Christmas Candy

It's that time of year again!  

It's Christmas here at Casa Collier!!

Now that the decorations are up and most of the gifts are wrapped, I have started making candy.

 Below are a few of our favorite candy recipes!  

Hope you enjoy

Peanut Butter Fudge:

Ingredients:

3/4 cup evaporated milk

2 cups sugar

2 tablespoons butter

1 1/8 cups peanut butter

1 7oz jar marshmallow creme

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

Grease an 8x8 inch dish.

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, combine milk, sugar and butter. Bring to a rolling boil, and let boil 5 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in peanut butter, marshmallow creme and vanilla until well incorporated. Spread into prepared dish. Let cool completely before cutting into squares.

Original Fantasy Fudge:

This is the original Kraft Fantasy Fudge recipe I grew up with. I don’t use nuts in mine, Chris & the kids don’t like them.   My Daughter would eat the whole pan if I let her.  It’s definitely a family favorite!  This is really rich, I try to cut in small pieces a little packs a lot of flavor.

Ingredients: 

3 cups  sugar

¾ cup  butter or margarine

1 small  can (5 oz.) evaporated milk (about 2/3 cup) (Do not use sweetened condensed milk.)

3 pkg.  (4 oz. each) BAKER'S Semi-Sweet Chocolate, chopped

1 jar  (7 oz.) JET-PUFFED Marshmallow Creme

1 cup  chopped PLANTERS Walnuts

1tsp.  vanilla

Directions:

·      LINE 9-inch square pan with foil, with ends of foil extending over sides. Bring sugar, butter and evaporated milk to full rolling boil in 3-qt. saucepan on medium heat, stirring constantly. Cook 4 min. or until candy thermometer reaches 234°F, stirring constantly. Remove from heat.

·      ADD chocolate and marshmallow creme; stir until melted. Add nuts and vanilla; mix well.

·      POUR into prepared pan; spread to cover bottom of pan. Cool completely. Use foil handles to lift fudge from pan before cutting into squares.

Peppermint Bark:

Hands down the easiest candy I make during the holidays!! The hardest part is taking all the plastic off the candy canes. The fun part is putting the candy canes in a zip-lock bag and crushing them with my meat tenderizer.    Just be careful when melting the white chocolate, it has a tendency to seize up much faster than regular chocolate.  It’s a week away from Christmas and my brother is texting me to make sure I’ve made this.  Guess I should make a separate batch just for him. 

Ingredients:

1 bag White Chocolate chips

1 cup of crushed Candy Canes bits

1 tsp of Peppermint Extract (optional)

Directions:

·      Line Cookie Sheet with Foil and butter or spray with non-stick spray

·      Melt Chocolate over double boiler until smooth and shiny.

·      Mix in Candy Cane pieces and Peppermint extract.

·      Pour mixture onto cookie sheet and spread to ¼ inch consistency

·      Cool for 3 hours and then break into pieces.

Toffee:

Again, I don’t add the nuts to these for my family, but I do make a batch each year to give away with them.  The toffee is delish!!!

Ingredients:

14 Tbs butter

1 cup of Sugar

2 Tbs cold water

½ cup of chopped nuts (pecans or walnuts)

1 t pure vanilla extract

Dash of Salt

1 bag semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:

·      Line Cookie Sheet with Foil and butter or spray with non-stick spray

·      Combine butter, sugar, and water in a heavy pan over med-high heat.

·      Bring to a bubbling boil, stiring constantly with a wooden spoon about 10 mins.

·      Remove spoon from pan and cook to a very brittle stage (300-310 degrees on a candy theromoter)

·      Remove from heat, add nuts, vanilla and dash of salt.  Stir until well combined. 

·      Pour onto cookie sheet and spread to ¼ inch thickness.

·      Pour chocolate chips over top, spread chocolate as it melts to cover top.  Make sure not to stop until chocolate is completely melted. 

·      Cool completely and break into pieces.  Store in an air tight container.

Merry Christmas!!!

Pumpkin Fudge

Made this last night!  It is so good....this is like pumpkin candy crack!

Be careful, it's very rich.   

A little goes a long way!

Ingredients:

3 cups granulated white sugar

1 cup light brown sugar

3/4 cup butter


2/3 cup evaporated milk


½ cup canned pure (unsweetened) pumpkin


1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice


One 12-ounce package white chocolate morsels (chips)


One (7-ounce) jar marshmallow crème


1 cup chopped pecans/walnuts toasted (optional)


1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Line a 9-inch square pan with aluminum foil. Spray with nonstick spray.

2. Stir together first 6 ingredients in a  med to large heavy saucepan over medium-high heat, and cook, stirring constantly, until a candy thermometer registers 234° (soft ball stage) or for about 12 minutes.

3. Once mixture reaches 234°, remove from heat and quickly stir in the white chocolate, marshmallow creme, nuts (if using) and vanilla until well blended.

4. Pour into the prepared pan. Let stand 3 hours or until completely cool;  cut fudge into squares.

Thanksgiving 2013

Thanksgiving at Casa Collier was a great event we had our family dinner on Friday this year, it was wonderful day full of great food and even better fellowship.  My home was overfilling with love the whole day.  

 

We even had enough tables set up so we could all eat together and a Dessert table full of Cheese Cake, Pumpkin Cheese Cake, Pumpkin Pie, Pecan Pie and cookies.   My sister in-law made the pies and they were unbelievable!!! 

There was so much Yummy food to eat!! Unfortunately we were rushing around finishing up the food and setting up the buffet that I wasn’t able to get any pictures of the individual dishes.  Sorry!!

The Monday before Thanksgiving, I was in Publix in a hurry.  They had Turkeys on sale so I knew I was taking one home.  I looked at the price tag and thought wow just a little over $12 what a great deal.  So I put it in the buggy and go about getting all the other things on my list.  It wasn’t until I got home that I realized that I had bought at 23lb turkey.  This thing was as big as my 6 year-old niece.  

I got up at 5:30 to put the bird in the oven.  After cleaning the bird, spreading butter and herbs under the skin, covering the outer skin in oil, salt, pepper & garlic powder and stuffing the bird full of onions, apples, celery, fresh sage, rosemary, basil, garlic and butter, it was ready to go into the oven.  After 5+ hours it turned out perfectly! Unfortunately, Chris started carving the big bird before I got any pics!  Just know that I have a large oval turkey platter that we filled up with white meat.  We had to have a second platter just for the dark meat.

This year I added a few new dishes to our menu. 

Roasted Acorn Squash:Acorn Squash cut into 8 slices, with seeds removed, but skin still on.
In a small bowl I combined softened butter with brown sugar and pumpkin pie spice.
I then placed the sliced acorns in an oven safe dish, spread the butter combination over the slices and baked the squash at 425 degrees for 45 mins. I transferred the squash onto a serving dish and scooped up the yummy caramelized butter/sugar mixture in the bottom of the pan and drizzled it over the squash.   Oh my it was so yummy!!
 

Roasted Orange Veggies: 2 -Butternut Squash, peeled, seeded and cut into pieces
5 – Sweet Potatoes peeled and cut into pieces.
5 – Large carrots peeled and cut into small pieces (Carrots take much longer to cook, so I cut them ½ the size of the potatoes and squash)
 Put all ingredients into a large bow.  Pour in ¼ cup of Vegetable oil, 1-2 Tbs of pepper, 3 tbs of salt, 1 Tbs of Garlic Powder, 1 tsp of cinnamon and 1/8 cup of honey.  Mix well and pour mixture into a oven safe dish.  Roast at 425 degrees for at least 40 mins, shaking or stirring every 15 mins.   Take out once squash and potatoes start to crisp up.  Pour into serving dish, salt and pepper to taste and ENJOY!!
 

Roasted Beets: I suggest that you wear gloves when working with beets, the healthy purple color that makes these a Super food will stain your hands for days!
Preheat oven to 400 degrees
4 -6 medium Beets.  Remove the greens and stems. Wash beets to remove any dirt.
You will need a sheet of foil large enough to wrap each beet.
Place beet on foil, drizzle with vegetable oil, salt & pepper.  Wrap up tight in foil.
Repeat for all beets.   Medium size beets will need to cook for 35-45 mins.  Larger beets may take up to an hour. Remove from oven, let cool 10 -15 mins.   Put back on gloves.  Unwrap each beet and carefully peel away the skin with a knife.  Once peeled, slice beets and place on a serving dish.
I promise you once you eat roasted beets, this will be your absolutely favorite way to have them from now on!
 

Forget the Turkey, Dressing, corn, beans, or anything else on my Thanksgiving table.  My Roasted Brussel Sprouts are the most popular dish I make every year.  And it’s really the simplest!  

Roasted Brussel Sprouts:Preheat oven to 425 degrees
You will need 1-2 lbs. of Brussel Sprouts

Trim off bottoms and any spots on outer layers.  I leave mine whole, but you can cut each one in half.  Place sprouts in a big bowl; add ¼ cup of Vegetable oil, 2Tbs of salt and 1Tbs of Pepper.  Pour onto a foil lined cookie sheet or sheets depending on amount of sprouts.  You want a even layer without the sprouts stacked up on top of each other.  Put in oven and roast.  Shake up pans every 10 mins.  Brussel Sprouts are done when you start to see the edges darken (25-30mins) 5-10 mins. Longer for whole sprouts.  Remove from oven, Salt and pepper to taste and serve!!!

One last note about this great day!  I would never have been able to host 16 people in our home without the tireless help of my husband & kids.  CJ started moving furniture out of the sun room early Friday morning to get tables and chairs all set up.  Chris and Christen we going behind me cleaning up my mess as I went about cooking all these dishes. CJ helped me set the table and was very patient with my OCD on plate and candle placement.  And most importantly was the stamina they all had for the hour long dish washing adventure we had once everyone went home!  I am truly blessed to have such wonderful Husband and Kids!!! I LOVE THESE GUYS!!!

 I've got to tell you... there's nothing better than a clean kitchen the morning after!!!