Christmas Day was very pleasant.
I wrote that I would share some of the recipes and goodies that I made up for all of us to snack on throughout Christmas Day. It was nice to have everything ready to go and all I had to do was put things into and onto the serving dishes once we were ready to eat.
Our main sustenance consisted of spinach dip and shrimp cocktail. Then there was a bevy of desserts including mini cherry cheesecakes, oatmeal raisin cookies, snicker doodles, and triple chocolate chip cookies (Daddy made all three types of cookies, he’s turning into quite the little baker).
Here are some of the recipes:
Mini Cherry Cheesecakes
2 pkgs. (8oz.) cream cheese, softened to room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
3 eggs
1 Tbsp vanilla
1 Tbsp fresh squeezed lemon juice
1 package vanilla wafer cookies (you won’t use the entire box)
1 can cherry pie filling
In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix the cream cheese and sugar until smooth, scraping down the sides frequently. Add eggs one at a time and mix. Finally, add vanilla and lemon juice, and mix until just blended.
Bake at 350 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes. Cool cheesecakes completely.
Garnish with cherries from canned cherry pie filling.
Refrigerate until ready to serve.
Makes about 48 mini cheesecakes.
Note: I made some with the cookies and some without. If you omit the vanilla wafers then you get a more cheesecake but mine came out a little watery. The ones with the wafers are perfect.
Spinach Dip
1 cup mayonnaise
1 (16 ounce) container sour cream
1 package (10 ounces) frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained
1 package onion or leek dry soup mix
1 (1 pound) loaf round sourdough bread
Mix the sour cream, mayo, soup mix and spinach together. Place in refrigerator to set up.
Just before you are ready to serve ( I usually do this about an hour or so before to allow the edges of the bread to harden just a bit) cut of the top of the bread loaf, tear it into pieces and scoop out the bread from the middle of the loaf to create a bowl.
Take spinach dip mixture from the fridge and scoop it into the bread bowl.
Shrimp Cocktail Sauce
1 cup ketchup
3 Tablespoons prepared horseradish
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
Few splashes of hot sauce (I use Tabasco)
Combine all of the ingredients in a bowl and chill in refrigerator until ready to serve.
Enjoy!
