Christmas Sweets
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1 7 oz jar marshmallow fluff
Mix together, and chill 2 hours
I discovered that the best popcorn to use in this recipe is the "movie" popcorn - the type that's already buttered
and salted. (I usually double this recipe - don't do both batches all at once, just make one after the other.)
3/4 cup butter
1 1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup corn syrup
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
10 cups popcorn, popped
Preheat oven to 250ºF. Grease two 9x13-inch baking dishes and a huge bowl. Put popped corn into large bowl.
In a medium sauce pan over medium heat, melt butter. Next, stir in the brown sugar, corn syrup, and salt. Bring to a boil, then let simmer WITHOUT STIRRING for four (4) minutes.
Remove from heat and stir in baking soda and vanilla extract. Pour over popcorn and stir to coat.
Place popcorn in the two prepared 9x13-inch pans, and bake for one (1) hour - stirring popcorn every 15 minutes. Remove from oven, cool, and break into pieces.
Seal in airtight container.
These are soooo good!
White chocolate almond bark
Heat the coating over low heat until it is melted.
Stir in Fruit Loops and coat with chocolate, then drop by tablespoon onto waxed paper.
Allow to cool/dry and then store in airtight container (if they last that long!).
Melt almond bark on low. Add box of sandwich crackers, and drop onto waxed paper. Boom - yer done.
Melt the butterscotch chips and peanut butter over low heat. When melted, stir in nuts and chow mein noodles. Drop by teaspoon onto waxed paper. Cool completely, then remove to air tight container.
1 pound pecan halves
1 pound English walnuts
1 pound raisins
1 pound marshmallows
1 stick butter
1 box graham cracker crumbs
1 can sweetened condensed milk
Mix crumbs, nuts, and raisings together. In a double boiler, melt butter and Sweetened and Condensed milk. Add in marshmallows and stir until smooth. Pour into nut mixture, stir well (this part is hard!). Butter your hands and mold cakes into whatever shape that flips your trigger (Daddy always opted for the loaf shape). Place on waxed paper and refrigerate. You can also freeze these (wrap in tinfoil first).
Sherri's Wonderful Coconut Cake
1 package Yellow cake mix (Sherri prefers Duncan Hines Deluxe II™)
1 can Sweetened and Condensed milk
1 can cream of coconut
1 (8-oz.) carton Cool Whip
2 bags frozen flaked coconut
Bake cake as directed on package for SHEET CAKE. After cake is baked, make a lot of holes in the cake with an ice pick or fork. Pour the sweetened and condensed milk over the cake. Let the cake sit for 30 minutes. Pour cream of coconut over cake. Let cake sit another 30 minutes. Spread on Cool Whip and sprinkle frozen coconut on top. Refrigerate and keep Daddy and his danged fork away from it.
Mother started making this cake around 2000, or so, and now it's a mandatory summer cake! I usually double the topping.
Duncan Hines Strawberry cake mix
1 cup sugar
1 cup sour cream
1 quart strawberries
8 oz. Cool Whip
Prepare the cake mix as directed on the box except use milk instead of water. (I usually make a sheet cake, but this is pretty as a layer cake.)
Pick out 3-4 of the prettiest strawberries and save these for the garnish, hull and slice the rest of the strawberries. Mix sugar and sour cream together. Add the sliced strawberries. Fold in Cool Whip and spread onto cake.
Place the cake, uncovered, in the refrigerator until set (about 30 minutes or more). When you're ready to serve, cut the reserved strawberries in half vertically and arrange on top of the cake.
Cover and refrigerate leftovers.
In a medium bowl, combine crumbs, pecans, sugar and margarine; mix well. Press firmly into bottom of 12-inch spring form pan and 2 inches up sides.
Filling:
3 cups (11 1/2-oz. package) milk chocolate chips
1 1/2 envelopes unflavored gelatin
3/4 cup skim milk
3 (8-oz.) packages cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup sour cream
3/4 teaspoon almond extract
3/4 cup whipping cream, whipped
In a small heavy saucepan and over low heat, melt chocolate chips, stirring frequently. In small saucepan, sprinkle gelatin over milk; let stand for one minute. Warm over low heat, stirring frequently, until gelatin is dissolved. In larger mixer bowl, beat cream cheese, sour cream and chocolate until fluffy. Beat gelatin mixture and almond extract. Fold in whipped cream; pour into crust. Chill about 3 hours or until firm. Run knife around edge of cheesecake; remove rim.
Jake's Oreo Cream Cheese Bites
12 Oreo cookies
2 (8 oz) packages cream cheese, softened
2/3 cup plain, fat-free Greek yogurt
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
Preheat oven to 350º and line each muffin tin with a cupcake liner. Place one Oreo in each liner.
Beat together cream cheese, sugar, and yogurt until smooth. Mix in vanilla. Add in eggs, one at a time, mixing thoroughly after each.
Spoon cheese mixture into each liner, over the cookie, and then bake for 20 minutes, or until center of each cheesecake is set. Cool and refrigerate for at least 3 hours before serving.
1 (8-oz.) package cream cheese, softened
1/3 cup sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup sour cream
1 (12-oz.) container Cool Whip
1 graham cracker crust
3 tablespoons lemon juice, optional
Cream sugar and cream cheese. Add in sour cream, vanilla, and lemon juice (if desired). Fold in Cool Whip. Spoon into crust and refrigerate.
1 box butter cake mix
1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans
1 egg
1 stick butter or margarine, softened
1 (8-oz.) package cream cheese, softened
2 eggs
1 box powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
Preheat oven to 350. Mix together first 4 ingredients, keeping in mind that mixture will be stiff. Pat into 9x13-inch pan. Mix last 4 ingredients and spread on cake mixture. Bake for approximately 30 minutes or until top browns slightly.
2 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1/2 cup water
Dash salt
2 egg whites room temperature
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract (or *other flavorings)
1 cup chopped pecans
Spread out a couple of sheets of waxed paper. Butter two large spoons and set aside.
In a 3-quart sauce pan, bring the sugar, corn syrup, water, and salt to a boil, stirring frequently to dissolve the sugar. Once at a boil, stop stirring and cook to 260F - hard ball stage.
While the mixture is coming up to temperature, whisk egg whites on high speed in a heavy duty mixer until very stiff peaks form.
Once the syrup has reached 260F, remove from heat. Turn the mixer to medium-high and carefully and slowly pour the syrup into the egg whites. Do this very slowly, it should take about 2 minutes to do this.
Add vanilla, and continue beating until the mixture loses its gloss, and holds its shape when dropped from a spoon, approximately 4-6 minutes. This is the "magical" stage - if you don't beat it enough, you'll have divinity soup, and if you over-beat it, you'll have divinity crumble.
If you aren't sure if you've mixed it enough, drop a bit of the candy on the wax paper to see if it stands up and doesn't melt into a puddle. If it melts into a puddle, beat a minute or two longer and check.
Stir in the nuts, and then spoon out a heaping spoon of candy, one at a time with greased spoons. Use one spoon to hold the mixture, and the other to scrape the candy off the spoon.
Let candies set out on waxed paper for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight before storing in an airtight container.
*The following are some variations of divinity flavors:
1/2 block paraffin wax
1 small bag chocolate chips
1 stick butter
1 box powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup milk
Melt paraffin wax and chocolate morsels in double boiler. Do not overheat. Mix butter, 10x sugar, vanilla, peanut butter and milk; form into small balls. Pierce each ball with a toothpick and dip into chocolate mixture, leaving a small spot to look like buck eye. Place on waxed paper to cool.
12 (or more) Graham Crackers (each cracker is made of 4 small crackers)
1 cup real butter
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup of finely chopped pecans (if you can heat these in a skillet over medium heat for about 5 minutes, they'll taste better!)
Preheat oven to 350º F.
Line cookie sheet with parchment paper, or greased tinfoil, or just grease a cookie sheet. Break up graham crackers into smaller crackers and place them on the prepared cookie sheet. Get as many crackers side-by-side as you can.
In a medium sauce pan, bring butter and sugar to boil and boil for three minutes, stirring constantly. Pour over graham crackers. Use a spoon to make sure all the crackers are coated. Sprinkle chopped pecans over top.
Bake for 10-12 minutes, until it gets bubbly and golden brown. Remove from oven and cool for 5 minutes. If you used parchment paper on your cookie sheet, you can allow the crackers to cool completely, and then store them in an air-tight container.
Store the crackers in an air-tight container.