Still looking for the perfect Christmas gift that is easy, inexpensive, and loved by all?
Your problem is solved: give the gift of fudge! That's right. Mix up a few batches, pop them in some festive foil baking cups, and nestle them in decorative tissue paper and tins. Then kick back with a hot chocolate and enjoy your favorite Christmas movies while everybody else kills themselves looking for a parking space at the mall.
No baking is required. None. Zip. It can be made ahead and refrigerated, so it saves you time. Plus, each batch costs only a few dollars and can be made in less than 10 minutes.
Holiday Goodies
Holiday Goodies
Rice on the Wild Side
Thanksgiving may be my favorite holiday. Families gather. And as they surround the dining table they celebrate and give thanks for all blessings, including the bountiful meal before them.
When my mom was living, she prepared most of the Thanksgiving meal herself. Trying to please everyone, she’d make baseball-sized dumplings and sauerkraut for my German dad, lump-free mashed potatoes for the grandchildren, sweet potatoes with a crunchy topping of melted marshmallows for her daughter-in-law, stuffing for her son-in-law, and lentils for herself and me. My brother wasn’t hard to please. I think he ate everything. And, of course, there was always a huge turkey. I am not kidding when I say there was hardly room on the table for our dinner plates.
Not to be forgotten was the wild rice. In Minnesota, where wild rice is plentiful, most cooks have favorite ways to prepare this “gourmet grain.” It seems my mom could never come up with a recipe that lived up to her expectations. Too dry, too mushy, not enough flavor, too much sage or thyme…just never quite right. Her wild rice challenges may have been due to the fact she had been transplanted in Minnesota from Indiana, where she had never even heard of this aquatic grass seed, the only grain native to the North American continent.
Honey Gingerbread Cookies
Christmas is not complete without gingerbread, be it houses, cookies, cake, or any dessert flavored with those warm spices of ground ginger, cinnamon, and nutmeg. The dense spicy cake traces its roots to 11th
century Europe. There are so many versions from eastern Europe all the
way to Scandinavia, but I'm focusing on the cookie. In Germany there is
Lebkuchen and Pfeffernüsse. In Hungary, gingerbread cookies are called
Puszedli. They look just like Lebkuchen, but are smaller. Polish
Pierniki are also quite special cookies. The town of Toruń is famous
for their heart-shaped cookies, filled with jam and covered in
chocolate. These cookies all share similar ingredients and flavors.
Puszedli and Lebkuchen are made with honey and have a lighter color
than the gingerbread cookies Americans are familiar with. The
traditional decoration is a whole almond pressed into each cookie. Then
the cookies are brushed with a sugary glaze that gives them a wintry
look. But since neither cookie has almonds in the dough, I forgo the
nut decoration and keep them simple. I make the classic round cookies
and heart cookies to mimic the Polish treats. But if you're so inclined
to decorate the cookies with nuts, walnut halves are traditional with
Puszedli. Pecan halves, for an American twist, would do the trick just
as well. These cookies, as with all gingerbread, are best made ahead of the
holiday. They get better and softer with age.
Rice Krispie Coconut Snowballs
Do you love coconut as much as I do? If you do, then these Rice Krispie Coconut Snowballs are going to make you smile. The Rice Krispies become this sugary coconut delivery system. What could be more perfect?
Now, my husband, he completely dislikes coconut. It kills me! I don't know how he lives...(he'll love that I said that too). I guess he could never live in the South with all the amazing Coconut Cream Pie he'd have to turn down. And then there's the most amazing Coconut Cake I've ever made. Swoon! He'll never know what he's missing. More for me.
This is truly a quick and easy recipe, perfect for the cookie platter. The sugary whipped egg whites keep the mixture together, letting you form the mixture into little snowballs.
During a holiday season so full of red and green, the snow white color is a welcome reprieve. It gives balance to the Christmas crazy that can sometimes take over the house. I find these cookies to be an elegant reminder of the serenity of wintertime.
Best Traditional Scottish Shortbread Cookies
Another classic Christmas cookie - Shortbread is a traditional Scottish dessert that consists of three basic ingredients: flour, sugar, and butter. According to Wikpedia, this cookie resulted from medieval biscuit bread, which was a twice baked, enriched bread roll dusted with sugar and spices and hardened into a soft and sweetened biscuit called a Rusk.
Eventually, yeast from the original Rusk recipe was replaced by butter, which was becoming more of a staple in the British Isles. Despite the fact that shortbread was prepared during much of the 12th century, the refinement of shortbread was actually accredited to Mary, Queen of Scots, in the 16th century.
The name of one of the most famous and most traditional forms of shortbread, petticoat tails, were named by Queen Mary. This type of shortbread was baked, cut into triangular wedges as they are in this recipe from Cook’s Illustrated.
More Articles ...
Welcome to the new One for the Table ...
Our Home Page will be different each time you arrive.
We're sure you'll find something to pique your interest...