Christmas Gifts From The Kitchen just makes me want to start baking cookies with the kids. Every year, we pull together some of our favorite baking mixes, hot cocoa mixes or soup-in-a-jar mixes and start making gifts. Mixes-in-a jar are a beautiful and yummy treat! Not only are they fun to make, but they are practical too!

You can make Christmas gifts using your favorite muffin, cornbread, scone, biscuit, brownie and even pancake recipes. Today, I’ve put together some of our favorite mixes-in-a-jar. Batter bowls like the one picture below are perfect for the mixes-in-a jar because you can decorate them with wodden spoons and a ribbon and they get the batter bowl as a gift too.

Celebration Cookie Mix

Ingredients:

• ½ cup granulated sugar
• ¾ cup sweetened dried cranberries
• ½ cup white or semi-sweet chocolate morsels
• ¾ cup packed brown sugar
• 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1 cup quick or old-fashioned oats
• ½ cups pecans or walnuts, coarsely chopped

1. In small batter bowl or large jar, layer ingredients as follows, gently patting each layer before adding the next ingredient: granulated sugar, cranberries, chocolate morsels, brown sugar, flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, oats and pecans. Cover with lid. Attach the gift tag recipe.

Gift Tag Recipe

Celebration Cookie Mix

¾ cup (1 ½ sticks) butter, softened
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 recipe Celebration Cookie Mix

Preheat oven to 375˚F. In large bowl, combine butter, eggs and vanilla; mix until well blended. Add cookie mix to butter mixture; mix until well blended. Drop 2 tablespoons scoops of dough 2 inches apart on baking stone. Flatten dough slightly using back of spoon. Bake 13-15 minutes or until edges are golden brown. Cool 5 minutes; remove to cooling rack. Makes 3 dozen cookies.

Cowboy Chili Mix

Ingredients:

• 2 Tablespoons chili powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano leaves
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ¼ cup dried cilantro or parsley leaves
• ½ cup dehydrated minced onions
• ½ cup dried black beans
• ½ cup dried kidney beans
• ½ cup pinto beans
• 2 snack sized (1 oz) corn chips, unopened

Directions:

1. In a small batter bowl or large jar, layer ingredients for chili mix in order listed, gently patting each layer before adding the next. Place corn chip packages on top of chili mix. Cover with lid. Attach gift tag recipe, below.

Gift Tag Recipe

Cowboy Chili

1 recipe Cowboy Chili Mix
1 Tablespoon vegetable oil
1 pound beef stew meat, cut into 1 inch cubes
1 garlic clove, pressed
4 cups water
1 jar (16oz) salsa
1 can (15 oz) tomato sauce

Remove corn chips, set aside. Heat oil in 4 quart pot over medium heat until shimmering. Add meat and garlic. Cook and stir 6-7 minutes or until browned. Stir in chili mix and water; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer 1 ½ hours. Stir in salsa and tomato sauce. Simmer, covered, 30 minutes or until beans and meat are tender. Top with corn chips. Makes 8 cups.

Brownie Mix

Ingredients:

• 1 1/3 cup sugar, divided
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour, divided
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 cup candy-coated chocolate miniature baking bits
• 1/2 cup white chocolate morsels
• 1/2 cup walnut halves, coarsely chopped (optional)

Directions:

1. In small bowl or large jar, combine 2/3 cup sugar and cinnamon, mix well and set aside. In a mason jar or decorative plastic bag, layer ingredients as follows, gently pat each layer before adding the next ingredient: salt, baking powder, 1/2 cup of the flour, cocoa powder, remaining 2/3 cup sugar, baking bits and remaining 1 cup flour. Top with reserved cinnamon-sugar mixture, chocolate morsels and walnuts(optional).
2. Cover with lid or tie with ribbon depending on what you choose to put the ingredients in. Attach the gift tag and give it as a gift and don’t forget to attach the recipe below.

Gift Tag Recipe

Batter Bowl Brownies

• 1 recipe Batter Bowl Brownie mix
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 3 eggs
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly spray square pan with vegetable oil. In large bowl, combine brownie mix, oil, eggs, water and vanilla; mix until well blended. Spread mixture into pan. Bake 35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool completely.
.
Yields: 20 brownies

Thanksgiving has always brought some wonderful fond memories that just stand out in my mind. Each Thanksgiving with my family is a precious memory being made.  I am so blessed for my wonderful husband of 14 years and my beautiful loving children.  I can say I have truly been blessed in my life to have such a wonderful family!! 

And to you, my readers, I just want to say how thankful I am to you. Thank you for coming back each and every day and sharing my kitchen! My wish for you is to have a wonderful happy, loving and memorable Thanksgiving with your family.

Create memories and have fun!

Yum! Need I say more? I love baking during the holidays. I love to bake and share with my family and friends. Baking something for someone is an inexpensive way to say you thought of them, you care about them.  Homemade from the heart~It’s basically a great gift idea!  

There are also many recipes that make great holiday gifts that require no baking at all. That’s why I love the recipe I’ll be sharing with you today. It requires no baking at all. It can involve the kids in the kitchen. It is an easy recipe for any time of the year.

This is our first year participating in 4-H. The kids are old enough now to participate in the individual clubs they are interested in. Our 10-year old son is participating in Archery and Rifle Shooting, and our daughter is just as eager to participate in this club, but unfortunately she misses the cutoff starting age by just a few months. She has signed up for the Creative Arts Group, where the kids will be learning cooking skills, recipes and sewing.

Individual No Bake Pumpkin Cheesecake

 This week they learned how to make a No Bake Pumpkin Cheesecake. Each club member made their own individual small cheesecake (2-3 servings) from this recipe (filling ingredients doubled). This is a very kid-friendly recipe that’s safe for the young ones to participate in and doesn’t require the heat from the oven or stove. Our daughter is excited to make this dessert again for our Thanksgiving dinner.

Baking for others at the Holidays can become a sweet traditions for all involved!

Today I’m sharing that super easy recipe for No Bake Pumpkin Cheesecake.

Here’s how:

I also re-made the recipe without layering the filling. So for our Share Our Holiday Table today, I thought adding these individual cheesecakes to our family holiday sharing list and deliver them to the Food Bank and Abused Women and Children’s Shelter.

Do you have a baking tradition? What do you bake? What No Bake Recipes are your family’s favorite? Does your family share your holiday table with others? When do you deliver? I would love to know what you do and how!

Is there something that you would like me to write about?  If you need to get caught up on day(s) you missed they are all listed below:

Share Our Holiday Table~A Season of Sharing With Others

At our most recent PTC meeting at the school, one of the topics on the adgenda was Holiday Meals for Families in need. This time of year has always been inspiring to me to start thinking about ways our family could continue to help other family’s, our community and write more about my passion for sharing family meals with others!

One of the ways I’m excited to participate again this year is join in Share Our Strength No Kid Hungry to help raise awareness childhood hunger in the U.S. during this critical holiday season. I couldn’t think of a better cause to donate my time to.

I have to admit, I’m not quite sure about the details and how exactly it will all happen, but throughout the holiday season,  I’ll be committing to writing about sharing a family meal “hopefully” almost everyday. At first I was a little worried about working full-time outside the home, and not having that extra time to sit and write about one specific topic everyday much less come up with individual posts. But family meal sharing is my passion, so I’m going to give it a try.

Share A Family Meal With A Family This Season

During my Share Our Holiday Table Series, I will share with you new recipes, re-visit some old traditional family favorites,  and I will share ways our family is helping others this holiday season.  All the recipes will be “family friendly”. I will also show you how you and your family can get involved this holiday season in family meal sharing.

 Nearly 17 million children- that’s almost one in four – face hunger in the U.S., not knowing where their next meal will come from. That is a stunning statistic! During this holiday season, when we are all scurrying around buying gifts and enjoying celebratory meals with our families, I would urge you to take a few minutes to reflect on those less fortunate, including the 17 million hungry children. Please spread the word about ending child hunger, and if you find it in your heart, consider making a donation to Share Our Strength No Kid Hungry, no matter how large or small. Just $1 can connect a child to 10 healthy meals, and $25 provides 3 meals a day for a child for 3 months.  Share Our Strength No Kid Hungry helped provide 4.5 million more meals to needy children in 2009.

I hope you enjoy my Share Our Holiday Table Series, but even more importantly, I hope you will help spread the word on childhood hunger so we can help solve this crisis together. If you want to tweet about this campaign, please use this hashtag #NoKidHungry.

I am so pleased to be able to provide community service, recipes and sharing family meals with you, knowing that it is in support of such a worthy cause.

Coming Up Next: No Bake Pumpkin Cheesecake…Yum!