If you are planning to host a New Years Eve party then you may want to think about making it a vegetarian New Years Eve party.

A major reason why some party host may choose to serve vegetarian food is because they are a vegetarian themselves and may have some new dishes they want to try out on their friends. However if you don’t have a lot of vegetarian friends you may want to consider having some non-vegetarian dishes as well.

Some people choose to go the vegetarian route because it can also reduce the food expenses This can especially be true if the crowd is expected to be pretty big. You may be surprised to know that many vegetarian dishes can be quite delicious if they are prepared the right way. The bottom line is people want to eat food that taste good, whether its a meat dish or a vegetarian dish.

Another reason some host will choose to go with vegetarian dishes as it may fit well with their party theme which may center around a particular diet. They also may consider the vegetarian dishes if they know the crowd that’s coming is very diet or health conscious.

If you do elect to host a vegetarian New Years Eve party, you will need to do some planning and make some preparations if you want to insure that the dishes prepared are totally vegetarian. This means not using any substitutes for any of the ingredients as this could end up adding animal fats. This can be avoided by using a good vegetarian cookbook and following the directions exactly as they are described.

If you have a lot of vegetarian friends and need to keep the costs down even more, you could consider having a vegetarian potluck party. If they are already vegetarians they will already have some great dishes they can prepare, but if they aren’t vegetarian your guest may feel a bit lost as what they should bring and may not prepare the dish exactly as the recipe describes. Whatever you decide just be sure to inform your guests of what type of food will be provided at the party so they know what to expect.

By: Olufemi Akinkuowo

Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com

For more party ideas and tips for a fun and memorable New Years Eve, as well as a free course for making and keeping your new years resolution, please click here or visit my website: www.breakneckprofits.com/NewYearsEveParty/

Christmas is quickly approaching and the time has come to soon send our invitations to the Christmas Eve or Day dinner.

Special occasions are a great time for friends and family and, in order to please our guests, we have to be creative when it comes the time to create our menu. But… if the Christmas turkey is a delicious meal, we would sometimes change our habits and eat something else.

Here is a Christmas menu idea including four different dishes from soup to dessert; which are simple to make special occasion cooking recipes but include a nice alternative to the Christmas turkey.

The portions are calculated for 8 guests.

Soup:

Tomato Cream

Ingredients:

2.2 lb peeled and chopped matured tomatoes
200 g chopped carrots
250 g chopped celery
120 g chopped onions
Chopped garlic (to taste)
1 small box of canned tomatoes
200 ml cream
salt and pepper to taste
Thyme, bay
Oil
2 tablespoon sugar
4 tablespoon red wine vinegar
200 ml water

In a large saucepan, melt sugar with a little water and pour vinegar until reducing
Add the vegetables
Cover and simmer 20 minutes
Mash the canned tomatoes and add them in the saucepan
Simmer 30 minutes
Salt and pepper to taste
Add 200 ml water and then the cream
Blend the soup
Serve hot

Starter:

Avocado cream

Ingredients:

2 chopped avocados
2 lemons (juiced)
2 chopped shallots
2 teaspoons white wine vinegar
salt and pepper to taste

Use a fork to mash the avocado
Stir in lemon juice
Add the chopped shallots
Blend all the ingredients
Serve cold in small glasses
Decorate with lemon zest

Main dish:

Christmas Goose

Ingredients:

8 to 10 lb. whole goose
1 chopped onion
1 chopped apples
1 tablespoon dried grapes
Oil
100 ml red wine
500 ml chicken broth
Thyme
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 365 degrees F
Put the oil coated goose in a shallow roasting pan
Tuck the wings and tie the legs together with kitchen string
Put the apples, onions and dried grapes around it
Cook for 3 hours, basting regularly with the cooking juices
Remove the goose from the oven
Pass the cooking juices through a strainer
In a saucepan, combine the fat from the roasting pan, the red wine, the Chicken broth and the red wine
Let cook until boiling and then add floor, stir constantly, until the gravy thickens
Serve with steamed potatoes.

Dessert:

Baked Apples

Ingredients:

10 mashed speculaas
120 g almond paste
40 g dried grapes
2 tablespoon rum
4 tablespoon grounded hazelnuts
1 tablespoon honey
8 apples, washed, cored and halved
sugar glace

Preheat the oven to 365 degrees F
Combine the mashed speculaas, the almond paste, the dried grapes, rum, hazelnuts and the honey
Put the apples in a baking dish
Garnish with the mixture
Bake for 15 à 20 minutes
Serve warm with ice cream and sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Christmas is the time of gifts. Every year new items appear that can be gifted. What about something simple and home made? Something like home made cookies that can be gifted? That will look unique and the recipient will be happy that you spent much time to prepare the gift. The gift was not simply picked up off the shelves and sent. Do you agree with me? Here is one idea.

Christmas brings lots of surprises and one that I am thinking of giving my family this year is a new sweet treat. Cookies, candies, fruit and nuts are the usual fare for Christmas, but I have decided to bake a new creation I just read about called SWIRLED TURTLE BROWNIES. I am sure that everyone in my family will enjoy these delights and I know that I will. You can use home baked sweets as a gifts, too.

You will need to preheat the oven to 325* and grease a 13×9-inch baking pan. In a small bowl, add 1 & 1/3 cups all-purpose flour, ¾ cup NESTLE TOLL HOUSE baking cocoa, ½ teaspoon baking soda, ¼ teaspoon salt. In a larger bowl, add ¾ cup softened butter, 1 & ½ cups packed brown sugar, 2 teaspoons vanilla extract and beat until creamy. Slowly add 2 large eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually add the flour mixture from the small bowl to the creamy batch until mixed and then add the special ingredient, ¾ cup SWIRLDED Milk Chocolate & Caramel Morsels and if you like nuts, add ½ cup. Spread into prepared baking pan and sprinkle the remaining Swirled Morsels and the remaining nuts over the top. Spread the batter into the prepared greased pan. Cook for 25 to 30 minutes until toothpick inserted 2 inches from outer edge comes out clean. Cool completely in pan on wire rack. Drizzle with caramel sauce before cutting into squares. This recipe makes 20 brownies.

Once the SWIRLED TURTLE BROWNIES cool, they can be wrapped individually in colored saran wrap and tied with a colorful ribbon to give out as a gift. They would look really good in a basket with a colorful Christmas cloth napkin underneath the brownies. A good addition to the gift would be a nice big coffee cup and some packages of hot cocoa.

If this is going to be a gift for a personal friend, you might want to add a video of a classic Christmas story, a Christmas music CD, or new-holiday released novel. Depending on the size of the basket, you might want to add another personal item or two. One could be a small votive candle with a Christmas scent like sugar cookies, cinnamon, vanilla or some smell that reminds you of the holidays. Another one could be a small box of holiday note cards.

A favorite Christmas snack that is elegantly displayed in a pretty basket or even box can be a well received, loved sentimental present that will long be remembered. After baking and wrapping SWIRLED TURTLE BROWNIE, make sure to think of your recipient’s interests and try to choose small, unique, striking items to add to the gift basket. You can use a wide ribbon with wire in the edges to wrap around the basket and tie loosely to give it a final touch. Nothing is more appreciated when it is received than a well thought, hand made gift with personal items. A delicious baked surprise that is a new recipe is sure to be a hit for people who love sweet goods. Christmas sweets just seem to just scream, “Make me for the holidays and make everybody happy”.

Application of mind can help us create new things that will spread lots of joy during the festive time. The care that we take in selecting the gift is always appreciated and valued.

By:

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December is the time for baking in the kitchen, insulated against the cold weather by a festive fug of spices, brandy and rich dried fruit: cookies, mince pies, Christmas pudding, Christmas cake. The Christmas cake should be prepared well ahead of time so it has time to develop moistness and flavour. Usually I procrastinate and bake it only a week before Christmas but this year I was determined to do it right. So yesterday the kitchen exuded a gentle spicy aroma as the cake cooked extremely slowly for four and a half hours. Just one whiff is enough to conjure up Christmas.

It is just the sort of rich, damp, heavy fruit cake that Captain Hook put out to poison the Lost Boys in the original Peter Pan story. That detail seems to have been omitted in the updated versions, maybe these days it seems too old-fashioned to believe that rich cake is death to young stomachs! My kids aren’t really into the cake itself anyway, but they love the marzipan and icing, so will nibble meagrely at the cake in order to justify feasting on their icing and that of the adults as well, who Jack Sprat-like tend to prefer the cake and leave the excess sweet icing to the children.

Just before Christmas I usually get out the reliable old Delia Smith cook book to check out the cake recipe and quantities for the marzipan. Her recipes almost always work and are accurate if not always inspired. Now she is long supplanted by the younger, sexier Nigella, but her books are still at the back of my shelf for when I need to check details of some ordinary but useful dish.

Rich Fruit Cake Recipe

450g/1lb currants
175g/6oz sultanas
175g/6oz raisins
50g/2oz glace cherries(optional)
50g/2oz mixed candied peel chopped
3 tablespoons brandy
225g/8oz plain flour
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon grated nutmeg
½ teaspoon mixed spice
225g/8oz unsalted butter
225g/8oz soft brown sugar
4 large eggs
50g/2oz chopped almonds
1 dessertspoon treacle
grated rind of 1 lemon
grated rind of 1 orange

The night before you want to make the cake, soak all the dried fruit and peel with the brandy. Leave it in a covered bowl over night or at least twelve hours.

Grease and line a 20cm/8 inch round cake tin or a 18cm/ 7 inch square one.

Sift together the flour, salt and spices. Cream the butter and sugar together in a large mixing bowl until light and fluffy (make sure you do this thoroughly). Beat eggs and add them a little at a time to the creamed mixture, beating well each time. Next fold in the flour and spices gently. Stir in the dried fruit and peel, treacle and the grated lemon and orange rind. Spoon the mixture into the prepared cake tin and spread it out evenly. Tie a band of brown paper round the outside of the tin and cover the top of the cake with a double layer of greaseproof paper (with a hole cut in the middle of it) Bake the cake at 140C/275F on the lower shelf of the oven for 4 ¼ - 4 ¾ hours. Don’t open the door to check until at least 4 hours have passed. Once the cake has cooled wrap it in a layer of greaseproof paper then foil. Delia recommends feeding it with brandy every week or so, by poking a couple of holes with a skewer then letting a few teaspoons of brandy soak in.

Our cake is now well wrapped in grease-proof paper and foil and stored on a shelf in the larder to steep in its own flavours. A week before Christmas I’ll make the marzipan to go on it. I’ll have a lot of help with that as the children vie to gather up any scraps that fall or are trimmed off. We’ve even converted marzipan haters in the family to our variety of almond paste, just by leaving out the almond essence, which gives the strong almost metallic taste to shop marzipan. Without it the real almond flavour gets a chance to shine through, more mellow and delicately nutty. (I’ll write up my recipe for the marzipan and royal icing in my next article.)

On top of the marzipan goes the top layer of royal icing, made with icing sugar and egg white, put on rough to resemble a snowy scene. When I was growing up we had a set of figures for a Nativity scene that always decorated the cake and it was my favourite job to arrange them with a few tiny pine trees for added effect. You can be creative with your decoration, go for elegant with a single artificial poinsettia flower or fun with plastic animals – a donkey and ox, or as I often do being in Africa, a zebra, elephant and giraffe - standing around in the snow. Silver balls could make a star or you could find a tiny angel decoration to stand atop the cake heralding Christmas.

This is the recipe that my grandmother brought with her when she and her family left Russia in the early 1900″s.
As a child around 1920’s or so, while living on a farm in Pennsylvania which at that time there were a great amount of people who came from Europe, you needed to be able to do for yourself, she learned from her mother how to make a most delicious white fruit cake, a white fruitcake is a fruitcake that does not have any molasses, molasses which is very bitter, not having the molasses in the fruitcake gives it a lighter color, this gives it the name white fruitcake.

This fruitcake in the days in which my mother lived as a child with her parents this was only made during Christmas because the only time you could get walnuts, cherries, and some other ingredients was in the fall of the year, remember now they didn’t go to the store to buy what they needed, they had to grow them, raisins were dried by the people themselves, they even had to shell their own walnuts, and candy their own cherries, and such the pineapple and coconut I do believe they must have purchased.

To keep with tradition the only time of the year that I make or sell this fruitcake is during the Christmas holidays, and In my mind you cannot get a better fruitcake. Here we go now gather up your ingredients and set them on your table, all ingredients need to be at room temperature.

1 pound butter
12 eggs
1 lb. sugar
1 pound flour
1 pound white raisins
1 pound walnut meats
1 lb. red and green candied cherries
1 lb. bakers flaked coconut
1 lb. candies pineapple
1 tablespoon of baking soda dissolved in ¼ cup warm water
2 cups brandy–any brand

Soak the raisins, walnuts, cherries, coconut and pineapple with 2 cups brandy overnight in a stainless steel bowl.
In a 5 quart mixing bowl cream butter and sugar, then add eggs slowly, then add your flour and blend well, add the baking soda and water and mix a minute more, add all other ingredients and mix until well blended.
Now you are going to bake it in a 2 pound pan, or in the pan of your choice, foil or hard pan, line the pan with wax paper or baking paper or better yet a pan liner the size of the pan. For a 2 pound pan, Place 1 pound 12 ounces of the mixture in the pan and level it with a spoon, don’t bang it on the table. Bake it in a 350 degree preheated oven for 1 hour to 1 hour 20 minutes, depends on your oven and how brown you want it.
It’s done when a pick is placed in the center and it comes out clean. Let it cool on a rack for a while and then sprinkle it with 1 ounce of brandy and then another ounce when it is cool and then pack it away for about 3 days in your refrigerator and then “enjoy it”.

By: Andrew Krause

Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com

About The Author

Andrew Krause is a Chef and Pastry Chef for over 30 years, at persent I own a Gourmet Bakery called The Cheese Confectioner. You can visit my site at www.andies.cashhosters2.com

NOTE: You are welcome to reprint this article online as long as it remains complete and unaltered (including the about the author info at the end). Please a send a copy of your reprint to pastrie@verizon.net

This may come as a disappointment to some of you, but according to Wikipedia, Mississippi Mud Pie was not created in Mississippi. It’s actually from California. The name came from the fact that the brown crust or cake resembles the brown banks of the Mississippi River. Where ever it came from it is sinfully delicious.

There are many versions of Mississippi Mud Pie. Some use instant (boxed) ingredients from the store. I may be old fashioned but my feeling is that if you are going to use boxed ingredients, why not just buy a ready made pie from the store?

The reason home made, created from scratch, is so much better is that you can adjust the flavors to suit your taste when you make it yourself, rather than have a machine do it for you. And, of course, there is that extra ingredient that no factory can produce. It is called “baked with love”.

There are two popular versions of Mississippi Mud Pie. One is a cake-like version and the other is an ice cream pie version (and there are probably more). We are providing both recipes here.

Cake Version

INGREDIENTS:

* 1/4 lb. butter, 1 stick
* 2 (1 oz. each) squares unsweetened chocolate
* 3 eggs
* 3 tablespoons white corn syrup
* 1 1/3 cups sugar
* 1 tsp. vanilla
* 9 inch graham cracker, chocolate or vanilla wafer pie shell (your choice)
(see below for graham cracker pie shell instructions)

PREPARATION:

In a saucepan, heat butter and chocolate, stirring often, until melted and well blended.
In a separate bowl, beat eggs; stir in the corn syrup, sugar and vanilla.
Slowly add the chocolate mixture to egg and sugar mixture, stirring well.
Preheat oven to 350°.
Pour filling into prepared pie shell.
Bake 35 to 40 minutes, or until top is slightly crunchy and filling is set.

Serve warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or dollop of whipped cream.

Ice Cream Version

INGREDIENTS

1 prepared 8 inch (6 ounces) chocolate crumb crust
1 cup powdered sugar
1 cup (6 ounces) Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter or margarine, cut up
1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup chopped pecan or walnut, divided (optional)
2 pints coffee ice cream, softened slightly, divided
Whipped cream (optional)

HEAT sugar, morsels, butter, cream and corn syrup in small, heavy-duty saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly, until butter is melted and mixture is smooth. Remove from heat. Stir in vanilla extract. Cool until slightly warm.

DRIZZLE 1/3 cup chocolate sauce in bottom of crust; sprinkle with 1/4 cup nuts. Layer 1 pint ice cream, scooping thin slices with a large spoon; freeze for 1 hour. Repeat with 1/3 cup sauce, 1/4 cup nuts and ice cream. Drizzle with remaining sauce; top with remaining nuts. Freeze for 2 hours or until firm. Top with whipped cream before serving.

To make graham cracker crust:

Melt 1/4 cup butter in microwave or stove top
Crumble graham crackers into a fine mixture (put in plastic bag and roll with a rolling pin)
Pour graham crackers into the center of a pie tin
Pour melted butter onto graham crackers
Using a fork, press graham crackers up sides of pie tin and over the bottom

That’s it. Enjoy your Mississippi mud pie.

In my humble opinion, there is not a better cookie in the world than a well-made chocolate cookie. I am about to tell you how to make the perfect chocolate cookie.

The Perfect Chocolate Cookie

Cocoa drop cookie, the best chocolate cookie. They are not only delicious, but very easy to make as well.

The ingredients required for this recipe are: ¼ cup butter, softened; ¼ cup shortening; 1 cup sugar; 1 egg; ¾ cup buttermilk; 1 tsp vanilla; 1 ¼ cup sifted all-purpose flour; ½ tsp baking soda; ½ tsp salt; ½ cup cocoa powder, unsweetened; and 1 cup of chopped pecans.

1. Cream the shortening and butter with sugar; beat in egg.
2. Stir in the buttermilk and vanilla
3. Sift the dry ingredients together and add to the first mixture.
4. Stir in the pecans, and chill the cookie dough for about an hour.
5. Use a teaspoon to drop the dough onto a greased baking sheet, leaving about 2 inches between the cookies.
6. Bake in a preheated 400°F oven for about 8-10 minutes, or until set.
7. Then cool and frost with a simple chocolate or vanilla icing if desired.

Shortbread Cookie Recipe

Here is the recipe for another great cookie, the chocolate covered shortbread cookie recipe. For this you will need: 8 ounces butter at room temperature; ½ cup powdered sugar; 2 cups all-purpose flour; ½ teaspoon baking powder; 2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted; and ½ teaspoon vanilla extract.

1. Combine all ingredients.
2. Knead with your hands to made sure they are well mixed
3. Press into lightly buttered pans.
4. Bake at 325°F for about 20 minutes.
5. Cut into wedges while they are still warm or break them apart.

There are many fabulous recipes out there but here are two of the best. Remember these recipes around the holidays and you can present your friends and family with delightful treats that will be remembered the rest of the year.

About The Author

Dave Owen is the webmaster of cooking information To get more information about cooking visit http://french.lookwhatsfordinner.com To find “Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Cooking!” visit Cooking Guide.