Christmas Eve

Ever since my husband and I were married, we let our family know that Christmas eve is reserved for us. With our latest addition to the family, I am so thankful that we have set aside this time for us. Christmas can be so full of hustle & bustle that being able to spend the night as a family is worth more than any presents Santa brings.

I like to make a nice dinner on Christmas Eve. This year we decided to have steak, baked potatoes & Caesar salad. These three things are super easy, so I picked a rather difficult dessert. I wish I had a picture of my husband grilling steaks on the patio with a foot of snow falling. But they sure did taste good!

I am a big fan of Annie's Eats, I have noticed lately that I am starring her recipes on my google reader. She makes some of the prettiest things I have ever seen. We picked the caramel apple cheesecake pie.
This was time consuming, I am not going to lie. Start to finish was about 2 hours, then you have to let it cool for 4 hours. So plan in advance (i did not,thus we had this for breakfast on Christmas Day-what??? it has fruit in it!)

Anyway, mine is not near as pretty but was quite tasty. I didn't make my own caramel sauce though. I just bought sauce at the store.

Cookies for Santa!

This being the first year with our son, I wanted to start a cookies for santa tradition. I had been baking & cooking for 2 weeks & really didnt want to even make cookies on Christmas Eve. But the snow started falling, I was going to be stuck in the house & I really wanted to try royal icing.



I made these sugar cookies. They were delicious! Just plan ahead b.c they have to chill for 3 hours.

I used this recipe for the royal icing. Now I didnt have enough powedered sugar to make a lot of frosting, but I also didnt make very many cookies. I wish I had had more frosting though & better tools.

Annie has a great post on tips for using royal icing. I am looking forward to trying out royal icing on other cookies. I really like how it looks in the end and maybe I can convince the hubs that I need some new tools. After the mess that was our kitchen table post cookie decorating I think I have it in the bag :)

Festive Appetizer

My cousin made this dip while we were visiting in Chicago. I was in love with it (as was my munchkin)

Its so easy and has the red, green & white colors you need for your Christmas Dinner, open house, etc...


You'll need
Sun dried tomatoes-jarred in oil, preferably diced or sliced
pesto- you can make our own or buy the premade kind, about 2 cups
cream cheese- 1-2 boxes, so I think 16 oz?

So, I let the cream cheese sit out until softened, then I whipped in it the kitchen aid. Once that was done, I spread it on a serving dish.
Next pour on the pesto, spread it all over the cream cheese.
Then layer with the sun dried tomatoes. You'll want to keep some of the oil, not all of it though.

And you are done. Serve with ritz or club crackers.

Help!!

So last holiday season I made some kind of red pepper topped ritz crackers-does anyone know what this is???


In the meantime, here are few recipes I have made

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes- SO GOOD!!! If you haven't made some form of chocolate pb cupcakes, do so now. You will not be sad.

Beef Enchiladas --> I have always wanted to make my own red sauce, mostly b/c I felt like I always had the ingredients on hand, but i could never find an easy recipe to do this. Now I have one that I will use for every enchilada I want to make. To note, on this recipe, I omitted the rice.

And of course one big fat fail recipe. If anyone can explain how I messed this up, I would love to hear it. Pumpkin Pie Squares. The whole "top" stuck to the dish & it was all wiggly and looked like uncooked pumpkin.

Holiday baking is going to start this Sunday, if I have time. I have to go to the store first-any special requests?? Any favorite holiday recipes you like to make?