Our New Year's Eve Treats!

I know a lot of people get excited about the New Year. There are resolutions to be made and eventually abandoned, and the chance to turn over a new leaf and begin life with fresh zeal and a new outlook. These are definitely good things to be excited about. But as for me, I'm mostly excited about the food. Big surprise, huh - that seems to be my favorite part of just about any holiday.

There are two things in particular that I look forward to on New Year's Eve, and we made them and have been devouring them tonight just like we have been for years. Every year we buy a couple big bag of tortilla chips and everything we need to make these two dips. I love both of these. I would just as soon throw away my right shoe as only make one of these. It has to be both. The cool freshness of the Traveling Tacos is a refreshing contrast to the warm heaviness of the Hearty Cheese Dip, and they're both so great!

Traveling Tacos (a layered taco dip)

I don't have exact amounts, so I guessed about how much I used tonight.
1 can refried beans
1/2 to 3/4 cup salsa
1 to 2 cups guacamole
8 to 16 oz. sour cream
Shredded cheese
Sliced olives
Chopped tomatoes
Shredded lettuce

Combine refried beans with salsa. Spread in a pan. The pan and amounts depend on how much you want. For our little family, we do an 8-inch casserole dish. Layer on top of the bean mixture: guacamole, sour cream, shredded cheese, sliced olives, chopped tomatoes, and shredded lettuce. Chill for a few hours, and serve with tortilla chips.

Here's a nice picture of all the layers in the pan - it looks so fresh and colorful!

Hearty Cheese Dip

This supposedly feeds 20, so we usually cut it in half and it serves the two of us and the kids quite nicely
1/2 pound ground beef
1/2 pound ground sausage
16 oz. jar picante sauce
8 oz. jar diced tomatoes with green chilies
28 oz. can refried beans
4 oz. chopped olives
3 lbs. Mexican Velveeta

Brown meat; drain. In a large pot, melt cheese, stirring every few minutes. Add picante sauce and tomatoes to melted cheese. Stir well. Cook for five minutes on medium high heat. Add remaining ingredients to cheese mixture; stir well and cook another 10 minutes. Serve with tortilla chips. Yummy!


There you have it - our family's treasured New Year's Eve fare. We've been eating these dips in my family since I was a teenager; I look forward to getting to make and eat these all year long! I remember one year I had to babysit for New Year's Eve. My mom actually sent my younger sister over just before midnight with a little of each of these dips, just so that I could participate in the tradition. My sister and I watched a movie and snacked on Traveling Tacos and Hearty Cheese Dip together, and then Mom came back and picked her up a little while later. How cool is that?

Chocolate Covered Cracker Sandwiches

This is one of those basic, simple recipes that you make just because you happen to have chocolate coating and crackers and peanut butter and want something fast and easy and sweet. It's hardly a recipe at all, actually, but I'll post it anyway because it's yummy and I took pictures.

Chocolate Covered Cracker Sandwiches
Crackers (usually Ritz, but I used saltines this time)
Peanut Butter (creamy works best, I used crunchy because I realized that I had two jars of crunchy peanut butter open at the same time, oops)
Chocolate coating, aka almond bark (you can use chocolate or vanilla, or even colorful candy melts)

Spread about a teaspoon of peanut butter on half of the crackers, and top each with another cracker to make a sandwich. Melt almond bark (add a little shortening if you need to thin it). Using tongs and/or a fork, dip each sandwich in almond bark and tap off the excess. Place on wax paper or foil until chocolate has hardened.

I usually have a little chocolate coating left in the bowl when I'm done dipping stuff. I like to mix in stuff, like nuts or pretzels, and spread it out on wax paper or foil for a little extra treat so as not to waste any of the chocolate. This time I used raisins. Yummy!


You can adjust amounts for however many you want to make. I made 16 sandwiches and used six squares of chocolate coating. Optionally, you can fancy these up by drizzling a contrasting chocolate on top, or topping the crackers with sprinkles immediately after dipping them. I left them plain and unadulterated this time.

Coconut Cake

Another great Southern Plate recipe! I stand by what I have said previously - everything I make from Southern Plate turns out wonderful. I made this cake for our Christmas Eve dinner with my husband's sister and her family. Everyone very much enjoyed it. The frosting is what makes this cake special - a light and fluffy frosting that is sweet and tart and coconuty all at the same time, it was just wonderful!

Coconut Cake
Yellow Cake:
2 1/4 cups flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup margarine, softened
1 1/4 cups milk
3 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla
3 large eggs
Or you can use a boxed yellow cake mix, which is how Christy does it.

Coconut Frosting:
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cup whipped topping
16 oz. sour cream
12 oz. coconut (frozen, bagged, or canned)

Make the cake: Heat oven to 350. Grease bottom and sides of 9x13 pan, and lightly flour.

Beat all cake ingredients with electric mixer on low speed 30 seconds, scraping bowl constantly. Beat on high speed 3 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally. Pour into pan.

Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Poke holes all over the surface of the cake, and let it cool for 10 minutes.

Prepare the frosting: Combine all frosting ingredients and pour over the warm cake. This made more frosting than would fit in my pan on top of the cake, so I just poured on as much as I could and we snacked on the rest throughout the day!

Cover and chill the cake for 1 to 3 days. The longer it sits, the moister it gets.


See how thick that frosting is? There was as much as an inch of frosting in some areas of the cake - so delicious!

The Economy Cookbook

I was reading through a blog this morning, and found a link to this absolutely darling cookbook. It's called The Economy Cookbook, and it was published in 1910. "This is a digital copy of a book that was preserved for generations on library shelves before it was carefully scanned by Google as part of a project to make the world's books discoverable online. It has survived long enough for the copyright to expire and the book to enter the public domain."

I just perused through over 100 pages of quaint, charming recipes for soups, puddings (baked and steamed), cakes, salads, sandwiches, etc. that were compiled nearly one hundred years ago by skilled early 20th-century housewives. These recipes are economical and simple, and I'm so in love! Here is a darling little example:

Woodford Pudding

Take 3 beaten eggs, 1 cup sugar, 1 tablespoon butter, 1 teaspoon soda dissolved in 2 teaspoons sour milk, 1 cup blackberry jam, cinnamon and nutmeg to taste, 3/4 cup flour. Bake 1/2 hour.
Sauce.--1 cup brown sugar, 1 large tablespoon butter, 1 dessertspoon cornstarch. Water to make proper consistency; flavor.

Simple ingredients, charming instructions, and it really sounds so delicious! This will be one of the first that I try. Go check out this little treasure trove of century-old recipes!

Merry Christmas!

So Last Minute - Gift Mixes!

Two days before Christmas, and I finally put together a gift for my sister-in-law and her family. Gift mixes are so awesome because they can be done at the last minute, and don't take hardly any time at all. I did up four mixes - two of them are just enough for one packet, and two made enough for us to have plenty as well.

Biscuit Mix - Makes 7 cups
4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tbsp. baking powder
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cream of tartar
1/2 tsp. baking soda
3/4 cup instant nonfat milk powder
1 cup plus 2 tbsp. shortening

In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt, cream of tartar, baking soda, and milk powder. Stir with a wire whisk to blend. Using a pastry blender to blend in shortening until evenly distributed. Store in airtight container.

Gift Mix:
Measure 3 cups biscuit mix into baggie and seal. Attach these directions:

Combine mix with 2/3 cup milk or water. Blend. Let dough stand 5 minutes. On a lightly floured board, knead dough about 15 times. Roll out to 1/2-inch thickness. Cut with a floured biscuit cutter. Place about 2 inches apart on unbuttered baking sheet. Bake at 450 for 10-12 minutes, until golden brown. Serve with Chocolate Gravy.


Chocolate Gravy Mix - Makes 1 packet (from Southern Plate)
1 cup sugar
2 tbsp. flour (I increased to 2 1/2 because I like it thicker)
1 tbsp. cocoa

Mix all ingredients and stir well. Place in baggie and seal. Attach these directions:

Pour contents into heavy saucepan. Add 1 1/4 cups milk. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly to prevent scorching. Once boiling, turn heat down to lowest setting and stir for one minute more, until thickened. Take off heat and stir in 1 tbsp. butter or margarine. Pour over hot biscuits.


Brownie Mix - Makes 8 cups
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. salt
4 cups sugar
4 oz. cocoa
1 cup shortening

Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Add sugar and cocoa. Blend well. With a pastry blender, cut in shortening until evenly distributed. Store in airtight container.

Gift Mix:
Measure 2 1/2 cups mix into baggie and seal. Measure 1 cup chocolate chips into separate baggie and attach. Attach these directions:

Combine mix, 2 eggs, and 1 tsp. vanilla. Beat until smooth. Pour into greased and floured 8-inch square pan. Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes. Sprinkle chocolate chips over warm brownies. Warm in oven until melted. Spread evenly on brownies. Cool. Cut into bars.


Fruit Crisp Mix - Makes 1 packet (from Southern Plate)
1/2 cup flour
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup oats
1 tsp. cinnamon

Combine ingredients, place in baggie and seal. Attach these directions:

Empty mix into bowl. Add 1/3 cup softened butter or margarine. Cut in with fork until well mixed. Sprinkle over top of fruit of choice, such as 1 can drained peaches (you can include a can of fruit with the mix as part of the gift). Bake at 375 for 30 minutes or until topping is browned.


The mixes I took from Southern Plate (Chocolate Gravy and Fruit Crisp) have cute little tags that Christy made. To print them out, visit the links I included by each mix recipe. I don't have a printer so I didn't print them out, I just wrote out the directions for each mix on index cards and scribbled some cute little designs on them.

Christy also has instructions on how to package the gift mixes. There are ideas on each of her gift mix posts, here. I used the one given with the Chocolate Gravy Mix, wrapping the mix in festive fabric and twisting the ends. So cute! Then I just packed all four mixes in a gift box for a quick and easy gift!

From the Archives - a Delicious Holiday-Worthy Candy!

Jeff was going through some of our old posts tonight and came across these delicious candies that we made several months ago. A fun twist on the classic peanut brittle, these would be perfect for making during the holiday season, to give away as gifts or just to snack on!


Jeff found this recipe online. We have lots of peanuts, and he loves the flavor of honey roasted, so he decided to give it a try. We all really like the results - both Jeff and Zaylee kept snitching pieces as I was trying to photograph it!


Honey Roasted Peanut Brittle
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tbsp. honey
2 tbsp. water
2 tbsp. oil
2 cups peanuts

Mix sugar and salt in small bowl. Set aside.

Bring honey, water, and oil to a boil in a saucepan. Add peanuts. Reduce heat to low; simmer 5 minutes, stirring frequently.

When liquid is almost all gone add sugar/salt mixture and continue stirring on low until sugar turns reddish-brown, about 5 minutes.

Remove from heat and spread in one layer on cookie sheet or foil. When cool, break into pieces and store in an airtight container.


This turned out better than any other peanut brittle I've ever made. I love the honey roasted flavor and the texture was right on!

My Kitchen My World - The Philippines

I'm back in the saddle! I have been dreadfully remiss in my blogging events, like My Kitchen My World, Frugal Fridays, and I Love Baking. But I'm going to try to slowly phase myself back in, because it was fun to have the motivation to cook something I normally wouldn't or to challenge myself to go as cheap as possible. This week's My Kitchen My World country was chosen by Lauren, our moderator. We headed off to the Philippines. I visited my favorite recipe website, allrecipes.com, because it never lets me down! I found a good-looking recipe for pork adobo, and though several reviews stated that ketchup is not traditionally found in filipino adobo, I decided to go with it anyway. I guess it worked because my husband, who has eaten adobo on many occasions, said the pork tasted just right. I cut the recipe in half because we only had about a pound of pork thawed.

Pork Adobo
1/2 cup distilled white vinegar
1/2 cup soy sauce (I reduced this to about 3/8 cup because a few reviewers suggested that it was too salty)
1/4 cup ketchup
1 1/2 tsp. minced garlic
1 bay leaf
1/2 black pepper
1 pound lean pork, cut into 1 inch cubes

Stir together the vinegar, soy sauce, ketchup, garlic, and bay leaves in a large saucepan. Add the cubed pork, and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer until the pork is tender, about 2 1/2 hours. Stir occasionally. Serve over rice.


I was a little dubious about simmering for 2 1/2 hours, because the pork was cooked through long before then. But I followed the recipe anyway and learned that the long simmering time was necessary to reduce the sauce down - it was much too liquidy at first. The resulting pork was very delicious, tender and flavorful. Maybe a little too flavorful, I think I would reduce the soy sauce even more next time. But all four of us enjoyed our culinary trip to the Philippines.

Visit My Kitchen My World to see what the other MKMW-ers made this week.