What's For Dinner: Holiday

Chex PB & Chocolate Blast

Let me preface this with: This is not our Grammie's recipe for the best Chex Mix treat you will ever have. But when you want to add a little more color in for a Holiday party, these are pretty dang good too.

From Taste of Home Cooking Holiday Magazine Edition:

Ingredients:

6 cups Rice Chex Cereal

1 cup of white vanilla baking chips

1 cup peanut butter chips

1 cup green and red M&Ms

1 cup dry roasted peanuts

Directions:

1. Line 2 cookie sheets with foil or waxed paper. Place 3 cups of cereal in a large bowl. In small microwaveable bowl, microwave white vanilla baking chips uncovered on high until chips can be stirred smooth.

2. Pour melted chips over cereal in bowl; stir gently to evenly coat

3. Spread mixture in a single layer on one of the cookie sheets. Refrigerate 5 minutes or until set.

4. Repeat steps 1-3 using the remaining cereal and the peanut butter chips.

5. Gently break up coated cereal into large bowl. Add candy and peanuts; stir gently to combine. Store in airtight container.

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Serves: 6-8

Christmas Desserts & Snacks: Brownie Parfait

A coworker brought these in for our Christmas party last year. Delicious! And so easy to make too!

1 pan of Brownies (your own recipe or boxed deal)
1 tub of Cool Whip
Red and green food coloring
Candy canes

Makes brownies as instructed (either via recipe or instructions on box).

While the brownies are cooking, get out the Cool Whip and divide into thirds. (We found that using Cool Whip works much better than the canned Redi Whip.) In one-third, add green food coloring and stir together; in another third, add red food coloring; and the last third, leave white. Add enough food coloring to get your desired color. Refrigerate.

Once the brownies are done, pull from the oven and using a fork, create brownie crumbles.

Select a wine glass, goblet, parfait dish, or whatever you want to use as the show-piece for your dessert.

First add a layer of brownie crumbles, then a layer of green Cool Whip, a layer of brownie crumbles, a layer of white Cool Whip, a layer of brownie crumbles, and finally a layer of red Cool Whip. Top with a candy cane or two and serve.

We found that it was best to either serve the dish right away, or refrigerate until serving time.

Do you have a Christmas dessert or snack that you favor?

Christmas Dinner: Sweetheart Salad

This is the perfect holiday salad. It's especially perfect for Christmas because it has so much red and green in it. It's beautiful, but also very tasty.

I got the original recipe from Taste of Home, but I also made a several changes.

Taste Of Home's Recipe:

Ingredients
3 cups spring mix salad greens
1/4 cup dried cranberries
1/4 cup balsamic vinaigrette
2 tablespoons honey-roasted sliced almonds

Directions
Divide salad greens and cranberries between two salad plates. Drizzle with vinaigrette and sprinkle with almonds.

Serves: 2.
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Here is the recipe with the changes we made to it:

Ingredients:
Two bags of spring mix salad greens
Half of a 6 oz. bag of dried cranberries
Balsamic vinaigrette, to taste
1/2 cup of sliced almonds, candied

Directions
To candy almonds, put about 1/4 cup of sugar in skillet and heat over medium to medium high heat. Stir the sugar constantly until it begins to melt. Do NOT try to rush this! The sugar will start to form hard rocks first, then it will slowly begin to melt into a caramel-colored liquid.
When sugar is melted, add the almonds. Stir until all of the nuts are coated with caramelized sugar. Pour almonds onto a cookie sheet, aluminum foil, or waxed paper. Cool 10 minutes and break into small pieces.

Pour both bags of salad greens into a large bowl. Add dried cranberries and candied almonds. Add balsamic vinaigrette to taste. Toss and serve.

Serves: 6

Do share your favorite Christmas dinner dish!

Christmas Morning: Crouton and Egg Casserole

This has always been one of our favorite egg dishes and we look forward to it every Christmas morning.

MAKE THE NIGHT BEFORE!

Ingredients
1 box of HERB SEASONED croutons
MEAT- 1 lb. of bacon, or ham, or sausage; cooked
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
9-12 eggs, beaten
3 cups milk

Directions
In a 9x13 pan, layer the bottom of the pan with the whole box of croutons. Layer the meat on top of the croutons. Then layer with the shredded cheese.

In a separate bowl, mix beaten eggs with 3 cups of milk. Pour egg and milk mixture over cheese, meat, and croutons.

Store, covered, overnight in refrigerator.

The next morning, bake dish at 325 degrees for 50-60 minutes until eggs are set and firm.

Serves:6-8

What's your favorite Christmas morning dish?

Christmas Drinks: White Hot Chocolate

This is a recipe we got from the Better Homes and Gardens site. So yummy!

3 cups half-and-half or light cream
3/4 cup vanilla-flavor baking pieces, or vanilla-flavor candy coating, chopped
3 cinnamon sticks
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp almond extract
Slivers of vanilla-flavor candy coating (optional)
Ground cinnamon (optional)

Combine 1/4 cup of the half-and-half or light cream, vanilla baking pieces or chopped candy coating, stick cinnamon, and nutmeg in a medium saucepan; whisk over low heat until vanilla baking pieces or candy is melted. Remove stick cinnamon.

Add remaining half-and-half or light cream. Whisk until heated through. Remove from heat. Stir in vanilla and almond extract. Serve warm in cups or mugs; top with slivers of vanilla-flavor candy coating and sprinkle with cinnamon, if desired. Makes 5 (6-ounce) servings.

All Christmas beverage recipes welcome! Including adult drinks too.

Christmas Cookies: Peppermint Meltaways

Taste of Home came through again! These cookies really do melt in your mouth!

1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup confectioners sugar
1/2 tsp peppermint extract
1-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cornstarch

FROSTING:
2 tbsp butter, softened
1-1/2 cups confectioners sugar
2 tbsp milk
1/4 tsp peppermint extract
2 to 3 drops red food coloring, optional
1/2 cup crushed peppermint candies

In a small bowl, cream butter and confectioners sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in extract. Combine flour and cornstarch; gradually add to creamed mixture and mix well.

Shape into 1-in. balls. Place 2 in. apart on ungreased baking sheets. Bake at 350° for 10-12 minutes or until bottoms are lightly browned. Remove to wire racks to cool.

In a small bowl, beat butter until fluffy. Add the confectioners’ sugar, milk, extract and food coloring if desired; beat until smooth. Spread over cooled cookies; sprinkle with crushed candies.

Christmas Candies: Grammie's Truffles

We've posted this one before... Christine and I even got a little teary as we started shaping thoses truffles on Saturday. We sure do miss her!

½ pound dark unsweetened chocolate
½ pound Baker's Semi-Sweet
1/8 oz. can Borden’s condensed milk
1/2 tsp. mint oil or extract
Chocolate decorates/sprinkles

Melt chocolate in double boiler, add milk and stir. Add mint.
Let stand overnight.

Roll into balls and in decorates. Refrigerate or freeze to harden.

What satisfies your sweet tooth during the Christmas season?

Sneak Peek

A sneak peek at what we were up to today. Are you ready for Monday?!

Holiday Recipe Exchange

Welcome to our Holiday Recipe Exchange!

We're really excited about this idea and are so looking forward to trying out some new recipes during this Christmas season!! I don't know about you all, but Christmas time is one of the few times where I adore being in the kitchen. It is all about the yummy food that says Christmas to us!

Here is how this is going to work:

The recipe exchange will begin Monday, November 30th; so start rummaging through those recipes now!

On Monday, November 30, post your recipe on your blog. Then come back to the "What's For Dinner" site to share with the rest of us. We'll be using MckLinky as a way for everyone to visit each other's sites and check out the new recipes. This will be very similar to Kelly's Korner's "Show Us Your Life" and MckMama's "Not Me Monday" and Kelsey's "Wishful Wednesday".

We are planning to divide the recipes into the following categories and each will get its own specific section. Decide which category your recipe falls under and link your holiday recipe blog post under that category.

Christmas Cookies
Christmas Candies
Other Christmas Sweets
Christmas Drinks
Christmas Dinner
Christmas Morning

Even if you do not blog, you can participate! Just send us the recipe and we’ll post it for you!

We will also be abstaining from posting any other recipes during the month of December, with the exception of holiday recipes. If you would like to have your holiday recipe featured in its own post, please email them to us at sistersandrecipes@gmail.com.

Email us if you have any questions, or even if you think of a better method of exchanging recipes. We hope we all come away with new, yummy things to eat!

And don’t forget to check back on Monday, November 30 for some new holiday recipe ideas!!

Grammie's Truffles

1/2# dark unsweetened chocolate
1/4# Baker's Semi-Sweet
1/8 oz. can Bordens
1/2 tsp. mint oil or extract
Chocolate decorats

Melt chocolate in double boiler, add milk and stir. Add mint. Let stand over night. Roll into balls and in decorets. Makes 50-80 Balls.

Grammie's Chex Mix

Another favorite from Grammie! She made this every Christmas season, and when the aroma fills my house when I make it at Christmas, I can't help but think of her.

6 cups of rice chex
6 cups of corn chex
6 cups of wheat chex
6 cups of cheerios
6 cups of pretzel sticks
2 1/2 lbs of salted mixed nuts
1 lb of butter
1/3 cup of worchestershire sauce
1 tbsp of garlic, onion, and celery salt
2 tsps minced garlic
Dash of tobasco sauce

In saucepan, melt butter. Then add worchestershire sauce, salts, garlic, and tobasco. Leave on the stove to simmer.

In a large roasting pan, mix cereals, pretzels, and nuts. Pour sauce over dry mix and gently stir to evenly distribute sauce.

Bake at 250-degrees for two hours. First hour, covered, second hour uncovered. Stir every twenty minutes; six times total.

Allow to cool overnight.