Figgy Pudding

I got this recipe from my boss after he brought it to a Christmas party for work.  It is DELICIOUS and the three times I've made it since then, it's gotten rave reviews and the bowl is wiped clean.  I made a couple of slight changes.  I put in less sugar (it was a little too sweet for me) and added figs (what?!  No figs in figgy pudding?  Ya, madness!  I had to add them in).  What a fun, festive Christmas treat!  This will certainly be a Christmas tradition at my house.  Sorry, I didn't take a picture.  I will post one when I make it again (it will surely be sooner than next Christmas).

Batter Mix:

3/4 Cup sugar
1 Cup flour
1/2 Cup milk
1/8 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 Cup chopped dates
1/2 Cup chopped figs
1 Cup chopped walnuts or pecans

Mix together and spread evenly in a deep baking dish.

Meanwhile, boil for three minutes:

2 Cups water
3/4 Cup brown sugar
1Tablespoon butter

Pour over batter and bake for 30 minutes @ 375 degrees.

Top with ice cream or whip cream

Serve and enjoy!  It's best when served warm.

Festive Cranberry Cheese Dip

A friend introduced me to this recipe a couple years ago and I like it so much, I'm looking forward to eating it around the holidays!  I'm making this recipe next week, so I'll add the exact measurements to this post, but for now, here's the general idea in case you feel so inclined to make it for an upcoming event.

You add a 12 oz. bag of cranberries and one store-bought pint of pico de gallo to a blender or food processor.  Add sugar to taste (I'm thinking maybe 1/2 cup?) and a handful of cilantro.  Add a few drops of red food coloring to beautify it.  Then pour it over an 8 oz. brick of cream cheese.  Garnish with cilantro and serve it with rice crackers.  Yum-O!

Tea Party Tea Sandwiches

We had a fun little tea party for Mother's Day. I kind of just took a combination of ideas from online, made up some of my own ideas, put them together and man, they turned out so yummy! What a fun activity for the girls, I'd highly recommend it. One of the best things about these sandwiches is I assembled all of them from start to finish in about 15 minutes. That was good since I decided to have this tea party the day before I actually had it. I shopped for the food that morning, so these are really great if you're a procrastinator like I am!

For all tea sandwiches, you first have to cut the crusts of the bread. Also, you are going for small and cute. Don't forget to bring out your best china and make it fancy!

I wanted a combination of both sweet and savory sandwiches, so here are the savory ones.
Tomato & Olive Sandwich
Bread (I used white for these), with crusts removed
A Variety of Marinated Olives (You can get these in the bulk section of the deli area in the grocery store).
Cream Cheese, softened
Tomatoes, sliced
Salt

1) Pit and chop the olives.
2) Mix the olives with the cream cheese.
3) Spread the olive/cheese mixture onto the bread slices.
4) Lay tomatoes over the cheese mixture and sprinkle with salt.
5) Top with another slice of cheese covered bread and cut diagonally in half to form a triangle.

Cucumber & Chive Sandwich
Bread (I used white for these), with crusts removed
Cucumber, peeled & sliced
Chives, fresh
Cream Cheese, softened
Salt

1) Mix the chives with the cream cheese.
2) Spread the chive/cheese mixture onto the bread slices.
3) Lay cucumbers over the cheese mixture and sprinkle lightly with salt.
4) Top with another slice of cheese covered bread and cut diagonally in half to form a triangle.

And here are the sweet ones.
Pear, Honey & Walnut Sandwich
Bread (I used wheat for these), with crusts removed
Pear, sliced
Cream Cheese, softened
Honey
Walnuts

1) Mix equal amounts of honey and cream cheese together.
2) Spread mixture onto the bread slices.
3) Lay pears over the honey/cheese mixture on half of the slices of bread.
4) Sprinkle walnuts onto the other half of the slices of bread.
5) Put the bread slices together and cut diagonally in half to form a triangle.

Strawberry & Chocolate Hazelnut Sandwich
Bread (I used wheat for these), with crusts removed
Nutella (chocolate hazelnut spread found next to the peanut butter in the grocery store)
Strawberries, sliced

1) Spread the nutella onto the bread slices.
2) Top with strawberries.
3) Put the bread slices together and cut diagonally in half to form a triangle.

Banana & Chocolate Hazelnut Sandwich
Bread (I used wheat for these), with crusts removed
Nutella (chocolate hazelnut spread found next to the peanut butter in the grocery store)
Bananas, sliced

1) Spread the nutella onto the bread slices.
2) Top with bananas.
3) Put the bread slices together and cut diagonally in half to form a triangle.

5 different sandwiches in 15 minutes!

Stuffed Mushrooms

Ok, here's the second one. You would not believe how good these taste with so few ingredients. I even have to pop bits of the filling into my mouth while I'm making these because I can't wait until I'm all done!

2 Pkgs. Whole Button Mushrooms

8 oz. Cream Cheese

1 Pkg. Jimmy Dean Sausage Tube

1. Cook sausage over medium-high heat until no longer pink.
2. Meanwhile, clean mushrooms and remove stems.
3. Chop stems.
   
4. Combine stems, cooked sausage and cream cheese until mixed together (if the sausage is still warm, it will melt the cream cheese and make it easier to stir).
   
5. Stuff mixture into mushrooms (and don't worry if they are bulging far over the top). I've tried many methods for this, but you really just have to use your hands.
   
6. Bake at 350 degrees for 45-60 minutes.

You could also sprinkle bread crumbs or parmesean cheese on them if you wanted to, but I really think they are fine just the way they are. CAUTION...Make sure you have a napkin when you eat them, because they drip!

Bacon-Wrapped Water Chestnuts

I'm posting my two favorite appetizers that I always make during the holidays. Wait til you try these two EASY recipes. You won't believe how good they taste for being so simple!

1 Pkg. Bacon

2-3 Cans Whole Water Chestnuts

1 Cup Ketchup

1 Cup Brown Sugar

1. Combine Ketchup and Brown Sugar.
2. Cut all of the bacon in half.
3. Separate the bacon and lay on a plate with paper towels. Cook in the microwave until they're about half-way cooked.
   
4. Wrap bacon around water chestnuts and secure with a toothpick.
5. Dip each one into ketchup mixture and set into a glass pan.
6. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.

Ok, I know the Ketchup and Brown Sugar mixture sounds nasty, but it's really the only combo that works. I've tried every kind of BBQ sauce known to man on these, and they just don't work! Ketchup is really just tomato sauce, sugar and vinegar anyway, so that sugar really comes out when you bake it and it becomes sweet and delicious...of course you're also adding the sweet brown sugar to it as well, but man, it just doesn't get better than this!

Easter Chick Nests

These are a perfect treat to make with the help of your kids. Hailee loved helping me make these. I always like to give credit where credit's due, but I got the idea for this out of a magazine and for the life of me, I can't remember which one. Have you ever heard of "moose poop" (or a more appropriate name is "oatmeal munchies")? Well, it's delicious and here's the recipe:

1/4 Cup Margarine or Butter
1/2 Cup Sugar
1/4 Cup Sugar
2 Tablespoons Brown Sugar
1/4 Cup Milk
2 Tablespoons Baking Cocoa
Dash Salt
1/4 Cup Creamy Peanut Butter
1 1/2 Cups Oats
1/2 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
1/4 Cup Flour

1. Mix first 7 ingredients and bring to boil on medium heat. Boil for 1 minute.
2. Remove from heat and add remaining ingredients.
3. Stir until well mixed.
4. Using 2 teaspoons, drop small portions of mixture on cookie sheet lines with waxed paper. Allow to cool in refrigerator before eating.

So instead of dropping them onto a cookie sheet as you normally would, you drop them into muffin tins and form them against the bottom and sides of each tin to make a "nest". Put them in the fridge until you're ready to serve them, then pop them out of the pan and fill them up with robin eggs and top with a Peep! So cute!

This yields about 9 nests.

Easter Bunny Cake

We made some fun treats for Easter. My mom made this one. This is a really easy cake to make. You just cook a cake as you normally would in two round pans. When they're cooked and cooled, do this to one of them:
Then place the round cake in the center of a cookie sheet and use the two side sections from the cut cake for the ears and the middle section for the bowtie. Frost the cake white and the bowtie and center of the ears pink. Put coconut all over the round cake and ears for the fuzz and decorate the face and bowtie however you want. My mom used oreos, frosting and blue gumdrops for the eyes, licorice strings for the whiskers and mouth and gumdrops for the nose and the bowtie. Then she mixed some of the coconut with green food coloring to cover the cookie sheet and it looks like easter grass. (The missing gumdrops are because Hailee & Bryce got to the cake before I could get the picture). Isn't it cute?!

April Fool's

I made this April Fool's Day meal for Hailee. It came from Family Fun Magazine in the April issue, but I made a few changes based on what I had in my pantry.

It's supposed to look like fish sticks, sauce & peas. It is actually graham crackers covered in peanut butter & rolled in crushed up corn flakes, raspberry jam & green apple airheads rolled into little balls.

So certainly not the most healthy meal, but Hailee loved it. It was funny because she wouldn't eat the "peas" and we told her the joke and told her it was candy and she didn't believe us. Ty held them right up to her nose and told her to smell them. She said "It IS candy!?" and gobbled them right up, of course. :)