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ICE CASTLES Supplies: POTATO SNOWMAN & SANTA MEATLOAF Hand sculpt mashed potatoes to look like a snowman and place on an oiled baking sheet. Brush with melted butter, and put in the oven to heat and brown a little. Serve potato snowmen with santa shaped meat loaf, by using a santa shaped cookie cutter to form the individual portions before baking. VEGETABLE WREATH - You can make an interesting edible vegetable tray by placing cut pieces of raw brocolli around a round serving platter to form a wreath. Decorate with cherry tomatoes, cut up jicama, carrots, red peppers, yellow peppers, green peppers, any vegetables your guests will like. Serve with dip (any kind of dry onion soup mix and sour cream makes an easy holiday onion dip!) CHOCOLATE DIPPING - Microwave 1 cup (6 oz.) of chocolate chips in a glass bowl, on HIGH (100% power) for 60 seconds. Stir. If the choclate is half melted, stir until the choclate melts completely. If you have more than half way to go, microwave at additional 10 to 20 second intervals, stirring until chocolate is smooth. Wash and dry fresh fruit slices of your choice: Strawberries, pears, apples, bananas. (Leave the strawberries whole, but cut the larger fruit in thick slices - big enough to pick up and eat.) Or try these dry foods: Dried fruits, Pretzels, Graham Crackers, Nuts, Marshmellows, Plain Cookies, etc. Dip your fruits and foods into the chocolate, leaving approx 1/2" of the food uncovered. Place the chocolate covered items on a sheet of waxed paper and allow them to harden. You can store chocolate covered dry foods for days in a plastic bag at room temperature. However, chocolate covered fruits are best eaten within 8 hours. POTATO STAMPS - While your making dinner, you can give each kid a potato with a design cut on it. A star, a triangle, a Christmas Tree, etc. Give them a small dishes of washable poster paints and let them dress up brown paper bags to make place mats. 
EASY GRAHAM CRACKER GINGERBREAD HOUSE. To make an easy Graham Cracker gingerbread house, you'll need 5 graham crackers per house and either store-bought frosting in a tube or the following ornamental frosting. (Caution: if the frosting you buy in a tube is intended for cakes, IT WILL NOT HARDEN. You can decorate your graham cracker house with it, but intend on eating your house soon, because it cannot be moved very easily.) ORNAMENTAL FROSTING 1/4 c butter or margarine 4 c sifted powdered sugar 2 unbeaten egg whites 1 tsp vanilla 1/4 tsp cream of tartar 1 to 2 tsp light cream With pastry blender, cut butter into powdered sugar until its the consistence of cornmeal. (If you don't have a hand pastry blender, a food processor -- or even a fork can work well for cutting.) Add egg whites, vanilla, and cream of tartar. Beat thoroughly. Stir in a little light cream till the frosting is juts a bit stiffer than spreading consistency. Tint frosting with a few drops of liquid food coloring, if desired. Place in pastry tube and squeeze onto graham crackers to make decorations. Decorate the walls and roof of your gingerbread house, either let dry or be VERY careful with your walls. Later, set your graham crackers up like a house of cards, pipe frosting onto the joints to hold the house together.
1/2 cup margarine 1/2 cup brown sugar 1 teaspoon vanilla 1 1/2 cups flour 1/8 teaspoon salt 20 to 25 maraschino cherries 20 to 25 chocolate bits , plus 1 cup chocolate bits Preheat oven to 350° F. Cream sugar and margarine well. Add vanilla, flour and salt. Mix well. Stuff cherries with chocolate bits. Wrap each cherry in 1 teaspoon dough. Bake on ungreased cookie sheet for 12 to 25 minutes. Cool. Melt 1 cup chocolate bits in a double boiler over low heat or in the microwave, and dip top of cookies in melted chocolate.
Ingredients 2 cups sifted all-purpose flour 3/4 teaspoon salt 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter or margarine 1/2 cup granulated sugar 1 tablespoon vanilla extract 1 cup finely chopped pecans 3/4 cup sifted confectioners sugar Makes about 4 dozen cookies. For more, just double the recipe. Preparation time: 45 minutes. Cooking time: 25 minutes. Cooling time: 15 minutes. Step 1: Preheat the oven to 325°F; butter two baking sheets. Onto a piece of wax paper, sift the flour and salt. In a medium-size bowl, with an electric mixer on high, cream the butter and granulated sugar until light and fluffy. Blend in the vanilla. Step 2: Using a wooden spoon, stir in the flour mixture, then the pecans. Dust your hands with a little of the confectioners sugar and roll the dough into 1-inch balls. Place 2 inches apart on the baking sheets and bake for 25 minutes or just until light brown. Step 3: Transfer to racks to cool for 15 minutes, then roll in the confectioners sugar. These cookies keep well in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks. Do not freeze them.
Ingredients: 2 lbs. Powered Sugar 4 cups Pecans 1 lb. Chocolate (1 Semi-Sweet 1 Unsweetened) 1 can Eagle brand milk 1 tbsp. Vanilla 1/4 lb. Parafin 1/2 lb. butter Directions: Cream butter. Add powered sugar and milk. Add vanilla and pecans. Drop on waxed paper. Refrigerate 3 hours. Dip in chocolate with a toothpick
Things you need: 1/2 cup ( 1 stick) butter, softened 1 cup granulated sugar 2 large eggs, separated 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon baking powder 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 cup chopped walnuts 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips 1 cup miniature marshmallows 1 cup firmly packed brown sugar Directions: 1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease a 13x9-inch baking pan. 2. Beat together butter and sugar at medium speed until light and fluffy. Beat in egg yolks, one at a time, until blended. 3. Mix together flour, baking powder, and salt. Fold flour mixture into butter mixture. 4. Press mixture into prepared pan. Pack down firmly. Sprinkle nuts, chocolate chips, and marshmallows over the top of mixture in pan. 5. Beat egg whites at high speed until stiff peaks form. Fold in brown sugar. Spread over mixture in pan. 6. Bake for 35 minutes or until a crust is formed. Transfer pan to a wire rack to cool completely. Cut cooled bars into squares. 7. Makes 36 bars
Ingredients: 4 ½ cup sugar 1 tall can evaporated milk 1/8 lb. butter 16 marshmallows 1 lb. sweet milk chocolate 24 oz. semi sweet chocolate chips 1 cup nuts 1 Tbs. vanilla Directions: Quarter marshmallows. Chop chocolate into chunks. Combine sugar, milk, and butter in heavy pan. Bring to rolling boil. Boil for 5 minutes. Stir constantly. Remove from stove. Add remaining ingredients. Pour into buttered 9 x 13 inch pan. Allow fudge to cool for about 2 hours before cutting.
Ingredients: 3 egg whites 1 cup sugar pinch of salt 8 oz chocolate, peanut butter, and/or butter scotch chips 1 cup pecans, chopped (optional) Directions: Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a baking sheet with foil. Beat the egg whites until light and fluffy. Fold in sugar and salt while mixing. Add chips and pecans. Drop spoonfuls of the mixture onto baking sheet. Place in oven. Turn off oven, and leave cookies inside overnight
Ingredients: ½ cup and 2 tbsp. butter 2 cup chunky peanut butter 1 tsp. vanilla 3 cup powdered sugar 3 cup Rice Krispies 18 oz. Chocolate chips ¼ bar paraffin Directions: Melt butter and peanut butter together. Mix in sugar and vanilla. Stir in Rice Krispies, using your hands, and form the mixture into balls. Melt the chocolate and paraffin in a double boiler. Dip the balls in the chocolate-paraffin mixture. Place them on a cookie sheet, which has been covered with waxed paper. Pop into freezer for 5 minutes to set. Note: If mixture is too dry, add a little water, 1 teaspoon at a time. If mixture is too wet, put in refrigerator before forming into balls.
Ingredients: Pre-made sugar cookie dough 2 (8-oz) bags sour-ball candies or Life Savers of assorted colors Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Remove dough from the refrigerator. Line 2 baking sheets with aluminum foil. Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface. Use cookie cutters to cut dough into various shapes. Cut out a shape from the center of each cookie. Be careful not to cut too close to the edges, or the cookies will break. Place the cookies on the lined baking sheet. Gather up scraps, re-roll, and cut, always working with chilled dough. Note: If you are making the cookies for decoration, use a drinking straw to cut a hole in the top of each cookie. You can later string them with ribbon for hanging. Separate the candy by color and place each color group in a double-thickness of plastic bags. Place 1 bag at a time in a dish towel. Crush the candies with a hammer or mallet into approximately ¼-inch pieces. Fill the cut-out shapes with the crushed candies. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes until candy has melted and is bubbly. Cool for 15 minutes until candies harden before peeling cookies from foil. Thread a ribbon through the hole to hang. Store between layers of wax paper in an airtight cookie tin. The cookies will keep for 1 week. Yeild: about 3 dozen 3-inch cookies.
Substitute the bourbon for rum and call these Rum Balls. Ingredients: 3 cups finely crushed vanilla wafers (about 75) 2 cups powdered sugar 1 cup finely chopped pecans or walnuts (about 4 ounces) 1/4 cup cocoa 1/2 cup bourbon 1/4 cup light corn syrup Powdered or granulated sugar Mix crushed wafers, powdered sugar, pecans and cocoa. Stir in bourbon and corn syrup. Shape mixture into 1-inch balls. Roll in powdered sugar. Refrigerate in tightly covered container several days before serving.
A Christmas Cobweb Party! - In the 18th century, a fun tradition was to tie a LONG piece of yarn to a present - then hide the present. Take the piece of yarn (which is still attached to the hidden present) and wrap it around chair legs, through stair bannisters, over tables, under couches... Clear around the house. Once you're ready to hunt out the presents, the gift giver needs only to tell the recipient what color yarn they're following. If everyone in the family hides and seeks presents for each other, it can turn into a cobweb extravaganza!
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