A Year of Taste of Home: Week 24: Merry Christmas

Recipes to Go: ~~507~~ 268

Weeks to Go: 52 28

Recipes Made This Week

Black Bean 'n' Pumpkin Chili

Fluffy Lemon Squares

Hunter's Delight

Prime Rib Dinner

Onion Yorkshire Pudding

Cranberry Fluff

Warm 'n' Fruity Breakfast Cereal

Chocolate Hazelnut Truffles

Holiday Spritz

Almond Tassies

Walnut Horn Cookies

Turtle-Shaped Cookies

Apple Pie Pastries

Fruit-Glazed Spiral Ham

Celebration Green Beans

Calico Corn Bread Dressing

Perfect Dinner Rolls

Homemade Eggnog

Mustard-Sour Cream Salad Dressing

Elegant Eggnog Dessert

Pumpkin Cheesecake with Pecan Brittle

Lemon Meringue Pie

Yes, it was a busy week. I decided to take the excuse and make another big meal for Christmas. In hindsight, maybe I should have thought it through better because the only people we had over were the missionaries, which meant no one else was going to be supplying any food, and there would only be 4 1/2 people to eat the whole feast. Luckily for me, I had a lot of help Christmas day, and it wasn't as bad as it looks.

So, not wanting the family to starve all week just because I had 10 recipes to do for one dinner, I carefully planned our meals for the week. All of them were slow cooked, which mean minimal effort on my part after nap time, which is when the chaos usually begins.

So Sunday, I made the Black Bean 'n' Pumpkin Chili. I've made this recipe twice before, but I've never used all the ingredients.

This time, I actually used turkey and pumpkin, and this was the best version I've had. Of course, that's also because I had 4 hours to let it simmer on the stove.

I started on two of the desserts as well, since I knew I had to take advantage of all the time I had. The Lemon Squares needed a few hours in the fridge, and the Truffles were supposed to set overnight before getting balled. So I made both, not to finish the truffles for another few days. The Lemon Squares were delicious. Unfortunately, they didn't maintain their shape once cut and scooped so I didn't get to give any away. Which means they're lost in the fridge somewhere, and forgotten with all the other desserts invading the house.

My plan was simple--dinner every other day, 3 cookies Monday and Tuesday, deliver cookies on Wednesday, 3 Christmas Dinner recipes Thursday and Friday, then less to worry about come Saturday.

So Monday I made the Holiday Spritz and the Almond Tassies and finished the Truffles. I wish I had a cookie punch like the recipe suggests for the Spritz because they would have looked as good as they tasted. I tried to pour them into a cookie cutter like a mold, but that failed miserably. So I settle for shaping them into the best circles I could. They looked lame, but at least they tasted good.

The Almond Tassies were my first opportunity to use my mini muffin tins. I greased the heck out of them first, for which I was thankful to myself later. I used shortening, which has become my greaser of choice. Pam, or the store version of cooking spray, leaves an annoying, sticky coating on my cooking trays and pans that takes steal wool to get out, which of coarse destroys non-stick coating. So all my nice stuff doesn't get Pam-ed. And I have recently decided that it's much better to just use my bare fingers to apply shortening rather than a paper towel because it's easier to get the stuff off my hands than anything else. So thanks to my ridiculously small hands (for my height), I was able to work the shortening into the mini muffin tins successfully, for this beautiful result.

The truffles had been so long in the fridge, they were impossible to get out with a melon baller, as the recipe suggests, so I used a spoon and my palms to shape. I stuck a whole almond in the center instead of a hazelnut, which I didn't have. I did roll the tops in hazelnuts, though. I layered all the cooled cookies in my giant tupperware container and used parchment paper to stack. I've always wanted to stack stuff in the giant container, so it was very gratifying.

Tuesday morning, I put the Hunter's Delight stew in the slow cooker. The venison practically cubed itself it was so lean, so the hardest part of putting it together was slicing potatoes. And I'm happy to say, my knife skills are improving, so even that didn't take very long.

Dinner accomplished, I turned to more cookie making. Luckily The Captain loves licking beaters, because we had a lot of dough to make. The anticipation of licking kept him happy enough. We made Walnut Horn Cookies and Turtle-Shaped Cookies.

I didn't have enough walnuts, so I decided to use Graham Crackers for the filling of the Horn cookies instead. That ended up being a pretty good substitution. These were so fun to make. I love rolling up crescent rolls, so this was a treat. They ended up so pretty and yummy. I'll have to make them again sometime.

The Turtle-Shaped Cookies ended up not being so turtle shaped due to my lack of pecan halves. But the maple flavored cookies were still very addictive.

I forgot to put the powdered sugar in the chocolate topping initially, and since I used unsweetened chocolate, that was a problem. Luckily, we added some milk chocolate and sugar and heated it up again, and all was well. Some powdered sugar on top of the ones already dipped proved an adequate solution as well.

I didn't get to make the Apple Pie Pastries until The Captain was asleep that night. The other cookie recipes were specifically in the Christmas Goodies section, but the Apple Pie Pastry came from the Valentines recipes, and I can see why. This might be the best apple pie in the world. I'm pretty sure you could get some action after making these pies. Wow! I had to interrupt The Husband from his racing game in the middle of the track to eat one because they were that good. And he definitely wasn't mad at me for interrupting him either . . .

I guess I should mention the stew before moving on. It ended up being a little too sweet for me in the end. And the venison was still gamey after 6 hours in the slow cooker. It was still good and everyone enjoyed it. It's a good way to use some venison if you find yourself overloaded.

Wednesday we put the cookies in improvised baskets made of cheap paper plates.

They looked better than I was hoping, so I wasn't embarrassed to give them away. Then we bundled up and walked around the neighborhood giving them away. The Captain is so cute that we ended up staying way too long at the neighbors, but it made them merry, which was the whole idea, so I can't complain. Plus, it was very nice to get out of the house.

I was debating on whether to make the big prime rib dinner on Thursday or Christmas Eve, but decided Thursday would be best because I didn't want us to be full going into Christmas. Plus, growing up Christmas Adam (as I call the day before Christmas Eve because Adam came before Eve, get it?) was always a big day for us because we had a big family sleepover under the tree. We read Christmas stories and eat treats and everyone falls asleep except my mom and me who have to stay up to finish whatever book she got from the library to read, weeping most of the time. (Darn Christmas books and their sad story lines.) I wanted to keep the tradition alive, so we had our big dinner. Unfortunately, my freezer is full of meat, and I didn't have a rump roast like I thought, and I couldn't justify buying more meat when I can barely close the freezer as it is, so we had a pork roast dinner instead of prime rib.

The Husband was disappointed when he saw the original recipe, but luckily that was after he had already enjoyed his dinner. It was good, except that I don't have a roasting pan, so the veggies got a bit dry.

The Onion Yorkshire Pudding was amazing. First of all, it's like a soufle, and it actually worked for me. Second, it was hearty and perfect for a cold winter's eve.

We both agreed that it hit the spot.

The cranberry fluff was pretty fun to make. This was The Captain's favorite, by far. In his defense, there are mini marshmallows in it, which are hard for any little boy to resist.

This is surprisingly tart at moments, so it feels pretty light, which is good after so much heavy food.

I started the recipes for Christmas Dinner early in the day so I could have the afternoon to put together dinner. I made the salad dressing--easy,

and the Eggnog--took time on the stove, but that's it, and the stuffing, which I put sans broth in the fridge.

This stuffing recipe is very similar to the one I usually use for Thanksgiving except it uses regular bread in addition to corn bread. After trying it, we decided to stick with mine for future dinners.

Friday, Christmas Eve, was devoted to getting three desserts made. This didn't sound like a hard idea at the beginning of the week, but when it came down to it, I was pretty wiped out. It took everything I had (and an extra spring form donated by my neighbor) to make myself get it done. I've hand-washed my KitchenAid at least a dozen times this week.

I made the Pumpkin Cheesecake first. This time I ground the Gingersnap cookies in the food processor (more hand washing) for the crust. Got it all cooking and started on the brittle to garnish the top. I've never made brittle before, but I guess I should have greased the cooking sheet with butter instead of shortening since it made for a much messier clean up than was necessary.

It surprised me by setting up, since I didn't have a candy thermometer. I relied on dumb luck and YouTube videos to figure out when I reached soft-ball and hard crack stage. I think it wasn't quite as hard as it could have been, but I wasn't going to risk anything, so I took it out at the beginning, rather than the middle of hard-crack.

While all that was cooling, I tried to make the other two somewhat simultaneously. The problem was, I had to send The Husband to the store for vanilla pudding, which I had forgotten, so I ended up finishing the Lemon meringue pie before I could start the Eggnog dessert. I only realized this after I had been creaming the cream cheese for the Eggnog dessert, which meant more hand washing.

I was determined to redeem myself with this lemon meringue pie. My first ever lemon meringue was Thanksgiving '09 and it was beautiful, and then the lemonade meringue pie for the Pre-Thanksgiving Day Feast this year was such a dismal failure. I had to make sure the last one was more of a fluke than a pattern. Luckily, this one set up in the pan on the stove, so I knew that at least it wouldn't be a soupy mess. The meringue is always the part that makes me nervous, though. this one was the smoothest process yet, and because I had done one so recently, I wasn't as worried about over-beating as I normally am. I am happy to say that The Husband said it looked like a painting when he got it out of the oven. Everything was sealed and pretty. I let it cool sufficiently before putting it in the fridge, and the flavor was delicious. Verdict? Redeemed.

The eggnog dessert I picked because I could use the eggnog I just made to make this. We aren't huge eggnog fans at our house (except The Captain, I just learned), so I thought this would help with leftovers. Plus, it would look very pretty for Christmas.

I worked out well, even though I had to use the rest of my box of Vanilla Wafers instead of Graham Crackers for the crust, since I had used the last of my Graham Crackers for the Walnut Horn Cookies. Meh, one cookie crust is pretty much the same as another. Much to the delight of the missionary who helped me finish this with the Pirouette Cookies, it fit exactly the right amount around it to stagger chocolate and vanilla.

Breakfast for Christmas was great because it was also a slow cooked dish--oatmeal. I put it together before we went to bed on Friday and when we got up on Christmas, breakfast was waiting for us. I used quick cooking oats instead of the 7 grain cereal recommended,

and next time I'll use something not quick cooking because it did all turn to mush. But The Captain really liked it. So we'll keep having it for breakfast until it's gone.

Christmas Day I was lucky to have the missionaries there to help me as The Husband was sick all day.

Tragic, I know. No one should be sick on Christmas. I gave each young lady an assignment. We started at 2:30 and ate dinner at 6. I forgot to cover the ham when it started baking, so I didn't end up baking it the full 2 hours.