Merry Christmas!

I won't be posting to my blog until after the holidays. That doesn't mean I won't be around, I'll still be popping in to read about everyone's Christmas. I want to finish out 2007 with some post cards from 100 years ago. I love the way Santas have changed through the years.

The first Santa looks like one we'd see today. Notice the American flags decorating his sleigh.
This is an embossed card with unusual blue to pink shading. I love this Santa's full beard and long hair.

This Santa is my favorite in his blue outfit.

Quite modern looking except for the black fur on his suit. The look of the children is especially interesting on this card.

I had to include "Scary Santa" in the group. Isn't he the creepiest Santa you've ever seen? I know I wouldn't want to find him coming down my chimney!

Merry Christmas, everyone! See you in the New Year!

Doggie Christmas Treats

No, these bone-shaped cookies wouldn’t go over so well at your next tea unless you’re serving afternoon tea to your canine friends. Hmmm, now there’s an idea for a tea theme! Your doggie buddies will love these and you’ll feel good knowing exactly what’s in the cookie.

1 package active dry yeast
¼ cup warm water
1 teaspoon beef bouillon granules
2 tablespoons boiling water
2 ½ cups flour
1 cup nonfat dry milk powder
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup cooked long grain rice
1 envelope unflavored gelatin
1 jar (4 ounces) vegetable beef dinner baby food
1 egg
2 tablespoons vegetable oil

In a small bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. In another small bowl, dissolve bouillon in boiling water. In a large mixer bowl, combine the flour, milk powder, wheat flour, rice and gelatin. Mix in the baby food, egg, oil, yeast mixture and bouillon mixture until combined; mix until a ball is formed. If your mixer can’t handle this, knead by hand.

Turn onto a lightly floured surface; roll to ¼-inch thickness. Cut with a floured 2-inch bone cookie cutter. Place 1 inch apart on ungreased baking sheets.

Bake at 300º for 25-30 minutes. Remove to wire racks to cool. Let stand for 24 hours until hardened. Store in an airtight container. Makes about 3 dozen.

My World Wednesday: Christmas at my House

When my husband was a boy, he saved his allowance to buy Christmas lights for the outside of his parents' home. He's been a nut about Christmas decorating ever since. My decorating doesn't live up to his fussy standards so he does it all himself. I'm not complaining, everything always looks good and I can concentrate on cooking.

Here's what he's done this year. A live tree, 12 feet high, in the Middle Parlor holds everything from our most precious antique ornaments to red popsicle stick sleds I made 30 years ago.

Do you have a pickle on your tree? Tradition says that the first child to find the pickle on Christmas morning gets an extra gift.

These next two ornaments came from my husband's grandparent's tree. They are handpainted, a skier and a blue Santa.

Our newest tree in our dining room.

This is our Front Parlor tree which is decorated in Hallmark Ornaments. We started collecting them in the early '80s and now have...well, too many to count. (Although my husband keeps a notebook indexing each one. I told you he's a Christmas nut!)

Katherine at Yellow Rose Arbor shows her beautiful collection of Nativities this week. Stop by to see them! Here is the one we use at our house. My husband received one piece for attending Sunday School each year. We have 18 different pieces, including 6 sheep for some reason. Each piece was made in Italy and is quite detailed for something that was probably very inexpensive at the time.

Chocolate Toffee Bark

Every few years a recipe goes around that, at first look, seems really strange. Who can forget that strawberry Jello and pretzels dessert everyone served a while back? Weird combination but it tasted good. I can even remember when broccoli salad hit our area. Raw broccoli and mayonnaise—no thanks! But since tasting it, broccoli salad has been a favorite, served at almost every picnic I’ve had. It will even make an appearance on my Christmas dinner table this year.

This next treat fits right into the strange dishes category. My friend Una brought this to our Cookbook Club’s cookie exchange and it was the hit of the day. I hope you’ll try it. It takes only minutes to make and really does taste great.

1 sleeve saltine crackers
2 sticks butter
¾ cup sugar
1 12-ounce package chocolate chips
3 Heath Bars, crunched
1 teaspoon vanilla

Place one layer of saltines on a jelly roll pan which has been covered with foil and sprayed with cooking spray.

Preheat oven to 375º.

Meanwhile boil sugar and butter on medium heat for 3 minutes, stirring constantly.

Remove from heat and add vanilla.

Pour over crackers and spread evenly.

Bake 8 minutes. Let settle for 1 minute.

Pour chocolate chips over crackers. When melted, spread evenly over crackers and sprinkle with Heath Bars. Chill several hours. Peel from foil and break into pieces.

A Christmas Tea: Martha Washingtons

Here's another treat for the candy plate!

½ cup butter, softened
1 cup sweetened condensed milk
1 1-pound package powdered sugar
2 7-ounce cans sweetened flaked coconut
2 cups finely chopped pecans
1 cup maraschino cherries, well drained and finely chopped
20 ounces dark chocolate candy coating
4 ounces baking chocolate or semisweet choco chips

In a large mixing bowl, combine butter and milk. Gradually add the powdered sugar, blending until smooth. Stir in the coconut, pecans and cherries. Cover and chill 2 hours or until firm.

Line 2 baking sheets with waxed paper. Shape the mixture into balls ¾ inch in diameter. Place balls on the lined baking sheet. Cover and chill 1 hour or more. Here are the pretty centers:

Cover a large countertop area with waxed paper.

In the top pan of a double boiler over hot but not boiling water, melt the candy coating and chocolate together, stirring until smooth. Using a toothpick, fork or dipping tool, dip each ball into the melted chocolate until coated. Drop onto the waxed paper. Let stand until the chocolate is firm. Store in an airtight container.

A Christmas Tea: Yule Log

Cake:
3 eggs
1 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup water
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
Filling:
1 cup whipping cream
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons instant coffee granules or crystals
Chocolate Buttercream Frosting:
1/3 cup unsweetened baking cocoa
1/3 cup butter, softened
2 cups powdered sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1 to 2 tablespoons hot water
Garnish:
Meringue Mushrooms

Heat oven to 375°. Line 15x10x1-inch pan with foil or waxed paper; grease with shortening or cooking spray. In small bowl, beat eggs with electric mixer on high speed about 5 minutes or until very thick and lemon colored. Pour eggs into large bowl; gradually beat in 1 cup granulated sugar. Beat in 1/3 cup water and the vanilla on low speed. Gradually add flour, baking powder and salt, beating just until batter is smooth. Pour into pan, spreading batter to corners.

Bake 12 to 15 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Immediately loosen cake from edges of pan; invert onto towel generously sprinkled with powdered sugar. Carefully remove foil. Trim off stiff edges of cake if necessary. While hot, carefully roll cake and towel from narrow end. Cool on cooling rack at least 30 minutes.

In chilled medium bowl, beat all filling ingredients on high speed until stiff. Unroll cake; remove towel. Spread filling over cake. Roll up cake.

In medium bowl, beat cocoa and butter on low speed until thoroughly mixed. Beat in powdered sugar until mixed. Beat in vanilla and enough of the hot water until frosting is smooth and spreadable.

For tree stump, cut off a 2-inch diagonal slice from one end of cake. Attach stump to one long side using 1 tablespoon frosting. Frost cake with remaining frosting. With a palette knife or the tines of fork, make strokes in frosting to look like tree bark. Garnish with mushrooms (below.)

Meringue Mushrooms

1/2 cup egg whites
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup white sugar
1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
4 ounces chocolate confectioners' coating

Preheat the oven to 225 degrees. Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper or aluminum foil.
In a large glass or metal bowl, use an electric mixer to whip egg whites until foamy. Add cream of tartar, salt, and vanilla. Continue whipping until the whites hold soft peaks. Gradually sprinkle in the sugar so that it does not sink to the bottom, and continue whipping until the mixture holds stiff shiny peaks.

Place a round tip into a pastry bag, and fill the bag half way with the meringue. To pipe the mushroom caps, squeeze out round mounds of meringue onto one of the prepared cookie sheets. Pull the bag off to the side to avoid making peaks on the top. For the stems, press out a tiny bit of meringue onto the other sheet, then pull the bag straight up. They should resemble candy kisses. Do not worry about making all of the pieces exactly the same. The mushrooms will look more natural if the pieces are different sizes. Dust the mushroom caps lightly with cocoa using a small sifter or strainer.

Bake for 1 hour in the preheated oven, or until the caps are dry enough to easily remove from the cookie sheets. Set aside to cool completely. Melt the coating chocolate in a metal bowl over simmering water, or in a glass bowl in the microwave, stirring occasionally until smooth.
Poke a small hole in the bottom of a mushroom cap. Spread chocolate over the bottom of the cap. Dip the tip of a stem in chocolate, and press lightly into the hole. When the chocolate sets, they will hold together. Repeat with remaining pieces. Store at room temperature in a dry place or tin.

My World Wednesday On Thursday: Cookie Day!

For the last 32 years, my mother and I have been baking Christmas cookies together. Yesterday was the day. And since I had an appointment and had to leave early, today is the day too. As you can see in the photo of my mother and the cookies, we made quite a few. Oatmeal-Raisin, Peanut butter, Sand Tarts and just for some color those Pillsbury cookies that come already made. Today we'll make three or four more kinds, including a Chocolate Toffee Bark that I'll post about later.

My mother always likes to count the cookies, writing down how many we made of each kind. I've saved those slips of paper and it is fun to look back to see the kinds we used to make. One year we made 1142, our highest ever. And that was done all in one day. Starting at 8:00, we used to work until about 7:00 in the evening.

We have a couple disasters each year and yesterday was no exception. We mixed up baking powder for baking soda in one recipe and then just added the soda on top of the mixed dough. That didn't ruin the cookies but they probably weren't as good as they could have been. Then switching the trays, my mother grabbed the ones just out of the oven in place of the cool tray to be baked. Ouch! The hot tray flew up in the air and cookies landed around the room. While I'm sorry for the burnt fingers, I do kind of wish I had a picture of that moment.

So, I've got to run for now. Because of the icy conditions predicted here I'm getting pick-up service. I'm a big sissy when it comes to driving in ice or snow, even when cookies are involved.

I'm going to edit this after reading Gina's comment. No, I won't eat all the cookies myself! In fact, I brought only two of each kind home with me and my husband will probably eat them. My mother gives most of the cookies as gifts and we'll have them on our Christmas Day dessert table for the entire family to enjoy. Don't worry, I'll still be able to walk through doors after the holiday season! :)