Christmas Parties of 2022

     This year we had to pass on one of my husbands family parties. It was in OKC and at night. With the timing of his meds it was just not possible to make the trip and feel decent but we had several more we could do!

     The first party we went to was on Christmas day with Nikki's grandmother. It is always nice and lots of good food and room to eat it in. She had a traditional dinner with the turkey and dressing with other things folks brought in that folks feel are needed or it isn't a good Christmas dinner. LOL Everyone has their favorites. Nikki's sister had a good laugh. Hubby and I were making the rounds filling our plates and hubby pointed to one of her dishes and said that looked good. I told him you won't like it there is broccoli in it . (it was broccoli, cheese and rice) He said but look at all that cheese in it! I told him fine if you want to try it. I was right it didn't make it into the tummy. LOL. This group has a bunch of good cooks. I just brought some rum balls and put them in the back of the food so the kids couldn't reach it and some of the decorated snickerdoodle snowflake cookies off my Christmas tree.

  

    We played dirty Santa and I made a special trip in the snow and ice with wind chills below O* all the way to town to find a present since I learned of it at the last minute. That group has some good quilters in it so I bought about $30 worth of themed fat quarters that matched Nikki's decor in case she got it. I stole a outdoor solar powered thing that when it lights up it looks like lightning bugs outside. Fun looking out at night now.
    Boy I tell you the party at Nikki's other grandmothers house Saturday 12-31-22 was something else. Tiny house and at least 30 or more people in it! People were siting in the floor eating and didn't mind at all. LOL If your limber enough it isn't a problem.  I always go early to set up desserts and to claim my spot in a chair and table! At this party it was a Mexican food theme with different people bringing goodies. I am talking about huge 2 1/2 foot long pans and almost as wide full of enchiladas, Mexican casseroles and other full pots of other things. Hubby didn't go to this one and I only found a couple handful size helpings to bring home to him.
  Here are some of the desserts I made. Jo's Chocolate Cake from The Hillbilly Kitchen ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zZzKa0N0yM
They totally wiped out my 2 layer 8" chocolate cake with divided layers of raspberry in between, chocolate icing outside and a chocolate ganache covering the top. Only thing left was about 3" of cake! LOL It came home to hubby. There was a funny thing with the cake. I was telling some ladies that there was enough chocolate in that cake to fix 6 ladies PMS! One of the husbands heard that and called his wife in to get her some chocolate cake. She came in talking about how nice her husband has been and her tuned changed a little bit when I told her WHY he called her in to get some cake. LOL It was a good laugh.

    The New York cheesecake was a original recipe from Sacks Fifth Avenue off the New York Times. It was a 10" round about 4" high masterpiece. Estimated total was $31.59 with walmart prices. I had most all the ingredients on hand thank goodness! Everyone said it tasted like the ones at cheesecake factory. The filling on top I thought would be too strong being a cranberry with cinnamon and maple & ginger in it but it turned out great! Only thing that would have made it better is if the piece of cheesecake was cut then the "sauce" was poured over it. I brought the 4"? left over home for us. YUM Somehow I didn't get a picture of that one I don't think. I did learn that the NY Cheesecake is made with sour cream where the Philly Cheesecake isn't. The texture and flavor difference is noticeable. It looked like this except it had pretty red cranberry sauce over it !

     I also took some of the left over Rum Ball recipe that is at least 80 years old from my now deceased aunt. She led a interesting life being born in Germany and a Jew. The family story is she escaped the death camps with the help of someone. She married my uncle that was in the military. I believe at one time she was a interpreter at something like the UN. Family members have pictures of her wearing the Hope Diamond that belonged to a friend at the time. Very interesting life. They say that when she made this recipe and took it too work everyone upstairs could smell it and come running before it was all gone. The first party was a little ho hum about them and this last party they disappeared in a flash! It was one of those you either like them or you don't and it appears it just depends on the audience. LOL They were Very very rummy !
     I made about a 10" round wreath with mini cupcakes out of some of the chocolate cake batter. Topped the tiny things with green tasty frosting and tried to make a red bow on top and it was pitiful! LOL I had to scrape it off and redo the green frosting underneath. I only wish mine looked as good as this! It was a last minute fix so I didn't plan very well. LOL

     We had various peanut butter snickerdoodles cookies and a pumpkin pie I had in the freezer and some banana bread. Needless to say the cake and cheesecake were the stars of the party. LOL
        All the parties were really nice and it was good for everyone to be able to get together and have some fun. Since hubby didn't go to the last one he stayed home and Nikki and the kids came to see him since they didn't go either. Her son had a cold and she didn't want to spread it. It was warm enough to play outside so hubby didn't have to worry about catching anything either.

Well that is about it for all the shin digs I went to this year. Our family party is another long story. I was sooo fun!

Love
Ranchmama