Mother's Day ~ Surprise Mom with 12 Amazing Breakfast in Bed Recipes

Crustless Bacon Broccoli Cheddar Quiche ~ by Cooking with Mary and Friends ~ recipe here

Great Ideas For Fourth Of July

I have a list of great recipes for this fourth of July. 

New Year's

Civilizations around the world have been celebrating the start of each new year for at least four millennia. Today, most New Year’s festivities begin on December 31 (New Year’s Eve), the last day of the Gregorian calendar, and continue into the early hours of January 1 (New Year’s Day). Common traditions include attending parties, eating special New Year’s foods, making resolutions for the new year and watching fireworks displays. 

New Year's Menu 2012

Have you made plans for New Year's Eve? Are you having a get together at your home? Have you thought about your menu for New Year's Day? I have put together some of my recipes to help you put together a menu. Pick one or two of these recipes for your menu. So head to the dinner table and dig in! 

Little C's Salsa

Hi, I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas with your family and friends. I had a fantastic Christmas. I gave some folks homemade salsa for Christmas gifts this year, so I'm late posting this because I didn't want to spoil the surprise. 

Cayenne Deviled Eggs

The cayenne pepper is a member of the Capsicum family of vegetables, which are more commonly known as chili peppers. It is known botanically as Capsicum annuum. The common name "cayenne" was actually given to this pepper because of its cultivation in a town that bears the same name in French Guiana on the northeast coast of South America. 

Christmas

Christmas is both a sacred religious holiday and a worldwide cultural and commercial phenomenon. For two millennia, people around the world have been observing it with traditions and practices that are both religious and secular in nature. Christians celebrate Christmas Day as the anniversary of the birth of Jesus of Nazareth, a spiritual leader whose teachings form the basis of their religion. Popular customs include exchanging gifts, decorating Christmas trees, attending church, sharing meals with family and friends and, of course, waiting for Santa Claus to arrive. December 25–Christmas Day–has been a federal holiday in the United States since 1870. 

Debo's Sausage Stuffing

Food historians tell us the practice of stuffing (aka dressing, cramming) the cavities of fowl and other animals with mixtures of breads, spices and other chopped items is ancient. The Romans and the Arabs both employed such techniques. "Dressing" and "stuffing," as we Americans know them today, descend from Medieval European (English "forcemeat" and French "farce") culinary traditions. 

Gingerbread

Copyright 2011 Christine's Pantry. All rights reserved.

   

Gingerbread has been baked in Europe since the eleventh century. In some places, it was a soft, delicately spiced cake, in others, a crisp, flat cookie, and in others, warm, thick, dark squares of "bread," sometimes served with a pitcher of lemon sauce or whipped cream. It was sometimes light, sometimes dark, sometimes sweet, sometimes spicy, but it was almost always cut into shapes such as men, women, stars or animals, and colorfully decorated or stamped with a mold and dusted with white sugar.

In Medieval England gingerbread meant simply "preserved ginger" and was an adaptation of the Old French gingebras, derived from the Latin name of the spice, Zingebar. It was only in the fifteenth century that the term came to be applied to a kind of cake made with treacle, an uncrystalized syrup drained from raw sugar during the refining process, and flavored with ginger. Ginger was also discovered to have a preservative effect when added to pastries and bread, and this probably led to the development of recipes for ginger cakes, cookies, and flavored breads.

During the nineteenth century, gingerbread was modernized. When the Grimm brothers collected volumes of German fairy tales they found one about Hansel and Gretel, two children who, abandoned in the woods by penniless parents, discovered a house made of bread, cake and candies.

At Christmas, gingerbread makes its most impressive appearance. The German practice of making lebkuchen houses never caught on in Britain in the same way as it did in North America, and it is here still that the most extraordinary creations are found.

Gingerbread making in North America has its origins in the traditions of the many settlers from all parts of Northern Europe who brought with them family recipes and customs. By the nineteenth century, America had been baking gingerbread for decades.

American recipes usually called for fewer spices than their European counterparts, but often make use of ingredients that were only available regionally. Maple syrup gingerbreads were made in New England, and in the South sorghum molasses was used. Regional variations began occurring as more people arrived from Europe. In Pennsylvania, the influence of German cooking was great and many traditional Germany gingerbreads reappeared in this area, especially at Christmas time.

Nowhere in the world is there a greater collection of gingerbread recipes than in America —there are so many variations in taste, form and presentation. With the vast choice of ingredients, baking aids and decorative items the imaginative cook can create the most spectacular gingerbread houses and centerpieces ever. 

Info by ultimategingerbread.com/gingerbreadhistory

Gingerbread

Copyright 2011 Christine's Pantry. All rights reserved.

Ingredients:

1 cup flour

2 tablespoons ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup brown sugar

3 eggs, beaten

1/2 cup molasses

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray 8 inch square baking pan with nonstick cooking spray and line the pan with parchment paper. Mix together flour, ginger, salt and baking powder into bowl. In another bowl, cream the butter and brown sugar until soft. Beat in eggs. Then add molasses, mix. Add dry ingredients, stir. Pour mixture into the prepared pan and bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan. Serve with a dollop of cool whip or vanilla ice cream, if desired. Enjoy!