Nikita Our Christmas tradition has been cookies. We make sugar and gingerbread cookies every year to set out for Santa. This was our first year using some non-traditional colors (primarily because I found some Easter sprinkles in the pantry!) I also was inspired by Aunt GA to try royal icing! So much fun! Enjoy the pics! Love, 99 Georgia Confession time.. I knew we were going to my sister in laws for Christmas so I really didn't have any real plans for Christmas or even Christmas Eve. It wasn't until the Thursday before Christmas did it dawn on me that maybe I should come up with something. Decided to make a stuffed pork loin.. And of course it's enough to feed a small army.. So I invited the army over to partake with us.. By army I mean the Minghelli fam. Oh.. FYI.. Anything wrapped in bacon is the closest to heaven you'll get here on earth Stuffed Pork Loin Ingredients:
Instructions:
Amy John Lennon once sang life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans. And that's precisely the case with my Christmas dinner. It wasn't to be. However, I had a Plan B. It worked! Last week I had debated between two bread recipes. The spice bread won out. Since I was unable to make my original Christmas dinner I simply made my other bread recipe for Christmas brunch. I found this French Toast recipe in Good Housekeeping but changed it slightly to cater to my personal taste. Today I will share the French Toast recipe and save the bread recipe for tomorrow's bake. Clever me. I hope that everyone had a happy Christmas! Happy New Year! Cheers to 2017!! Here's to 2018!! Nikita, Georgia and Amy
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AmyI was scanning my cookbooks and happened upon a couple of recipes for flavored butters. I had the ingredients for one on hand and decided to give it a try. It compliments the spice bread quite well. The recipe states that it should be enjoyed for breakfast, on a southern biscuit or on top of a stack of pancakes or a warm, crispy Belgian waffle. Salty Honey-Matcha Butter From The Year of Cozy By Adrianna Adarme (Make sure to check out Adrianna's site A Cozy Kitchen) Makes 1/4 cup 2 tablespoons honey, divided 1/2 teaspoon matcha green tea powder 1/4 teaspoon fine-grain sea salt 1/4 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature 1. In a small bowl, add 1 tablespoon of the honey. Pour in the matcha and whisk vigorously until no lumps are visible. Pour in the remaining 1 tablespoon honey and the salt. Add the butter and mix until completely combined. 2. Serve softened or chilled. To chill, transfer the butter to the center of a sheet of plastic wrap. Shape the butter into a log and wrap tightly. Store in the fridge for at least 2 hours. So Amy made two bread recipes this past week.. Which is great.. Totally makes up for my sad excuse for bread. Enjoy!! Amy, Nikita and Georgia AmyI found this delightful recipe in the November issue of Bon Appetit. The name of the recipe grabbed my attention. I HAD to make this bread. I began to read the ingredients and realized that it is something of a variation of the dreaded fruit cake. However, this is done nice and proper. Spicy and aromatic. Cranberry compote and creme fraiche as toppings. This would make for a light Christmas breakfast or perhaps switch out the creme fraiche for a scoop of vanilla ice cream for both an u usual and strangely traditional Christmas dessert. The process looks daunting but I can assure you that you will quickly find your groove in the kitchen. Make the bread a day ahead and the compote takes just a few minutes to prepare. Adult it up a little with some brandy if you like your dessert somewhat boozy. Spice Bread with Cranberry Compote From Bon Appetit November 2017 Click below for recipe Spice Bread with Cranberry Compote NikitaThe running joke in our house is "Don't throw away those bananas. I'm going to make banana bread." Usually more days pass by, and soon these bananas are straight black. Now according to Alton Brown, that's when the bananas are the sweetest. However, I think Matt just gets sick of looking at rotting bananas in our fruit bowl, and he throws them out. Then we start the whole process over the following week when I buy more bananas. Lol! BUT....this morning, I made Banana Bread with Chocolate Chips. 🤣 I like to make mine then toast a slice and spread peanut butter or nutella over it. Give it a try & Merry Christmas everybody!! Love, 99 Click below for recipe Banana Bread with Chocolate Chips Georgia So.. I decided to make a loaf of bread.. Now I've made bread before and it's come out fine.. You know.. Bread like. I made this loaf the other night and planned on serving it with a steaming pot of soup. Bread in oven.. Pot of soup on stove.. Both should've been done around the same time.. Husband comes home from work.. Soup.. Yum, yum, yum.. Bread.. Not done.. So I place it back in the oven.. Done.. Hard as a rock.. But the color is fantastic.. :) Just to tell you how craptacular it was.. I can't even find the dang recipe.. which may not be a bad thing.. Anyhow.. Please enjoy this lovely photo of the brick loaf I made. Will attempt this again.. Hopefully next time I can at least cut it If you have a great bread recipe.. Please feel free to share.. Please.. Happy Christmas weekend, Amy, Nikita and Georgia For it is in the giving that we receive GeorgiaWednesday was National Hot Cocoa Day.. So I thought it would be fun to test out a couple of different hot cocoa mixes. First up was Abuelita from Mexico. Abuelita's come's in a round block of chocolate. 4 sections. Each section = 4 oz of drink. I poured my milk in a pan with my chocolate. Heat until chocolate is melted Obviously the more you want the more you melt. The only thing I added to this was whipped topping. It was interestingly pretty flavorless. Which seems weird because Mexican hot chocolate has spices in it The verdict.. Meh Next up was Cadbury Drinking Chocolate from the UK So what was most fun about this cocoa was it is from the UK. Directions are super tiny and in Chinese. So I really had no idea how to prepare it. I ended up preparing it like I would any hot cocoa from the US. Three heaping tablespoons of cocoa to 8 oz of milk. Served it with mini marshmallows. Very creamy and chocolatey. Like Abuelita's it was not very sweet. Which I like.. The verdict.. Winner winner chicken dinner Now I need to figure out what I'm going to do with the Abuelita's.. So a recap. Abuelita's from Mexico. Instructions in English.. Meh Cadbury's from the UK. Instructions on Chinese.. Yum Both were found at the KP International Market AmyWhere to begin? This definitely isn't the hot chocolate from my childhood. Although it could have been. Growing up in Florida and all. No. We had Swiss Miss and went ape shit over the marshmallow. Most of the children of the 70's did. I altered the recipe slightly by using 2% milk and about half of the required chocolate. Because I prefer just a hint of chocolate when I'm using chocolate bars/chips. It's just my personal taste, feel free to use the amount the recipe calls for or more if you desire. Live how you want to live. Also, the recipe specifies a specific chocolate. I used whatever I could find. I didn't feel like going for a hunt for two cups of hot chocolate. Either way, this was pleasing to my palette and my tum tum was not aggrieved by it. So there's that. Het Choklad Vit From Hot Chocolate by Michael Turback (The recipe comes from a cafe in Stockholm) 1 cup whole milk 4 ounces Valrhona Ivoire White Chocolate(And why not?), chopped 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract 1 orange slice (I used 2 slices cuz I love oranges) In a medium saucepan, heat the milk over medium-high heat until very hot but not boiling. Gradually add the white chocolate to the hot milk, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon until the chocolate is melted and the mixture is smooth. Stir in the vanilla. Remove from the heat and froth with a steamer or immersion blender. Pour into a mug and arrange the orange slice as a garnish. Serve immediately. Makes 1serving. Nikita'Tis the season for holiday baking, and this week I made Hot Cocoa Cookies. I've had a few cookie requests over the last few weeks but have not managed to make any due to the weeks of party planning for our annual Ugly Sweater Christmas Party. Even though I was recovering today from the exhausting weekend, I still managed to whip up these babies. This recipe was found online and instantly pinned to my cookie board on Pintrest. I must warn you to not attempt to eat a cookie without a glass of milk. It is that rich but so gooey when warmed up or fresh out of the oven. I broiled the tops for a couple of minutes to get the browning on the marshmallows. Enjoy! Love, 99 Recipe: Ingredients
Instructions
We are just over a week away from Christmas.. I hope we've provided you a few tasty options for hot cocoa. Georgia, Amy and Nikita Baby it's cold outside.. Well in most places it is. Enjoy a little Idina Menzel and Michael Buble NikitaSuccess! It was a success! We invited roughly 35-40 people and had about 50 show up! I made 2 BIG pots of chili and appetizers for the evening, and we had a never-ending bar with all the bottles of liquor brought by each guest and beer on tap. My co-worker Sally took first place with an ugly sweater and matching that she made. Most of the guests were raving about the Cranberry BBQ Meatballs and Chili, so here's the recipe for the meatballs. We ran out early after doubling the recipe. They were delish! Enjoy the pics! INGREDIENTS
Love, 99 GeorgiaLike Amy, I was a bit confused about the actual challenge. Was it something beautiful or a food board.. So I did both. I don't know if the food board was beautiful but it was definitely a beautiful moment. The food board was somewhat simple. Fruits, veggies, meats, cheeses, hard boiled eggs and some kind of breads and or crackers. I made a simple vegetable soup to go along with it. Veggie soup ingredients are really any kind you like. Last night was carrots, onions, black beans, canned diced tomatoes, corn and shell pasta. I used chicken broth as the liquid base and sprinkled with Parmesan cheese . I added a little thyme and sage. I think what I loved most about this challenge was the simplicity in the beauty of what would be considered ordinary. The husband liked it so well that I might do this more often. AmyFull disclosure, I completely misunderstood Nikita's text. I saw board and appetizers and took it to mean an appetizer board. Georgia showed me the text again and the challenge was to make something beautiful. I don't have a deep understanding of physical beauty but I understand cozy and cheerful. The fact that I prepared this little morning soiree with love and enjoyed it with my best friend made it beautiful. To get to the heart of this table of nosh: Thinking it was an appetizer board challenge I looked for ideas for small appetizer boards. To be specific, diabetic-friendly appetizer boards. The crazy thing is, I found one via kraft.com Yes, that Kraft. I purchased a handmade trivet at my favorite produce stand, Custer Farm. Not a board but still works. While there I obtained a tea towel, homemade bon bons and divinity. I made these delightful breakfast sausages that I made last Christmas and served them in a wee crock that had belonged to uncle Dez. Cups of fresh made mocha. I purchased a couple of Pioneer Woman holiday items to bring a splash of warm vibrant colors.A couple of candles for a sense of serenity and peace. Add a couple of wee fresh poinsettias and I feel a created a table full of love and hygge. For the appetizer board: 2 honey crisp apples (my favorite) Diced cheese (I used Sharp cheddar and Monterrey Jack) Roasted walnuts (I used cinnamon cream honey, ground cinnamon and a touch of kosher salt) Assorted candies (homemade or otherwise) Mocha (Penzeys hot chocolate mix, milk, coffee and a sprinkle of cinnamon) Cranberry and Soy-Glazed Cocktail Sausages inspired by Nigella Lawson I used Johnsonville honey and brown sugar breakfast sausage Thai or Chinese sweet chili sauce Cranberry sauce Soy sauce Dark brown sugar Juice of 1 clementine Juice of 1 lime. I'm not bothering with exact measurements because it all depends on how many sausages you use. The original recipe is for 50. I saw no need to make 50. It's all about your personal palette. I didn't use brown sugar since it is in the sausage. Blend the ingredients and add sausage. Preheat oven to 400°F and bake 30-45 minutes turning the sausage after about 20 minutes. I like to put it together the night before and refrigerate. Let it marinate. So, this table created with love is my idea of beautiful. Thank you Nikita for truly challenging us!! Until next week, Nikita, Georgia and Amy Amy I believe that I may have outdone myself with this delicious dish. I was thumbing through the latest Sauveur magazine when I happened upon a gorgeous article about the "Finnish Triangle" in the Midwest. Normally the recipes in Sauveur are well beyond both my budget and skills. From time to time one will appear like magic for me. In this case it's a Finnish dish known as Vispipuuro. Vispipuuro is Finnish Whipped Porridge with Yogurt Cream. I researched and discovered many variations on the internet. Pintrest has a bevy of Vispipuuro recipes. Many contain lingonberries or red currants. A tart wild fruit known as highbush cranberry is popular as well. This go round features conventional cranberries. Use frozen cranberries per the author's recommendation as frozen berries break down into juices more quickly than fresh. This works out perfect for me because I will buy fresh cranberries and freeze several bags due to the fact that cranberry season is short. Mind this recipe contains quite a few steps and requires a couple of items to be refrigerated for a few hours. I promise that this is worth the effort. This makes for a lovely healthy-ish dessert or a slightly decadent breakfast. I split the difference and served it at the end of brunch. Click below for recipe Vispipuuro(Finnish Whipped Porridge with Yogurt Cream) NikitaI took it easy this week. Matt traveled to Wilmington, DE for a business meeting. Our menu for the week: Taco Bell, leftovers, and Subway. Don't judge. We don't get to do this too often as Matt's travels have slowed down significantly. 😊 So come Friday night, I enjoyed a refreshing Cranberry Spritzer to wrap up the week. It's mixed with sparkling cranberry and lime water along with cranberry cocktail juice and a squirt of lime. I threw in some cranberries for visual effects. Love, 99 Georgia So.. After making these cranberry orange scones I realized I've made these before.. This is the 3rd time. That could be good in that they are really tasty (which they are) or it could be bad because I might need to expand my scone horizons.. But.. Here is my cranberry recipe using fresh oranges from the backyard. Click below for recipe Cranberry Orange Scones Happy first Saturday in December Amy, Nikita and Georgia |
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