Holiday Blog Edition 2

Thanks for reading our first edition. We were mighty proud. And a few tears were shed writing it. This edition is about our favorite tastes for the holidays. Family heirloom recipes, tasty traditions and new ideas.

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Jen- One of my favorite holiday scents is orange. Oranges studded with cloves with velvet ribbons usually adorn the table. Making them…not as much fun! One year I gave clove studded oranges and jars of fudge sauce. It’s so darn good. I have been known to just eat a few spoonfuls as a little pick me up! Making english toffee was another yearly tradition. Not for the faint of heart but the end result is so delicious. Large gingerbread cookies to hang on the tree were traditional in my grannys home. She always cut hers by hand but me….well I started a healthy obsession with large copper cookie cutters. I probably have every holiday shape there is. And nothing under 5 inches. With the big black labs I had as an adult…..there was no way to keep real cookies on my tree but we still make the cookies every year.

 

Best Fudge Sauce.

  • 1/2 cup butter

  • 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

  • 1 tbsp corn syrup

  • 1 cup evaporated milk

  • 2 cups confectioners sugar

  • 1 tsp vanilla extract

Place everything but vanilla extract in a heavy saucepan over love heat. Stir frequently as it melts and then as it becomes silky, whisk all together to ensure a smooth mixture. Bring to low boil, reduce heat and cook for 5 minutes. Do not let get to a rolling boil. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla extract. Pour into jars or serve over a really tasty ice cream!

 

Every year I try to pick some cookies or treats that I haven’t made yet. The possibilities are endless. New additions to the list are Cream Cheese Mints and Milk Chocolate Turtles. I’m such a sucker for christmas baking! Never enough time or quite frankly, enough people to eat them! The holidays give me an excuse to overindulge in recipe testing and half the joy is in the tools. Baking pans, cookie cutters, sparkling sugar, nonpariels, I’m a glutton.

 

Cream Cheese Mints.
• 8 oz. pkg. cream cheese
• ¼ c. soft butter
• 2 boxes powdered sugar (plus 1 box on hand for rolling)
• Food coloring
• Various extract flavors of your choice

Combine cream cheese and butter in heavy pan. Stir over low heat until cream cheese is soft, butter is melted and the mixture is easy to blend. Add powdered sugar. Divide dough into small bowls, as many flavors as you would like. Start sparingly with the flavors, you can always add more. Same with the color. Better to start light and make it more vibrant as you go. Mix each color with a separate spoon….don’t mix colors or flavors.

Line a cookie sheet with wax paper or parchment. Work the dough, one bowl at the time, by first rolling into small balls about one inch. If it’s too sticky, mix in a little more powdered sugar. You can use the bottom of a patterned glass or the tines of a fork to press the mints flat. Let them dry on the cookie sheet for a couple of days. Turning them over to dry halfway is a good idea.

 

Rachel- Oh the holidays….as much as I love the holidays, they also stress the hell out of me! I mentioned in our first post that I don’t bake for Christmas, reason being is my Mother bakes anywhere from 20 to I think her high was 48 dozen cookies each year. Therefore there really is no reason to add….plus she’s an excellent baker!

I’m going to share two recipes, one savory and one sweet.

Savory - Gramma’s Sausage Stuffing

The other reason I tend not to bake is, I like to improvise with my cooking,
and we all know that you cannot improvise in baking. My Gramma’s sausage stuffing
is a staple at our Thanksgiving dinner table. Typically my family, who is known for
having SO much food at our gatherings, typically averages about 5-10 lbs of stuffing
made for the holiday. This certainly could be made at Christmas too! The recipe below
is simply for one pound, and you can multiply from there.

One (1) pound ground pork sausage ( I have used either the Jimmy Dean Sage Sausage
or Mckenzie Pork Sausage
~1/4-1/2 cup of Mirepoix (fancy term for celery, carrot and onion all chopped up, for this
I would say one carrot, one celery, one small onion)
1/2 sleeve of saltine crackers, crushed
Bell Seasoning to “smell” (literally I add the spice until it smells like my Gramma’s stuffing,
approx. 2tbs, I don’t think you can ever use too much Bell Seasoning)

Bake at 350F until pork sausage reaches appropriate temp, ~170F. I would say approximately
1/2hr ( my 4lbs took about 1.5 hrs)


Sweet - Walnut Bourbon Balls
[Yields 3.5 dozen]

5 dozen(2.5 cups) crushed vanilla wafers
2Tbs cocoa
1 cup (sifted) powdered sugar
1 cup finely chopped walnuts or coconut or your nut of preference
3 Tbs corn syrup
1/4 cup of bourbon

Mix first 4 ingredients well.
Add corn syrup and Bourbon
Shape in 1” balls
Roll in powdered sugar
Store in covered container and enjoy!

Thanks for reading with us. We hope your holiday season is filled with joy and not so much stress. Support local and shop small. Eat lots of christmas cookies and drink lots of eggnog. Take some time and make some handmade gifts. Indulge and do things that make you smile. Take the dogs for a walk, breathe deeply and don’t let the kids make you crazy!! That’s our advice Love, Rachel + Jen.




Jen Wyman