Food & Fun for Holiday Parties: Links!
Life is hard; food doesn't have to be #110 [vol3, 12.2]
I love cooking and I love reading recipes. Each year I repeat favs while always on the hunt for more. Here are some of what I’m using this year.
Hot Chocolate Mix for one or a crowd - suuuper simple, yum and use whatever milk you prefer. This week I made a giant batch for the teachers at our school for an after school snack, using two InstantPots to warm and keep warm (you can use a CrockPot too). I made another batch to encourage my sleepy heads to get out of warm beds. This would be an easy and inexpensive gift to give.
Also for the teachers after school this Gingerbread Bar Recipe. Cut these bars into a variety of creative shapes using cookie cutter or simple squares. Gingerbread can be a bit more nutritious than other cookies since molasses is a source of iron, selenium, and copper, and calcium all of which help maintain healthy bones.
If you’re looking to try your hand at cinnamon rolls, even for the first time, I highly recommend The Pioneer Woman’s recipe. I’ve tried so many recipes. This one is easy to roll out and it makes enough to share. We love to gift them. My teen son has made them as a fundraiser. If you’ve never made yeasted bread before, this (and the recipe below) are easy for beginners.
Star Bread by Zoe Bakes - it looks difficult but is so easy. I promise. I used the same dough to make rolls. If you wanna be extra and make cheese bread - cut up a mozzarella stick in a few chunks and wrap the dough around it. I’m using this dough recipe to take rolls to a party tomorrow.
Activity: If you didn’t make at Thanksgiving, there’s always this simple yet impressive 3D snowflake as a fun activity for all ages. My kids taught the grandparents at Thanksgiving. So fun.
Charades
A few years ago my son’s 2nd grade teacher asked for someone to make/buy a charades game for their last day of school. I put together this spreadsheet, printed it and cut out the clues. If you have a gathering of children, it would be a fun thing to get their creative juices going. And, if you’re silly enough, get the adults involved!
Spread the Love
Each month I make a donation to a charity from my earnings with Beautycounter. November and December I give to a school in Uganda. I know the director personally and have been supporting their work for 15+ years. I love that they are training nationals with useful life skills, not simply handing out aid.
I support humanitarian work around the world, in part, to keep informed with happenings beyond the US. Recently Abby wrote:
This previous term we conducted a four day Mending the Soul conference with parents (broken up into smaller groups). These conferences were aimed at helping parents understand what trauma is, trauma they have experienced in their life (or caused to others), and how they can care for their children with compassion. The conferences were extremely beneficial, parents were very open and really shared what was on their hearts. Many shared how they experienced healing they never thought was possible, and others were convicted on how their actions have hurt those they loved, (some gave testimony of apologizing and making it right!) This week we have a marriage conference for parents and our community.
Due to another Ebola outbreak in Uganda, schools were closed early this term. Before closing we had an assembly with our students and their parents. One of the topics we focus on was teaching parents how they could keep their children safe during this long school holiday. We also appreciated 8-10 children from each class for having good hygiene, attendance, compassion, kindness and/or leadership and each of these children received a gift. Afterwards each child received a mosquito net, jacket, toothbrushes for the family, deworming medication and plenty of clothing for their school holiday.
Food as Gifts
I love giving food as gifts because it’s not one more thing to dust!
My grandmother made these sugar coated pecans. These spiced nuts are also on my to-do list. I made these cocoa almonds, and while we like them, they are not very sweet. If you’re a “not very sweet” person, then give them a try!
This week I found dried mushrooms at Costco (for an incredible deal; dried mushrooms can be pricey!) I’ve been wanting to try this mushroom salt for a while now from Venison for Dinner. Everything I’ve tried from her site is spot on. Perfect timing on the mushrooms because I bought 50 pounds of salt from Azure Standard (fine Redmond’s Real Salt and course Celtic Sea Salt.)
Savory
I’ve been working on a cookbook for a while. It started as a compilation of my family’s favorites with an effort to teach my oldest to cook. Most of the recipes are somewhere on this blog. Sunday night I handed a paper copy to my daughter and she chose the menu for the week.
Her first pick was (bacon) Cheeseburger Soup.
She also asked for Egg Roll in a Bowl, quiche / cheese pie, goulash, and real food cheese dip. I wanted to use stew meat so I made a variation of this Thai Beef Stew (it’s the second recipe here, just scroll down. Instead of Thai Curry paste, I used a generous spoonful of harissa from Trader Joes and a generous dollop of truffle hot sauce I found at Costco this week. )
Not Savory
For breakfast this week I made these pumpkin muffins. Big hit, esp with the hot chocolate mentioned at the top of this letter.
Recipes printed and waiting for the time to bake:
Better than Classic Pound Cake (one bowl, hand mixed). The recipe is by Deb Perelman’s latest: Smitten Kitchen Keepers: New Classics For Your Forever Files yet written out by my all time fav food blogger Alexandra Cooks.
Moist Applesauce Bundt Cake also by Alexandra. It grabbed my attention because she wrote:
I learned the recipe from my old neighbor, Geri, from Virginia, who always seemed to have this cake on hand anytime she was entertaining. My children and I (and the neighborhood!) couldn’t get enough of it when we found ourselves at her house for one of her legendary gatherings.
From the Heart
I’m not a huge podcast listener unless I find myself in the car/plane for long periods. This week I drove across town to pick up Azure + raw milk so I listened to The Next Right Thing Podcast: The Enneagram and Decision Making (iTunes or Spotify).
I’m not an enneagram expert by any means. I’m not even 100% sure of my number yet I do find it interesting. Just a few minutes in to the podcast, I was texting friend after friend saying, “Have you listened to this one yet? It’s really good.”
I love that Emily transcribes her podcast so visual learners like me can see the words, not just hear them.
I love that both women on the podcast are contemplative, wholistic thinkers. In particular, Suzanne talks about finding balance in thinking, feeling and doing. Admittedly I am doing first and feeling last. When one of the three is repressed there is unbalanced life. I want to live a full, abundant, balanced life!
If you’re looking for something meaty to ponder, I recommend this podcast episode.
Thank You
Whew! This is a long letter. Thanks for reading this far. Thank you for recommending my newsletter to your friends and family. It is my hope with every letter you are encouraged to try something.
Life is hard, food doesn’t have to be,
Julie
PS Until tomorrow at midnight, Beautycounter is giving 30% off the limited edition holiday sets. Perfect last minute gift for clean beauty for your daughter, friend, or self. I bought myself this perfect red lipstick (leans blue). The travel sized Clean Deo Trio is on sale. The Going Places Kit has gloss, cream shadow & mascara. I could go on and on but won’t bore you. Reply back if you have questions. Or just check out the sale.