Thread: Favorite Holiday Side Dish or Dessert

We used to have a recipe thread, so I thought I'd see what treasures you might have to share

When I was in high school and college, I had a recipe for "Never Fail Fudge" - I used to make pans of this to pass out as Christmas presents. I found this recipe that seems to be the closest that I remember - it used marshmallows, not marshmallow fluff. And I would line the pans with foil, which made it easier to lift out.

Never Fail Fudge

A delicious stove-top version of classic Christmas chocolate fudge

PREP TIME
5 minutes

COOK TIME
10 minutes

TOTAL TIME
15 minutes


Ingredients
2 cups sugar
2/3 cups evaporated milk
1/2 cup butter
12 large marshmallows
Dash of Salt
1 2/3 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 tsp. vanilla

Instructions
Prepare the pan. Line a 8×8 inch pan with wax-paper. I used a glass pan for this batch, but I recommend a metal one. I found it difficult to remove the wax paper from this glass pan!
Combine first five ingredients in a saucepan. In a medium saucepan, combine the sugar, evaporated milk, butter, marshmallows and salt.
Stir over medium heat until marshmallows are melted and mixture comes to a boil; boil for 5 minutes, stirring constantly. (Stir continually so mixture won’t stick to the bottom.)
Remove from heat and stir in the chocolate chips & vanilla. Pour the chocolate chips and vanilla into the hot liquid. Stir in quickly to melt the chocolate chips- until the mixture is smooth and glossy.
Pour fudge into wax-paper lined pan. Work quickly, as the fudge firms up faster than you think it would! Once poured into the pan, place in the fridge to cool.
Once cooled, remove from pan and cut into small squares.

This is a favorite dessert anytime - Cream Cheese Pound Cake (from Mr. Food - Quick & Easy Recipe)

Cooking time: 1 hr 30 minutes

1-1/2 cups (3 sticks) butter, slightly softened
1 (8 oz.) package cream cheese, softened
3 cups sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
6 eggs
3 cups all-purpose flour

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Coat a 10-inch Bundt or tube pan with cooking spray; set aside (I've been using Baker's Joy)

In a large bowl, with an electric beater on medium speed, beat butter and cream cheese until creamy. Beat in sugar and vanilla until well mixed. Beat in eggs one at a time. Gradually add flour, beating until well combined.

Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake 1 hour and 20 minutes to 1 hour and 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in center comes clean.

Let cool ten minutes then invert onto a wire rack to cool completely. Serve, or cover until ready to serve.

My notes: I like to added dried blueberries to the batter.

Cookies are always a great holiday food item. I use the oatmeal cookie recipe from Quaker Oats, and will load all kinds of stuff in them I did cranberries, golden raisins, white chocolate and walnuts for work one year. Bill likes raisins only, though he said dried cranberries and raisins were okay. My dad would occasionally make them with chocolate chips, and sometimes add chopped pecans (there were some native trees nearby on undeveloped property, and later, near his office on the Army base).

The other special holiday cookie here is Little Snowball cookies - essentially a round shortbread cookie made with finely diced nuts like pecans or walnuts, rolled in powdered sugar. I need to dig out the recipe and make some of these. Pretty simple to do