Hello friends! Another Christmas season is in the books and once again, I felt like it went too quickly. I have to say this was one of our better ones. My son just turned 8 this fall and he went into the season the most excited that I’ve ever seen him for Christmas. It made the whole season extra special and extra fun.
Here’s some of the food and recipe highlights!
I started the season off with a small get together with a few friends-one of whom I hadn’t seen in two years. My friend who hosted (Hi Claire!) had her home decorated beautifully and it really got me in the Christmas spirit. Also getting me in the Christmas spirit was all the tasty food! I made Peanut Butter Fudge and Brownie Mix Cookies to share. Other friends brought goodies too so it was really nice that evening to relax by the tree and nibble on a sweet treat (or two). My son scored a huge cupcake which he enjoyed tremendously.
Brownie Mix Cookies
Since neither of my picky eaters would try a Brownie Cookie (do you see what I live with here?), I made Chocolate Chip Cookies the next day. I normally use Betty Crocker Cookie Mix for my chocolate chip cookie needs but this time I decided to use the Martha Stewart recipe that my mom swears by. You can find it here. It’s a winner!
If you follow me on Instagram (@mindascooking), you know that my husband let me open my Christmas gift early: a bread machine! I was unfamiliar with using one but it’s been very simple to use and I’m pretty excited about it. On our last day of work for the year, I tossed the ingredients for White Bread into the machine and let it do its thing while I finished up my work (a perk of remote work). I made a pot of Baked Ziti and by the time my husband came home, the house smelled amazing. It was a great way to start off the break. The bread was SO good and it made absolutely outstanding French Toast the next morning. The first loaf was a bit lopsided but my second one looked much better.
One of the things that my son asked to do over the holidays was to bake sugar cookies. I’ll admit that I was a bit intimidated with rolling out dough and cutting out cookies because my only experience had been using Pillsbury ready made dough. I asked for some advice in one of the Facebook groups that I’m in and a wonderful lady sent me her recipe along with her tips. She bakes sugar cookies as a side business so she knows her stuff. I didn’t tackle royal icing for them since I wanted to get comfortable with the dough first. Using her tips, these turned around really well and now I’m ready to try the icing! My mom especially enjoyed these. I’m going to ask for permission to share the recipe here on the blog in the future.
Speaking of my mom, for our family gathering she made a Red Velvet Roll. This is a terrible photo because it’s basically the leftover pieces that I brought home but you can see that she has a swirl that would get her a Paul Hollywood handshake.
And speaking of old Blue Eyes, I made a Paul Hollywood cake recipe for Christmas Day. Ladies and gents, I give you the Victoria Sandwich…
I followed the recipe that can be found here in Paul’s YouTube video. This recipe was a bit of an adventure because the amount of the ingredients are all based upon the weight of the eggs. I bought this food scale just prior to the holidays since my bread machine book recommended using weighted measurements. We enjoyed the cake and I found it especially tasty with some afternoon tea or coffee.
So yes, we ate well during the holidays. I hope that you and yours remained safe and well during the closing days of 2021 and wish you a joyous 2022! Thank you for your support of Minda’s Cooking.
Now tell me, what was your favorite during the holidays?