Kitchen Fun with Carol

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We spent time catching up and visiting with my family on Thanksgiving Day. On Friday we had a surprise visit from some out of town relatives. What a fun time! It is great to spend time with one another and visit with our siblings and nieces and nephews.

I do not know where you are with your Christmas baking but we are just finishing. We did some early baking. We sent some of the cookies in the mail as care packages to relatives who live far away. My side of the family has a cookie table where every family brings two or three dozen of their favorite cookies to share with everyone. It is fun to see all the different types of cookies that each family brings. So far we have made Snickerdoodles, Buckeyes, Double Chocolate Chip Cookies, Spritz, Chocolate Covered Pretzels, and Microwave Chocolate Fudge to share. We also like to make cookie baskets for our neighbors. It is nice to share a little joy with others.

One of our family traditions is to make and decorate sugar cookies. My high school sons even enjoy this project! In the last couple of years they have invited their friends over to help in the decorating process. One of our favorite Sugar Cookie recipes is from the 30 Day gourmet web site. It is very easy to make since you do not have to chill the dough.

I always stock up on sprinkles, colored sugars, and decorative dots to use as decorations. These are also good for decorating Chocolate Covered Pretzel Sticks. You dip the ends of the pretzel sticks in dipping chocolate and then coat them with sprinkles before for the chocolate dries. After the chocolate dries, wrap them in clear or colored plastic wrap and tie a ribbon around it to close it. It makes a great last minute gift for that chocolate lover on your list.

If you need some recipe ideas for the holidays, a great source for recipes is the 30 Day Gourmet web site! Click here to access our recipe database. Choose the kind of recipe you’re looking for (Side and Salad, Bread and Breakfast, etc.) and scroll through the list to see what sounds good to you. There are hundreds of recipes to choose from. There are lots of recipes on the web site that would make great last minute gifts. Some of my favorites are White Chocolate Snowmen (from the January 2007 newsletter), Hot Cocoa Mix, Pasta Fagioli Soup Mix, Peppermint Patties, Brown Sugar Cinnamon Coffee Cake, Brownie Bites, Oreo Truffles, Pretzel Turtles, and Holiday Jar Cookies.

Bonus Recipes

Double Chocolate Chip Cookies
These cookies are very rich and will satisfy that chocolate craving. They taste just like chocolate brownies but in cookie form. We make them with two kinds of chocolate chips. We use white chocolate and semi-sweet chocolate chips. If you want an even richer chocolate taste use all semi-sweet chocolate chips.

Closing Comments from Carol

I received a great email from Dawn about the Pumpkin Cake Roll recipe on the web site. She pointed out a typo on the recipe page and her sons’ reaction to the typo:

Thank you, Carol, for what I’m sure was an unintentional giggle.  My boys and I were looking at your Pumpkin Cake Roll recipe and noticed a typo that made both boys giggle.  If you note, in the assembly instructions, it says “For each recipe, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, gloves and salt in a small bowl..”  My seven year old shouted “Gloves!?!  I wonder if someone would really add GLOVES to the recipe instead of clover!”  LOL! We all make typos, but yours was adorable. Thanks so much for the holiday giggle. 

I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas! Best wishes to you and your family this holiday season.

Do you have any recipes that you would like to share? I’d love to try and share them with everyone. You can post your recipes on the 30 Day Gourmet Facebook® fan page or click here to send me an email. Or do you have any other topics that you would like me to cover? Click here to send me an email. I enjoy hearing from you!

Have fun in your kitchen!

Carol