Warm Cranberry Tea

I came across a recipe in the new Dillard's Southern Living Christmas Cookbook (on pg. 124) that I just had to try. I've had a horrible chest cold lately and any sort of hot drink sounds SO GOOD. They're super soothing on the throat! We ran to Walmart today to get the ingredients and Hailey helped me make a big batch. It is unbelievably YUMMY!!! (Excuse the blurry pictures, they were taken with my camera phone!)

Warm Cranberry Tea

Prep: 5 min. Cook: 20 min.

1 (48 oz.) jar cranberry juice cocktail

2 cups sugar

1/4 cup lemon juice

4 (3 inch) cinnamon sticks

1 Tbsp. whole allspice

1/2 gal. unsweetened tea

1 cup orange juice

Bring first 5 ingredients to a boil in a large dutch oven; reduce heat, and simmer 10 minutes. Remove from heat. Remove cinnamon sticks and allspice; stir in tea and orange juice. Yield: 16 cups.

Cool Cranberry Tea: Prepare recipe as directed. Chill tea mixture 2 hours. Stir in 1 liter ginger ale, chilled, just before serving. If desired, garnish with lemon slices, fresh cranberries and cinnamon sticks. Yield: about 20 cups.

3 Minute Chocolate Mug Cake

My mom sent me this recipe today...we're going to try it this weekend! Has anyone ever tried this before?? It sounds really neat!! A great way to make a small little personal-sized cake if you're having a craving, without having a bunch of extra cake left over to tempt you! I'll post with how it turns out!

3 MINUTE CHOCOLATE MUG CAKE

1 Coffee Mug
4 tablespoons all purpose flour
4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons baking cocoa
1 egg
3 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons oil
3 tablespoons chocolate chips (optional)
some nuts (optional)
Small splash of vanilla

Add dry ingredients to mug, and mix well. Add the egg and mix thoroughly. Pour in the milk and oil and mix well. Add the chocolate chips (if using) and vanilla, and mix again. Put your mug in the microwave and cook for 3 minutes on high. The cakewill rise over the top of the mug, but don't be alarmed! Allow to cool a little, and tip out onto a plate if desired. EAT!

(This can serve 2 if you want to share!)

And why is this the most dangerous cake recipe in the world? Because now we are all only 5 minutes away from chocolate cake at any time of the day or night! :)

YUM!

The lemon cheesecake I made for D's birthday was YUMMY!!!! I did a great job, if I do say so myself! I never make things like this so I was very proud of myself! LOL Thanks for the tip Kristin! I did go ahead and use a real lemon. I didn't want to take a chance on screwing anything up so I did it just like the recipe said. I actually felt pretty cool finally using a real lemon to cook with...I've always seen the cooks on the food network roll the lemon the counter first to get it all juicy before they cut and squeeze it. I finally got to try that trick! And I even got to try out the tip I've heard where you put half the squeezed lemon into your garbage disposal for a minute to freshen it up. It really does work!! Anyway, here's the recipe in case anyone wants to try it.

Prep Time:
20 min

Total Time:
5 hr

Makes:
16 servings, one piece each

2 cups HONEY MAID Graham Cracker Crumbs

1-1/4 cups sugar, divided

6 Tbsp. butter, melted

4 pkg. (8 oz. each) PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, softened

1 cup BREAKSTONE'S or KNUDSEN Sour Cream

Grated peel and juice from 1 lemon

4 eggs

PREHEAT oven to 325°F. Mix crumbs, 1/4 cup of the sugar and the butter. Reserve 1/4 cup of the crumb mixture; press remaining crumb mixture firmly onto bottom of 13x9-inch baking pan. Set aside.

BEAT cream cheese and remaining 1 cup sugar in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until well blended. Add sour cream; mix well. Stir in lemon peel and juice. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing on low speed after each addition just until blended. Pour over crust; sprinkle with reserved 1/4 cup crumb mixture.

BAKE 40 min. or until center is almost set. Refrigerate at least 4 hours or overnight. Store leftovers in refrigerator.

What's wrong with me? Have I gone crazy? Suddenly I'm cooking...a lot. And not just cooking normal stuff like spaghetti but actually looking for recipes and trying them out. I MUST have gone nutty.
I'm thinking about trying this recipe out for D's birthday this coming Monday. He loves cheesecake and he loves lemon. And it's from the Kraft website so it couldn't be THAT hard, could it?

My only question is, just how much juice do you get from one lemon? Because I have a thing of lemon juice at home that I just bought for the last recipe I tried...I'd rather use more of that than have to go buy a lemon. Anybody know the answer to this???

The CoolWhip recipe was a hit. Everybody loved it. It was sort of a pain to make but it was so good I'll probably make it again for a special occasion!

Layered Pumpkin Dessert

As promised, here is the YUMMY recipe I tried out over Thanksgiving...it got rave reviews from our family!!

1 package (15 ounces) Hostess Twinkies (10 Twinkies)
1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened
1 cup confectioners' sugar
1 container (8 ounces) frozen nondairy whipped topping, thawed, divided
2 packages (3.4 ounces each) instant vanilla pudding
1 can (15 ounces) pumpkin
1 ½ teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
1 cup milk
Additional pumpkin pie spice

Slice Twinkies in half lengthwise and place cream-side up, in single layer in 9 x 13-inch baking dish. Using a mixer, blend together cream cheese, confectioners' sugar and ½ of whipped topping until smooth. Spread evenly over Twinkies.

Combine pudding mix, pumpkin, pumpkin pie spice and milk. Whisk until well blended and layer over cream cheese mixture. Carefully spread remaining whipped topping over pumpkin. Lightly sprinkle with pumpkin pie spice. Refrigerate several hours or until set.

Makes 9 to 12 servings.

I confess, this recipe is off the Hostess website under the Twinkie section...but in my defense, I got it from a girl at work who found it over a year ago on the website...she brought the dessert to work and I loved it so much I asked for the recipe. I know it sounds weird, using Twinkies as a "crust"...honestly, I don't like Twinkies. Never have. But this dessert is awesome(if you like pumpkin)...