1. Homemade bread and jam.

If you’ve ever received either of these as a gift, you know how awesome receiving BOTH would be!  This is the gift of time, because, really, that’s what it takes.

Homemade (white) bread:
5 3/4 – 6 1/4 cups all-purpose
1 pkg active dry yeast
2 T sugar
1 T shortening, margarine, or butter
1 t salt

This is all you need to make great bread!  My favorite traditional cookbook is the Better Homes & Gardens New Cook Book, and this is the recipe I use.

Homemade strawberry jam:
4 c prepared strawberries (about 2 qts)
7 c sugar
1/2 t butter
1 pkg CERTO Fruit Pectin

Again, this recipe calls for just a few ingredients, but this jam is wonderful.  My friend Holly has made it several years in a row and swears by it.  I’ve been the lucky recipient and I can vouch for its tastiness.   Here’s the recipe she uses.

2. Chocolate-dipped pretzels.

I make and give these almost every year to rave reviews.  The hardest part is getting them out of the house before the children claim them for their own.  They’re easy, I promise–again, it just takes some time.  Wrapped with cellophane and a festive bow, they’re gorgeous and tasty.  Click here for my post with the recipe.

3. Candy: the universal crowd pleaser. 

When choosing a candy, I suggest making something you really love to give.  As a little girl, I visited my Aunt Jo’s house at Christmas time and loved to indulge in the hard tack candy she’d made.  As a grown-up, it’s one of my candies-of-choice to give.

Homemade caramel is another of my favorites, and people love it.  I have a couple of recipes, but one is significantly more difficult for basically the same end product.  Check back Thursday for both the hard tack candy recipe and the easy caramel recipe.

  

4. Cookies.

Today:

• Up at 5AM
• Kids up at 5:40
• 2 kids in car at 5:45
• Bathroom break for the other
• 6:00 on the road
• 6:04 – accidently went north; exit, turn around, go south
• 7:00 kids’ bathroom break
• 8:20 seriously! another bathroom break, so McDonald’s too
• 5 more bathroom breaks; 1 diet pepsi stop; 1 Starbucks stop
• 13 hours later: sit down to dinner with my mom

Tomorrow will be easier!

I know, I know, this is not your blog of choice for recipes.  In fact, you may even be shocked.  “She bakes?”  You’re astounded.  A woman of many talents, that’s me.

Of course, you must know that I bake cakes.  Remember the pirate ship cake?

What about the race car cake?

I don’t think I ever posted about the under-the-sea cake, but look what a beauty it was.

The thing is, in a perfect world, with endless time and easy-to-please children, I would cook fun and exotic dishes more often.  But it’s absolutely exhausting to go through all of that effort to listen to, once again, how disgusting dinner is.  Cheers, everyone!

Desserts, however, are a crowd pleaser.  I can bake a mean Carrot Cake, Italian Cream Cake, and a Cheesecake with nary a crack.  Guests are astonished at the cheesecake, in particular, but it’s not hard.  Here’s my favorite recipe, modified a bit from the original Better Homes & Gardens recipe.

And the trick? 

1. Do not, do not, do not, overbeat the filling after adding the eggs, or the top of your cheesecake will resemble the Sahara.
2. And also?  Don’t even think about overbaking it.  The center will not be entirely set when the cheesecake is finished.  It’s done.  Take my word for it.  Get it out of the oven.

Cheesecake Recipe

1 ¾ c finely crushed graham crackers (I use about 1 ½ – 1 ½ packs of Keebler’s)

½ c butter 24-ounces of cream cheese, softened

1 c sugar 2 T all-purpose flour

1 t vanilla 2 eggs

1 egg yolk ¼ c milk

Crust:  Combine crushed graham crackers (I use the food processor) and butter.  Reserve ¼ c+ for the topping, if desired.  Press remaining crust onto bottom of a 9-inch springform pan.  (You can also press it about 2 inches up the side, but I don’t bother.)

Filling:  In a mixing bowl, combine the cream cheese, sugar, flour, and vanilla.  Beat with an electric mixer until fluffy.  Add eggs and yolk all at once, beating on low speed until just combined.  Do not over mix!  Stir in milk.  Pour into crust lined pan.  Sprinkle with reserved crumbs, if any (I don’t do this step).  Place on a shallow baking pan in oven.  Bake at 375˚ for 45 – 50 minutes (in my oven, I check it at 35 minutes; adjust accordingly).  Cook until center appears nearly set when shaken.  Cool 15 minutes.  Loosen the hinges of the springform pan.  Cool for 30 minutes more; remove sides of pan.  Cool completely.  Store in refrigerator. 

P.S.  Use butter.  And cream cheese.  None of that other nonsense.  If you want substitutes, serve something else.

Also, if it’s a special occasion and you want to get all fancy, melt some chocolate over low heat.  Add add a teeny, tiny bit of Crisco to thin it, and put it in a sandwich-sized ziplock.  Make a small (small!) clip in the corner, and zig-zag the chocolate across the top of your cheesecake.  Voila!  It’s fancy.