Christmas Eve

I started to write about how the cooking was over and it was time to relax.  How silly was I?  I can't believe that I forgot about our Christmas Eve party.  A few years back, my family started a tradition of spending Christmas Eve eating some of our favorite snack foods.  Cheese sticks, jalepeno poppers, penguin eyes, little smokies... my stomach growls just thinking about it.  Then we watch a new movie.  The kids rarely know what one it is, until right before we watch it.  It's a great time, and one of my favorite things about Christmas.  Whatever your Christmas Eve and Christmas day plans and traditions, may you have a wonderful celebration of the birth of Jesus, our Savior, Christ the Lord!  Merry Christmas!

Christmas Candy

With Christmas only a week away, I'm excited to share my favorite recipe for Christmas candies.  Give my a slab of almond bark, and my mind begins wondering what all I could dip in the melted goodness.  Cookies, cereals, chocolate balls, all of the above are only bettered by a bit of candy coating.  My favorite candies to make, however, are to cover cereal in the almond bark. 

First, melt the almond bark according to the instructions on the package. Secondly, pour in some chex cereal, cheerios, or whatever other kind of cereal you wan in there.  Sometimes I've put rice krispies, asian noodles, and pretzels.  Mix the almond bark and the mixture together until everything is coated nicely.

Then pour the mixture out onto some wax paper, spreading it out so that it will dry.

This year I added a festive touch and sprinkled red and green sprinkles on top, before the almond bark hardened.

When the candy is dry, break it up into chunks, and store it in an airtight container.  Eat and enjoy!

  

Tis the Season...

When you need a quick and easy Christmas candy to take to a party, or to serve guests, just grab some pretzels, Hershey's Hugs, and some Christmas M&M's.

Preheat the oven to 350.  Place the pretzels on a cookie sheet, covered with foil.  Then place a hug on top of the pretzel, like so.

It looks delicious already.  My mom uses Hershey's Kisses too, but I prefer to look of the stripes.  Carefully place the pan into the oven, so the hugs don't fall off of the pretzels.  Leave them in the oven for about 5 minutes or so, until the hugs are still in their shape, but are melting.

Remove them from the oven and place a single M&M on each hug, pushing down the chocolate.

 

Let the treats cool until the hugs become hard again.

There you have it, a Christmas themed snack.  Enjoy!

Snow, Snow, Snow, Snow!

From what I've heard, there's been some snow up around my family.  Here, however, well, this is the snow that I've seen. 

Yep, not much at all, but for now, I'm ok with that.  Snow was a ton of fun when I was a kid.  One of my favorite memories was the time it snowed a lot, so much that even though it grew warm outside, there were still piles of snow.  So, we played outside, in the snow, with just jeans and long sleeves on.

Growing up another fun thing was when, with the forecast of heavy snow, Mom would put out an empty ice cream bucket.  The snow would collect and soon enough we would have just enough for some snow ice cream!

To make your own, mix together 1/2 Cup of sugar, 1 cup of milk, and 1 tsp of vanilla.  When this is mixed together, add the snow until it is the consistency of sherbert.  Eat it quick before it melts, or put a little into the freezer to enjoy just a bit later. 

Glammed Up Grapes

Even though I'm not a big fan of fruits, although a college roommate did help me to see their value, I have always loved grapes.  From the time I was about four or five and ate the grapes off of my Grandparents' grape vines, to my Grandma Smith having them on hand for us so often, to even now, my love for grapes has not diminished.  This year, my grandma mentioned that she was bringing grape salad for Thanksgiving.  "What's this?" I wondered.  I vaguely remembered the dish, and what I remembered was that I loved it, but it had been a year since I had eaten it. 

Grandma brought the dish, and my memories were proved correct.  It was great!  I would tell you how much of it I ate, but you probably wouldn't believe me.  The great thing is that, it's so easy to make!

Blend together a package of cream cheese, a container of cool whip, a 1/4 cup of sugar and a smidge of vanilla.  Blend until the mixture is completely smooth.  This may take a little bit, but you don't want any chunkies in your salad.

When everything is blended nicely, fold in the washed grapes.

 

 

Make sure that they are well covered.  Eat it then, or stick it in the fridge to chill. Either way, enjoy!

Christmas Time Is Here...

November has come and gone, and that means several things.

1.  The end of the year is upon us!

2. My NANOWRIMO competition is over!

3. Christmas time is here!

Christmas is my favorite time of the year, as it is for many.  I love the decorations, the music, the family time, and the food!

Over the next couple of weeks be watching for some delicious holiday treats that are great to share with family and friends.  I love making Christmas candy and treats, don't you?

Even in the midst of writing a novel, I spent a little bit of time cooking.  I said a little, mind you.  As my husband and I strolled down the grocery aisles one day, we discovered something.  Pudding is pretty cheap!  I'm not usually a sweets person, but the holiday season does allow me to enjoy some more of the sweet treats.  We grabbed about four different flavors of pudding, but what were we to do with them then?  One of the flavors was cheesecake.  (It sounded good at the time.)  So, I decided to try to make a pie out of it.

Using some of my graham crackers, I made a crust, just like I had for my cheesecake cookies.  You take one cup of smashed graham crackers, 1 cup of flour, 1/4 cup of brown sugar and one stick of butter (melted).  Mix them together and then spread the crust in the bottom of the pan.

Next, mix the pudding, but make sure to use the pie instructions on the box, not the pudding instructions.

 

Add the pudding to the pie crust and chill, as the directions instruct.

Finally, slice, add cool whip, and enjoy!