Dairy-free Eggnog Smoothie

This is one of my favorite holiday treats!

Blend together until smooth:

1/2 cup soy nog
1/2 cup rice milk
1 frozen banana
dash nutmeg

Enjoy!

Gingerbread Cookies

My son wanted to make gingerbread people for Christmas.  I really liked the gingerbread cookies on our Disney cruise, so I tried this recipe.

After chilling the dough, I rolled it thick (about as thick as my index finger), cut out the cookies and baked them for 8 minutes.  You don't want to overcook gingerbread dough, especially if you like soft cookies.  One recipe made six large cookies.

The cookies smell amazing!!!

Christmas Foodcrafting

I have a tradition of making gifts for my colleagues at Christmas.  Some things I've made in the past:

• candy cane bath salts
• stove top potpourri
• mulling spices
• gingerbread cookie mix with a cookie cutter
• peppermint bark cake balls
• s'mores caramel corn
• spiced nuts

This year I made cake pops with red velvet cake and cream cheese frosting.  I dipped half of the pops in white chocolate and the other half in dark chocolate.  I love the taste of Ghirardelli candy melts but they are a little runny.  I mixed half Ghirardelli candy melts with half Wilton candy melts -- it was the perfect combination of flavor and consistency.

I sprinkled the white cake pops with clear sugar sprinkles, and the dark cake pops with white nonpareils.  I packaged them using buckets from the One Spot at Target.  I also individually wrapped some of the pops with a ribbon and a gift tag.  I love how they turned out!

  

A few weeks ago my son told me that he wanted to give something to the kids in his preschool class.  I was inspired by something I saw pre-made at Target.  We put jumbo marshmallows on a long sucker stick and dipped them in chocolate candy melts.  Then we dipped them in Andes peppermint crunch baking chips.  My five-year old was able to do most of the work with a little guidance from me.  Easy and fun!  The only thing I would do differently next time is to use a thicker stick like a cookie stick.

Spooktacular Treats

I love holidays, and they are even more fun now that I have a kiddo.  We were looking for something to do one weekend in October, so we made a haunted gingerbread house.  I used melted marshmallows to glue the house together -- they weren't quite strong enough to hold for longer than an hour.  Next time I might try melting gummy bears and marshmallows together.

I needed to take treats to a Halloween potluck lunch at work.  My son told me I should make eyeball cupcakes (he is very creative!).  I used Lindt white chocolate truffles and decorated them with food markers.  They were a big hit!

Favorite Thanksgiving Recipes

I am a huge fan of Thanksgiving food.  I can't even pick a favorite.  I want it all!

After many years of making sides, desserts, and even a few turkeys, here are my favorite recipes (click on the hyperlinks to access the recipes online).

Turkey:

I have made Martha Stewart's perfect roast turkey several times.  It always turns out tender and juicy.  I'm also a fan of her giblet gravy (included in the turkey recipe) and classic stuffing with cherries and pecans.

Turkey breast:

This is the perfect recipe for a smaller crowd.  I back off on the salt (reduce to 2 teaspoons).  Butter and bacon and herbs...oh my!

Cranberry mocktail:

I had one of these on my recent Disney cruise and will be re-creating it for Thanksgiving.  Yum-o!

Cranberry sauce:

Homemade cranberry sauce is super easy to make.  The recipe on the back of the bag works well.  If you want to try a new recipe, I've been making Alton Brown's recipe made with honey and juice instead of sugar and water (note: a standard bag of cranberries is 12 oz not 1 pound, so you'll need 3/4 of the ingredients).  I prefer it with clover honey since wildflower honey was a little strong (though after a few days it tasted perfect!).

Sweet potatoes:

The dessert that we call a side dish.  This is my go-to recipe.

Dinner rolls:

See my recipe for perfect dinner rolls here.

Chocolate pie:

My husband is a fan of chocolate pie so I make one every year.  I use a Pillsbury crust (the kind in the refrigerated section of the grocery store) and cook it first (follow the directions on the box).  I fill it with a large box of chocolate pudding, made according to the directions on the box (I prefer the cook kind, not instant -- you can make it in the microwave).  I pipe on homemade whipped cream and sprinkle on mini chocolate chips for a show-stopping dessert.  If you want to make homemade filling, this one is my favorite.

Whipped cream:

Homemade whipped cream is simply whipping cream, vanilla, and powdered sugar.  I don't measure my ingredients -- I just add vanilla and the sugar a little at a time until it tastes good.  Beat it until it's fluffy but stop before it turns into butter.

Mini pumpkin pies:

These are adorable mini pumpkin pies.  They are called "impossible pie" because they form their own crust while they bake.  I like to bake them in foil liners since they look like mini pie pans.

Pumpkin cupcakes:

Oh my!  These are light and delicious and melt in your mouth.  I top mine with homemade whipped cream instead of frosting.

Pumpkin cheesecake:

Crust:

1 3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs

1/3 cup butter, melted

1/4 cup sugar

Mix ingredients together.  Press into a springform pan.  Bake at 375 degrees for 6-8 minutes.  Cool.

Filling:

3 packages (8 oz each) cream cheese

3/4 cup white sugar

3/4 cup brown sugar, firmly packed

5 eggs

1/4 cup heavy cream (2 oz)

1 teaspoon cinnamon

3/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon cloves

1 can pumpkin (16 oz)

Mix together cream cheese and sugars.  Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each.  Beat until light and fluffy.  Stir in cream, spices and pumpkin.  Poor into cooled crust.  Bake at 350 degrees for one hour.  Cool.  My cheesecake usually cracks, so I spread homemade whipped cream over the top.

By now you've figured out that I love pumpkin desserts!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Candy Corn Fruit Kebabs

There is so much candy and so many treats this time of year, that it's nice to find cute food that is healthy.

This idea came from Super Healthy Kids.

All you need is pineapple, mandarin oranges, apples (or banana), and toothpicks (or lollipop sticks).

The trick (haha!) is to line the fruit up on the cutting board and then cut the sides so they're even.  I dipped the apples in the pineapple juice so they wouldn't brown.

Fun and yummy for kids and grown ups!

Rainbow Cupcakes

My son is a Brony (a dude who likes My Little Pony), and his favorite pony is Rainbow Dash, so I made rainbow cupcakes for our family birthday party.

I used Duff's tie-dye cake mix.  It is a white cake mix that comes with red, yellow and blue food color.  My only complaint is that the box tells you how many drops of food color to put in each bowl of white cake mix, but the food color came out in globs, not drops, so I had to guess.  The color turns vibrant a minute or so after mixing it into the cake mix.

I used about 1/2 tablespoon of each color of batter for each cupcake -- in order to get a full layer of each color.  One box made 12 cupcakes, and they were a bit full.  I baked them for 18 minutes (there are no baking times for cupcakes on the box).  I was very happy with the result!

I used blue frosting (from a tub), AirHeads candy, and mini marshmallows to decorate the cupcakes (thank you to my friend Amy at sometimes creative for the inspiration!).  We bought Rainbow Dash at Target -- she came in a "blind bag" but there is a little window on the back if you want to know which pony you are buying.

Happy Birthday to my little Brony!