Sick in bed = Sweets Recipes

Good Morning! Only 2 more days left in 2010 = Crazy… The older I get, the faster the years go by. Ohhh what I would do to be young again. I tried to find a really young picture of me on my computer…but this will have to do.

My sister and I on a New Years cruise in 03/04. Days where we had no worries – I had never seen a gym in my life – Ice cream, McDonalds and Easy Mac were staples in my diet. Those were the days.

Anyways – I’m not feeling too good this morning so I thought I’d share with you some of the recipes I made for the Christmas tins I sent out. You can NEVER have too many dessert recipes.

First up on the list – My grandma’s ever so popular fudge. Or maybe it was my Great-Granny’s. Either way its a family favorite.

(Sorry – I only have a picture of everything in two’s…forgot to take pics and had to open up someone’s Tin to photograph quickly!)

FUDGE

Ingredients

2 cups sugar
10 large marshmallows
1 – 6 oz can of Carnation evaporated milk
1 – 12 oz bag of chocolate chips (I use semi-sweet)
1 stick of butter
1 tsp vanilla

Rub small pan with some of butter, bottom and sides.  Bring sugar, marshmallows and evaporated milk to boil, reduce heat and stir (constantly) for 8 minutes.   Remove from heat and immediately stir in bag of chips, butter, and vanilla.  Once mixed completely, pour into prepared pan.  You must lick the spoon and pan…it is required. Stick pan in refrigerator until fudge is firm. IF there are leftovers, they should be kept in the fridge. You can also add nuts if you’d like….But i like to keep my fudge straight chocolate!

Next are my Grandma’s Christmas Sugar cookies – We’ve made these every year in December for as long as I can remember… My dad asks me to personally send him his own batch every year.

SUGAR COOKIES

Ingredients
1 lb margarine (4 sticks); softened
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
6 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 rolling-pin

Mix all together and then chill, covered for a few hours.  When you remove from fridge, leave it for an hour or so before you start to work with it.  The first batch always seems to be a challenge…so be patient as you roll it out.  Sprinkle flour on your surface before you start with the dough, and rub flour on the rolling-pin frequently.  Roll out to about 1/4 inch thick, and use cookie cutters.  Lift gently and place on ungreased cooking sheet.  Bake for 5 to 7 minutes at 375 degrees.  (If not quite done another minute or two.)  frost and sprinkle.  Caution:  they are addictive!

Excuse the crackberry photos. I like to refrigerate these too…Maybe i just enjoy everything with a chill.

Next is a combination of two of my favorite items…Yep, you guessed it. Peanut butter and chocolate! Reindeer chow 🙂

REINDEER CHOW

Ingredients

• 5 cups Crispix Cereal
• 1 cup peanut butter
• 12 oz. package of semi-sweet chocolate morsels
• 1 box confectioner’s sugar

1. Melt chocolate in microwave 1 minute at a time until melted.
2. Add peanut butter to melted chocolate and mix well.
3. In a large bowl (with a snap on lid), add melted chocolate and peanut butter to top of cereal and mix well.
4. Add confectioner’s sugar and cover bowl with lid. Shake well to coat thoroughly.

If you don’t have a bowl with a lid, you can place the coated cereal and confectioner’s sugar in a large ziploc bag and shake well. Although I found this method to be extremely difficult. Invest in the bowl with the lid.

Yep… that right there is extremely dangerous and addictive.

On to number 4… It doesn’t get any simpler than this one. I don’t even think my mom could mess it up 😉

FESTIVE PRETZELS

Ingredients

• 1 bag of mini pretzels
• 1 bag of coated candy vanilla flavored (found at Michaels or Jo-Ann Fabrics)
• Sprinkles or M&M’s (I used mint flavored sprinkles and Peanut M&Ms)

Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees. Place pretzels on baking sheet and top with 1 piece of vanilla candy. Place into oven for about 3-4 minutes until warm. Remove and stick your desired festive topping on top of the warm vanilla candy.

I taste tested a bunch of these. I couldn’t decide a winner.

I still have two more to share but I think I’ll save those for a different day. Even though I’m sick I feel like I should get SOMETHING done today.

Back to Reality…

Booo…Christmas is over! I feel like I’ve been on the go for the past 2 weeks…So today I took time to myself to just do whatever I wanted – and that just happened to be a whole lot of nothing!

I had an amazing Christmas! I must’ve been a good girl this year because I received A LOT of wonderful gifts that were all so thoughtful and perfect 🙂 The thing I love most about Christmas is getting to spend time with my family. There is never a shortage of love, laughter or fun. Another thing there is never a shortage of is food… We had enough food to feed a small army.

 

That right there is NO joke. Christmas Eve brunch is one of my favorite meals all year. I will have you know that every single one of these items were on my plate…Some once, some twice…some even three times. Don’t judge me please.

There they are… the peanut butter to my jelly, the bacon to my eggs, the cheese to my macaroni. These are my favorite people in the whole wide world (with a few missing 😉 ) and I don’t know where I’d be without them.

Ok, enough sappiness…More food talk.

We went to Yellowfin for dinner. I was too busy taste testing everything to take pictures but here is a list of a few of my favorite things

• cream of crab soup
• boardwalk fries
• thai shrimp eggrolls
• coconut shrimp
• shrimp scampi
• crab cakes

Can you believe that they asked for the check without asking if anyone (specifically, me) wanted to order dessert? Ugh, the nerve… So i snacked on a couple more sugar cookies and some mint M&M’s, and maybe a couple of other things. I’m surprised I was even able to fall asleep with all of that sugar running through my body!

Christmas morning we had a little bit of snow…but nowhere near the 10 inches they were calling for! Breakfast was edible, barely. Just kidding mom 🙂 I enjoyed it…

Annual Christmas jammie pic!

We took an extra long time opening gifts this year… I sipped on marshmallows w/ a tiny bit of hot chocolate 🙂

Back to grandmothers house we go! I put out the appetizers I had made.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cookie dough dip, 7 layer dip, Buffalo chicken dip…Dippity Dip Dip. I honestly had no room for dinner or dessert…but somehow I MANAGED to squeeeeze it all in. I’m such a trooper. Dinner was a traditional thanksgiving meal. Dessert was fudge. I quickly threw on the biggest pair of sweatpants I own and made big plans of eating healthy, working out and doing some day after Christmas Shopping at the mall. 1 out of those 3 were completed. There’s always tomorrow…….

Below are the cookie dough dip and buffalo chicken recipes I’ve been promising. I wish I would’ve taken a video of how quickly these appetizers disappeared but I was too busy shoveling them down my throat to bother. It was like they (we) were going to the chair the next day.

Tastiest Buffalo Chicken Dip

Ingredients:

• 1.25 pound of boneless skinless chicken breast (or approximately 3-4 chicken breasts)
• 1/2 cup of ranch dressing ( Hidden Valley, Kraft, or Wishbone)
• 1/2 cup of blue cheese dressing (use same brand as ranch)
• 1 cup of Franks Original Red Hot (do not substitute)
• 16 oz of cream cheese (you can use low fat – but really you should go all out on this one it DOES make a difference)
• 2 cups of cheese (I used cheddar and monterey jack)
• Green onions (optional)

You will also need these items to dip in your masterpiece: Carrots, celery, pretzel thins, french bread or a spoon. Whatever you feel is right 🙂

• Boil your chicken breasts on the stove until it’s fully cooked through. Pre-heat your oven to 375 degrees
• While the chicken is boiling – Mix cream cheese, franks buffalo sauce, ranch and blue cheese dressing for about 2 minutes or until completely smooth.
• When chicken is fully cooked shred with 2 forks. Add to sauce mixture with 1 cup of cheese and fold in carefully.
• Add to pyrex dish and sprinkle the remainder of cheese on top.
• Cook for 20 minutes until bubbling and browned.
• Dig in.

Creamy Cookie Dough Dip (3 different ways) adapted from this blog

1. 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
2. 1/3 cup brown sugar
3. 1 tsp. vanilla extract
4. 1 (8-oz) pkg cream cheese
5. 1/2 cup confectioner’s sugar
6. 3/4 cup semisweet mini chocolate chips
7. 1 100 calorie Brownie bites
8. 1/2 tablespoon of cinnamon
9. 1/4 cup of Creamy Peanut Butter
10. 1/8 cup of Cocoa Powder

• In a small saucepan, melt the butter with the brown sugar over medium heat. Stir continuously, until the brown sugar dissolves.
• Remove from heat, whisk in vanilla extract and set aside to cool.
• Beat the cream cheese and confectioner’s sugar for 1 minute.
• Slowly beat in the cooled butter mixture and beat again for another minute.
• Divide into 3 different bowls.
• In the first bowl add 1/2 tablespoon of cinnamon. Mix.
• In the second bowl add 1/4 cup of Peanut Butter and 3/4 cup of chocolate chips. Mix.
• In the third bowl add 1/8 cup of cocoa powder and brownie bits (break these apart first) Mix.
• Serve immediately (If you refrigerate remove 30 minutes prior so cookie dough can soften for dip)
• Plate with vanilla wafers, graham crackers or even cookies*

*Reminder – Broken cookies do not have calories. Especially around Christmas time.

I think I have a little bit of this leftover so….gotta go!

Questions

What was your favorite gift this holiday?

What was the best thing you ate?