Tasty.....Sunday?

First off, I am feeling very inspired and uplifted after an amazing Sacrament Meeting. I went into today being more relaxed than usual for a Christmas Sunday (all you other LDS musicians know that Christmas Sunday is usually pretty busy). My choir only sang two songs (we sang one last week too) and there was only one other musical number, which was the primary. But it was so great. We had three short speakers (Jeremy was one of them) and the whole spirit of the meeting was wonderful. It was nice to not be so busy and stressed and I was able to enjoy everything a lot more. I was so pleased with my choir. We sang a simple but beautiful arrangement of "Away in a Manger" and then Mack Wilberg's arrangement of "The First Nowell" (that is the correct spelling in this version). Having been the choir director in this ward for about a year and a half now, my choir has become so musical and unified. It's so great. I was so overwhelmed in the last verse of "The First Nowell" when it says "And let us all with one accord sing praises to our heavenly Lord. That hath made heav'n and earth of nought, and with his blood mankind hath bought. Nowell, nowell.." The choir was so unified and their were just singing their hearts out and I loved every minute of it. Of course I was all teary-eyed and so were they, but somehow we managed to keep singing and it was just beautiful. Ahhh. I am fulfilled.

So, onto the treats. If you're like me, you're already on sugar overload, so you probably don't need any more recipes for sweets, but you can come back and look at this next year if you want. :) I have been baking a lot to take treats to visiting teachees, neighbors and the ward choir. In the last 5 days I have made pumpkin bread, Hello-Dollies (like 7-layer bars), snowball cookies, fudge, and English toffee. These are some of my very very favorite Christmasy treats. The great thing about all of these, well most of them, is that they are really easy and don't use too many different bowls/pans. (I hate that. If it wasn't for the dishes, I could cook and bake all day long). So, I thought I would go ahead and put all of these recipes. I know. Crazy. But I didn't post a recipe last week because I was traveling, this week I was a slacker, and next week we'll be traveling again, so there you go. Use them if you'd like; if not, I will just have them on here for my posterity. :)
Pumpkin Bread (from my Aunt Marilyn)

3 c. flour
2 c. sugar
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
3 tsp. cinnamon
2 c. canned pumpkin
1 1/4 c. oil
1 c. chopped nuts

Mix together first 5 ingredients. Then add the rest. Bake in 2 loaf pans at 350 degrees for 1 hr. 15 min. (I told you it was easy).

Hello-Dollies (I think from my Grandma Astle?)

1 cube butter, melted
1 c. graham cracker crumbs (I usually end up using 1 1/2-2)
1 c. shredded coconut
1 c. chopped walnuts
1 c. chocolate chips
1 12-oz. can sweetened condensed milk

Mix together butter and graham cracker crumbs and press into a 9x13 pan. Add the rest of the ingredients with the sweetened condensed milk last, on the top. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes. Let stand 10-15 min. Cut while still warm. (Easy again).

Snowball Cookies (from my mother-in-law, Debbie Nowland)

These are so pecan-y and crumbly and delicious. Love them!

1/2 c. powdered sugar
1 c. butter
2 1/2 c. sifted flour
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla
1 c. finely chopped pecans

Cream together butter and powdered sugar. Blend in rest of ingredients. Refrigerate dough for 1-2 hours. (Dough will be a little dry. Don't be alarmed). Roll (or squeeze/form) dough into 1 1/2 inch balls. Bake on ungreased cookie sheet at 350 degrees for 10-15 minutes. Roll in additional powdered sugar while they are still warm. Cook on cooling rack. (Again, easy).

FUDGE (Grandma Astle)

Now it starts to get harder...

4 c. sugar
2 cubes butter
1 12-oz. can evaporated milk
32 large marshmallows
2 heaping cups chocolate chips
1 tsp. vanilla
1 c. chopped nuts (optional for you, essential for me)

Boil sugar, butter, and milk over medium heat. Stir constantly until it gets to a soft ball stage (use a candy thermometer, it will get to 240 degrees; it takes awhile). Pull off heat. Stir in marshmallows until melted. Add rest. Stir only until chips melt. Pour onto 9x13 pan and beat with a spoon until it is all even. Put in the refrigerator to set. (My grandma says to pour it out onto a marble slab and beat it to form it and then wrap it in small rolls in plastic wrap, but I tried this for my first batch and it didn't work so well. I found that putting it into a pan was a lot easier and then you could just cut it into little pieces. That's my two cents).

English Toffee (Debbie Nowland)
1/2 lb. butter
1 c. sugar
1 T. water
chopped almonds
3-4 large hershey bars or chocolate chips

Melt butter. Add sugar and water. Stir constantly and boil until 300 degrees is reached or it is the color of peanut butter. Pour toffee into foil lined cookie sheet. Place hershey bars on toffee and let melt. Spread and sprinkle with nuts.

We made this for the first time last year and it was a success on the very first try. This year...not as great. I don't know what we did wrong, but the butter started to separate right at the end, so there was all this extra butter when we went to pour it out. It still tasted great (well, 2 of the 3 batches we tried), but it was weird. I'm sure my mother-in-law knows what we did wrong. So, I'm definitely no expert, but maybe you'll have beginner's luck like we did last year. :)

Oh, and I couldn't end this ridiculously long post with out putting up a couple pictures of Eli from our ward Christmas party last night. Santa came and Eli got to sit on his lap. So cute!