Almond Coconut Candies

Yuu-uum! These are delish and my only note is that the recipe makes a lot so you should make sure you have neighbors or friends to share them with or you'll eat them all yourself.

Almond Coconut Candies

4-1/2 C powdered sugar

3 C flaked coconut

1 C sweetened condensed milk

1/2 C butter, melted

1 tsp vanilla

60 whole unblanched almonds

Frosting:

1-1/2 C powdered sugar

1/2 C baking cocoa

1/2 C butter, melted

3 Tbsp hot milk

In a large bowl, combine the first five ingredients. Shape into 1-inch balls; place on greased cookie sheets. Press an almond on top of each ball. Chill for 1 hour.

Combine the frosting ingredients until smooth; immediately frost tops of candies. Chill until frosting is firm.

Store in the refrigerator.

Yield: 5 dozen

Altered from a recipe from Taste of Home.

White Chocolate Peppermint Trifle

I found the recipe for White Chocolate Mousse and decided to add peppermint and a few other ingredients and make a trifle for Christmas. It turned out yummy, but you'd probably want some sort of sweet bread or cake or something to go with it since it's really just a pudding consistency the whole way through.

First, you'll want to make the mousse... you can do this a day or two ahead if you want to.

White Chocolate Peppermint Mousse

Ingredients

3 C heavy cream
1/2 tsp peppermint extract
10 ounces white chocolate, coarsely chopped

Directions

The day before you plan to serve the dessert, in a small saucepan, heat the cream over medium heat just until it boils. Remove from heat and add peppermint extract and white chocolate. Stir with a whisk until the chocolate is melted and smooth. Cover and let cool in refrigerator overnight.

Remove the mixture from the refrigerator and use a hand mixer to whip it into fluffy soft peaks (this may take a few minutes). Return mixture to refrigerator until ready to use.


For the rest of the trifle, I just mixed two regular size packages of chocolate pudding and once it was set I mixed in half a package of crushed Oreo cookies and one package of crushed peppermint candy canes. Once everything is mixed, just layer the mousse and the pudding in the trifle bowl.

**The original recipe for the mousse had you add 1 cup of beaten egg whites and 4 tablespoons sugar to the cream mixture after it cools, but I didn't want the uncooked egg whites so I left that out, and the white chocolate really was sweet enough that I didn't think you had to add the extra sugar. It might be a good idea to add them if you're doing the mousse on it's own though.

Christmas Soup

Becky made this soup for dinner tonight and it was quite tasty. This isn't the best picture... It makes a pretty green soup with small pieces of red pepper, thus Christmas soup. :)

Christmas Soup

by Donata Maggipinto from Christmas Family Gatherings

Ingredients:

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter

2 tablespoons olive oil

3 leeks, well rinsed and coarsely chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

8 cups chicken stock or canned chicken broth

2 red potatoes, peeled and diced

2 large bunches broccoli (about 3 pounds total weight), trimmed and stems and florets coarsely chopped

1 1/4 cups freshly grated Parmesan cheese

1/2 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes

salt and freshly ground pepper

1/2 to 3/4 cup heavy cream

1 large red bell pepper, finely diced

In a large pot over low heat, melt the butter with the olive oil. Add the leeks and garlic and cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are very soft, about 15 minutes.

Add the stock and potatoes, increase the heat to medium, and cook, uncovered, until the potatoes are tender, about 15 minutes. Add the broccoli and cook until tender, about 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in 1 cup of the Parmesan, the parsley, the red pepper flakes, and the salt and ground pepper to taste. Let stand for 3 minutes.

Working in batches, puree the soup in a food processor or a blender. Return the soup to the pan and whisk in the cream in a slow, steady stream. Rewarm the soup over low heat.

To serve, ladle the soup into serving bowls. Garnish evenly with the diced red pepper and the remaining 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese.

Use star-shaped cookie cutters to make star croutons for floating on top.

Parmesan Herb Rolls

We made these tonight for Christmas eve dinner and they were so yummy! They take a little time to make but they're easy. And of course I didn't read the recipe all the way through before I started them so I didn't do the second rising time after the rolls were formed and they were still great.

Parmesan Herb Rolls

1/2 C butter

1 1/2 C grated Parmesan cheese

2 1/2 Tbsp Italian blend seasoning or herb garden seasoning (by McCormick)

2 (1-pound) loaves frozen yeast bread dough, thawed

Spray muffin cups with nonstick spray. Melt butter in a small bowl. In another small bowl, combine cheese and seasoning blend. Cut dough into 1-inch pieces. Roll each piece of dough in butter then in cheese mixture. Place 3 pieces in each muffin cup. Let rise in a war place, free fromd rafts, until dough doubles in size, about 2 hours.

Heat oven to 375˚. Bake for 12-15 minutes, or until golden brown. Let cool in pans for 2 minutes. Remove from pans and serve warm.

Made about 30-32 rolls.

Notes:

*Also delicious served cool.

*We used grated Parmesan for most of them and then shredded Parmesan for the rest because we ran out of the grated cheese but the grated cheese works, and looks, better.

Originally from Sandra Lee's Christmas magazine.

Southwestern Chicken and Bean Stew

1 cup dried pinto beans
cut up boneless chicken pieces (you decide how much, can use cooked or raw)
1 cup frozen corn
1 cup salsa - medium or hot if you like it spicy
1 (4.5 oz.) can chopped green chilies
1 teaspoon cumin
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro (optional)

Place beans in medium bowl; add enough water to cover. Let stand overnight to soak.

Drain beans; discard water. Place beans and all remaining ingredients except cilantro in 3 1/2 to 4 quart slow cooker; mix well.
Cover; cook on low setting for 10-12 hours or on high for 8 hours.
To serve add cilantro, mix well.
Makes 6 (1 1/3 cup) servings

I made this the first time in Feb. of 2000 and I thought that since it was almost 9 years later Carrie wouldn't mind if we had it again...
This is pretty mild and could use some spicing up. I posted it because Danny asked about recipes using dry beans. Not that Danny ever reads the blog.

Chocolate Hazelnut Tarts

These are so tasty... especially the Hazelnut Mousse!

Chocolate Hazelnut Tarts

Tart Shell

* 4 T cocoa powder
* 1/2 C + 2 T cold butter, diced
* 5 1/4 T sugar
* 2 eggs
* 1 1/4 C flour
* 1 tsp baking powder
* pinch of salt

1. Place the butter, sugar and cocoa powder in a food processor and pulse until it resembles fine bread crumbs. Add the eggs, flour and baking powder and process until the mixture just comes together.
2. Lay the dough on to a lightly floured surface and knead into a disc measuring around 2 cm in height.
3. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour to rest.
4. Once the dough has rested, place the dough back on to a lightly floured surface and roll out until around 2 mm thick. Cut the dough such that it is at least 1 cm wider than the tart shell (which will form the wall of the tart).
5. Place the cut dough in the tart shells and allow refrigerate for another 1 hour.
6. When ready, bake the pastry for 10 minutes in a pre-heated oven at 350 degrees. Once done, bake for another 5 minutes.
7. Remove from oven and allow to cool.


Hazelnut Mousse

* 1 1/2 C milk
* 5 1/4 T sugar
* 3 eggs
* 2 /12 T cornstarch
* 7 T Nutella
* 1/4 - 1/2 pint cream
* 1 packet gelatin

1. Mix the sugar and cornflour into a bowl and slowly add the eggs. Ensure that this is well mixed, removing and lumps.
2. Bring the milk to the boil. Once the milk is boiling, pour the milk slowly into the bowl with the egg mixture.
3. Pour the egg and milk mixture back into the pan and cook on medium heat for a few minutes until the custard becomes thick.
4. Remove from heat and allow to cool. Cover with a plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator until ready to use.
5. When the custard has cooled, place the gelatin sheet in 1 cup of cold water to soften.
6. In the meantime, mix the Nutella with the custard using a whisk.
7. Semi-whip the cream.
8. Remove the gelatin from the water and heat in a microwave proof container for 15 seconds on high. Mix the gelatin with the custard.
9. Fold the custard into the semi-whipped cream.
10. Cover with plastic wrap until ready to use.

Chocolate Hazelnut Sauce

• 5 T Nutella
  
• 2 oz milk chocolate
• pinch of salt
• .5 oz bittersweet or dark chocolate
  
• 1/2 teaspoon light corn syrup
• 4 T crushed caramelized hazelnuts

1. Place all the ingredients in a microwave proof bowl and microwave in 20 second intervals on high until the chocolate has melted.
2. Add the caramelized hazelnuts.

Caramelized Hazelnuts

• 1/2 C sugar
• 3 1/2 T water
• 1 C toasted hazelnuts

1. Bring the sugar and water to a boil in a heavy based pan and let the temperature reach 240 degrees (using a candy thermometer)
2. Add the toasted hazelnuts and take the pan off the heat.
3. Mix the nuts until the texture changes to become sugary like and bring back the pan on the heat.
4. Mix carefully until the sugar turns into a golden caramel colour and place on a silpat or baking paper to cool.

To Assemble:

Spread chocolate sauce over top of tart shell and then top with hazelnut mousse. Garnish with leftover caramelized hazelnuts.


*Ok, so this recipe originally came from http://trissalicious.com/ but it was all metric and she had really weird measurements... she even gave the liquid measurements in grams so it was really hard to convert, but my version ended up being yummy so I'm ok with that haha! I also didn't caramelize the hazelnuts since I don't have a candy thermometer, but it was still yummy.