Category: Cranberry Cilantro Salsa

Chocolate Fudge Icing

I love a good chocolate cake, don’t you? It’s one of the best dessert around! And one of my favorite ways to ice a chocolate cake is with a fudge glaze. This one is an easy and yummy cooked icing that is great for cupcakes, eclairs, donuts, cream puffs and cakes.

I have our Christmas Table Setting all done for Breakfast Christmas morning. We have grandma and Grandpa come for Brunch every year. 
I have 3 granddaughters who all like to sit at their own Kid’s Table setup with little plates and sippy cups and kiddie chairs too. Here is one of the dinner parties we had set up. I used snowmen plates and cups. 
My Kitchen is all festive with lots of Christmas doo dads too. 

I have Mrs. Santa in the kitchen with her cupcakes, and the Nutcracker playing on my under the counter CD player. It is on its last legs. The hubs has something coming from Amazon for me that is the newest thing. He had to be “Invited” to buy it. I guess it plays wireless music from somewhere I’ll never understand. The cool kids and their gadgets! 

This was my favorite area of the kitchen this holiday. I just loved it. The chalkboard said how many days left till Christmas with a snowman holding it. I cut his head off, great photog that I am! lol. 

This island wall just filled with crap the last week before and this whole week after Christmas. I am so full of junk food, breads, chocolates, cookies, marshmallow santas ( I ate 4 I think) and nuts and candy, chips and dips. When will it end I tell ya! 

 I started putting all the Christmas junk away today. It is a little sad. I love decorating for the holidays so much. But I switched it all out for snowmen and snowflakes. So it isn’t too hard to bear. 😀

Kiddie table this year in red and green with snowmen. 

Grown up table setting was very pretty. I loved this table runner with red pointsettias made with red sequins. And the holly berry brocade placemats are some of my all time favorites. 

We make Gingerbread men and woman for Christmas Eve decorating fun. 

And some Sugar cookies too. 

We made this Cranberry Cilantro dip and pour it over a block of cream cheese to eat with crackers and Wheat Thins. It is delicious! Check it out HERE. It is fun for New Years Parties too! 

I’m getting my cinnamon rolls ready. We will add THIS MONKEY BREAD recipe to them. It just makes them more gooey and delicious with pecans too! Yummy. 

Some of my end tables in the living room all decorated cute. I also make this breakfast casserole that is traditional in our family. It has hash browns, Jimmy Dean sausage, eggs, cheese and it can be cut into 12 to 16 pieces for brunch or breakfast. Check it out HERE.

We have to leave out some cookies for Santa tonight while we watch his progress on Google Santa Tracker. It is fun to see what country he’s at every minute. 

Anyway, if you are making a chocolate cake, cupcakes, cream puffs or anything that would be made better by a fudgy, chocolate icing that really does taste like fudge, then this is the recipe for easy, fudgy icing. 

 Chocolate Fudge Icing 
1/2 slick real butter
2 Tbsp. cocoa
2 Tbsp. milk
2 cups powdered sugar ( I used a little less, just add it till desired consistency)

Put butter and cocoa into a medium saucepan. Add milk. Heat until melted, stirring constantly.

Slowly add 2 cups powdered sugar until melted and smooth.

Chocolate Cake with Fudgy Icing….. so, so good! 
Chocolate Bundt Cake – Is just as good with the chocolate fudge icing as the traditional cream cheese icing. So you just have to choose your poison! I love it on Christmas eve. It is also great for a New Year’s Party. Happy Holidays! 

Cranberry Cilantro Salsa for Turkey Sandwiches

CRANBERRY CILANTRO SALSA….great for a Holiday Party! 
Cranberry Salsa on Cream Cheese Dip

This is the most delicious dip for a party or family get together! It is made with fresh cranberries and cilantro with a little jalapeno, lemon juice, sugar and cumin. It is so easy but so tasty. If I make it I will hang out by this dip the ENTIRE night!  It is embarrasing when I find something I love I just can’t stop eating it!  That’s my downfall! FOOD!  go figure…..

Oh YUMMY is this stuff heavenly!  I could stand here and eat it all day!  I really like it with Wheat Thins because chips fall apart when you try to push them into the cream cheese….it may be better with soft whipped cream cheese…but it wouldn’t look as pretty on the plate…..

Cranberry Salsa Dip with Cream Cheese

INGREDIENTS:
12 ounces or about 3 cups fresh cranberries chopped in blender or chopper
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves, finely chopped
1 small jalapeno pepper, seeded, cored,  and finely diced (cut it in half if you don’t like some HEAT)
3/4 cup sugar (you can add a whole cup but it is very syrupy and sweet…I’d knock it down to 3/4 cup)
1/2 teaspoon cumin
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (from about 1 large lemon)
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 (8 ounces each) packages cream cheese, light or regular, softened
Wheat Thin Crackers, for serving or Tortilla Chips
Chop about 3/4 cup at a time in your blender on “pulse”…or use a food processor for speed….
You can freeze fresh cranberries in the bag to use all year…did you know that?  Yeah,
the cranberry salsa keeps in the freezer too….so I put half of it away in a tupperware for another party!  
It looks like a lot of cilantro when you are done…so you could go less on it if you wanted….
The sugar is really sweet….It would taste okay to use less if you are watching sugar intake….
My hubs bought the jalapeno and it was large so I only used about half of it
and saved the other half for chili I’ll make later in the week (turkey chili with leftovers from Turkey day)….if you don’t like the heat use  1/3 of a jalapeno instead of 1/2. 

I didn’t have a lemon so I used lime juice….It was okay but I think lemon tastes better…
but lime will do in a pinch for sure! 

DIRECTIONS:
Pick over the cranberries looking for smashed or bruised ones. Then use your blender for the cranberries or a  food processor and  finely chop about 3/4 of a cup at a time.  Put into a bowl and add the sugar. Then chop the cilantro, jalapeno and add them in and mix up. Then add cumin, lemon juice and salt and mix. Transfer the mixture to a covered bowl or tupperware and refrigerate for 2 hours so cranberries lose  their tartness!

It’s good on a fresh turkey sandwich too…hmmm…….I think I’ll have to get on that!!

When you are ready to serve, put the block of cream cheese on a really pretty plate.  Top with the cranberry mixture.  Surround the plate with wheat thins crackers.  So very Yummy

  It’s a great Thanksgiving or Christmas dip or relish. And not only because it is red and green, but it always tastes fresh and tart and sweet for a fun party or for anytime!