Christmas Recipes

This is just a gathering of recipes or links to recipes that I made this year for the various Christmas get-togethers. There aren’t pictures- which is unfortunate. Though I don’t need a step by step picture of the process, I do like to see the recipe complete. Oh well.

My mom used to make a punch very similar to this one except that she would keep the base frozen so that we could scrap off what we wanted then add the soda into our glass, which is still a possibility. I turned it into a punch for the crowd.

Banana Brunch Punch

• 6 medium very ripe bananas
• 12 oz. frozen orange juice concentrate, thawed
• 6 oz. frozen lemonade concentrate, thawed
• 3 c. warm water, divided
• 2 c. sugar, divided
• 46 oz. pineapple juice
• 3 –2 liter bottles lemon-lime soda

In a blender, add bananas, orange juice and lemonade; blend until smooth. Remove half of mixture, setting aside. Add 1 1/2 c. water and 1 c. sugar to blender and process until smooth. Pour into a freezer container. Repeat with second half of mixture and remaining water and sugar. Cover and freeze until solid. One hour before serving, remove from freezer. Just before serving, pour into a large punch bowl and add pineapple juice and soda; still until blended.

One night we had appetizers for supper. Do you know how hard it is to not make appetizer night “cheese and pork night”? While there’s nothing wrong with various forms of cheese and pork, it can get a little… heavy. Plus, the kids inevitably eat just the crackers that go with everything and never get filled up.

So this year, thanks to cruising a couple of great food blogs and pinning ideas, I was able to gather a better variety of appetizers.

I’m listing them out and then you’ll have to follow the links for the actual recipes.

• Hot Olives I scooped up a variety of olives from the deli at Hy-Vee and heated them up. Oh, yeah- hot olives are awesome!
• Crab Rangoon in Puff Pastry Cups I did a test run of this recipe one night for just us. The kids are still getting used to Thai/Asian foods so they weren’t thrilled these were even on the table. But for the rest of us, conversation ceased while we enjoyed these. 
• Baid Mutajjan (Fried Hard-Boiled Egg) I decided to quick boil up some eggs for the kids and while cruising on The Big Red Kitchen, I found these. Since I knew my eating audience had adventurous eaters, I tried them. Not so bad. Think of them like a fried egg, only it's hard-boiled first. The spice mix is interesting. I didn’t have any cardamom and I know that the flavor grab didn’t quite happen because of so. I’d try it again.

I picked up a jar of raspberry jalapeno jam this summer up in Grand Marais, MN. Before you go all “ew” on me, the jalapeno is not that hot nor over-powering. It just add a subtle heat to the sweet of the raspberry. Yum! Tia and I tried this on a variety of dippers and didn’t find one that was unsuitable.

Cheesy Raspberry Jalapeno Spread

• 2 8 oz. pkgs. cream cheese, softenend
• 1 c. toasted pecan pieces
• 1 jar Gunflint Trail Raspberry Jalapeno Jam (could use their blackberry or strawberry versions also)
• 8 oz. shredded cheddar cheese
• 1/2 c. chopped green onions

Mix all together and chill. Serve with crackers or veggies.

note- I reduced the pecans by half because I don’t love a super crunchy spread and also left out the green onions.

We had other appetizers, but they were the usual. I think appetizer night might have been my favorite this year.

What appetizers do you enjoy? I’d love to hear.