New Year's Eve Party

So, I've been very busy with Christmas stuff, that I've been remiss on my  blogging. But what a wonderful Christmas it was! 
So now I'm planning a Birthday/New Year's Eve party for my middle daughter. And here's 
what's on the menu!


Teriyaki Meat Balls
Eggs Rolls with Trader Joe's delicious chili sauce
Curried Deviled Eggs
Cubed Roast of Beef with Saute'd Mushrooms and Creamy Horseradish 
Chocolate Fountain with: Marshmallows, pretzels, Peppermint Joe's, Havarti Cheese, (that's right!) bananas, oranges and apples. 
And for toasting, Martinelli's and Champagne! 


We will be eating, playing games and enjoying each other's company while we ring in the new year. What will you be doing?

Prime Rib

     Ever since I can remember, we have had prime rib for Christmas eve dinner. I'm sure it was once Christmas dinner, but Dad didn't like being woken up early in the morning, so we ate our prime rib, went Christmas caroling and, surprise! When we got back Santa would have come early to our house. Santa and dad must have been really good friends for Santa to do him such a huge favor, because none of my other friends got their presents on Christmas eve. Strange, though was that our stockings were filled later in the night and ready and waiting for us in the morning. 


     On Christmas morning, Mom would wake up early and make home-made cinnamon rolls. I'm sure you all know how exquisite it is to wake up to the smell of cinnamon rolls, only second to waking up to the smell of bacon. We'd eat, open our stockings and head out to the relatives. I loved spending time with my huge extended family. We would crack nuts by the fireplace at my grandmas house, play games, sing at the piano. These are the memories I will always treasure. I don't think my family knows just how much I love them all. 


    I have continued the tradition of prime rib Christmas Eve dinners with my family. Although, we open our presents on Christmas day. Our kids sleep in and take their sweet time opening gifts. It's wonderful! Parents all over the world wish their kids would slow down and savor each gift. And mine do. I am so grateful. It takes weeks, months even to buy all the gifts and wrap them. Hide them. So to have my kids take their time really means a lot. Mostly because it takes hours to prepare Christmas Eve dinner and that gets wolfed down pretty quickly. So, here's the prime rib recipe. So easy to make.


5 Ribs serves 10-12 people
Rub a generous amount of minced garlic and kosher salt onto all sided of meat. I also use Montreal Steak Seasoning from McCormick's. 
Place roast fat side up in roasting pan. 
Put in oven for 1 hour at 375 degrees
Reduce temperature to 325 degrees and cover with foil to form a little roof to keep from burning top of roast
Continue roasting for 60-90 minutes
Insert meat thermometer into thickest part of roast, not touching bone or fat


Guide:  Rare:            17-19 minutes per lb. or 135-145 degrees on thermometer
              Med. Rare   20-22 minutes per lb or 145-150 
              Medium       23-25 minutes per lb or 155-160
              Well done    27-30 minutes per lb or 165-170


Once roast is done, wrap completely in foil and let stand for maximum juiciness. 
Carve just before serving. You'll want to carve off the ribs eat them before anyone notices. You will NOT want to share the ribs. 

Susan Cookies

I was trying to find a recipe for cookies I had as a child. These come close, but not quite. I'll have to keep trying.


1 cup butter
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp. salt


Cream butter and sugar together until creamy. Add vanilla. Sift flour and salt together and add to butter mixture. Shape into balls and roll in either chocolate sprinkles or nuts. Put on "thumb print" on top. Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes or until slightly brown.


Frosting:
2 cups powdered sugar
2 Tbs. hot water
1 tsp vanilla
4 Tbs. cocoa


Cream frosting ingredients together and frost once cookies have cooled. Enjoy!

Espresso Cookies

These cookies are great around the holidays when you just can't walk around the mall with a caffeine IV drip.


1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder ( I always use Dutch processed)
1 Tbs fine ground espresso beans
1/2 lb (2 sticks) butter
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla (I use vanilla bean paste)


Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Line baking sheet with parchment 
Sift together dry ingredients.
In a separate bowl, mix butter, sugar and vanilla until creamy. 
Slowly add in dry ingredients until thoroughly mixed


You can shape the dough in various forms, depending on how you want them to look.  An easy way is to roll dough into a log and slice into small discs. 
Bake for 12-14 minutes or until firm to the tough.


I think I got this recipe from a Martha Stewart magazine, but i'm not sure. I like to give credit where credit is due. Plus, if it's from Martha, you know it's going to be great!

More Nuts...You know how crazy the holidays make you!

So far, December has been a mixture of laughter and tears. While I've been having fun decorating, baking and shopping, I was also robbed. By my own daughters. That's right. They took 11 bags of my toffee and passed them out to their friends. On December 2nd. Because they felt they didn't have enough time to get their own presents. This has made  me nuts! So I thought I'd post a wonderful nut recipe!

Sugar Coated Pecans~A delightful treat to have in a bowl around your house at the holidays

1 egg white
1 Tbs water
1 lb pecan halves
3/4 c white suager
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 250 degrees F. Grease baking sheet
In mixing bowl, whisk together egg white and water until frothy. In a Separate bowl, mit togther sugar, salt and cinnamon.
Add pecans to the egg mixture, stir until evenly coated. Remove nuts and toss in sugar mixture until coated. Spread nuts on greased baking sheet.
Bake at 250 degree for 1 hour, stiring every 15 minutes.

Food for thought: When your kids make you nuts~Make these nuts! They are delicious!

Nuts and stuff

So, by now I'm sure many of you have made Wendi's English Toffee. You'll notice that when you break the toffee into pieces, a lot of the nuts and some of the chocolate will have come off. What's a girls to do? You could put the extras in cookies. Or you could do what I did.
I made a pumpkin load and spread the nuts over the top before I put it in the oven. After the pumpkin roll cooled, I spread cream cheese frosting on it and rolled it up. So yummy! It was all ready when the girls came home from school. You should have seen their faces. They were very happy.


Now, I've never made a roll before. They are so pretty and tasty, but I've never thought I'd be able to roll the cake out the right way. I followed the directions (from my red and white checkered cook book) but the cake wouldn't release from the pan. So I spread the cream cheese frosting on the cake and cut the cake into strips the width of my spatula and was able to roll the cake form there. Voila- it looked great. I wish I'd taken pictures, but it got eaten pretty quickly. I guess I'll just have to make another one! Right after I go to the gym! LOL