If you’re much like me, you’ve probably rushed around to finish all of your shopping and get the gifts wrapped so that you have next week to focus on food. Granted, I do make a lot of homemade gifts, so I don’t have ALL of my gifts done. But, I would much rather spend the week before Christmas in my kitchen listening to Christmas music while I cook and bake. It sure beats pushing your way through the super-crowded stores looking for last minute gifts! I suppose that it’s also a good time to clean the house if you have guests coming, but we won’t talk much about that.
Since I spent last week introducing you to more cookies than you could ever possibly bake during one holiday season (that’s a challenge… I dare you!), I thought it would good to focus this week’s Friday Favorites post on holiday entertaning! After all, we can’t live on cookies alone (or can we?).
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Tags: 12 Days of Christmas, Appetizers, apple, bourbon, brussels sprouts, chives, chocolate, Christmas, chutney, cider, cookie dough, cranberry, cupcakes, dip, egg nog, entertaining, gingerbread, ham, holidays, Macaroni and Cheese, mushrooms, onion, pecan, pie, Pomegranate, pork chops, potatoes, pumpkin, roasted red pepper, rolls, snacks, soup, toffee, trifle
I enjoy the way everyone comes about the holidays from a different perspective. We each have our favorite recipes, family get togethers, and other special traditions that make the holidays special. The one thing that almost everyone can agree on, though, is giving. Whether you choose names for a Secret Santa exchange, spend weeks at the mall shopping for a perfect gift for everyone on your list, or spend the week baking homemade goodies, my guess is that giving is a big part of your holiday celebration.
I have always enjoyed exchanging Christmas gifts. I love searching for the perfect gift for the loved ones on my list, and I do lots of baking to prepare cookies and other homemade gifts for my friends and family. I enjoy the hustle and the bustle and love the long days working iin my kitchen and assembling and wrapping gifts. Lately, however, I find that I have less and less enthusiasm about spending a lot of time at the mall. I feel like many of the people on my list really don’t need anything. It’s fun to pick out small gifts that they will enjoy, but I can’t get excited about spending money on extravagant gifts just for the sake of saying we spent money. Can you relate?
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Tags: 12 Days of Christmas, brussels sprouts, Christmas, cranberry, fight hunger, giving, gorgonzola, holidays, No Kid Hungry, Pomegranate, Share Our Holiday Table, Share Our Strength, walnuts
In keeping with my 12 Days of Christmas celebration, I thought it would be fun to put together a cookie guide for this week’s Friday Favorites post. Christmas is just over two weeks away, so we’re entering into the prime cookie baking time of the year. If you’re looking for new recipes to try this…
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Tags: 12 Days of Christmas, baking, blondies, bon bon, brownie, chocolate chip, Christmas, cinnamon roll, cookies, cranberry, cream cheese, gingerbread, gluten free, holiday, homemade, hot cocoa, lime, linzer, Mexican wedding, nutella, oatmeal, peanut butter, pepperming, rosemary, sugar cookies
Christmas is just around the corner… Can you believe it? Many years in the past, I have been one of those people who is organized, prepared, and ready for the holidays weeks in advance. This year is quite different. I’ve had a busy schedule and a lot going on, and I haven’t really had much time to prepare…
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Tags: 12 Days of Christmas, baking, brownies, chocolate, Christmas, cobbler, cranberry, dessert, giveaway, holiday, Naturally Nora, orange
I made this cranberry apple butter a few weeks ago, but it’s taken me a while to get around to posting it. I suppose that’s just as well, though, because it makes a great holiday recipe. I stretch cranberry season out as long as I possibly can. I start cooking and baking with cranberries the…
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Tags: apple, apple cider, butter, canning, cardamom, Christmas, cinnamon, cranberry, gift, ginger, granny smith, holiday, homemade, slow cooker, Thanksgiving, vanilla, vanilla bean
The 2010 November Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Simona of briciole. She chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ to make pasta frolla for a crostata. She used her own experience as a source, as well as information from Pellegrino Artusi’s Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well.
This is the third month in a row that I have actually participated in a Daring Bakers challenge! Can you believe it? I had a bit of a rough spell with very little inspiration/energy, but I’m back!
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I have hosted Thanksgiving dinner at my house for the past couple years. This time around, I have the year off. Yellowdog (our yellow lab, in case you were wondering) has to remain “calm” and is not allowed to play with kids, other dogs, and relatives for the next few months until she has fully recovered from her knee surgery. So, that pretty much means that there will be no big get togethers at my house for a few months, either.
That doesn’t mean I won’t be cooking, though! I plan to make a side dish or two, and of course I’ll be taking some sort of dessert. I will also be traveling with my handy dandy meat thermometer, which I believe is the key to a perfect Thanksgiving turkey. Whether it’s my kitchen or my mom’s, there’s no better place to be on Thanksgiving day!
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Tags: apple, artichoke, bacon, bourbon, brussels sprouts, bundt, butternut squash, cake, casserole, coffee cake, cornbread, cosmopolitan, cranberry, ebelskivers, flan, green beans, parmesan, pie, pie dough, pumpernickel, pumpkin, puree, relish, roast, rye, sauce, sourdough, stuffing, Thanksgiving, turkey, yams
A few weeks ago, I was happily surprised to receive a package from my lovely friends over at POM Wonderful. They have a new pomegranate juice flavor this fall, and they were kind enough to send a few bottles in my direction so that I could give it a try. The new flavor? Pomegranate Cranberry!…
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Tags: breakfast, brunch, Christmas, cinnamon, cranberry, ebelskivers, fall, holiday, pancakes, POM Wonderful, Pomegranate, Thanksgiving, whole wheat
Let me be honest here for a moment… Salads are not my favorite thing to eat. I suppose it’s possible that some people do really love salads, but I am not one of those people. Given the choice between a hamburger and a salad, I will choose the hamburger 95% of the time. My waistline…
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It’s been a few weeks since I wrote one of my regular Friday Favorites posts… It seems that live is getting in the way a bit this summer! So, as I was going through my RSS reader this week, I came up with a few extra posts this week that I thought were worthy of…
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Tags: cake, coffee, cookies, cranberry, Culinary Institute of America, cupcakes, Macaroni and Cheese, orange, photography, props, scones
