Christmas goodies

I love Christmas for so many reasons. Among the top are that I can eat as many sweets as I can because, well, it's the holidays! This year was my first year without the woes of school and finals, so I found myself with a lot more free time. I searched about 30 recipes that looked absolutely delicious but in the end, decided with 5. Here are my top picks for EASY, delicious recipes that are sure to bring a smile. The best part is that many can be made ahead of time, frozen, or kept out so you don't need to frantically bake for 48 hours straight!

1. Melted Snowman Cookies 
These are on the blog, but can be found pretty much anywhere! This was my pick for a "fun" cookie and they were so much fun to make! Greg even helped out and had his hand at decorating these melted men.

2. Nonpareils Candies
Greg's mom emailed me this link for homemade sweets from Martha Stewart. Normally, I am not a giant Martha fan, but after taking a look I decided I had to make something. These are SO incredibly easy to make. The hardest part is waiting for them to dry!  They are sure to impress. I caved and bought the Martha Stewart treat bags to go with them and made them that much cuter. These will stay for weeks once cooled!

3. White Chocolate Oatmeal Craisin Cookies
This link will deceive you at first. I found this recipe for oatmeal cookies, even though technically the link takes you to "oatmeal cookie sandwiches". This is in my opinion the most perfect recipe for oatmeal cookies. They stay soft and chewy for days and the addition of the white chocolate chips and craisins has an amazing effect. They are my favorite Christmas cookie. Just follow the recipe for the cookie and stir in a 1/2 cup of white chocolate chips and 1/2 cup of craisins at the end.

4. Peanut Butter Blossoms
A classic cookie around the holidays. I made one batch of these and they turned out so yummy I made a second batch the next day! Very easy to make, and every ingredient can easily be found in the pantry. I may run and eat one right now.

5. Mini Cranberry Walnut Bread
I first tried these when my mom made them for Christmas. I ate almost the entire loaf in one sitting. They are so easy to prepare and to make them even more special I bought mini ceramic loaf pans from The Christmas Tree Shoppe for only $1! This bread freezes very well, so it makes a nice gift for any delayed holiday events.

Anyone have any traditions they have around the holidays? Enjoy the season!

Melted Snowman Cookies

When it comes to Christmas cookies, I am a traditionalist. It is never Christmas without my mom’s sugar cookies. I wanted to make a creative “updated” Christmas cookie without changing my roots, so when I found these melted snowman cookies, I knew I had a winner. You can by all means buy packaged sugar cookie dough, but honestly, this recipe is SO simple, you’re better off just making them from scratch! The best part of my mom’s recipe is that unlike many cookies, these do not fall prey to the hard, crumbly cookie death. Instead, they stay incredibly soft and delicious for days after you bake them.

I have to admit that while the cookie dough is best homemade, I cheated and bought store bought icing. I happen to believe that it is almost just as cheap and so much easier to buy icing. If you want to truly make it all from scratch, here is a great icing recipe I found.

Give yourself a few days for these cookies, the cookies must be cooled completely and the marshmallows must be dry enough to frost them. I made the cookie dough Thursday morning, baked the cookies on Thursday afternoon, added the marshmallows that night and iced the cookies Friday. Once they are complete, they will stay perfectly moist for up to 5 days in an air tight container.

Melted Snowmen Cookies

Makes 16 cookies

Ingredients:

·      1 batch sugar cookie dough (recipe to follow)

·      1 jar of vanilla icing

·      1 package of large marshmallows

·      Nonstick spray

·      1 tube black decorating icing

·      1 tube orange decorating icing

·      1 tube blue/red/green decorating icing

·      Sprinkles for buttons, optional

Sugar Cookie Dough:

·      ¾ cup a 50/50 mixture of butter and vegetable flavored Crisco (it’s easiest if you use the Crisco sticks), at room temperature

·      1 cup sugar

·      2 eggs, room temperature

·      1 tsp vanilla

·      2 ½ cup flour, plus more for rolling

·      1 tsp baking powder

·      1/8 tsp salt

Cream butter/Crisco mixture with sugar for 2 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time until incorporated. Mix in vanilla. In a medium bowl combine flour, baking powder, and salt. Working in thirds, mix the dry ingredients until just combined.

Dump the dough onto wax paper and form a disc. Cover with saran wrap and chill for a minimum of one hour. (I chill mine for at least 3 hours! Overnight wouldn’t hurt either so you can make it ahead of time)

Preheat oven to 400°. Cut the dough in half, returning the second half to the fridge. Turn the dough out on a floured surface and roll to ¼” thickness. Use a circle cookie cutter (or in my case, a cup) to cut out 3-4 inch circles. Bake on ungreased cookie sheet for 6-7 minutes or until JUST golden brown. Remove cookies to a rack to cool.

 Once the cookies are cool, you can start assembling the snowmen cookies. Ice the cookies with the vanilla icing, making sure to cover the cookies. Then, working in batches, start heating the marshmallows to place on the cookies. I had sixteen cookies so I microwaved four at a time.  First, spray a plate with nonstick spray, add the four marshmallows and microwave for 12-15 seconds. **The key here is to just heat the marshmallows through. Do NOT let the marshmallows expand, they will not fit on the cookie. Spray your fingers with nonstick spray then take the marshmallows out and immediately place them on the cookie close to one end of the circle. Gently press down to make sure the marshmallow stays. I liked to change up how “smushed” I made the heads of the snowmen. Repeat this until all the cookies have a marshmallow.

Once the cookies are ready to be iced, assemble all the tubes and have fun! Let your creativity fly here; I tried the arms in different positions, scarves, and different smiles. 

Store the cookies in a single layer air tight container.

 

Roasted tomato and shrimp pasta

Roasted tomatoes and shrimp pasta

Serves 4 || total time: 1 hour || active time: 25 minutes

I wanted to challenge myself to make a dish without using a recipe. I started with the roasted tomatoes and went from there. I got the inspiration from a restaurant at Disney World, Narcoossees, from which came one of the best meals of my life so far. I was served these tomatoes on a seemingly simple salad, but one bite convinced me otherwise. They were absolutely delicious and I knew I had to make them myself. I love tomatoes and shrimp together and picked the rest of the ingredients from my kitchen pantry.

I always have these ingredients in the fridge, freezer, or pantry and the actual cooking time was quick. If you don’t have shrimp, try chicken. This recipe is great anytime of the year, regardless of tomato season since the roasting brings out an intense tomato flavor.

Ingredients:

·      ½ lb shrimp, peeled and deveined

·      1 carton grape or cherry tomatoes

·      3 cloves garlic, peeled left whole

·      1 shallot, sliced

·      ¼ cup scallions, sliced ½”

·      zest and juice of one lemon

·      5-7 marinated artichoke hearts (I like Wegmans brand)

·      ¾-1 lb penne pasta

·      ½ cup pasta water (don’t throw away your water after cooking the pasta!)

·      ¼ cup white wine (or chicken stock)

·      ¼ cup white wine

·      parmesan cheese for sprinkling

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375°. On a small sheet pan, drizzle olive oil and add tomatoes and garlic. Toss with salt and pepper to coat. Roast for 25-30 minutes or until the tomatoes just burst. Set aside to cool.

While the tomatoes are roasting, peel and devein the shrimp. To devein, run a paring knife along the back of the shrimp and pull the insides out. (If you’ve never done this, don’t be grossed out, you’re just removing some not so yummy insides)

Put a pot of water on to boil. Add penne then start the sauce. In a large sauté pan, sauté shallots on medium heat until just translucent. Add scallions, lemon zest and artichoke hearts.  Sauté for 2 minutes. Add shrimp and sauté until shrimp are almost cooked. (you don’t want to overcook the shrimp) Add wine and lemon juice and let the sauce simmer. Add the cooked penne and roasted tomatoes and garlic to the sauté pan and thoroughly coat the pasta. Take about ½ cup of pasta water and add to the dish. Let cook for another minute or two then, off the heat, sprinkle with parmesan cheese.