Ultimate Recipe Swap: Christmas in July

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This week, we're sharing our favorite Christmas recipes as part of FishMama's Christmas in July week!

Christmas eve, for us, has more "traditional" foods for us than does Christmas day. We put a recipe for whole wheat bread in the bread machine, and chicken chili in the crockpot and head to Christmas eve services. Then, when we return from church, our dinner is all ready. We enjoy a nice family dinner, and have cookies for dessert while opening presents to and from one another. Then, we typically watch a movie together. Christmas morning, since I've met my hubby, we have "Christmas Eggs" a cheesy, delicious dish we've come to enjoy.

Our favorite traditional cookie recipes include:

Anise Cookies


Chocolate Crinkles


Mint Oreo Crunch

Grandma's Sugar Cookies

Molasses Crinkles (we make 2 batches of these!)

Oreo Cream Cheese Balls


Mom's caramels (sorry, can't post this recipe -- it's top secret)

Mom's Fudge (another top-secret recipe)

My mom used to sell Christmas treats at a craft sale, hence why we have so many Christmas favorites! She would make a whole bunch of different cookies to sell and leave a few leftovers for our family. Now, we try to limit ourselves to just a few...! I will share one of our Christmas favorites -- Fudge Puddles. These are delicious.

Fudge Puddles - Mom

Cookie*
1/2 C butter, softened
1/2 C creamy peanut butter
1/2 C sugar
1/2 C packed brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 1/4 C flour
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt

Cream butter, peanut butter and sugars. Add egg and vanilla. Stir together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Add to the creamed mix, stirring well. Chill for 1 hour. Then, shape into 1-inch balls. Place balls in lightly greased mini-muffin tins (you'll get about 48 balls) and bake at 325 for 14-16 minutes, or until slightly browned. Remove from the oven and immediately make wells in the center of each ball by pressing the center slightly with a melon baller. Cool in pans for 5 minutes before removing to cool completely on a wire wrack.

Filling*
1 C milk chocolate chips
1 C semi-sweet (or dark) chocolate chips
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 tsp. vanilla

Melt chocolate chips over medium heat. Stir in sweetened condensed milk and vanilla and mix well. Using a small ziplock bag, with the tip of one of the corners cut off, fill each shell with fudge. If you have extra fudge, you can refrigerate it and use it warm as ice cream topping!

*The filling makes enough for 2 batches of cookies, so either double the cookie recipe, halve the fudge recipe, or use the leftover fudge some other way!


Come back around until Christmas time, and in December I'll post some more of her yummy treats: Mistletoe Mint, Caramel Corn (to-die-for!) and Nut-Goodie Bars!


Christmas morning, Frog Prince introduced me to this delicious dish....

Christmas Eggs - Frog Prince's Mom

1 dozen eggs
1 C milk
1/2 C sour cream
salt and pepper to taste
6-8 pieces of bacon, cooked crisply
1-2 C shredded cheddar cheese

Lightly scramble the eggs and milk (seasoned with salt and pepper to taste) in a large pan (we often do these eggs in batches). Place eggs in a greased 9x13 galss baking dish, and stir the sour cream into the eggs. Top with shredded cheddar cheese and crumple the bacon over the top. Bake at 325 until cheese is melted and slightly browned. Enjoy!