With the holiday season upon us I am reminded of the little gem of a recipe my husband and I refer to as “Christmas Crack.”  This recipe has been floating around my family for years, and was a staple to bring to various functions throughout my childhood.

While the title has Christmas in it, this salty sweet goodness can be made any time of year, and with colored m&m’s can be tailored to any holiday! (think pink/red for Valentines day, black/orange for Halloween, red/blue for 4th of July).  You could even do gold/black to prep for New Years!

It is super easy and great for get-togethers or to package individually for gifts!

Warning though:  Snack at your own risk – once you start, it is hard to stop! (hence the crack name)

Here is the recipe, enjoy 🙂

Ingredients:

• 1 package (10 oz) mini pretzels)
• 5 cups Cheerios
• 5 cups corn Chex
• 1 pound M&M’s
• 1 cups salted peanuts
• 2 packages (12 oz each) white chocolate chips
• 3 Tbl vegetable oil

Directions:

• Mix together the cheerios, chex, peanuts, m&ms, and pretzels in a large bowl until combined and set aside (note I made several batches hence the multiple bowls below)

• Mix the white chocolate chips and vegetable oil in a microwave-safe bowl until the chips are coated
• Heat in the microwave until smooth, being careful not to scorch!

• Pour the melted chocolate over the chex ingredients and gently stir until evenly coated.
• Spread on a parchment-lined cookie sheet to harden, then store in an air-tight container (you may have to break-up some of the pieces).

Happy snacking!

Megan

 

 

This year I received a lovely Harry and David gift basket from a vendor with a bunch of fresh pears.  I love pears, but we had so many I wasn’t quite sure what to do with them!  I decided to contribute to our family Christmas brunch with a fun holiday pear tart!

After searching through a million Pinterest recipes, I settled on a hybrid of recipes from 365 Days of Baking and Food Network (with my own holiday twist :))

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

• 8 ounces of cream cheese, softened (I used Neufchatel)
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp almond extract
• 1 package (2 sheets) puff pastry sheets, thawed
• 3 medium pears, peeled and sliced
• 1 Tbl lemon juice
• 1 Tbl plus 1 tsp cornstarch
• 3 Tbl brown sugar
• 1/8 tsp cinnamon
• Optional topping: honey and sugar

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees
• Prepare the cream cheese filling by combining the cream cheese, one egg, and the almond extract until smooth.  Set aside

• Prepare the pear topping by combining your sliced pears, lemon juice, cornstarch, brown sugar, and cinnamon.  Set aside

• Beat the remaining egg into a bowl and set aside for the egg wash

• Spread-out the puff pastry sheets, setting one on top of the other.  Using a pizza cutter, cut into the shape of a Christmas tree (or if you aren’t doing this for Christmas, I would cut the sheets in half, length-wise making two pastries).

• With the remaining puff pastry sheet, cut two stars using a cookie cutter
• Set one sheet aside, and cover one of the sheets with your cream cheese filling, leaving 1/2 inch or so along the eges

• Place the second sheet on top, and gently press/fold the edges creating a pocket for the topping, together then top with the egg wash
  *Note you can make smaller tarts with any remaining dough/filling/topping so you don’t waste!  You can also cut-out more stars, etc. to put on top of the tart to add to the presentation

• Finally top the tart with the pear mixture.  Sprinkle some sugar/drizzle some honey over the tart (optional), and bake around 20 minutes on a parchment-lined cookie sheet until the tart is flaky and slightly browned.
• Viola, you have a lovely Christmas tart!

I adapted the tart to make it festive, but you could easily re-create our Christmas brunch for any winter occasion (menu below)!

• Ham (a Christmas staple)
• Mini Egg Quiches (similar to this recipe from Kitchen Snaps)
• a Winter Fruit Salad (similar to this recipe from Bloglovin)
• And of course the fixings for Bloody Mary’s and Mimosas!

I hope you enjoyed your holiday celebrations!

Megan