Our Christmas Cup Game and How We Modified It

Merry Christmastide, friends! 

How was your Christmas? I hope you and your family were blessed by the activities on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

We enjoyed both days immensely. I made even more changes to our Christmas Day meal plans, simplifying my actual day-of work significantly. We skipped the steaks for dinner altogether. Instead, I pre-made some curried chicken salad, opened our box of smoked salmon, pre-cooked roasted carrots with thyme, pre-roasted tri-colored potatoes with garlic and rosemary, pre-baked honey-mustard glazed onions, thawed some scratch dinner rolls, used a coupon for a free salad kit from Fred Meyer, and my daughters made a dessert. About 30 minutes before eating dinner, I tossed the salad, microwave-heated the carrots, potato, onion dishes and dinner rolls, plated the smoked salmon, and placed everything on the table. This was one of the easiest Christmas dinners I've ever made and will consider doing something along these lines again in the future. Our brunch meal plan was simplified as well. My daughters made a batch of deviled eggs the day before, I heated the pre-baked breads and muffins, I cooked a package of bacon, one daughter made a salad of fresh blueberries and sliced bananas, I thawed some homemade frozen eggnog, and we set out 2 types of juice. Again, super easy on the day-of an event. BTW, frozen eggnog made with heavy cream separates into whipped cream and the rest of the beverage. Once thawed, I ran it through the blender and served it fro the blender pitcher.

On to our game. . .

As you might recall, Alice gave me the idea to do this cup game with our family. I set 50 red and green plastic Solo-type cups upside down on the kitchen table and decorated each cup with a star bow from our stash. I had enough small prizes for each cup. 

The prizes ranged in value from a kitchen sponge at the low end to a full-sized bottle of Bath & Body Works shower gel (free with a coupon). I also had lots of edible prizes, such as chocolates, tiny containers of jam, a mini bottle of cajun spices, a small tin of breath mints, small packs of nuts, individual packets of cookies, and individually-packaged tea bags. For non-food prizes, I bought the mentioned kitchen sponge, a rechargeable mini-flashlight, a couple of small puzzles, chip clips, hand warmers, travel-sized toiletries, a bath bomb, some fingernail clippers, a couple of votive candles, and perhaps a couple of other things that escape my memory right now. The "big" prizes (meaning desirable) were $5 gift cards to McDonalds, See's Chocolates, and Starbucks. 

WinCo's bulk bin section was a great place to shop for small amounts of candies, cookies, or tea bags. The best price on Solo-type cups was Dollar Tree. I bought the green cups there. I had previously bought the red cups at Target, but at least I bought the Up and Up brand of those. I used coupons wherever I could and raided my gift closet for small gift-ables. 

I did as Alice had recalled from her family playing this game, and when a prize was too big to fit under the cup, I put a number under the cup and tagged the corresponding item with the same number. I then placed these all in a cabinet out of sight. I didn't mention to the "contestants" that there were some cups with numbers underneath. So when the first number was found, there was a lot of buzz and excitement over what this meant. Once they realized that some prizes were stored in the cupboard, and I had to retrieve them, everyone wanted to get a number.

Once all of the cups had been removed, we added an extra level of play to the game. At this point, everyone had 10 prizes. I told them that they could choose to keep all of their prizes, or they could return some of them to the table, exchanging each for a token. The tokens could then be used to choose from the returned prizes from other contestants. Everyone had some prizes they wanted to exchange. As with the first level, the contestants took turns choosing from the returned prizes, which were out in the open at this point. By adding this extra part to the game, everyone had a second chance at some of the prizes.

Everyone loved the game and said it was a lot of fun. Lots of laughter, smiles, and giggles. This game was a winner.

Had to Nix the Takeout Chinese Meal for Christmas Eve . . .

 . . . but its all good, we'll still be having an Asian dinner that doesn't take much of my time. As it turned out, both daughters will be out with the car in the early evening on Sunday. If I waited for them to come home and then go get the takeout, we'd be eating dinner around 7:30. I think I've got this covered.

Here's my plan:

On Monday I cooked up some stir-fry beef and onions. When it finished cooking, I could tell it was way more than the 4 of us would eat, so I froze about third of the cooked meat. Today I bought frozen egg rolls, ready to heat and eat, some Asian stir-fry veggies, a tub of tofu, and some whole wheat spaghetti pasta. I'll make a beef and tofu chow mien-type main dish with the noodles, meat, tofu, and frozen veggies, then have egg rolls on the side. It should be quick and easy to throw together. Not including the cost of the already cooked meat, I spent $11.50. That's not bad compared to what I was prepared to spend for takeout Chinese. So, I'm happy with it.

Have you needed to modify any of your holiday plans somewhat last-minute this year? Wishing you well as your finalize all of your work ahead of Christmas!

The White Chocolate-Covered Snowflake/Star Pretzels

I made the chocolate-covered snowflake pretzels today. I sprinkled them with light blue coarse sugar after dipping. I think my son and daughter-in-law will enjoy these.

I was a bit disappointed in the amount of broken pretzels in the bag. But no worries -- I turned all of those bits into some semi-sweet chocolate pretzel bark for my husband and daughters. I know they'll love this. The 4 of us have been enjoying all of the leftovers from my cookie and treat baking this week and last. 

There's always some sprinkles or coarse sugar that ends up on the waxed paper instead of the pretzels. I saved all of that in a small bowl to stir into oatmeal, cocoa, tea, or something like that. It's just sitting out for anyone in the family to use. So, nothing was wasted. That's always a good feeling.

My Non-Complicated Way to Divide One Egg for Cutting Recipes in Half

I went to bake a half-batch of caramel nutty bars today and needed only 1/2 egg to do so. I've had mixed success dividing eggs equally. Even after beating well, the whites always want to slide out of the measuring spoon when I try dividing by measure. So I came up with this technique. It's super simple and most of us have the "equipment" needed.

I used 2 identical custard cups, a fork and a spoon.

After breaking the egg into one of the cups, I beat it well with a fork.

I then spooned half of the beaten egg into the other cup, eye-balling the equal levels between the two cups.

This has worked for me with every recipe that I've needed to split a single egg in the last two years. I don't know why I didn't think of this sooner, as I've had a set of custard cups for decades and this was easily do-able.

Anyway, the caramel nutty bars look delicious. I now have half an egg set aside in the fridge to use soon. FYI, an egg out of the shell, or an egg yolk, or egg white will keep in the fridge, covered, for about 3 days. I'll have to come up with another use for this leftover 1/2 egg.

Stretching Liquid Dish Soap (For Hand-Washing Dishes) With Baking Soda

My grandmother was full of wisdom for me in my early years of marriage. She had all kinds of tips, especially tips that would help me save money. She lived about 5 minutes from where my husband and I set up our first home together. One afternoon when I was visiting, I was drying lunch dishes while she washed. (My grandmother never had an automatic dishwasher.) She and I were talking about how much easier life was now/then than when she first married, mere months before the stock market crash of 1929. I asked for details about how she did ordinary things in the home. Here's what she shared with me:

"Take this dish soap," pointing to the bottle of Ivory. "I had nothing like this then." 

"I used to take a bar of soap and grate it and store it in a jar. After meals, when it was time for me to clean up, I put a spoonful of it [grated soap] into a tea cup and added boiling water from the stove. I stirred until all of the soap was dissolved. I stirred in a heaping spoon of bicarbonate [baking soda], too. When it was ready, I poured this into the dishpan and added the boiling water for washing."

Me, incredulous, responded something like this, "really? Grated bar soap and baking soda is what you used for dishwashing?"

"Yes, dear. Where we lived, this is what we all used in those days to wash dishes. Sometimes I ran out of bar soap and couldn't buy more for a while. In those days I used just bicarb to clean dishes and a lot of elbow grease to scrub pots. Bicarbonite was always cheap. Bar soap was more precious during the Depression."

I've held this little homemaking tidbit in the back of mind all of these years, meaning to try this out someday. 

One day in early November (around the time I had a dental infection and was desperate to get my surgery), our dishwasher went kaput. The part we need is no longer available, wouldn't you know. So we've been hand-washing all of our dishes since. The only bright spot in my dental ordeal is I was not expected to wash dishes for about a week. 

I've been surprised by how quickly we go through a bottle of liquid dish detergent. One evening last week, as I was filling the washpan with hot water, I noticed we were nearly out of dish soap. That's when my memories of my grandmother's stories and wisdom came to the surface. I wondered if I could use just a little dish soap and a very heaping spoonful of baking soda to wash the dishes that night.

And you know what? It turned out that I could. All of the dishes came out sparkling clean. Even the pots and skillet cleaned up without the addition of more soap. And this is what we used for the rest of last week and all of the weekend.

Wanting to see if other folks had tried this in recent years, I went online and discovered that, yes, a little baking soda is a great way to amplify soap's cleaning abilities. A small amount of soap can clean more dishes with baking soda added than just the same amount of soap by itself.

From RusticWise.com:

"Wash dishes for a sparkling clean: Washing dishes with baking soda and dish soap is an easy way to boost cleaning power. To use baking soda for washing dishes, simply fill your sink with hot or warm soapy water. Then add 2 heaping tablesoons of baking soda to the water. Soak any greasy pots or pans with stuck-on food in the solution for several minutes. This lets the powerful duo work their magic. Then scrub away! Another way is to simply sprinkle baking soda onto a damp sponge with a bit of dish soap to use as a gentle scour."  

We've also found it extremely helpful to pre-rinse all greasy dishes or pots before adding them to the soda/soap water.

I have yet to try this with just baking soda, as my grandmother said she had to do. I will let you know if baking soda alone will clean dirty dishes when I perform that experiment. For the meantime, I now know how to stretch small amounts of liquid dish detergent. Thanks, Nana.

Christmas Menus

I've been slowly whittling away at the Christmas menus over this last week. I simply don't have the energy to do as much as usual.

I started with lasagna, vegetables, and homemade cookies for Christmas Eve. Then that was simplified to homemade pizza, veggies, and cookies. And now we're leaning toward take-out Chinese for Christmas Eve.

For Christmas Day breakfast, we began with a sausage and pepper egg casserole, bacon, almond bread, muffins, fruit salad, juice, and coffee/tea/cocoa. This meal too needed to be simplified. We're now planning on ham slices, deviled breakfast eggs made the day before (bacon bits mixed in with mayo and egg yolk to stuff the whites), a fruit bowl from the produce department (probably watermelon chunks), almond bread (already baked and in the freezer), muffins, juice, coffee/tea/cocoa. My husband will be in charge of the hot drinks, I'll bake and freeze a batch of muffins in the next couple of days, my daughters will do the deviled eggs, and I'll heat the ham slices.

We had planned on doing a Christmas lunch a few hours after the breakfast, but really, who are we kidding? None of us will be eating our Christmas breakfast at a usual breakfast hour. My son keeps late hours as a software engineer, and they often don't arrive for a breakfast at breakfast hours. So, we'll skip the lunch idea, do brunch using the breakfast menu, and somewhere around 1 or 2 in the afternoon I'll add a bowl of chicken salad (made the day before) and some rolls (already baked and in the freezer) to the remains of the breakfast spread. If we happen to have tangerines on hand, I'll add those, too.

Christmas Day dinner -- this is the big meal of our celebrations, so I didn't want to cut back too much on my efforts for this meal. But this is also the most complex of our Christmas meals. Much of it needs to be done just before serving. So far, I have steaks in the freezer from our latest beef delivery. My plan is to make Steak Diane, which is done on the stove. My daughters have volunteered to make a dessert for us. I still need a starchy dish (perhaps popovers or potatoes au gratin) and 2 vegetable dishes. I have a coupon for a free bag of salad mix at Fred Meyer. I'll get that and perhaps some vegetables to roast in the oven. I would also like to make my mother's creamy jello salad in tiny wreath molds. I may be able to un-mold those onto individual plates the day before, allowing me to take my time with this part of preparation. Can you see any other aspects of my meal prep that can be done ahead of time?

How are your holiday meal plans coming? What's on your menus for both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day?

Just a gift-wrap reminder: diagonal for the win!

Many of us are wrapping gifts this week or next. I've talked about this tip before but wanted to remind you friends once again.

When your gift wrap is just short of the ends meeting on the backside when wrapping conventionally (paper ends are parallel to the boxes sides), turn the paper on the diagonal and see if the paper will fully cover your gift.

Here's a small box that I was wrapping with a scrap of paper. The paper was about 1/4-inch too short for the ends to meet on the back side. 

I tried turning the box 90 degrees in the other direction, and I just couldn't get it to work. 

So I turned the paper on the diagonal and, presto, the box was thoroughly covered with the paper.

Diagonal for the win!

I baked the peppermint-vanilla swirl cookies

I baked the tiny gingerbread men last week. Yesterday I baked up the peppermint-vanilla swirl cookies. They're supposed to be pinwheel cookies, but I'm afraid my pinwheels lack all of the turns of the wheels. They are delicious, nonetheless. I always wonder why no manufacturer makes a peppermint cookie that doesn't also have chocolate. Peppermint and vanilla are a yummy combination, even without chocolate.

Anyway, these are impressive-looking for the low cost and relative ease. They are a refrigerator dough that is sliced after firming. I use my mother's chocolate and vanilla pinwheel cookie recipe, leaving out the chocolate in one portion of the dough and adding in red food coloring and peppermint oil until the dough tastes minty enough. I also add about 1 extra tablespoon of flour to compensate for the gel and oil added to color and flavor.

Baked refrigerator cookies freeze well. I froze my son and daughter-in-law's portion and a dozen for us. I also put out a dozen to eat this week and they're almost gone. I may have to make these again later this week.

I hope all of your cleaning, cooking/baking, wrapping, and other preparations are going well this week.

Playing Reindeer Games This Christmas

Last year after Christmas, Alice told us (in the comments) about playing a game with her family on Christmas. I recall she said it was a big hit with her family members. I tucked this info in the back of my mind and pulled it back up in early November. I think she called it a cup game. 

Anyway, I went online to see if I could find a cup game that might work with my family.

Here's a video that demonstrates how one family plays this game. One person sort of plays "game show host" and uses Solo cups to conceal different prizes. Then family members take turns picking cups to find their prize. The prizes don't need to be as extravagant as this family uses. Alice, I don't know if this is anything like what your family played last year.

https://www.facebook.com/100094676150373/videos/family-christmas-cup-game-/230933973221873/

So I was thinking this would work well for our 6 (or 5 would be playing, I'd be the host). While I've been out shopping, I've picked up some inexpensive prizes and a pack of Solo cups to use for our game. The plan is for us to play this after Christmas dinner.

What propelled me forward with this game plan was a conversation I had early last week. I was talking with the medical assistant at a doctor's appointment and he told me his family plays games after Christmas dinner each year. They take turns planning the games each year and all chip in for the prizes. His stories of their games were very entertaining and made me want to put together something similar for my own family. So that's the plan.

I'm curious, does your family play games on Christmas or other holidays? Give details if you can.

As for the reindeer games, the four of us watched this old version of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer this weekend and wanted to share the link in case you haven't seen it. This animated version was produced in 1948, long before the production of the stop-motion version that most of us knew in our younger years. It's not too long, about 8 & 1/2 minutes. Enjoy!

click here Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1948)

I wanted to show you what I found at Target

 

These are snowflake-shaped pretzels. I paid $3 for the 10-oz bag. Why would I be so excited about these?

Well, every Christmas I bake a bunch of treats to give to my son and daughter-in-law, so they can enjoy the holiday treat foods that the rest of us enjoy.

A popular (with them) sweet snack that I make is chocolate covered pretzels. My son loves these. I think it's the sweet combined with salt that is so appealing.

One year I coated the pretzels with white chocolate and crushed candy cane bits.

Another year I coated the pretzels in dark chocolate and drizzled white chocolate over the tops and sprinkled with candy cane bits.

And yet another year I coated the pretzels in white chocolate then sprinkled them with red and green cake/cookie decors.

I try to do something different with the pretzels each year, you know, just to mix things up. Anyways, this year I have snowflake-shaped pretzels to work with. I'm so excited about these. I hope they turn out really cute.

While I would never spend this much money on chocolate covered pretzels, here's what Hickory Farms sells their white chocolate covered snowflake pretzels for -- $21.99 for a 10-oz box.

They're cute, but not $22 cute. Mine will be just as cute, fresher tasting, and much less expensive to make. Plus, chocolate-covered pretzels are about the easiest holiday confection to make that I know of. Easy is a top priority for me this year.

Just wanted to share what I found. By the way, I didn't find them in-store, but added them to an order to be shipped. They were well-padded in the box with other items and seem to have about the same broken to whole ratio as regular pretzels bought in a store.

Bringing Good Cheer

If you're familiar with very many Christmas carols, then you'll recognize the following words as lyrics to Carol of the Bells.

Hark! how the bells

Sweet silver bells

All seem to say

‘throw cares away.’

Christmas is here

Bringing good cheer

To young and old

Meek and the bold

Ding, dong, ding, dong

That is their song

With joyful ring

All carolling

One seems to hear

Words of good cheer

From ev’rywhere

Filling the air

Oh how they pound

Raising the sound

O’er hill and dale

Telling their tale

Gaily they ring

While people sing

Songs of good cheer

Christmas is here

Merry, merry, merry, merry Christmas

Merry, merry, merry, merry Christmas

On, on they send

On without end

Their joyful tone

To ev’ry home

Hark! how the bells

Sweet silver bells

All seem to say

‘throw cares away.’

Christmas is here

Bringing good cheer

To young and old

Meek and the bold

Ding, dong, ding, dong

That is their song

With joyful ring

All carolling

One seems to hear

Words of good cheer

From ev’rywhere

Filling the air

Oh how they pound

Raising the sound

O’er hill and dale

Telling their tale

Gaily they ring

While people sing

Songs of good cheer

Christmas is here

Merry, merry, merry, merry Christmas

Merry, merry, merry, merry Christmas

On, on they send

On without end

Their joyful tone

To ev’ry home

Throw cares away, Christmas is here. Bringing good cheer.

Our greater society seems to have taken a wrong turn when it comes to celebrating Christmas. While watching YouTube videos the other week, I was bombarded with ads for the "perfect gift for someone you love." I was browsing a forum one afternoon, and there was a multiple page thread on the Advent calendars that folks were gifting their family members or wanted for themselves. These Advent calendars definitely fall into the luxury category. There are calendars for specialty jams, Funko Pops, coffee pods, teas, figurines, Godiva chocolates, Legos, crafts supplies, and even ones for cats. I had no idea these sorts of Advent calendars even existed, and even more surprised that so many folks were buying and gifting them. 

The type of Advent calendar I grew up with was made of 2 stiff layers of paper, printed with a nice Christmas scene and with 24 little doors set into the top layer of paper. Under each door was a little picture or a Bible verse. It was exciting to wake up each morning, get dressed and then open that day's little window. The picture or the verse truly was a nice surprise and treat to start the day. By the time my children came along, Advent calendars were often filled with small chocolates. I still see those types in stores beginning in November each year.

I have no problem with people buying expensive gifts for their loved ones, spending what could be interpreted as large sums of money on some of these gifts. The amount of buying and spending isn't my point. My point is today's buying and spending seems to overshadow the rest of the Christmas celebration.

We were talking at the dinner table tonight about what Christmas was like for my kids' grandparents during the Great Depression, and how their experiences might have colored how they chose to celebrate Christmas once they were the adults. My husband recalled that in his family, gift-giving took a back seat to other aspects of the Christmas holiday, such as the church service, a nice family meal, a holiday concert or two in the weeks leading up to Christmas, and sharing with others. In my own family, we went caroling, visited a local care home, participated in (when younger) and attended (when older) both church and school Christmas shows, had a special Christmas meal, attended our church's Christmas Eve service together, as well as exchanged gifts. As a kid of course the presents were a highlight. But my parents were wise enough to not allow the gifts to overshadow the significance of the birth of our Savior. I would hope that even if a family had no religious orientation, they would intuitively know that bombarding their children with many, many, many shiny baubles and playthings might not be in their best interest, and would therefore try to balance the gift-giving with other types of activities.

My daughters were asking when my family would set up a tree when I was growing up. They were stunned when I told them somewhere around the 15th or 16th of December. That seemed late to them. They also asked what we did between the Thanksgiving holiday and Christmas celebrations, as if Thanksgiving simply had to lead directly into Christmas. I replied that life pretty much went back to normal after Thanksgiving for a couple of weeks. We went back to school and my parents' lives continued as normal until about mid-December when the Christmas festivities, shopping, baking, and visiting would begin. Black Friday as a national shopping spree didn't even exist when I was a child. I wish Christmas caroling in the neighborhood would make a comeback. We enjoyed both the caroling and being the lucky householder to hear the sweet Christmas a cappella music. 

The tune for Carol of the Bells originated in the Ukraine as a New Year song in the early 1900s. The English version with Christian lyrics was introduced to American audiences in 1936 during the Great Depression. The rearrangement and new lyrics transformed the music into a Christmas song, with references to caroling, handbells, and of course wishes for a merry Christmas.

The lyrics to Carol of the Bells recall a less consumer-driven Christmas holiday. Christmas in itself brings the good cheer, not the number of packages under the tree or whether or not one received a luxury Advent calendar. To note, this good cheer is available to all, young, old, meek, bold. 

Lucky for us, one of the easiest ways to tap into the Christmas good cheer is also free, listening to carols online. In December, I like to take a few minutes each day to "throw cares away" briefly and enjoy  some of my favorites. I hope you enjoy this a cappella version of Carol of the Bells.

Replacing the Makeshift Zipper Pull on My Winter Jacket

Towards the end of last winter the pull on my winter jacket's zipper broke off. I used a paperclip to zip up and down my jacket for the rest of the season and the beginning of this year's.

I tired of looking less than polished when going out in my winter jacket. A paperclip front and center just screamed haphazard to me. I initially thought I'd buy a replacement zipper pull. You can buy replacements at fabric stores. The one above is the least expensive option at Joann Fabrics, for about $3 and change. However, I'm rarely in the area where our local Joann Fabrics is located, and I simply became impatient.

I had a thought that I could fashion a new pull from my jewelry-making supplies. This morning I pulled out the box of beads, findings, wire, and pliers. After trying a few different items without success, I settled on a large ring with a bead that fit.

Here's the repaired jacket's zipper pull. It's not perfect, but I like how it looks, and equal in importance, it works. My cost was $0, and I was able to make the repair in less time than I would have spent going to the fabric store and back.

A normal December Monday

Over the weekend we finished decorating the inside of the house for the holidays. Sunday late afternoon, we had a short break in the rain, so I ran outside to clip a handful of short branches from a cedar tree in the yard. I made two of these mini-swags to go in front of the two kitchen windows. They make the room cheery and didn't cost anything. I had pieces of wire in a jar, the fruit picks leftover from a garland we used to do on the banister and the two ribbons from a package many years ago.

I also made gingerbread men cookie dough and a small batch of more eggnog. Getting into the holiday spirit.

This morning I needed to go grocery shopping. A week ago Monday, I made a quick dash to Walmart to pick up basics -- milk, eggs, carrots, bananas, and jalapeño peppers. I was using the car in between the excursions of two family members who also needed the car. So I was as quick as I could be. Later in the week, I thought about doing more grocery shopping, perhaps getting a start on some Christmas meals shopping. I decided to wait until today and make what current meals from what we have on hand. We're needing more space in the freezer for another delivery of beef coming up shortly. Better to use what's already here than add more to the freezers.

So, this morning I went to WinCo, Chefstore (wholesaler), and Grocery Outlet. My list really wasn't very long. I bought more almond flour so I could do another batch of almond paste for almond macaroons, plus avocados, bananas, tangerines, dried cranberries, turmeric, black pepper, cayenne pepper, mixed nuts, a little bit of Christmas candy, chicken breasts, a Christmas ham, a 5-lb loaf of cheddar cheese, and a pint of whipping cream on markdown for 78 cents. The dried cranberries are for Christmas brunch muffins. The spices go into my super-charged spicy morning cup of cocoa (turmeric, cinnamon, ginger, coconut oil, milk, cocoa powder, honey, black pepper, honey). I began this as a way to use up the turmeric I had in the cupboard. Little did I know I'd enjoy this spice in cocoa so much I'd need to buy more! The mixed nuts are for some favorite nut bars I make every Christmas. The one item on my list that I didn't buy was fruitcake fruit. One daughter expressed interest in making my mom's fruitcake recipe. However, the fruitcake fruit was so expensive! If we go ahead and make the fruitcake, we'll improvise on that ingredient. What I noticed while shopping was how much more expensive several foods were today, comparing Christmas 2022 with today. Ham, chicken, and cheese added quite a bit to my spending. The almond flour, however, was less than I paid for it in summer. So not everything is more expensive right now, just almost everything that I would buy this time of year.

After grocery shopping, I stopped by the pharmacy to pick-up my husband's rx and went to the post office to mail something. I was pretty beat by the time I got home. I feel like I'm still recovering. I have pain everyday still, although the pain is less and less each day.

I thought I would get to decorating the outdoor tree and making a swag to hang over the garage. But it was too cold and wet for me to want to do that. Maybe tomorrow's weather will be better.

Just now I tucked a chicken pot pie into the oven for our dinner tonight. Should be tasty.

Anyhow, today was a normal December Monday for me. How was your day? Any special activities, or  was it just a normal day for you?

And now I'll go wash the dishes that I dirtied while getting dinner together. have a lovely rest of your evening.

Leftover November Whipping Cream Becomes December Eggnog

We always have some leftover heavy whipping cream after Thanksgiving. And what perfect timing, too. As Thanksgiving in the US is just before the beginning of December.

I'm fussy about consuming raw or undercooked eggs, so the eggnog I make is a cooked egg version, using a double-boiler on the stove.

The other day I made a quart and a half of eggnog, using the leftover whipping cream, milk, sugar, whole eggs, vanilla, and spices. The whipping cream itself is just cream, no carrageenan or tore stabilizers in the brand I bought. So my homemade eggnog was made without preservatives, stabilizers, gums, corn syrup, or additional colorings. Compare my homemade ingredient list to Kroger's eggnog ingredient list as printed on their label: pasteurized homogenized milk, cream, high fructose corn syrup, sugar, egg base (egg yolks, sugar, guar gum, carrageenan, salt, artificial flavor), spices, natural  and artificial flavor, annatto and turmeric extracts (for color).

I filled 3 pint containers with the finished eggnog. I offered one pint to my son and daughter-in-law, put one pint in the fridge, and froze the third pint. Both commercial and homemade eggnog freeze well. If it separates upon thawing, I simply run it through the blender (immersion or pitcher blender) and all is good.

My family's recipe for eggnog:

4 whole eggs, or the equivalent in egg beaters

1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons of granulated sugar 

2 cups milk

2 cups whipping cream or half and half

1  1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract (or 3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract and 3/4 teaspoon rum extract)

1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg (I like the full amount of nutmeg)

up to 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon (I'm not a huge fan of cinnamon in my eggnog, but a small pinch does enhance the flavor, I use just under 1/8 teaspoon of cinnamon)

optional extras: 1 to 2 tablespoons canned pumpkin (to taste), and an extra pinch each of nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves and ginger for pumpkin eggnog

equipment:

medium mixing bowl or top of a 2-qt double boiler

2 quart saucepan or bottom of a double boiler

electric mixer or blender

candy or all-purpose cooking thermometer (very important)

spoon for stirring

rubber spatula

whisk

mesh strainer

large pitcher

Fill your saucepan or bottom of double boiler 2/3 full of water and set to a boil on stove.

Meanwhile, break eggs into mixing bowl or top of double boiler. Add sugar. With an electric mixer, beat well. Scrape sides of bowl and beat again. Mix in milk, scraping sides of bowl.

Place bowl or top of double boiler onto pan of water. If using a non-instant read thermometer, place it into the milk mixture and hang on the side of bowl. If using a digital instant read thermometer, just keep it handy. You will need to cook this mixture to 160 degrees F (71.11 C). This is important. According to foodsafety.gov this is the temperature needed to kill bacteria in egg dishes. I typically allow the mixture to cook to 165 degrees F, just to be on the safe side. USDA's recommended 160 degrees F is a minimum temperature for egg dishes.

Cook mixture, stirring occasionally and scraping sides down with rubber spatula until egg and milk mixture reaches 160 to 165 degrees F. Stir the liquid well then test the temperature in several places in your bowl/double boiler. The mixture will thinly coat the backside of your spoon.

When all is 160-165 degrees F (this should take about 20 - 30 minutes of occasional attention), remove from heat.

Whisk in cream or half and half. Add spices and extracts. Taste and adjust the sugar or spices, blending again until thoroughly combined.

If adding pumpkin/spices or alcohol, use a mixer to incorporate.

Set a mesh strainer over a large pitcher. Pour cooked mixture through the strainer.

Cover pitcher with plastic wrap and chill for 4 hours or overnight. Homemade eggnog thickens with chilling. 

The whole process goes very quickly with little hands-on work. I typically have other things I'm doing in the kitchen while I wait for the egg, sugar, and milk mixture to reach the right temperature. This time I was folding laundry while the mix heated. 

Food safety and homemade eggnog

• Homemade eggnog should be stored in the refrigerator at 40 degrees F or below up to 3 days for optimal food safety.
• Make smaller batches if you don't think you can consume an entire batch within 3 days. (I often make a half batch at a time. We drink small portions, about 3 to 4 ounces. It really doesn't take that long to make another batch when we run out.)
• Don't leave eggnog out of the refrigerator for more than 2 hours. If serving at a party, you can fill one large bowl with ice, then set a smaller punch bowl with the eggnog PLUS add an ice ring to the eggnog. Your ice ring can be made of milk and sugar flavored with a bit of nutmeg, if desired. Take the temp of the eggnog every half hour. It should remain at or below 40 degrees. If you don't think you can keep a punch bowl at 40 F for the duration of your event, it is much safer to have a couple of smaller pitchers of eggnog. Bring 1 pitcher out of the fridge at a time, making sure no pitcher remains unrefrigerated for more than 2 hours. 

Final notes

How thick and creamy your eggnog turns out will be determined by whether you use whipping cream or half and half, whole milk or 2 % milk, or adding additional eggs. If you're attempting to make a skim milk version of eggnog, you may want to add a thickener to the egg, sugar and milk. Beat in a bit of corn starch or arrowroot with the eggs and sugar. And, of course, eggnog can be made with soy milk, almond milk, rice milk, and alternative creamer for a non-dairy version. I do this for myself, making a 1/4 batch, since I'm lactose intolerant.

Leftover eggnog makes great holiday eggnog scones, pancakes, waffles, muffins, coffee and tea creamer, stovetop pudding and bread pudding.

Anyway, just a way to use leftover whipping cream before it sours.

Happy December, everyone!

Homemade Almond Paste for One-Third the Cost of Store-Bought

Every year, I bake a special bread for Christmas morning, using a recipe from the Scandinavian side of my family. I make this in advance and keep it in the freezer until Christmas Eve, then thaw in the fridge overnight. I'll be baking this Crêche Bread in the next few days. 

A key ingredient to this recipe is almond paste. If you've ever bought almond paste, you know this stuff is pricey for the tiny box it comes in. Walmart sells the Solo brand for $5.44 (8 ounce box).

I use the whole package for 1 loaf of bread. When I can save anywhere in this recipe, I do. Which brings me to this DIY recipe for almond paste that I found on King Arthur Baking Co website. 

I made a half batch of the recipe this morning, which yielded a little more than 6 ounces of almond paste and used ingredients I had in my kitchen already. The most expensive of these ingredients is the almond flour, which I buy in bulk from WinCo for around $6/lb. The bonus to making my own (beyond saving money) is my product did not contain any preservatives.

I followed the instructions on KA's site, using measuring cups/spoons instead of weights. I think this would be one recipe where weighing the first 2 ingredients would produce the quality of product that would approximate commercially-made almond paste more closely. But I don't have a kitchen scale, so I used my cups and spoons. However, I was able to fiddle with the end result by adding slightly more almond flour at the end, until it had both the taste and texture I was expecting.

Here's the full recipe:

Almond Paste

Yields about 1 1/2 cups (375 g or 13.23 ounces)

1 3/4 cups (168g) blanched almond flour (which is about .37 of a pound)

1 1/2 cups (170g) confectioners' sugar

1 large egg white

1/8 teaspoon table salt

1 to 1 1/2 teaspoons almond extract,  to taste

Using either a food processor or mixer and bowl, combine the almond flour and confectioners' sugar. Blend in the egg white, salt and extract, pulsing or mixing until you can see a ball forming. There will still be some bits of mixture in the bowl. Press these together with the ball that formed.

Double-wrap in plastic and store inside a plastic or glass container.

According the King Arthur's website, this will keep in the fridge for up to 1 month or in the freezer up to 3 months. I think this would actually keep in the freezer longer than 3 months, if wrapped well enough. But of course, YMMV.

I will add to this recipe, since Large egg whites are not uniformly the same in volume, you may need to add a bit more almond flour to end up with the stiffness usually found in commercial almond paste. In addition, you may find that you prefer a less-sweet almond paste, as I do. I ended up mixing in a little more almond flour to get a stiff paste that was not cloyingly sweet. The final result should be about as stiff as Play-Dough.

So, did I save money making my own almond paste? Here's the cost breakdown, based on the full recipe above:

Almond flour, about $2.22

Sugar, 37 cents

1 egg white, 7 cents

Extract and salt, 3 cents

Total for homemade 13.22 ounces (not quite double the Solo brand 8 ounce package), about $2.69. Solo's product costs $10.88 a pound, while the DIY version costs about $3.25 a pound.

The project took about 10 minutes start to finish including clean-up and was super simple. I'll be making my own almond paste from here on.

Maybe you're curious -- whats' the difference between almond paste, almond filling, and marzipan?

Marzipan is sweeter and often used as is, rolled out into a sheet to top a cake, or mixed with colorings to make shaped candies. Almond paste has a stronger almond flavor and is less sweet. Almond paste can be turned into something like marzipan by adding additional sugar and an egg white. Almond filling is a product that can be used as is to fill pastries, cakes, and tarts. It has added sugar, thickeners like cornstarch, and sometimes milk added to ground almonds. If you're buying almond paste for a recipe, make sure you have the right product. Almond filling cannot be used where a recipe calls for almond paste. 

What other recipes is almond paste used in?

Some years, I bake amaretti cookies. They call for almond paste, granulated sugar, and egg whites. Light and crunchy amaretti are a gluten-free Italian cookie. Other years, I've made almond macaroons, anther gluten-free cookie. Here's a recipe very much like my mother's.

While I haven't made this, a friend of mine has -- Dutch Banketstaaf, also called Banket. These are a filled pastry cut into cookies.

Frangipane or almond cream filling is a traditional French tart cream that can be made with almond paste, eggs, sugar, a thickener like cornstarch and sometimes a bit of rum or brandy. Once spread in the tart shell, it can be topped with thin-sliced pears for a Frangipane Pear Tart.

I grew up knowing almond paste as a Scandinavian ingredient. As it turns out, almond paste is used in many different cuisines. 

Have you ever used almond paste in a recipe?