Spiced Tea

This is a family recipe, from my husband's family. We really love drinking this when it's cold, or when your throat is sore- it feels so good. It has an orange-y, cinnamon-y taste to it. This is also great to give as a gift (a little late for that, though, aren't I???)

Spiced Tea
2 c Tang
1/2 c Instant Tea
2 1/2 c Sugar
2 T cinnamon
2 pkg. lemonade (Kool-Aid size packages)
1 tsp. cloves

Mix all ingredients and store in an airtight container.To serve:
Heat one cup water in Pyrex measuring cup or coffee cup. Add 4 tsp. of spiced tea mix; stir well (for at least 20 seconds). You want all the ingredients to get dissolved, for the best flavor.

Fried Ham

The fried turkey went so well on Thanksgiving, when we saw Paula Deen doing a fried ham, my husband just had to try it for Christmas Eve. He ordered a fresh 10 lb. ham (it had never been frozen), we brined it the whole day before, and Christmas Eve, he dried it off, and put a dry rub on it. We fried it for 7 minutes a pound, at 375. This was all per Paula Deen's instructions.
*Next time, (and there will be a next time, this was yummy!) we will lower the temperature to 350. The outside was scorched, and couldn't be eaten. There were also little pockets of the very inside that weren't quite done to my liking, it should read 160 degrees with your meat thermometer. We will get a smaller ham, cook it for 8-9 minutes per pound at 350.
The Brine: (from Paula Deen on Food Network)
It is a liquid seasoning that the meat sits in to season it and tenderize it. Just pour everything in a big pot or bucket, cover it and refrigerate. This is done the day before you are going to cook it. The meat should be thawed for this.
1 gallon water
1 gallon apple cider
1 cup dark brown sugar
1 cup kosher salt
2 cinnamon sticks
4 cloves
Stir all ingredients. Place ham in the brine and refrigerate overnight. The following day, take the ham out of the brine and dry well. At this point, we rubbed ours down with some pork rub that was a mixture of brown sugar, chili powder and lot of spices.
The meat was tasty and tender. We will be doing this again!

Incredibly Easy Fudge

I am not a candy person. Well, I am an inexperienced candy person. I do own a candy thermometer, but I have never used it. I am trying...but I am starting off slowly, and easily. I did the peppermint bark (scroll down to previous posts), which was just melting chocolate on a baking sheet. I found this fudge recipe last year, but never got around to trying it. This is my second time to make it this year, it is easy, fast and YUM! Seriously, make this. You are not going to believe how easy this is, and that these ingredients are all that is needed to make actual fudge.

JELL-O Chocolate Pudding Fudge
1 package (8 oz.) semi-sweet baking chocolate, divided
1 stick butter, divided
1/3 cup water
1 package Chocolate Flavor Instant Pudding and Pie Filling
3 cups powdered sugar

Melt 4 oz. chocolate, 6 Tbsp. butter and water in microwave for 2 minutes

Stir
Add pudding mix
Add powdered sugar; one cup at a time (It WILL all mix in, just keep stirring)
Press into foil-lined square pan
Melt remaining chocolate (4 oz.) and remaining butter (2 Tbsp.)
Stir
Spread over fudge
Refrigerate at lest 2 hours or until firm.
Cut into squares

Sweet Treats for Sweet People

I made treats for my kids' teachers, and some other sweet friends I know this year. I don't have a set menu that I do every year, it differs each year so far. This year I made mini lemon pound cakes, 7 layer bars, and peppermint bark. Each thing was pretty easy, and they keep well. The lemon pound cakes are fragile, but other than that, these are all great food items to give.7 Layer Bars
5 Tbsp. butter
1 ½ c graham cracker crumbs
1 c coconut
1 c chocolate chips
1 c butterscotch chips
1 c chopped pecans
1 15-oz. can Eagle Brand sweetened condensed milk

Put butter in a 9-inch square pan, and put in a 325 degree oven. When butter has melted, pour graham cracker crumbs over it evenly.
Spread coconut, then chocolate chips, then butterscotch chips, then nuts. Pour Eagle Brand milk (I don’t quite use the whole can) over the layers and bake for 30 minutes. Let sit and cool (so the milk can set up and keep all the ingredients together) before cutting into squares.*You can double this recipe and use a 13x9 dish.

Peppermint Bark
6 oz. semi-sweet chocolate
6 oz. white chocolate
1/2 cup crushed candy canes

Melt semi-sweet chocolate and spread on a buttered pan. (Not sure why I didn't think to use my silpat liner, but it never occured to me. It wasn't super hard to get out of the pan, but it took a minute. Use your silicone liner, if you have one.) Chill in refrigerator for 30 minutes.

Melt white chocolate and spread over semi-sweet. Sprinkle crushed candy canes over white chocolate and chill in refrigerator for 30 minutes. Break apart and store in refrigerator.
*Thanks to my sister-in-law, the candy queen, for the awesome bark recipe!!
Lemon Pound Cake
Another family recipe. My mom has made these for as long as I can remember, and when I moved into my own house, I took her idea of making these for the neighbors at Christmas time. In fact, we are going to deliver ours today! This recipe makes 2 loaves, or you can put all the batter in a bundt pan. These freeze great!!!
*I doubled the recipe, and made 3 loaves and 12 minis in my holiday muffin

1 box white cake mix
¾ c vegetable oil
4 eggs
1 pkg lemon jello (NOT pudding and pie filling) dissolved into 1 c HOT water
1 tsp. lemon extract
juice of one lemon

Preheat oven to 350. Line one bundt pan or two loaf pans with parchment paper. Spray sides of pan with Pam.
Heat 1 c water in measuring cup until boiling. Add jello and stir until dissolved. Set aside.
In mixing bowl, pour white cake mix, and add vegetable oil. Mix on low speed, and add eggs, one at a time. Beat well after each addition. Pour in lemon jello mixture. When blended, add lemon extract and juice of one lemon. Pour into pans and bake for 25-30 minutes.
When cake is done, stick the cake with a fork and pour as much or as little glaze as you like on the cake. Let cool completely before trying to remove from the pan.

Glaze
Juice of 2 lemons
1 c powdered sugar
1 tsp. lemon extract
Mix well (don’t worry about lumps). Pour over cake.* This cake freezes great! Wrap well in plastic wrap and put in a freezer bag.

Holiday Party Treats

My husband had a work party and they asked that I bring some desserts to the party. I made 3 things: holiday cupcakes, cookies and fudge.

Holiday Cookie Muffins
I will admit- I used refrigerated cookie dough.

Get about a tablespoon of the dough, and drop in a mini muffin tin.

Bake for 8-10 minutes at 375.
I placed a M&M in the middle of each cookie muffin, red or green of course!!!

Holiday Cupcakes

I used my favorite vanilla cake recipe and my favorite vanilla icing recipe.
* Don't forget to add a package of vanilla pudding. It will make it more moist. Try it with your favorite scratch cake recipe or try the one I have linked there.

Quick and Rich Vanilla Frosting
(this is THE BEST vanilla frosting I have ever made. This has now become my new staple vanilla frosting)

2 Tbsp. heavy cream
1 tsp. vanilla
pinch salt

Stir these 3 ingredients in a bowl until the salt dissolves.

Beat in until smooth: 2 1/2 sticks butter, softened

Reduce speed and slowly add in 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar.

This is the trick, beat this for at least 3 minutes. I literally watched it transform in front of my eyes. After 1 minute, I thought, "Ok, this looks like frosting, I can stop." But the recipe said to beat it for 4 minutes, so I kept going. It just got fluffier, and prettier as I kept going.

My sweet husband and dad bought me these silicone baking trays in holiday themes. I sprayed them with Pam even though they are silicone, I don't want to take my chances.
Fill these only 2/3 way full, maximum. Bake for 15-20 minutes, keep your eye on them.
Let cool in the pans, don't try to take them out of there when they are still warm, they will break on you. I iced this side of them, because the other side had all the pretty snowflake detail on it.
I did say I made fudge. I made fudge the weekend before and sent the leftovers to the party. I was in a hurry the day I originally made the fudge, so I didn't take pictures. It was a recipe for "easy fudge" and it was definitely easy, so I will make it again.

Sweet Potatoes

Sweet potatoes is one of my favorite things about fall and the holiday season. Yes, seriously. I love these things. I know you can pretty much have them all year round, and we do enjoy them other times of the year. But, this time of year, I really take it to another level. I have started the last few Thanksgivings bringing the sweet potato dish. My mom doesn't care for them, and never had them at her table, so I started bringing them. They deserve to be at the Thanksgiving table!!!!

Two years ago, I made these. (This is the recipe, but obviously NOT a picture. Way to go, Food Network.) They were fun, different and turned out good. Putting the sweet potato mixture in the orange cups was a great idea, but only for smaller get-togethers. If you were having 20 people at your dinner, it would get pricey to make that much sweet potato mixture AND buy 20 oranges!!

This year, I am doing roasted sweet potatoes with a brown sugar and butter glaze. I am testing them today, so you get the pics and the review before Thanksgiving!

Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Brown Sugar and Butter Glaze
1 sweet potato for every 2-3 people (depending on the size of the sweet potato and how many sweet potato-obsessed people like me you have at your table)
brown sugar
butter
honey
salt and pepper

I boiled the sweet potatoes for 5 minutes."What's the point of that?", you ask. I just wanted to try it, because I always have a really hard time slicing and peeling raw sweet potatoes. I liked this very much, it definitely made it easier to peel and slice.

Peel and slice sweet potato.Put them on a baking sheet with olive oil, sprinkle with salt. Roast at 400 for 15-20 minutes.

This is why I wanted to roast them, because they would get this nice color, and even a little crispy on the one side. If I just baked them with the glaze, they would get so soft, you might as well just mash them. They won't stay in the sliced shape, so I thought if I roasted them first, THEN baked them in the glaze, they might stay together better.
Brown Sugar and Butter Glaze
This is more like a paste, because I did not melt the butter. I used softened butter, brown sugar, a little honey and oil to combine it. The butter will melt anyway in the oven, so might as well save yourself a step and just combine it. (For 2 sweet potatoes, I used 1/2 stick of butter, 1/4 cup brown sugar, dollop of honey and oil to combine. I also added a pinch of salt.)

I moved the sweet potatoes to a baking dish, and spooned the brown sugar paste on each potato slice. I also poked holes in the potato so the glaze would (hopefully) go inside. Bake for 15-20 more minutes.All done!Oh, Lordy! People, these are awesome!!! They totally kept their sliced shape and the butter and brown sugar- well, how can that be bad??? Today, I only did 2 sweet potatoes as a test run, but when I do 6 on Thursday, I will do the higher cooking times.

Now, I am going to have another helping...

Another great thing to do with the incredible sweet potato is sweet potato biscuits. No, really! These are also really good, especially with some honey butter.
Sweet Potato Biscuits
1 1/4 c all-purpose flour
2 heaping Tbsp. sugar
4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
3/4 c mashed cooked sweet potatoes (about 2)
1/4 c (1/2 stick) softened butter
2 to 4 Tbsp. milk (depending on the moisture of the potatoes)

Preheat the oven to 450 (I think this is a little high, I would do 375 or 400, depending on your oven). Sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. In another large bowl, mix the sweet potatoes and butter. Add the flour mixture and mix, it should be a soft dough. Add the milk a Tablespoon at a time. Turn the dough onto a floured board and toss lightly until the outside of the dough looks smooth. Roll the dough out to 1/2 inch thick and cut with a biscuit cutter. Place biscuits on a greased pan and coat tops with melted butter. Bake for 15 minutes.

Honey Butter
1 stick of butter, softened
1/3 to 1/2 c honey
Stir together and store in an air-tight container in the fridge. (This stuff will last FOREVER)
This is our turkey. We are doing (one of) the turkey's this year. AHHH! My husband got a turkey fryer for Christmas last year, and we intended to do a fried turkey sometime this year, so Thanksgiving wouldn't be the first time we used it, but of course, we never got around to it. My husband is a little nervous, but it's supposed to be pretty easy. I'll definitely let you know how it goes!!!*Sidenote- I bought two turkey's this year. At Kroger, if you spent over $20, you got the turkey for 39 cents a pound. I went to the store twice and got a turkey both times. Both turkey's were under $6, and now we have a turkey for sometime in the future. I'm so excited!!

Pilgrim Pies

Ok folks- here it is! It's Pilgrim Pie time, and I couldn't be happier! This is my FAVORITE time of year, the best holidays, the best weather and the best recipes. These are something special that I only make in November and December, and I always have special requests, so I end up making them several times. A soft pumpkin cookie with a creamy cream cheese frosting in between- oh, these are so yummy. Enjoy, friends.

Pumpkin Cookies
2 eggs
2 cups light brown sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 (15-ounce) can pumpkin
3 cups flour
1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt

Filling/Cream Cheese Frosting
4 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 to 5 cups confectioners' sugar

1. Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Beat the eggs, brown sugar, oil, and vanilla extract in a mixing bowl until smooth. Stir in the pumpkin. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, pumpkin spice, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the egg mixture a half cup at a time, blending each time until smooth.2. Drop a heaping tablespoon of batter onto an ungreased cookie sheet
Bake the cookies for 12 minutes, then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.

3. Meanwhile, make the frosting. Beat together the cream cheese, butter, and vanilla extract in a bowl until light and fluffy. Mix in the confectioners' sugar a half cup at a time, until the frosting is spreadable.
4. When cooled, frost one cookie and top with another. EAT!