!
Here’s Mindy’s original recipe, adapted from Epicurious:
Pistachio-Cranberry Icebox Cookies
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) unsalted butter, softened
1/4 cup plus 2 Tbl granulated sugar
1 tsp finely grated fresh orange zest (about one large orange)
1/2 cup shelled pistachios, roughly chopped
1/3 cup dried cranberries, roughly chopped
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/4 cup turbinado sugar (or you could use other colored decorative sugar)
Stir together the flour, cinnamon, and salt in a small bowl.
Beat together the butter, granulated sugar, and zest in a large bowl with an electric mixer until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Reduce speed to low and add flour mixture in 3 batches, mixing until dough just comes together in clumps. Mix in the pistachios and cranberries. Gather and press dough together, then divide into 2 equal pieces. Using a sheet of plastic wrap or wax paper, form each piece of dough into a log about 1 1/2 inches in diameter. Chill, wrapped in plastic wrap, until very firm, at least two hours, but up to 3 days.
Put the oven racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven and preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper.
Brush egg over the log (but not the ends). Sprinkle the sugar over the egg mixture and press to stick, covering the entire log (except the ends).
Cut each bar crosswise into 1/4-inch-thick slices. (If the dough gets too soft to slice, freeze bars briefly until firm.) Arrange cookies about 1/2 inch apart on the lined baking sheets.
Bake cookies, switching the position of the sheets halfway through baking, until edges are pale golden, about 15 minutes. Transfer cookies from parchment to cooling racks and cool completely.
**The dough can be frozen, wrapped in plastic wrap and then foil for about one month. Thaw the frozen dough in the refrigerator just until the dough can be sliced.
And here’s my version:
Cranberry Pistachio Cookies
Ingredients
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 cup white whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp cardamom
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup shortening
1/4 cup honey
1 tsp orange zest
1/2 cup pistachios, chopped
1/3 cup dried cranberries, chopped
1 egg, lightly beaten (or 1/4 cup milk of any kind)
raw sugar
Instructions
In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, cardamom and salt; set aside.
In a mixing bowl, beat together the butter, shortening and honey until creamy. Add in orange zest.
Gently stir in the flour mixture. Add pistachios and cranberries.
Divide dough into two portions. Press each portion of dough together into a log about 1.5″ diameter. Wrap the log firmly in wax paper and chill until firm, at least 2 hours or up to 3 days.
When ready to bake, brush each log with the beaten egg or milk, then roll in sugar. Slice thinly and place each slice on a lined or greased cookie sheet.
Bake at 350F for about 15 minutes. Remove to wire rack to cool completely.
Aside from the chilling time, these cookies come together fairly QUICKly. And here’s the deal: you can freeze the logs for a month, so that you always have cookie dough ready at a moment’s notice! Surprise guests at Christmas time? You’ll be ready with a treat to share in no time at all!
They involve more work than a drop cookie, but they’re still pretty EASY over all. Your friends will be impressed!
Well, pistachios ain’t CHEAP, that’s for sure. I found mine at Trader Joe’s for a pretty good price ($4.99 I think for a package of shelled pistachios, the best price I could find around here). You can also occasionally find coupons for Wonderful Pistachios or Everybody’s Nuts Pistachios.
These are fairly HEALTHY cookies, as far as cookies go. They’re sweetened with honey, filled with dried fruits and nuts, and a little fiber.
As Raina of Connor’s Cooking says, “With this name, who wouldn’t want to make it?!” Not me! Or me. However that grammar goes. Point being, I wanted to make it!! So I did.
Welcome to another round of the Secret Recipe Club(Group A), folks! This is where we pick bloggers’ names out of a hat (digital style) and secretly cook up something from their blog. Meanwhile, some other merry blogger is secretly cooking from your blog, which makes Reveal Day (today!) so much fun. Definitely the highlight of my blogging calendar!
So in case you haven’t figured it out yet, I was assigned Connor’s Cooking for my secret blog this month, and had fun perusing Raina’s blog looking for the perfect recipe to try. Just like me, the kitchen is her favorite place to be, and it shows in the large quantity of recipes to browse through. Once I came across the words “triple chocolate“, though, there was no turning back. Chocolate is part of my creed. I refuse to believe anything except that chocolate is healthy, so don’t even try to tell me otherwise. Something so good must be good for me. Right?
Unfortunately for me, I had only one precious little egg sitting in my refrigerator when I set out to make this recipe, and I didn’t want to use it up in cookies. Weird, yes, but hear me out: I like to buy pastured eggs from a local farm, and those little babies cost over $4 a dozen! One does not use such pricey beauties casually! I prefer to eat them straight as part of a meal, and look for egg replacements whenever possible in my baking.
And replacing an egg is so much easier than you might think, which I have learned in the past couple years of baking egg-free (and dairy-free and wheat-free) goodies for my Certain Little Someone. I’ve got a few tricks tucked up my sleeve that keep me baking, egg or no.
The trick this time is banana. Banana goes so well with chocolate that it’s a perfect choice for an egg replacer in a recipe like this. I also decided to take Raina’s advice and double the recipe – double the triple chocolate sounded good to me!
One little problem: I forgot to double the sugar. Oops. The flavor wasn’t too bad, but I think additional sugar would have helped with the texture some. So I have kindly given you the appropriate amount of sugar in the following recipe.
In a mixer, beat together the butter, shortening and sugar until creamy. Add banana and vanilla, beat until well blended.
In a separate bowl, whisk together flours, cocoa, and salt. Stir into liquid ingredients. Stir in chocolate chips.
Drop by tablespoons onto ungreased cookie sheets and bake at 350F for 10-12 minutes.
By the way, for the vanilla chips, I used Trader Joe’s brand, which is actually made with real milk, unlike other brands who essentially have created a chemical cocktail and called it “white chocolate”.
This is a great QUICK cookie recipe, just in time for these crazy holidays!
It’s also very EASY; nothin’ fancy goin’ on here, which is just how I like it.
Pretty CHEAP, over all, especially since I cheated on the egg!
HEALTHY-ish. It does have whole wheat flour, which is a plus. And a banana (although there is nothing unhealthy about an egg, so it’s not like that’s much of an improvement on the health scale). And, ummmm, well, that’s about all I can say for it. Enjoy in moderation, ‘K?
Traditions are an important element of the Christmas celebration; they are what makes the holiday a holiday. Growing up, my family had many Christmas traditions we held onto firmly, considering them sacred and unbreakable. Sure, my dad teased us often about opening presents Christmas morning instead of Christmas Eve (oh, the horror at even the mere mention!), or he would threaten not to make the usual Christmas Eve shopping trip and pizza buffet lunch… but we knew he would never seriously follow through.
Because tradition is tradition.
And because it wouldn’t be Christmas without those traditions.
I’m not a child anymore; I am married now and have my own child. The past several Christmases have been spent trying to sort through which family’s traditions to keep, which ones to pass on, and which new ones to create. The last part has been the hardest. Our little family has spent a great deal of thought and energy in trying to satisfy both sets of in-laws (and will continue to do so, don’t worry - extended family is worth every ounce of effort!) but we have neglected our own nucleus of father, mother, son (and soon son #2).
That is changing this year. Of course, one year does not a new tradition create, but at least we are attempting to make special memories with our own little family, and hoping that one or more of these intentionally memory-making moments will become a tradition to last a lifetime… or at least until our children get married!
One of these memory-making moments took place this very morning. Christmas Eve morning seemed like the opportune moment to carve out a special time that was just us. There are no family obligations on either side for this portion of time, so I took advantage of that and made it ours: our own Christmas Eve breakfast.
I will admit it wasn’t easy, given our family’s dietary issues, especially our Certain Little Someone’s allergies. Most brunch and breakfast items involve wheat, eggs and dairy, all of them major no-nos. And I could never bring myself to make a special holiday meal that he couldn’t eat. No way. It had to be safe for everyone.
And yet special.
Tall order!
I found the answer on my friend Robin’s blog, Big Red Kitchen. She has been churning out some amazing ideas for the holidays in her Advent series, and this week she focused on some breakfast/brunch ideas. I was immediately attracted to her gorgeous Sausage Apple Ring. It fit all my requirements:
special enough for a holiday
delicious to everyone
easily adaptable to our diet
I pulled out all the stops: I molded the ring with my heart-shaped bundt pan, served all the food on our fine china (even for our Certain Little Someone!), and served hot chocolate topped with marshmallows to boot!
Here’s my dietary-adjusted version of Robin’s recipe. Feel free to try it or go for the original!
Mix together the sausage, oats, apple, juice and seasonings. Stir together until thoroughly blended. Line a bundt pan with plastic wrap and press the sausage mixture firmly into it. Fold the ends of the plastic wrap over the surface of the sausage. Flip over onto a plate and refrigerate at least two hours, or overnight.
To cook, line a cookie sheet with foil, then carefully slide or flip the sausage ring onto it. Cook at 350F for 50-60 minutes, or until browned. Carefully place cooked sausage ring onto serving platter and fill the hole in the middle with the apple filling. Slice and Serve!
We all enjoyed this very much! (Thanks, Robin!) Even my DH said to be sure and note that he thought it was very good.
Was it QUICK? Not exactly, considering it takes quite a while to cook up in the oven. I did, however, find it incredibly convenient that I could mix it up the night before and then just slide into the oven in the morning. While it cooked, I made the rest of the meal (the apples, home fries, and hot chocolate).
It was definitely EASY, though, but very impressive (a perfect combination for impressing your in-laws if you are hosting them!).
CHEAP, not so much. I found the sausage on sale for a great price, but even at that it was still just under $5 for the 2 lbs. For a special Christmas tradition, though, I consider it money well spent! (If I bought the healthy sausage I would like to buy, it would be even more expensive – maybe next year!)
Perhaps not super HEALTHY, although I’m not one to run from the saturated fats found in sausage, bacon and the like. When it comes to those foods, I’m more concerned about the nitrates and nitrites and other non-food ingredients that go into them. To be really healthy, it should be made from homemade sausage or sausage that is nitrate-nitrite-free and all natural.
* QUICK - because who has time for anything more?
* EASY - because I'm no gourmet.
* CHEAP - because who has money for anything more?
* HEALTHY - because you are what you eat.
