Christmas Fruitcake

Fruitcake.  You either love it or you hate it.  

While fruitcake is often the dreaded Christmas gift and the butt of bad jokes, I think this recipe might change the perspective of fruitcake haters!  This fruitcake is not baked so you don't have to worry about burning anything.   It looks difficult, but is really easy to make.  Ingredients are typically easy to find with all the holiday baking goodies at the local grocery.

Holiday time often triggers childhood memories.   This year it was the memory of making fruitcake with mom at the kitchen table in this huge pan.  It was a treat because it requires a lot of ingredients that are seasonal, such as candied fruit and combined with nuts, dates, raisins, etc. it becomes quite expensive to make.  Growing up, we had this for many years and the first year we didn't have it, I remember mom saying that the ingredients cost too much. 

This week I set out on a mission to find my mother's fruitcake recipe and recreate some memories.  This fruitcake doesn't contain any spirits nor is it baked, but rather made with a prebaked spice cake that gets crumbled up and mixed with all sort of goodies and packed into a 9x13 pan.  I was able to get all the ingredients at my local Walmart with the exception of candied red cherries.  I called and visited multiple stores in a two county area and no one had them!  Well, I was not about to have my plans derailed!  I bought some maraschino cherries and made the candied red cherries myself!

I learned that the recipe mom used is a Betty Crocker Recipe that originated in 1957 and was called Mystery Fruitcake.  I took a few liberties with the recipe, making some modifications to the quantity of some of the ingredients to avoid waste.  I also added a container of candied pineapple as well.

Give this recipe a try and create some new memories and start a new tradition!

Connie's Sugar Cookies

It's the time of year when visions of all kinds of sweet things dance through our heads.  Our tried and true favorites we make every year plus the new recipes we're enticed with on Pinterest, in magazines, or cook books.  Like most of you, I have my favorites.  One is a drop sugar cookie that is so light and crispy, you can snarf down the whole batch before you realize what you've done!  Cut out sugar cookies have never been my favorite.  I remember making them with mom as a kid, and we ate them, but as a kid...it was about the sugar.  I didn't care much about things like texture, lightness, or that they were mostly like eating sweetened cardboard.  

Now that you knowing my feelings about how most cutout sugar cookies have texture and taste like cardboard, this post will seem odd.    I had not planned to make sugar cookies this year, and definitely not cut out sugar cookies.  However, I found these beautiful cookie cutters at William's Sonoma and well, I have to use them.  I plead my case for a tasty Sugar Cookie recipe asking my Facebook friends if anyone had one they would be willing to share and my friend Connie came to my rescue.  Connie and I grew up in the same small town and played together as children.  I remember swimming in her backyard pool and us gushing over teenage heart throbs Bobbie Sherman and David Cassidy (yes, that has been a few years ago), but all good memories!

Not only did Connie come to my rescue with her recipe, the recipe is super easy to make!  If you have a food processor, you will have your cookie dough mixed up and ready to go in less than 10 minutes and clean up is easy too because it's all done in the food processor.

I have to admit in looking at a lot of sugar cookie recipes, this is the only one I've seen that is made with only egg yolks.  Don't discount the recipe because you don't know what to do with the egg whites.  You can use the leftover egg whites to make some Cinnamon Sugar Pecans.

I am so excited to have a rolled Sugar Cookie recipe  and with Connie's permission, you can have it too!  Thank you Connie!  Merry Christmas!

Janet's Christmas Gingerbread

How many of you are like me and running behind with your holiday preparations this year?  It won't be long and the reindeer will be flying and the jolly old man in the red suit will be visiting our homes and comparing notes on the cookies and milk left on the hearth for him.

This weekend I made gingerbread men, or as I've been saying, gingerbread boys and girls.  

I'm making them for a really special group of first graders as a treat on the last day of their Junior Achievement class.  

I've never made gingerbread men before and they are a lot of work,  I also will confess that I had a few casualties, but they are so cute and tasty they were worth the trouble and  I am sure the kids in the class will love them.

Since I don't have a tried and true recipe for gingerbread, I put out the call to my Facebook friends to see if anyone had one that they would share.  Paula, a friend from the town I grew up in, shared her recipe.   

This isn't just any recipe, it is her mother's recipe and is a treasure.  Growing up her mom and dad lived kitty-corner across the street from us and later they were backdoor neighbors to my mom and dad.  I asked Paula if she minded if I shared the recipe on my blog and she said "go for it".

I hope you will try this recipe.  It has lots of wonderful memories for their family.   Start a new tradition at your house this year. I bet if you make these cookies you will get brownie points from your family and also Santa might just decide the cookies he got at your house are the absolute best!

I wish I could share a plate of these with Janet and her daughters!

Low Carb Cranberry Bliss Bars

I follow several blogs and this recipe is directly from one of those, All Day I Dream About Food.  I love the flavor combination of cranberry and orange.  It sounded amazing and I just had to try it.  I will admit that I have never had the original Starbucks Cranberry Bliss Bars, which I'm  sure is terrific after tying this recipe. I'm also sure it is loaded with sugar and carbs.  Whatever the reason, if it is merely to eat a little healthier during or after the holidays, give this recipe a try because it is awesome.  The flavor of cranberry and orange are sublime and who doesn't like cream cheese frosting?


I altered the recipe just a bit because I didn't have time to make her sugarless dried cranberries.  I used Crasins in a lesser quantity to help keep the carbs down.  I also substituted in orange extract since I didn't have any oranges on hand for fresh zest.  Even with my alterations these bars turned out amazing and I would encourage you to whip up a pan soon!  While the post is a little late for your Christmas cookie tray, these would be a lovely addition, so bookmark it for next year!