35 Must Have Holiday Entertaining Recipes

With the holidays right around the corner, I've collaborated with my fellow Real Housemom's Creative Team members to bring you a plethora of holiday inspirations and recipes for your menus this year!

We've got you covered, from Thanksgiving to Christmas and beyond with so much deliciousness, you'll be licking your lips with anticipation for the big days!  

8 Must-Bake Holiday Cookies

The Holidays are all about giving...so I've teamed up once again with some of my favorite bloggers to bring you 8 Must-Bake Holiday Cookie recipes and a chance to win some Holiday cash!!  

12 Thanksgiving Recipes

Today I've got 12 Thanksgiving recipes and a KitchenAid Mixer Giveaway to share!  I've gotten together with 11 other AWESOME food bloggers to bring you a complete holiday menu from appetizers to dessert and YES, a recipe for a whole turkey!  

40+ Holiday Baking Recipes and an AWESOME Holiday Giveaway!

It's here...or almost here...Holiday Baking Season that is!

I'm teaming up with my friends from Real Housemoms and bringing you this terrific round up of holiday recipes and an AWESOME Holiday Baking Giveaway to help you get started with all
 your baking needs this year!   Who's in?

Cookbook Review: Sprinkles! Recipes and Ideas for Rainbowlicious Desserts, Homemade Gingersnap Cookie Butter AND a GIVEAWAY!

When Quirk Books contacted me and asked if I was interested in reviewing the cookbook, Sprinkles! Recipes and Ideas for Rainbowlicious Desserts I couldn't imagine how there could be an entire cookbook devoted to sprinkles!  I mean...sprinkles?  Sure they are fun and whimsical...but a whole book??

Boy was I surprised when the book arrived.  (Disclaimer: I received this cookbook for free to review from the publisher.  The thoughts and opinions expressed in this post are entirely mine and I have not received payment for them.)

Sprinkles!  Recipes and Ideas for Rainbowlicious Desserts by Jackie Alpers is a delightful paperback book with 144 pages of wonderful recipes and recipe ideas, as well as a tutorial on sprinkles themselves.  I mean, who knew there was a "World of Sprinkles", each kind with their own "personality" out there!?  Jackie even shows you how to make your own sprinkles in this book!  How fun is that??

Toasted Coconut Rum Shortbread Cookies

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday and didn't do too much damage!  I had a house full of guests, which included overnight guests most of the weekend.   Made for a fun, but VERY BUSY holiday weekend for me.  Yesterday was all about cleaning up...the house and my diet!  So it goes....

Which might make you wonder why on earth I would be posting another decadent cookie recipe.  Well, the answer is, now that Thanksgiving is over, the heart of the baking season has arrived.  This variation of the Lemon Coconut Snowball Cookie was just too good not to share.  Don't worry, despite the name, there is no actual rum in it....just the flavoring.  But the combo of the rum flavor and the toasted coconut are a hit!  And remember how I mentioned how much I like working with this dough?  Yup...this one is a keeper for sure.

Once again, I am not going to supply any nutritional stats.  You can refer to the original posting of the Lemon Coconut Snowball Cookies to see that, as this variation would be very close.  You will find the info in the comments section at the bottom of the page, if you are interested.

This recipe starts off with whizzing some sweetened coconut in the food processor to make it into smaller strands.    ( so it fits on the top of the cookie a little better)    Then lightly toasting it.  You can do this by spreading your processed coconut onto a baking sheet and popping it into the oven and stirring every now and then, until it is a light golden brown.  I did this in a 350 degree oven for about 10 minutes.  The coconut is not going to bake again, so just toast it to the degree of brown you desire.

Once the rum flavored shortbread cookie ball is baked and cooled, it  is then frosted with some rum flavored frosting and then finished with the toasted coconut.  So festive!

Toasted Coconut Rum Shortbread Cookies

adapted from Lemon Coconut Snowball Cookies

Printable Recipe

Yield:  approx. 2 1/2 doz. cookies

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

3/4 cup granulated sugar, which has been pulsed in the food processor for about 20 seconds

1/4 tsp. salt

16 TBS. unsalted butter ( 2 sticks), cut into 16 1/2 inch pcs at cool room temperature

1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

1 tsp. rum flavoring

2 TBS. ( 1 oz)  cream cheese, at room temperature ( I used reduced fat) 

For frosting and topping:

1 TBS. ( 1/2 oz) cream cheese, at room temperature  ( I used reduced fat)

1 tsp. rum flavoring or vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups confectioners sugar

1 - 2 TBS. milk ( enough to thin frosting out to spread easily ) 

1 1/2 cups sweetened shredded coconut, pulsed in food processor, toasted in oven, and cooled

1.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.  In bowl of stand mixer fitted with paddle beater, mix flour, sugar and slat on low speed until combined.  With mixer running on low, drop in the butter one piece at a time slowly; and continue to mix until the mixture looks slightly wet and crumbly.  Add in the vanilla, rum flavor and the cream cheese and mix on low until he dough just comes together...and it will...like magic! 

2.  With hands, roll dough into 1 inch balls and place on a parchment lined baking sheet.  ( or one that has been sprayed with cooking spray, but I prefer parchment for my cooking baking)   Bake once batch at a time in oven until lightly browned, about 12 minutes.  Remove to wire rack and allow to cool to room temperature. 

3.  In the same bowl as the cookie dough was made, with the paddle attachment, mix the cream cheese until smooth.  Add in the confectioners sugar and choice of flavoring.  Slowly add milk to achieve a good spreading consistency.  

4.  Dip tops of cookies into frosting, or spread with a knife, and top with some toasted coconut.  Allow frosting to set before storing.  These cookies freeze well.  

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I will be honest with you....I expect to be very busy the next couple of weeks leading up to Christmas with a big project I am involved with.  I am not certain how many recipes I will be able to publish, but will try my best to make it here and get one up at least once a week.  Once my life frees up a bit, I will be able to devote more time to this blog once again! 

Lightened Up Sweet Potato Pie

While flying home this week, I was paging through the latest issue of Healthy Cooking, when the recipe for this delectable pie caught my eye...and although the nutritional stats were decent as it was written in the magazine, I knew I could swap out a few ingredients to make it even more diet friendly.   Lucky for me, I had some leftover sweet potato mash from a dinner I made last week already in the fridge and a Keebler, Ready Crust, Reduced Fat Graham Pie Crust in the pantry! If you cannot find the reduced fat pie crust, you can buy a regular one, but this will increase the point+ value by one per each slice. 

This pie will not disappoint.  It is a lovely twist on a traditional pumpkin pie and would be a great addition to your holiday table.  It is just spicy enough and not too sweet. It comes in at 6 points+ for a generous slice...which is 1/8th of a 9" crust.  Top it with a dollop of fat free cool whip if you like!

Lightened Up Sweet Potato Pie

adapted from Healthy Cooking

Printable Recipe

Servings - 8   Serving Size - 1/8th of pie   Points Plus per Serving - 6 points+

Calories - 218,   Total Fat - 3.6g,   Carb - 46.9g,   Protein - 4.1g,   Fiber - 0.8g

1 - 9" Keebler Ready Crust, Reduced Fat Graham Pie Crust

1 TBS eggbeaters

1 cup cooled and mashed sweet potato

1 cup skim milk

1/2 cup eggbeaters

1/2 cup brown sugar, packed 

1/4 cup pure maple syrup

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/4 tsp ground clove

1.  Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.  Brush inside of crust with 1 TBS eggbeaters.  Bake in oven for 6 - 8 min.  Allow to cool.  

2.  Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees F.  In large bowl, whisk together sweet potato, milk, 1/2 cup eggbeaters, brown sugar, maple syrup, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and cloves until smooth.  Pour mixture into prepared crust and bake in oven for 60 - 70 minutes, or until center is set.  Cool on wire rack.  Serve warm or cold. ( I liked it cold better)  Store uneaten pie in refrigerator. 

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I mentioned yesterday, that I was going to do a giveaway to celebrate MKA being on the blog scene for one year.  I racked my brains trying to think of the perfect thing to giveaway....and finally settled on a $25 gift card to Bed, Bath, and Beyond!  There are so many gadgets I love that make my life in the kitchen fun and easy, and where else can you find a huge assortment of fun kitchen gadgets?

If you would like to have a chance to win this prize...all you need to do is leave me a comment on this post telling me what your favorite kitchen gadget is OR what kitchen gadget you would like to get! 

For additional entries:  ( for each one, please leave a separate comment ) 

1.  Follow MKA on blogger or on Facebook, if you don't already do so, and leave me a separate comment letting me know you added MKA. 

2.  Post about this giveaway on your blog, facebook status, or tweet about it on twitter and provide appropriate links to this post. Leave me a comment letting me know you did so.

* I MUST be able to contact you to let you know you have won and so that your prize pack can be delivered.  If you do not have a blog that shows a contact email I can contact you on, please include an email in your comment and a name( you can write out the (at) and the (dot) to help avoid getting spam) or send me your email address through my email ( mykitchenadventures (at) yahoo (dot) com) and let me know who you are and which comment is yours. Anonymous comments will not be included in the contest, unless somewhere in the comment you have left me a name and contact information. Contest is open to all US and Canadian residents!  ( yup, Canada peeps...you can play too!!)

This giveaway will end on Friday, October 21, 2011 at 8:00 pm EST.  Winners will be chosen at random and will be announced either that night or the following day. Winners must claim their prize within 24 hours of notification, or a new winner will be chosen. 

Good Luck!!