Food for Friday

Do you like to bake and share homemade goodies for Christmas?  I remember once managing to acquire M&Ms® in the colors of a friend’s tartan (she plays in a bagpipe band), and putting together a cookie-mix-in-a-jar gift layered with those special candies ~ it was a real hit!

If you like to personalize your gifts with a handmade touch, check out Homemade Christmas, a collection of recipes, gift, and decorating ideas to help plan everything from tinsel at breakfast to your holiday open house and the gifts under the tree on Christmas morning.  There are even gift ideas for the beasts of both the field and the hearth.

This book includes a very wide range of recipes for all tastes and occasions, including some rather unique dishes.  Have you heard of Callaloo (crabmeat & coconut milk), Luku (starts with 8 hard-boiled eggs), or Lefse (Norwegian flatbread)?  There are also some very fun sweets recipes that kids would love to help with in the kitchen, such as this one.

Lincoln Logs

Ingredients
1 C chunky peanut butter
2 T butter, softened
1-1/4 C sifted powdered sugar
3 C crispy rice cereal
Chopped peanuts

Combine peanut butter, butter, and powdered sugar.  {They say that like it is so easy to incorporate things into peanut butter, don’t they??}  Add cereal; mix well, and crush slightly.  Shape into three 7×1-1/4″ logs.  Roll logs in crushed peanuts.  Wrap in plastic wrap and chill.  Slice in 1/2-inch thick discs.  This sounds awfully yummy to me!

C = Cup; T = Tablespoon

As I was flipping through the book, I noticed a letter from a contributor  about her family’s holiday traditions; gift opening did not commence til after a breakfast of homemade biscuits and chocolate gravy.  Chocolate gravy?  Here’s the recipe.

Chocolate Gravy

Ingredients
2 C sugar
4 T cocoa
1 stick butter or margarine
3 C milk, divided

Mix sugar, cocoa, and butter in large saucepan over medium heat.  Add 1/2 C milk; let mixture come to a boil, and cook for 10 minutes.  Add the rest of the milk, stirring constantly until mixture comes to a boil.  Reduce heat to simmer, and let cook for 30 minutes.  Serve over hot homemade biscuits.

I’m just thinking that maybe someone left a pan of hot chocolate on the stove a little too long, and then figured out how to salvage it – and chocolate gravy was born!  I’m just not sure I can handle that much chocolate at dawn, but maybe I’ll get a chance to try it one day.

Have a sweet weekend!  R.J. McDonald, Santa and wildlife painter, will be here Saturday and Sunday for a signing of his prints – he’s bringing a cookbook with him, too – I hope I’ll get to see what it’s about.

~Janet @ The Christmas Place

Food for Friday

Here’s a wonderful Christmas book compilation of recipes, tips, wrapping ideas, and holiday lore that will be a treat under the tree this year.  The Gooseberry Patch 10th Anniversary Christmas book is new in the Gift Gallery this season.  Filled with luscious photos of holiday decorations, directions for all sorts of Christmas crafts, baked gifts, and party ideas, chapters carry such titles as “Here We Come A-Caroling,” “Handmade Happiness to Share,” and “Simply Soothing.”  In addition to the rich instructional content, it’s a visual feast for the eyes!

As I leaf through the book, I see plenty of tips and recipes that I could use for events and celebrations year round.  I also see that it is much too close to dinner time for me to be picking out a recipe to share ~ they ALL sound fabulous…

Spiced Applesauce Cake with Caramel Sauce

1/3 C butter, softened
1-1.3 C sugar
2 eggs
1 C applesauce
1/3 C water
1-2/3 C all-purpose flour
1 t baking soda
1/2 t cinnamon
1/2 t ground cloves
1/4 t ground ginger
1/4 t baking powder
1/2 C walnuts, finely chopped

Beat butter and sugar together; beat in eggs, one at a time, until mixture is light and fluffy.  Add applesauce and water; set aside.  In another bowl, combine next 7 ingredients; blend into applesauce mixture.  Fold in walnuts.  Pour into a greased and floured 6-mold Bundt pan (each mold holds one cup).

Bake at 350 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in cakes comes out clean.  Cool in pan 10 minutes; remove cakes from pan and cool on a wire rack.  Place cakes on serving plates or mini cake stands and drizzle with Caramel Sauce.

Caramel Sauce

1 C brown sugar
1/2 C whipping cream
1/4 C corn syrup
1 T butter
2 t cinnamon

In a large saucepan, heat all ingredients to boiling, stirring constantly.  Reduce heat and simmer, uncovered for about 5 minutes.  Makes 1-1/2 cups.  Tastes great on spice cake, pound cake, shortbread and ice cream!

Christmas even has knitting, embroidery, & quilting instructions for cozy winter projects, and several pages of patterns and templates are included.  This is a very well-rounded holiday book  that could be your complete guide to celebrating this Christmas.

We just unwrapped a beautiful new collection of Christmas trays, divided snack trays, and coordinated platters, napkin rings, salt & pepper shakers, and mugs.  Our web photographer was taking pictures while I was, too, so they should be online shortly.  Here is one style, a striking red platter and mug ~ this would really look swell, filled with mini Spiced Applesauce Cakes, wouldn’t it now?  ~And a mug of Christmas coffee to go along with dessert.

Hope you enjoy a restful Labor Day weekend, and don’t forget to come on down to our clearance tent sale.  Also, the buy-3-get-1-free ornament sale is ongoing – we haven’t talked about it recently, but even the new season’s ornaments are included in this deal.

~Janet @ Christmas Place

Food for Friday

In my next life, I will be a person who has time to read cookbooks.  There are so many amazing publications from which to choose, so much creativity in recipes and ways of presenting them.  I have mad love for collecting recipes…and no time to enjoy them all.

Here’s a new discovery in The Gallery, The Great Southern Food Festival Cookbook.  This book covers 75 food festivals throughout the South, from Texas to Florida and Virginia to Kentucky, all states in between, and January to November (everyone’s busy shopping at The Christmas Place in December, of course).  Poke Salat Festival in Alabama, Gautier Mullet Festival in Mississippi (high fashion bad hair??), National Grits Festival in Georgia, RC & Moon Pie Festival in Tennessee, Chitlin’ Strut in South Carolina – we celebrate everything from apples to watermelon and spoonbread to shrimp.

Arranged by month, the cookbook includes a few photos along with mouth-watering selections from each festival.  I really want to share from the watermelon treats, but that’s not until next month!  July – hey, it’s the Slugburger Festival.  Let’s see what they’ve got…oh, it’s like elephant stew, but it only serves about 400, depending on how many patties you make from a pound of mixed pork, soy meal, flour, salt, and water.

Okay, I’m still turning pages, but my sister is pathologically afraid of melon in all forms, so I’ll skip the cantaloupe festival.  (Really, it’s like the way some people react to snakes, or those spiders that suddenly appear after they have grown to be three inches in diameter, or cracking gum-chewers.  The girl cannot abide a cantaloupe in her zip code.)  wait, where was I … food … recipes…Grilled Peaches!  I have had these before, and they are amazing.  You just have to try them.

Grilled Peaches

1 peach
juice of 1 lemon
1/2 C sherry vinegar or balsamic vinegar (I prefer to use a really good balsamic – it has to be Bravo’s good)
1/4 C firmly packed brown sugar
1/4 t freshly ground black pepper

Halve the peach; remove the pit; drizzle each half with about 2 teaspoons of lemon juice.  Cover with plastic wrap and set aside.

In a small saucepan, combine the vinegar, brown sugar, the remaining lemon juice, and the black pepper and boil until reduced by about half.  Place the peaches cut-side down on a hot, lightly oiled grill.  Cover and cook for about 2 minutes, or until there are grill marks.  Turn over and baste the cut sides with the vinegar mixture.  Cover the grill and cook for about 3 minutes more, or until peach halves are softened.  Enjoy!

Too bad I don’t have a grill.  Maybe I’ll have to see what the neighbors are leaving unattended on their patios, and sneak over after dark…  Doesn’t this sound like a great book to leave under someone’s tree this Christmas?  I’m just saying, only about 150 days to go.

~Janet @ The Christmas Place

Food for Friday – Elf Approved!

Today’s recipe was recommended to me by not one but two of our very own elves, Dee & Beth.  It’s from Granny’s Taste of Christmas, by Dianne C. Evans (Item 276003).

This delightful holiday cookbook is illustrated throughout with photographs of the author’s family and favorite Christmas treasures such as ornaments and decorations.  Geared toward the beginning cook (with warm memories for the experienced chef), it is packed with extra hints, cookings tips, and insights from Granny, who is clearly very experienced in the kitchen!

“How come a 2-pound box of candy can make you gain 5 pounds?”

Each chapter starts with a list of the recipes included ~ what a great idea.  Chapter titles include Yuletide Menus; St. Nick’s Nibbles, Bites, & Nogs; Visions of Sugarplums, Cookies; and Desserts Yule Love.  Most of the chapters end with a reprint of a traditional Christmas carol ~ you can cook and sing your way through the holidays!

Here’s the recipe our elves are singing about.

Shopping Day Casserole

4 chicken breasts, cooked and cut into bite-sized pieces
2 oz. jar chopped pimientos, drained
10-3/4 oz. can cream of celery soup
16 oz. can french-style green beans, drained
1 C mayonnaise
1 C grated sharp cheese for topping

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Mix all ingredients together (except cheese) in a large bowl; pour into a lightly greased 9×13 inch baking dish.  Scatter cheese evenly over top and bake for 30 to 40 minutes.  Makes 6-8 servings.

You can prepare this the night before, refrigerate it overnight, and pop it into the oven for an easy one-dish meal when you get back from a day of Christmas shopping .

Sure sounds yummy to me!

~Janet @ The Christmas Place

P.S. There is even a picture of the Duke & Duchess of Windsor in the book!  You’ll have to get your own copy to find out why.

Food for Friday

We just received a new cookbook at the store, Smoky Mountain Magic, from The Junior League of Johnson City, Tennessee.  Wow!  This one is packed with over 300 pages of wonderful recipes.  After last week, I really feel the need to share something healthier, so here is a salad recipe that you can easily prepare with low- or no-fat ingredients for a healthy and tasty addition to your well-rounded meal.

Apple-Swiss Cheese Salad

2 C cubed Jonathan apples (or any tasty red apples)
1 C shredded Swiss cheese
1/2 C chopped dates
1/2 C chopped celery
1 C shredded or finely chopped cabbage
1 T horseradish
2/3 C mayonnaise

Combine apples, cheese, dates, celery, and cabbage.  Mix horseradish with mayonnaise and  toss gently into salad.  Serve on a bed of crisp lettuce.  Serves 4.

Oh, man, I’ve got to stop doing this before lunch ~ unless I’ve prepared and brought the dish with me to eat!  This just makes my mouth water.  One page over in the recipe book I noticed a favorite of my family, Cucumber Mousse ~ yuuuuuummmmmy right down to the Worcestershire sauce…did you ever think to put those two ingredients together?  It works.

Call and ask for item 276008 – I’m getting ahead of the game with some of these cookbooks, sorry!

~Janet @ The Christmas Place

C = Cup; T = Tablespoon

Food for Friday

If you live in the Knoxville, Tennessee area, you need to check out the newest Indian restaurant on the west side of town, Taj.  Had dinner there last night with family, and I can’t wait to have my leftover Chicken Makhani for lunch today!  The makhani isn’t even on the menu, but the chef at Taj was happy to cook up the three dishes we wanted that weren’t listed.  The naan bread was hot and buttery and light and delicious.  The samosas, both veggie and meat (lamb) were terrific.  I could go on…..

I haven’t found an Indian cookbook in Christmas Place yet, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed!  Until then, how about a recipe from Ruby Ann’s Down Home Trailer Park Cookbook, by Ruby Ann Boxcar.  Ruby Ann’s smokin’ hot on the cover here!

Cooking’ so good, folks will be turnin’ off the wrestlin’ channel just to come ‘n’ get it!

Beautician, international entertainer and singer, and syndicated columnist Ruby Ann Boxcar lives with her husband Dew and their three dogs in a two-story double-wide pink trailer home at the High Chaparral Trailer Park in Pangburn, Arkansas.

Let me just say, these trailer park folk don’t know from low cal – you have to get to Chapter 12 on page 171 to find a main dish (past appetizers, drinks (featuring gallons of grape soda), bread, cookies, candy, desserts, and helpful hints – it’s all about priorities!).  Here’s one to entertain the kids.

Grill Master & Friend, Department 56

Chihuahuas

10 hot dog buns, toasted
6 oz corn chips
10 hot dogs, grilled
1 lb chili
1/2 head iceberg lettuce, shredded
1/4 lb Government cheese, melted

Line the buns with the chips, add the hot dogs, and top with a large spoonful of chili, lettuce, and cheese.

Look, this one included lettuce – what can I say, I tried!  This book is quite a hoot – it includes a map of the trailer park and a history of each of its residents.  Call and ask for item 285076 (couldn’t find it on the site).  A great gag gift or stocking stuffer for the right person!

We’re planning on a warm and sunny early spring weekend to welcome Daylight Savings Time here in East Tennessee – hope it’s fantastic for you, wherever you are!

~Janet @ The Christmas Place