In many parts of the world, Christmas does not lack in spirit or rich flavors. Though sweets are a major highlight to this festive holiday, there are quite a few notable savory foods to consider. As you are sitting down to your third helping of turkey, take a look through just some of the Christmas foods people will be eating this year:
What sorts of Christmas foods do you have every year? Let us know in the comments below.
Headline image credit: Christmas decoration. Image by Hades2k. CC BY-SA 2.0 via Flickr.
The post A smorgasbord of Christmas foods appeared first on OUPblog.
Joy Acey (of Poetry for Kids fame) has issued a challenge to write your own riddle-poem. You can see the challenge here: http://poetryforkidsjoy.blogspot.com/2014/09/riddle-poem.html#comment-form I wrote several food-riddle poems a few years ago, but I’m going to post a fresh one below. It’sNotDessert You can wrap me in bacon, or roll me in sugar… But…
Joy Acey (of Poetry for Kids fame) has issued a challenge to write your own riddle-poem. You can see the challenge here: http://poetryforkidsjoy.blogspot.com/2014/09/riddle-poem.html#comment-form I wrote several food-riddle poems a few years ago, but I’m going to post a fresh one below. It’sNotDessert You can wrap me in bacon, or roll me in sugar… But…
.
Custom Confections: Delicious Desserts You Can Create and Enjoy
by Jen Besel
Capstone Young Readers 2014
978-1-62370-136-9
Age 9+ 112 pages
.
“Bake up surprises in cupcakes and cookies. Create custom desserts with ease. Or decorate all kinds of creative confections like a pro. Forty fun, simple recipes will have kids (and kids at heart) creating delicious desserts to devour! Step-by-step instructions and photos make red velvet cookies, black-and-white angel food cake, cheesecake stuffed strawberries, and more easy to achieve and tasty to eat. Sweetly simple, appetizingly fun!”
Review
Just in time for Father’s Day, Custom Confections gives the artistic baker in you—something every kid has somewhere, and eager to bake—40 recipes of beautiful desserts and snacks. I was without electricity most of the day, unable to bake anything, but if this dessert book is anything like Dessert Designer: Creations You Can Make and Eat, also by Capstone Young Readers, I can guarantee these desserts are as scrumptious as the pictures are delectable. Most are quick fixes, meaning kids still have time to create something special for dad. An easy cupcake recipe, The Sweetheart Cupcake, with a magical surprise, can express your love for dad in one bite.
Kids can find a different fun recipe for every week of summer. Custom Creations contains fun snacks for the entire family. Cake recipes are in the majority. For the bibliophile in your life bake the Pile of Books Cake. Five layers of cake, each made to look like a bestseller, with noticeable pages and luscious covers—Photoshop not needed. If you like ice cream with your cake, and really, who doesn’t, the Striped Ice Cream Cake will satisfy your sweet tooth. A fun treat for those who enjoy popsicles is the Frosty Frozen Cakesicles individually prepared on a Popsicle sticks.
Every recipe has step-by-step instructions that are easy to understand and written without any extraneous information. To the side of the page is a list of ingredients and supplies needed for that particular recipe. No recipe requires unusual or strange tools kids have never seen. There may be a tool your child does not know how to use, which is where an adult comes in handy. It is also wise, depending on a child’s proficiency, for an adult to help turn ovens on to the correct temperature and help remove hot desserts from the oven. For those in the UK, the author included a conversion chart.
Photographs of each dessert clearly show the finished dessert, which is always helpful. For a delicate dessert, try making the Edible Flower Lollipops. Placed inside the clear homemade lollipops are pesticide-free, edible flowers from a florist. They look too good to eat. Cheesecake lovers will like Blueberry Cheesecake Tarts and the PB&J Cheesecake Brownies. On the last day of school, surprise that favorite teacher with a Mini Apple Cake, seeds included. My favorite, and the recipe I was planning to make, is the Molten Caramel Cake. Nothing is more luscious and creamy, or spruces up a dessert better, than a rich caramel. Mm, yum!
Middle grade and older kids, and adults, who like baking and using their creativity will like Custom Creations. Who can turn away a luscious, interesting dessert? Not me. Custom Creations is a nice addition to any cookbook collection. It also complements Dessert Designer: Creations You Can Make and Eat also for middle grade kids by Capstone. The only thing missing is a nice index of the recipes. There are several tips and tricks, plus a few icing recipes that are simple to make located after the last recipe: a Hedgehog Cake made with buttercream frosting, rice treats, almonds, and a cake of any flavor. The hedgehog is a cute little creature looking too loveable to eat with his big milk chocolate candy eyes. Kids, lacking such sentimentality, will dig right in. Enjoy!
CUSTOM CONFECTIONS: DELICIOUS DESSERTS YOU CAN CREATE AND ENJOY! Recipes copyright © 2015 by Jen Besel. Reproduced by permission of the publisher, Capstone Young Readers, North Mankato, MN.
.
Buy Custom Creations at Amazon—B&N—Capstone—your local bookstore.
.
Learn more about Custom Creations HERE
Meet the author, Jen Besel, at LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/pub/jennifer-besel/b/943/635
Find more books at the Capstone Young Readers website: http://www.capstoneyoungreaders.com/
Capstone Young Readers is an imprint of Capstone
.
Coming Soon from Jen Besel & Capstone Young Readers
Baking Bliss!: Baked Desserts to Make and Devour
Sweet Tooth!: No-Bake Desserts to Make and Devour 
Sugarcoat It!: Desserts to Design, Decorate, and Devour 
.
.
Filed under:
4stars,
Children's Books,
Favorites,
Holiday Book,
Library Donated Books,
Middle Grade Tagged:
Capstone Young Readers,
children's book reviews,
cookbook for kids,
desserts,
Jen Besel,
recipes 
My sweet friend LAURA RENEGAR tagged me! So now I get to chat about the manuscript I’m querying and tag other writers that I think might answer the questions, too. I haven’t done one of these things in a LOOOONG time. Sounds like fun! 1. What is the working title of your book? Just Desserts 2. Where did the [...]
Amy Alessio has volunteered to compile a cookbook of dessert recipes for the Not So Silent Auction. Perhaps if it’s a big seller, we can print more copies of this cookbook, but until then, if you’re the lucky bidder, you’ll have a great dessert cookbook.
What do you have to do? First, ask Amy at the e-mail address above for a copy of the template that will be used to compile the dessert cookbook. Then you will type your recipe on the template and return to Amy by September 30, 2010. To avoid copyright issues, send only family or original recipes. Dessert ideas include cookies, cupcakes, cakes, pies, tortes, puddings, etc. If it’s sweet, it’s a dessert and can be submitted. Each submitter will receive credit for the recipe, which will be cited in the cookbook.
Questions? Contact Amy Alessio or Pam Spencer Holley
Beautiful!
Bwahahahahaha! I didn’t see that coming at all!
Donna, I finally finished my book, “Slave to Slave Master” and it is to be published before December. It is short but the photos and epilogue add to it. I want it to encourage everyone to be a victor and not a victim. Blessings, Jan
LOVE this, Donna, and so will my boys! = )