Crunchy Cereal Mix and Broncos Football

Sorry, everyone. Christmas has temporarily been preempted.

Why?

FOOTBALL!!!!!

Peyton Manning and the Broncos clinched the division title Sunday afternoon, AND Peyton Manning broke the NFL record for the number of touchdown passes thrown in a season!

CLICK HERE to watch Peyton Manning throw all 51 touchdown passes from this season - and be sure to notice what this classy guy says about the record.

It was an exciting game on Sunday afternoon...but even though Christmas was forgotten for about three hours and fifteen minutes, the Christmas baking went on.

I opted to make a batch of cereal mix - aka "Chex Mix" - while I watched the game. That way, if I really got caught up in watching Knowshon Moreno make another stellar run with the ball, the mix would still turn out fine.

This recipe is one for frazzled, distracted, or otherwise-employed cooks.

Easy-peasy! Even if you have to stop to watch Eric Decker catch another Peyton-pass.

Jan's Christmas Cereal Mix

Ingredients:

2 boxes of cereal, approximately 14 oz. each
    I use Great Value corn and rice cereal, but you can use your choice - just nothing presweetened
3 cups pretzels
1 cup mixed nuts
1/2 cup butter
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
4 teaspoons lemon juice
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce

Preheat your oven to 250°. Dump the cereals, pretzels and nuts into the largest pan you own. I use my roaster.

Melt the butter in a pan on top of your stove (or you can nuke it in your microwave). Once it's completely melted, stir in the rest of the ingredients (garlic and onion powders, lemon juice and Worcestershire sauce).

Pour the liquid over your cereal mix and stir, stir, stir.

Put the mix in your oven. Wait 15 minutes (and catch some more of the game - did Peyton Manning just throw another pass to Julius Thomas?). 

After 15 minutes, remove the pan from the oven. Stir, stir, stir again. Put it back in the oven for another 15 minutes. 

Go watch Matt Prater kick a field goal. (Did you know Matt Prater holds the NFL field goal record? 64 yards!!!!)

Do this four times (or five - you might lose track when the Broncos score another touchdown).

After a total of an hour or so, take the pan out of the oven and let the mix cool - stirring a few times during the cooling process.

Store the cooled mix in bags, containers, or covered bowls...and out of reach of the boys!

One of the great things about this mix is that you can make it with any combination of ingredients.

Don't like nuts? Leave them out!

Are you a Cheerios fan? Add them in!

Dried Cranberries? They're a great addition - after the cooking process!

What's your favorite way to make this time-tested treat?

And don't forget to watch the Broncos play the Oakland Raiders next week! 

You can even snooze through the game like Wynter does..... 

Vintage Memories and Paleo Loaf aka Fruitcake

We used to get a box of goodies from my grandmother. I think I waxed poetic before about the fudge and date nut cookies. But I love, absolutely loved the fruitcake cookies and fruit cake. Guess that makes me a bit weird. Fruitcake is one of those things that folks either love or hate. But for me, it is all about stoking memories of  bygone times by making vintage recipes.

I am all about vintage these days as I will be starting an etsy shop sometime in the new year focused on table top arrangements designed to invoke memories of the past of whatever decade. Gotta balance out the writing with a different kind of creativity. My market will be those who love vintage and also those who want something to spark conversation and memories with relatives and friends in nursing homes or the hospital.

The picture of me and my sisters in buns inspired the search for an angel with the same hairdo. The ornament on the top of the tree is from when I was little.

 
Isn't it funny how a recipe, a picture, a statue, a scent bring the past rushing back?

Did you have one of these?

 

Or did you have these on your Christmas cupcakes at preschool?

Did you have one of the mass produced fruit cakes that was all fake corn-syrup soaked fruit at Grandma's?  Or was it just about getting a candy cane at her house?

Here is a recipe that evokes the memory of fruitcake but is better for you and good to eat in the first place. None of that corn syrup-laden almost fake fruit. (Though I do miss the glazed cherries in all their red neon glory.) So you can make a new fruitcake memory! Maybe a better one, depending on who you are!

 

Gluten Free Fruitcake (adapted from celiac.com)

Note: You can make this recipe more paleo (low carb) by deleting some of the fruit and all of the sugar. If you sub out the fruit, be sure to add in the same amount of nuts.

1/4 cup orange juice

1 cup dried cherries

1 teaspoon lemon rind (dehydrated) or 1 Tablespoon fresh lemon rind

1 teaspoon orange rind (dehydrated)

1/2 cup raisins and 1/2 cup figs and 1/2 cup chopped dates (or any combination to make 1 1/2 cup dried fruit)

1/2 cup chopped pecans and 1/2 cup chopped walnuts and 1 cup chopped almonds (or any combination to make  2 cups nuts) 

1 cup gluten free baking mix

1/2 cup sugar (or none if you want to rely on the sweetness of the fruit)

1/2 teaspoon salt

4 eggs, beaten well

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

Put cherries and peel in orange juice to soak thirty minutes. Then drain, reserving liquid for later by storing in fridge.

Combine fruit, rind, and nuts.

Sift baking mix and salt.

Add to bowl and mix well.

Make sure the fruit and nuts are coated by the baking mix and looks like this!

Lightly stir in beaten eggs to moisten but don't over mix.

Spoon mixture into a buttered parchment lined large loaf pan. Drop pan on counter to get rid of air bubbles.

Bake at 300 for 1 1/4 hours to 1 1/2 hours (or longer) depending on how hot your oven runs and if you use a non-stick pan. Test with toothpick.

Immediately after taking the pan out of the oven, pour reserved orange juice over the loaf while hot.

Cool in baking pan for 30 minutes.

Transfer to wire rack and cool completely before slicing.

So what do you make this time of year that evokes a memories of Christmas or holidays long past? Have you gone paleo and are good during the holidays or do you set aside restrictions in your diet for the holidays?

Cellia's Cran-raspberry Gelatin Salad

Missy, here. I'm going to share my mother's cranberry-raspberry Jello salad with you. I'm sorry I don't have more photos! But I didn't take many last year when I made it (got sidetracked). And I'm not making it again until next week--too late for y'all.

SO… You'll have to just picture the cooking as best you can. :)

Cellia's Cran-raspberry Gelatin Salad

Ingredients:
1 Large box (or 2 small boxes) raspberry gelatin
1-1/2 cups of water1 can whole berry cranberry sauce
1 can crushed pineapple in heavy syrup (do NOT drain)
chopped pecans (however many you like)
8 oz. package cream cheese, softened
small 8 oz. container sour cream
1/2 cup sugar

On stovetop, mix together the Jello and water until dissolved.
Add in the can of cranberry sauce and stir until melted.
Add in the can of pineapple with the juice.

Remove from the stove and add in chopped pecans. I'd guess I used about a cup, maybe two. Pour into a 9x13 glass casserole dish. Cover and refrigerate until jelled.

Before serving, mix together the cream cheese, sour cream and sugar. Spread over the chilled gelatin. Sprinkle with a few chopped pecans if desired. It's probably a good idea to refrigerate until the topping is chilled as well so it'll cut easier.

I'm afraid I never got a shot of the completed salad! Things got too crazy right before serving Thanksgiving dinner (this was last year when we had my family here at our house).

So imagine it with a nice, sweet, creamy topping, sprinkled with a few chopped pecans for garnish.

I hope you enjoy it! What's your favorite Jello salad?

Forty-six Cents, a Christmas story re-visited

I am re-posting this story for today...

Because I love this story. Because it speaks to me of what Christmas is,
... and should be. I re-post this once every Christmas season because that night... the moments... the cold, the wind, the starkness of these old people's dress, spoke to me of love, of sacrifice, of vows, unbroken.... of sickness and in health, as long as we both shall live.

This was us, bell ringing a couple of weeks ago... No snow this time!
My little peeps inspired many folks to dig into pockets. They are enthusiastic ringers!!!

So bear with me as I tell you a story with nothing more to eat than hot chocolate provided by Critic's Family Restaurant...
And an old couple's sacrifice.

It was a cold, windy December night.

I was bell-ringing for the Salvation Army outside a mall in upstate New York.

It was the week before Christmas, and people were hurrying.

But smiling.

And nodding.

They dropped change in my bucket.

And "quiet money", too.

Beth and Mandy took turns being with me because it was bitter.

Temps were in the teens.

Wind chill? Straight out of the west, the direction I was facing. The temperature considering that?

Much lower.

A car pulled up, an older SUV with signs of wear. A driver emerged, came around the side, and opened the door for two elderly folks, a man and a woman.

They were not dressed for the weather. I hurried over and opened the mall door for them to get inside, and ached for the length of time it took them to walk, supporting one another, into the mall. Both were infirm,
but they seemed stronger as a unit than separate, each one holding the other up.

"Thank you," the woman signed to me as she passed through the door.

The man, hunched and thin, struggled to turn his bent head to smile at me, but the curvature of his spine made it very difficult. He dipped his chin lower in acknowledgement.

"You're welcome," I signed back, one of two signs I know. The other is "Feed me. Now."

(Not really, but I need a little comic relief before I tell you the rest.)

Time passes. Beth went inside to get me coffee. The restaurant actually sent out hot chocolate. Free. 

So nice...

It was growing late. Colder. Windier. Snowier.

The elderly couple came back through the door, one tiny bag slung on the woman's arm.

There was no driver. 

No car. 

No one was waiting for them, and I couldn't talk to them because I don't sign. Beth was a sign language major in college, but she was inside.

The man clung to the woman's arm. She held on tight to him, the bag and her small purse. They wore nothing but windbreakers, thin and unlined, the kind you find on the "El Cheapo" racks of discount stores. No warm scarves. No heavy jacket to protect them. I stood there, trying to tell them to go back inside, that I'd come get them when their driver came.

Of course they didn't understand me and I 'bout near cried.

Beth came out just then. She signed to them and the woman smiled, understanding, but then signed that  they'd better wait.

I didn't want them to wait. I was bundled in layers, and about thirty years younger, and I was freezing. My heart ached, watching them huddle, the inhospitable night gathering forces around them.

The car pulled up a few minutes later. By now, this old couple had to be frozen. Literally. But as the woman tried to head toward the car, the old man pulled his arm free and walked toward me.

The woman waited, a sweet smile on her utterly cold face.

The man came up to me. He tugged off the glove he wore, then went searching in his pockets for long moments, hunting up money. Bit by bit the hand withdrew coins.

A quarter. A dime. A nickel. Another nickel. A penny.

Forty-six cents.

He reached for me. His gaze rested on his own hand in explanation.

His hand was deformed with arthritis. Gnarled. Twisted. Turned. Virtually unusable. His hunched shoulders and bent neck were probably due to the same condition. My heart ached that this gentle, loving, bent man could no longer do the little things most of us take for granted. Like pulling change from a pocket.

He trained his gaze on mine. I could see he was afraid the money would drop into the snow and be lost so he wanted me to put it into the kettle.

"I understand," I said. Beth signed the words for me. 

"Merry Christmas and thank you."

He smiled.

Oh, that smile.

It was like God himself smiled at me through that bent, aged face. Cold. Wind-burnt. Poor.

Like the widow who shared from her lack, this man's sacrifice came from his need.

That was years ago, but I never face a problem, a predicament, a moment when I don't see the love and devotion of that couple to each other. To God. To others. And that gnarled hand groping for forty-six cents.

And that's what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.

Nutella stuffed Nutella cookies

Helloooooo, everybody! The Fresh Pioneer is back and this recipe involves FRESH Nutella. (See what I did there?)

'Tis the season of cookies and my kids saw a giant container of Nutella at Walmart. And so.... It would be wrong to just eat it with a spoon, right? (Ok, just play along.)


 Plus, it seemed as if Mr. MANLY MIXER (still not sure what his name is, but we're working on getting acquainted) was in the holiday mood. Looks like he's been using the snowflake paper punch!

 So, this recipe is the essence of EASE.
1 cup softened Nutella
1 cup chilled Nutella
1 cup flour
1 egg

Got that? One, one, one, one. We're not even making it to the number TWO.

But.... I've got six kids so I have to double. I'll use those math skills and... two cups of softened Nutella,  two cups of chilled Nutella (not in the picture), two cups flour, two eggs.

 Mic the flour, softened Nutella, and egg in a bowl. Mr. Manly Mixer was really enjoying this part.  Flatten in a 3 inch disc shape. Kids were thrilled with this. Mash, mash, mashity-mash.

 Take the Nutella from the fridge. (I had a feeling it would really slow things down if we were hacking the Nutella out of the jar as we try to assemble the cookies. Key to kids in the kitchen? Be prepared... So, I had an older kid hack out the Nutella into 1/2 tsp bits and put it back in the fridge. I'm sort of surprised there was anything left after she performed that task.)

 Flattern another cookie dough round and lay over the top. Now, these can be square, like ravioli, but who's got time for that? Plus, the circle is the most perfect shape in nature.

 While they're cooking at 350F for 8-10 minutes, make some tasty tea.

 Fresh from the oven, sprinkle with powdered sugar. It makes them look more festive (and less like poop, which someone said on facebook).

Crack them open....  Best eaten right away, so the Nutella inside is soft and warm. We actually took these to an ice skating party and they were delicious the next day!

Until next week, Christmas EVE!!!!

A Little Spritz Please

Only 8 more days until Christmas! Can you believe it? The Thanksgiving leftovers are barely gone. Now it's crunch time. Last minute gift purchases and, my favorite, baking time. Spritz is one of my favorite cookie recipes. Light, buttery cookies that are formed with a cookie press. And easy to make.

 

To make these babies, you're going to need:

• 1 cup unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp. almond or vanilla extract (I prefer to make these with the almond extract, however I have a son-in-law who is allergic to almonds, so for him I use the vanilla)

 

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

 

Cream butter and sugar. Yeah, like that. Just beat the living daylights out of it.



 

Beat in egg and extract until combined, then add remaining ingredients and mix well.

 



Place dough into a cookie press.

As you can see, it's very easy to shape.



 

"Press" you cookies onto a baking sheet, using whatever shape you like.

I like to add sprinkles before baking.



Bake until set, but not brown, approximately 6-8 minutes.

Remove from cookie sheet immediately.

See, they look almost the same as they did when they went into the oven, just a little fluffier. Well, except those few on the left. They did get a little over done.

 

We hosted a Christmas party Saturday night and I was doing a three-tiered stand with peanut butter balls and peanut clusters, so I wanted something to break up all that chocolate. And these look so festive on the plate.

 

From start to finish, these cookies didn't take more than thirty minutes. Perfect when you need something quick.

 

After the multiple parties, concerts, and other events of last week, we get to slow down for a few days. That is, until round one of Christmas arrives on Saturday. I can hardly wait.

 

What's on your holiday checklist this week?



Ham - or whatever - Puffs

Jan here, with a startling announcement. I've been eating less sugar lately, and one of the side effects is that sweet things just don't taste as good anymore. I never would have believed it, but I can actually pass by a plate of fudge without taking a piece!

My daughter's list of goodies for last weekend's baking extravaganza.
All sweet, like her :)

I haven't decided if that's a good side effect, or a bad one. I'll let you decide.

BUT, when I do find myself craving goodies, I'm likely to choose something savory, and sinfully delicious, like these Ham Puffs.

The great thing about these things is that they don't have to be made with ham. You can use chicken. Or mushrooms. Or ham and mushrooms. Or whatever.

You can even turn them into a sweet treat by adding in some sugar and chocolate. For coffee lovers, add some coffee to the mix, and stir some chocolate chips into the cream cheese. Or - wait for it - add some strawberry jam! Or whatever :) Just be sure to leave out the onion and hot sauce if you're going to make them sweet!

So, here we go.

Ham Puffs

Ingredients:
4 ounces cream cheese, cubed
1 can deviled ham (or deli ham, chopped fine)
1 Tablespoon minced onion
1/8 teaspoon hot pepper sauce
1 tube crescent roll dough

Notice supper cooking in the crock-pot...chicken for chicken tacos!
And I was going to add the mushrooms to the ham puffs, but they were voted down
by my mushroom-hating family :(

Mix the cream cheese and other ingredients (except crescent roll dough) together. You can do it by hand (that's what I did), or you can use a blender or food processor.

Don't forget the hot pepper sauce. We have several varieties around our house, but this is the one I used:

Unroll the crescent roll dough and separate into four rectangles.

Spread 1/4 of the cream cheese mixture on each rectangle and roll up jelly-roll style, from the long edge.

Cut each roll into five slices...

 ...and place them on an un-greased baking sheet. Bake at 425° for 8-10 minutes or until puffed and golden brown.

Let them cool slightly before serving.

Thatcher wanted to try one. Or twenty. But we said "no."

So sorry this picture is slightly blurry - but have you ever tried to get
a seven-month-old puppy to sit still?

Wynter didn't even ask. She knew better. What a wise dog she is. She's turning nine years old this week!

What does your Christmas-goodie-baking list look like? If your house is like mine, things get eaten almost as quickly as they're made!

Have a good week!