December 24

Christmas Eve 2002

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• Cheesies [View Recipe]

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  Ingredients

  • 4 ounces cheese (shredded)
  • 4 ounces cheese (shredded)
  • .5 medium onion (finely chopped)
  • .25 cup mayonnaise
  • 8 english muffins (split and quartered)

  Instructions

  We start off the appetizers by shredding the cheese with our box grater and chopping the onion finely. We then toss them with the mayonnaise in a bowl. We'll often store this cheese mixture overnight, covered in the refrigerator.

  We pre-heat the oven to 425 degrees.

  We line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil. We place most of the halved and quartered english muffins in a single layer on the cookie sheet (the rest we save for the next batch). Onto each english muffin section, we put a little bit of the cheese mixture (about a half teaspoon, depending on the size of the english muffin).

  We bake them in the oven until the cheese is browning and they are to the desired crispness, about 10 minutes. We serve these hot and start making the next batch - the first batch always goes fast!

• Old Bay Steamed Shrimp & Cocktail Sauce
• Whole Wheat Crackers and Brie
• Crudité with Graul's Veggie Dip
• Pumpernickel Loaf with Graul's Dill Dip
• Roasted Hazelnuts
• Red Radicchio and Green Leaf Salad with Balsamic Vinaigrette
• Sirloin Tip Fondue
• Cheese Fondue, served with French Bread and Hot Giardiniera
• Ginger Shortbread Cookies [View Recipe]

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  Ingredients

  • 2 sticks butter
  • 2 cups flour
  • .25 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon ginger
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • small pinch pepper
  • 6 whole cloves
  • .5 cup sugar (packed)
  • .25 cup sugar

  Instructions

  We start by taking the butter out of the fridge about an hour before we want to make the cookies. We want the butter to be room temperature.

  Next, we measure all the ingredients. We scoop the flour with a spoon into the dry measuring cup and level it off on a piece of wax paper. The measured flour gets dumped into a fine strainer that is above a large piece of parchment paper. We repeat with the second cup of flour and dump the measured flour into the strainer. The extra flour that is on the wax paper we put back into the flour container with the help of the the wax paper. We add the salt, ginger, cinnamon, and pepper to the flour in the strainer. Using our mortar and pestle, we pound the whole cloves as fine as we can. We want a good sized pinch of ground cloves (we do not have this spice on hand, only whole cloves.) We add the ground cloves to the strainer. We shake the strainer over the large piece of parchment to sift the dry ingredients.

  We place the softened butter into the bowl of our KitchenAid stand-up mixer. We put on the paddle and start creaming the butter. We want it light and fluffy. We time it for 1.5 minutes and then stop the machine and scrape down the sides of the bowl with our rubber spatula. We turn on the machine again and time it for another 1.5 minutes. We stop the machine and add the brown sugar, crumbling it into the bowl with our hands. We turn on the machine and beat it for another timed minute. We scrape down the bowl and beat it again for another minute. We stop the machine and carefully get the flour mixture. We turn on the machine to stir and slowly add the flour, a little at a time. When we have added about half of the flour, we put down the flour mixture, turn off the machine, and scrape down the sides of the bowl. We turn it onto low speed again and add the rest of the flour. When the flour is just incorporated, we turn off the mixer.

  We remove the bowl from the mixer and, using the spatula, we dump the dough onto a large piece of plastic wrap. We use the plastic wrap to pull the dough together and then flatten it into a 1/2 inch thick squarish shape. We cover the dough well with more plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour.

  We begin preheating the oven to 325 degrees. We remove the chilled dough from the fridge. We flatten it slightly with our hands since it is not evenly 1/2 inch thick (we keep checking with a ruler). We use our 2.5 to 3 inch cookie cutters and we cut out snowmen and christmas trees. As we make a cookie, we sprinkle it with the coarse sugar on one side and then place it on a large dinner plate, sugar side up. When we no longer can make another cookie, we push the scraps together and reflatten it into a 1/2 inch thick piece. We keep doing this until we make 16 cookies and we only have a tiny bit of dough left (ok, we eat some of the dough! it is good and has no raw eggs!). When all the cookies are sprinkled with sugar on one side, we place half of them on a parchment covered cookie sheet and bake in the oven and the rest are covered and refrigerated to be baked in the next batch. The shape holds better when it has been chilled for about 30 minutes but the first batch looks fine enough.

  We bake the cookies until we can smell them and they are firm, about 35 minutes. We cool them on wire racks and then store them in an airtight container.

• Holiday Popcorn Balls [View Recipe]

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  Ingredients

  • 5 tablespoons popcorn
  • 4 tablespoons butter
  • .25 cup sugar (packed firmly)
  • 1 bag marshmallows
  • 1 cup candies
  • butter

  Instructions

  We need 12 cups of popped popcorn for this recipe, so we begin by popping the popcorn kernels in our air popper. The popper yields 12½ cups of popcorn (the ½ cup is for the four-year-old factor). We set the popcorn aside.

  Over medium low heat, we melt the butter in our dutch oven. We then stir in the brown sugar. Finally, we add the marshmallows and stir until they dissolve completely. We remove the pot from the heat.

  We add all of the popcorn to the marshmallow mixture and stir with a wooden spoon until the popcorn is well coated. The mixture is somewhat difficult to stir due to its thickness and our desire to keep the popcorn in tact, so we do the best that we can. Just before the popcorn is well-coated, we add the M&M's, distributing them evenly so that little additional stirring is required to mix them well (to prevent breakage).

  Using generously buttered hands, we fashion balls of the popcorn-marshmallow mixture. Each ball we make about 3 inches in diameter and place on a large piece of wax paper on the counter. When we are done, we have nine popcorn balls. After we wash up, we place each popcorn ball on a serving plate and cover with plastic wrap for serving later.

• Holiday M&M's