St. Nicholas Day: A Family Tradition

One of my favorite Christmas traditions growing up was St. Nicholas Day. Although we are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints sometimes known as "Mormons" my mom instituted we celebrate St. Nicholas Day on December 6th. St. Nicholas Day is commonly celebrated in European countries. It is thought that Santa Claus bringing gifts is based off St. Nicholas Day. Read more here.

 We set our shoes out on the fireplace hearth on the 5th of December. In the morning they would be filled with a small surprise, like hair things, candy or a small toy. It was a simple tradition but one we looked forward to. As a teenager, I liked to set out my most daring shoe for St. Nicholas. When we went to college, St. Nicholas still found us, via US Mail! His handwriting was strangely similar to my mom's ;)

I plan on carrying on this tradition with my family as well. Just another magical way to make December memorable!

In my husband's basketball sneaker: The Beach Boys's Sounds of Summer.(affiliate link)

In my bootie : Welch's Fruit Snacks, (affiliate link) because I love fruit snacks

In my daughter's boot: We Belong Together by Joyce Wan. (affiliate link) I LOVED this book when we got it from the library and I'm so happy we own it now! It's got really cute illustrations and I think it's perfect for a parent-child relationship or for siblings.

Sour cream coffee cake with streusel topping

One of the recipes my husband brought to our family was his mother's coffee cake. Now, the recipe was a hand-me-down to her, and she wasn't sure where it came from, either—possibly a newspaper? But it's become a tradition in our family to make this coffee cake (or as we call it, cinnamon bread, since we don't drink coffee and I'd rather not serve "cake" for breakfast) as often as we can.

Coffee Cake by Mr. T in DC, on Flickr
via CC license

Of course, my favorite story about this recipe is the time I submitted it to a local church cookbook, and they printed my Sour Cream Coffee Cake recipe . . . without sour cream.

Ingredients

Cake

• 1/2 c sugar
• 2 T softened butter
• 1 egg
• 3/4 c sour cream
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 1/2 c baking mix (like Bisquick)

Topping

• 1/4 c granulated sugar
• 1/4 c flour
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon (or to taste)
• 2 T firm butter

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease an 8x8 glass or metal baking pan.

2. For the cake, in a mixer or medium mixing bowl, beat the sugar with the butter until combined. Beat in egg, sour cream and vanilla. Add Bisquick and stir until combined. Pour into prepared pan.

3. For the topping, combine dry ingredients in a small bowl. Using two forks, a pastry blender or your fingers, cut in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs or wet sand. Sprinkle over cake batter in pan.

4. Bake about 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.

Next time, I'll share a variation on this recipe I made for Father's Day!

What's your favorite breakfast tradition?

Saturday Breakfast Tradition: German Pancakes and Homemade Syrup

My husband loves cooking breakfast. When he cooks anything he tries to go above and beyond and make it great. We recently started a tradition in our house that on Saturday mornings we have something special for breakfast. It could be Krispy Kreme doughnuts, cinnamon rolls (or pop roll hack), pancakes, scones, waffles, eggs, bacon, or any combination. My hubby recently introduced German Pancakes to me and we have had them at least half a dozen times since. We have tried variations of this recipe and have found it is best to just keep it super simple!

German Pancakes
1/4 cup butter
1 cup flour
1 cup milk
6 eggs
1/8 tsp salt.

Preheat over to 350 degrees. Melt butter in 9 x 13 pan. Thoroughly mix together ingredients in blender and pour in pan. If you double the recipe use two pans! Bake for 30-40 minutes. Enjoy with syrup, powdered sugar, and/or fresh fruit. About 4 servings.

All set!

PB loves them!

We also enjoy this with this recipe for homemade syrup.

Homemade Syrup
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup water
1 tablespoon maple flavoring

Boil sugar and water. Reduce to simmer for 10 minutes. Add maple flavoring and serve. Leftovers should be stored in the refrigerator. We usually put the rest in a mason jar. 

Here are some other great breakfast recipes from the Wayward Girls:

Feta Omelet

Chicken and Waffles

Apple Braid

Happy Weekend!

Memories and Predictions Traditions

Ok so maybe this is a New Year's tradition but Christmas and New Year's are only a week apart! And you can do this for Christmas as well. Throughout the year we save a ticket or receipt or little mementos that represent something special we did as a family (or at least most of the family.) Usually, mom puts the little things in the box so we don't know what to expect when we open it. Each year, we open it, take a couple things out then go around in a circle and tell everyone what we got out of the box. It's a great way to remember the fun times we had throughout the year. Our box isn't anything special, just an old Werther's Original can. You can decorate your family's box or can together or just find an already decorative box.

We also make predictions for the next year. We predict something for each person in the family, whether they're there or not. We make predictions like "Jordan's youngest will learn how to walk," or "Mom will walk on the moon." Some we take more seriously than others...We read the last year's prediction when we open the box as well. Sometimes we actually predict things right too! It's a great way to bring together the family and have a good time.

Frosting Christmas Cookies and Drizzle Frosting Recipe

One of my favorite Christmas traditions as a child, and even now, is decorating Christmas cookies. It is the culmination of the season for our family, since we make and decorate them on Christmas Eve.

My mom makes the dough and the kids roll it out and cut the cookies. We make at least four cookie sheets worth!

I have to share a secret with you: We make UGLY cookies. And we love them. This is why it's so fun and why we're still decorating them even as adults.

 We use a drizzled kind of frosting, so the cookies are tasty but....not perfect in appearance. I think we've made some really cool cookies though.

Harry Potter cookies to go along with our obsession. These are Jasmine's. She made that golden snitch cookie that says "I open at the close" cool, huh? Don't forget about Harry, Ron, Hermione and Voldemorte

She made the Weasley family too!

Now for some not so pretty cookies:

Michael Jackson, RIP!

Jaime by Jaime (I added an elephant for some class)

My favorite on here is by my brother-in-law, he did the NC State cookie. I was impressed!

Frosting Recipe:

Ingredients:

1 lb Powdered Sugar
6 Tablespoons of Whole milk
6 Tablespoons of light corn syrup
1 Teaspoon of almond or vanilla extract

Directions:
With a whisk, combine sugar and milk until smooth. Then mix in corn syrup and extract. We put about 3/4 cup into a mug and then add food coloring and stir. We use spoons to drizzle the frosting on and tooth picks for accents.

Do you make Christmas cookies every year? Ever made ugly ones?