for the 12th treat of Christmas, Valerie (or the best of bridge) gave to us: Christmas Wifesaver

Christmas Morning Wifesaver

(The Best of the Best - Vol. 1, Page: 26)

Superb! Make the day before and pop in the oven in the morning. Serves 8.

Ingredients:
16 slices white bread, crusts removed
16 slices Canadian back bacon or ham
16 slices sharp cheddar cheese
6 eggs
1/2 tsp. pepper
1/2-1 tsp. dry mustard
1/4 cup minced onion
1/4 cup finely chopped green pepper
1-2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
3 cups milk
dash Tabasco
1/2 cup butter
Special K or crushed Corn Flakes

Instructions:Set 8 pieces of bread into a 9" x 13" (23 x 33 cm) buttered, glass baking dish. Cover bread with slices of back bacon. Lay slices of cheddar cheese on top of bacon and then cover with remaining slices of bread to make it like a sandwich. In a bowl, beat eggs and pepper. To the egg mixture add dry mustard, onion, green pepper, Worcestershire sauce, milk and Tabasco. Pour over the sandwiches, cover and let stand in fridge overnight. In morning, melt butter, pour over top. Cover with Special K or crushed Corn Flakes. Bake, uncovered, 1 hour at 350 deg.F (180 deg.C). Let sit 10 minutes before serving. Serve this with fresh fruit and hot cinnamon rolls.

at the beginning, baking pan lined with bread, ham and cheese

the egg and pepper (we substituted red pepper for green)

right before it is put into the oven with the special k on top

five stars all around- DELICIOUS!

here we all are about to feast away on our Christmas Morning Wifesaver! Merry Christmas and Happy Bellies to ALL!! xoxo

for the 11th treat of Christmas, Valerie (merci) gave to us: Christmas Shortbread Cookies

Helen’s Almond Shortbread Sandwiches Cookie

(made by Valerie and Lauren, yes a mother-daughter bonding moment!)

1 ½ c berry sugar
2 cups flour (-2T and replace it with the cornstarch)
2T cornstarch
1 cup butter

directions:
Mix sugar and flour together, then work in butter. Knead well. Bake at 325 for 7-8 minutes.

Icing:
1c butter
2t almond extract
3-4 drops of green food colouring
3c icing sugar or one pound butter one bag icing sugar
4t almond extract
8 drops of green food colouring

directions:
Mix all together and knead well. Should be much like a fondant.

This recipe makes 2 trays, or 40 sandwiches. I double this recipe to make 8 sandwiches each Christmas, and the first icing recipe is usually ample for the doubled recipe.

after rolled out and cut and "forked" (i, Lauren, am the new "forking" expert- you make 4x4 dots with a fork, very simple really. according to Valerie, this is to prevent the short bread from puffing up. it did the trick. plus it looks nice).

endless piles (but remember, we are going to double and make sandwiches)

mom (Valerie) and i had quite a lot of fun with our photos. taking pictures of our creations is truly an art and i am still learning.

amid the finishing touches:
green icing goes in between, a glob of green icing on the top with the finishing touch of a silver edible ball. YUM!

for the 10th treat of Christmas, Valerie (who else?) gave to us: Sticky Toffee Pudding (yum yum!)

STICKY DATE PUDDING WITH TOFFEE SAUCE

TO DIE FOR (i promise!!!)

For Pudding:
1 3/4 cups packed pitted dates (about 10 ounces )
2 cups water
1 and 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 stick (6 tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
3 large eggs

For sauce:
1 3/4 sticks (3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons) unsalted butter
1 and 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Accompaniment: vanilla ice cream Make pudding

Direcitions:
· Preheat oven to 375°F and butter and flour an 8-inch square baking pan (2 inches deep), knocking out excess flour.
· Coarsely chop dates and in a 1 1/2- to 2-quart saucepan simmer dates in water, uncovered, 5 minutes.
· Remove pan from heat and stir in baking soda. (Mixture will foam.) Let mixture stand 20 minutes.
· While mixture is standing, into a bowl sift together flour, baking powder, ginger, and salt. In a large bowl with an electric mixer beat together butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
· Beat in eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition.
· Add flour mixture in 3 batches, beating after each addition until just combined.
· Add date mixture and with a wooden spoon stir batter until just combined well.
· Pour batter into baking pan and set pan in a larger baking pan.
· Add enough hot water to larger pan to reach halfway up sides of smaller pan and bake in middle of oven until a tester comes out clean, 35 to 40 minutes.
· Remove smaller pan from water bath and cool pudding to warm on a rack.
· Make sauce while pudding is cooling:
o In a 1 1/2- to 2-quart heavy saucepan melt butter over moderate heat and add brown sugar.
o Bring mixture to a boil, stirring occasionally, and stir in cream and vanilla.
o Simmer sauce, stirring occasionally, until thickened slightly, about 5 minutes. Cool sauce to warm.
· Cut warm pudding into squares. Serve pudding with ice cream and warm sauce. Serves 6 to 8.

Source: GourmetYou Asked For It; Dalvay By The Sea, Prince Edward Island, CanadaMay 1998

my mother made them in mini cheesecake tins for individual servings. TO DIE FOR. i promise!

for the 9th treat of Christmas, grandma Helen gave to us: Homemade Nuts and Bolts

Traditional Original Nuts and Bolts Recipe (Massive Amount)

1 bag (382 grams or 12 coups) Corn Chex
1 bag (361 grams or 12 cups) Rice Chex
1 bag (793 grams or 12 cups) Wheat Chex
1 bag ( 575 grams or 12 cups ) Cherrios
5 cups pretzel Sticks
5 cups salted mixed nuts (which I prefer to leave out)
5 cups Cheese Nips

1 pound of butter (-2T)
10 T Worcestershire Sauce
7 ½ t Spike or another Seasoning Salt
2 ½ t Onion Powder
4 t Garlic Powder

Heat Oven to 250.
Melt Sauce and divide into 4.
Divide Mix into 4, and coat each batch carefully with sauce.
Bake one hour, stirring every 15 minutes. Spread to cool, and store.

for the 8th treat of Christmas, Great Grandma Maude gave to us: Christmas Poppycock Cake

Christmas Poppycock (from Great Grandma Maude)

Prepare the following in advance:
Pop 11 cups of popcorn
( ½ cup of kernels popped in oil makes about 11 cups of popped corn)
1 cup of salted mixed nuts, toasted in the oven
½ cup of red and green jujubes, cut up (optional)
a buttered mixing bowl (place popped corn and jujubes in here)
a cookie sheet, buttered, or layered with parchment paper

Sauce: Place the following in a heavy sauce pan:
1 1/3 c brown sugar
1 cup butter
½ c corn syrup
½ t cream of tartar
and bring to a boil, using a candy thermometer, to 250 degrees
Watch this carefully, as it takes quite a while to approach this temp, and then it is suddenly there (If let go higher, it makes a very brittle product, and you want it just before the hard ball stage – or just at it)

Take this off of the heat, and add
½ t soda
1 t vanilla
the toasted nuts

1. Pour sauce over popcorn and jujubes, stirring quickly to coat all kernels
2. Lay coated kernels on cookie sheet, and flatten in small clusters
3. Cool and pack in airtight containers to store.
4. Freezes well

Great Grandma used to butter an angel food cake pan generously, and pour hot coated corn directly into the pan (pressing gently to push out holes). Then she would wrap these “cakes” and gift them to all of her friends. We would heat them in the microwave to break them apart, but I am not sure how they ate them before the microwave was invented. We do them this way, now, as over the years, that is what she came to do herself. Big ice cream pails of this gooey treat would arrive every Christmas eve and be an intregal part of our Christmas morning munch.

for the 7th treat of Christmas, Valerie (again) gave to us: Chocolate Salami

Chocolate Salami - It’s just a little bit of fun!

There is no raw meat and no baking involved. It’s a fairly simple recipe and I’m sure you would have tried something similar at one or other stage of your life. The only difference is the novel serving suggestion and then the name of course. A few years ago my boss brought chocolate salami back from Portugal. I thought it was wonderful, very clever and something I had not seen before. The flavour and ingredients reminded me of a treat that my mum used to make for me when I was a child. So I thought why not use that old recipe and give it a gentle face-lift.

ingredients: 1/3 c. unsalted butter

200g bitter chocolate, 70%

100g icing sugar

200g digestive biscuits

80g flaked almonds

80g dried cranberries

80g pistachios

2 egg yolks

2ml vanilla essence

80g Condensed milk

Pinch of salt

Cocoa powder

Instructions: Preparing your mixture

1. Break digestive biscuits in into large bowl and sprinkle and set aside.
2. Melt chocolate in microwave or medium bowl, do not let chocolate over heat. If you test the melted chocolate with your finger it should just be warm to the touch. If too hot let cool until warm to the touch. If chocolate is too hot when adding following ingredients, egg yokes could cook producing something resembling chocolate scrambled eggs. So make certain chocolate is melted but just warm to the touch before moving to step 2.
3. When chocolate has melted, add butter, sweetened condensed milk, egg yolks, and stir well to incorporate. Mixture will start to thicken into a dough like consistency and pull away from bowl.
4. Add chocolate mixture to broken cookies.
5. Add vanilla, salt, and 1/2 of almonds and pistachios. Mix well until incorporated.
   

Instructions: Molding the Salami

1. Lay out a long sheet of wax paper of 28in/70cm length.
2. Roll the mixture onto the wax paper and shape into a salami shape length wise to the paper.
3. Mixture will be manageable by hand, now you can mold salami to the desired length and thickness. The length and thickness depends on taste, I would suggest somewhere between 7-10cm/3-4in - in diameter. This will enable nice size slices of approximately 3cm/1in, in thickness when done.
4. Sprinkle remaining almonds around salami and spread out as evenly as possible.
5. Bring salami to one side of paper and start to roll paper around log gently but firmly, once completely rolled, twist ends and refrigerate flat for at least 2 hours.
6. Take salami out of refrigerator 20min before cutting and serving. Note: Salami will be very firm when cutting slices, so its best to take it out of the refrigerator 20min before serving to facilitate cutting. Entire salami can be cut into slices and refrigerated to make it easier to serve later. Or if entertaining, salami can be presented whole and guests can cut their own slices, just like a real salami.
   
   
   
   

for the 6th treat of Christmas, Kristen gave to us: Lebkuchen

Lebkuchen

This recipe takes a day or two to make and a couple days to soften.

Bring to boil and remove from heat:
½ cup honey
½ cup molasses
1 cup sugar

Add and stir to melt:
1/3 cup butter

Cool 10 min. Pour into mixing bowl. Add and mix well:
2 tsp lemon juice
2 tsp grated lemon peel
1 tsp grated orange peel
1 egg
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp allspice
3/4 tsp cloves
3/4 tsp mace

Add and mix well:
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 tsp soda
3 ½ cup flour

Add and mix well
½ cup candied fruit mix, chopped fine in blender or meat grinder
½ cup slivered blanched almonds, chopped very fine in blender

Chill dough overnight or 4 or 5 hours til firm. Roll into 1½ inch balls. Place on greased cookie sheet. Flatten balls. Bake 8-9 min at 400 degrees.

Glaze:
½ cup boiling water
3 cups powdered sugar
½ tsp almond extract

Place hot cookies on wire rack and spoon glaze over cookies. When dry, place in airtight container (Tupperware, Rubbermaid) overnight and the next day to soften. Add a slice of lemon or orange to the container.

for the 5th treat of Christmas, Valerie gave to us: Brown Eyed Susan Cookies

Brown Eyed Susans
(Nancy O’Hara and Brenna from Grosvenor School 1981)

Cookie:
1c butter
3T sugar
1t almond extract
2c flour
½ t salt

Cream all together and roll into balls, flattening slightly on cookie sheet. Bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes, until bottom is barely brown.

Icing
1c icing sugar
2T cocoa
3T hot water
½ t vanilla

Combine sugar and cocoa. Add water and vanilla. Dot each cookie with icing, and top each with one whole blanched almond.

for the 4th treat of Christmas, Valerie gave to us: Turtle Cookies

Turtle Cookies

1c butter creamed add:

1c white sugar and 1c brown sugar, cream, and add one at a time:

2 eggs

2t vanilla

then sift together the following ingredients:

1t soda

2 ½ c flour

¾ c cocoa, and

add1 c finely chopped pecans (toasted, then chopped finely in the blender of food processor)

and fold into butter mixture.

Take 80 rolo chocolates, and roll a ball of dough around each candy. Dip each ball in sparkly sanding sugar, and place in buttered and floured mini tart pan (or a non-stick mini tart pan without flour and buttering), and bake for 8-9 minutes at 350. Remove from oven, and sit 5 minute (set the timer, or you will be sad).

Place a cutting board over the tart pan, and turn upside down to release these cookies. All usually come out, if not, place the pan upside down on the counter with a bump. Do not touch these cookies for about 10 minutes, until cool and set, or they will break when you pick them up“Glue” a whole pecan half on each with a bit of icing sugar and water (that is hidden by the nut).

These are the official RED DEER cookie. YUM!

for the 3rd treat of Christmas, Lauren gave to us: soft gingerbread men

Grandma Maude’s Soft Gingerbread Cookies

is my great grandmother's famous recipe and my traditional christmas treat i make every year (cause EVERYONE loves it)!

Cookies:
1c white OR brown sugar
1c shortening OR butter
1c molasses
1 egg
1 c sour milk OR sour cream (sour it with a T vinegar)
add 2t soda to sour milk just before adding to batter
1T vinegar
add 1t soda into vinegar just before adding to batter
1t each of cinnamon, cloves, ginger, and salt
½ t nutmeg
5-6 c flour

directions:
Cream shortening and sugar. Add molasses and egg, and continue to cream mixture. Then add milk, vinegar, spices, salt. Slowly add in flour. Dough will be sticky and must be refrigerated at least an hour.

Roll a portion onto a lightly floured board. For big, fat gingerbread men, leave dough about ¼ inch thick. 1/8 inch for other cookies.

Bake at 325 to 350 8 -10 minutes. Remove carefully and cool completely before handling, or they may break.

Ice with Orange Butter Icing.

Orange Butter Icing:
3c icing sugar
1c soft butter
zest of one or two oranges
enough orange juice to mix into a fondant type consistency.

you can use all different sizes of gingerbread men cutters

my roommate and i frosting the cookies for our christmas party.

i have yet to master the decorative portion. my mother is probably shaking her head. the problem is... i have to slather tons of the icing on, because it goes really well with the gingerbread... and i cannot do eyes because the m&m's are too big... i suppose i could do mini m&m's??? any tips?

the 2nd treat of Christmas, Amy gave to us: Chocolate Pecan Pie

CHOCOLATE PECAN PIE

1 stick butter

1 c. white Karo syrup

1 c. white sugar

4 beaten eggs

Pinch salt

1 tsp. vanilla

3/4 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 c. broken pecans

2 unbaked pie shells

1. Melt butter and add syrup, sugar, eggs, salt and vanilla and stir well.
2. Add chocolate chips and pecans, mixing well.
3. Pour into 2 unbaked pie shells.
4. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 to 40 minutes.
5. Let cool thoroughly before cutting.
6. If using aluminum foil pans, the crust will bake better if cooked sitting on a cookie sheet.

valerie's poppycock

i was heading to a friends house last night and wanted to bring a treat. luckily i had all the ingredients for my mother's traditional poppycock, aka caramel popcorn. it is quite simple and SO yummy!

i had the opportunity to test out my vanilla i brought back from mexico... i think it made all the difference!

so you take 11 cups of popped popcorn in a BIG mixing bowl

and then on the stove you combine:

• 1 and 1/3 c. brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp cream of tartar
• 1 c. butter, and
• 1/2 c. corn syrup.
• bring it to a boil until temp of 250 (using candy thermometer)

take it off the heat and add:

• 1 tsp of vanilla and
• 1/2 tsp of baking soda. it makes it nice and foamy (i think this is the trick too so that the popcorn doesn't melt)
• you can add nuts or jujubes too if you'd like
• mix it ALL into the popcorn.

you can do 1 of 2 options, either place the entire contents into a bunt pan to let it hard and after a couple of hours you can take it out and it is a nice caramel popcorn cake which makes for a nice baked gift OR you can spread it onto a cookie sheet (as below) and let sit for a bit and then break it all up and put it in a bowl. either works and either are equally delicious.

ENJOY!