Veggie Platter Prep

Advertisements

You can use any container you have for this veggie platter. These veggies are a good choice because not only do these colors look great together, but these veggies have a good variety of flavors that would be good with a variety of dips, or even just ranch! For this platter, I bought normal cherry tomatoes and pre-sliced carrot chips. This just made sense for me. You could get a mix of cherry tomatoes to get a variety in colors, but the cost wasn’t worth it for this platter. I also bought carrot chips for a different shape on my platter and for easy prep. If you have a mandolin you can cut your own chips, but you can also just buy the already sliced chips. Other than that, it just took a bit of prep for the rest. A nice cutting board is necessary for this and a sharp paring knife will help a lot with cutting the two head veggies. Celery is a great garnish if you want more color on your plate, and Yellow peppers are preference to add more color and a milder flavor than red or green peppers. Using the veggies below, your veggie platter will serve about 15 as an appetizer or side dish.

Advertisements

What You Will Need

  • 1/2 lb. Broccoli Head
  • 1 Head Cauliflower
  • 2 Yellow Bell Peppers
  • 1 Container Cherry Tomatoes
  • 1 Bag Carrot Chips
  • 1 Bag of Celery
  • 1 Large Bowl
  • Vinegar
  • Large Baking Sheet Lined with Paper Towels
  • Small Strainer

Directions

Preparing Celery

To prepare your celery, Remove large outer stalks and place in sink. Rinse thoroughly with cold water making sure to remove any dirt on the white tail end of the stalk. Transfer to a cutting board. Cut off the leaves just below the knuckle. Save all celery trimmings in a resealable container for vegetable stalk/soup. Reserve a large top for garnish under cauliflower. Cut off about 1/2 inch to 1 inch from the bottom. Then divide the remaining stalk into equal sections about 2 inches long. Continue this until you reach the fine stalks at the center of the celery, then save them also for a stock. Rinse your celery in cool water before transferring to baking sheet to dry.

Preparing Cauliflower

To prepare your Cauliflower, rinse under cold water then transfer to cutting board. First, you’ll want to remove any leaves from the bottom of the head. Then, begin cutting off florets and transferring to bowl of cold water. Once all cut, divide large florets to smaller pieces. Place florets on baking sheet to dry. Save the stem for stock.

Preparing Tomatoes and Carrot Chips

Place tomatoes and carrot chips in small strainer individually. Rinse your tomatoes and carrot chips. Place in containers to dry.

Preparing Bell Peppers

To prepare peppers, rinse the outside of the peppers thoroughly with water. Cut around the outside of the pepper to get 4 slices of pepper. Clean out any seeds and cutting any inside veins. Once cleaned out, slice the peppers into strips. Rinse in cold water then place on baking sheet to dry.

Preparing Broccoli

Follow the same steps at Cauliflower, however broccoli needs a double rinse. To do that, you’ll want to fill your bowl with 1/2 cup vinegar and fill the remaining space with cold water. Place your florets in the vinegar water for 5 minutes, before dividing into smaller pieces as needed, then you’ll want to do a final rinse before setting to dry. Once again save your stem! You can peel the tough outside and use the soft inside in other recipes.

Advertisements

Sugar Christmas Cookies

Advertisements

Sugar cookies are a labor of love, and this recipe was no exception. Making the dough was very straight forward, however the real effort comes into rolling the dough and cutting the cookies. This step is made easier by having helping hands to cut cookies for you while you can focus on the baking. Also, the dough makes lots of cookies. We picked out larger cookie cutters in an effort to have less cookies, but even with that we easily got over 4 dozen cookies. Since it is just my husband and I, we were able to fill 2 gallon freezer bags and freeze them for up to 3 months. And, we still had some left over to snack on. So, this recipe makes about 4-5 Dozen cookies.

Advertisements

What You Will Need

  • 1 Cup Softened Butter
  • 2 Cups Sugar
  • 1/4 Cup Brown Sugar
  • 2 Eggs
  • 1/4 Cup and 2 Tbsp Milk
  • 2 tsp Vanilla
  • 4 Cups flour
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • Non-stick spray
  • Baking sheet
Advertisements

Directions

1. Cream together butter, sugar, brown sugar, eggs, milk, and vanilla. Add flour, baking powder, and mix well. Chill cookie dough for 1-2 hours.

2. Heat oven to 350 F. Knead dough then roll out dough to 1/4 in thick, then use cookie cutters. Spray baking sheet with non-stick spray, then place cookies. Bake for 10-12 minutes, then remove from oven, remove from baking sheet, and let cool before icing.

3. (Opt) Whip together 8 Oz of softened cream cheese and 1/4 cup softened butter. Add 1 tsp vanilla and combine. Finally, begin adding 4 cups powdered sugar a little at a time while mixing until all is added. If desired, add 2 tsp of additional flavoring (ie. Lemon or orange), or add 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder.

Advertisements

Peanut Butter Christmas Cookies

Advertisements

Another classic Christmas cookie in my household is peanut butter cookies. We usually make them both with kisses and without, and this from scratch recipe is fantastic. The only thing that is up for interpretation is the butter coldness. I left my butter out at room temperature for about 3 hours before baking, and I didn’t have to refrigerate at all. You could probably leave it out at room temperature for about 8 hours before it would be too soft to work with immediately. Because the butter was still pretty solid, there were butter chunks in the dough, but that gave no problems during cooking. Finally, with this recipe, I made 17 kiss cookies, and 19 plain cookies, giving us 36 peanut butter cookies total.

Advertisements

What You Will Need

  • 1/2 Cup Granulated Sugar
  • 1/2 Cup Brown Sugar
  • 3/4 Cup Creamy Peanut Butter
  • 1/2 Cup Butter, One Stick; slightly cooler than room temperature.
  • 1 Egg
  • 1 1/4 Cup Flour
  • 3/4 tsp Baking Soda
  • 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
  • Chocolate Kisses (Optional)
  • Sugar and Fork
  • Non-stick Spray
  • 9×13 Baking Sheets
Advertisements

Directions

1. Heat oven to 375 F. Cream together both sugars, peanut butter, butter, and egg. Once combined, add remaining ingredients. If batter is too soft, refrigerate for 1 hour. If firm enough to roll, move forward. Spray baking sheets with non-stick spray. Roll out your dough into 1 inch balls and place on baking sheet with little room to spread.

2. If you want plain cookies, dip fork into sugar, then imprint cross pattern on cookie balls, pressing only 1/4 inch max. Then bake your cookies for 10 minutes.

For kiss cookies, bake for 8 minutes, pull from oven, add your kisses, then return to oven for another 3 minutes.

Remove from oven and let cool at least 15 minutes before removing from tray. Transfer to plates, and (optional) place in fridge for 20 minutes to cool.

Advertisements

Molasses Crinkles

Advertisements

These cookies are a soft and sugary cookie that has good flavor depth thanks to the warm spices and warm molasses. This recipe is a recipe I received from my In-laws, and is one of my husband’s favorite cookies. These cookies not only taste great, but they look great too. These are not your ordinary sugar cookies, but they are a must try, even just once! These are very flat cookies. They come out of the oven puffed up, but as it cools, it will flatten. Give the cookies 7-10 minutes before pulling them off their baking sheet. I also substituted butter for shortening, and the cookies came out the same! This recipe made 31 cookies.

Advertisements

What You Will Need

  • 1 Cup Sugar
  • 3/4 Cup Shortening
  • 4 Tbsp Molasses
  • 1 Egg
  • 2 1/4 Cup Flour
  • 2 tsp Baking Soda
  • 1 tsp Ginger
  • 1 tsp Cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp Ground Cloves

Directions

  1. Heat oven to 350 F. Cream together sugar, shortening, and molasses until light. Add egg, then dry ingredients, then mix together. Form into small balls, dip top of each ball into graduated sugar and place on cookie sheet leaving room to spread.

2. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Cool slightly before removing from pan.

Advertisements

Christmas Dinner 2020

Christmas is one of my favorite holidays. I really enjoy getting gifts for others, and I enjoy Christmas dinner. Ham is one of my favorite foods and so I always make a ham for Christmas and Easter. My Easter dinner also looks identical to my Christmas dinner. Since it’s been a weird year, I will be celebrating Christmas with my husband’s nuclear family, and won’t be able to make my standard dinner on Christmas afternoon. So, I decided to make my Christmas dinner last night!

Advertisements

I always make the same things for holidays. For Christmas I always make a cooked ham, mashed potatoes and gravy, sweet potato casserole, a canned veggie, crescent rolls, and the star of the meal is always deviled eggs. Many of these foods are standard. I enjoy my ham with a brown sugar glaze and some pineapple on top (even if it does nothing for the flavor). Mashed potatoes are standard, and my gravy I made from this year’s turkey stock, and just added 3 Tbsp corn starch to thicken. Sweet potato casserole is just opening a can and a bag of marshmallows at this point. And finally, the original part of the meal is deviled eggs. I find eggs to go so good with ham, and deviled eggs are a tasty treat anyway! Mayo, mustard, and egg make a tasty appetizer and side! To cook this dinner, it only took 1.5 hours. My ham was cooked, so I just had to reheat. I then peeled and diced the potatoes, and started them boiling 40 minutes before the ham was done. I heated the gravy on the stove and once thick, would pull it off the heat when it’d boil, and I also started boiling a can of sliced carrots about 20 minutes from serving. I placed my crescents on a baking sheet and started them 14 minutes from completion, and I baked the sweet potato casserole with 7 minutes left. With about 5 minutes left I strained the potatoes and finished them with just enough time for everything else to finish.

I hope this give you some ideas and instruction for your Christmas dinner! Merry Christmas!

Advertisements

To see recipes for what I make, you can click a link below!

Click here to see my recipe for Cooked Ham!

Click here to see my recipe for Mashed Potatoes and Gravy!

Click here to see my recipe for Sweet Potato Casserole and Honey Roasted Beets!

Click here to see my recipe for Deviled Eggs!

Advertisements

Website Powered by WordPress.com.

Up ↑

Design a site like this with WordPress.com
Get started