Special Recipes for the Winter Holidays You Celebrate

There is a special place in my heart for cranberry in the can with the rings in all!!!

Our family just pops it out of the can then slice, we have the other cranberry also but the can is always gone by the end of the night. lol

There are always a couple of folks in the crowd who "don't eat goose" so I have to make something else to go along side of it (instead of putting them in a head lock and forcing a chunk of goose meat into their mouths to change their minds). Just about everyone who has eaten a goose I made loves it but why belabor the point? Besides, it means there will be more goose for those of us who love it! So get a ham and some root beer and make...

ROOT BEER GLAZED HAM

What you need:

6 bottles root beer, the good stuff. Tommy Knockers, IBC, or other high quality root beer.
1 red apple, sliced
1 green apple, sliced
1 cup red seedless grapes
1/2 orange, sliced
1/2 tsp ground cloves
cracked black pepper to taste
1 tsp ground sassafras (file' for those who know the South)
Ham, shank or butt, not spiral cut. I get an 8-ish pound ham - leftovers!

Git'r Dun:

Place the apples, grapes, orange and cloves in a large pot or dutch oven. Add root beer, cracked black pepper, and ground sassafras. Bring to a rolling boil and reduce to simmer. simmer approximately one half hour, continue simmering until root beer is reduced to a thick syrup. Some folks fish out the chunks of fruit, I use a stick blender and mix them into the glaze before it gets too thick.

Continue to reduce syrup until it is the consistency of molasses. CAUTION: Do not scorch. Take my word for it, hot liquid sugar sticks to everything that it comes in contact with - trust me - you do not want this stuff on your skin! Not only will it leave a mark, it'll burn you badly, and your guests may get an unexpected ear full of all of the bad words you know.

Next do this using:

1 smoked ham
2 cups root beer syrup
1 cup Creole or whole grain mustard
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup Steen's Cane syrup
1/4 cup pineapple juice
freshly cracked black pepper
pinch of ground cinnamon
pinch of ground nutmeg
pinch of ground allspice
pinch of ground clove

Finish the job:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a mixing bowl, combine all of the above ingredients except the ham. Using a wire whisk, blend all spices into the mustard mixture until well incorporated. Place ham in center of a dutch oven and coat completely with the root beer/mustard mixture. Bake the ham uncovered for 1 hour. Use a sharp paring knife to cut slits an eighth inch deep diagonally across the ham, think diamond pattern. Continue in the same pattern from the opposite side until evenly spaced diamonds appear from the cuts. Poke whole cloves into the slits where the cuts intersect. When the ham comes out of the oven secure pineapple slices or fresh strawberries to the ham (toothpicks are handy for this job, don't forget to take them out as you are serving your guests).

This one will knock your socks clean off and into the washer! Make sure to have a nice assortment of breads and cheeses on hand to help dispatch the left overs. Also killer as a ham steak with hash browns and eggs for breakfast or brunch!

HappyCamper wrote: There is a special place in my heart for cranberry in the can with the rings in all!!!

Our family just pops it out of the can then slice, we have the other cranberry also but the can is always gone by the end of the night. lol

And I thought I was the only one.

pacamom wrote:

HappyCamper wrote: There is a special place in my heart for cranberry in the can with the rings in all!!!

Our family just pops it out of the can then slice, we have the other cranberry also but the can is always gone by the end of the night. lol

And I thought I was the only one.

Let me guess, you use the lid from the can to slice up the can-berry-sauce too...

otisptoadwater wrote:

pacamom wrote:

HappyCamper wrote: There is a special place in my heart for cranberry in the can with the rings in all!!!

Our family just pops it out of the can then slice, we have the other cranberry also but the can is always gone by the end of the night. lol

And I thought I was the only one.

Let me guess, you use the lid from the can to slice up the can-berry-sauce too...

Well it can but we all saved up and bought a knife!!!! :rofllol :rofllol :rofllol :rofllol

If anyone want the recipe I use for Yorkshire Pudding here it is. I use a popover pan but have also made it in a cupcake pan.

I tried several before this became my favorite.

Huge Yorkshire Puddings
(from a Jamie Oliver recipe)
1 cup milk
4-oz all purpose flour (approx 1 cup*)
3 large eggs, room temperature
1/4 tsp salt
2 tbsp butter
Preheat oven to 450F. Lightly grease a popover pan (or a muffin tin) with vegetable oil.
Whisk together milk, flour, eggs and salt until batter is very smooth. Let batter rest for 15 minutes.
Place 1 tsp butter in each cavity of the popover pan (1/2 tsp each for muffin tin). Place pan in hot oven just long enough to melt the butter, 1-2 minutes.
Evenly divide batter into prepared pan. Each cup should be filled approximately halfway.
Bake for 20 minutes, until dark golden brown and puffy.
Serve immediately.
*Note: It is best to measure the flour, but 4-oz of all purpose flour is about 1 cup, if you gently spoon the flour into the measuring cup (don’t pack it in!).

I make this every year. Just at Christmas.

Cheese Strudel

Dough:
2 cups flour
1/2 lb real butter
8 oz. Sour Cream
Mix flour and butter as you would for pie crust, until flaky. Add sour cream and mix well.
Shape into 2 balls and store in fridge while making filling.

Filling:
1 lb Cream Cheese
1 t. Vanilla
1 cup Sugar
Beat cream cheese until smooth, add sugar and vanilla. On a piece of floured aluminum foil, roll one ball of dough into a 9x13 inch rectangle. Spread with half of filling. Fold into thirds and fasten with toothpicks. Repeat with remainder of dough. Bake at 350 degrees for 35-45 minutes.

Icing - I used one stick. (4 ounces or 8 tablespoons)
1 cube butter
1-2 cups Powdered sugar
1 T. Vanilla
1-2 T. Milk
Glaze with icing while still warm. When cool, cut and refrigerate.

Sounds awesome pacamom! My fillings started humming and I think I gained a couple of pounds just reading the recipe! I like to think I can cook just about anything but when it comes to baking I'm a total failure - I'm not sure why I can't bake much more than a batch of biscuits or a loaf of bread. Baking isn't something I do well.

My sister in law on the other hand has mastered baking, and despite her Italian heritage, she offers this German Christmas recipe (and I have to confess I love it more and more every year that she makes this cake!):

This old-fashioned German Christmas cake recipe is flavored with molasses, chocolate, a blend of spices, a tiny bit of whiskey, candied fruit, and nuts. None of these flavors dominate, instead they all add up to something far more complex (and much tastier) than the more traditional sort of fruitcake that we've all come to know and dread.

I have never made this and my track record as a baker is questionable at best so leave this one to someone who has mastered making cakes. When correctly prepared it's like a fruit cake that contains chocolate that everyone really likes and always vanishes quickly. Don't ask me why, it just is...

GERMAN CHRISTMAS CAKE

Things You'll Need:

1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 stick butter
9 grade AA large eggs
2 tbsp. whiskey
1 cup molasses
2 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground cloves
1/2 tsp. allspice
2 oz. bittersweet, semisweet, or German chocolate
1 cup chopped citron or candied orange or lemon rind
2 cup pecan pieces, broken
3 cups flour
2 tsp. baking powder
2 9"x13" baking pans
Waxed paper
Powdered sugar
1 Tbsp. Lemon juice

How it's done (according to my sister in law):

Beat the butter until soft. Stir in the sugar, continue beating until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time.

Stir in the molasses, lemon juice, and whiskey. Then add the cinnamon, cloves, and allspice, stirring to combine.

Grate the chocolate and chop the citron, lemon, or orange peel as finely as possible. Stir the fruit and chocolate into the cake mixture along with the pecans.

Mix the flour with the baking powder. Stir the flour into the cake mixture.

Line the cake pans with waxed paper. Divide the cake mixture between the pans.

Bake the cakes at 375 degrees for one hour. Check them towards the end to make sure they don't dry out. Top with powdered sugar by sprinkling over the top using a flour sifter or a fine mesh strainer.

Tips & Warnings

*Make sure you have enough eggs-this recipe contains 9 of them and you don't want to have to dash out to the grocery store while you're in the middle of baking.

WARNING

You can gain 10lbs just reading this thread

Loving all the recipes, absolutely have to try the ham recipe, Otis. Do you by chance have any really good, not too complicated recipes for pheasant? My son-in-law is coming back from a hunting trip with several, my daughter has never cooked one.