The Ultimate Guide To Holiday Cooking and Decorating
Christmas Entertaining
The holiday magazine is a beautiful guide to Christmas entertaining from Southern Living magazine. With color photos to inspire your Christmas creativity. Recipes for holiday entertaining, main dishes, and desserts. Get some ideas for holiday gifts for friends and family. It is everything you need to have successful holiday parties and food.
I enjoy that more than half of the book is terrific holiday recipes. The rest of it has photos of home decorating ideas for easy-to-create decorations and gifts that can be handmade. In addition, it gave me some great ideas for table settings and centerpieces.
The book contains beautiful photos of Christmas wreaths, decorated mantels, and other home decorations. Some can be made quickly and would make fabulous holiday creations. I have always enjoyed holiday decorating and enjoy making some of my personalized decors. It makes it easy to have things that go with the theme I choose for holiday decorating.
I love to cook and bake, and my family knows that when they come for the holidays, they will be treated to homemade foods. I also like to give baked goods as gifts and decorate the containers for each person. I sometimes use containers that You can use again. For example, I gave my brother cookies in a decorated fishing tackle box one year. He was thrilled not only for the Christmas cookie but also used the tackle box whenever he went fishing. Some other containers I used in the past were jewelry boxes, sewing boxes, and reusable storage containers. Whatever you do for your Christmas traditions, this book will give you some new inspiration to create a very special Christmas.
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Take a Closer Look at Cookie Baking
For the past twenty years, I have been creating Christmas treats and sharing them as gifts with family and friends. It started because I chose to take a stance against spending money on holiday presents for my huge family. I'm talking 11 grandchildren alone. There is no way I will purchase a plaything that always gets tossed away or a device that barely gets used yearly. So instead, I am going to make plenty of delicious treats that everyone will look enjoy. People now make a special request for me to pack their favorite treats into their containers.
You should consider this little trick to save money if you haven't made holiday treats. Since most of the family members have their favorite, I make massive amounts of cookies right after Thanksgiving and store them in a glass jar, which I seal with my vacuum sealer. Before we begin our Christmas celebration, I unseal them and place them into holiday packages. I always add ribbon with a new holiday ornament attached.
Pfeffernusse Cookies
Holiday Baking Ideas
Holiday baking ideas to make for your family or give as gifts. I am making a list so you can begin your holiday baking early this season. Herw are some of my family's all-time favorites.
- Chocolate Chip
- Cutout Sugar Cookies
- Gingerbread Men
- Butter Cookies
- Pfeffernusse Cookies
- Chocolate Fudge
- Chocolate Dipped Shortbread
- Cream Cheese Logs
- Snickerdoodles
- Peanut Butter Cookies
- Cranberry Shortbread
These are some of our family's favorites. There are many other traditional cookies to choose from. It's time to start your own list for this holiday season.
Pfeffernusse Cookies Ingredients
- 1/2 cup molasses
- 1/4 cup honey
- 1/4 cup butter
- 1/4 cup shortening
- 2 eggs
- 11/2 teaspoons teaspoons anise extract
- 4 cups all purpose flour
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon cardomon
- 1 teaspoon nutmet
- 1 teaspoon ginger
- 1 teaspoon clove
- 3/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup powdered sugar
Do you like to make home baked cookies for Christmas?
Instructions
- In a small double boiler, combine molasses, honey, butter, and shortening. Cook and stir over medium temperature until melted. Remove from heat; cool to room temperature. Stir in eggs and extract.
- Mix flour, sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon, baking soda, ginger, cardamom, nutmeg, cloves, pepper, and salt. Slowly add molasses mixture and mix well. Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or until morning
- Preheat the oven to 325°. Roll dough into 1-in. balls. Place one inch apart on well greased baking sheets. Bake 12-15 minutes or until light brown. Move the cookies to wire cooling racks. Roll or sprinkle warm cookies with powdered sugar. Cool thoroughly. Store in an airtight container.
