Archive for the ‘Holiday dishes’ Category

I did the best onion soup ever and I truly think I hold the recipe to the best corned beef ever!  St. Patrick’s Day is my favorite time of year as it lends an excuse to make one of my favorite dishes.  You’ll love this recipe as I’ve been searching for years and trying new things and I finally found the best last year.  The combination of the dark beer and malt vinegar makes all the difference in the cooking process.

Ingredients

2 lbs yellow onion

2 lbs carrots

6 lb corned beef brisket

1 cup malt vinegar

8 oz  Irish Stout  beer

1 tbsp coriander seed

1 tbsp mustard seed

1/2 tbsp dill seed

1/2 tbsp whole allspice

1/2 tbsp black peppercorns

2 bay leaves

3 lbs cabbage

2 lbs red potatoes

For Glaze

1 cup coarse ground garlic mustard

1/2 – 1 cup orange marmalade (depending on how sweet you want the glaze to be)

Now, the cooking of this corned beef can be done in the crock pot or a 9qt dutch oven or a very big stock pot.  They all work.  The problem with the crock pot is that there is not enough room to cook all of the veggies so you have to cook the veggies in the liquid after you take the corned beef out to glaze it, which is fine though.  This year I am cooking it in my dutch oven..didn’t have one last year.

Peel and cut carrots up into larger chunks.  Cut onion into wedges.  Slice your cabbage heads into 8 wedges per head of cabbage.  Clean potatoes, they can be left whole or cut in half if you’d like.

Place beef in the bottom of the pot.  Add only 1 cup of onion and 1 cup of carrot.  Place rest of onion, carrot, cabbage and potatoes in fridge for later.

Add all the spices, beer, and malt vinegar to the pot.  Add enough water to cover beef.  Bring liquid to a boil then turn heat down to a mild simmer for 3 hours.  If you’re using crock pot, you’ll cook this all on low for about 6 hours.

Next step is to remove the beef if you’re doing the glaze.  I highly recommend the glaze, it is so delicious and everyone will love it!  So, remove the beef and place on a roasting pan, cover with glaze and finish in a 350 degree oven for 20-30 minutes.

When you remove the beef, place the rest of the carrots, onion, all cabbage and potatoes into the pot and cover and bring to full boil for 20 minutes or so.

Put this whole yummy meal on a platter and let the family go to town!! Always remember to slice your beef against the grain.  You won’t be sorry with this recipe, ENJOY!!!!

Okay folks, we’re comin down the wire here! Only 10 days until Christmas and I haven’t even baked my normal Christmas cookies yet!!  However, it will all start tomorrow along with pots and pots of strong coffee to keep me alert thru the next 10 long, long days and nights trying to make sure my children have a very memorable Christmas this year! And, of course to make sure we all have enough yummy cookies to eat.  I keep my list to only these four recipes as they each offer their own distinct and delicious flavors.  The most moist and simple butter cut-out I’ve ever made; classic thumbprints where you can choose your own favorite jam filling; a very simple yet decadent toffee; and my personal favorite, the Russian tea cake…the lightest, most delicate and sinfully sweet cookie I have ever tasted!  For now I will simply post the recipes, as I start this endeavour tomorrow I will add the pictures as I go.  Just wanted to give you all a chance to try these recipe gems out!

 Butter Cut-Outs

350 degree oven

10-12 minutes

 yeilds- A LOT of cookies, I’ve had this recipe for years copied down from my grandmother and I never wrote down the amount

 1 cup unsalted butter

4 egg yolks

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

1 tbsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 cup sour cream

1 1/2 cups sugar

5 cups flour

1 tsp salt

 Cream butter and sugar, one by one add egg yolks, then vanilla and sour cream. Add flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder together in separate bowl. Slowly add flour mixture until a dough is formed.  wrap in parchment paper or plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.  Roll out onto lightly floured surface until 1/8 thick.  Cut out and bake, decorate with your favorite royal icing and decorations

 Chocolate-Almond Saltine Toffee

 makes 2 1/2 lbs

 1 1/2 cups sliced almonds (6ozs)

approx 60 saltine crackers (enough to line a cookie sheet)

1 1/2 cups of sugar

3 sticks unsalted butter

2 tbsp light corn syrup

1 bag semi-sweet or milk chocolate chips

 Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and completely cover with saltine crackers in single layer. In a saucepan combine butter, sugar, and corn syrup on low heat until sugar is dissolved. Raise heat to med-high and cook undisturbed until the sugar mixture starts to turn golden, around five minutes.  Keeping the heat pretty high, insert candy thermometer and stir occasionally with wooden spoon.  Leave cooking until a deep caramel color forms and until it reaches 300 degrees.  Pour hot toffee over saltines, using a rubber spatula to spread.  Let sit for two minutes, then sprinkle bag of chocolate chips on top.  Wait another few minutes, then with the rubber spatula spread the chocolate evenly over the toffee.  Dust with almonds and place in freezer to harden.

 Russian Tea Cakes

 400 degree oven

ungreased cookie sheet

10-12 minutes

 1 cup unsalted butter

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup confectioners sugar

2 1/4 cups flour

1 tsp vanilla

3/4 cup chopped walnuts

 Cream butter and powdered sugar.  Add vanilla, slowly add in flour/salt mixture, then nuts.  Wrap dough in parchment or plastic wrap and chill in fridge overnight.  Roll into 1 inch balls and roll in confectioners sugar.  Bake, then after they’ve cooled for a few minutes roll again in confectioners sugar.

 Jam Thumbprints

 350 degree oven

13-15 minutes

makes 20 cookies so double or triple this recipe if need be

1/2 cup unsalted butter

1/4 cup granulated white sugar

1 large egg separated

1 cup flour

1/8 tsp salt

3/4 cup of your favorite finely chopped nuts

1/2 cup favorite jam

 Cream butter and sugar, add egg yolk.  Slowly add flour/salt mixture. If needed, chill dough for an hour or so.  Roll into 1 inch balls and dip in egg white then roll into nuts.  Place on cookie sheet an inch apart.  Using thumb make an imprint in middle of ball.  Add desired jam then bake, cool and enjoy!

Are you looking for that special something to make your holidays simple, yet unforgettable? Well, I’ve been making these two basic holiday staples for years and am happy to share them with you today. These are recipes that I have created and are so simple and easy you’ll think it’s too good to be true!! You can even prepare these a day ahead to save time.

so yummy my 2yr old had thirds!

cranberries dancing in the pan

the finsihed product, I prefer chilled