Posts Tagged ‘food’

When it comes to holiday gift-giving, I’m definitely in the homemade camp. I prefer to give (and receive) homemade items, and I especially love to give food. I may not know what color scarf you would prefer, but I do know if you like white, dark, or milk chocolate (or no chocolate)! Thus, I usually make food and package it into cute containers. This year I made some chocolate-peanut-butter bark, and I was thrilled to find these super-cute take-out containers for it at World Market.

Adorable Winter Scene Container - Complete with Bark!

These are perfect for many reasons. First, it’s a cute winter woodland scene with critters, and it has a bear in it. I ♥ bears! Because it’s a Winter scene, it’s not specific to any particular holiday. I can give it to friends and family regardless of what they are celebrating: Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, the Winter Solstice, Saturnalia, etc. Second, it has a cute bark design on the sides, and I’m giving chocolate bark. WIN!

If you’re curious about chocolate-peanut-butter bark, I made it from a recipe I found here, with one small change. I also added small mini-pretzels to my bark, so it contains semi-sweet chocolate, peanut butter, salted peanuts, mini Reese’s cups, and pretzels. I love the juxtaposition of sweet, salty, creamy, and crunchy.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Bark from Best Mom on the Block

Thanksgiving is one of the few days in the year that you can prepare a meal and get away with serving multiple carb-laden side dishes. My family thought nothing of serving a roast bird with mashed potatoes & gravy, cornbread dressing, macaroni & cheese, sweet potatoes, and homemade biscuits. Sometimes we even went extra crazy and threw in some chicken & dumplings for good measure. After eating, we were all laid out like a bunch of bears who had been shot with tranquilizer darts.

I try not to do that these days, but I still can’t resist serving some bourbon smashed sweet potatoes along with my cornbread dressing and roast bird. It’s the more adult version of sweet potatoes for the holidays.

Bourbon "Smashed" Sweet Potatoes

INGREDIENTS:

* 1 3/4 to 2 pounds sweet potatoes

* 1 teaspoon olive oil

* 1/2 cup heavy cream

* 1/4 cup bourbon whiskey

* 3 tablespoons packed light brown sugar

* 2 tablespoons molasses

* 1/8 teaspoon salt

 DIRECTIONS:

Preheat the oven to 425° F.

Lightly rub the sweet potatoes with the olive oil. Place on a foil-lined baking sheet and bake until tender, about 45 minutes to 1 hour, depending upon their size. Remove from the oven and let sit until cool enough to handle.

Peel the sweet potatoes and transfer the flesh to a large bowl. Add the cream, bourbon, brown sugar, molasses, and salt, and beat on high speed with a hand-held mixer until smooth. Cover to keep warm until ready to serve.

Makes 4 servings

As you can tell from the recipe, these are totally low-fat and healthy!