Special Holiday Meals: What’s for Christmas Dinner? (2023)

This has been the topic of discussion for a couple of weeks here now but I really don’t have a definite answer yet. We know that we don’t want to do a ‘traditional’ meal so no ham or turkey this year. We may use the smoker to do some meat and maybe have some pulled pork in the crockpot.

I’m hoping to try to make some Christmas Tree Bread or a Christmas Star with our sourdough but I’m not sure if either of those will happen but they are on my wish list of things to do. I would love to do a traditional Christmas dinner like the one listed in the vintage dinner menu I mentioned HERE but I know that I definitely don’t have the time or patience for that right now.

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They Are Dreaming of a Little Something Special for Christmas

I know that Christmas is fast approaching and many have already gone over their holiday budget but I wanted to let you know about a special organization that has touched my heart deeply over the past couple of years.

They have been on our prayer list for a while now and in our daily thoughts and prayers so I don’t know why I haven’t shared about them before but now is better than never.

I know that there are so many charities that are asking for donations at this time of year but this one really touches my heart.

Help A Child Foundation

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Amish Friendship Bread – A gift that keeps on giving!

Are you still trying to come up with a gift idea for someone? This is a great gift to give… either finish the starter out to bake the bread or gift some starter and a copy of the directions to your friends so they can bake their own bread.

I was recently gifted several starters so I had to dig through my old binders to find my old recipes for this gift. It’s been over 10 years since I’ve made any of these recipes. I ended up making 2 loaves of the Basic Recipe, 2 loaves of Banana Bread, 2 loaves of Chocolate Bread, and a double-batch of pancakes, and I still have 2 cups of starter left over to start another batch.

Photo by Liana Horodetska on Pexels.com

I have included the basic bread instructions in this post and I will also try to include a pretty printable for gifting. This would be so cute to give a small loaf of bread with a small jar of starter and the instructions.

There are many other variations available and you can easily search for more flavor variations online. I will try to update the blog with some of the other recipe variations that I have in my binder.

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Getting Ready for the Holidays Week 9 (2 Weeks Before Christmas)

We got the tree up (I hope) and the house is looking pretty festive. This week we will be having our Polar Express Party so that will be the main topic of discussion. Here are some of the things that we will be working on this week:

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Easy DIY Onion Soup Mix and Au Jus Mix

Don’t run out of these mixes again! These are so easy to make and they taste so much better than the store-bought… your family won’t know what you did differently but they’ll love it!

DIY Onion Soup Mix

Ingredients:

  • 1 1/2 c. dry minced onion
  • 2/3 c. beef bouillon powder (optional)
  • 3 T. onion powder
  • 1 T. dried parsley
  • 2 t. oregano
  • 2 t. garlic powder
  • 1 t. celery seeds
  • 1 t. black pepper
  • ¼ t. paprika

Directions:

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