12 Days Of Christmas Dinner

This year, my amazing family worked with me to do a 12 days of Christmas dinner for Christmas Eve.  It was a break from our normal routine but I think we needed it!   Since I only made four of the twelve dishes, those are the ones I have recipes for.

For dinner we had Twelve Drummers Drumming Drumsticks, Eleven Pipers Piping Krumkake, Ten Lords A-Leaping Cocktail, Nine Ladies Dancing Cookies, Eight Maids A-Milking Cocktail, Seven Swans A-Swimming Rolls, Six Geese A-Laying Deviled Eggs, Five Golden Calamari Rings, Four Calling Birds Pot Pie, Three French Hens Tequila Lime Chicken Wings, Two Turtle Dove Chocolates, and a Partridge in a Pear Tree Crostini. 

Twelve Drummers Drumming Drumsticks

My grandma got chicken drumsticks from the freezer section and they were quite good. 

Eleven Pipers Piping Krumkake
This is my mom's Krumkake recipe. 

Ten Lords A-Leaping Cocktail
My brother's made a cocktail that would make any lord leap!  It was a take on a Cranberry Moscow Mule with a Rosemary and Thyme Cranberry Skewer.

Nine Ladies Dancing Cookies
This is my sugar cookie recipe from Toy Story 2.  I added blue food coloring and had my shoe cookie cutter. 

Eight Maids A-Milking Cocktail
This was a fabulous cocktail!  Original recipe here.

Ingredients:
1.5oz of Peppermint Schnapps
1.5oz of Kahlua
2oz of Milk
Candy Cane

Seven Swans A-Swimming Rolls
I made these out of crescent rolls. I used a large glass and used it to cut out circles.  I folded the circle in half and made cuts to make a swan.  See instructions here.

Six Geese A-Laying Deviled Eggs
My grandma made deviled eggs. 

Five Golden Calamari Rings
My mom got calamari rings from the freezer section of Central Market. 

Four Calling Birds Pot Pie
These were great!  I found the recipe here. 

Ingredients:
1 cup of cooked chicken
1 can of cream of chicken soup
1 cup of frozen mixed vegetables (we actually did 1/2 c. peas, 1/2 c. corn because my dad is allergic to carrots)
1 package of Pillsbury biscuits

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Combine chicken, veggies, and cream of chicken soup in a bowl. 
3. Separate each biscuit in a pre-greased muffin tin.
4. Push down the biscuit dough into the pan and fill with chicken mixture.
5. Bake for 20-25 minutes. 

Three French Hens Tequila Lime Chicken Wings
This is a TOP SECRET recipe from my mom's friend Connie.  All I can say is that they were DELICIOUS! 

Two Turtle Dove Chocolates

Partridge in a Pear Tree Crostini
Pear, Brie, and Honey Crostini. 

We had a great Christmas with two goobs, 7 adults, and a lot of food, love and Christmas magic!

Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town Dinner

We did another dinner for our Rankin-Bass Christmas Special Marathon and that was for Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town!

For dinner we had Burger Meister Meister Burger Burgers, Magic Feed Corn, Santa Fruit, Cran Kringle-Tini, and Red Coat Krispies.

Burger Meister Meister Burger Burgers

I thought this burger HAD to be german with the name "Burger Meister Meister Burger."  I found a recipe for a sauerkraut burger here.

Ingredients:

15 Bread and Butter Chip Pickles

1/4 cup of buttermilk

1/4 cup of flour

2 teaspoons of salt, divided

1/2 teaspoon of black pepper

1/4 cup of mayonnaise

2 tablespoons of ketchup

2 tablespoons of sweet relish

1 tablespoon of white vinegar

1 tablespoon of Sriracha sauce

1/2 tablespoon of yellow mustard

1.5lbs of ground beef

1 teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce

1/4 cup of Sauerkraut

1 teaspoon of vegetable oil

Hamburger Buns

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 475 degrees and line baking sheet with parchment paper.

2. Combine flour, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, black pepper in a bowl

3. Pour buttermilk into another bowl.

4. Place the pickles in the buttermilk and transfer to the flour mixture coating on all sides and setting on baking sheet.

5. Once you have repeated for all pickles, bake for 15 minutes and flip. Then cook for an additional 10.

6. When pickles are golden brown, remove from oven and let cool.

7. In another bowl, whisk together mayonnaise, ketchup, sweet relish, white vinegar, Sriracha sauce, mustard, and 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Set aside.

8. In yet another bowl, mix together ground beef, 1 teaspoon of salt, and Worcestershire sauce. Separate into four beef patties.

9. Heat a skillet over medium high heat. Add 1 teaspoon of vegetable oil and cook until browned (about 4 minutes) and flip.  Cook until done to your liking (about 4 more minutes).  

10. Serve burgers on buns with Sauerkraut, 1 tablespoon of sweet Sriracha sauce and 4-5 pickles.  Enjoy!

Magic Feed Corn

We used frozen corn and added a little butter and salt to make it magical.. (who doesn't love butter... am I right????)

Santa Fruit

I used bananas, greek yogurt, strawberries, and a skewer to make these Santa Fruits. 

Cran Kringle-Tini

I found the recipe here.

Ingredients:

3oz Cranberry Juice Cocktail

1oz Peach Schnapps

1oz Vodka

Red Coat Krispies

I used this recipe!

Ingredients:

3 Tablespoons of butter

1 3oz package of Jell-O Strawberry Flavor Gelatin

1 10oz package of miniature marshmallows 

6 cups of Rice Krispies cereal

Black Icing

White Icing

Directions:

1. Melt butter in a saucepan on low heat.

2. Add Jell-O mix and stir until completely dissolved.

3. Add marshmallows and stir until completely melted and well mixed. 

4. Remove from heat and add cereal.

5. Press mixture into baking dish.

6. Using black and white icing to make Santa coat. 

If you liked this post, check out our Frosty The Snowman Breakfast!

Frosty The Snowman Breakfast

We did a theme dinner to the classic Rankin-Bass Christmas Special, Frosty The Snowman!

We are a Rankin-Bass obsessed family.  Once a year, we watch 13 of the specials in chronological (yes, chronological) order.  Check out our order below if you want to have your own Rankin-Bass Pajama Day Marathon but for now, we will just focus on Frosty The Snowman.

For breakfast we had Snowman Pancakes, Bacon Scarves, Fruit Snowmen, Melted Snowman, and Frosty Donuts. 

Snowman Pancakes
I used a Norwegian Pancake recipe we always had as kids.

Ingredients:
1 egg
3/4 cup of flour
1 teaspoon of vanilla
3/4 cup of milk
1/3 cup of sugar
1 teaspoon of oil

Direcctions:
1. Blend ingredients in a blender
2. Heat on a skillet at medium high heat
3. Flip when the edges begin to get firm.
4. Sprinkle with powdered sugar

Bacon Scarves

Fruit Snowmen
Assemble banana slices, strawberries, and raisins on a skewer

Melted Snowman
We used milk but you can also use water... that's more accurate!

Frosty Donuts
I took mini donuts and drew eyes and a mouth.  I took an orange gumdrop and stuck it in the center of the donut.  

We had a lot of fun!

Rankin-Bass Christmas Special Pajama Day Marathon!

1. Nestor, The Long-Eared Christmas Donkey

2. The Little Drummer Boy

3. Santa Claus Is Coming To Town

4. Jack Frost

5. Pinocchio's Christmas

6. 'Twas the Night Before Christmas

7. The Year Without A Santa Claus

8. Frosty The Snowman

9. Miser Brother's Christmas

10. Frosty's Winter Wonderland

11. Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer

12. Rudolph's Shiny New Year

13. Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July

Fantastic Mr. Fox Dinner

We did a dinner for Fantastic Mr. Fox that ended up being a pre-Thanksgiving celebration with my mother-in-law.  This was one of the best dinners we have ever made!

For dinner we had Boggis' Boiled Chicken and Dumplings, Rabbit's Brussels Sprouts, Brown Sugar Glazed Carrots, Blueberry Patch Blueberries, Beans' Alcoholic Cider, and Mrs. Beans' Nutmeg Ginger Apple Snaps.

Boggis' Chicken and Dumplings
I got this fabulous one pot (though I had to cook the chicken in a pan) recipe from the incomparable Martha Stewart. 

Ingredients:
5 Tablespoons of cold butter, divided
1 yellow onion, minced
2 stalks of celery, sliced
3 carrots, diced
1.25 cups of flour
3 cups of chicken broth
1 pound of boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into one inch cubes
1 Tablespoon of olive oil
1/2 cup of frozen peas
Salt and Pepper
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 Tablespoon of parsley
1/2 cup of whole milk

Directions:
1. Add olive oil to a skillet and cook chicken on medium high heat.  When it's done, set aside.
2. For dumplings: whisk together 1 cup of flour, baking powder, parsley, 1 teaspoon of salt.  Cut in 2 tablespoons of butter and stir in milk.  Knead together to create a dough.  Make balls of dough and set aside. 
2. Melt 3 Tablespoons of butter over medium high heat in a large pot
3. Add onion, celery, and carrots and cook until onion is translucent, about 4 minutes. 
4. Add 1/4 cup of flour and cook for one minute
5. Add broth and bring to a boil
6. Reduce heat and simmer for five minutes. Stir in peas and chicken and season with salt and pepper.
7. Drop in dumplings on top of the chicken mixture. Cover and simmer until dumplings are cooked, about 12 minutes. 
8. Serve in a bowl and enjoy!

Rabbit's Brussels Sprouts
This is a tweaked version of Iron Chef Mario Batali's Brussels Sprout recipe.  He was the voice of Rabbit in the film and made this recipe as an homage to the movie.

Ingredients:
1.5 pounds of Brussels sprouts, halved and trimmed
4 ounces of pancetta, cut with a scissor
Zest of one lemon
Salt and Pepper

Directions;
1. Preheat the broiler
2. In a large pan, cook the pancetta over medium heat, stirring occasionally, about 5 minutes
3. Add Brussels sprouts to the pan and stir to combine.
4. Transfer to baking sheet and broil until the vegetables are brown, about 15 minutes
5. Zest a lemon into the bottom of the serving dish and toss Brussels sprouts into a bowl
6. Salt and Pepper to taste

Brown Sugar Glazed Carrots
I used this recipe here.

Ingredients: 
1 16oz bag of baby carrots
1/2 cup of water
1.5 Tablespoons of butter
1.5 Tablespoons of brown sugar
Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions: 
1. Bring carrots, water, butter, and brown sugar to a boil over medium-high heat
2. Turn to low and simmer for five minutes
3. Turn to high and cook until carrots are tender (about 5 more minutes)
4. Remove from heat and season with salt and pepper

Blueberry Patch Blueberries

Beans' Alcoholic Cider
My mother-in-law, Cindy gets the apples from her tree processed into cider.  We used this amazing cider and added whiskey to taste. It was incredible!

Mrs. Beans' Nutmeg Ginger Apple Snaps
I found the recipe for these amazing cookies here.

Ingredients:
1 cup of butter, softened
1 Tablespoon of molasses
3 Tablespoons of brown sugar
1/4 cup of white sugar
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon of ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
1 teaspoon of ground ginger
2 Tablespoons of grated fresh ginger
2 cups of flour
1 teaspoon of cornstarch
1 pinch of salt
2 apples

Directions:
1.Preheat oven to 325 degrees
2. Cream the butter in a stand mixer until it forms peaks.
3. Add molasses, brown sugar, white sugar, spices, grated ginger, and vanilla extract and blend.
4. Add flour, cornstarch and salt to the butter mixture on low speed until fully combined.
5. Roll dough into balls and place on a greased baking sheet.
6. Slice apples as thing as you can.  I purchased large apples and had to cut each of the slices into pieces.
7. Place apple pieces into the cookie
8. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes until the edges are golden.

A great dinner for a great movie!  

Stranger Things Dinner

We are back!  It's been a crazy few month and we have a new addition, Madeline, to welcome to our family!  Hooray!

Just like the rest of the world, we have been watching the second season of Stranger Things and decided to do a dinner for Halloween.

For dinner we had Eleven's Eggo Waffle Bar, Demogorgonzola Steak Bites, Pumpkin Seeds, Coke, and Chocolate Pudding Christmas Light Cupcakes. 

Eggo Waffle Bar

With the toasted waffles I had a few different types of jams, raspberries, blueberries, bananas, maple syrup, whipped cream, peanut butter, and hazelnut spread.

Demogorgonzola Steak Bites

I got the idea here.

Steak:

Strip Steak

1 tsp of brown sugar

Salt and Pepper to taste

1 tablespoon of oil

Gorgonzola sauce

1/4 cup of Gorgonzola crumbles

1/4 cup of heavy whipping cream

2 tablespoons of sour cream

1/4 cup of cream cheese

salt to taste

Instructions: 

1. Cut your steak in one inch cubes.

2. Cover steak bites with brown sugar, salt and pepper.  Set aside.

3. Over medium heat, combine Gorgonzola, heavy whipping cream, sour cream, cream cheese and salt in a saucepan until fully combined.  Set aside.

4. Heat a skillet with oil

5. Sear meat for about 3-4 minutes or until fully cooked

6. Let rest and serve with Gorgonzola sauce on top. 

Pumpkin Seeds

After scooping your seeds out, let dry on top of a cookie sheet with aluminum foil.  

Cover with butter and salt and cook for 45 minutes at 300 degrees. 

Coke

Chocolate Pudding Christmas Light Cupcakes

I used our Lorax cupcake recipe.

I put whipped cream on top, chocolate icing, and plain M&Ms.

Olivia LOVED the Eggo Waffle bar- particularly the peanut butter!