Holiday Baking

With the holidays quickly approaching, we decided to take a little break from the house projects.

Here's what we've been up to insead, in this old kitchen. 

I wasn't feeling quite up to baking a bunch of cookies, so opted for some easy & less-messy holiday recipes this year.

Spiced Pecans

These are incredibly easy, and my boys LOVE them.  In fact, I baked them on Saturday & they were almost gone by Sunday morning.  So I'll be making more this weekend!

 Ingredients-
1 lb pecans, halved
1 Tbsp water
1 egg white

1 cup sugar
1.5 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp coriander

1 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp allspice

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

Whip egg white with water until fluffy.  Coat Pecans with mixture.
Combine rest of ingredients together.
Pour over Pecans & stir until fully coated.
Spread Pecans on baking sheet in a single layer.

Bake for 30 minutes, turning/stirring Pecans every 10 minutes.

Then it's just a matter of putting them in a pretty jar/container. 
I opted for old fashioned glass-lid canning jars.  They can't be used for real canning, so I've been using them for all kinds of stuff (one for old buttons, another for spare change, and now two for storing snacks!)





I used 4 oz. jars for gift baskets that
I'm making with other canned items.

Sparkling Holiday JamHere's another recipe I tried for the first time- SO easy.
The kids enjoyed it as a warm sauce on top of vanilla ice cream.

I got the recipe from here.  The only modification made was adding the lemon juice for a little tartness &  it supposedly makes a brighter red.  Judging by the comments on allrecipe.com, it's very forgiving/ tweakable!

 

Ingredients-This recipe makes 12- 8 ounce jars

• 2.5 quarts of strawberries, coarsely chopped (or if buying frozen, get ~54 ounces)
• 1 (12 ounce) package fresh or frozen cranberries, coarsely chopped
• 4 ounces powdered fruit pectin
• 1 teaspoon margarine
• 5 pounds white sugar
• 1/2 cup lemon juice

-Prepare jars & lids by boiling in water for at least 10 min.

-In large saucepan, combine strawberries, cranberries, pectin, margarine & lemon juice. Bring to a boil. Stir in sugar, and return to a boil. Cook for 1 min, then remove from heat.

-Fill jars to within 1/2 inch from top. Wipe rims clean, and put on lids.
-Process in a boiling water bath for 5 min.