Christmas Steak Sauce

 This is so simple and totally tasty! Since it was just me, hubby, and kiddo for Christmas, we had steak for Christmas dinner :) I wanted a sauce that was a bit special, yet easy, and this is what I came up with. I estimated on the parts where I didn't actually measure. The recipe comes together so fast that I didn't have the chance to take pix and then forgot to do so at the end, too! I'll be making this again for sure, so I'll try to remember to get at least a final pic next time.

Ingredients:

1 T. unsalted butter

~1/2 T. bottled minced garlic

1/2 c. low sodium chicken broth

~1-2 T. balsamic vinegar

~1 tsp. herbes de Provence

~1/4 c. crème fraîche

 

Directions:

1. After cooking steaks (in cast iron pan), remove pan from heat to cool for about 2 min, then transfer back to burner on just slightly less than medium heat. Add butter to pan, followed by garlic. Swirl around in pan, then add chicken broth, followed by balsamic vinegar.

2. Stir to combine, scraping up browned bits while doing so. Stir in herbes de Provence, then crème fraîche. Turn off heat and stir sauce until crème has fully melted and combined in sauce. Pour over steaks and enjoy!

Raspberry Oatmeal Cups

 Don't make these. Seriously, they are not worth your time and especially not your ingredients. They're not the worst thing ever, they just aren't very good. They smelled really great when I was putting them together and when they were baking, yet the taste was just flat. And the raspberries are too much of a contrast with the rest, like they don't even belong. 5/10, will never make again. Only blogging it so I can remember the experience and that I tried and did not like this recipe. I didn't even modify at all. Since I'll never prepare this again and don't advise anyone to make them, I'm not going to bother writing out the recipe nor posting pix.

Link to original recipe: https://www.driscolls.com/recipe/raspberry-baked-oatmeal-cups

My Grandma's Spritz Cookies (with video link)

In honor of national cookie day (yesterday/4 December), I had to make some cookies, of course! I can't believe I've never put this one up on the blog yet. It's one of my favorite Christmas cookies to make, and super easy! This is the recipe of my (late) maternal grandmother, who was a legendary cook in our family :)

Link to my YouTube video of preparation: https://youtu.be/Ujutg3gU3mk

Ingredients:

1 c. (2 sticks) unsalted butter

2/3 c. sugar

1 tsp. vanilla extract

couple drops almond extract

3 egg yolks

1/2 tsp. salt

2 1/2 c. (10.64oz) flour

colored sugar, for decorating

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 400°F.

2. Using an electric/stand mixer, cream together butter, sugar, vanilla, almond ext., and egg yolks until fluffy.

3. Mix in salt and flour.

4. Using a cookie press, press dough in desired shapes onto cookie sheet. These cookies don't spread much, so cookies can be as close as 1 1/2" apart.

5. Top each pressed cookie with colored sugar. Transfer to oven and bake for 5-8 min, depending on your oven and how thick you pressed the cookies (I had to go for 8 in mine).

6. Let cool on cookie sheet for around 2-3 min before transferring to cooling rack. Enjoy!