If you listened to this week’s podcast, you’ll know that the name of the recipe was Lies! These brownies were NOT delicious, quite frankly they weren’t all that chocolatey, either. If you are hoping to have a happy holiday season these next few weeks, I would highly recommend that you not subject your family to the life experience that is Delicious Beef Brownies. However, there are some foods that I think you definitely should subject your family to and, in fact, you might already be planning to do so.
The first of these is the deviled egg, because they are the best. They are so incredibly easy to make and are inhaled by guests. As someone noted about the delicious deviled egg - “I would never just sit down and eat 3 eggs but I would eat more than that if they were deviled eggs”. They're not wrong. What I love about the deviled egg is that everyone seems to have their own personal favorite recipe that they just know is the absolute best. My personal favorite is my grandma’s recipe. This is ironic as we have discussed earlier that cooking was not something that she did well. That did not apply to the deviled egg, she slayed them. She stuck with the simple recipe of mayo and mustard and a little splash of paprika for color. Yum, my mouth is watering just thinking about them. That brings me to this great video I happened across a few days ago. It is of two British men trying deviled eggs for the first time. As they should, they loved them, calling them a flavor explosion in their mouth. I believe their final recommendation was to change the name, as it can be a bit off-putting, and to use one that better explains how wonderful they are, angel eggs.
@josh_and_jase_intheusa These DO NOT exist in the U.K. 😂
♬ Monkeys Spinning Monkeys - Kevin MacLeod & Kevin The Monkey
I also remember that as a child holiday gatherings always also included a cheese ball. You know the ones that are covered in chopped nuts? They were often served with a cracker and in my house that cracker was always the wheat thin. Some may argue that the triscuit was a better choice to be paired with the cheese ball but I would disagree. The thin, crisp texture of a wheat thin is better for allowing the yummy flavor of the cheese ball to shine while transporting the cheese from plate to mouth perfectly as just one bite. On occasion, my mom would be overwhelmed by the need to offer healthy snack options and would include vegetables with the cheese ball. It is not unheard of having some cheese with your celery or bell pepper but why would you choose that when you have an amazing wheat thin just sitting there!
A common holiday sweet treat for my husband and his family was peanut butter candy. I think it was a favorite because a little went a long way and it is incredibly easy to make. If you are not familiar, you make a dough out of peanut butter and powdered sugar and then roll this dough into a log which you coat in more powdered sugar - because it’s delicious. When you are done with all this, you are left with a delightful, sweet candy that just melts in your mouth for all its sweet peanut buttery deliciousness.
https://www.southernplate.com/peanut-butter-slice-candy/
Then, at some point in the mid-90’s the holiday snack game changed for the better when I discovered the joy that is the meatball. OK, I knew what a meatball was prior to the mid-90’s and had even eaten them but they were always with pasta. You know, “On top of spaghetti all covered in cheese, I lost my poor meatball when somebody sneezed”. But these tasty and delicious life changing meatballs just go on a toothpick and into your mouth, no pasta involved! Here’s the brilliance…you buy the meatballs premade in the frozen food section! You don’t have to handle raw meat or roll them into balls. You just open a bag and dump them into your handy dandy crock pot. Add some bottled sauces on top and watch those puppies simmer into a tasty treat ready to be shared with all.
Our childhood crockpot, this sucker would have made delicious meatballs!
As your holiday season begins, I can’t recommend enough that you protect your loved ones from beef brownies. Stick with one of the classic, tried and true recipes that were delicious as a child and will be delicious this year as well. In other words, buy eggs a lot of eggs, you have some deviling to do!