*2010* Christmas Baking

Strawberry Pecan Thumbprints, Classic Cut Outs, and Chocolate Toffee Shortbread ... recipes below for two of them! These are recipes from Taste of Home's Simple & Delicious dating back various years, and give them my own twist!

Strawberry Pecan Thumbprints

• 1 cup butter
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/8 cup milk
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 cups flour
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1 cup ground pecans
• strawberry jam
• powdered sugar

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Put everything in my mixer - besides the pecans, jam, & powdered sugar. Mix. Add pecans. Mix again. Grease a baking sheet. Form 1 inch balls of dough in your hands. Press down on each with your thumb to make a hole to place the jam. Using a small spoon, fill hole halfway with jam. Bake for 6 minutes, take out of oven, use butter knife to flatten jam so it's not all just one clump. Bake again for 2 minutes - they will seem uncooked, but that's what you want! Cool for 5 mins and then sprinkle on powdered sugar. They taste best when fully cooled!

Classic Cut Outs

I wasn't a huge fan of the recipe I tried this year, so I don't feel the need to type it out if I don't ever use it again! (Sorry)

Chocolate Toffee Shortbread

1.25 cups butter

1.5 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

3 cups flour

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 cups brown sugar

2 eggs

1 reg size bag chocolate chips

1/2 bag Heath toffee bits

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Mix everything together in a mixer - besides chocolate chips and Heath. Spread batter onto a cookie sheet and smooth until even. Bake 12-15 mins or until lightly browned. Immediately after removing from oven, sprinkle all chocolate chips on top. Let melt for 5 mins, then spread over shortbread with a butter knife. Then sprinkle with Heath bits. Let cool before cutting.

Mmm Enchiladas

Tried a new recipe and put my own twist on it, too ... it was WONDERFUL and easy, so I have to "write this down" somewhere so I don't forget about it! My first time making enchiladas!

Recipe on this can + my own twist:

Ingredients:

0.75 lb top ground beef

8 oz cream cheese, cubed

1/4 packet taco seasoning

1 pack 6 (or 8) inch tortillas

1 can green chile enchilada sauce

3/4 cup shredded mild cheddar

1. Preheat oven to 400. Spray 9x13 pan with Pam.

2. Cook beef, add cream cheese until melted, add in 1/4 packet taco seasoning.

3. Spoon beef mixture into tortillas, roll, place in pan with seam side down.

4. Pour can of enchilada sauce over the top, sprinkle with cheese.

5. Bake 20 mins.

6. EAT! (I served mine with Spanish rice and sides of sour cream)

{Recipe: Pizza Casserole }

I had some pepperoni I needed to use up ... so I created this recipe!

I LOVE it! Not exactly "healthy" but - YUM!

Ingredients:

1 box macaroni and cheese

4 oz sliced pepperoni

3/4 can 14.5 oz diced tomatoes (drained)

1/2 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese

1/4 cup shaved Parmesan cheese

1 1/2 tbsp Chicago Deep Dish Pizza Pizzaz Seasoning (www.thespicehouse.com)

1 tsp garlic salt

1 tsp basil (I used McCormick dried)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Make mac and cheese as you normally would (I actually just used water instead of milk, and used no butter). Put in a 8x8 pan. Add and mix everything else except cheddar cheese. Sprinkle that on the top. Bake for 20 mins uncovered.

Easy as that!

Enjoy!

Bread Making Attempts

Today I attempted making beer bread with Diet Coke. That's right, Diet Coke. We didn't (or so I thought) have any beer on hand, so I decided, hmmm ... let's try soda instead. I read some reviews online, and they said Sprite was good with it. Well, didn't have any of that either, so I decided to experiment.

In short, the bread turned out just ok. I could taste the Diet Coke, which, when baked, tastes very metal-like. Chris came home from work for lunch, took a bite, and asked what it was made out of. Then he informed me we DID have beer.

Oh, okay, honey.

So I whipped up another loaf ... this time, with good, dark beer ... and, no metal-like taste in the final result. :-) Definitely learned, just make it with the beer!

I've posted the recipe before for beer bread, but here it is again:

Ingredients:
3 cups self rising flour
1/2 cup white sugar
12 oz beer
2 tablespoons melted butter

1. Mix flour, sugar, and beer.
2. Put into a greased bread loaf pan.
3. Spread melted butter over top the last 10 mins of baking.
4. Enjoy, of course!

Bake at 350 for 1 hour.

Fall Delight!

Caramel Apple Dip:

8 oz cream cheese

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla

Mix together and enjoy with some fresh, ripe, fall apples!

(YUM!)

Chocolate Chip Pecan Shortbread

I made this shortbread this morning and it's delicious! (I'm obviously not on a "bride diet")






Ingredients:
1 cup flour
1/4 cup white sugar
1 stick butter
1/3 cup chocolate chips
1/4 cup crushed salted pecans


Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Combine flour, sugar, and cubed butter pieces. Mix with hands until dough forms. Then added in chocolate chips. Press into a glass 8 inch pie pan. Bake for 25 minutes. Take the pan out, and sprinkled crushed pecans on top. Bake for an additional 5 minutes.

Enjoy!

Tastefully Simple

I LOVE the Beer Bread from Tastefully Simple, but its what, like $7 a mix? Then another $6 for shipping or something? No way...

So I did a little search online and I found a copycat recipe for it. Others have said it was just as good as the mix from Tastefully Simple, so I wanted to try it myself!

It's still in the oven, but here's a little pictoral of the process!

I used Leine's Honey Weiss ... the only beer my mom had .... we dont have any, so I had to go "steal" some from her house!


It was quite bubbly ...

Ready for the oven!

I'll post my opinion of the taste when it comes out!
It smells SO GOOD right now! And its only been in the oven for 13 minutes so far!
MMMMM....


But for now, here's the recipe!

Ingredients:
3 cups self rising flour
1/2 cup white sugar
12 oz beer
2 tablespoons melted butter

1. Mix flour, sugar, and beer.
2. Put into a greased bread loaf pan.
3. Spread melted butter over top the last 10 mins of baking.
4. Enjoy, of course!

Bake at 350 for 1 hour.