1. They’ve started advertising Valentine’s Day already?
2. Going going gone.
3. What is up with commercials using louder audio than the shows they sponsor?
4. Love old time tv shows.
5. Eyes forward.
6. OOPS, ut oh I gotta do it again.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to vegging after cleaning the whole house, tomorrow my plans include lots of vacuuming and sorting through garage boxes and Sunday, I want to watch football and finish the last Christmas present!
Egg Nog Cupcakes with Rum Caramel
Yield: about 18-20 cupcakes
For the Cupcakes:
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
¼ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
¼ tsp. freshly ground nutmeg
¼ cup dark rum or bourbon (optional)
1 cup eggnog
¼ cup vegetable or canola oil
1 tbsp. apple cider vinegar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup sugar
For Caramel:
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
6 tablespoons butter cut into small pieces
3/8 cup heavy cream
1/8 cup rum
For Frosting:
2 sticks of butter
4 1/2 cups powdered sugar
4 tablespoons egg nog
pinch of nutmeg
pinch of salt
Directions:
To make the Cupcakes:
preheat the oven to 350˚ F. Line cupcake pans with paper liners. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and nutmeg; whisk to combine. In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the rum, eggnog, vegetable oil, vinegar, and sugar. Beat on medium-low speed until well blended. Add in the dry ingredients and mix on low speed just until incorporated.
Divide the batter between the prepared cupcake liners, filling the cups 2/3 full. Bake 22-24 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool in the pan 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
For Caramel:
Whisk together the sugar and water in a medium saucepan and whisk over high heat until sugar is dissolved. Don’t stir the mixture but gently swirl the pan until it has reached a dark brown amber color. At that point whisk in the butter. (Careful- it will bubble up- don’t burn yourself.) Remove from the heat and whisk in the cream and bourbon. Allow caramel to cool in the fridge before filling/drizzling.
For Frosting:
Using an electric mixer, beat the softened butter until it is creamy and pale. Gradually add the powdered sugar until thick and creamy. Add the egg nog one tablespoon at a time until the texture seems right. Add the nutmeg and salt and beat for another minute or so.
To assemble:
Once the cupcakes have cooled, scoop a tablespoon-size amount out of each one with a small spoon or paring knife. Fill with caramel, pipe on frosting and drizzle with remaining caramel. Sprinkle with a dash of nutmeg and enjoy!
Cupcake Recipe adapted from: Annie’s Eats
From 1558 until 1829, Roman Catholics in England were not permitted to practice their faith openly. Someone during that era wrote this carol as a catechism song for young Catholics.
It has two levels of meaning: the surface meaning plus a hidden meaning known only to members of their church. Each element in the carol has a code word for a religious reality
which the children could remember.
So there is your history for today. This knowledge was shared with me and I found it interesting and enlightening and now I know how that strange song became a Christmas Carol…so pass it on if you wish.’
Merry (Twelve Days of) Christmas Everyone – and, remember, the Twelve Days of Christmas are the 12 days following December 25th. The Christmas Season runs until Epiphany, January 6.
DON’T FORGET TO TRACK SANTA FOR THE KIDS!
BANANA RAISIN NUT BREAD OR CAKE
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup butter, 1/2 soft & 1/2 melted
2 jumbo eggs
2 tablespoons cinnamon
1/2 cup golden raisins, currants or craisins
1/2 cup crushed walnuts
2 large, RIPE bananas
1/2 cup sugar
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
*This recipe will make 2 large loaves or 1 cake. If making bread, skip the frosting.
FROSTING (optional)
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup butter, softened
juice of 1 small lemon
1 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
Once upon a time I had a cute terra cotta garlic roaster. It held one head of garlic. It was one of the many kitchenware items that I owned, “needed” but did not use. Why? Well basically because it did only hold one head of garlic and you know the frugal side of me, was not going to heat up an oven to roast one head of garlic.
Enter the muffin pan. You can load up your pan with 6 heads of garlic, plus they stay upright. Obviously if you need more than six heads of roasted garlic, grab a 12 cup pan. Roasted garlic is a delicious way to eat more garlic, which is very good for us.
Roasted Garlic the easy way
adapted from Pinterest
350 degree oven
1 muffin pan
1 head of garlic for each “cup”
olive oil
Slice the point off to expose the tips of the garlic cloves. Place each each in a separate “cup”.
Drizzle with olive oil. Cover with foil, roast for 45-55 minutes. Or until soft and lightly brown in your oven.
Let cool and enjoy!
To use the cloves, when cool enough to handle, carefully break the head apart to separate the cloves. When ready to use squeeze the roasted garlic out from the papery skin.
Warm roasted garlic is delicious “spread” on bread instead of butter.
You can also coarsely chop the (removed from the papery skin) garlic and toss it with hot pasta, additional olive oil and dry bread crumbs. Pass Parmesan cheese at the table for each to use.
Mash some cloves into soft butter, spread on cut bread, broil Heavenly!
I think you get the idea, it is really easy to enjoy roasted garlic, so get roasting already!
As always, thanks for taking a moment to stop and say hello. We appreciate your time and your wonderful comments!
For more great recipes, come and visit us at Our Sunday Cafe!
1. Ahhhh family time.
2. All the chiefs preparing Christmas dinner!
3. Creating a special birthday for a pre-teen girl made my year.
4. 2013 will contain at least 52 days of relaxation.
5. Kick start the New Year with reasonable resolutions.
6. 12-21-12 was NOT the end of the world so plan on living a good full life.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to family time and a birthday party, tomorrow my plans include an early Christmas celebration with blended family and Sunday, I want to recuperate!
Instead of throwing the man out, Old George as he was known by his customers, told the man to come and sit by the heater and warm up. “Thank you, but I don’t mean to intrude,” said the stranger. “I see you’re busy, I’ll just go.”
“Not without something hot in your belly.” George said.
He turned and opened a wide mouth Thermos and handed it to the stranger. “It ain’t much, but it’s hot and tasty. Stew … Made it myself. When you’re done, there’s coffee and it’s fresh.”
Just at that moment he heard the “ding” of the driveway bell. “Excuse me, be right back,” George said. There in the driveway was an old ’53 Chevy. Steam was rolling out of the front.. The driver was panicked. “Mister can you help me!” said the driver, with a deep Spanish accent. “My wife is with child and my car is broken.” George opened the hood. It was bad. The block looked cracked from the cold, the car was dead.
“You ain’t going in this thing,” George said as he turned away.
“But Mister, please help …” The door of the office closed behind George as he went inside. He went to the office wall and got the keys to his old truck, and went back outside. He walked around the building, opened the garage, started the truck and drove it around to where the couple was waiting. “Here, take my truck,” he said. “She ain’t the best thing you ever looked at, but she runs real good.”
George helped put the woman in the truck and watched as it sped off into the night. He turned and walked back inside the office. “Glad I gave ’em the truck, their tires were shot too. That ‘ol truck has brand new .” George thought he was talking to the stranger, but the man had gone. The Thermos was on the desk, empty, with a used coffee cup beside it. “Well, at least he got something in his belly,” George thought.
George went back outside to see if the old Chevy would start. It cranked slowly, but it started. He pulled it into the garage where the truck had been. He thought he would tinker with it for something to do. Christmas Eve meant no customers. He discovered the the block hadn’t cracked, it was just the bottom hose on the radiator. “Well, shoot, I can fix this,” he said to himself. So he put a new one on.
“Those tires ain’t gonna get ’em through the winter either.” He took the snow treads off of his wife’s old Lincoln. They were like new and he wasn’t going to drive the car anyway.
As he was working, he heard shots being fired. He ran outside and beside a police car an officer lay on the cold ground. Bleeding from the left shoulder, the officer moaned, “Please help me.”
George helped the officer inside as he remembered the training he had received in the Army as a medic. He knew the wound needed attention. “Pressure to stop the bleeding,” he thought. The uniform company had been there that morning and had left clean shop towels. He used those and duct tape to bind the wound. “Hey, they say duct tape can fix anythin’,” he said, trying to make the policeman feel at ease.
“Something for pain,” George thought. All he had was the pills he used for his back. “These ought to work.” He put some water in a cup and gave the policeman the pills. “You hang in there, I’m going to get you an ambulance.”
The phone was dead. “Maybe I can get one of your buddies on that there talk box out in your car.” He went out only to find that a bullet had gone into the dashboard destroying the two way radio.
He went back in to find the policeman sitting up. “Thanks,” said the officer. “You could have left me there. The guy that shot me is still in the area.”
George sat down beside him, “I would never leave an injured man in the Army and I ain’t gonna leave you.” George pulled back the bandage to check for bleeding. “Looks worse than what it is. Bullet passed right through ‘ya. Good thing it missed the important stuff though. I think with time your gonna be right as rain.”
George got up and poured a cup of coffee. “How do you take it?” he asked.
“None for me,” said the officer..
“Oh, yer gonna drink this. Best in the city. Too bad I ain’t got no donuts.” The officer laughed and winced at the same time.
The front door of the office flew open. In burst a young man with a gun. “Give me all your cash! Do it now!” the young man yelled. His hand was shaking and George could tell that he had never done anything like this before.
“That’s the guy that shot me!” exclaimed the officer.
“Son, why are you doing this?” asked George, “You need to put the cannon away. Somebody else might get hurt.”
The young man was confused. “Shut up old man, or I’ll shoot you, too. Now give me the cash!”
The cop was reaching for his gun. “Put that thing away,” George said to the cop, “we got one too many in here now.”
He turned his attention to the young man. “Son, it’s Christmas Eve. If you need money, well then, here. It ain’t much but it’s all I got. Now put that pea shooter away.”
George pulled $150 out of his pocket and handed it to the young man, reaching for the barrel of the gun at the same time. The young man released his grip on the gun, fell to his knees and began to cry. “I’m not very good at this am I? All I wanted was to buy something for my wife and son,” he went on. “I’ve lost my job, my rent is due, my car got repossessed last week.”
George handed the gun to the cop. “Son, we all get in a bit of squeeze now and then. The road gets hard sometimes, but we make it through the best we can.”
He got the young man to his feet, and sat him down on a chair across from the cop. “Sometimes we do stupid things.” George handed the young man a cup of coffee. “Bein’ stupid is one of the things that makes us human. Comin’ in here with a gun ain’t the answer. Now sit there and get warm and we’ll sort this thing out.”
The young man had stopped crying. He looked over to the cop. “Sorry I shot you. It just went off. I’m sorry officer.”
“Shut up and drink your coffee ” the cop said.
George could hear the sounds of sirens outside. A police car and an ambulance skidded to a halt. Two cops came through the door, guns drawn. “Chuck! You ok?” one of the cops asked the wounded officer.
“Not bad for a guy who took a bullet. How did you find me?”
“GPS locator in the car. Best thing since sliced bread. Who did this?” the other cop asked as he approached the young man.
Chuck answered him, “I don’t know. The guy ran off into the dark. Just dropped his gun and ran.”
George and the young man both looked puzzled at each other.
“That guy work here?” the wounded cop continued.
“Yep,” George said, “just hired him this morning. Boy lost his job.”
The paramedics came in and loaded Chuck onto the stretcher. The young man leaned over the wounded cop and whispered, “Why?”
Chuck just said, “Merry Christmas boy … and you too, George, and thanks for everything.”
“Well, looks like you got one doozy of a break there. That ought to solve some of your problems.”
George went into the back room and came out with a box. He pulled out a ring box. “Here you go, something for the little woman. I don’t think Martha would mind. She said it would come in handy some day.”
The young man looked inside to see the biggest diamond ring he ever saw. “I can’t take this,” said the young man. “It means something to you.”
“And now it means something to you,” replied George. “I got my memories. That’s all I need.”
George reached into the box again. An airplane, a car and a truck appeared next. They were toys that the oil company had left for him to sell. “Here’s something for that little man of yours.”
The young man began to cry again as he handed back the $150 that the old man had handed him earlier.
“And what are you supposed to buy Christmas dinner with? You keep that too,” George said. “Now git home to your family.”
The young man turned with tears streaming down his face. “I’ll be here in the morning for work, if that job offer is still good.”
“Nope. I’m closed Christmas day,” George said. “See ya the day after.”
George turned around to find that the stranger had returned. “Where’d you come from? I thought you left?”
“I have been here. I have always been here,” said the stranger. “You say you don’t celebrate Christmas. Why?”
“Well, after my wife passed away, I just couldn’t see what all the bother was. Puttin’ up a tree and all seemed a waste of a good pine tree. Bakin’ cookies like I used to with Martha just wasn’t the same by myself and besides I was gettin’ a little chubby.”
The stranger put his hand on George’s shoulder. “But you do celebrate the holiday, George. You gave me food and drink and warmed me when I was cold and hungry. The woman with child will bear a son and he will become a great doctor.
The policeman you helped will go on to save 19 people from being killed by terrorists. The young man who tried to rob you will make you a rich man and not take any for himself. “That is the spirit of the season and you keep it as good as any man.”
George was taken aback by all this stranger had said. “And how do you know all this?” asked the old man.
“Trust me, George. I have the inside track on this sort of thing. And when your days are done you will be with Martha again.”
The stranger moved toward the door. “If you will excuse me, George, I have to go now. I have to go home where there is a big celebration planned.”
George watched as the old leather jacket and the torn pants that the stranger was wearing turned into a white robe. A golden light began to fill the room.
“You see, George … it’s My birthday. Merry Christmas.”
George fell to his knees and replied, “Happy Birthday, Lord Jesus”
This story is better than any greeting card.
MERRY CHRISTMAS AND GOD BLESS!
Now clear the lump from your throat, blow your nose, and send this along to a friend of yours or someone who may need a reminder as to why we celebrate Christmas.
CHOCOLATE CARAMEL APPLE CHEESECAKE BARS
CRUST
2 cups flour
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
2 sticks butter, softened and cubed
FILLING
2-8 ounce bars cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sugar
2 large eggs
2 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon vanilla
FRUIT LAYER
3 large apples, peeled, cored and finely chopped
3 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
STREUSEL
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 cup flour
1/2 cup quick cooking oats
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 stick butter, melted
TOPPING
12 KRAFT caramels, melted in double boiler
4 ounces milk chocolate chips, melted in double boiler
