Category: CHRISTMAS

We also both have “wish” lists, but they are really small as we really don’t need anything so once again we are always looking for the special item that will surprise the other. 😀 My list for this year hasn’t changed much since last year has AGAIN been so full of pandemic drama and unanswered questions.

Again this year I have a station set up just outside the front door in the alcove for delivery drivers with a nice variety of drinks and snacks for them to choose from.  They all seem to enjoy it and our regular drivers have come to know it will always be there. One of them saw me at the post office the other day and actually asked if there would be my ‘special Christmas goodies’ again this year.

I normally do this, but again this year tried for an even nicer variety so they really realize just how much they have become essential in this day and age.

I usually do a large plate of goodies for my neighbors and regular delivery people. But, this year again with smaller gatherings and everyone having been home so much and already snacking too much probably, I’m changing it up again to make it easier on me, more cost effective for me and more fun too.

These jars are from last year when I did gift jars for brownie mixes that can be used whenever they want instead of a plate of goodies that may go bad before they eat them all.

PEANUT BUTTER* BROWNIE MIX
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup baking cocoa
1 cup peanut butter chips*
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup FINELY chopped walnuts

• In a quart size mason jar, layer the ingredients in the order listed, packing down well between each layer. This is an important step s these ingredients literally fill the jar!
• Cover tightly. Store in a cool, DRY place up to 6 months.

Include a cute little square of Christmas fabric, some ribbon and tag with the following instructions:
ADDITIONAL INGREDIENTS
2 LARGE eggs at room temperature
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 teaspoon PURE vanilla extract
Powdered sugar for dusting (optional)

• Preheat oven to 350°.
• In a bowl combine eggs, butter and vanilla with the brownie mix, folding together in as few strokes as possible.
• Spread into a greased 8×8 baking pan.
• Bake 25-30 minutes until set.
• Cool on wire rack.
• Dust with powdered sugar if desired.
• Cut into squares.

NOTE: It is easy to change up this flavor by just changing the flavor of chips you use. I’m posting my peanut butter recipe, but you’ll notice the picture is of the jars I made with mint chocolate chips.  This batch of 12 had a variety of peanut butter chips, butterscotch chips, caramel chips and mint chocolate chips, LOL 😀 NOT all together  of course!

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These are this year’s recipes:

HARVEST SOUP – picture soon
3/4 cup dried split peas (yellow or green)
1/3 cup+ granulated beef bouillon
1/2 cup barley
3/4 cup dried lentils
1/2 cup dried, minced onion
3/4 cup long grain wild rice
3/4 cup mini bow-tie or alphabet pasta

You can do this two ways. You can make pretty layered rows of each ingredient ending with the granulated beef bouillon allowing it to trickle down through it all. Or you can mix it all together and then fill the jar and add a lid.

Include a cute little square of Christmas fabric, some ribbon and tag with the following instructions:
ADDITIONAL INGREDIENTS:
28 ounce can diced tomatoes (DO NOT DRAIN)
1 1/2 pounds stew meat
1 tablespoon butter or oil
1/4 cup flour
FRESH ground salt and pepper, to taste

• Dredge stem meat pieces in seasoned flour, shaking off excess.
• In a large stock pot melt butter or oil.
• Sear stew meat pieces.
• Add soup mix, 3 quarts of water and diced tomatoes.
• Bring to a SLOW boil.
• Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 1-2 hours until peas, lentils and rice are tender.
• Makes 16 cups.

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HERB RICE MIX ~ PER 1 PINT JAR:
2 cups long grain rice
2 tablespoons celery flakes
2 tablespoons dried, minced onion
1 teaspoon dried chives
2 tablespoons dried parsley
1 teaspoon dried tarragon
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon sera salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper

• Combine all the ingredients, mixing together well.
• Funnel into a pint sized mason jar.
• Seal with a fabric square between the ring and the lid.
• Tie with a cute ribbon that attaches the instructions.

INSTRUCTION TAG:

• In a saucepan over medium heat, bring 2 cups water and 2 tablespoons of butter to a boil.
• Add 1 cup of rice mix.
• Reduce heat, cover and simmer 20 minutes.
• Let stand 5 minutes or until all liquid is absorbed.
• Fluff with a fork and serve.

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CHOCOLATE PEANUT BUTTER COOKIES – this jar will be seriously FULL so pack each layer as tightly as possible!

1 cup PACKED brown sugar
1 1/2 cup powdered sugar
3/4 cup baking cocoa
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon sea salt

• In a 1 quart wide mouth canning jar, layer the brown sugar packing it down as firmly as possible.
• Add the powdered sugar also packing it down as much as possible.
• Add the cocoa once again packing it down firmly. With a dry towel clean excess cocoa from the inside edges of the jar.
• Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together. Add to the jar, packing tightly.
• Include a cute little square of Christmas fabric, some ribbon and tag with the following instructions:

additional ingredients
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup peanut butter
2 eggs

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Cream together the butter, peanut butter and eggs.
• Gradually sift in the dry mix.
• Shape into balls and place on a LIGHTLY oiled baking sheet.
• Bake 15-20 minutes.

✨Top 2 Winter Beauty Essentials?

• A NICE HOT SHOWER to relax and clean out the pores.
• A super moisturizer to keep away dry skin!

✨Top 2 Winter Fashion Essentials?

• I wait ALL year for it to be cold enough to bring out the boots!
  
• Scarves and gloves.  I have color combos to match anything.

✨ Favorite Winter Accessory?

• HATS & SCARVES of course!!!!

✨ Favorite Winter Nail Polish?

• Red for Christmas, but normally a pinky mauve. I just have too much red in my complexion.
  

✨ Hot Cocoa or Apple Cider?

• Homemade hot cocoa and MUST have marshmallows and or whipped cream!
• Apple Cider if it is made into a AVAL POTA TODDY!

✨ Favorite Winter Candle?

• Apple and Cinnamon

✨ Does it snow where you live?

• Yes, but after the SNOWMAGEDDON of 2019 with a week long power outage that left us freezing or the SNOW/ICE storm of 2013 that left the cul-de-sac as an ice skating rink, we hope for only flurries this year.

✨Have you ever made a snowman?

• Absolutely! And a snow woman and snow kids!
  

✨What is Your Favorite Holiday Movie?

• IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE tops the list! Home Alone, Miracle on 34th Street and they never get old either.  

✨What’s your favorite holiday drink? 

• Coffee
• Hot Tea
• Hot Cocoa
• Hot toddies

✨Candy cane or Gingerbread men?

• I like the chalk style peppermint, but I’m not real keen on actual candy canes and I like soft gingerbread men.

✨What’s your favorite holiday/Christmas song?

• That’s a tough call – depends on my mood… White Christmas, Silent Night and I’ll Be Home for Christmas

✨What is most important to you about the holidays? 

• That it is genuine and homemade for the most part.  It is not a commercial holiday for me.  I believe in trying to remember the real reason for the season and keep the Christmas spirit in my heart and life ALL year long.

Outdoor decorations haven’t panned out as well this year as we planned. The blowups are getting old and tired 🙁 we’ll rethink things for next year.

So I’m offering your the outdoor lights from the 2 local festivals, Festival of Lights and Shore Acres that we’ve been to locally over the years. Hubby did “announce” that we will be going to find a parking space to watch the Timber Town Toy Land Electric Light Parade on Saturday the 18th and I hope to get pictures that I will update this post with later.

The Festival of Lights is now over 20 years old and a great way to kick off the holiday season. It’s ALL Volunteer and NON-Profit. It began as a fundraiser sponsored by the Rotary Club to help get the city out of debt and then took on a life of its own and now helps with scholarships and special projects. The festival runs every night from Thanksgiving to New Years and was perfect for this year since it is a truly socially distant event. You can drive your own car or take a horse drawn carriage ride (normally and hopefully the carriage rides will be back in 2021) through the displays. They have also coordinated a local radio station to listen to as you view the displays. The night we went through the fog was moving in early so a few of the pictures look a bit “smoky”.

As of that year they have the world’s tallest (41 feet, 16,000 pounds with working jaw) nutcracker built by a local company (unfortunately the nutcracker was a no-show for 2020 because of COVID), 500,00 lights, 90 animated displays, 3D displays, horse drawn carriage rides through the displays and a Holiday Village with Santa, hot cider with a bake sale and a synchronized light show in the courtyard (also closed this year due to COVID). The displays depict fairy tales, the military, patriotism, the local logging industry, local vineyards, local fishing and the traditional Christmas songs and scenes. People come from all over to see it. Unfortunately for locals, it doesn’t change much, but is still fun every few years. The lights were all the same this year though!

Three of my favorite munchkins from next door were coincidentally there that same night we were so had to snap a few pictures of the discussions with Santa. They were sooooo young! Now 2 of the 3 tower over me and they’re only 13 and 15!

Even the lights with errors turned out cute. It was difficult to get great pictures or continuous pictures of the animated scenes since there were so many cars behind us.

This snowman is on a corner in our neighborhood hugging a light standard.

A couple years ago we went to HOLIDAY LIGHTS at Shore Acres on the Oregon coast. ALL of our travel is “AROUND” Christmas and never ON Christmas. And while it was beautiful I am so glad to be home this year with nowhere to go until 2022. We arrived fairly early, just before dusk so we could walk through and get the lay of the land before walking through a second time after dark. The displays were animated and themed.

Shore Acres is literally perched on a cliff above the Pacific Ocean and began as a private estate for Louis J. Simpson, a shipbuilder. Simpson developed the 3 story mansion complete with an indoor heated pool and ballroom as his “summer home”. The surrounding grounds included 5 acres of formal gardens full of shrubs , trees and flowering plants brought from around the world by himself and various lumbermen. There is even a 100 foot lily pond and caretaker’s cottage. The cottage still stands and was really decorated cute! I’d live there. I really wish I had seen the original mansion, but it has since been torn down after a fire in 1921 and the rebuild was never finished because of the depression and fell into disrepair. Oregon bought the property in 1942 for use as a public park. The gardens, lily pond and caretakers cottage were restored while the mansion was razed.

Shore Acres Holiday Lights is by decorated sponsors and volunteers. This was the 33rd Annual event. and is famous for its beautiful 7 acre botanical gardens and Japanese lily pond on the Oregon coast among the trees. It has over 350,000 lights, animated displays, Santa, choirs… A beautiful holiday tradition for the whole family.

Even on the years we travel to SIL’s party, we are home by Christmas itself. I love having our tree and decorations with a relaxed Christmas Day schedule. We do try and take 1 trip to see some sort of “City Sidewalks” type event.

These are a few of my favorite pictures from our trip to Holiday Lights at Shore Acres on the coast. We took some time to play in a couple of the small towns and stayed over so we didn’t have to drive the windy roads late at night in the rain. We were fortunate to be able to have lunch with an old friend to catch up the next day before we drove home. It was super rainy, COLD as all get out, but ALSO really beautiful. It’s a walking tour so umbrellas were a MUST, but also a hindrance at really seeing the true beauty of it all.

My husband would tell you I never met an ornament I didn’t like. He would also tell you that our tree is going to collapse under the weight of all of the sentimental and treasured ornaments. 😀 What he forgets is that MOST of the family has made me the “safety deposit box” for all things nostalgic.

One of our favorite shows was THE BIG BANG THEORY which always makes me laugh as I picture Penny asking about Sheldon’s Ornament Placement Template.

There is no such thing as a proper way to place an ornament in our house 🙂 We believe in the more the merrier theory.The ornaments below are some of our homemade bulbs.  Several years ago I made quite a few and then did them with my girl scout troop also.  Hubby liked them so well that we have now donated all our store bought bulbs and made MORE than enough of these for the entire tree.

My cousin that passed away in 2014 made the ornament below for me.  It will always be hung by my shooting stars in her honor even though I’m still mad at her for leaving the mess called A HOUSE FROM HELL for me to deal with as well as her father who swindled us out of more than $75,000 dollars, but that’s NOT a story for Christmas time.
And our handmade ornament by Design Chick Creations.

There are literally thousands of different advent calendars. These days most are promotional items and come in every form from daily chocolates to beers. You can make your own, find them on ETSY, EBAY… but what do they stand for? What is advent?

Advent itself is Christian followers remembering the birth of Christ in celebration of His birth and the anticipation of His return. Advent originates from Latin meaning “coming” or “arrival. Advent begins on the 4th Sunday before Christmas.

This year the first Sunday was November 28th, the second IS TODAY, December 5th and the third one will be the 12th. The third one is also known as Gaudette Sunday and is a time of rejoicing that the fast is almost over.

Advent calendars are a cute little way to help kids not only countdown to Christmas, but also learn along the way. Many families offer up a daily scripture or devotional reading to go along with the chocolate treat as a way to stay focused on the reason for the season.

Many families also use an Advent Wreath, burning the candles as they countdown to Christmas. Each week features a different liturgical theme. Traditionally the first week features hope and expectation of the Jewish people as they await the Saviour’s arrival and reminding Christian believers to wait for Jesus’ second coming. The second week focuses on preparation and the third week celebrates the coming of the Messiah while the final week celebrates God’s peace and love.

Both royal purple and Sarum blue are used to symbolize the preparation, penitence and royalty to welcome the new king at Christmas time while purple is also used as the color of suffering during the week of Lent and Holy Week. Most churches have shifted their emphasis to the Sarum blue for Advent and reserving the royal purple for the Easter season. Pink replaces the blue in week 4 as a shift happens to lessen the emphasis of penitence and turn the attention to the celebration of the season.

Red and green derive from old European practices using evergreens and holly to symbolize the ongoing life and hope that Christ’s birth brings to the world. Red and green are NOT actually liturgical colors for the season.

I DO try to make my own Christmas cards every year, and I PLANNED to do homemade again this year, but years like this last year full of COVID and the years before full of health issues, surgeries and issues from the HOUSE FROM HELL sometimes finds me sending out box cards. The carpet cleaning and the BIG Christmas decoration sort was a bit more time consuming and adventurous this year adding to the not getting to the Christmas card making.

They box cards are pretty cute and I’m glad to be using them up!  I WILL do homemade again next year 😀 I did try an annual letter a few times, but ended up in just doing a few paragraphs eventually hitting the highlights from throughout the year since.

I do still send Christmas cards out, but I fear they are becoming a thing of the past. Unfortunately I receive fewer and fewer each year it seems. Vitual cards just aren’t the same. AND I can’t reuse virtual cards the next year as gift tags.

What I CANNOT live without in winter is many many things, but these are my top items! The one thing I am absolutely sure of is that if I have a sore throat, dry skin, cold feet or hands, cold food or catch a cold I am NOT happy.

I drink a cup of green tea every night and try to make very balanced comfort food meals to warm up my family from the inside out. I also have a favorite new hot toddy, a Lemon Aval Pota Hot Toddy courtesy of McMenamins one of our favorite resort chains.

LEMON AVAL POTA HOT TODDY

2 ounces Aval Pota Whiskey
2 bar spoons QUALITY honey
Juice of 1 small FRESH squeezed lemon

• Pour ingredients into a coffee glass or mug and top with hot water.
• Garnish with a lemon zest twist.

Here are a few of our favorite soups and stews links for you.

• Russian Cabbage Soup
• Split Pea Soup 
• Red Chicken Chili
• Black Eyed Pea Chili
• Cabbage Roll aka Wagon Wheel Soup
• Navy Bean & Ham Soup
• Chicken & Sausage Gumbo

This is one of those categories that should be easy, but it’s a bit complicated for us. We always had a REAL tree. Until we didn’t.

In 2003 hubby’s National Guard unit was put on alert in September and by Thanksgiving they were shipping out to IRAQ. They left sunny southern California and headed to Washington to be integrated into the Army, which for hubby was easy because he had already served in the Army and then joined the National Guard so it was like going home for him. I was lucky because in the end he was named the Rear Detachment Commander and sent home to man the Armory and remaining guys.

But, I digress. While he was gone I needed to put up the tree and just couldn’t talk myself into doing a real tree by myself so I purchased a really nice artificial one. I put it up and decorated it that year and the next while he was still deployed. The following year we went back to a real tree. The year after that we moved to the north woods and REALLY enjoyed live trees again for a couple years.

During that time the artificial tree stayed boxed up. When we were in Texas live trees were exorbitantly priced so we used the artificial tree again for several years. When we came back to Oregon we went back to live trees until last year – the year of the COVID pandemic and the local tree farm closed early leaving us live treeLESS so we pulled out the artificial tree again.

LOL this is my long winded way of asking you if you can tell the difference between the trees below?  😀 Live or artificial doesn’t matter to us – being decorated with all the sentimental ornaments is what makes either tree special.

A LIVE tree smells good, but honestly a nice artificial tree is easier and a whole lot less mess. We did buy a LIVE spray for inside and a couple wreaths for outside!

Remembering back to being a kid always seems the same to me.  Dad would buy all sorts of nuts by the pound during the holidays and of course bring out the nutcrackers. There was always a box (or 2 OR 3) of See’s candies (I just loved the milk chocolate Bordeauxs and since there were only 1 or 2 to the box I always tried to be the first to find them) and there would be tins and tins of butter cookies, snickerdoodles, peanut butter fudge, chocolate fudge as well as the sugar cookies that us kids iced and decorated.

Here are a couple links to some favorites and a few recipes for even more favorites!

• BUTTERFINGERS
• SIMPLE LEBKUCHEN
  
• BOURBON EGGNOG COOKIES

One of our new favorites though for Christmas are GOOEY CARAMEL TOPPED GINGERSNAPS.

Whether you use homemade or store bought these cookies turn out swoon worthy of ANY holiday goodie platter. They are sooooo simple, but look and taste sooooo decadent.

GOOEY CARAMEL TOPPED GINGERSNAPS
42 gingersnap cookies, (homemade or store bought)
14 ounces KRAFT caramels
1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
1 cup + 1/4 cup finely chopped honey roasted peanuts
12 ounces combination of white and dark chocolate
Sprinkles of choice (I like chocolate for the holidays)

• Arrange cookies on cooling rack line baking sheet.**
• In a microwave melt the caramels with the heavy cream, stirring until smooth.
• Stir in peanuts.
• Spoon about a teaspoon over each cookie.
• Refrigerate until set.
• Alternately melt white and dark chocolates.
• Coat each cookie halfway with one of the chocolates, return to the rack allowing the excess to drip off.
• Sprinkle with sprinkles and/or crushed peanuts.
• Refrigerate until set.

NOTE** Wax paper or parchment paper works well also.

GINGERSNAPS
3/4 cup butter
3/4 cup CRISCO
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup molasses
4 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
2 teaspoons ginger
1 teaspoons ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon fresh grated nutmeg
sugar for rolling

• Sift together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, salt, ginger, nutmeg and ground cloves. Set aside.
• Cream butter and crisco together until smooth.
• Add sugar and molasses, blending until smooth.
• Add flour mixture gradually until well blended.
• Chill dough for at least 1 hour.
• Preheat oven to 375°.
• Roll dough into small balls
• Roll balls in sugar and place on cookie sheet.
• Bake 8 minutes for soft chewy cookies and 12 minutes for crisp cookies.

Then there are the tried and true favorites of the past!

PEANUT BUTTER FUDGE DROPS
2/3 cup HOT water
10 ounces Land of Lakes cocoa mix
2 cups JIF creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup light corn syrup
3 cups C&H powdered sugar, divided 2cups + 1 cup
2 cups crushed vanilla wafers
2 cups crushed ginger snaps
72 Hershey Kisses (I like the cherry cordials)

• Whisk together the hot water and cocoa mix until smooth.
• Add peanut butter and corn syrup. Blend until smooth.
• Add 2 cups powdered sugar and stir until well blended.
• Stir in cookie crumbs until well blended.
• Spray wax paper with PURE (these will be sticky so don’t forget this step).
• Drop heaping teaspoonfuls of dough onto the wax paper.
• Place the remaining 1 cup of powdered sugar in a shallow bowl.
• Roll each piece of dough into a ball and dredge in powdered sugar.
• Press your thumb into the center and fill with a Hershey’s kiss.

The category is cookies, but cookies come in many forms as far as I’m concerned 😀 These are some of my favorite Christmas “non-cookie” recipes.

My great aunt’s corn flake wreaths are not technically cookies, but they are a treat that I try to make at Christmas time. My great aunt who I only got to see a couple times a year used to make these every year, special just 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.

CRAZY AUNT LOUISE’S 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.

Another fun recipe that can be dressed up with colored sanding sugar are SEA SALT & CARAMEL RICE KRISPY TREATS.

SEA SALT & CARAMEL RICE KRISPY TREATS
8 cups Rice Krispies
50 Kraft caramels
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1/4 cup + 1/4 cup unsalted butter
1 bag mini marshmallows
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 teaspoons sea salt flakes

• In a medium sauce pan over  a low-medium heat stir together the sweetened condensed milk, the caramels and 1/4 cup unsalted butter until smooth.
• Remove from heat.
• Line a 9×13 baking dish with foil, extending over the edge.
• Spray with non-stick PURE or PAM.
• Melt butter in large sauce pan.
• Add marshmallows and stir  until just melted.
• Add vanilla, 1 teaspoon of salt and 1 cup of caramel sauce and stir until smooth.
• Remove from heat.
• Stir in rice krispies until evenly coated.
• Press into pan**.
• Cool completely.
• Pour remaining caramel over rice kripy treats and spread even with a spatula.
• Sprinkle remaining sea salt over top.
• Enjoy!
• Store in an airtight container.

NOTES:  **I use a stainless steel spatula that has been sprayed with PURE to keep it from sticking.  It helps to press down firmly to get an even level.

CINNAMON BUN CUPCAKES
CUPCAKES
1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 LARGE eggs
1/2 cup canola oil
3/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons PURE vanilla extract
1/2 cup sour cream

• Pre-heat oven to 350°.
• Line cupcake tins with papers.
• Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt together. Set aside.
• Whisk eggs for about 1 minute. They will become frothy and lightened in color.
• Add oil and whisk again until combined.
• Add sugar and whisk for about 1 minute.
• Add vanilla extract.
• Add sour cream to the batter, whisking until combined
• Now add the sifted dry ingredients to the bowl and whisk gently. Whisk batter until JUST until combined. DO NOT OVERMIX!

CINNAMON SWIRL
1 1/2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons white sugar

• Make the Cinnamon Swirl: mix 1 1/2 tablespoons of ground cinnamon with 2 tablespoons of brown sugar and 2 tablespoons of white sugar. Set aside.

ASSEMBLY

• Now start by pouring about 1 heaping tablespoon of the batter on the bottom of each cupcake tin.
• Sprinkle with 1/2 teaspoon of the Cinnamon Swirl mixture.
• Top with another heaping tablespoon of batter.
• Now, sprinkle another 1/2 teaspoon of Cinnamon Swirl mixture over batter.
• Top with another heaping tablespoon of batter.
• Using a toothpick, swirl the batter a few times to create a swirl effect.
• Top already swirled cupcakes with one final 1/2 teaspoon of the Cinnamon Swirl mixture.
• Bake for 10-12 minutes, checking halfway to rotate pans.
• Remove from the oven once cupcakes are lightly golden brown and puffed.
• Cool 10 minutes.

GLAZE
+/- 1 cup powdered sugar sifted
+/- 2 tablespoons milk

• Mix powdered sugar and milk together.

NOTES:  There are many factors that will affect your glaze consistency.  The brand of sugar you use, whether you use a scale or a measuring cup…  If your glaze is too thin and runny, add more sifted powdered sugar and test for consistency again.  If the glaze is too thick and not spreading, add a very, very small amount (1 teaspoon) of milk at a time, until you achieve your desired consistency.

GRASSHOPPER BROWNIES
11 ounce package dark chocolate pieces
1/2 cup butter
3 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
Creme-de-Menthe Filling (BELOW)
Dark Chocolate Ganache (BELOW)

• In a medium saucepan, melt and stir 4 ounces (3/4 cup) of the dark chocolate pieces, butter, and the unsweetened chocolate over low heat.
• Remove from heat; cool.
• Preheat oven to 350°.
• Line a 13x9x2-inch baking pan with foil, extending the foil over the edges of the pan. Grease foil; set aside.
• Stir sugar into the cooled chocolate mixture in saucepan.
• Add the eggs, one at a time, beating with a wooden spoon JUST until combined.
• Stir in vanilla.
• In a small bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda, and salt.
• Add flour mixture to chocolate mixture, stirring just until combined.
• Stir in the remaining 7 ounces (1-1/2 cups) dark chocolate pieces. Spread batter evenly in the prepared pan.
• Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes. Cool in pan on a wire rack.
• Spread Creme-de-Menthe Filling over cooled brownies.
• Place uncut brownies in the refrigerator while preparing the Dark Chocolate Ganache.
• Spread slightly cooled Dark Chocolate Ganache over Creme de Menthe Filling, spreading to the edges with a spatula.
• Cover and chill about 1 hour or until set. Using the edges of the foil, lift the uncut brownies out of the pan. Cut into bars.
• Place brownies in a single layer in an airtight container; cover. Store in the refrigerator for up to 3 days or freeze for up to 3 months.

CREME-DE-MENTHE FILLING
3 ounce package cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter, softened
3 cups powdered sugar
3 tablespoons GREEN creme de menthe
Milk (optional)

• In a large bowl, combine cream cheese and butter.
• Beat on medium speed with an electric mixer for 30 seconds.
• Gradually beat in 1 cup of the powdered sugar.
• Beat in creme-de-menthe.
• Gradually beat in remaining powdered sugar. If necessary beat in 1 tablespoon of additional milk to make the filling slightly thicker than a frosting

CHOCOLATE GANACHE
1/2 cup whipping cream
1 11 ounce package dark chocolate pieces

• In a medium saucepan, bring whipping cream JUST to boiling over medium-high heat.
• Remove from heat.
• Add dark chocolate pieces (do not stir).
• Let stand for 5 minutes. Stir until smooth.
• Cool for 15 minutes.
• Pour over brownies and QUICKLY spread evenly.

NOTE: You can substitute 2 tablespoons milk, 1/2 teaspoon mint extract, and several drops of green food coloring for the GREEN Creme-de-menthe.

BIG CHRISTMAS? QUIET CHRISTMAS? TRAVEL PLANS? Which of these applies to you this year? Is it the same most years? Has the pandemic altered your plans at all?

We’ve always been pretty much homebodies during the holidays. Then again we always lived fairly close to family so traveling was only short distances.

Personally I cannot fathom traveling through a airport or train station with BIG crowds even before the pandemic. The one time we did travel over the holidays, we made a trip out of it leaving well before the holiday and going home long after it.

When I was a kid one of my favorite traditions was that we did a BIG family get together with a buffet of food and opening our family presents on Christmas Eve. Unfortunately, after my dad passed, this tradition fell by the wayside.

This year again we will be having a quiet Christmas with just the two of us. There are several Christmas events leading up to Christmas we will be participating in with friends though.  We are also hoping some friends will be able to join us for New Years, but there are no plans set in stone yet.

So what are your plans?