Christmas in July iced tea!

 

Recently on Instagram I noticed a giveaway for Christmas in July cranberry hibiscus iced tea.  I was intrigued!  Although I didn't meet the criteria for entering the giveaway, I absolutely had to visit the Republic of Tea website and check it out.

It's a limited edition -- only available while supplies last! -- and this is the description: "This juicy caffeine-free herbal blend has a base of sweet-tart ruby hibiscus and cranberries and finishes with a touch of yuletide spice."

These are the ingredients: Hibiscus, cinnamon, ginger, carob bits, apple bits, sweet blackberry leaves, cardamom seeds, natural flavors, chicory root, pepper, cloves, cranberry bits and star anise.  

What an amazing blend of flavors!  It sounds so delicious for a hot July day, don't you agree?

A wartime Christmas greeting from a serviceman

 

Today I am sharing a special vintage Christmas card.  This beautiful pre-owned card is a keepsake from the 1940s and World War II. The die-cut card front features a design of red poinsettias, green holly leaves with red berries, a lighted candle in brass holder, and an ornate-looking album in pale green and pink. The words "Merry Christmas Wishes" appear in a pretty black vintage font on the center of the album, which has a wide blue bookmark in place. This design has a colorful yet classic vintage Christmas look that is very appealing.

Inside the card is the message "May Christmas be merry And gay with good-cheer, And may you be happy Through all the New Year!" in black in the same pretty vintage font. There is a poinsettia and sprays of holly at bottom right, setting off the words. At the top and right is the suggestion of the edges of the allbum pages. An army corporal has signed the card in blue ink.

On the back of the card, the corporal has written a note in the same blue ink.

This keepsake card is currently listed in my Etsy shop. I thought it would be the perfect thing to share for July 4, as this serviceman was part of the Greatest Generation.  We are able to still celebrate Independence Day in a free land thanks to their generation's sacrifice.

A holiday e-book to download for Christmas baking

 

 Some time ago a friend and I were having a conversation regarding molasses.  I don't even recall the context, though it surely must have had to do with using molasses in a recipe or recipes.

I love the old-fashioned flavor of molasses in baked goods.  Growing up, the only way milk tasted good to me was to stir in a spoonful of molasses.

Many older Christmas recipes for cookies and cakes call for molasses, which is a plus in my book.  

As my friend and I chatted I mentioned that I like the Crosby's molasses, a Canadian brand which our local supermarkets sell.  She was not familiar with the brand, so I looked up the website to send her a link.  In so doing, I discovered that Crosby's has a nice variety of recipe e-books.  You can check them out here: Crosby e-books.

Today I just want to share one of the recipe books.  This one is called simply The Holiday Book.  Here's a screenshot.

 
The description at the beginning reads:

There’s an appealing nostalgia around
molasses. The word alone is rich with
memories of cozy kitchens and warming food:
a slice of gingerbread with butterscotch sauce,
warm buttery biscuits drizzled with molasses,
crispy gingersnaps dunked in hot cocoa...

There are 23 recipes in this ebook, and more than half are cookie recipes.  There are also recipes for candy, snacks, and a couple of beverages.  The cookies pictured on the cover are Peanut Butter Molasses Cookies.  The cookie recipe that caught my eye is a molasses cookie stuffed with cut-up Lindt white chocolate truffles!  Not anything I would have thought of doing, but they look delicious.

If you enjoy baking with molasses at the holidays, you will want to download this ebook!

Thinking way ahead to Christmas baking

 Last winter our old nut chopper bit the dust.  Unbeknownst to us, the threads at the top of the glass jar began to disintegrate.  The way we discovered this was somewhat disconcerting.  We had made some coffee cakes over the Christmas season, and had frozen the leftover squares of various coffee cakes.  Enjoying a snack of these leftovers one evening, we came upon small shards of glass in the nut topping on one of them.  It took a bit of detective work and careful inspection of the nut chopper to figure out the source of the problem.

We immediately threw our nut chopper away (along with the remaining squares of that coffee cake!).  If we've needed chopped nuts for anything,  I've used a handheld metal chopper that we've had for years.  But I knew that we were going to need to find a good replacement before any Christmas baking could begin.

Fast-forward to June.  Friends suggested a day trip to the Vermont Country Store in Weston, Vermont.  And -- although we weren't specifically looking for one as we browsed -- there we found this nut chopper that was just what we've been looking for.

The quality looked good and the price was right.  It feels good to have that detail for Christmas baking all taken care of so far ahead of time!

Creaking open the door to the Christmas Kitchen this July

 

Yes, although I've been absent from the Christmas kitchen since early April, I'm creaking open the door this morning and welcoming you all to Christmas in July.  I can barely express to you in words how very, very busy the past few months have been.

My hope is to post every day (or nearly every day) in July.  I have a few ideas for posts but mostly I will be winging it.  I plan to share ideas, recipes, craft projects, Christmas fabric collections, some vintage Christmas cards and other goodies, and much more.  We will see how it goes!

I've been doing Christmas in July for a dozen or so years, and I often think my ideas are running dry, but somehow I always come up with blog fodder for most days in July.

For today I just want to share a line or two from the Helen Steiner Rice poem "Let Us Live Christmas Every Day".  I featured this poem a number of years ago, but it is worth repeating.

"If we lived Christmas each day, as we should, 

and made it our aim to always do good, 

We'd find the lost key to meaningful living

 that comes not from Getting, 

but from unselfish Giving."

Let's think about at least living this out every day this July.  I will see you tomorrow here in the Christmas kitchen!

Christmas in July begins tomorrow ...

 

... theoretically, anyway.  We will see what happens.

Usually I prepare a good number of Christmas in July posts ahead of time and schedule them to post during the month of July.  That just hasn't happened this year.  I have ideas and plans for posts, but time seems to have flown so quickly and I have been occupied with other concerns.

I intend to do my best to get here to the Christmas kitchen every day in July, but it's all kind of an unknown right now.  I will see you all here tomorrow and we will go from there!

Thinking back to the 2024 miscellaneous cooking & baking list

 

 As I mentioned back in December, I have never made a list like this before, though I often gift food to random people who are not on my "kitchen gifts" list.  The recipients might even vary from year to year.  But I think it's a good idea to have such a list.  

So heading up my list is a cheese log and crackers that we took to a Christmas party along with a cookie tray, just as a help to the very busy hostess rather than a "hostess gift".  I talked with her a few weeks ahead of time and asked if we could help out in this way.  I find that it helps people if I just make a suggestion up front as to what I might bring, and they are often relieved not to have to decide what to ask for.

Friends of ours who live exceedingly busy lives often have a houseful of guests over Christmas.  When this happens, I like to help them out by preparing some frozen entrees, some breakfast foods, and an assortment of cookies.  In 2024 I made granola, a cranberry coffee cake, two frozen lasagnas and two pans of cheeseburger macaroni.  We also gave them an assortment of cookies in a large plastic container to keep in the freezer and bring out as needed.

Here is the Cheeseburger Macaroni recipe:

CHEESY BEEF MACARONI BAKE

1 onion, chopped
2 large cloves garlic, chopped
1 lb. ground beef
15-ounce can tomato sauce (the Contadina kind that includes herbs is wonderful!)
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
3 cups elbow macaroni, boiled and drained
1 cup whipping cream OR half & half
2 1/2 to 3 cups shredded cheddar cheese

Cook the crumbled ground beef and onion and garlic in a large skilled until beef is no longer pink.  Stir in the tomato sauce and seasoning, salt and pepper.  Spread this mixture in the bottom of a greased 13x9-inch baking pan.

Heat the cream in a medium saucepan; when it bubbles a bit around the edges, stir in the shredded cheese and whisk until smooth.  Mix the cooked macaroni into the cheese sauce and spread this mixture over the meat sauce in the pan.

If you like you can sprinkle with chopped parsley or a bit more shredded cheese.

Bake uncovered at 350º for 25-30 minutes or until hot and bubbly.

This freezes well and reheats nicely.  If you freeze it, thaw it out (take out of freezer and place in fridge the night before) before baking it.

Will serve about 6.

I have shared the freezer lasagna recipe before, but this is the newest tweak.  I honestly don't think I will tweak it again after this; I have now developed a meat variation in addition to the vegetable one.  I use both of these and the macaroni bake over and over in my volunteer work preparing meals for work crews, so they are absolutely tried and true!

VEGETABLE LASAGNA to freeze

1 Tablespoon olive oil

1 onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, finely minced (a total of about 1 teaspoon)

16 ounces frozen chopped broccoli (or spinach), thawed

1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning

1 1b. ricotta cheese

1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese, divided use

1 egg

3 Tablespoons grated parmesan cheese


1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

3/4 teaspoon oregano (or Italian seasoning)

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1 jar Alfredo sauce (16 oz.)

9 uncooked no-boil lasagna noodles

Additional parmesan if desired 

In a large skillet, cook the onions and garlic in the olive oil until soft.  Add the thawed vegetables and the Italian seasoning.  Stir to combine, cover the skillet, reduce heat and simmer about 5 minutes.  Turn off heat and set aside.

In a large bowl combine ricotta, 1 cup mozzarella, egg, parmesan, and seasonings.  Mix well.

Grease a 13x9 foil baking pan.  Pour a thin layer of Alfredo sauce in the bottom of the pan.  Layer on 3 noodles.  Spread half of cheese over the noodles.  Spread half of the vegetable mixture over the cheese layer,  then evenly drizzle about 1/3 of the Alfredo sauce over the vegetables.  

Repeat layers: 3 noodles, half of cheese mixture, half of vegetables, another 1/3 of sauce.  

Top with 3 noodles and spread the remaining third of sauce over them.  Cover with remaining 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella.  Sprinkle with additional grated parmesan if desired.

Cover tightly with foil and freeze.  

The night before you want to serve it, remove from freezer and leave it in the fridge overnight.  

1 1/2 hours before serving, bake the lasagna, covered, in a preheated 350º oven for 1 hour 15 minutes.  Remove from oven and let stand, still covered, for 15 minutes before serving.

CLASSIC MEAT LASAGNA to freeze

1 Tablespoon olive oil 

1 onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, finely minced (a total of about 1 teaspoon)

1 pound more or less of ground beef (can also use ground pork or sausage)

1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning

1 1b. ricotta cheese

1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese, divided use

1 egg

3 Tablespoons grated parmesan cheese
1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

3/4 teaspoon oregano (or Italian seasoning)

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1 jar spaghetti or marinara sauce (24 oz.)

9 uncooked no-boil lasagna noodles

Additional parmesan if desired 

In a large skillet, cook the onions, garlic, and crumbled ground meat in the olive oil until meat is no longer pink.  Add the Italian seasoning and cook a minute or two more.  Turn off heat and set aside.

In a large bowl combine ricotta, 1 cup mozzarella, egg, parmesan, and seasonings.  Mix well.

Grease a 13x9 foil baking pan.  Pour a thin layer of spaghetti sauce in the bottom of the pan.  Layer on 3 noodles.  Spread half of cheese over the noodles.  Spread half of the meat mixture over the cheese layer,  then evenly drizzle about 1/3 of the spaghetti sauce over the meat.  

Repeat layers: 3 noodles, half of cheese mixture, half of meat mixture, another 1/3 of sauce.  

Top with 3 noodles and spread the remaining third of sauce over them.  Cover with remaining 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella.  Sprinkle with additional grated parmesan if desired.

Cover tightly with foil and freeze.  

The night before you want to serve it, remove from freezer and leave it in the fridge overnight.  

1 1/2 hours before serving, bake the lasagna, covered, in a preheated 350º oven for 1 hour 15 minutes.  Remove from oven and let stand, still covered, for 15 minutes before serving.

As you can see, these are assembled in the same exact way.  I will often double the filling recipe and make two lasagnas at the same time.  

 Well, this has morphed into a longer post than I intended, but I hope it will be helpful to readers!