Christmas eve Profiteroles

I'm totally just copying this post from my sister-in-law's blog. She served these on Christmas eve and they were so delicious. My husband who is usually not a big dessert eater had 3 of them. So I want to make sure I have this recipe easily at my fingertips because I will be making it again. Of course you can substitute the ice cream for any other flavor and serve any time of the year but the Farr's peppermint ice cream was delicious and very fitting for Christmas eve.

Step 1:

Cream Puffs

1 cup water
1/2 cup butter
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 cup all-purpose flour
4 eggs

In a medium saucepan combine water, butter, and salt. Bring to boiling. Add flour all at once, stirring vigorously. Cook and stir until mixture forms a ball. Remove from heat. Cool for 10 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well with a wooden spoon after each addition.

Drop dough by 12 heaping tablespoons onto a greased baking sheet. Bake at 400 degree for 30-35 minutes or till golden. Cool on a wire rack.

Step 2:

Fill Cream puffs with Farr Better Peppermint Stick Ice Cream

Step 3:
Drizzle with Hot Fudge Sauce. Recipe follows.

Hot Fudge Sauce

1 cup butter
1/2 cup cocoa powder
3 cups sugar
1 can evaporated milk

Bring the above ingredients to a boil and continue to boil for 7-8 minutes. Then remove from heat and add

1 tsp vanilla

Serve warm to hot.

Chocolate drizzled caramel popcorn

I found this recipe on My hombased mom last year. I instantly loved it because there was no messing with candy thermometers and no goopy caramel topping (although that kind of caramel popcorn is good too). Plus it turns out just right every time. It also reminds me of my first trip to New York City when I first tried chocolate drizzled caramel popcorn. I think this popcorn is just as good, if not better because I use dark chocolate instead of milk chocolate.

Ingredients:
16 cups popped corn (I use my air popper)
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup Karo syrup
1/2 cup butter

Cook sugar, syrup and butter in a glass bowl in microwave on high for one minute. Stir and repeat for a total of five minutes. Should be hot and bubbly.

Add:
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla

Mix until foamy. Put popped corn into a brown grocery bag. Pour syrup into bag. Stir to coat. Fold bag over. Place in microwave and microwave for one minute and shake. Repeat. Microwave 30 seconds and shake. Repeat. (sprinkle with cinnamon sugar if desired and shake again--I never do this cause I like chocolate drizzle)

Pour popcorn out to cool on wax paper


Melt 1 cup ghirardelli 60% chocolate chips in the microwave--first for 1 minute and stir then for another 30 seconds and stir until there are no lumps. Then I take the chocolate and drizzle over the cooling caramel popcorn. I then place the pan into the refrigerator to let the chocolate set.

Gingerbread cookies

Photo courtesy of my 3 yr old : ) This is a delicous gingerbread recipe. Many years ago we used to make gingerbread houses and this was a great recipe to use for those as well.

Ingredients:
5 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cloves
1 tsp ginger
3 T cinnamon
1 1/8 tsp baking soda
1 cup shortening
1 1/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1 cup molasses
1/3 cup water

Directions:
Sift together 1 cup flour, salt, spices, and soda into a bowl. In mixing bowl cream shortening, sugar, beat until light and fluffy. Add egg then slightly warmed molasses. Stir water into mixture. Stir in flour and spice mix gradually. Add remaining flour a cupful at a time just until dough is soft and moist to the touch. Chill dough 6-8 hours ( I chilled for maybe an hour and it was fine). Remove dough, roll out onto waxed paper until 1/8 inch thick. Cut into shapes and bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes. Bake as dark as you can without burning (more important for crispy cookies or gingerbread houses I think--I wanted mine more soft so I just cooked for 8 min)

Royal Icing (for use for gingerbread house) Beat 2 egg whites, 1 tsp cream of tartar, 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar on high for 7-10 minutes. Put in a tightluy covered bowl or bowl covered with a wet cloth.

Peanut Butter cup cookies

Oh my, these cookies are soooo good! I saw these on Annie's Eats website and knew I had to try them right away. Imagine all my favorite things in one cookie--it was divine. I changed the recipe up just a little by using my sister-in-law's recipe for the cookie part and then used the idea of melted marshmallows topped with ganache and m&m's from Annie's Eats. Seriously, you must try these cookies.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup softened butter
1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/4 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
Reese's mini peanut butter cups
mini marshmallows
4 oz bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 Tbsp sugar
2 Tbsp water
mini M&M's

Directions:
Combine white sugar, light brown sugar, and softened butter; beat until light and fluffy. Add peanut butter, egg (room temp), and vanilla; blend for several minutes. Add flour, baking soda, and salt; fold in. Batter will be fairly loose. Chill for a couple hours (I didn't do this and my cookies were fine). Preheat oven to 350. Scoop 1/2"-1" balls into cup of mini muffin pan. Bake for 6-7 minutes or until edges turn brown. While cookies are baking make sure candy is unwrapped, easier to do if candy is cold. Remove pans from oven (cookie will be puffed). Firmly place buttercup into middle of each cookie. Edges should be even with or above candy. Top each cookie with 3-4 mini marshmallows. Return the pan to the oven and bake 2-3 minutes more, until the marshmallows have puffed up. Transfer the pans to a wire cooling rack and allow the cookies to cool completely in the pan before removing them. (This is important! I tried removing them while still slightly warm – not a good idea.)

Once the cookies are completely cooled, transfer them to a wire rack over a sheet of wax paper or aluminum foil. Place the chopped chocolate in a small bowl. Bring the cream, sugar and water to a boil, then pour the liquid over the chocolate and let sit for 30 seconds. Gently whisk the mixture together until smooth. Leave the glaze to sit until it thickens a bit to your desired consistency, then drizzle over the tops of the cookies. Sprinkle with mini M&Ms before the glaze hardens.

Refried Beans

First I'll apologize for the picture. I don't know how to make refried beans look good? I'm sure there is someone out there that could do it, but I don't have that skill. This is a very healthy version of refried beans and so easy to make. I made them in a crockpot but I just bought a pressure cooker and my sister says they are very good made in the pressure cooker and a lot faster. I will be trying them out for sure! This recipe is courteous of allrecipes.

Ingredients:
1 onion, peeled and halved
3 cups dry pinto beans, rinsed
1/2 fresh jalapeno pepper, seeded and
chopped
2 tablespoons minced garlic 5 teaspoons salt
1 3/4 teaspoons fresh ground black
pepper
1/8 teaspoon ground cumin, optional
9 cups water

Directions:
1. Place the onion, rinsed beans, jalapeno, garlic, salt, pepper, and cumin into a slow cooker. Pour in the water and stir to combine. Cook on High for 8 hours, adding more water as needed. Note: if more than 1 cup of water has evaporated during cooking, then the temperature is too high.
2. Once the beans have cooked, strain them, and reserve the liquid. Mash the beans with a potato masher, adding the reserved water as needed to attain desired consistency.

Chicken Feed aka Chex Mix

Ingredients:
1 box Cheerios
1 box wheat Chex
1 box Rice Chex
1 box Corn Chex
1 bag pretzels (straight)
2 lbs mixed nuts (we left this out : )

Melt together and pour over the above
1 lb butter
1 cup oil
2 T Worcestershire
2 tsp garlic salt

Directions:
Mix dry ingredients together. Stir in sauce. Bake in oven for 2 hours at 250 degrees. Stir every 15 minutes.

Biscuits and Gravy

When I was sixteen my parents took me to Georgia to visit extended family. It was on this trip that I fell in love with a good southern breakfast. Every morning my great aunt would have sausage, eggs, bacon, pancakes, and new to me and my new favorite--biscuits and gravy. I've never made it myself. It's been a special treat when I go to a restaurant for breakfast. I saw this recipe on allrecipes and decided it was time I tried to make it myself. I'm so glad I did because it was so good. I won't mention how many calories it has though...kind of ruins it a little bit.

Ingredients1 pound breakfast Sausage Roll
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 cups milk
Salt and black pepper to taste
8 prepared biscuits

Directions
1.Crumble and cook sausage in large skillet over medium heat until browned. Stir in flour until dissolved. Gradually stir in milk. Cook gravy until thick and bubbly. Season with salt and pepper. Serve hot over biscuits. Refrigerate leftovers.

7 layered lettuce salad

This recipe comes from my mother in law. Anything with bacon is great in my opinion. It's easy to put together and a little different from the usual green salad.

Ingredients:
2 cups chopped celery
1 green pepper, chopped
1 cup green onions, chopped
1 package frozen peas, uncooked

1 head of lettuce
6 hardboiled eggs, chopped
1 cup cheese, grated
6-7 pieces crisp bacon, crumbled

Sauce:
1 1/2 cups mayonnaise
1 cup sour cream

Directions:
Mix together: celery, green pepper, green onions and frozen peas.
Layer half the lettuce (torn or chopped) on bottom of 9x13 pan. Layer half the celery mixture, the entier 6 eggs, chopped. Then layer the remaining lettuce, remaining celery mixture. Top with mayonnaise mixture. Then sprinkle with cheese and bacon.
Can be refrigerated overnight.

Ribbon Salad

This is my favorite jello salad. I love to have it at Christmas time because of the fun Christmas colors, although anytime is a good time for this salad. I have never been able to successfully make it look pretty myself--for some reason my top layer of jello has never completely covered the middle layer. It still tastes good, it just doesn't look good. So while my mom was in town I asked her to make it for me so I could see where I was going wrong. We decided I was either using the wrong size pan or forgot to add the 2nd bit of water to the red jello. So we will see if I've got it figured out the next time I attempt to make this jello salad.

Ingredients:
1 pkg each 3 oz size Jell-O: Lemon, Lime, and Raspberry or strawberry
3 cups boiling water
1 cup miniature marshmallows
1 1/2 cup cold water
4 oz cool whip
6 oz cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1 20 oz can crushed pineapple

Directions:
Dissolve jello flavors separately, using 1 cup boiling water for each. Stir miniature marshmallows into lemon Jell-O, set aside. Add 3/4 cup cold water to lime Jell-O; pour into 13x9 inch pan. Chill until set but not firm. Add 3/4 cup cold water to raspberry Jell-O, set aside at room temperature. Then add cream cheese to lemon mixture; beat until blended, chill until slightly thickened, then blend in mayonnaise, whipped cream and crushed pineapple. Chill until very thick; spoon gently over lime Jell-O. Chill until set, but not firm; meanwhile chill raspberry Jell-O until thick, pour over lemon Jell-O. Chill.

Oatmeal Cookies

This is a recipe from my sister in law. It actually calls for raisins or craisins but I'm not a big fan of either. But I love chocolate so I used chocolate chips in mine.

Ingredients:
1 cup butter
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
3 cups quick oats
1 cup raisins or craisins
1/2 cups chopped nuts (optional)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350. Beat together butter and sugar until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla and beat well. Combine flour, baking soda, and cinnamon. Then add to creamy mixture. Stir in oats and raisins. Mix well. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 10-12 minutes until edges are lightly brown. Cool on baking sheet for 1 minute before removing to wire racks.

Shepherd's Pie

Ingredients:
3 cups Mashed potatoes
1 14oz can green beans or frozen green beans
1 chopped onion
1 1/2 lb ground beef
1/4 tsp thyme
1 clove garlic
1 can cream of mushroom soup

Directions:
Brown the ground beef and onion in a skillet. Drain the grease. Add the can of mushroom soup, thyme and garlic. Pour into 9 inch casserole dish. Place drained green beans on top of the meat mixture. Place the mashed potatoes on top of the green beans. Bake in the oven at 350 for 30 minutes.