The 12 Days of Christmas Recap

On the 12th day of Christmas my true love gave to me

12 Drummers Drumming

11 Pipers Piping

10 Lords a Leaping

9 Ladies Dancing

8 Maids a Milking

7 Swans a Swimming

6 Geese a Laying

5 Golden Rings

4 Calling Birds

3 French Hens

2 Turtle Doves

and a Partridge in a Pear Tree.

I hope you guys enjoyed my take on the 12 days <3

Coming up next?

My take on Favourite Things!

Twelve Drummers Drumming!

So this is it - the last day of the 12 Days of Christmas posts. *phew*

I was thinking about whittling a drumming Nutcracker from a unicorn horn... but that posed a series of problems. Such as not knowing how to whittle...

So... drumming.... drums... drummers... drumsticks. Ding ding ding! Chicken drumsticks!
Not a fan of drumsticks... bleh. But  I do love chicken wings! You know what that part attached to the wing that looks like a tiny drumstick is called? A drumette! Drumettes it is!

So never having cooked a chicken wing in my life I consulted the expert, Alton Brown, for his method.

So easy you want to cry. Totally party friendly as it can be made ahead and they are baked crispy... and do not stink up your house with oil. Win-win!

So first you must remove the wing tips and cut the wing apart to separate the drumette from the... other part. Then you steam them... (warning, terrible looking steamed chicken ahead)

Then you kind of question Mr Brown's method. This doesn't look good. At all. But - trust me, keep going. Put them on the rack to drain onto paper towels and refrigerate for a couple hours.

Then you replace the paper towels with foil and set the entire thing in the oven and wait for the magic to happen.  Then you take them out - poke them... burn yourself - and put them back in for a few more minutes if yours are not quite crisp enough. OR - you cover them in sauce and THEN put them back in. Delish.

Now - see how I was all stingy on the foil? Don't do that. Cover the entire pan... easy clean up. OR - you can be like me and once you pull up the stuck on foil - you can soak and wash the pan. Less fun, right?

Serve these babies up with some veggies and dips - yum!



Eleven Pipers Piping...

Admit it.... you saw this one coming, right?

Well, then there were sadly not eleven pipers piping icing onto 50 cookies. Nope. Only two.

The small mister and I packed up the cookies, the icing sugar, the handy tubes of pre-made and purchased icing, the candy and the millions and millions of sprinkles and headed to Grandma's house! (Sorry mom... ) Oh, and the red and green ensemble - while festive, not planned. I mean really, who thinks... "I know! I'm going to post on my blog - for the public - a picture of myself dressed in my grubbies... I should coordinate this in a festive manner with my son!".  No. Though I do wish I had the forethought to at least coordinate... something. A little lip gloss wouldn't kill me.

Moving on. Who has time for lip gloss when we are creating masterpieces!!

I will not tell you which are mine and which belong to the five year old who has limited piping experience.

Because.... sadly... It's kind of hard to tell.

But look how much fun we had!! Note the cookie pan? Well - brilliantly I thought this was the perfect answer to corralling all the wayward sprinkles. The many... many wayward sprinkles. Brilliant! Well only brilliant if each and every... or any full on sprinkle spills actually happened on the tray. *sigh*. I apologized to my mother right? The best part is, my mom is not exactly the sprinkles and icing kind of gal... she admits this... and yet, somehow, I thought it would be "fun" to do this to her at her house. Good times. I'm sure she is still sweeping up the millions of sprinkles.

Love you mom!

Ten Lords a Leaping...

Gingerbread Lords a leaping!

I used a pretty standard recipe I found on Canadian Parents website and adapted slightly... no cloves in the cupboard. No biggie, I used a little bit more ginger and cinnamon.

The best part (I think) about this recipe is that it's kind of hard to mess it up... so it's kid friendly without having a stroke about folding and whipping and egg shells. There is some sifting... which is a great way to keep small people busy while you do all the fun messy parts... like measuring molasses.  Then they can add all the dry ingredients to the wet... more or less.  (Hint: plan this activity on a day you really needed to wash the floor.)

Then you have to wait for the dough to chill. Which is great. I find that the small mister here, has little interest in long projects. So we put on a movie, I call in the dog wash the floor, and clean up the dishes. When the movie is done you can pretty much start rolling out the dough. If they last more than one section of dough - bravo to you!

Then you bake them.... and more waiting for them to cool.

This recipe made WAY more than 10 Gingerbread men Lords.  I think in the end I had about 50 shapes cut out.

That's an entire afternoon... so step two is to be continued!

Eight Maids a-Milking...

Well, on a chilly winter evening I can't think of anything better to do with said milk, than heat it up and melt chocolate in it.

These are main ingredients...

Milk.... and the closest to whole milk, the creamier the hot chocolate. Really, you're already melting a pile of chocolate.... to drink, I don't think skim milk will ease your conscience any! It's like ordering diet coke with a Big Mac nonsense.

Moving on!  You need milk, semi-sweet chocolate, and a really good, smooth milk chocolate bar.

For 2 big mugs of heaven:

3 cups of milk

3 squares of semi-sweet chocolate

1/3 of a milk chocolate bar (about 4 squares...)

Now there are a few other items in this hot chocolate but this is where it comes down to preferences. I also added a pinch of salt, 2 tbsp of sugar and about 1/4 tsp of cinnamon.

By the way, if you don't have a mini food chopper put it on your Christmas list! I use mine at least once a week. It's great for cheese in casseroles, mixing dips, and of course, chopping chocolate... Also it has a tiny footprint in the cabinet space department, and the thing fits in the top rack of the dishwasher easy peasy. Love it.

Back to the hot chocolate!

Put the milk in a saucepan and slowly heat it up, you don't want it to boil... you just want it to melt t chocolate.  When it starts to heat up, add in the chocolate and other ingredients about 1/4 at a time and whisk it around until it melts.  When you can't see the chocolate bits anymore turn up the heat a little and give it a few good stirs to heat it through.

Easy! Takes less than 10 minutes I would say, and it is velvety, smooth, and decadent.

See those pillowy clouds of heaven on top?

Stay tuned!



Seven Swans a Swimming...

So, originally when I thought I might craft up the seven swimming swans, I thought this might be a cute kids craft...  I remembered making these with a babysitter when I was young and my parents were at a work holiday party. Then I started making them, and let me just say... I think my babysitter was on crack. Oh well, it was more than twenty years ago, and maybe it would be OK for older kids. My five year old son was not interested. Little kids could wind up the pipe cleaners, and paint the pine cones.

So, gather up your supplies and your glue gun.. and your heat resistant fingers.

Then you begin by curling up about half of the pipe cleaner...

Then you curl the rest into an oval to fit on a pine cone.... 

But don't glue it on yet! First you will want to select the feathers for the tail, two to three will be lots. You can cut the longer ones down if you like. Then you glue those on.... Oh, and hot glue and feathers? This is why this is not a craft for children. Ones you actually like, anyhow. Ouch.

Then you attach the pipe cleaner... more hot glue and feathers... yay! *cry*

Then you are done!

Unless you want him to have a face... then you take a toothpick, color the end orange, cut it off and dip it in sticky lava hot glue and attach to the pipe cleaner. Cute!

That's it!

 Unless you want 6 more...



Six Geese a Laying

What do geese lay? Eggs. Biiiiiig stretch on this one people, I know.

So since goose eggs are not something most of us are familiar with eating, or buying I went with the standard chicken egg.
By the way.... I hate eggs. I hate cracking them. I hate the smell of them. I hate cooking them. I really hate eating them. The thought actually makes me gag... so does the idea of cracking them, because even though I try really hard to avoid it, I always get eggs on my hands. *gag* OK.  My husband makes the breakfast in this house. I have no idea how to make a fried, scrambled or poached egg.

What in the heck do you make with eggs when you HAAAAATE eggs? Good question. Not quiche. Not custard. Breakfast casserole? Yes.

Now this is a recipe that is all over the Internet. I got it from a friend, but I've seen a pretty close recipe on the Bob Evans site too. 

What's the difference between all those recipes and mine? I HATE eggs. So mine doesn't taste like eggs.... and it's not mushy gooey awfulness. It's fluffy in the middle, crisp on top and if you come to my house to eat it, it's probably stuck to the pan... I never remember to grease it.  Ever.

So the players today? Milk, eggs, bread, cheese, breakfast sausage, dry mustard.

OH!  And some kind of non-stick spray! (not pictured, because, well.... I forgot it. heh)

8 slices toasted bread - cut into cubes

4-5 eggs

1/3 cup of milk

dash of dry mustard

package of sausage crumbled and fried

1 cup old cheddar cheese grated (I just use a mini food processor thing... it's magical!)

SO toast the bread a little to dry it out, fry and crumble up the breakfast sausage (don't use the maple, apple what the heck over, just get the original - and if you can only find the ones in the casing,  just remove the casing!) and drain it.

Chop the bread into cubes. Lay out half the bread in the dish.... realize you forgot to spray it, dump out the bread and SPRAY the dish.  Sprinkle in 1/3 of the cheese and sprinkle in the dry mustard ( I use maybe 1/4 tsp... I take two pinches and sprinkle it over). Spread in the cooked sausage next and top with the remaining bread and cheese.  Whisk the milk and eggs together and pour over everything. (If you are making this for Christmas morning, or the next morning for any other reason do not pour in the eggs and milk until right before you cook it it makes it mushy and gross if it sits in there all night.... in my opinion).

Put into a preheated oven on 350 and cook for about 30 minutes. If you have refrigerated it overnight make it more like 45-60 minutes.  When the cheese is all melted and its not slimy eggy in the middle it's good to go. It's going to be moist... but not eggy.  

 Serve it up with some fruit.... and for special occasions you could toss in some cinnamon rolls.

It smells great and tastes really good. Even if you HATE eggs... and it kind of looks like dog food... hmm.  In my house daddy goes to check for Santa and preheats the oven. When we get through the stockings the casserole goes in the oven and by the time we are done with gifts it's time to eat. Fuss free. Looks really good now, doesn't it?  ;)

(When did this become a cooking site? Tomorrow is seven swans a swimming... and it's a craft! No... not another sewn bird... but something you could possibly do with kids!)

Five Golden Rings!

SO.... On the fifth day of Christmas my true love gave to me Fiiiiiive Golden Riiiiings!

More or less.

ooooh yeah baby. Home made onion rings. Are they worth the hassle? Yes. Surprisingly though, not really a hassle.

Cast:

aaand.... in the spirit of being perfect, I left out the baking powder. Oops.  One day I'll have it together.

1.5 - 2 Cups of milk

1/2 - 3/4 cup of flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

sprinkle of salt and pepper.

1.5 cups of Italian seasoned breadcrumbs

1.5 cups of flour

1 Vidalia Onion sliced into 1/2 inch rings

So to make the batter you mix about 1.5 cups of milk with 1/2 cup of flour and add the baking powder. Seriously people, make a batter that looks like pancake batter, or a milkshake. It's not brain surgery. Promise. Add a little salt and pepper. Whisk it up.

Slice the onion about 1/2 inch thick. It's preference.

Heat about an inch of oil in a heavy bottom pan and set up your assembly line.

Bread crumbs, batter, flour.  (So you want enough of each to coat the onion ring... again, not rocket science. Promise!)

 When the oil heats up (you know... when it sizzles if you drop a bit of batter in it, but doesn't catch the batter on fire... go with it) you put some rings in the flour and tap of the excess. The idea here is that the flour dries the rings so the batter sticks to it. Then you plop the ring into the batter - shake off the excess, a deep bowl is key here - less messy.  Take the battered ring and toss it around in the breadcrumbs. Plop it in the oil... *sizzle* yay!

Flip them over a couple times....  oh! check me out. I use a fancy onion ring turner...

It's a wooden skewer. You don't need one. But it was handy! I used one for the dipping too, because, UGH, my fingers were getting all battery and crumby... not a fan of messy hands.  At all.  So anyhow *sizzle* until golden and crisp, about 3 minutes and then you can let them drain on paper towels or put on a rack in a cookie pan in an oven on about 220ish to keep them warm.  You will take out the first ones and be all ooooh aaaaah... but by the time you take out the second ones you will realize that the first ones kind of suck... put them back in!

Rave reviews in this house. Not a single one left.

Let's look at them again....

Mmmmmm. Crisp and yum. Yum and crisp. It takes like 20 minutes start to finish with a small person asking you to "come here!" multiple times. 

(pssst - I linked up on Recipes of a Cheapskate for Saturdays Party)



Four Calling Birds...

Do you remember that pattern I showed you guys for the crow I did at Halloween?

Well if you take that pattern and reduce it down with a copier you get cute little ornaments for Christmas.

I think they are the sweetest little things. You could tag them for place settings, or tie them to a present, even hang them from cupboards or drawers. Love them.

Yes, I realize that is three calling birds, but hey... I will have way more than 5 golden rings, so it all evens out!

Three French Hens

This one came to me quickly. I'm  feeling pretty clever about it, I have to admit.  Admittedly I also have to admit that I am pleasantly surprised at how well it came out!

Are you ready?


Chicken Cordon Bleu... casserole. Did anyone else hear Julia Child rolling in her grave? ;o) Poor woman taught us all about french cuisine and we turn it into trash casserole. tsk tsk. Oh well - it's delicious.

So here is how that went:

3 boneless skinless chicken breasts cut into pieces
1 egg
3/4 cup of breadcrumbs (more or less... and I used italian seasoned)
1/2 can of cream of whatever (I'm starting to think  all tastes the same anyhow... but I used cream of broccoli... )
1/4 cup of Gruyere (or Swiss - and really the amount is to your preference, I find Gruyere quite strong so I played it safe)
4 slices of deli ham.
3/4 cup milk

So chop the chicken, whisk the egg - dip the chopped chicken in the egg and then into the breadcrumbs and right into a frying pan with a little oil until it is browned.

Drain the cooked chicken on paper towels and then dump into a lightly greased casserole dish.
Slice the ham into roughly 1/2 inch strips and throw them in the dish and top with the cheese.
Mix the cream of whatever with the milk and pour over top. Then (if you like) you can top with more breadcrumbs or even stuffing.

Into the oven for about 30minutes. Take it out when it's all bubbly casserole fabulousness.

We had it with carrots and snow peas - it's not the healthiest meal, but it's fast... and it's made in your kitchen, that's a win-win for my house.

Enjoy the three french hens casserole!



Two turtle doves...

So! This is a fun one, totally doable with little kids and works into the attention span of most non-bakers. I'm not much of a baker. Generally speaking my cookies are pre-formed by little a dough man with a ticklish tummy... know what I mean? I make muffin tops because the butts don't come out of the pan. True story.

But this is the easiest thing ever.  Lots of people probably make it in some form or other.

Just, use your imagination on how it fits into the 12 Days of Christmas theme, please.

The ingredients are little pretzels, pecan halves and dove caramels.

What's that? Rolo's? Oh... this is where your imagination comes in. Pretend they are Dove Chocolate Caramel Promises. From here on out when I say "Rolo" you think "Dove" - otherwise this entire post makes no freaking sense. (I couldn't find the dove chocolates anywhere, I hobbled to 3 stores... no dove. Sadness!)

So to recap... Rolo -


Via Amazon



Moving on.

Lay out as many pretzels as you have Dove... or Rolo on a cookie sheet covered with a silicone mat. Preheat the oven to 240 and start unwrapping the chocolate caramels. Place a Dove Rolo on each pretzel and pop into the oven for about 4ish minutes.  When the chocolate caramel is still warm and a tiny bit melty you pull them out and place a pecan on top and squish it down.

Like so (woo! action shot!)

The you just let them cool until you don't burn your mouth off.  (Also you thank me for suggesting the silicone mat... you're welcome!) 

And they look like blobs turtles! Turtle DOVE.... get it? (Remember... imagination... heh heh)

A partridge in a pear tree...

I am so excited to start my "12 Days of Christmas" holiday themed blog posts with you!  I am back up on my feet (mostly!) and getting things done around here.

I thought long and hard over ALL 12 days of posts I would share with you and this was by far the easiest one. As you probably know a partridge is a bird... like a grouse or maybe a pheasant that people eat... but I am not into that so I thought that maybe it would be fun to do something with pears and partridge berries!




Via Wikipedia

Do you know what partridge berries are? Most people don't, but it's a berry found growing wild in places like Newfoundland... or Sweden. I bet you have likely seen something called lingonberry jam at Ikea. They have it with their meatballs? It's partridge berry jam! 

Via Ikea

But.... partridge berries are also hard to come by where I live, so I went for the next best thing and got some fresh cranberries. It's the same tart taste, but they are quite a bit bigger than a partridge berry.
I got a recipe for my first go from the maven of making stuff.... Martha Stewart.  Her Cranberry-Pear Crisp is super yummy, the cranberries sing "happy holidays" right into your heart... via your mouth.

Then I think I did it one better, I omitted 2 pears and subbed in two empire apples... Plus I forgot the lemon... oops... but really I think it's just to keep the fruit from browning.

So this is the point where you make the crumbly but crisp topping.... but don't forget to add that little bit of sugar over top of the fruit before you add the topping. Like I did.  Or you will find your self carefully moving the topping aside and adding sugar bit by bit.... like I did. Nothings perfect people.

Weird! I took it out of the oven and the dish was square! No. OK. So what happened was, after looking at the top dish we all decided that the crumb topping would never ever fit on top... so it got transferred. Cooking at my parents house is a democratic event, folks. I bet this is when I forgot the sugar! Anyhow, doesn't it look amazing?

What's that on top? Oh... that is a post for another day... trust me, it's worth waiting for!