Funfetti

Tasty Tuesday–Festive Feasts and Holiday Baking, 2023 Edition

It’s finally time for a look back at all of the Festive Feasts we enjoyed over the holiday season, and all the baking we did!

Let’s start with Thanksgiving, which was our traditional turkey dinner with the addition of some delicious roasted fennel this year:

And a record-tying nine pies!

Our next big holiday was Nikolaustag, and it’s become a tradition for us to enjoy Döner kebab on that day (or, as was the case this time, several days later, once Bunny got home from college). We also had a gingerbread-based dessert as has become our custom…this time, I made gingerbread bars with a cream cheese frosting that were amazing!

On Santa Lucia Day, we enjoyed lussekattes for breakfast, and potato pancakes with smoked salmon and Kielbasa for dinner (a day early), plus an cranberry-orange layer cake with rosemary for dessert:

On Christmas Eve, we had a peppermint chip cake after church:

And coffee cake for breakfast on Christmas morning:

On Christmas Day, we had the best dinner of the year, the “pick out dinner.”

And then things got kind of messed up because I hurt my back. We postponed the fancy Christmas dinner we were supposed to have on the 27th, but we did manage to have our annual hot chocolate bar on New Year’s Eve:

And I also postponed the (different) fancy dinner we were supposed to have on New Year’s Day, but I did manage to make a gingerbread layer cake with molasses mousse filling and cinnamon whipped cream frosting, garnished with sugared cranberries:

On Ryan’s birthday (which was also Epiphany), I finally made the tenderloin that was supposed to be the star of our fancy Christmas dinner, plus s’mores pie for dessert:

Yesterday, I finally got around to the turkey dinner we were supposed to have on New Year’s Day. We also tried a new recipe for replica Starbucks’ cranberry bliss bars for dessert. I haven’t had the original, but Bunny tells me these are even better, because they don’t have that mass-produced flavor!

Before my back injury, we spent a few days baking our favorite Christmas cookies (and I put together a Bunter Teller!):

And we did eventually get around to the sugar cookies (not the gingerbread, though…we just ran out of time, but at least we had lots of other gingerbread desserts!):

I made kinderpunsch, wassail several times (not pictured), and eggnog over the course of the holiday weeks:

And then there were lots of other festive treats spread through the holiday season, from the weekend before Thanksgiving when we made soft pumpkin chocolate chip cookies to the Valentine’s Day Funfetti Bunny made for us before she went back to school (and also my first attempt at Dampfnudeln, which were amazing!):

By my count, we ended up short one fancy meal, because normally the tenderloin wouldn’t have been available for Ryan’s birthday dinner. We were also short the gingerbread cookies and the cannoli that I had hoped to make for New Year’s Day, since I simply didn’t have the strength or energy to do much the whole week between Christmas and New Year’s. It certainly wasn’t my best effort at holiday food, but at least I hit all the highlights, right?

Thirteen!

Today is Moose’s 13th birthday!!! Yes, we now have three teenagers in the house!

He starts school a little later this year than he has in previous years, so he had plenty of time to open his gifts this morning. The humor in him receiving a Lego City hospital from us (which I purchased months ago) was not lost on me, considering the events of the last week.

Things were even more fortuitous than that, though. He told me a few weeks ago that he wanted a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. He didn’t require a cake with a special shape (that would require fancy frosting), or complicated fillings or anything. So it was an easy cake to make, even with a broken ankle, and it looked really fun thanks to the Funfetti frosting! As always for a 13th birthday, I bought candles that spell out “Happy Birthday” because there are exactly 13 letters in the saying:

It was a more low-key birthday than we usually have around here (well, except for the unexpected snow showers, which he was very excited about…I don’t think he’s ever had birthday snow before!), but he didn’t seem to mind, and I was just happy to be able to celebrate with him!

Tasty Tuesday–Funfetti!

You know it’s a HOLIDAY at our house when Pillsbury Funfetti cupcakes arrive on the scene. Even though I do a lot of our baking from scratch, there’s something special about a Funfetti cake with brightly colored frosting and more Funfetti sprinkled on top! I think we’ve now tried all the seasonal varieties…Valentine’s, Spring, Halloween, Stars & Stripes, and the ubiquitous Holiday.

In addition to the seasonal varieties, I’ve made at least one of the other colorful varieties. What I’m really waiting for, though, is the day when they might make “Lucky” Funfetti with bright green frosting and shamrock sprinkles!

Valentine’s Day Dinner

I have done fancy Valentine’s Day dinners in the past, but this year, I decided to do something fun. Make-your-own pizzas is always a big hit around here…this year, I found pizza bagels to use as the base for our dinner, and they were amazing! We also had a nice selection of toppings…two cheeses (mozzarella and Provel), mini pepperoni, green onions, mushrooms, and olives. Add some festively colored strawberry Crush, and Valentine’s Day Funfetti cupcakes for dessert, and I think we had a very nice family feast!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

A Feast for the Fourth

Happy Fourth of July!

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This year, I decided to take a break from our standard Independence Day dinner of braised beef brisket, and instead went with a Dr. Pepper inspired meal. We had pulled pork in a chipotle Dr. Pepper sauce and topped with a spicy slaw, corn on the cob, baked beans, kettle chips, watermelon, and our favorite cherry Jell-O made with Dr. Pepper instead of Coca-Cola. We also had two special treats…red, white, and blue Rice Krispie treats with lunch, and my favorite Stars and Stripes Funfetti for dessert, complete with sparkler candles!

It was a very festive meal, and a nice change of pace from our usual Fourth of July dinner!

An Independence Day Tea Party

I’ve been wanting to have a semi-ironic Independence Day tea party for a few years now (you know, Boston Tea Party and all). I had a few ideas last month, so I decided that this would be the year!

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It worked out well, because our kitchen is decorated for this event all year:

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And I found some cute little star candles and acrylic stars at Michael’s to add to the centerpiece:IMG_8064

Since I already had red, white, and blue table linens, I only had to spend about $5 for a fully decorated, very festive table! (No china this time, because if there was ever a holiday where china doesn’t work, it’s the Fourth of July! I should have just used paper plates…)

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We had iced tea, to make sure our tea party had the proper American twist, plus lots of red, white, and blue, and stars. Blue and red jello stars, red, white and blue strawberries, marshmallow “firecrackers,” Stars and Stripes Funfetti cupcakes, blueberries, star-shaped sugar cookies in the colors of the flag, and white cheese on red and blue toothpicks were all on the menu:

I did make scones (star-shaped, of course), and served English muffins (with blueberry jelly), so it wasn’t completely American. Plus, have you ever noticed what color the Union flag is? Hard to tell what we’re celebrating! Again, semi-ironic, which was exactly what I was going for!

This was a particularly fun tea party to plan, and I’m glad I finally came up with ideas for a very American afternoon tea!

Valentine’s Day

Over the last few years of homeschooling, we’ve made a few fun Valentine’s Day crafts. Of course, this doesn’t include the excessive number of actual Valentines we’ve also made…the children love giving cards to people, and they’ve made every variation of homemade Valentine that you can think of!

A fun mailbox to put our Valentine's in!

Valenswines

Beaded Valentine Hearts

Woven Heart "Basket"

"Sparkle Hug Critters"

I’ve also made several fun Valentine’s Day treats…two of which feature my favorite seasonal dessert–Funfetti! (We’ve also made and decorated heart-shaped sugar cookies on more than one occasion, but I couldn’t find any pictures of those. Trust me when I say there were lots of sprinkles involved!)

Cupcakes

Whoopie Pies