Christmas Quilt Books and Recipes

I hope all of you enjoyed your Christmas celebrations as much as I did.  Here are the two new quilt books that I received for Christmas.  I love Judy Martin's quilts, so I actually bought Extraordinary Log Cabin Quilts for myself.  Her quilts are just amazing, and there are always a few quilts in her books that I want to make.  Pieced Hexies came from my son and daughter-in-law.  I am really having fun with hexagons, so I can't wait to try some of the ideas from this book.



I've started fussy cutting some Christmas fabric to use in some of the new hexagons.

As promised in my last post, here are the recipes for the Sweet Potatoes and the Banana Pudding that I made for Christmas Dinner.  There is a Print PDF button at the end of my posts if you would like to print the recipes.  There is an option at the top of the page to remove the images if you just want to print the text.

Sweet Potatoes - Ruth's Chris Style
(I adapted this recipe from http://www.the-girl-who-ate-everything.com/2010/11/sweet-potatoes-ruths-chris-style.html).  I used canned sweet potatoes and added some cream to the recipe.
NOTE:  In my opinion, there is way too much sugar in this recipe - especially the topping.  I think it should be reduced to 1/2 - 3/4 Cup brown sugar in the topping and maybe cut the sugar in the sweet potatoes down to 3/4 cup.  The good news is that it smelled so good, even the people who had sworn off sweet potatoes before tried this recipe and loved it.

Here is the recipe for Ruth Chris Sweet Potatoes:

Crust (crumb topping)

1 cup brown sugar (I would reduce this to 1/2 to 3/4 cup next time)

1/3 cup flour

1 cup nut topping (pecans) found in the baking aisle of the grocery

1/3 cup melted butter

Sweet Potato Mixture:

1 large can sweet potatoes drained and mashed

1 cup sugar (I would reduce this down to 3/4 cup next time)

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 eggs well beaten

1 stick melted butter (1/2 cup)

2 Tablespoons cream

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Spray a medium sized casserole dish with nonstick spray.  

Crust:  Combine brown sugar, flour, nuts and butter in mixing bowl and set aside.

Next combine sweet potatoes, sugar, salt, vanilla, eggs and butter in a large mixing bowl in the order listed.  Beat thoroughly with a hand mixer for about 3 or 4 minutes to increase the volume of the sweet potato mixture.  Add the 2 Tablespoons of cream and mix.

Pour mixture into a baking dish.  Bake for 25 minutes.  Sprinkle the topping on and bake for another 10 minutes.  Allow to cool for 30 minutes before serving.

If you go to The Girl Who Ate Everything Blog you will find the sweet potato recipe with directions on how to make this dish with fresh sweet potatoes instead of canned.  There are also a lot of other wonderful recipes there.

The Southern Banana Pudding was a hit, too.  It was a nice, light dessert (sort of) to have after a big Christmas dinner.




Here is the recipe:

Southern Banana Pudding

1 large package Instant Vanilla Pudding

1 large package Instant Banana Pudding

1 can of sweetened condensed milk (Eagle brand)

1 package (8 oz) softened cream cheese

4 bananas (not over ripe)

5 cups of cold milk

2 1/2 cups of heavy whipping cream OR  1 large container of Cool Whip (that is what I used)

2 boxes of Vanilla Wafers (you will have wafers left over)

Make whipped cream (with hand mixer, whip heavy cream, 3 tsps. sugar and 1 tsp vanilla) OR just take the lid off the Cool Whip!!!!!

In a separate bowl, mix softened cream cheese and condensed milk with mixer until well blended

Stir in pudding mixes and milk and beat on medium until well blended

Fold in 1/2 of the whipping cream (or Cool Whip)

Assemble the layers:

I used a trifle bowl, but any dish will work.

Place a layer of Vanilla Wafers in the bottom of the dish.

Slice up one banana over the top.

Spoon pudding mixture over the top

Continue to layer:  cookies/bananas/pudding.   Your final layer should be pudding followed by the rest of the Cool Whip.  Decorate with Vanilla Wafers and crumbs.  

Put in fridge for at least 6 hours before serving or overnight.

Thank you for stopping by!

To all of my readers, subscribers and followers, I wish you all a Happy and prosperous New Year!