Santa Bread

My sister shared a picture of this bread that she found somewhere on the internet - and I knew I had to make it.  I decided to use my favorite Italian Bread recipe for my bread machine.. with a slight modification.  I thought it looked like a nice breakfast bread, so I added about 3/4 cup of sugar and a little vanilla.  

I used the dough cycle on my bread machine, and it came out looking like this:

With one half of the dough, shape into an elongated triangle with rounded corners for Santa's head and hat.

Divide the other portion in half. Shape and flatten one half into a beard. Using scissors or a pizza cutter, cut into strips to within 1 in. of top. Position on Santa's face; twist and curl strips if desired.

Use the remaining dough for the mustache, nose, hat pom-pom and brim. Shape a portion of dough into a mustache; flatten and cut the ends into small strips with scissors. Place above beard. Place a small ball above mustache for nose. Add another ball for pom-pom. Roll out a narrow piece of dough to create a hat brim; position under hat.

Cover loosely with a damp towel and let rise until doubled or about 30 minutes.


With a scissors, cut two slits for eyes; insert Hershey's kisses (raisins would work too) into slits. In two separate small bowls, beat and egg yolk. Add red food coloring to one yolk; carefully brush over hat, nose and cheeks. Brush plain yolk over remaining dough.

Cover loosely with foil. Bake at 350° for 15 minutes. Uncover; bake 10-12 minutes longer or until golden brown.

Wouldn't this make a fantastic Christmas morning bread?  I took mine to the office and my co-workers devoured it!

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Rosemary Butter Cookies

This year, I joined up with some wonderful bloggers for a cookie recipe swap.  I sent my recipe for candy cane cookies to Hungry Little Girl and I received this intriguing recipe for Rosemary Butter Cookies from Amy over at Amy's Cooking Adventures.

Rosemary in cookies?  She wrote that she received this recipe from her husband's grandmother, who brought them when visiting one Christmas several years ago.  She said she fell in love with them instantly, and I can see why!

Here's how I made them:



Rosemary Butter Cookies

Ingredients:
2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg, beaten
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon lemon extract
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh rosemary
3/4 teaspoon coarse sea salt
1/2 cup fine sanding sugar or colored sugar

Directions:

In a mixer, bear the butter and granulated sugar on medium speed until pale and fluffy.  Mix in the egg, vanilla and lemon extract.

Reduce speed to low.  Add flour, rosemary and salt.  Mix until combined.

Place the dough onto waxed paper and shape into two logs, roughly 2 1/2 inches in diameter.  On a separate piece of waxed paper, sprinkle sanding (or colored) sugar.  Slowly roll each log  through the sanding sugar to coat the dough.

Wrap each log in cling wrap.  Place the logs into empty paper towel rolls to hold the shape if desired.  Freeze the dough for one hour.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and line cookie sheets with parchment paper.  Using a sharp knife, cut each log into 1/4 inch rounds.

Place the rounds onto the prepared baking sheets.

{Can you see the rosemary in the dough?}

Bake until the edges of the cookies are golden, about 16-18 minutes.  Cool completely on wire racks.  Store in an air tight container.

These were really wonderful!  I love butter cookies, and the addition of an unusual savory ingredient is just delightful.  Thanks so much Amy for the recipe and another cookie to add to my yearly list!

Check out the other swaps below!  You will be glad you did!

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Tuesday's Table: Two Weeks to Christmas!

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Welcome to Tuesday's Table, where we get together to fill up our table with food, drinks and entertainment.  For the next 3 weeks, we're looking for holiday-themed recipes and ideas.  Have you got some great recipes for a pot-luck?  Shopping strategies?  Decorating ideas for office parties?  Bring them all over and share them here!

Lots and lots of creative stuff last week.  And another tough choice.  This week I am loving this White Chocolate Santa Mix from Melissa over at Melissa's Cuisine.  So cute for a holiday party!

Thanks for sharing Melissa - grab a button here!


I'll feature my favorite entry from this week on next week's post.  I hope you bring your favorites!

Only a few guidelines:

• Please share as many links as you like, but only if you haven't shared them here before.  
• Add a link back to Tuesday's Table (or grab a button above!) so others can join in the fun.  
• Sign up for my email reminder here.

No other requirements, but visit the other links here, and I'd love for you to follow me too!

And now, for this week's link party - remember, holiday recipes and ideas!

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Mountain Dew Apple Dumplings

A friend of mine shared this recipe with me.  Apparently I am out of the loop, because this recipe has been around a while (which I found after checking the internet for information about it after we devoured it for dessert).

I have to say, I was skeptical.  Mountain Dew?  On top of pastries?  But, because the recipe looked so easy, I thought I'd give it a try.  And wow - really, really good!  And the recipe was really easy.  I initially thought it would be too much sugar, especially with the Mountain Dew, but, although it was sweet, I didn't think it was overly sweet.  Just right actually.



Mountain Dew Apple Dumplings 

Ingredients:

• 2 cans of Pillsbury Crescent rolls
• 4 Granny Smith apples 
• 1 ½ cups sugar
• 1 cup melted butter
• 1 can of Mountain Dew soda pop
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp cinnamon

Directions:

Quarter and peel apples.

Wrap each quarter in a crescent roll.  This doesn't have to be perfect.

Place in 9" x 12" baking dish (because I only made a half-recipe, I used an 8" x 8" glass baking dish).

Sprinkle sugar and cinnamon over rolls.

Drizzle melted butter over all, and then pour can of Mountain Dew over all.

Bake at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes.

Yum!

Serve with whipped cream or ice cream.  You'll enjoy this.  I'm totally confident of that.

Thanks Della!

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John Williams is the Man!

Our third fabulous concert in as many weeks.  We saw John Williams conduct the San Diego Symphony - they played a number of his famous compositions, from Close Encounters to Harry Potter to Star Wars.  Fabulous show!

They played the theme from Schindler's List too, and John Williams told the story about when he first began working on that project.  He said that he went to Steven Spielberg's house to watch the movie, after which, they would talk about the music.  After he saw the movie, he was so moved, that he needed to walk around for a bit to compose himself (so to speak).  He came back and said to Steven Spielberg "You need a better composer for this movie.  I'm not good enough."  Steven replied "I know, but they're all dead."

The show was really wonderful - he did four (!) encores!  The last was The Imperial March (Darth Vader's theme) and it was fantastic!  I highly recommend seeing him if he comes to a symphony near you.

Star Wars fans may enjoy this tribute to John Williams.

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Christmas Greens

Can you believe it is only 18 days until Christmas?  Where does the time go?

One of my favorite things at Christmas is flowers.  I started these a few weeks ago, in the hopes that we will have lots of paper-whites and amaryllis flowers when Christmas gets here.

And of course, lots of poinsettias.  Loving Christmas colors!

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Cookie Time: Peanut Butter Blossoms

Time to get started on those Christmas cookies!  I bake lots of cookies to give as gifts to friends and co-workers this time of year, and it is always a challenge to properly plan the baking and packaging of all of it.

I don't have a lot of free time this time of the year (I am sure I am not unique here either).  I can't bake them all at one time, so I bake them in stages.  These Peanut Butter Blossoms store really well, so I like to bake these first.

{unfortunately, these are also some of our favorites... and they tend not to last long even though they store well.... unless I hide them well}

Here's how I make these classic holiday favorites:




Peanut Butter Blossoms

Ingredients:

• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup butter
• 1 cup chunky peanut butter
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup milk
• 2 teaspoon vanilla
• 3 1/2 cups flour
• 2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• candy kisses

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Cream sugars, butter and peanut butter. Beat in eggs, milk, and vanilla. Sift flour, baking soda, and salt. Add to peanut butter mixture and mix well.
3. Roll into balls and roll in sugar. Bake on ungreased cookie sheets for 8 to 10 minutes. Take cookies out and press candy kisses in the center of each cookie and bake for another 1 to 2 minutes. Cool on wire rack.
4. Makes about 4 dozen

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Ornaments: Santa Bubble Lights

I've been collecting Christmas ornaments since I was a little girl.  I get them when I go on vacations and when I go to a special event.  I add to collections each year - like the White House Christmas Ornament Collection, which is wonderful!  And, because people know I like ornaments, I get them as gifts.  They've got great memories attached to them.

As a result, I've got many treasured ornaments from throughout the years.  I thought I'd share them with you over the next several weeks.  The first one I'd like to show you is one of my most recent acquisitions - these Santa Bubble lights:

They were a gift from my godfather last year.  I'm lucky to live near him (more or less) and, though we don't see each other as often as we'd like, when we do get together, we have a wonderful time.  He is Santa.  Really.  He even belongs to a Santa club and goes to Santa conventions.  (Did you know there was such a thing as a Santa Convention?)  He brought me these vintage lights because he knows how much I enjoy Christmas, and I absolutely love them!  The lights have liquid that bubbles when it heats up - very cool.

Definitely one of my treasured ornaments - thanks Godfather!

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