Here are some snacks from past posts to make and enjoy at your New Year’s Eve party. Have fun and stay safe!!
White Chocolate Peppermint Popcorn
Here are some snacks from past posts to make and enjoy at your New Year’s Eve party. Have fun and stay safe!!
White Chocolate Peppermint Popcorn
Here is a great snack for New Year’s Eve. Actually, this snack would be great any night this winter in front of a roaring fire, in front of your favorite movie, or binge watching your favorite TV series. This recipe comes from Jamie Oliver and his wonderful Christmas special from a few years ago. You can find the original recipe here. I made this Spiced Sugar as soon as I saw it, gave jars away to family and friends, and have kept the recipe to make again when my supply of this delicious condiment is gone. That day has come. I’m all out of the wonderfully fragrant Spiced Sugar and I desperately need to make more. I’m hooked on this stuff – it’s amazing! The sugar is great on popcorn and it’s such a great snack. The original recipe I used was printed from the Jamie Oliver website, so I’ll just type the recipe out here.
Here is the recipe as I made it:
Spiced Sugar
(This is the full recipe – I made half of this.)
Whiz in food processor until well blended:
3 fresh bay leaves (I used dry)
zest of 2 oranges, finely grated
zest of 2 lemons, finely grated
6 whole cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
10 gratings of whole nutmeg
1 vanilla pod, halved lengthwise
Add:
2 pounds sugar
Whiz again until mixed together.
Since it’s pretty moist, put mixture onto a baking tray and spread out evenly to dry for a few hours.
Once it’s nice and dry, sieve it to remove all larger pieces of spices.
Discard what’s left in the sieve, then put spiced sugar into an airtight container.
To make the popcorn:
2 Tablespoons olive oil or coconut oil
2 Tablespoons butter
heaping 1/2 cup popcorn kernels
Melt oil and butter in a large pot or dutch oven with a lid.
Add popcorn kernels.
Cover with lid (if you don’t, you’ll be sorry!).
When popping stops, put popcorn into large bowl and immediately sprinkle on the spiced sugar.
The ingredients are so unbelievably fragrant. I just took my time making it and enjoyed every heavenly moment of it, breathing deeply and inhaling all of the spicy goodness.
The food processor really does a good job pulverizing and mixing all of the spices and sugar.
I let the sugar sit for at least 2 hours and it definitely got drier and crusty. After using the sieve, the leftovers would be good in a simmering potpourri or just sitting in a pretty bowl. It just smells so good!
Here is the final, beautiful product. Isn’t it pretty?!! Put in jars it makes a wonderful Christmas gift.
I don’t think you could use air popped popcorn for this because it’s too dry. You’d have to add something to keep the sugar from totally falling off of the popcorn. Making popcorn in a pan is the best anyway. If you wanted it to really be special, a drizzle of melted butter before sugaring wouldn’t be out of the question.
Here is the beautiful spiced sugar popcorn. Wow.
You’re going to want to just keep on making popcorn. Go ahead and make several batches.
This sugar is good on anything: oatmeal, cereal, on top of cookie frosting, on top of cakes or muffins, and especially on hot buttered toast. The list could go on and on. You have to make some of this delicious, multi-use, very addictive spiced sugar. You’ll find a million uses for it – if you have any left after the many batches of popcorn you’re going to want to make. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
I’m sharing one of my favorite Christmas photos today. This is me when I was 3 and Santa with the mask – that’s my Grandpa. I’m shocked that I actually took the present from him because I was always so scared of Santa. Maybe it had something to do with the creepy mask! I’m sure he wore it because if he didn’t have a mask, I’d know him, but wow.
This was taken at my other Grandma and Gramp’s house and those are my cousins with me. Christmas there was always a lot of fun and total chaos!
The recipe for today comes from my other Grandma. She loved to cook and loved to have all of us at their house for the holidays. I remember her making this Christmas Layer Salad once in a while, and I remember that it was very good and very festive. It looks more complicated than it really is, but it does take some time. Each layer is firmed up before adding the next.
This really is easier than it seems!
Here is the recipe as I made it:
Christmas Layer Salad
Use a 9″ x 13″ pan.
It’s helpful to read through entire recipe before starting.
Lime layer:
Dissolve in 1 cup hot water:
1 – 3 ounce package lime Jello
Add:
1 cup crushed pineapple and juice
Chill until firm.
Cheese layer:
Dissolve 1 1/2 teaspoons Knox Gelatin in 2 Tablespoons cold water.
Add:
8 ounce cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup milk
Spread over firm lime layer.
Cranberry layer:
Add 3/4 cup sugar to 1 cup ground cranberries.
Let sit for several hours (I did this first before anything else so it had time to sit, but you could even do it the night before).
Prepare 2 – 3 ounce packages of raspberry or strawberry Jello according to package instructions.
Add cranberries to Jello.
Cool.
Pour over cheese layer and chill until firm.
The first thing I did was get the cranberries ground (I used my food processor) and mixed with the sugar so it could sit for a couple of hours.
Here we go with layer #1 – mixing the green layer and getting it into the refrigerator to firm up.
Next is layer #2 – mixing the middle white layer, spreading it over the green layer, and into the refrigerator to firm that one up.
The final layer #3 – mixing the cranberries with the strawberry Jello, pouring it over the middle white layer, and into the refrigerator to firm up.
Here is the salad ready for the refrigerator. I was surprised at how fast the layers set up. This was overall, pretty fast to make.
Here is the final salad – so pretty!
You can see the three separate layers – so festive!
This salad is absolutely delicious! The Jello layers are “plenty sweet” but the middle creamy layer tones that down and makes it so good! My other Grandma loved Christmas and loved to cook. This has a lot of steps, but is really easy and quick to make. I can see why she wanted me to have this recipe. It’s just about the most festive Christmas salad I’ve ever seen!
Today’s recipe comes from my other Grandma! I can’t remember a Christmas growing up when she DIDN’T make this Nut Brittle. My Gramp liked candy and Grandma made him several kinds to choose from every year. She made Nut Brittle, Hard Candy, Chocolate Bon-Bons, and Fudge. Gramp would also bring home candy from work at Christmas time that you wouldn’t see at any other time of the year. That’s the beauty of growing up in a smaller town – there were people who actually made candy at Christmas time and would go around town and sell it. I remember two kinds of candy specifically – one that was white hard candy rectangle that had a black walnut filling in it, and one that was almost like sponge candy, only different. I don’t exactly know how to explain that one, but it was delicious. We spent most Christmas Eve’s with my dad’s side of the family because we had cousins to be together with on his side. We don’t have a lot of photos of Grandma and Gramp at Christmas time, probably because she was in the kitchen most of the time – she loved to cook, too. Here is one photo we do have from the early 1970’s and it’s me, my sister, and Grandma. There are those matching plaid jumpers again – and my sister must have opened a present and is really loving that puppy! Ha!
Grandma must have just had her hair done (by one of her neighbors who had a salon in her basement) for the holiday – it’s looking good! I love and miss that smile of hers!
This is really a pretty easy and delicious brittle.
Here is the recipe as I made it:
Nut Brittle
Mix together and set aside:
1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
In a 3 quart heavy saucepan, stir together:
2 cups sugar
1 cup white corn syrup
1/2 cup water
Boil rapidly until it reaches 275 degrees.
Add:
1 1/2 cups raw peanuts or other coarsely chopped nuts
Continue boiling, stirring often, until it reaches 295 degrees.
Remove from heat.
Add:
baking soda and salt mixture
1/4 cup margarine (I used butter)
Immediately pour hot mixture onto greased baking sheet.
When cool, break into pieces.
I have also used cocktail peanuts instead of raw peanuts when making this and it seems to come out just fine.
Adding the baking soda, salt, and butter turns the hot syrup into molten lava!!!
I don’t spread it once it’s on the baking sheet – I like it thicker.
This makes a big batch – a whole baking sheet full.
My family can never get enough peanut brittle at Christmas time. I always end up making a second batch. This recipe is really a good one. Make some for your family this year!
This time of year reminds me so much of Grandma. She and Grandpa were such entertainers. They would have friends and family over all the time for dinner or dessert, especially during the holidays. I loved to go to their house for Christmas because, of course, she was a great cook, but there were also some of my favorite decorations. This photo of me and Grandma is from Christmas time when I was about 2. When you entered the house at the farm, you had to go through the kitchen to get into the main part of the house. To get to the living room, you had to go through the dining room where the big attraction for me was the light up plastic church. This little church looked suspiciously like the church that Grandma and Grandpa belonged to and it had (most of the time) a red bulb in it that would glow like a beacon, drawing me in to sit in front of it for hours, totally fascinated. From the dining room, you moved on to the living room and the main event – the Christmas tree with its glowing colored bulbs and antique glass ornaments. This might have been the first time they had a tree on the floor – I must have outgrown the need to have the tree up on a table! We would have a wonderful dinner in the dining room, move on to the opening of presents, and then later, inevitably, it would be my job to pass around candy or a can of mixed nuts. I still have the fascination with light up churches and buildings. My mom started my Dickens Village collection with a church for my 25th birthday and it’s grown to cover the entire top of my kitchen cupboards. I also still have an obsession for antique glass ornaments and they cover our Christmas tree.
This is the Grandma I remember, with that smile of hers and her “wash and set” hair!
Today’s salad recipe is a great one to use for your holiday entertaining, dinners, or even just a weeknight dinner. This Cranberry Mousse is a very easy and tasty salad. This is such a typical “Grandma” recipe – you can pull it together so quickly, it would be a great addition to any meal – good with your holiday turkey or ham.
This is delicious!
Here is the recipe as I made it:
Cranberry Mousse
1 6 ounce package of Strawberry Jello
1 cup boiling water
20 ounce can of crushed pineapple, drained (save the juice)
16 ounce can whole berry cranberry sauce
3 Tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
16 ounce (2 cups) sour cream
1/2 cup pecans, chopped
Dissolve jello, add pineapple juice.
Stir in cranberry sauce, lemon juice, lemon peel, and nutmeg.
Chill until mixture thickens.
Fold in sour cream, pineapple, and nuts.
Chill until firm.
If you can make jello, you can make this salad!
Mix it all up the night before and you’ll have it ready for tomorrow night’s dinner.
I put this batch in my fanciest bowl!
There’s just not much to say – it’s delicious and great for a weeknight dinner . . .
or a holiday dinner or buffet. So when you’re entertaining and your friends and family are coming for dinner, try this salad. It’s easy, elegant, tasty, and full of fruit – they’ll love it!
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