Basic Honey Mustard Sauce

The sweetness of honey and the tartness of mustard combine together into a great taste while adding a kick to many dishes.  Honey mustard is great as a dipping sauce for chicken or soft pretzels or ham or salmon.  This basic recipe combines two simple flavors in just the combination for a quick added zest to your favorite dishes.  Good doesn't always have to be complicated. 

·         ¼ cup honey

·         1 Tablespoon prepared mustard

Mix thoroughly.   Keep refrigerated.  Sauce will thicken when cold so remove from refrigerator up to 30 minutes before serving.  Stir well.  This recipe can be doubled or tripled or whatever-ed when needed.

Hot Virginia Dip, Anyone?

On New Year's Eve for the past several years I've made an appetizer called Hot Virginia Dip.  Whether I was looking for something to whip up quickly at home for a bash or to take as we headed out to a party, it's always been extremely quick and easy to make and well liked.  This year was no different as we headed out to our annual New Year's Eve dinner and then on to a New Year's Eve party at the home of some friends.  Thank you all by the way for having us over.  We loved the compass prayers for those in the trenches sharing the gospel.  Hope you make a new tradition of it!!

Back to Hot Virginia Dip...It is hot for two reasons.  It's best when served hot right out of the oven, but it also heats up well in the microwave when you need to make it up early.  Secondly, the horseradish and the freshly pressed garlic give it just the right amount of kick.  We also enjoy sharing a little bit of our home state of Virginia for those not fortunate enough to have been born there.  :)

Hot Virginia Dip

·         4.5 ounce jar sliced dried beef

·         2 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese or Neufchatel cheese (which is the less

          fat version of cream cheese), softened

·         4 tablespoons milk

·         1 cup sour cream

·         2 teaspoons freshly pressed garlic

·         1 Tablespoon horseradish

·         1 cup chopped pecans

·         2 Tablespoons butter

Cut beef into small pieces with a sharp knife or scissors.  

If you are having trouble finding the jar of sliced dried beef in the grocery, try the aisle with canned tuna or chicken.  It's usually close by.

With an electric mixer, blend together the softened cream cheese or Neufchatel cheese, milk, and sour cream.

Stir horseradish and pressed garlic into cream cheese mixture.  When thoroughly combined, mix in beef pieces. 

  

Spoon into greased casserole dish.  Saute 1 cup pecans in 2 Tablespoons butter until nicely browned.  Sprinkle sauted pecans on top of dried beef mixture.  Heat 30 minutes in 325°F oven.  Serve with wheat thins, corn chip dippers, etc.

If you are already planning ahead for a Super Bowl gathering, consider trying out this dip.

 

 

Christmas Chewies

When I asked my husband how long he's been making these Christmas cookies, his response was, "Oooo that's a hard one...years and years and years...before we were married...before we were even dating."  Suffice it to say, a very long time.  Not quite decades and decades.  But definitely more than one decade.  We recently celebrated our eleventh wedding anniversary.

Christmas Chewies come in a variety of different colors and flavors.  This Christmas Brian's making fudge ones and lemons ones and strawberry ones.  He can make any flavor, well at least any flavor that is found in a boxed cake mix.  Ooops I might be giving his secret away.  Here's what the dough looks like as it's being formed.

Then you just line them up on the baking sheet.

You can add some decorative sprinkles to the tops prior to baking.

As the cookies bake they flatten out just enough to slather some cream frosting between two of them.  

We're winding down the Christmas cookies baking season.  It's not over yet, but it's getting close.

We're starting to fill tins and plates and containers.

Here's what things are starting to look like at our house about now.

Yumminess at its best!

Buckeyes

Chocolate and peanut butter always make an excellent pairing.  Over the years I have tried out different recipes for this chocolate and peanut butter combination and finally settled on this one.  It makes a nice firm peanut butter bonbon which holds up well when travelling or just transporting them across town.  They make a great finger food as you pop them right in your mouth.  Here's how to get started. 

Buckeyes

Makes about 7 dozen

·         2 (10 oz.) packages peanut butter chips

·         6 ounces cream cheese, softened (I usually use the lighter Neufchatel cheese)

·         14 ounce can sweetened condensed milk

·         1 cup peanuts, finely chopped

·         12 ounce package of Wilton® Candy Melts® - dark cocoa

In a heavy bottomed saucepan, melt peanut butter chips over low heat.

With electric mixer, beat cream cheese until fluffy.  Gradually add sweetened condensed milk as mixer continues beating.

Stir melted peanut butter chips into cream cheese mixture.  Add chopped peanuts.  Mix well. 

Chill for 2 to 3 hours. 

Roll dough into one-inch balls using the palms of your hands.  Follow package instructions to melt Candy Melts®.  Using a wooden toothpick, poke partway into the middle of the ball.  Dip the ball into the melted chocolate a little more than halfway up the sides of it.  Then gently release it onto wax paper.  You may need to gently push it off the toothpick with your fingers.  Leave buckeyes on wax paper until chocolate coating is firm.   

Peel them off of wax paper and store in a sealed plastic container.

The challenge then is to eat only one.

Hungarian Vanilla Kifli

My husband and I lived in Hungary, a country in eastern Europe, for about two and a half years.  We enjoyed learning about the Hungarian culture.  We found Hungarians to be very hospitable and caring people.

Typical families in Hungary have many Christmas traditions which involve food much like typical families in America, if there is such a thing as typical for either culture.  Traditionally Hungarians serve Fish Soup on Christmas Eve.  Their Christmas tree is usually decorated by the adults in the family on Christmas Eve, and the children are invited to view the glowing beauty in all its splendor.  Among the ornaments on the Hungarian Christmas tree you will also find szaloncukor, a fondant and chocolate truffle type of candy wrapped in bright colored foil.  Children will remove a piece of szaloncukor from the tree, eat the candy, and return the foil wrapper to the tree.  Parents smile and pretend not to notice as they fondly remember eating their own share of the sweet treats and replacing the wrappers during their own childhood.

I want to share with you a recipe for a tradional Hungarian Christmas cookie, Vanilla Kifli.  It is very similar to a cookie I grew up eating called Butterballs or Mexican Wedding Cookies.  The Hungarian word, "kifli," means "crescent" like the shape of the crescent moon. 

After some trial  and error in trying to capture the taste of the Vanilla Kifli I tasted in Hungary, I came up with this recipe.  I hope you will consider adding a new cultural tradition to your Christmas baking. 

Vanilla Kifli

Makes about 3 dozen

·         ¾ cup unsalted butter, softened

·         ½ cup granulated sugar

·         2 large egg yolks

·         2 teaspoons vanilla extract

·         2 cups flour

·         ¾ cup ground walnuts

·         Powdered sugar

·         2 (1 ounce) semi-sweet chocolate squares

Using an electric stand or hand mixer, beat together butter and granulated sugar.  Add egg yolks and vanilla.  Beat well. 

Add flour one cup at a time, mixing well in between.  Stir in walnuts until thoroughly combined. 

Place mixture in the refrigerator in a covered bowl for at least two hours; can be placed overnight.  Preheat oven to 400ºF.  Roll dough between hands to form short rope.  Pinch in the middle to make the crescent moon shape.  Place cookies on an ungreased cookie sheet. 

Bake about 10 to 12 minutes.  Bottom of cookies will be lightly browned while tops remain white.  Let cookies cool for about 5 minutes.  Carefully roll crescents into powdered sugar.  Let cool completely.   

Melt chocolate in microwave on low or on the stovetop in a double boiler on low.  Dip small portion of each end of the cookies into chocolate.  Place on wax paper.  Allow to thoroughly cool and set.  Cookies should be kept in sealed container until ready to serve.

   

Origami at Christmas

The Japanese art of paper folding is called Origami, and it is one of my husband's favorite crafts.  Brian's interest in this age old craft began when he checked out his first origami book from his elementary school library.  The fascination with it continues to this day.  We now own quite a few origami books.

Brian is very moody about his origami.  At times he'll spend months searching new patterns and trying out more complicated designs.  Then he might go six months and never make a single fold.  He has spent hours entertaining children and adults alike.

He has a special interest in modular origami especially for making tree ornaments during the Christmas season.  Modular origami uses multiple sheets of the same size paper.  Each sheet is folded the same way to form one unit.  Each unit is attached to another one in the same fashion through a tag and pocket system folded into each unit.  This Christmas Brian is making one design that starts with 30 pieces of paper.  For this particular star design, he's using a satin royal blue wrapping paper.

He folds each square into an individual unit.

After carefully fitting them together, he has an Origami star.  Often they are simply nestled into the Christmas tree branches.  At other times, he creates a support piece in one of the star points and strings a thread through it for hanging purposes only.  Pure origami creators never use glue or tape or thread to hold origami together. The piece or pieces of paper must be folded in such a way to hold itself together.


Here is a small collection of what Brian has been working on this Christmas season so far.

Handmade Felt Gift Bags

A few weeks back I was looking for a different way to gift wrap tiny gifts, gift cards, or maybe some candy.  While I was going through a local craft store, I found some cute little packets of Christmas buttons and got my inspiration to make my own gift bags.

Using some inexpensive sheets of felt for the main part of the bag made the project easier.  I started with a drawing showing the size I wanted the final bag to be.  Then I added seam allowances, measured, and cut out all of the pieces.  The sewing machine made quick work of the project.  Hand stitching the buttons with gold thread added sparkle.  The finished product is a little bag about 5 inches tall, 4 inches wide, and 1 1/4 inches deep. The handle is about 10 inches long with about an inch attached on each side of the bag.  It is a great size to loop around a doorknob.     

I hope my project will give you inspiration for your own.