Everything I cooked this Christmas: Lots of fun, festive recipes to use now or next year

I was off work last week, and I spent about 75% of that time in the kitchen.

Cooking is one of the main ways I relax, and I live for the oohs, ahhs and gratitude of the people who enjoy my creations.

Over the past few years, I’ve developed a love of “food art” — creating dishes meant to look like other things or arranging food in eye-catching ways. Some of my masterpieces have included a snack-adium, a snack-arena, a dozen bacon roses and a few eight-foot-long charcuterie boards.

This Christmas, I mastered a couple of pieces of food art that I’d spotted on social media and had to try, including an ashtray full of pretzel cigarettes and a Boursin cheese Christmas tree.

I also whipped up several of the dishes I make every year, including the world’s best sugar cookies and ham and beans for my husband.

And I had to take on the challenge of making my friend Katie Grover’s Croatian povitica, which I wrote about last week. I also baked two rather beautiful holiday desserts.

Following is a guide to what I cooked this Christmas along with the recipes I used. Save these for next year and thank me later.

Glassy Christmas Cake

My daughter, Alexis, asked me a few years ago to make a cake that looked like one she coveted on “The Great British Bake Off.” Their recipe was listed in grams, so I found an American version on The New York Times website. I’ve made it several times since then, and people are always impressed. I took the one pictured as a contribution to a dinner we were treated to at the home of some new friends. (And then I made it again for a Christmas Day party, where it doubled as a birthday cake for a special 12-year-old.)

It’s actually quite easy to make, and the frosting always cools with a glassy-smooth look. I added the raspberries to cover up my frosting messiness along the base and to make it look more like the cake Alexis requested. I’m growing rosemary indoors this winter so I always have it on hand for garnish.

The recipe I use is titled The Silver Palate’s Chocolate Cake and can be found at cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/8753-the-silver-palates-chocolate-cake?smid=ck-recipe-iOS-share

Frosted cranberry cheesecake

The only dessert my husband, Travis, likes is cheesecake. Plain cheesecake. So when I was tasked with making a Christmas-y cheesecake for a friend’s party, I used the recipe I use every year on his birthday, then found a recipe online for frosted cranberries to top it with. Of course, my rosemary plant came in handy again for garnishing this beauty. (Oops, I overcooked the cake a little, which caused the cracks on the top. But it still looked pretty and tasted great.)

Here’s the cheesecake recipe I always use: sugarspunrun.com/best-cheesecake-recipe/

And I made the cranberry topping using the directions on this recipe: www.delish.com/cooking/recipe-ideas/recipes/a56996/sparkling-cranberry-cheesecake-recipe/

Kim’s best-ever sugar cookies

Ever since my daughter was little, we’ve decorated sugar cookies just before Christmas. We always invite her besties, who are quite artistic, and over the past several years, my stepdaughter, Helen, and best friend Jaime Green’s son, Cameron, have started participating as well.

We always stock up on lots of food coloring and pretty sprinkles. But the key to our day is this sugar cookie recipe, given to me a decade ago by my friend, Kim. You will never find one better. Divide the also-perfect frosting into various dishes then, using food coloring, make lots of colors to share. Tip: If you want a white-white for snowmen, leave the vanilla out of the frosting.

Kim’s Sugar Cookies

2 cups butter

3 cups powdered sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp. vanilla

5 cups flour (preferred: Hudson Cream flour, unbleached, enriched)

2 teaspoons baking soda

2 teaspoons cream of tartar

Cream butter. Add sugar. Beat until light. Add egg and vanilla. Beat until fluffy. Add dry ingredients. Stir just until mixed. Roll, but and bake for 6 minutes at 350 degrees on parchment lined cookie sheets.

Buttercream frosting:

1 lb. confectioner’s sugar

1/2 cup butter

1 teaspoon vanilla

3 tablespoons milk

Food coloring

Beat first 4 ingredients. If necessary, add more milk. Add food coloring, stir to blend.

Festive cigarettes

This is a little tacky — and my cigarette-hating husband was not amused — but when I saw the recipe for these realistic looking pretzel cigarettes online, I had to try it. I even went to Goodwill to track down the perfect ash tray, as I certainly don’t own one. My friends, minus Travis, loved them, and they were tasty.

I couldn’t find black sugar crystals nor black food coloring, so I just used some silver sugar crystals I found at Wal-Mart for the ash, and that worked fine.

Here are the directions: thecakegirls.com/edible-chocolate-cigarette-ashes-how-to.html

Christmas tree cheese ball

I also saw this one on social media. I made three of these trees this season, and they’re easy and fun to assemble. The only trouble is that Boursin cheese is pretty expensive, and this requires two packages for each tree. Fortunately, I found the cheese at Aldi for far less than its competitors wanted. (You could probably also make this with cream cheese.)

You’ll need:

2 5.2-oz packages Boursin cheese, any flavor

1 bunch Italian parsley

Pine nuts

Red and yellow pepper

Directions

Chop parsley fine. Chop red and yellow peppers into tiny squares. Cut a star out of one of the yellow peppers. (I used a tiny cookie cutter, or you can freehand it with a sharp knife.)

Place one hunk of Boursin on top of the other. With your hands, mush them together and mold them into the shape of a tree. Roll in chopped parsley.

Go around the cheese tree with pine nuts to create garland. Use red and yellow pepper squares for ornaments. Place pepper star at the top of the tree. use remaining red and yellow pepper squares for a colorful tree skirt. Serve with crackers.

Christmas day ham and beans

I make this dish once a year and once a year only. Travis loves it, but a ham is pretty pricey, and beans are, well, an occasional treat. I always use this recipe, which requires no long bean soak and always turns out perfectly.

allrecipes.com/recipe/40203/southern-ham-and-brown-beans/

Grandma Slack’s Povitica

I wrote about my friend, Katie’s, annual Christmas baking of this involved recipe, passed down by her Croatian great grandmother. I had to try it, and it was so satisfying. I needed to buy a meat grinder, but then I was ready to go. Mine turned out great, and I had to share a picture of the finished product.

In case you missed it, here’s the story about the povitica tradition in Katie’s family, complete with the how-to: www.kansas.com/entertainment/restaurants/dining-with-denise-neil/article283189773.html

Sausage tortellini soup

I didn’t get a photo, but I made this amazing sausage tortellini soup — one of the best soup’s I’ve ever made — for an ailing friend. It’s comfort food at its finest, and we also ate this on Christmas Eve. My friend, John, gets credit for introducing this to my life:

Find it at: pinchofyum.com/tortellini-soup