Easy Holiday Recipes

Happy Holidays

Valentine's Day Recipes

Champagne and Strawberry Sorbet

1½ cups pureed strawberries, fresh or frozen
2 cups champagne
2 tbsp corn syrup
2/3; cup hot water
2/3 cup sugar

Dissolve the sugar in the very hot water in a bowl, allow to cool. Add strawberries, chilled champagne and corn syrup to the sugar mixture, mixing well. Place in a freezer container for around 5 hours.

Chocolate-Cherry Ice Cream Bombe

Feature Box

1 16oz jar purchased hot fudge sauce
1 12oz package semisweet chocolate chips
3 tablespoons water
¼ cup brandy

3 pints cherry-vanilla ice cream with chocolate chunks or fudge flakes, slightly softened
1½ pints chocolate sorbet or chocolate-cherry sorbet, slightly softened
1 9oz package chocolate wafer cookies

Stir first 3 ingredients in heavy medium saucepan over medium-low heat until melted and smooth. Remove from heat. Whisk in brandy. Cool.

Line 10-inch-diameter, 10-cup metal bowl with plastic wrap, extending over sides. Spread cherry-vanilla ice cream over inside of bowl to within ¾ inch of top edge, leaving center 6-inch-diameter hollow. Freeze 30 minutes. Fill hollow completely with sorbet; smooth top. Overlap half of cookies (about 22) atop ice cream and sorbet, covering completely and pressing gently. Spread 1 cup fudge sauce over cookies. Overlap remaining cookies atop sauce. Cover; freeze bombe overnight. Cover and chill remaining sauce. (Can be made 3 days ahead. Keep bombe frozen. Keep sauce chilled.)

Rewarm remaining sauce over low heat, stirring often. Turn bombe out onto platter. Peel off plastic. Cut bombe into wedges and serve with remaining sauce.

Triple Goodness Chocolate Pie

by Dennis Johnson

2 cups cold milk
2 pkg (4-serving size each) Chocolate Fudge instant Pudding & Pie Filling
1 prepared pie shell (for added goodness, use an Orio pie shell)
1 (8 oz) package, thawed whipped topping, divided

Cool is in with this chocolate pie.
Pour milk into large bowl. Add pudding mixes. Beat with wire whisk 2 minutes until blended.
Spoon 1½ cups of the pudding into pie dish.
Gently stir½ of the whipped topping into remaining pudding. Spread over pudding in crust.
Top with remaining whipped topping. Refrigerate 3 hours or until set.

Chocolate Truffles

½ Cup unsalted butter
21/3 C confectioner’s sugar
½ C cocoa
¼ cup heavy or whipping cream 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Centers: pecan, walnuts, whole almonds or after-dinner mints
Coatings: coconut, crushed nuts,confectioners sugar

Makes about 3 dozen truffles
Cream butter in large mixer bowl. Combine 2 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar and the cocoa; add alternately with cream and vanilla to butter.
Blend well. Chill until firm. Shape small amount of mixture around desired center; roll into 1 inch balls. Drop into desired coating and turn until well covered. Chill until firm.

Honey Baked Ham

1 Smoked ready-to-eat ham, (13 to 15 pounds)
2 To 3 bottles gingerale
3 c Dry white wine

GLAZE:
5 tb Dijon mustard
1/3 c Honey
1/3 c Real maple syrup

SAUCE:
1 1/4 c Chicken stock
3 tb Real maple syrup
2 tb Dijon mustard
2 ts Cornstarch

Remove the rind and score with diagonal cross-cuts. Put ham in a close fitting kettle and cover with gingerale. Bring to boil, then simmer for 20 to 30 minutes. This step removes the too salty taste and adds a delicate flavor. Drain the gingerale, add ham to a roasting pan and pour the wine over it. Cover with foil and bake at 350~ for 1 hour.

Combine the glaze ingredients. After the ham has baked 1 hour, brush the ham with the glaze, using all of the mixture. Return ham to oven (uncovered) and bake an additional 1-1/2 hours, or until internal temp reaches 140~. Baste occasionally after the glaze has "set", about 45 minutes. If the glaze gets too dark before the temp gets to 140 degrees, tent the ham with foil.

When ham is done, transfer it to a serving plate and loosely cover with foil to keep warm. Skim the fat from the juices, reserving all the juice and caramelized bits from the glaze. Heat this to a boil along with 1 cup of the chicken stock (reserving 1/4 cup), syrup and mustard. Dissolve the cornstarch in 1/4 cup of reserved chicken stock and whisk it into the sauce to thicken. The sauce should be a rich dark color. Strain and pour into a gravy boat. Serve the sauce over the ham.

NOTE *** In step 1, "close fitting kettle" means the tightest fitting kettle you can fit the ham into, so it takes less gingerale to cover it.

Christmas Candy

1 pound (468 gms) white chocolate
1 cup small pretzels, broken into small pieces
1 cup pecans, chopped

Melt the chocolate. Stir the pretzels and pecans into chocolate and drop by teaspoon onto waxed paper. Handy edible gift suggestion.

Valentine's Recipes

Other Recipes

Recipe Rock

Desserts and Puddings