I am planning meals from now until the end of the year. Would love to know what people are cooking or baking for the holidays. It's getting cold here so I'm planning on a few different kinds of soup and will be trying a new cake. Recipes to follow.

*yes I'm double posting, star farming, and will probably be placed on the naughty list for that*

COOKIES! And fudge. And I have the blister to prove it. Gifts for the BF's family.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake


Ingredients:

2 cups miniature marshmallows
1 package (18-1/4 oz) chocolate cake mix
1 ¼ cups water
¾ cup peanut butter
1/3 cup canola oil
3 eggs
1 cup (6 oz) semisweet chocolate chips


1. Sprinkle marshmallows into a greased 9x13 baking pan.
2. In a large bowl, combine the cake mix, water, peanut butter, oil and eggs; beat on low speed for 30 seconds. Beat on medium for 2 minutes or until smooth. Pour over marshmallows; sprinkle with chocolate chips.
3. Bake at 350 F for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack.

TIP: Wipe a little vegetable oil inside a measuring cup when using recipes with molasses or peanut butter. And it keeps it from sticking to the inside and its easier to clean up.

SO. MANY. COOKIES.

I made window cookies (heart shaped ones with cherry jam in the middle), little plain sugar cookies with the leftover dough from that, gingerbread in lots of different shapes decorated with vanilla buttercream, icebox slice cookies (some rolled in green sugar, some with cranberries and almonds rolled in dark chocolate shavings, some cranberry and almond with brown sugar on top, and some chocolate and vanilla spiral ones), and green spritz cookies in the shapes of wreaths and trees.

They are pretty scrumptious if I do say so myself. Although I most likely will get salmonella from all the dough I've been eating...

Right now, I'm making coffee-cardamom candies (similar consistency to an altoid) dipped in chocolate. I pulled this recipe directly from my butt, so we'll see how it goes. I'm also going to make some orange-flavored candies dipped in chocolate. I think they'd be UBER-delicious with cardamom too, but I don't want to OD on it.

And in case anyone is wondering, the candy recipe is (roughly) 8 oz gum paste powder, 1/8 c espresso, instant coffee granules, ground cardamom, powdered sugar, 2 tsp? butter flavored (no-trans-fat) shortening.

Everyone please cross your fingers for me. A lot of people in my family are great candy makers, but I am not one of those people. I don't know what I was thinking.

Tonight I'm making shortbread!! One of my housemates is also a crazy baker, and just made chocolate cake, which was awesome. But that's all the baking I'm doing, Christmas is with boyfriend's family, and his mum is sure to bake something, she always does!

I made this last year for Christmas, and it was very good. I actually put everything in a blender after it cooled ( heating it back up to serve again) and I used it more like a gravy. I think it was supposed to have whole shallots on it, but I liked it mashed up better. I also used a cheaper steak, and the gravy really made it taste more expensive then it was.

This year I am making this again, actually using some Tenderloin. Now, I just have to go search for a cheaper Port.

allrecipes.com . . .

Because we're not hosting any holiday meals, our list of specific holiday foodstuffs is pretty slim.

We had turkey risotto the other night (OMG, so good!)

Baked and assembled the gingerbread house yesterday and Ive also made peppermint-centered chocolates and speculaas snowflakes. Mmm, love the smell of holiday spices...

I'm cooking a buttload this year!! I've already been interrupted twice tonight with cooking while trying to type this. I'll just start with what we're making tonight. Daughter and I are making sugar cookies, candy cane (of course ), stars and Christmas trees. Also brownies, an old standby that the kiddies have to have and my famous pumpkin bread.

We're having lasagna on Christmas Eve so I am starting the sauce toight and using some of that in dinner, shell pasta stuffed with cheeses.

Tomorrow comes the pies and quiches - buttermilk, pumpkin and Black Forest (yum). The quiches will be used for the brunch I am hosting on Christmas Eve morning. Bacon spinach and sausage.

There goes the timer, I'll get back to this later. Lots more yummies to come, I promise!

kk~

Linguine with Clam Sauce is our traditional Christmas Eve dinner. We'll probably have some sort of roasted veggies with it.

For Christmas morning breakfast we'll break out the deep fryer and make some doughnuts.

James and I, but mostly me, made what I called "Dirty Snowflakes" the other day. I got the recipe from a friend on Facebook, but her version was "Christmas Snowflakes" using white chocolate and white rice krispies. I had chocolate rice krispies and chocolate chips. So we called them "Dirty Snowflakes" instead.

Melt 22 oz. chocolate chips

Add in 2 1/2 cups rice krispie cereal, and nuts. (I don't know the quantity of the nuts, because I skipped them...I knew I was going to share them at the studio, so I wanted them to be more allergy friendly).

Dust with crushed candy canes.

The recipe calls for 6 crushed candy canes, and for the recipe to make 40 cookies. I personally wished there'd been more candy cane to it, so if I made it again, I might use more candy cane.

I just finished making 6 Irish breads in two batches of 3 each. Ran out to deliver one from the first batch to my daughter's dance teacher while the 2nd batch baked. Mine is not a soda bread but a tea bread. Soda bread is too dry for my taste. If anybody wants the recipe I'll be glad to share it tomorrow. Off to sleep now.

Short bread, not made by me, my youngest son had a baking session tonight and it's really good.

Fudge, cheese biscuits, real ones that you roll and then cut out. Cheese scones, these are what most people here call biscuits, mince pies because Christmas without a mass mince pie baking session is just not Christmas.

The Rock. Can you smell it?

Would an appetizer work? Not so much cooking as much as serving and eating, but I picked up a jar of cherry/habanero/pomegranate sauce, a block of cream cheese, honey toasted pecans, and green onions to serve with thin water crackers. It's sweet and tangy and a little spicy. I don't know if the brand is just local or can be found everywhere, but I love all the Robert's Reserves sauces (the raspberry chipotle is really good too). Dump sauce over softened/room temp cream cheese and sprinkle with nuts and chives and serve!

Oh! And stew! This is the recipe my sister typed out for me which is freaking awesome. I mean, really, truly, freaking awesome.

Here is the Better Homes and Gardens, New Cook Book, souvenir edition, circa 1950-something or other's Old-fashioned Beef Stew recipe:

2 lbs beef chuck, cut in 1 1/2" cubes
2 tbsp fat. (I used butter:)
2 cups boiling water
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1 clove garlic. (I used about 10)
1 medium onion, sliced
1 to 2 bay leaves
1 tbsp salt
1 tsp sugar (I left this out)
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp paprika
Dash allspice or cloves
6 carrots
1 lb (18 to 24) small white onions (I left these out and added potatoes)

Thoroughly brown the meat on all sides in hot fat, turning often. Add boiling water, Worcestershire sauce, garlic, sliced onion, bay leaves, and seasonings. Cover; simmer (don't boil) for 1 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally to keep from sticking. Remove bay leaves and garlic clove (my garlic broke down and blended in-yum).

Add carrots and onions. (If carrots are large, halve or quarter) Cubed potatoes may be added too.

Cover and cook 30 minutes more, or till vegetables are done. Remove meat and vegetables. Thicken liquid for gravy, if desired. Makes 6 to 8 servings.

**Try this shortcut for stew**
To season and flour the meat, put the meat and a little flour in a paper sack; shake sack-the job's done.

**Gravy for Beef Stew**
Skim most of fat from stew liquid. For 3 cups of liquid, put 1/2 cup water in shaker. Add 1/4 cup all-purpose flour; shake till smooth.
Add flour mixture slowly to meat stock, stirring constantly till gravy bubbles all over. Cook about 5 minutes more, stirring often. Pour over meat and vegetables.


That is the recipe word for word!

Okay so the treats I made were a HUGE hit, everyone loved them. Each person got their own tray of treats, my BF told me what each person would like.

I haven't given it too much thought yet but I do want to make the most of my time off and make some proper meals. I've already posted about wanting to cook rabbit but I haven't decided what yet...the first time I ate it was in Spain and they LOVE rabbit over there so I'm thinking something Spanish inspired. Other things I want to cook are...

- Roasted red pepper and red onion soup
- Sweet potato and chorizo soup
- Vegetable puff pastry tart
- Big ol' turkey stew
- Possibly a turkey cobbler
- Butternut squash, sage and pancetta risotto
- Maybe a red risotto?

I want to try some other new recipes as well as the rabbit so we'll see how I go!

Ok, after cutting things short last night and some delays this morning, I am about to go back to cooking.

Last night we got the cookies, brownies and lasagna sauce made. Also we put up 8 jars of homemade salsa for gifts. Sauce is chilling, now I need to make the pumpkin bread (which I didn't get done last night) and the pies and quiches.

Then later I'll be making a sour cream pound cake and daughter will make a pineapple upside down cake. And some more brownies (because that was an epic fail last night. Surprising, as I usually can make those with my eyes closed).

I need to work on my brunch menu. I can't seem to nail it down. I have the quiches, for sure. Also, the pumpkin bread and some fruit for a fruity-salad thing daughter makes. But after that, I'm kind of torn. I have more sausage and am considering making southern sausage gravy and biscuits. (I wanted to make these sausage pinwheels but I didn't pre-prep, so they would be time consuming and I'm already behind.) And I need something sweet. I'm thinking maybe a french toast casserole, it's sort of like a bread pudding and pretty yum (and easier than pancakes). And maybe something savory but not breakfasty. Hmmm...

Got to get on with the baking! I will report back on the brunch stuff.

kk~

I've already posted about wanting to cook rabbit but I haven't decided what yet...the first time I ate it was in Spain and they LOVE rabbit over there so I'm thinking something Spanish inspired.

They also love rabbit in China. Years ago when we were moving into a house in North Carolina, I found a recipe for "authentic" Chinese cuisene (sp?). Half the book called for rabbit.

Incidentally, I didn't keep the book. I now am something of a cookbook collector, and wish like crazy that I'd kept that book!

I've been five (I think?) different kinds of cake batter truffles...and some fudge...and tried cake batter fudge but it didn't harden so now I'm left with a big bowl of gooey chocolate...

This is on the menu tomorrow...wish me luck:

Jamaican Pork and Sweet Potato Stir-Fry


Ingredients:

1 ½ cups quick-cooking rice
¼ cup thinly sliced green onion
1 large sweet potato (about 12 oz)
1 medium tart apple (I like Granny Smith), cored
12 oz lean boneless pork strips for stir frying
2-3 tsp Jamaican jerk seasoning (or I’ll include my home made below)
1 Tbsp cooking oil
1/3 cup apple juice or water if you don’t want all the sugar…or I’ve done half and half.


Prepare rice according to package directions. Stir half of the green onion into cooked rice. Meanwhile, peel sweet potato cut in quarters lengthwise, then thinly slice crosswise. Place in a microwave-safe pie plate or shallow dish. Cover with vented plastic wrap and microwave on high for 3-4 minutes until tender and stir once. Cut apple into 16 wedges. Sprinkle pork strips with Jamaican jerk seasoning; toss to coat evenly.

Pour oil into a wok or large skillet (add more oil if necessary during cooking.) Preheat over medium-high heat. Stir-fry seasoned pork in hot oil for 2 minutes. Add apple and remaining green onion; stir-fry for 1-2 minutes or until pork is no longer pink. Stir in sweet potato and apple juice (or water.) Bring to boiling; reduce heat. Simmer, uncovered for 1 minute more. Serve over rice.


Homemade Jamaican Jerk Seasoning:
Combine 1 tsp crushed red pepper, ½ tsp ground allspice, ¼ tsp curry powder, ¼ tsp black pepper, 1/8 tsp dried thyme crushed, 1/8 tsp ground red pepper, and 1/8 ground ginger.

Alright, I finally committed to the brunch menu. After some wrestling of the minds with daughter, I compromised and am letting her help. She's making her breakfast tacos and her grandmother's crumb coffee cake. So, it'll be the quiches, the breakfast tacos, pumpkin bread, crumb cake, fruit salad, juices, eggnog and coffee. Mostly, it's all done. Quiches are made, cake and bread baked, filling for the breakfast tacos premade and in the fridge. We'll just have to lay it out, make coffee and heat the quiche and tacos. And she made her homemade salsa! (For only 19, she is quite the budding chef!)

I have my snowflake tablecloth already on the table and pulled out the Christmas dishes. I hope I didn't forget anything.

kk~