Ready by January 22

Fruitcake

I should have made my fruitcake a month ago or at least a couple of weeks ago so it would have had time to mature by Christmas. Some consider this to be an important aspect of a good fruitcake. I baked mine tonight. I considered many different recipes and designed my own. If you want a cake that is more nuts than fruit, that incorporates all candied fruit and no dried fruit or raisins and adds a touch of orange and molasses, then mine might be for you. I hope you will consider your favorite flavors and experiment to design a new favorite for your family.

• 2 cups chopped walnuts
• 2 cups chopped pecans
• 2 cups fruitcake fruit mix
• 3 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup softened butter (1 1/2 sticks)
• 1 cup sugar
• 5 eggs
• 2 Tablespoons molasses
• 1 Tablespoon vanilla
• 1/3 cup orange juice
• 1 3/4 all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 300°F. Grease and flour a large tube pan. Combine walnuts, pecans, and fruit mix. Sprinkle with 3 Tablespoons flour.

Stir gently until nuts and fruit are coated in flour. Set aside. In an electric mixer, cream together butter and sugar. Add eggs one at a time beating well with each addition.

Add molasses, vanilla, and orange juice. Mix together. Add flour, baking soda, and salt all at once.  Beat, scrapping sides with spatula until all is combined.  Stir in nuts and fruit.

Spoon carefully into pan taking care to spread batter evenly.

Bake for 2 hours until toothpick inserted near center comes out clean and cake pulls away from sides of pan. Run a knife along the edges to help loosen cake if needed. Allow cake to rest in pan on cooling rack for approximately 30 minutes. Remove from pan onto glass cake plate.

  Cool completely. Wrap in plastic wrap followed by foil wrap.    

Dixies

Dixies are part bar cookie, part brownie, and all together delicious. A friend gave me this recipe almost ten years ago. It's an old recipe using lots of butter and sugar.  I only make them when I can take the whole batch somewhere which is usually around Christmas. They melt in your mouth. Hope you enjoy them.

• 1 box dark brown sugar
• 2 sticks butter, melted
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 cups self-rising flour
• 1 cup chopped pecans

Combine ingredients, spread into a greased 9”x13” pan. Bake at 350°F for 30 minutes.

Cranberry Waldorf Salad

Cranberries look and smell and more importantly, taste like Christmas. Culturally, cranberries are one of our holiday foods. They appear in the fall, and shortly after Christmas we usually don't see them again until next fall. You can always buy a few extra bags as cranberries keep well in the freezer. Then you can use them throughout the year.


I checked out quite a few recipes for Cranberry Waldorf Salad and tweaked one into my very own.  Hope you enjoy.

• 1 1/2 cups chopped cranberries
• 1large red apple, chopped and sprinkled with a few shakes of lemon juice
• 1/2 cup chopped celery
• 1 cup seedless grapes, halved or quartered
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
• 2 Tablespoons honey
• 2 Tablespoons sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 6-ounce container light vanilla yogurt
• 1/4 cup mayonnaise

Combine all ingredients in mixing bowl. Stir gently yet thoroughly to combine. Cover and refrigerate until serving.

I prefer to chop the cranberries in my small food chopper.  It creates slivers of red throughout the dish.

Serves 6 to 8