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Hi Everyone, 

I hope you are all wrapped, ready and waiting for the holidays.

That’s not the case for me. I am so far behind, it should be October on my calendar. I thought that I was able to do it all this year but my body doesn’t want to cooperate. I am not at 100% healing yet and my stamina (or lack thereof) reminds me at every turn.

I am almost done wrapping my gifts. I put on Christmas music and tried to get in the holiday mood and the more I wrapped, the more I realized that it would be so much easier if everyone got gift cards. Something to think about for next year.

Bob and I were going to have a mellow Christmas this year because I am just not up to all the preparation. We didn’t send Christmas cards because other than a picture of me in a hospital gown after surgery (not my best look) there are no 2019 family photos for a card, so we made a donation to the Mayo Clinic Heart Transplant Center instead.

I didn’t even want to put up the Christmas tree or have a big Christmas Day dinner. I wanted to just celebrate with the Christmas Eve Italian Feast of the Seven Fishes  (my all-time favorite meal) and have leftovers the next day and relax. Then we got the call…

It was from Michael, all excited that he was able to take four days off and come home for Christmas. After this call, I sprung into action like Santa’s reindeer on Christmas Eve. As soon as I hung up the phone, we took down the Christmas tree and decorations from the attic and decorated the house. I was exhausted. And as any devoted and loving mother would do, I promised I would bake all of his favorite Christmas cookies.

After all, having Michael come home is the best gift I could ask for; and I want this holiday to be special for him.

I am even preparing a mini Thanksgiving dinner one night that he is home because he missed Thanksgiving and had to work.

I am starting off slow and I will post as I go along. To start me off, my dear friend Elise Feiner, who manages Foodfanataholics on Facebook, passed along a recipe that is the new trend on Facebook…

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Holiday Nougat Candy

Very festive candy made with simple ingredients that looks great in a candy dish or as a filler addition to a cookie tray.

I wanted to share Elise’s recipe with all of you.

For all who know me well, you know I have to tweak a recipe (I can’t help myself), so I added marshmallow flavoring to the batter. I hope you try the nougat and enjoy it. 

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Nougat Candy by Elise Feiner

2-3 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 (283 gram) bags Kraft mini marshmallows
2 (312 gram) bags Ghirardelli Classic White Chocolate Chips
2 cups gumdrops or I used 4 (6.5 ounces -184 gram) boxes of Dots It was more than 2 cups but it worked well and you don’t have to measure

COOKS NOTE: I added 1/2 tsp of marshmallow flavoring

Note: Once you start the actual process of making the nougat, you must work very quickly so have everything prepped and ready to go.

Prepare a 9 x 13 baking pan with a flat bottom. First I put a layer of aluminum foil so it would stay clean because I am lazy. Then, lay a double layer of parchment paper on each half of the width of the pan and one double layer right down the middle of the pan to form parchment slings. Then lay a piece of parchment paper over the slings, see the photos below. Spray the parchment and the sides of the pan with PAM. Open all your bags and boxes. I slit them down the middle to work faster.

You can either do this in a large pot or in a large glass bowl over a pot of boing water to form a double boiler. Whichever method you choose. Make sure you spray your pan or bowl very well with PAM or another non-stick spray. Spray your spoon that you will stir the mix with on both sides with Pam and spray a spatula with PAM as well.

Melt the butter and then white chocolate chips stir until they are just about melted. Add the marshmallows and stir until almost melted. Carefully move the glass bowl (use potholders it is very hot) if you are using that to the microwave and microwave at 30-second intervals until completely smooth (it took me 2 minutes.) first together until smooth. Fold in gumdrops or Dots. Spread on a parchment-lined 9 x 13 pan, using a spatula to pat it down. It is thick and you have to work fast. I used my hands in the end, it was warm but not hot but check the temperature so you don’t get burned… Chill overnight in the refrigerator. Cut into squares. You may store this is in the freezer.

I packaged the nougat in small ( 4 X 3 ) bags from Amazon. 

Until my next post, make every day a celebration!

Stay well,

Diane

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