I discovered Nestle makes a variety of baking morsels. I tried the Peppermint Hot Cocoa and liked how the recipe on the back turned out. This package contains milk chocolate morsels, swirled peppermint squares & mini marshmallows. I like it because you are actually making a homemade brownie recipe per the instructions on the back. It was suppose to yield 24 mini muffin sized brownies. There was enough of the mix left so I then made cookies too.
I noticed another one of this type of Nestle combo and that one contained milk chocolate morsels, caramel pieces & peanut halves. Another homemade brownie base and this time you baked it in a 13 x 9 baking dish. It is an extremely moist/chewy type of brownie. When I bake I have to be in the right mood to bake so that is why I baked 3 recipes yesterday and 1 today. All tucked away in the freezer for now. I also made a small meatloaf too. My son likes meatloaf and so I like to add fresh sauteed mushrooms to the meatloaf and I did. I also added to the meatloaf some fresh hot Italian sausage. I placed half the mix in the loaf pan then a layer of provolone sliced cheese with the top layer over that. You gotta top it with some condensed (right out of the soup can)tomato soup and uncooked bacon before you bake it in the oven. That is safely tucked away in the freezer too.
I was up during the night. I decorated 2 cards with embellishments for Christmas that I had to mail today. I then asked Holy Spirit to help me plan my holiday meal list. Christmas Eve I am making breaded pork cutlets; sour cream cheddar cheese macaroni salad, vinegar & oil cole slaw and possibly homemade foccacia bread sprinkled on top with everything but the bagel flavoring & parmesan cheese.
Christmas Day I will serve sarma with kielbasa that is cut up in pieces and baked in the sarma, brisket of beef with gravy, mashed potatoes, salad. You just gotta have corn when serving sarma & mashed potatoes. Mashed potatoes are wonderful when you prepare them in the electric pressure cooker yummy. I will also make a chocolate Andes mint cheesecake too.
I have lots to do don't I and I am on my own in preparing because family lives out of town. I know my son will make the salad for me because I taught him years ago how to make the homemade vinegarette dressing for the salad and he does a great job @ it too.
Let's talk about making stuffed cabbage ok. I purchased from a small European store in Atlanta a jar of cabbage leaves in brine. I have made sarma with them before and it makes it easy to make. They do all the hard work of rolling up the cabbage leaves so all you have to do is make the meat filling and roll up the stuffed cabbages to then bake. Well, I checked the best by date and it was 2/2020. I sent a picture of it to my executive chef nephew and we both agreed to not use them.
Plan 2 then is I have to make the sauerhead cabbage with fresh cabbage. I cored the head of cabbage and placed it in my pressure cooker to steam. You have to add 1/4 cup of salt & 1 cup of white vinegar to the water before you steam it. They turned out wonderful and are now ready to fill and then make the sarma. What is nice about pickling your own cabbage is you can use the smaller pieces chopped up and mix with the sauerkraut layer. I am making this in advanced so I can freeze it also. I still have fresh parsley on my patio and will add some to the meat mixture.
I am not going to use the fine China this year to set the table. I have nice everyday dishes but I just may use my formal silverware. I gotta see what type of creative mood I will be in when I set the table. I am sort of a free spirit when it comes to things like that.
That is my update I bring to you.
One more thought ... I always thought when my children were young that I just was not the mom that made good chocolate chip cookies and my sister was good at making them. My son asked me if I could make some so I tried it again. This time they turned out good. I was not sure so I only made a 1/2 recipe of the tollhouse cookies. I guess you are never too old to try something again and have success with it. Can you tell I like to try and do things I think will bless others, I do. There could be 3-4 of us for dinner.
I really do want to work on making a few of my Christmas cards. Creativity released in me is good for me and making cards is one of those avenues. I even thought for a brief moment weeks ago to make a worship flag but I already did that project years ago. I have to take that one to Holy Spirit because that is a lot of work for me because I make them without using a sewing machine.
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