We hosted Christmas at our house this year...making for a total of 9 people and 2 dogs in our house! It was a little chaotic at times, but it's the holidays, right?!
Our pretty little Christmas tree!
(never mind the section in the middle that the lights went out :) )
On Christmas Eve we had a little feast of finger foods which included:
veggie tray
spinach dip
fiesta ranch dip
summer sausage, cheese and cracker tray
cocktail weenies
shrimp cocktail
peanut butter balls
Oreo truffles
chocolate-peanut butter fudge
sausage stars
jalapeno poppers
Recipes:
Spinach Dip: This is something my parents have made for several years and I don't have the recipe...so I can't share it with you!
Fiesta Ranch Dip: A co-worker made this for a party we had and I fell in love! I know, what?!! I like something that's ranch?! That's because it tastes nothing like ranch. I didn't even know that they had this kind of ranch packets in the dressing aisle. It's with the dry packets that you can just add to sour cream. For this recipe: you'll need a 16oz container of sour cream, 8oz block of cream cheese, shredded cheddar cheese, and a fiesta ranch packet. Mix together and enjoy! Great on crackers, especially the honey wheat Wheat Thin stix.
Cocktail Weenies: I use the only recipe I know...chili sauce, grape jelly, cocktail weenies and a crockpot!
Peanut Butter Balls: All my cookbooks called for the recipe to be cooked...which I wasn't going to attempt on my day of prep...I wanted simple and quick results. I found this
recipe and cut it in half.
Oreo Truffles: This is another super simple recipe...a pack of Oreo's and 8oz of softened cream cheese. Crush the Oreo's in a freezer bag. Combine crushed Oreo's and cream cheese in a mixing bowl and mix until you have a thick chocolate mixture. Put mixing bowl in freezer for 10-20 minutes...when the mixture is firm, it's much easier to work with and roll into balls. I put them on a wax paper lined cookie sheet and put back in freezer while I'm melting the dipping chocolate. Melt the white chocolate in the microwave in 30 second intervals (you don't want burnt chocolate). Once chocolate is melted, dip the truffles and coat and put back on wax paper cookie sheet. I usually end up dipping the truffles twice because the first time, chocolate bits get stuck in the white chocolate and they don't look as pretty. So, once the first coating is dry, I melt more chocolate and dip again. You can use any flavor of Oreo's...this year I used peppermint and the girls loved them!
Fudge: I made easy (no marshmallow fudge), but used 3 different kind of chips...milk chocolate, semi-sweet and peanut butter. The recipe calls for 3 cups of chips (I did 1/2 peanut butter and the remaining half was a mixture of mostly semi-sweet and milk chocolate). After making a recipe of chocolate earlier, I realized that using all milk chocolate chips was a little overwhelming, so I decided to mix the chocolates so that I could get a good chocolate flavor and it worked!
Sausage Stars: These are my little brother's favorite Christmas Eve treat. And they're easy to make! You'll need browned ground sausage, ranch dressing, shredded cheddar cheese and wonton wrappers. Combine sausage, cheese and dressing to make the filling. Add a little bit of dressing at a time...you don't want it too runny. You can store the filling in the fridge until you're ready to make the stars.
I used a mini muffin tin, but you can use a regular muffin pan if that's all you have.
Preheat oven to 350. Place a wonton wrapper in each opening and then spoon half a spoon of the filling into each wrapper and bake for 10-15 minutes, until cheese is melted.
Jalapeno Poppers: I posted this recipe in a previous post. I prepped the filling the day before which allowed the flavors to infuse the cream cheese more and made the poppers taste even more amazing!
Christmas Dinner
After homemade waffles were served and gifts opened, the cooking for lunch began! Our lunch included:
ham
green bean casserole
cornbread corn
sweet potato casserole
broccoli mac and cheese
noodles
mashed potatoes
rolls
pumpkin pie
apple streusel pie
Paul started the ham in the roasting pan, which made room for everything else to go in the oven at various times. I used a variation on this
recipe for my green been casserole this year...I wanted to change it up a little bit and made it a little more fresh and homemade. Cornbread corn is a recipe given to me by my college roommate and it's a favorite of one of my step-daughters. Maybe next time I whip up a batch of the greatness that it is, I'll take some pictures and share it with you...maybe!
Paul requested sweet potato casserole this year, so the recipe search began. I found this recipe on Pinterest, and after we made it I realized that something was wrong with the recipe, but it still turned out great and everyone enjoyed it!
Sweet Potato Casserole: I'm going to share the recipe with you and then tell you where I think something needs adjusted (???).
3 c sweet potatoes
1/2 c sugar
1/2 c butter, softened
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 tsp vanilla
1/3 c milk
Topping:
1/3 c melted butter
1 c brown sugar
1/2 c flour
1 c chopped pecans
1. Boil and mash sweet potatoes.
2. Beat in sugar, butter, eggs, vanilla and milk until smooth and creamy.
3. Put in 9x13 greased pan and evenly distribute the topping.
4. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.
??? - If you mix the topping ingredients all together before distributing it on the sweet potato mixture, you'll get a gooey mess that won't spread on the sweet potatoes. I think what was supposed to happen was: combine brown sugar, flour and pecans and stir to mix. Then distribute evenly over sweet potato mixture, then pour melted butter over evenly. And, I'm not sure we used a full 3 cups of sweet potatoes, my dad kind of just eyeballed it, so maybe that would have changed the mixture a bit. So if you make this before I do, let me know how it turns out for you.
Thanks to Chef in Training for the
recipe.
Broccoli Mac and Cheese: This was a request of one of my step-daughters. My mom made it for her and she fell in love and requests it several times a year. It's just a homemade mac and cheese using small shell pasta, velveeta cheese, cream of mushroom soup, frozen broccoli, butter and bread crumbs. It bakes up nicely and goes fast!
Wow, what a post! Full of food...and it's making me hungry!
I hope you enjoy some of the shared recipes and that you can try some of them for your New Year's parties or other parties you have in the near future.
Happy baking and cooking!
