It’s a Christmas fountain drink like no other! “Reason for the Season” on Hallmark Mysteries inspired this tasty burst of Christmas in a glass! Main character, Evie (played by Taylor Cole), was born in a diner on Christmas Eve. This diner is known for their “cup of cheer” that they serve during the holidays. It resembles a milk shake or classic egg cream, so I went with that sort of feel.
Ingredients:
-White chocolate peppermint creamer (I use Lucerne)
-Chocolate syrup
-Vanilla ice cream
-Plain seltzer water
-Whipped cream
-Holiday sprinkles
-Little Debbie Christmas tree snack cake for garnish
Directions:
I have pretty loose measurements for this drink, as you can add as much or as little as you like of everything.
Start with filling about 1/4 of the glass with creamer and stir in chocolate syrup,
Next, add scoop of ice cream, followed by filling the rest of the glass with seltzer water. Leave a little room on top for whipped cream.
Sprinkle the top, place a festive straw in there and top with a Christmas tree cake garnish. These will be a hit at your next holiday party!
“Five Gold Rings” on Hallmark Channel was all about a quest to track down the owners of five gold rings that were once found lost on the beach. This sweet story takes place during the holidays and is full of heart. During the scene where the main characters were enjoying dinner together, they enjoyed Christmas Lasagna, which also warms your heart! Here, I’m making a delicious homemade lasagna with a Christmas twist. I wanted to add some red and green elements, so I added some pesto and sun dried tomatoes!
Ingredients:
-One box lasagna noodles
-Olive oil
-One large onion
-2 cloves garlic
-2 28 oz cans of San Marzano tomatoes
-2 tablespoons Italian seasoning
-2 tablespoons parsley flakes
-Fresh basil leaves
-Sea salt flakes
-Pepper
-2 large carrots
-2 tablespoons sugar (optional)
-2 15 oz containers of ricotta
-Small jar pesto (or homemade)
-Small jar sun dried tomatoes
-Sliced fresh mozzarella
Directions:
Chop onion and garlic. Saute onions is olive oil first for a few minutes, then add garlic afterwards.
Once those have softened, add cans of tomatoes (gently crush them in the pan), all the seasonings, and fresh basil. Stir and add whole carrots to soak in the sauce to release their sugars. Let simmer.
While sauce simmers, cook your lasagna noodles in a separate pot of water.
In a small bowl, stir in the ricotta and mix with 3 spoonfuls of pesto. Save the rest of the pesto for the top of the lasagna at the end.
Once the sauce has been simmering, taste to see if it is sweet enough with the carrots. If not, add a bit of sugar one teaspoon at a time. You can either remove the carrots and discard them, or cut them up and add them to the sauce.
Once the sauce is done and noodles are cooked, you can start layering.
In a square baking dish, spoon some sauce on the bottom of the dish, followed by a layer of noodles, then ricotta and pesto mixture, then sauce, and keep repeating until you reach the top of the dish. Your top layer should be just noodles and sauce. On top of the sauce, spread the slices of fresh mozzarella, dollop the pesto and sprinkle the sun dried tomatoes.
Bake at 375 for 35 minutes until top is crisped up and cheese has melted a bit. Garnish with fresh basil before serving. Enjoy!
“Our Holiday Story” on Hallmark Channel started with Dave and Nell meeting on a train (their ‘meet cute’ moment). When the train had to stop unexpectedly for a while, Dave’s romantic gesture to get off the train, and get Nell her favorite fruitcake, was the beginning of their love story! Traditional fruitcake includes being soaked in rum or another liquor, but I know not everyone is keen on the idea of fruitcake, so I made a gingerbread version with an orange icing to help introduce those who are too afraid to try fruitcake!
Ingredients:
-3/4 unsalted butter
-3/4 cups brown sugar
-2 cups of a variety of dried fruits, I used dried cherries, raisins, golden raisins and currants.
-2/3 cup orange juice
-A mix of lemon zest and orange zest
-1/2 cup molasses
-1 3/4 cups flour
-1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
-1/2 teaspoon ginger
-1/2 teaspoon salt
-1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
-1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
-1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
-1/4 cup avocado oil
-3 eggs
-1 cup chopped pecans
Directions:
In a saucepan, combine the butter, brown sugar, dried fruits, orange juice, molasses, and the lemon and orange zest. Cook on low/medium until it’s all melted and combined. Continue to simmer about 5 minutes until it has thickened a bit. Place in a heat safe bowl to cool in the fridge.
While that cools, whisk together the eggs and avocado oil. Add that to the cooled mixture.
Add flour, baking powder, ginger, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. Then stir in the chopped pecans.
Use any baking dish you’d like, I used a bundt pan. Oil and flour it well so that the cake doesn’t stick.
Bake it low and slow at 285 degrees for around 75 minutes until a toothpick comes out dry.
Icing (optional):
Mix together 1/2 cup powdered sugar with orange juice until you get the desired glaze consistency. Drizzle on cake and enjoy!
Merinac is the quaint little town all the lovely folks live in on “The Chicken Sisters” on Hallmark Plus! I just finished up watching season one, and it was a great one! Mimi’s and Frannie’s Chicken restaurants were battling a family feud for generations. Who had the better chicken? Well, when these two forces combine, they made something even better, The Chicken Sisters Restaurant! This is my take on a classic fried chicken recipe, but with a little sweet and a little salty. Just like the personalities in the show! Best of all, I used the air fryer so you don’t feel as guilty indulging!
Ingredients:
-1 pound drumsticks
For wet batter:
-2 cups buttermilk
-1/4 cup Dijon mustard
-1 tablespoon chili powder
-Salt and pepper
For dry coating:
-2 cups honey nut Chex cereal (pounded into crumbs)
-2 cups flour
-1 tablespoon garlic powder
-1 tablespoon onion powder
-Salt and pepper
Directions:
In a bowl, mix together buttermilk, dijon, chili powder, salt and pepper. Whisk it well and submerge all chicken. Let it sit covered and refrigerated for an hour or overnight.
In a large gallon ziplock bag, pour Chex in and pound into crumbs. Double bag it now, and add flour, garlic powder, onion powder, salt and pepper.
Once the chicken has marinated for at least an hour, place a few pieces on the bag with the flour mixture and shake it up!
Place in air fryer for 20 minutes before turning. Then another 20 minutes. I like to finish mine off in the oven drizzled with a little oil to cook it through.
In “Scouting for Christmas” on Hallmark Channel, the adorable love story between Angela and William ( played by Tamera Mowry-Housley and Carlo Marks), revolves around two things.. a very important Girl Scout holiday event, and William’s bakery, “Sir Bakes a Bunch”! By the way how cute is that name? One of his most popular items at his bakery is their bear claws. Since it is a Christmas movie, I had to make a Christmas bear claw! I made a traditional recipe but added semi sweet chocolate and some Christmas sprinkles of course!
Ingredients:
-Frozen puff pastry dough
-1/2 stick butter (room temp)
-8 oz almond paste
-1 cup powdered sugar
-2 egg whites
-1/4 cup flour
-Semi sweet mini chocolate chips
-Christmas sprinkles
Directions:
Let frozen dough thaw out until easy to manage.
In a mixing bowl, beat butter first. Then add powdered sugar, almond paste (break up into pieces first), two egg whites and flour.
Mix on high speed until all the almond paste has dissolved and you have a thick mixture.
Roll our the pastry dough into more of a rectangle. Cut three wide strips. Fill a skinny line of the almond filling across the middle off each dough strip. Sprinkle chocolate chips on top of the filling. Fold over and crimp the edges.
This will make one long “log”. Cut the log into 4 smaller logs and slice about 5 fringes (the bear’s claws). Then spread it out to look like a smiley face so the claws spread out a bit.
Brush with melted butter and bake at 350 degrees for about 12 minutes.
Once it has cooled a bit, melt more chocolate chips and drizzle on top, following with the sprinkles right away. Pop in the fridge to harden for 5 minutes and serve!
The holidays are FULL of parties, which means a lot of fun and festive drinks! In the Hallmark Channel movie, “Holiday Crashers”, besties, Toni and Bri decide to crash all the holiday parties to liven things up a bit! One thing all these parties had in common was the cocktails. At each party, there were appetizers and drinks, however, I decided to make a non alcoholic festive cocktail!
Ingredients:
-Cherry juice
-“Torani” amaretto syrup
-Orange seltzer water
-Holiday sprinkles
-White chocolate candy melts
-Glass of choice (I used a martini glass)
NOTE: I did not include measurements in this drink recipe, as I like to make them according to taste. So you can decide how much or how little of each flavor you would like.
Directions:
Start by melting the white chocolate in the microwave. Spread on a plate and roll the rim of the glass in the melted chocolate.
Pour sprinkles on a plate, and immediately roll from melted white chocolate into the sprinkles to create a decorated rim.
Start by pouring cherry juice on the bottom of glass. Stir in amaretto syrup. Then top off with orange seltzer water.
Optional festive ice cubes:
A day or two before you plan on serving the drinks, use any holiday themed small silicone molds to pour cherry juice in. Freeze overnight and use as festive ice cubes in your drink!
Hannah Swensen is at it again trying to solve a murder while running her bakery, “The Cookie Jar”! In this newest installment of A Hannah Swensen Mystery: “A Sprinkle of Deceit”, Hannah goes around town to all the people she is questioning, and butters them up with a large variety of delicious cookies! One that stood out to me was the butterscotch pretzel cookie. I just had to make my own!
Ingredients:
-1 box white cake mix
-2 eggs
-1/2 cup avocado oil
-1 package of instant butterscotch pudding
-2/3 cup mini chocolate chips
-2/3 cup butterscotch chips
-1 cup crushed pretzels
-Individual pretzels for the garnish
Directions:
Combine cake mix, avocado oil, and pudding mix until a thick dough turns out. Then fold in the chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, and crushed pretzels.
Scoop out dough on a non stick baking sheet. Take a full pretzel, and press down in the center of each cookie. Bake at 350 degrees for 12 minutes. Enjoy!
If you have the Hallmark Plus app, you may have seen “Celebrations with Lacey Chabert”! This show is about celebrating people who have touched other’s lives in some way. Lacey Chabert is the ring leader in this amazing show and gets to help plan the events! In the first episode, the guest of honor is given a camp-themed party, with an epic s’mores table, which inspired this party favor dessert!
How to construct:
Get a food safe jar, and wash.
Mix sprinkles with marshmallow fluff and spread around the sides of the bottom half of the jar.
Start with a layer of chocolate cake of choice, or brownie.
Layer with marshmallow fluff. Follow with a layer of graham cracker crumbs.
Follow with another layer of chocolate cake/brownie. Sprinkle with another layer of graham cracker crumbs.
Top with a layer of marshmallow fluff, followed by a drizzle of chocolate syrup and sprinkles.
Close jar and decorate with ribbon of choice. Enjoy or give as party favors!
These delicious bran muffins full of Fall flavors are inspired by Hallmark Channel movie “Falling Together” starring Ashely Williams and Paul Campbell. Main character, Natalie (Ashley Williams), is new in town, and the people who live in her new building do not get along with each other. Natalie won’t have it! She tries everything she can to bring them together, including making muffins for everyone. She presented a variety of muffins to them, and so I melded some of them together and added my own touch to make the perfect Fall muffin!
Ingredients:
-1 1/2 cups wheat bran
-1 cup whole milk
-1/3 cup avocado oil
-2/3 cup brown sugar
-1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
-1 egg
-1 cup flour
-1 teaspoon baking powder
-1 teaspoon baking soda
-1/2 teaspoon salt
-1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
-1 apple cubed
-1/2 cup dried cranberries
-2.25 oz package chopped walnuts
Directions:
In a small bowl, mix together and soak the milk with the wheat bran. Let it sit for at least 10 minutes.
While that soaks, using an electric mixer, whisk together avocado oil, brown sugar, vanilla and egg.
Once that is all combined, add flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.
Next, use a spatula to stir in the cubed apple, cranberries and walnuts.
Scoop batter into muffin liners to the top. Bake at 350 degrees for 12-18 minutes. Enjoy!
Hallmark Plus has a new series “The Chicken Sisters” based on a book! The two chicken shacks in town, Mimi’s and Frannie’s have been going head to head for many many years. In episode 2, there was a mention of Frannie’s famous biscuits, and I just had to give them a whirl! I took a guess as to what these biscuits might taste like, give that this takes place in Southern Kansas, and I made them a bit sweet and a bit salty to represent the different personalities within the main characters.
Ingredients:
-2 cups flour
-1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
-4 teaspoons baking powder
-2 tablespoons sugar
-1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
-1 stick cold, salted butter
-1 egg
-2/3 cup buttermilk
Directions:
In a large bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, cream of tartar and sugar. Cut the cold butter into cubes and using a fork or pastry blender, combine it into the flour mixture until it creates crumbles.
In a smaller bowl, whisk together the egg and buttermilk. Then slowly add to the flour mixture. Mix until well combined. It will be sticky. Sprinkle a bit of flour as you knead the dough.
Roll out the dough and fold it four or five times to create layers. Then roll out again. Using a biscuit cutter, cut out the biscuits and place on a nonstick baking sheet or silicone baking mat. Bake at 425 degrees for about 12 minutes.
Any leftover dough needs to be refrigerated and only taken out when you are ready to bake. If the butter stays cold, you will get much fluffier biscuits!
I’d slather some cinnamon honey butter on these for some extra yumminess!
