Category: CHRISTMAS

There are 3 recipes that come to mind here.  The first is my OATNUT SOURDOUGH HERB DRESSING, a recreation of my dad’s cornbread dressing. Several years ago my brother asked me to try and reproduce the recipe as a scratch recipe and VOILA’, I did it! This wasn’t easy since daddy started with a box of Mrs. Cubbinson’s cornbread dressing cubes and then started winging it from there.

• Cut bread into bite sized chunks and spread out in a thin layer over cookie sheets.
• Bake at 200 degrees for 3-4 hours until pieces are actually hard.
• Chop all the vegetables.
• In a large cast iron pan melt 1/4 cup of the butter.
• Add the onions and saute until translucent. The add the celery and carrots and continue sauteing until crisp tender. Add the garlic last as it will burn first.
• Whisk together the water, better than bouillon chicken base and all of the seasonings.
• Add the melted butter.
• In a large pan toss the bread slices together.
• Add the sauteed vegetables and toss again.
• Add the liquid mixture and toss again until well absorbed.
• Fold entire mixture into at least a 9×13 baking dish.
• Bake uncovered 1 hour.
• At this point I use a small portion for our dinner that night and freeze the rest.
• When it’s time to cook it again, I defrost it, put it back in the same baking dish and bake it again, but this time covered with foil until the last 15 minutes so it doesn’t dry out. We like it crisp on top so I remove the foil the last 15 minutes.

The second is crazy aunt Lousie’s Corn Flake Wreaths.

My great aunt who I only got to see a couple times a year used to make these every year special for me.  My cousins and I would wait out on the front steps for her arrive just to see them, the wreaths that is. She always made them soooooooooo pretty and perfect!  Aunt Louise was just plain crazy it seemed to me.  I can’t pinpoint any one thing that made me think that, but as the years wore she continually proved it.  Let’s just say if the made a movie of her life, Shirley MacLaine would play her part.  Aunt Louise reminds me of Shirley’s character Ouiser Boudreaux in Steel Magnolias.

HOLIDAY WREATHS
(these are better when they are made a few days ahead)
30 large marshmallows (or 1 jar marshmallow cream)
1/2 cup butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 teaspoon green food color
3 1/2 cups cornflakes
Red Hots

• Combine marshmallows, butter, vanilla and food color in top of double boiler. Heat and stir frequently until well blended.
• Gradually stir in cornflakes until well blended.
• Drop onto wax paper and arrange into wreath shapes. I plop them onto the wax paper and then push out from the center to form the wreaths.
• Decorate with red hots.
• Let cool.
• If your house is warm – chill in refrigerator until set.

The third is a fairly recent one for my Marinated Prime Rib.

MARINATED and SEASONED PRIME RIB
5 pound boneless beef rib roast
3/4 cup Mad Housewife Merlot wine
1 small Vidalia onion, sliced thin
1/4 cup water
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
Avocado oil
*2 tablespoons  Savory Spice Shop Hidden Cove Lemon Garlic Blend
*2 tablespoons  Penzey’s English Prime Rib Rub 
*1 teaspoon  Penzey’s OR Savory Spice Shop’s Horseradish powder

• Whisk together the wine, water and Worcestershire sauce.
• Place roast in a large plastic bag that has been placed in a shallow baking dish.
• Pour marinade over roast and seal bag.
• Marinate 6-8 hours, turning bag occasionally.

• Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
• Place sliced onions in bottom of roaster.
• Drain roast and discard marinade.
• Rub roast generously with the avocado oil. Let roast sit on drainboard a moment to allow excess oil to drain off.  At this point wash your hands to remove the excess oil also so the rub will go on better.
• Stir together the Hidden Cove Lemon Garlic Blend, English Prime Rib Rub and the horseradish powder until well mixed.
• Sprinkle rub mixture over roast until well coated all the way around.
• Place roast, fat side up on onion slices.
• Insert oven thermometer.
• Roast until desired doneness (we like medium rare which was 135 degrees and about 2 1/4 hours), but no more!
• Transfer roast to cutting board and immediately tent with foil for 20 minutes before carving. This is the resting phase and mandatory to the perfect prime rib. During this phase your roast will raise another 10 degrees.

*If you want a thicker rub add more spices making sure to keep these proportions.

CARAMEL BUTTERSCOTCH FUDGE
1 1/4 cup milk chocolate chips
1 1/4 cup butterscotch chips
1/2 cup Kraft caramel bits
1 can Eagle-Brand sweetened condensed milk
1/3 cup Fisher’s Cinnamon Pecans

• Line a 9×9 pan with heavy duty foil leaving enough foil overhanging the edges to use as handle to lift the foil out of the pan after the fudge has set.
• Using a double boiler over medium heat melt the chips, caramel bits and condensed milk together until smooth.
• Immediately pour into the foil lined pan.
• Top with pecans using a piece of wax paper to press the pecans slightly into the fudge.

This is Cinnamon Roll day too – YUMMY! One of my favorite days of the year.  The recipe originally came from one of my favorite aunts who taught me a lot about art, cooking and just plain being creative.  I have made a few minor updates to suit our tastes, but this recipe was ALL her and a secret that my cousin and I kept until the day she died.

ROLLS OF SHARON aka CINNAMON RAISIN BUNS
ROLLS
2 packages Fleischman’s Rapid Rise Yeast
1/2 cup + 2 teaspoons sugar
1/2 cup WARM water
1 cup scalded milk (2 minutes in the microwave)
1/2 cup Crisco stick
5 cups flour, divided
2 large eggs, well beaten
1 teaspoon salt

• In a small bowl combine the warm water, 2 teaspoons of sugar and both packages of yeast until well blended. Set aside.
• In a mixing bowl combine the scalded milk, Crisco stick, 1/2 cup sugar and salt. Blend well.
• Add yeast mixture and blend well.
• Add the well beaten eggs and half the flour. Mix until well blended.
• Add the remaining flour (a little more if too sticky) and mix well until dough leaves the sides of the bowl and is elastic.
• With vegetable oil, wipe the inside of another bowl.
• Place dough in bowl and turn once.
• Cover with wax paper and a towel.
• Let rest in a warm place until double in size.

• Punch down and divide into 2 balls.
• Put one on the pastry board and one back in the bowl.
• Let rest 10 minutes.
• While resting prepare the filling ingredients.

• Roll the dough to 1/8 inch thickness in a rectangle about 18×24 inches.
• Spread half the melted butter over the dough and sprinkle with half the cinnamon sugar.
• Spread half the raisins over that.
• Roll tightly jelly roll style and cut into 18 rolls.
• Place rolls in greased pans 1/4 to 1/2 inches apart.
• Cover with wax paper and a towel.
• Let rise again until double in size.
• Bake 15-20 minutes at 350 degrees.
• While baking prepare the icing.

• When rolls come out the oven, put globs of icing on each one. Return to the oven for a minute or two to melt icing all over the rolls.

FILLING
1 stick melted butter
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon Pumpkin pie spice
1 cup golden raisins

• Whisk together the sugar and cinnamon until well blended.

ICING
1 stick butter, softened
3 3/4 cups powdered sugar
1 tablespoon powdered vanilla
4-6 tablespoons milk

• Mix all together until smooth.

When re-heating rolls, put a pad of butter on top of roll before microwaving.
These freeze really well.

Now there is much debate over Gran’s cranberry salad recipe, but one thing was for sure, she’d have to make a double batch, one for my mom and aunt and another for everyone else.  Now while I usually helped prepare the above recipe, I hated it!! One year she even decided the grapes needed to be peeled – need I say more?

I much prefer the recipe below.  Shhhh, don’t tell anyone, but I have been known to eat a whole batch by myself.  In my defense it was while I wasn’t feeling good and had a sore throat.

HOLIDAY SALAD
1 package (3 ounces) cherry Jell-o
1 package (3 ounces) black cherry Jell-o
1 1/2 cups boiling water
1 can (14 ounces) whole berry cranberry sauce
1 can (20 ounces) crushed pineapple, undrained
2 cups seedless green grapes, quartered
chopped pecans (optional)

• Dissolve the jell-o in the boiling water in a large bowl.
• Fold in the pineapple and cranberry sauce.
• Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
• Fold in grapes and pecans if desired.
• Refrigerate until firm.

Now on to the REALLY yummy stuff!

CHUNKY MONKEYS
3 cups crushed pretzels
1/2 cup sugar
scant 1 cup butter, melted

• Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
• Line a 13×9 cake pan with heavy duty foil, leaving plenty on the edges to use as handles later.  This will make clean-up so much easier.
• In a medium mixing bowl stir together the pretzels, sugar and melted butter until well blended.
• Press the pretzel mixture evenly into the bottom of the cake pan.

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup whipping cream
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
11 ounce package caramel baking bits (or 14 ounce vanilla caramels, unwrapped)
2 cups honey roasted peanuts

• In a medium saucepan melt butter over a medium heat.
• Whisk in the whipping cream and brown sugar until sugar is dissolved.
• Stir in caramel bits, stirring constantly until bits are melted and sauce is smooth.
• Add in peanuts to coat well.
• Immediately pour over pretzel layer, spreading evenly.

1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup milk chocolate chips
1/2 cup peanut butter chips
1/2 cup butterscotch chips
3/4 cup Heath milk chocolate toffee bits

• Scatter each of these over the caramel layer.
• Bake 25-30 minutes or until edges are bubbling.
• Cool in pan on a wire rack.
• Lift foil edges to remove bars from pan.
• Cut into bars.
• Layer between wax paper in an airtight container.  I store them in the fridge, but the can also be frozen for 3 months.

BUTTERFINGER COOKIES
Ritz crackers
creamy peanut butter
almond bark
sprinkles

• Spread peanut butter on ritz crackers and top with another cracker.
• Melt almond bark in the microwave.
• Dip each cookie in the almond bark and set onto wax paper to harden.
• If you’re using sprinkles do so before the almond bark hardens.

A few more favorites are: