Culinary Family Traditions - Christmas Recipes

The holidays bring about numerous opportunities to gather with family to celebrate the season of sharing and giving. Throughout the years my family has collected quite a list of some favorite Christmas recipes.
These favorites have been enjoyed over and over again, and we have yet to grow tired of them.
We've shared some precious memories in pitching in and preparing the holiday meals.
Here are just a few of our family favorites:
Christmas Punch (One of Tammy's recipes)
Ingredients
1 1/2 liter of chilled 7-Up
About 20 scoops of green lime sorbet
2 Tbsp of lemon juice
Directions
Gather up your favorite punch bowl set. Make sure it is washed and cleaned for use. Pour the chilled 7-Up in the punch bowl. Scoop up 20 scoops of sorbet into the 7-Up. Add the lemon juice and then give the punch mixture a quick stir. Serve immediately.
Cheesy Potato Casserole (My Sister's Recipe)
Ingredients
32 oz frozen hash browns
1 small onion, chopped
1/2 cup melted butter
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 8 oz tub of sour cream
1 bag shredded cheddar cheese
Salt and pepper to taste
Optional: 1 cup crushed corn flakes or potato chips
Directions
Mix onion, soup, sour cream, and cheese in bowl.
Place potatoes in 9 x 13 baking dish. Pour melted button on top. Then stir in mixture of remaining items.
Sprinkle corn flakes or potato chips on top. Bake uncovered @ 350 degrees for 45-50 minutes.
Ambrosia Salad (My Sister-In-Law's Recipe)
Ingredients
2 cups shredded coconut
1 8oz container whipped cream, thawed
1 11oz can madarin oranges, drained
3 apples, peeled and chopped
3 bananas, sliced
1 8oz can pineapple chunks, drained
1 10oz jar maraschino cherries, drained
3 cups miniature marshmallows
Optional: 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
Directions
In a large bowl, combine the whipped cream, coconut, chopped nuts (if desired), apples, pineapple, mandarin oranges, marshmallows, and cherries. Mix together well and refrigerate for 30 to 45 minutes.
Important Tip: Wait until right before serving to peel and add the bananas to help preserve them from turning brown.
There was a time when we did a recipe exchange. This was a lot of fun...plus it was a perfect way to get lots of great recipes to be enjoyed by the whole family.
Here's a neat holiday gift idea for your family members
Make a scrapbook up of memories including family favorite recipes, events, pictures, and even special memories shared by the family. Get creative with this and include lots of illustrations. This will be a gift that will be special to your family and will last for a lifetime.
It's important to keep your family traditions going...and keep sharing them even when the Grandchildren and Great Grandchildren come along.
There's nothing more important than gathering with your family and just being together and sharing old memories, laughing, and loving one another.

Article Written By Tammy Embrich
You can find more articles and recipes, along with grandparenting and parenting tips at Grandma's Home Bloggers
Tammy also offers free work at home job leads, work at home articles, tips and more at Work At Home Jobs.

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Early Christmas Shop For the Best Christmas Gifts

Do you promise yourself each and every year that you will get all your Christmas shopping done early so that you can have a relatively stress free holiday season, only to find yourself shopping for last minute Christmas presents a day or two before Christmas day and having no idea what to get or where to get it? Proper planning is important. I am sure that you can come up with at least ten minutes a day or week to think about your Christmas list. The only way to have a stress free holiday season is to early Christmas shop for the best Christmas gifts.

As we get closer to the holiday season, you need to find a couple of minutes to compile a list if you haven't done so already for the best Christmas gifts. Last minute shopping does not allow you to find the best Christmas gifts for your friends and family. A thoughtless gift is worse than no gift at all. Getting the best Christmas gifts requires that you put some thought into the task and early Christmas shop for the best Christmas gifts.

If you have no idea what holiday gifts to get and what would make great holiday gifts, find suggestions on or offline on the best gift ideas and where to find them or pay attention to any hints dropped by family and friends in order to prepare a list of the best Christmas presents.

Make this the year that you early Christmas shop. Most holiday shoppers usually wait until the very last minute which is seen with the crowds of people at the mall and other shopping centers and the resulting stress. Waiting until December to find Christmas presents also means that if you are using a credit card, you will have a large credit card bill in the new year to pay off. Early Christmas shopping for the best Christmas gifts allows you to spread out your expenses on Christmas presents.

Online shopping is continuing to explode and while you do not deal with the crowds, you need to place the orders early to ensure that you receive the best Christmas presents well before Christmas day especially if you need to mail some of these holiday gifts. Plan to shop early to avoid the stress of wondering whether you will receive the Christmas presents before Christmas. Although some online stores can gift wrap and mail the Christmas present to the recipient for you, I prefer my own wrapping and you do not want the recipients to receive the Christmas presents too early or too late.

Various stores and other outlets should have information on some of the best gift ideas to help you with your Christmas list. You also need to set a budget that you stick to when reviewing the best gift ideas.

This information on the best Christmas gifts usually contains lists of the best Christmas gifts for men, the best Christmas gifts for women and the best Christmas gifts for girls and boys in order to help you come up with ideas on great holiday gifts to fill out your Christmas list. Once you spend some time compiling this Christmas list early of the best Christmas gifts and made the purchases, you can then have a relaxing and stress free holiday season because would have done all your Christmas shopping early.

One of the best ways to Christmas shop early for the best Christmas gifts that you can keep in mind for next year's Christmas since it is already late in the year 2010, is to shop in the few days after Christmas day 2010 for for the following year's holiday gifts since a vast number of stores both off and online have various sales to prepare for the new year by getting rid of excess inventory which means that you will be able to get some of the best Christmas gifts for the following year.

Some of the best gift ideas for 2010 will more or less still apply for the coming year. For electronics, you will probably have to wait until the coming year before making purchases because updates occur frequently in this area.

Another tip to help you with early Christmas shopping for the best Christmas gifts once you have reviewed any lists showing the best gift ideas, is to purchase two gifts instead of one gift for the people on your list at the time of their birthday so that you can give them one gift as a birthday gift and the second gift at Christmas time.

These are only a few tips to keep in mind that will ensure that you have a relatively stress free time at Christmas because all your Christmas presents would have been purchased and wrapped since you properly planned and put a lot of thought into your gift giving and allowed yourself enough time to come up with the best Christmas gifts for your family and friends.

Have a great holiday season by early Christmas shopping for the best Christmas gifts [http://thetop10christmasgiftsnow.com]. For the best gift ideas, visit my website for a listing of the top 10 best gift ideas for him, for her and for boys and girls. Properly plan for the season so you can relax without stressing about all the Christmas presents that you still need to get right up until Christmas day. Visit my website at [http://thetop10christmasgiftsnow.com].

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Simple And Delicious Goose Christmas Recipe

The Christmas season brings so much traditional fare to tables around the world that some look forward to the amazing meal all year long. It's no secret that weight gain is a concern of Christmas celebrations worldwide as well. There are always so many rich options of protein, potatoes, cheeses, and sweet treats that it is anyone's guess how we managed to eat so much in a single day. Not including leftovers, of course.

One lovely meal that is quite popular in Europe is the Christmas goose. Goose and duck are enjoyed regularly around holidays and are prepared to accentuate their fatty flavor, which makes for a crispy skin and delightfully tasteful meat on the inside. Thanks to our European roots, we were always able to get a taste the delicious goose over the holidays, as our maternal grandmother insisted on it at her table, lamenting every year that turkey was so pedestrian, and improper. Her lovely accent made the Christmas recipe even more delightful to watch her execute year after year.

It took until around the age of ten to realize exactly what she was cooking, as her reference to the bird as a goose was simply slang, we thought. It was certainly smaller than a turkey, and it tasted incredible, but we all assumed it was the magic of her heritage that made it so. Besides, a goose wasn't something you ate in our minds. It was a bird that actually flew -- unlike the turkey or chicken -- and moreover, a character in one of our favorite nursery rhymes, "Mother Goose."

Our mother was never a fan of its preparation, or our grandmother for that matter, so when granny was gone, she would never entertain the idea of cooking it herself. Finally, as an adult, I found a traditional German recipe for its preparation, and wowed a group of friends with it at a dinner party. It's super easy, and a great change of pace from the typical meals you would serve your dinner guests, whether around Christmas time or just as a fun departure from the ordinary.

Delicious Goose: The Christmas Recipe

It is certainly okay to brine a goose, much like you would a turkey. However, part of the deliciousness that is the goose comes from its own fatty existence, which is hard to duplicate with any other bird -- although the duck is probably second in line in richness. For the purpose of this recipe, I'd say forgo the brining, and keep it simple and easy!

What You Need:
• Roasting Pan with Rack
• 1 Young Goose (4-5lbs), Completely Thawed
• 2 Apples, Peeled, Cored & Quartered
• 1 Small Onion, Cut into ¼" Wide Strips
• 2 TSP Thyme
• Plenty of Kosher Salt
• Lots of Cracked Black Pepper
• Water

What To Do:
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Clean the goose thoroughly, inside and out -- removing and tossing anything in the cavity.
• Pat the goose dry with paper towels, and apply kosher salt, cracked black pepper and thyme generously to the bird, inside and out.
• Place the apples and onions inside the cavity.
• Mix one tablespoon of kosher salt with one cup of water, and pour into the roasting pan.
• Add the rack to the pan, and place the goose atop it -- BREAST SIDE DOWN.
• Pierce the goose's skin in several places, front, middle and back to allow the fat to exit as it cooks.
• Cook the goose for 50 minutes, using the salt water to baste 2-3 times during that period. You can add more salty water to the pan as needed.
• Remove the pan and turn the goose over onto its back, and return to the over for an additional 50 minutes.
The goose should cook to a temperature of 150 degrees, so check the temperature before turning the oven off. The goose can cook for another 20 minutes, or until cooked thoroughly. Be sure to baste in between, and allow it to sit for five minutes before carving.

Serve the goose with fruity options of peach halves or Current jelly. The sweet and salt mixture will delight your senses, and beg an answer to the question, "Why is this the first time we've had goose?" Leftovers will store just like chicken or turkey, and can be added to bread the next day for a wonderful twist to the leftover sandwich you are used to.

Steven Ircha is the Senior Managing Director of Aegis Capital where he helps individuals and institutions manage their investments. He lives in Bronxville NY with his wife and five children. Steven attended NYU, Brooklyn Law School and the Harvard Business School.
He is also the assistant Scoutmaster of Bronxville Troop 5 and the Friends of Scouting Chair for the Westchester Putnam Council Boy Scouts of America. He frequently watches Jet's games with his brother-in-law,Woody Johnson,owner of the New York Jet's football team.
To contact Steven, please call 914-361-1099 or email him at ircha@yahoo.com.

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Kids Christmas Recipes

With the Festive season just around the corner you may be looking for some Kids Christmas Recipes, that you can cook for or with your kids.

There really is no better time than the festive season to get in the kitchen cooking with your kids. Christmas is steeped in traditions and flavors, like cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and of course lashings of hot chocolate.

Kids love to bake and enjoy nothing more than making gifts that family and friends can eat. Lebkuchen are Traditional German Christmas Cookies and my children love to decorate these with white icing and silver balls. Sugar Mice and Coconut Ice are ideal gift ideas.

We have another family favorite Christmas Recipe Chocolate Cherry Fudge.

Starry Mince Pies

Mince Pies are traditional at Christmas, this recipe will make approx 12 pies.

250g Plain Flour
150g Cold Butter, extra for greasing
Cold water to mix, allow between 1 to 1 1/2 tsp per 25g of flour
1/4 Level tsp Salt
350g Mincemeat
Beaten Egg for brushing
Sifted Icing Sugar

Pre-Heat your oven to 190c/375f/Gas Mark 5.

For the pastry:-

1. Sift the flour and the salt into a bowl.
2. Add the butter, cut into the flour with a knife then rub with your fingertips. When rubbed sufficiently, the mixture should look like fine breadcrumbs.
3. Sprinkle the water over the crumbs, mix to stiff crumbly-looking paste with round-ended knife.
4. Draw together with fingertips, turn out on to lightly floured board. Knead quickly until smooth and crack-free.

Building the Pies:-

1. Roll out the pastry on a floured surface,using an 8cm round cutter stamp out 12 circles.
2. Grease your muffin tin and line with your pastry circles.
3. Using a teaspoon put equal amounts of mincemeat into each pastry case.
4. With your remaining pastry using a small star cutter cut out your stars.
5. Place your stars in the center of the pie and brush with a little beaten egg.
6. Bake in the center of the oven for 20-25 minutes (or until golden brown)
7. Remove from the tins and dredge thickly with sifted icing sugar.

The mince pies can be served warm, with whipped cream or custard, you could also decorate with other festive shapes depending on your cookie cutters.

Whether you are looking for Kids Christmas Dessert Recipes or Easy Kids Christmas Cookies Recipes I have put together some Family Favorite Xmas Treats and Kids Christmas Recipes.

[http://www.get-your-kids-cooking.com]

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