Decorating for Easter and Spring a perfect start to a new season. Go Crazy with flowers and bright colors!
Decorating for Easter and Spring a perfect start to a new season. Go Crazy with flowers and bright colors!
These easy to make chocolate covered Easter Eggs will delight all your family members young and old alike. I sometimes omit the coconut and just make cream eggs and peanut butter. You can serve them plain or decorated with purchased sugar appliqués. However, you choose to embellish these candy eggs will be a big success.
CHOCOLATE COVERED EASTER EGGS
EGGS
8 tablespoon butter softened
4 cups confectioners sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cups sweetened condensed milk
7 ounces sweetened coconut
2/3 cup creamy peanut butter
CHOCOLATE COATING
1 package(12 ounces) Ghirardelli Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
6 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoon heavy cream
Sugar decorations
Cream butter gradually with confectioners sugar. Add sweetened condensed milk and vanilla. Mix until combined. Divide sugar mixture in half adding coconut to one half and peanut butter to the other. Shape cream mixtures into small eggs. Place on wax paper
Place chocolate and butter in a large glass bowl. Then, microwave one minute on high. The chocolate will look shiny; stir to combine butter. Microwave in 20-second intervals, stirring after each, until totally smooth. Chocolate continues to melt once you take it out of the microwave. If you microwave the chocolate until it looks completely melted, you risk burning the chocolate.
Add cream to chocolate mixture until combined.
Roll eggs in chocolate and place on wax paper. Don’t coat the underside of eggs. Use a small spatula to smooth out the chocolate and cover the eggs of the filing. Decorate. Store in refrigerator until ready to serve. The eggs can be made ahead and frozen. Makes 36 eggs.
Enjoy!
Red Velvet all over lately, even Dunkin Donuts has Red Velvet lattes and Red Velvet Drizzle Donuts during the holidays. I’m still not tired of this delicious flavor. What could be more appropriate for Valentine’s Day than Red Velvet Heart cookies? These little gems are fun and easy to make just screaming Be Mine!
Red Velvet Heart Cookies
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter
1 tablespoon red food coloring
3 ounces white baking chocolate with cocoa butter, coarsely chopped
1 1/2 teaspoon shortening
1. Preheat oven to 325F. In a medium bowl sift flour, cocoa, and salt. Set aside
2. Cream butter and sugar in an electric mixer until fluffy. Stir in flour mixture until combined. Add red food coloring gently hand mixing until the dough is red without any chocolate streaks.
3. Form mixture into a ball and knead until smooth. On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough until 1/2 inch thick. Using a 1inch scalloped heart cookie cutter, cut out dough. Place cutouts 1 inch apart on an ungreased cookie sheet.
4. Bake for 20 minutes. Transfer cookies to wire rack to cool.
5. In a small heavy saucepan cook and stir white chocolate and shortening over low heat until melted and smooth. Drizzle cookies with melted white chocolate. Let stand until white chocolate is set. Makes about 24 cookies.
Enjoy!
CHRISTMAS MEMORIES
When the last burnished Autumn leaves float effortlessly to the frosted ground sounding like cinnamon hot cocoa Christmas memories join anticipation heralding the arrival of my favorite time of the year – Christmas. A glorious season I observe with food, decorating, celebrations, and most important family and friends. Time for our family members to return home, coming together once again, making new holiday memories while remembering our past Christmases including our cherished holiday traditions.
Oh, how I love Christmas traditions even as a very young child. The Christmases of my childhood were filled with excitement waking up Christmas morning to find our living room magically transformed into a beautiful Christmas scene while we children were soundly sleeping in our beds. My parents would wait until after we went to bed to decorate the biggest tree my dad could find, then lovingly, they wrapped all our gifts during the early morning hours getting no sleep before we excitedly woke to see if Santa had visited our home. We were never disappointed when we all flew into the living room to see that yes Santa had been hard at work throughout the night. I can still feel my excitement stepping into the living room my breath held tightly as I viewed with wonder fill child eyes the beautiful Christmas tree decorated by my mother. Mother crafted her tree so each light, ornament, and how can I forget that tacky silver tinsel – placed strand by strand – was in perfect harmony. I adored seeing the tree for the first time each year!
I learned from my parents that Christmas was a special time to share with family and friends as a steady stream of guests visited our home. One of my favorite Christmas memories happened on cold snowy Christmas morning when I was nine years old. We had just finished opening our presents when there was a knock at our door. My Dad opened the door to find a group of family friends who braved the snow-covered roads, barely making it up the steep hill leading to our home, for a Christmas morning visit. My parents graciously welcomed their guests even at six o’clock in the morning with food and hot coffee. After our guests were fed, warmed, enjoying my parent’s famous hospitality, I played Christmas songs on the piano with everyone robustly singing along! That Christmas morning so long ago lives forever in my heart.
As I became older I actively participated in our family traditions going with my Dad to purchase our tree, I decorated not only our tree but throughout our home, helping my mother bake copious amounts of cookies for our guests to enjoy during Christmas visits. My mother, an accomplished cook, and baker gave me the important responsibility of making Pizzelles with my grandmother’s cast iron pizzelle mold. First, she made the dough from my grandmother’s special recipe passed down through generations. Next, my important two-fold role was putting just the right amount of dough on the hot pizzelle mold then standing over the stove burner making sure that I turned the mold over at just the right second to insure that each pizzelle were perfectly thin and crisp to Mother’s exact specifications.
All my cherished Christmas memories return to me each December as I await the return home of my grown family to share in our holiday festivities. I to deck the halls just as I learned from my Mother. Christmas starts for me the day after Thanksgiving, not with shopping on Black Friday, but with decorating. When our children were young their Christmas gifts to me were festive Lenox Christmas china for holiday entertaining. Every year my decorating starts with displaying my Christmas china in the dining room china cabinet. Like crisp New England mornings with a dusting of snow seeing Christmas china in the cabinet signals to our family, the Christmas holiday season has begun. Now I decorate throughout our home with abandonment while memories of Christmases past live again flowing back to me as I lovingly unwrap so many special decorations including the beautiful nativity figurines that my mother made for me and my husband for our first Christmas. Once each room is thoroughly dressed in Christmas finery I can turn my full attention to baking Christmas cookies. Yes, I still make Pizzelles with my grandmother’s monogrammed mold, part of her trousseaux, using my family’s special recipe, perfectly thin and crisp as my mother taught me so long ago. My baking takes, according to my family, mythical proportions with the rumor circulating through our family that I actually bake thousands of cookies! Never having counted my cookies I only know that tin after tin magically appears lining the shelves of my pantry where pounds of flour, sugar, chocolate, nuts, and preserves formerly resided. Each year my cookie assortment contains old favorites as well as new recipes that I can’t resist adding to my cookie collection. Trays of cookies greet guests as they visit with the remaindering cookies packed in holiday tins for family and friends near and far.
Preserving my maternal family’s traditional Christmas Eve dinner celebration I serve the Italian Feast of seven fishes, Festa dei sette pesci, in honor of my grandmother Theresa. Christmas day finds our home, just like my childhood home, decked in holiday finery, doors open wide, welcoming family and friends for festive merrymaking. Gathering around our large table, enjoying Christmas dinner, we toast with gratitude our good fortunes, especially that we are all together to celebrate another special Christmas. After our guests leave I sit by the fire savoring the day as memories of Christmas’s past play in my mind like a cherished old movie.
Like Scrooge, I can only hope that my epitaph will be “She knew how to keep Christmas well”
Greek Butter Cookies just melt in your mouth. Koulourakia is usually served at Greek Easter along with other delicious baked delicacies. I like these butter cookies for their flaky buttery taste along with a hint of orange and brandy.
1 cup butter, at room temperature
1 cup of vegetable oil
2 tablespoon vegetable shortening
1 1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup orange juice
3 eggs
2 tablespoons brandy
7 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water
Sesame seeds
Beat butter, oil and shortening in a large bowl of the electric blender until well blended.
Add sugar, 1/2 cup at a time blending well. Stir baking soda into orange juice, stir. Add to butter mixture. Add eggs and brandy, mixing well.
Combine flour and baking powder.
Add flour 1 cup at a time to creamed mixture. Remove from mixture when the dough is heavy. Knead by hand until the dough is smooth.
Tear off a piece of dough a little larger than a walnut. Roll between palms to form a pencil shape 6 to 7 inches long, cross dough to form a twist. Place twists one inch apart on lightly greased cookie sheet. Brush with egg wash. Sprinkle with sesame seeds.
Bake 350 F for 20 minutes or until golden. Makes about 4 1/2 dozen cookies
Enjoy!
Looking for some casual New Year’s Eve Appetizers for an easy celebration with no fuss yet so tasty to your family and friends will just love; I have a few suggestions for you. Both my Baked Brie with Olive Tapenade and Baked Artichoke are perfect for any celebration. I usually purchase hummus, tabbouleh, and tzatziki cut up some carrots, celery, peppers, cucumbers and serve for an array of snacks. Then we open some bubbly and ring in the New Year!
Purchased puff pastry is so easy to use with the wonderful professional results that anyone even a beginning cook can wow their guests. I like to make different spreads for my baked brie, sometimes sweet and sometimes savory. If you love olives this is your baked brie. You can either make your own olive tapenade, you can find the recipe below or save time by purchasing store made tapenade. Decorate with sliced olives creating a delicious tasting, easy, appetizer.
Baked Brie with Olive Tapenade
1/2 package of frozen puff pastry (one sheet)
1 egg
1 teaspoon water
1/4 cup homemade tapenade or purchased
1 (8 ounce) Brie Round
sliced olives
Thaw the pastry sheet at room temperature for 20 minutes. Preheat oven to 400 F. Mix egg and water. Unfold the pastry sheet on a lightly floured surface. Roll into 12″ square. Cut pastry to make a 10-inch circle. Spread olive tapenade spread to within 1 inch of pastry edge. Place cheese round on top. Brush edges of puff pastry with egg mixture. Fold two opposite sides over cheese. Trim remaining two sides to 2″ from the edge of cheese. Fold these two sides on the Brie. Press edges to seal. Place seam side down on a baking sheet. Decorate the top with rolled out reaming pastry to decorate like a holiday package. Brush with egg mixture. Bake 20 minutes or until golden. Let stand for 1 hour. Serve with crackers.
Olive Tapenade
1 cup pitted kalamata olives (you can use any vary of olives)
1 clove chopped garlic
1/4 cup olive oil
1 teaspoon capers
1 teaspoon herbs de Provence
In a mini food processor, combine olives garlic and process until olives are from a spread. Add oil, capers, and herbs de Provence. Process until blended.
Baked Artichoke Dip
I keep marinated artichokes in my pantry, along with mayonnaise and parmesan cheese in my refrigerator for this quick and easy dip which I can make for guests. A favorite with my family!
2 jars(6.5 oz) marinated artichokes, chopped
1 cup mayonnaise
1 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon capers, chopped
whole capers for garnish
Preheat oven 350F. Combine the first four ingredients. Place in a baking dish, I like to use a decorative pie dish or white baking dish. Tope with whole capers. Bake for 25 – 30 minutes until golden. Serve with crackers or toasted pita bread.
Enjoy!
