The actual 2024 Christmas cookie list

 

 It's high time that I share the actual Christmas cookie list for 2024.  It did not turn out to be a carbon copy of the tentative list.  So let's see.  We made 

Chocolate Mint Crisps*
Secret Spice Cookies*
Lemon Shortbread Thumbprints*
Whipped Shortbread*
Chocolate Spritz*
Eggnog Logs*
Almond Raspberry Thumbprints*
Chocolate Orange Cookies*
Sacher Torte Cookies*
Christmas Tree Spritz
Gingerbread Men
Blond Brownies*
Pepparkakor Spritz*
Chocolate-Filled Gingerbread Thumbprints*
Coffee Maple Spritz

* = multiple batches

 I have never made blond brownies as a Christmas cookie, but my hubby loves them and he insisted on doing so.  I'll share the recipe at the end of this post.

The recipe titles in color indicate new recipes -- sort of.  The Pepparkakor Spritz is a recipe we'd tried in 2015 and forgotten about, so I posted about it this year.

The two recipes in color at the end of the list were brand new to us ... recipes I had pinned to try, and I am so glad we did.  Both were unusual and scrumptious!  In fact, our friend Colby told us that the Gingerbread Chocolate Thumbprints may have become his new favorite.  We actually made two batches of those.

Now, for the promised recipe:

BEST  BLOND  BROWNIES

1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup vanilla chips
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
3/4 cup chopped almonds, divided use

In a mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugars.  Add the eggs and vanilla; mix well.  Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt; add to creamed mixture and mix well.  Stir in the vanilla chips, chocolate chips and 1/2 cup chopped almonds.  Spoon into a greased 13x9” baking pan; spread dough to evenly cover bottom of pan.  Sprinkle remaining 1/4 cup almonds on top.  Bake at 350º for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown.  Cool on a wire rack before cutting into squares.  Yield:  2 dozen.

These blond brownies truly are the best.  They are so easy, and I like the fact that they only call for 1/2 cup butter.  The almonds add a very nice crunch.  These are very quick to make and take along to a potluck or a friend’s house.  Or to add to a Christmas cookie tray ... 

And that's the 2024 Christmas cookie list!

Rudolph Day!

 I just realized that today is Rudolph Day for February.  I don't have time for a lengthy post, and realistically nothing Christmasy is happening today, but I thought I would at least acknowledge the occasion.

Above is just a tiny bit of my February decor, which I am sharing today because it includes a Rudolph -- well, at least a deer.  You see him at the left of the photo.  Though he looks almost new, he is actually a ceramic candleholder from my childhood in the 1950s.  The little framed crewel of the skating boy was stitched by me in the 1970s.  The little beaded heart was made by grandchildren and the tag at right was one of my first attempts at paper crafting.

The wintry pitcher was a thrift store find a few years back, and the cardinal in the middle was found in a kitchen drawer while cleaning out my childhood home.  The sparkly runner underneath it all was hand woven by my friend Patty.  It looks like it's black and silver, but what looks like black is actually a very dark green.  So pretty!

One thing I plan to do today is to sort through my box of seasonal paper decorating treasures and winnow out what I no longer use.  So I guess we could call that a legitimate Rudolph Day activity.  Happy Rudolph Day, everyone!

The actual 2024 Kitchen Gifts list

 

 Above you see the tentative Kitchen Gifts list from this year.  We did multiple batches of the Eggnog Logs and  Sacher Torte Cookies, and Chocolate Mint Crisps   so we would have plenty for various giftees.

I made a batch of the Golden Apricot Cakes and found that using the bakeable paper loaf pans I got on sale at King Arthur worked very well.  I was able to make 4 little loaves (and really, they're not all that little).  As I mentioned previously, I liked these paper pans a lot.  They were easy to work with and fill, nice and sturdy, and the cakes baked well in them.  When cooled, it was an easy matter to just wrap them in foil -- not plastic wrap and then foil, as I would do with cakes baked in ceramic or metal pans and removed to cool on racks.   

I made two double batches of Christmas granola, I think, and gave two jars and one tin away as kitchen gifts.  

Holiday Special Fudge winged its way to Nevada as a seasonal kitchen gift.

I had BBQ Pecans on my tentative list, but then I found a recipe for Spicy Peanuts that looked easier and less expensive, so shifted gears on that one.

And I needed one more gift for a grandson who enjoys spicy condiments (like barbecue sauce) but buying one was iffy because he can't have high fructose corn syrup.  So I made him a jar of our favorite maple barbecue sauce (recipe to follow here at some point) and he seemed quite pleased with it.

And there we have the actual Kitchen Gifts list!

The actual 2024 Christmas candy list

 

-- Photo from a few years back -- Josiah making buckeyes, one of his favorite treats, in his own home kitchen --

I always like to review my lists and compare the tentative list I made before the holidays to what I actually did end up doing.

So below is my tentative candy list:

As you can see,  I had six different candies on this list.  Of these, we made only four: 

Multiple batches of Heavenly Delight fudge,  and there will be at least one more, since my hubby has a half can of evaporated milk to use up.

He made one batch of  Easy Salted Caramel Fudge which lived up to his original nickname for it of Tasty Disaster Fudge.  It's delicious though and everyone loves it, so he's planning to make another batch.  (Sugar fast on the horizon!)

He also made Special Holiday Fudge, a chocolate fudge filled with nuts and raisins.  It tastes somewhat like an old-fashioned Chunky bar. This year we experimented with using marshmallow fluff instead of the marshmallows it calls for.  It actually worked out better, so that is going to be a permanent change, and the Jet-Puffed Marshmallow Creme is available at the dollar store, which helps with cost too.

Of course we had to make Chocolate-Dipped Orange Slices since they have become such a favorite.  So easy!  Just dip orange slice candies from the supermarket into melted dark chocolate.  These are always a fun addition to a cookie tray. 

And we tried one candy that wasn't on the list: the ones made with a small pretzel topped with a Rolo candy.  AllRecipes calls them Rolo Pretzel Turtles.  We just used the recipe from the Rolo bag.  Mr. T and granddaughter Ari made these.  We used the square waffle style pretzels.  We didn't want to put pecan halves on every one, so we used red and green M&Ms on some.  They were very easy to make and very good, but the Rolos were outrageously expensive, so we probably wouldn't do that again unless we found a great sale.

And that was our Christmas candy making for this year!

Happy New Year!

  

A warm thank-you to everyone who visited my Christmas Kitchen in 2024, and especially during the busy and wonderful month of December!  I hope that each of you will have a happy, healthy, and spiritually prosperous new year.

Isn't the border around the vintage greeting above just precious?  Look at all of the little vignettes!  I love the skaters, the deer in the woods, and the lighted candle in particular.

I believe that God has already given me a word for the coming year, and will be sharing that once I've had time to get my thoughts in order concerning it.  And --like most of us -- I have many goals for the coming year, and I hope to articulate them and blog about them either here or over at my Kitchen Table blog.  One of my goals is to spend more time in my Christmas Kitchen in 2025, sharing projects, ideas and inspiration with all of you.  See you again soon!

A fun gift idea for kids -- shopping around a favorite color theme

 

 This year I found myself in need of one more gift for a young granddaughter.  After spending more than a little time trying to figure out what it should be, I remembered a few years ago (actually 2016) when we gave a color-themed gift basket to her brother as a birthday gift featuring things in his favorite color -- green.

The wrapped gift basket

Some of the gift items

That had gone over very, very well so I thought Ari might enjoy a similar gift.  The snag we ran into, when I asked her mom for her favorite color, was that her favorite color may vary from day to day.  Finally she was able to nail it down to either pink or purple on that particular day.  So I decided to shop for both pink and purple items.  

I was wrapping this in a hurry on Christmas Day, so I didn't get pictures of all the components.  But here are a few of the things I found:

Pink Lady apples
Himalayan pink salt popcorn
Purple notebook
Metallic purple sharpie
Pink and purple journal
Fanciful Christmas ornaments shaped like popsicles and ice cream cones (see the popsicle one at top)
Pink bottle brush trees
Chocolate kisses in pink package
Individual bags of snack mix in purple packaging
Pink scissors

There was more, but I can't remember it all.  I had hoped to find a nice long-sleeve tee or sweater in pink or purple to include, or a hat.  But this was so last-minute that I didn't find those things in her sizes.  

I was thankful to find a Christmas gift bag in pink, as you see at top.  I wrapped most of the items loosely in pink tissue paper.

This gift was a hit!  We had her guess the theme, which she was able to do quite quickly.  I highly recommend this gift idea for kids or even teens.

Gingerbread Eggnog Coffeecake

 

 Here is another scrumptious coffeecake recipe.  My regular readers likely know that I am very prone to take muffin recipes and turn them into coffee cakes.  I just don't like going to the trouble of lining or greasing muffin tins, or washing them afterwards.  

That's just what happened with this recipe.  My hubby was looking for a way to use up about a half cup of eggnog.  I remembered this recipe which I had printed out a  couple years ago from Taste of the Frontier, apparently now called Yummi Haus.  But when I mentioned I thought muffins were too much trouble, he said, "Let's turn it into a coffee cake!"  My lazy ways are rubbing off on him, I guess.  Well, this coffeecake turned out absolutely delicious.  He took some to an outdoor event on Saturday, and came back with an empty plate and a request for the recipe.  So I knew my readers would like it too!

GINGERBREAD EGGNOG COFFEECAKE

Ingredients

Coffeecake

1 3/4 cups flour 

3/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder 

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon 

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted and cooled

1/2 cup eggnog

1/3 cup molasses 

1 large egg

Streusel topping

2 tablespoons melted butter 

1/3 cup flour

1/2 cup light brown sugar 

1 teaspoon cinnamon

Glaze

1/2 cup confectioners sugar 

1 to 2 tablespoons eggnog

Pinch of nutmeg

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350º.
2.   Grease a 13x9 pan with cooking spray 

3.  Sift together dry ingredients for coffeecake — flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and spices.

4.  In mixing bowl combine cooled melted butter, eggnog, and molasses.  Add the dry ingredients and then the egg, beating until just combined.

5.Pour batter into prepared pan.

6.  For streusel, melt butter in small bowl.  Add flour, brown sugar and cinnamon; stir with a fork until crumbly.

7.  Sprinkle streusel evenly on top of coffeecake batter in pan.

8.  Bake 30 minutes at 350º or until toothpick test is clean.

9.  Allow cake to cool completely.  

10.  Whisk the glaze ingredients together and drizzle over cooled coffeecake.

 

And there is a very delicious Gingerbread Eggnog Coffeecake for your enjoyment!