Taste of Home December 2013

Make Homemade Memories There’s no time like the holidays to gather around the food! A FEW MONTHS AGO, WE ASKED YOU TO SHARE YOUR FAVORITE WINTER FOOD MEMORIES ON FACEBOOK. THEY WERE DELIGHTFUL (AND SOMETIMES HILARIOUS, TOO). Reader Julie Hershkowitz of St. George, Utah, told about a “snowball fight” she had as a kid with her mom, brothers and cookie dough—what a huge, fun mess. Cooks who care, like Michelle “Momma D” Dentremont in Port Hueneme, California, and Michelle Pippen of Hohenfels, Germany, told of delivering yummy baked goods all over their communities. In other Taste of Home families, Christmas breakfast is a big deal. The recipes you share are magical. Easy Eggs Benedict Casserole, Golden Danish Twists, Black Forest Waffles—yum! It doesn’t matter if you sit down to your…

Tweet Treats Give your backyard buddies a wing up this winter. Trim the trees outside with these easy homemade birdseed ornaments. FLIT OVER TO THE NEXT PAGE FOR a simple how-to 1. Go loopy Tie ends of each ribbon section together to form four loops for hanging. You’ll need these later. 2. Stir away Mix gelatin with ½ cup boiling water. Stir well to dissolve, then add to birdseed, continuing to stir well. If mixture is watery, add more seed until it’s stiff but sticky. FOOD ON THE FLY Birdseed Ornaments Deck out your yard—and wait for chirps of joy. What You Need • 4 ft. of 1/4-in.-wide ribbon, cut into 12-in.-long sections • 1/2. oz. unflavored gelatin powder (or 2 envelopes of Knox) • 11/2. cups birdseed • B…

Put these affordable and oh-so-thoughtful gifts on your holiday shopping list to make your special someone say, “Wow!” Santa’s (Kitchen) Helper Help your favorite home cook juggle the holiday feast with The Orange Chef’s dishwasher-safe iPad Stand. theorangechef.com $35 Toast the Hostess Tuck this new wine to share into a sack of presents. A tower of four disposable wineglasses from Stack wines equals one 750 ml bottle. drinkstack.com $13 A Christmas Cookie Brighten the face of any A Christmas Story fan with a leg-lamp cookie cutter—or a batch of leg-lamp cookies! neatoshop.com $6 Placemat Picasso Kids can draw their own comic strips or dream up a crocodile’s favorite foods on the paper placemats in this collection of nine kid-friendly designs. laurenceking.com $13 Chopstick Training Wheels The chopstick-newbies in your family…

There are a lot of people who are sweet on 32-year-old baker Joy Wilson. She has published a popular cookbook (with a second out this fall) and has been lauded by the Times of London for her blog joythebaker.com, named one of the top 50 food blogs in the world. For Taste of Home readers, Joy shares some baking secrets, like her special ingredient for banana bread. We noticed you use browned butter often. In cookies. Cakes. Doughnuts. Pancakes. Bread. What’s your favorite way to sneak browned butter into a recipe? Browning butter really does make butter better. I love adding it to doughnuts. And to quick bread recipes like banana bread with spices and walnuts. The browned butter adds extra richness and melds perfectly with the hearty walnuts and…

Follow the lead of these big-hearted readers who know that feeding hungry stomachs—and spirits—is a goodwill gift that fits anyone. My husband is a Navy Seabee, and his guys know that our house is always good for a meal. The Seabees especially love the homemade cookies I send when they’re field training. Some of these young men are far from home for the first time in their lives, so having people they can count on for company and home cooking means a lot. —MICHELLE “MOMMA D” DENTREMONT PORT HUENEME, CA One of my favorite ways to give back is to bake Christmas cookies for the local soup kitchen. Last year, when we lived in Fort Benning, Georgia, I made eight varieties, including decorated sugar cookies and pinwheels. I package them…

March of the Penguins! Create your own colony (yup, that’s the real term) by using a large gumdrop for the body, a small gumdrop for the head, a sour rope for the scarf, and sliced-up jellybeans for the wings, feet and beak. Snip the ends of thin black licorice for the eyes. 1 SNO-GLO TREE Using short toothpicks, attach regular-size marshmallows and gumdrops—arranged to look like lights—to a foam topiary tree cone, available at most craft stores. 2 NO-MELT IGLOO CUPCAKE For the dome, place an unfrosted, unlined cupcake upside down on a serving plate. Cover with whipped topping and decorate with mini marshmallows. For the door, cut a marshmallow in half, then make a hole with an apple corer. 3 GOOD-ENOUGH-TO-EAT GARLAND String marshmallows of varying sizes and fresh…