BKD Cookbook Club: It's Christmas!!

It's time again for  Jo Tracey's BKD (Brookford Kitchen Diaries) Cookbook Club. I've followed Jo for awhile and have read several of her books, including one of her most recent which features a group of ladies who have a cookbook club. If you haven't read any of Jo's books, you should.

This month is all about Christmas. I LOVE Christmas with all it's twinkling lights, and yummy smells. On the 13th, my daughters and a few of their friends are getting together at our house to do some Christmas baking. I asked each one to decide what they wanted to make and we'll all go home (though right now both my daughters are living at our house) with a plate of goodies. All my holiday recipes are found on the From my Kitchen Tab at the top of the blog. I plan to make caramel corn, Italian Sprinkle cookies, PB Fudge and Rocky Road cups (chocolate marshmallow cups). I may add a few more items, like soft Peanut brittle (the secret is adding peanut butter to it). 

A few other things I always make are clam chowder on CE (a friend gave me the recipe when I first got married. It was apparently from a Seattle restaurant that went out of business)..it is one of the best recipes I've had for it. I also do cinnamon rolls on Christmas morning. Another favorite I got from my grandma is an apple cranberry casserole, that is more like an apple crisp. So good. Not many of my recipes come from cookbooks when it comes to holidays. They're either handed down from family, found in a magazine or I find them online. Here's where most of my recipes live....here or on pinterest.

Let's get on to the recipe for this month. I checked out several books from the library for a Christmas dish to try, but none of them jumped out at me. I have always wanted to make pavlova after having it at a moms group YEARS ago....every now and then I think about it, and if I'm in a restaurant that serves meringue in any form, I will order it. While browsing through an older edition of the Food Network magazine, I spied a recipe for meringue and several different options. I wish I had more time to experiment with different ones but decided to go with the kisses. It was much easier than I thought it would be. The other options were clouds, "sandwiches", and "popsicles". 

Food Network magazine is awesome, filled with easy to follow recipes and tips. I only have two older editions...they are probably more expensive now, but I love them. I was in a local thrift store the other day and spied a couple bundles...I was tempted to grab them but was in a hurry.

Since I wasn't sure how they would turn out and it seemed that they made A LOT, I decided to half the recipe! I was a bit nervous to do that, but no worries, it turned out fine. 

These kisses looked so pretty....Note: mine did not turn out this pretty. 

I prepped everything ahead of time so I was ready. I did NOT take any pics of the prep or the piping....the piping was a little tricky, hence, not being very pretty and no pictures.

See my funky shaped kisses above....the recipe called for them to bake for up to 3 hours...mine were done just under an hour, so maybe it was dependent on what you were making or how big they were. 

Just out of the oven. 

I melted white chocolate with a bit of coconut oil (I think I should've used more because it was thick), and dipped the meringues in the melted chocolate and then in the sprinkles.  A few tips broke as I dipped, so maybe I should have made them a bit bigger to grab the sides easier. Either way....my philosophy is, it doesn't have to be pretty as long as it tastes good, and they tasted good. 

I was pretty proud of myself. I will definitely try it again, maybe with a few of the other options. 

These were the two magazines I had so I thought I'd share a few pages from them so you can get an idea of what's in them. 

See you next month is all about Scandinavia. I can't wait to see what I find. 

With Joy Unquenchable,

Kirstin