Super Saturday

Today was our super Saturday. I was asked to teach a class on fun holiday foods and snacks. I think it went well. It was a lot of fun to prepare and try some fun recipes!

I also had time to make one of the cute crafts.


Snowman Cheese Ball

2 packages cream cheese softened
1 package dried beef, chopped
½ cup finely chopped green onions
1 t horseradish
½ t garlic powder
½ cup dried parsley
2 cartons spread able cream cheese
5 dried cranberries
1 baby carrot
2 pretzel sticks
Crackers

In a large mixing bowl, combine the first five ingredients until blended. Shape into two balls, one slightly larger than the other. Roll each in parsley. Cover and refrigerate over night.
On a serving plate, place the smaller cheese ball on top of the bigger one forming a snowman. Set aside 1 t spread able cream cheese. Carefully cover the snowman with the remaining spread able cream cheese.
Arrange cranberries for eyes and buttons, insert carrot for nose and pretzels for arms.
Make a hat out of crackers or constructions paper.
Serve with crackers.

Christmas Sandwiches

Make your children’s favorite sandwich.
Use holiday cookie cutters to cut into fun shapes.

Snowman Potatoes

Make mashed potatoes.
Place mashed potatoes into a pastry bag and then swirl them out into individual balls to make a little snowman head. Add peas for eyes, a baby carrot for a nose and a half and olive for a smiley mouth.

Peanut Butter Christmas Mice

1 cup creamy peanut butter
½ cup butter softened
½ cup sugar
1 egg
1 t vanilla extract
1-½ cups of flour
½ t baking soda
½ cup peanut halves
2 T green and red mini M&M
4 t miniature semi-sweet chocolate chips
Little leafs and candies from holiday sprinkles
60-66 red shoestring licorice (2 inches each)

In a large mixing bowl, cream peanut butter, butter , sugar and brown sugar. Beat in egg and vanilla. Combine the flour and baking soda; gradually add to the creamed mixture. Refrigerate for 1 hour or until easy to handle.

Roll into 1 inch balls. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets. Pinch each ball on one end to taper. Insert two peanut halves in the center of each ball for ears. Add one M&M for the nose and two chocolate chips for the eyes. Arrange holly and berry in front of one era.

Bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes. Gently insert on tail into each mouse. Cool and serve.

Peppermint Hot Chocolate

Make your favorite hot chocolate and hang a mini candy cane on the side of the cup. It melts into a warm pepperminty drink and it’s fun to stir!

Holiday Wreath

1 stick of margarine
1 package large marshmallows
1 t vanilla
A few drops green food coloring
6 cups corn flakes
Red hot candies

Melt the margarine in a large saucepan over low heat. Stir in marshmallows, a few at time and gently stir until completely melted. Continue stirring for about another minute. Add vanilla. Add food coloring drop by drop until green color appears. Stir in corn flakes. Place a scoop of mixture into a greased cup cake holder. Poke a hole in the middle of each green ball to make a wreath, press in candies. Cool and serve

Fruit Turkey

Apple
Clementine or navel orange
Pear
Dried apricot
Peanut butter or cream cheese
Mini chocolate chips
Nut
Dried cranberry

Arrange apple and Clementine or navel orange slices on a plate in a rainbow patter
and lay a cored pear half on top.
Use scissors to halve a dried apricot, then snip small triangles from each half and tuck
them under the pear to form the feet.
Finally, use peanut butter or softened cream cheese to attach mini chocolate chip eyes,
a nut beak, and a dried cranberry snood.


Christmas Bites

Bite-size, waffle-shaped pretzels
Hershey's Kiss or Hershey's Hug
M&M's candy

Heat the oven to 170F. Set a number of bite-size, waffle-shaped pretzels (one for each treat) in a single layer on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper, then top each pretzel with an unwrapped Hershey's Kiss or Hershey's Hug.
Bake for 4 to 6 minutes (the white chocolate will melt more quickly), until the chocolates feel soft when touched with a wooden spoon. Remove the cookie sheet from the oven and quickly press an M&M's candy into the center of each Kiss.
Allow the treats to cool for a few minutes, then place them in the refrigerator to set, about 10 minutes. Place handfuls of the candies in clear plastic bags and tie on colorful ribbons

Bagel Wreaths

To make them, spread mini bagel halves with cream cheese (plain or tinted green with herbs or food coloring), then sprinkle on red, yellow, and green bell-pepper confetti.

Peppermint melt ways

1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract
1-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cornstarch
FROSTING:
2 tablespoons butter, softened
1-1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
2 tablespoons milk
1/4 teaspoon peppermint extract
2 to 3 drops red food coloring, optional
1/2 cup crushed peppermint candies
In a small bowl, cream butter and confectioners' sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in extract. Combine flour and cornstarch; gradually add to creamed mixture and mix well.
Shape into 1-in. balls. Place 2 in. apart on ungreased baking sheets. Bake at 350° for 10-12 minutes or until bottoms are lightly browned. Remove to wire racks to cool.
In a small bowl, beat butter until fluffy. Add the confectioners’ sugar, milk, extract and food coloring if desired; beat until smooth. Spread over cooled cookies; sprinkle with crushed candies. Store in an airtight container. Yield: 3-1/2 dozen.

Veggie Christmas Tree
1 bottle (8 ounces) fat-free ranch salad dressing
4 cups broccoli florets
1 broccoli stem
3 to 4 cups cauliflowerets
4 to 5 cherry tomatoes, quartered
1 medium carrot, sliced

Cover the bottom of a 13-in. x 9-in. glass dish with dressing. Arrange broccoli in a tree shape, using the stem as the trunk. Place cauliflower around tree. Add tomatoes and carrot slices as ornaments.

Cheese Things

Cheese
Mayonnaise
Green onions
Worcestershire sauce
Pumpernickel

Grate a couple cups of cheese, add in just enough mayo so it sticks together. Add chopped green onions, a couple big splashes of Worcestershire sauce and spread on pumpernickel bread. Toast in the oven until melty.

Cranberry Chicken
4-5 chicken breasts
A can whole cranberries
1 package onion soup mix
1 cup French dressing

Mix bottom three ingredients and pour over chicken. Bake. Serve over rice. It is a beautiful, tasty dish perfect for the holidays.


RUDOLPH'S PUNCH
You will need:
1 -16 oz. bottle apple juice
1- 16 oz. bottle lemon-lime soda
1 -16 oz. bottle cranberry juice
3 cinnamon sticks


Optional: Small candy canes
Instructions:
1. In a large saucepan, mix the apple juice, cranberry juice, and lemon-lime soda with the cinnamon sticks.
2. Heat through allowing the cinnamon to fuse the liquid.
3. Remove cinnamon sticks.
4. Serve in a mug with a candy cane hanging over the edge.


Chocolate Peppermint Cookies
Ingredients (from Pioneer Woman)
2 sticks Salted Butter, Slightly Softened
1 cup Powdered (confectioner's) Sugar
1 whole Egg
2 teaspoons Vanilla
2-½ cups Flour
½ cups Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
1 teaspoon Salt
4 ounces, weight (4 Squares) Almond Bark Or White Baking Chocolate (almond Bark Works Best And Is Cheaper)
Large Handful Of Red Or Green Peppermints
Preparation Instructions
Cream softened butter with powdered sugar. Add egg and vanilla and mix to combine. Add dry ingredients and mix together until dough comes together. Place plastic wrap on surface of dough and refrigerate for 2 hours.
In the meantime, unwrap candies and place them in a plastic bag. Beat with a mallet until finely crushed, leaving larger chunks if desired.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Roll cookie dough in walnut-sized pieces and place on a cookie sheet. Gently press balls flat with a plain, smooth surface. Bake for 7 to 9 minutes, being careful not to burn. Cookies will remain the same general size and shape after they bake. Remove from oven and place cookies on a cooling rack. Allow them to cool completely.
Place crushed candies in bowl. Melt almond bark in the microwave. Dip cooled cookies into almond bark, coating half the cookie. Immediately sprinkle crushed peppermints over both sides of the almond bark. Gently set on parchment paper or other nonstick surface and allow to cool before serving.

Reindeer Cake Pops (copied from Pioneer Woman)
*1 box cake mix
* 1 container of ready-made icing.
* Candy Melts or Chocolate Bark
* Waxed paper

You begin by baking the cake in a 9 x 13 pan according to directions. Let it cool for several hours or overnight. Then you crumble the cake in a large bowl. Then you dump in the tub of icing (a little less than the full tub, actually) and stir the mixture together. Slowly but surely, the icing will totally incorporate into the cake and the mixture will be totally uniform in color.
Grab pinches of the mixture and roll them into balls.

Then: IMPORTANT! You place the cake balls into the fridge for a couple of hours OR into the freezer for a little while. You want them to be nice and firm. Not frozen solid, but not mushy.

Now, just before you pull them out of the fridge/freezer, you need to melt your chocolate. Chocolate or Almond Bark from the baking aisle at the supermarket works well. Melt it in your microwave.
You can also melt the chocolate on a double boiler. The key when you’re melting the chocolate is to begin using it just after it fully melts and not to continue heating it. Under constant heat, it can dry out.

Once it’s thoroughly melted, just plop the cake ball right into the chocolate. Since it’s cold and firm, it should hold its shape and not crumble. Notice that you’ll want the melted chocolate to be deep enough in the bowl to allow the cake ball to be almost submerged. So tall, deep bowls are better then wide, shallow bowls.
Don’t stir the cake ball around in the warm chocolate; just drizzle chocolate over the top with a spoon.

Retrieve the cake ball from the chocolate with a spoon, and—this is Bakerella’s trade secret—tap the spoon on the side of the bowl.

Tap-tap-tap. Bakerella’s tapping motion, in effect, forces the chocolate to sheet around the sides and drip off. This contributes to a more smooth result, which makes for a more attractive cake ball.


Carefully transfer the cake balls to a sheet of waxed paper and allow the chocolate to set, which usually doesn’t take much time at all.
Neat trick: if too much chocolate pools around the bottom of the ball, just take a toothpick and score a line around the base of the ball. When it’s dry, the cake ball will separate from the extra pooled chocolate.

Antlers: ABC Pretzels I found at the World Market chain. The E, F, and Y letters work great. (If you can’t find these, just use regular or mini pretzel twists and break them in half for a pair of antlers.)
Noses: Red lemon heads, red m&ms, or anything red and round will work, brown m&ms
Eyes: Mini Confetti Sprinkles (the white ones)
Expressions: Americolor Edible Ink Pens (Black)
Paper Lollipop Sticks
Make the reindeers: Make regular cake pops using the chocolate candy melts. You can adhere the antlers while the reindeer pops are still wet or wait until they are dry and then apply a small dab of chocolate to the head to glue the antlers on. Once dry, you can also add the eyes and noses by gluing. Then using the edible ink pen, draw the mouths and dot your eyes.
(recipe from Bakerella. com~ she has a tutorial, as does Pioneer Woman if you want to see it step by step)




Other Christmas Time Favorite:

Oranges with cloves~ the kids love to make these and they smell sooooo good!
Gingerbread houses~ milk carton, hot glue it onto a red plastic plate. Use frosting to “cement” graham crackers onto the sides. Give kids a bowl of candy and a tub of frosting and let them loose!
Wassail~ Williams and Sonoma. Easy and Yumm!


Magic Reindeer Food
Mix up a batch of magic reindeer food to leave out for Santa's reindeer. This is a great gift idea for school parties. Magic Reindeer Food leaves a glittering path to Santa’s reindeer to your home on Christmas Eve.
In a small zipper food storage bag mix the following ingredients:
1/2 cup oatmeal
1/4 glitter
Print the poem below. Cut it out and staple the tag to the top of the magic reindeer food baggie
Be sure to take this magic food and sprinkle on the lawn,
On Christmas, Santa's reindeer travel miles before the dawn.
The smell of oats and glitter path will guide them on their way
And you'll wake up to Santa's gifts next morn on Christmas Day!