‘Tis The Season… (and winners announced)

…For sick kids.

I haven’t been able to think about food much this week.  The kids have been sick, and I’ve been experiencing the less-than-photogenic side of the food world.  When it’s coming out at greater frequencies than it’s going in, you stop wanting to think about it altogether. 

I’ll be back after the first of the year with more features, a few pictures and tutorials of my almost-exclusively-handmade Christmas, and a tip or two for helping you deal with sick kids.  In the meantime, I’ll be focused giving extra snuggles, extra kisses, and just getting mine all better.  With any luck, before Santa comes…    

I’m hoping you find yourself surrounded by those whom you love most this Christmas and New Year.  I hope you and they are healthy and happy.  And I hope Santa brings you just exactly what you asked for. 

From my family to yours: Merry Christmas! 

Winners of the Vera Cruz Vanilla giveaway are: Wehaf, The Allen Family, and Shell. You have until next Friday, December 30 to email me with your mailing addresses!

No-Bake Tiger Butter Bars

They’re a simple combination of Rice Chex, peanut butter, and milk chocolate.  Cheeky Kitchen calls them no-bake tiger butter bars, and she has sort of a love/hate relationship with them. 

I’ll be having the kids help me make them, emphasizing that their major responsibility will be to help me make them disappear. 

Think they’ll cooperate?

Peppermint Patty Surprise Chocolate Chunk Cookie Bars

I’m always hoping Santa remembers to put some peppermint patties in my stocking. 

IF there happen to be any left over I’m done devouring my share, I’ll be nice and make some of these peppermint patty surprise chocolate chunk cookie bars to share.

(Bring lots, Santa.)

Picky Palate

Buffalo Chicken Bites

These buffalo chicken bites would be a fun change of pace for party appetizers. 

As in GAME NIGHT party?

 

What’s Cookin, Chicago?

Carrot Cake Waffles

Yum. 

Just yum.

carrot cake waffles,   Willow Bird Baking

Boiled Omelettes

The idea behind boiled omelettes started out as a convenience for breakfast aboard a boat so that there were fewer dishes to wash. 

Not Martha shows us the technique for making them at home.  Because I don’t have to be living aboard a boat for
fewer dishes to wash to be a really welcome thing.

 

I can totally see a very convenient application of this recipe for camping, too.  But don’t make me test it.   

Vera Cruz Vanilla Holiday Special and Giveaway

Sorry; this giveaway is now closed!

I know everyone’s Christmas preparations are in full swing right now.  That’s why I wanted to take one final opportunity to remind you to order some Vera Cruz Vanilla for those last-minute stocking stuffers.  This vanilla really is the ideal gift for those people who already have everything! Anybody who cooks or bakes - even if only occasionally - will notice the difference made by using using this real Mexican vanilla in their cooking and will very much appreciate this gift.  Plus, order through December 31 and take advantage of their buy one get one free special.  This means you can buy one as a gift and keep one for yourself…you simply will not believe the difference Vera Cruz Vanilla will make in your eggnog recipe!

Also, remember you have until Wednesday night, December 14, to enter (here, at the Vera Cruz Vanilla website) to win the KitchenAid. 

That’s not all, though.  The folks at Vera Cruz Vanilla are slipping on their Santa hats and dropping down the Domessticated chimney with another great giveaway for you.  Three Domessticated readers will win a prize package, including one 4 oz. bottle of Vera Cruz Vanilla Extract, one 4 oz. bottle of Vera Cruz Vanilla Flavoring, and one package of Vera Cruz Vanilla Beans.

 

Each giveaway prize package constitutes a $25 retail value. To enter, simply leave a comment here telling me what holiday recipe you’d most like to try your real Mexican vanilla in (you don’t have to provide the entire recipe – just tell me what it is!) The winners will be chosen at random from among all qualified entries. Remember, if you’re a no-reply blogger, your comment has to include an email in order for me to be able to contact you! You have until Friday, December 23 at midnight to enter. Good luck!

They don’t sell vanilla from all over the world; they make the best vanilla in the world.

Slow Cooker Indian Butter Chicken

There’s no better way to get that tender, melt-in-your-mouth, delicate texture of the chicken in some of your favorite ethnic dishes than by making them in your slow cooker. 

And using thighs, people.  I’m a BIG believer in the chicken thigh.

These slow cooker butter chicken use both those tricks.  Gotta be good.  (Especially if you love Indian like I do.)

  The Meal Planner

Southern Chicken & Corn Chowder

You may already know that I do not love chowders.  I don’t even know why.  I just can’t get on board with them.  But I’m trying this Southern chicken & corn chowder anyway. 

Add A Pinch

Mozzarella Sticks

These mozzarella sticks make great, simple appetizer options for your holiday parties. 

As suggested at Taste of Home, let your kids help you wrap them up!

Peppermint Eggnog

I’ve been looking for a kid-friendly, cooked eggnog recipe.  I’m hoping this peppermint eggnog, from Martha Stewart will taste as good as it looks!

Stacked Roasted Vegetable Enchiladas

Feeling like something hearty but not guilt-inducing in this season-of-cream, butter, and indulgence?  We’re going to be trying these stacked roasted vegetable enchiladas,  from Perry’s Plate

Softening Butter

It’s tempting for me when I decide at the last minute to make something calling for softened butter to just stick the butter in the microwave and nuke it.  But I’ve learned I get much better predictability with my baking when I use butter at the proper temperature. Not to mention a cleaner microwave.  

My mother-in-law has a “soften” button on her microwave that perfectly softens a cube of butter.  JEALOUS! 

For those of us whose kitchens lack this technology, Martha Stewart offers this trick, using a simple kitchen grater, for speeding along the process.  (Yes, there are other methods out there, such as flattening the butter with a rolling pin, but I like this one because I can use it for frozen butter, as well as refrigerated.) 

 

And I thought Cooking Light’s series on the “Most Common Cooking Mistakes” was a great one, with a wealth of information including – but certainly not limited to - a great visual on what a properly softened stick of butter should look like:

It is a very useful read. Be sure to check out all 41 tips!

S’more Dip

Looking for a simple, warm dessert dip to serve at holiday office parties or family gatherigs?  This s’more dip uses only four ingredients, three of which you probably already have waiting in your pantry.

 

  TasteBook