Thank you so much for sending your holiday traditions and recipes and please please please keep them coming, I would love to continue this through the new year!
I have some great recipes for you this week, have a fabulous weekend!
The first holiday tradition comes from Cara: The recipe for Maggie's Favorite Cranberry Cookies is found in the children's Christmas book Cranberry Christmas - a 70's classic children's book my mom used to read me in the winter. We first made these easy sweet and tart cookies together when I was really little.
Maggie's Favorite Cranberry Cookies From “Cranberry Christmas,” by Wende and Harry Devlin, 1976
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter or margarine
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup milk
2 Tblsp lemon juice
3 cups fresh (or frozen) cranberries, stemmed and chopped
1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
Preheat oven to 375. Measure flour, baking powder, soda and salt into a bowl; stir with a fork to mix.
Cream butter and sugars in a large bowl till fluffy; beat in egg, milk and lemon juice. Stir in flour a little at a time, until well blended; stir in cranberries and walnuts. Drop dough by teaspoons full, about one inch apart onto greased cookie sheets.
Bake 15 minutes, or till firm and golden. Remove to wire racks to cool.
Makes about 8 dozen cookies.
Ingredients:
2/3 cup of orzo
1 can of fat free chicken broth
1 tablespoon butter
2 heaping tablespoons mascarpone cheese
2 tablespoons blue cheese
1/3 cup frozen chopped spinach, thawed and wrung out
Salt and pepper
Directions:
1- Heat the butter in a small skillet. Add the orzo, stir until some pieces are browned.
2- Pour in the chicken broth, cook until most of the liquid absorbs and the pasta is cooked.
3- Add the spinach and cheeses. Stir until well combined. Taste- add seasonings as desired.
2/3 cup of orzo
1 can of fat free chicken broth
1 tablespoon butter
2 heaping tablespoons mascarpone cheese
2 tablespoons blue cheese
1/3 cup frozen chopped spinach, thawed and wrung out
Salt and pepper
Directions:
1- Heat the butter in a small skillet. Add the orzo, stir until some pieces are browned.
2- Pour in the chicken broth, cook until most of the liquid absorbs and the pasta is cooked.
3- Add the spinach and cheeses. Stir until well combined. Taste- add seasonings as desired.
VELVEETA Pasteurized Prepared Cheese Product, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
4 oz. (1/2 of 8-oz. pkg.) PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, cubed
1 can (15 oz.) black beans, rinsed
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
1 tomato, chopped
Mix all ingredients except tomatoes in microwaveable bowl.
Microwave on HIGH 4 min. or until VELVEETA and cream cheese are melted and mixture is well blended, stirring every 2 min.
Stir in tomatoes. Serve warm with tortilla chips.
And last but not least is from a fellow blogger at YAMS Designs. Lindsay unknowingly holds a special place in my heart because she was my first blog friend and I think she rocks.
Lindsay's cookies
Every year growing up, about a week - 2 weeks before Christmas, my mom would set aside a Saturday and bake her face off. My absolute favorite recipe of hers was the Kolaczki recipe she made. They were her mom's favorite cookies and a Christmas tradition for her since she was a baby. When I was little she would let me help her spoon in the jelly filling or sprinkle the powdered sugar on top. Her mom, my grandma, died Thanksgiving 1995. Ever since then, baking of these cookies has been especially important to me. My mom continues making her own recipe. Matt (the better half) and I have adopted his mom's recipe as our own to keep the kolaczki train rolling. This is her recipe that she brought over from Poland when she came here at the age of 18 :)
- 1 pound butter
- stick of cream cheese
- pinch of salt
- 1 and half cups flour.
- Mix all of the above & refrigerate for two hours.
-Roll out to about 1/4" thick - Dough will be very sticky (this is good!) you will need A LOT of floor on the rolling pin and the surface you roll it out on. And you will need to keep adding it.
-Cut out circles with a cup or glass, about 2" in diameter. Create a small indent or well in the center of each with fingers or the back of a teaspoon.
-Add jelly of your choice (small jar of raspberry, strawberry, apricot, etc), about 1/2 - 1 tsp each
-Bake 30 mins or so at 350 degrees. The rims will just be beginning to brown. Let cool.
-Sprinkle with powdered sugar and enjoy!
