A Bit Late...But As Promised...Hungarian Butterhorn Recipe

Hello Readers...

First, does not matter which of the holidays you are celebrating (Kwanza, Hanukkah or Christmas) may I wish all of you a joyous and happy Holiday Season, and wish each of you success and joy in 2012.

Do apologize, but the hustle and bustle of the season just seems to have me busy, and running behind schedule (in the best of ways). Baking has been a BIG thing this week, and have had so much fun playing Santa, delivering baked goods to my various friends and neighbors here in Mountaindale these past few days, and the compliments coming back my way have been so appreciative. Tonight, had dinner at the Mountaindale Inn, and OMG the Prime Rib was superb...the only bad news in the evening if you can call it that, is Ed was SOLD OUT by just after 8:00 PM, those arriving late being told, sorry, there is just no Prime Rib in the Inn, but we would be happy to get you a drink and offer you something from our standard fare.

My original intent had been to post the recipe for Hungarian Butterhorns yesterday, but if I must admit, though I baked these delicious cookies yesterday, holiday duties called, and this is the first opportunity I have had to post the recipe...and a couple (three) pictures. Do hope those of you who give them a try enjoy them...my suggestion...MAKE A DOUBLE BATCH.

Hungarian Butter Horns Best-Ever Recipe

4 cups flour

1 tsp. salt

1 packet Fleischman's yeast (the cake kind...if you use the dry, you have to pee-activate it)

Mix and add

1/2 cup butter *note...you can do quite fine with using JUST BUTTER...from Land of Lakes

1/4 cup lard

1/2 cup Crisco

Add 3 egg yolks

1 cup sour cream (Breakstones)

1 tsp. McCormick pure vanilla extract...do not use the artificial kind please.

Form into 3 balls and chill 5 hours or overnight

Roll out balls with powdered sugar (yes, Domino's powdered sugar, not flour) and cut with pizza cutter. Then spoon filling on and shape/roll into crescent.

Filling:
3 egg whites 1 cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla 1 cup chopped nuts

Bake at 375 for 15 to 20 minutes until slightly browned. 

Frost when cool. (Frosting follows)

Sprinkle with Domino's powdered sugar when almost cooled. (Not overly difficult)

I promised to be on tomorrow with our trademake "News on the Run" as well as some fun Christmas Eve stuff...just not sure what yet.

Saturday "News on the Run"

Christmas is coming at us fast, with only 14 shopping days left till Americans spend maybe two or three hours ripping into gifts that will take them most of 2012 to pay for. Maybe, just maybe it is time we rethink our approach to this holiday?

How many readers of this blog remember back to the days when Christmas truly was special, when there was not a sign of Christmas in the stores until the day after Thanksgiving? Perhaps I am wrong, but seems too many people see the Christmas and Hanukkah end of the year Holiday Season as obligation, as a chore filled with stress, rather than a beautiful special time and day to be spent with those you love. Watch the news, and you see announcers giving us a blow by blow by the numbers, burdening us with the knowledge that corporations were/are counting on us to put their companies in the black for the year. At every step of the way we are programmed to spend, spend and spend some more, feeling guilty if we do not do our duty to God and Corporation by going into debt in the name of keeping our economy moving.

Believe it or not, many of the traditions that we observe during the Christmas holiday season began way before the birth of Christ. Exchanging gifts, decorating trees, and the burning of the Yule log were all winter traditions that began before Christ was born, but were eventually incorporated into the holiday that became known as Christmas, and became part of Christmas history.

Just seems there has to be a better way to celebrate this important end of the year Holiday...I mean we hardly even say Christmas any more, choosing instead the politically correct terms of Merry Xmas and Happy Holidays. Imagine a movement to get back to the basics of the season. Baking cookies with Mom, getting a group of folks together to go out caroling around the neighborhood, adopting a family in need for the holiday, making sure their table is filled with the same bounty as your own. Just a thought...
Saturday "News on the Run"

Lets start with something light...on CNN they had a list of the top items shoplifted here in America during the holiday season. Number two on the list is Jameson Whiskey, and number one Filet Mignon.

While beef and whiskey are seeing popularity among shoplifters in the U.S., the same is not true on the global market. The most stolen food in the world, apparently: cheese.

In Boston, police moved in and trashed another Occupy Wall Street protest site, with at least 46 protesters arrested, though there was no violence. First Amendment rights trampled on, but no violence.

The Boston Globe says "a large force of officers swooped down" on the encampment, and forty arrests were made "in the lightning-swift operation." It quotes police as saying all were on trespassing charges.

Yet another reason to close Entergy's trouble plagued Indian Point reactors....radioactive water still leaking inside crippled Japanese reactors...authorities say the radioactive water is not leaking into the environment...YET.

Last year, Nuclear Regulatory Commission inspectors discovered design problems at the Fort Calhoun nuclear plant in Nebraska and the Indian Point nuclear plant in New York. In the former case, the NRC applied the most serious sanction levied against any reactor in 2010 and required the plant's owner to correct the problem. But at Indian Point, the NRC essentially shrugged and allowed the safety problem to go unsanctioned and uncorrected.

Last but not least, in Russia where average citizens seems to care, tens of thousands of people are protesting Putin voter fraud in Moscow...seems the only time we see tens of thousands protesting here in America is when the subject matter involves giving rights to "Illegal Aliens".

Remember The Less Fortunate This Holiday Season

From Mountaindale After Dark blog, some sage holiday advice.

Thanksgiving is Coming

Thanksgiving is almost here, many have our shopping done, others are waiting until the last minute, planning on a run to the grocery store on Tuesday or Wednesday, anxiously looking forward to being jostled, standing in check out lines, perhaps seeing such antics as training for their Christmas Eve shopping extravaganza just one month away. Houses are being cleaned in anticipation of quests, pies are in, or will soon be in the oven, while others are packing suitcases as they prepare to load the kid,s family dog and food into the car for a trip to Grandma's house over the river and through the woods. Those hardy souls among us are making lists and checking them twice as they plot out their shopping strategies for Black Friday...or Black Thursday for a few who put little stock in a National Day of Thanksgiving.

These are heady times as we move in too what is officially the Holiday Season. The Thanksgiving tables across America will barely be cleared away, dishes done when it is time to start preparations and shopping for Christmas (and Hanukkah which begins at sunset on Tuesday, December 20, 2011, and ends at sunset on Wednesday, December 28, 2011). There are ornaments and decorations that need brought down from the attic, and Great Grandmother's china needs taken out of the hutch and washed, used only once a year on Christmas. Children are kept on good behavior, millions of parents telling them, "You better be good as Santa Claus is coming to town."

As we prepare for these magical times, let all of us remember there are a lot of families this year here in America going through rough times, families who do not have the money to buy toys for under the tree, do not have a turkey to put on their table on Thanksgiving Day. Let us remember those less fortunate, those living alone, no family too share their holidays with. If you have a neighbor in need, do what you can to lend them a helping hand. Know someone living alone, invite them to take a chair at your table for a holiday meal, or if they are shut in, take them a plate of food. Regardless of your religious persuasion, remember the golden rule, "It is more blessed to give than to receive. Enjoy your holidays everyone, and if you can go out of your way to do something for those in need...charity starts at home, and often times brings us blessing in the most unexpected ways. YEB2GH4VK9KN

Thanksgiving is Coming

Thanksgiving is almost here, many have our shopping done, others are waiting until the last minute, planning on a run to the grocery store on Tuesday or Wednesday, anxiously looking forward to being jostled, standing in check out lines, perhaps seeing such antics as training for their Christmas Eve shopping extravaganza just one month away. Houses are being cleaned in anticipation of quests, pies are in, or will soon be in the oven, while others are packing suitcases as they prepare to load the kid,s family dog and food into the car for a trip to Grandma's house over the river and through the woods. Those hardy souls among us are making lists and checking them twice as they plot out their shopping strategies for Black Friday...or Black Thursday for a few who put little stock in a National Day of Thanksgiving.

These are heady times as we move in too what is officially the Holiday Season. The Thanksgiving tables across America will barely be cleared away, dishes done when it is time to start preparations and shopping for Christmas (and Hanukkah which begins at sunset on Tuesday, December 20, 2011, and ends at sunset on Wednesday, December 28, 2011). There are ornaments and decorations that need brought down from the attic, and Great Grandmother's china needs taken out of the hutch and washed, used only once a year on Christmas. Children are kept on good behavior, millions of parents telling them, "You better be good as Santa Claus is coming to town."

As we prepare for these magical times, let all of us remember there are a lot of families this year here in America going through rough times, families who do not have the money to buy toys for under the tree, do not have a turkey to put on their table on Thanksgiving Day. Let us remember those less fortunate, those living alone, no family too share their holidays with. If you have a neighbor in need, do what you can to lend them a helping hand. Know someone living alone, invite them to take a chair at your table for a holiday meal, or if they are shut in, take them a plate of food. Regardless of your religious persuasion, remember the golden rule, "It is more blessed to give than to receive. Enjoy your holidays everyone, and if you can go out of your way to do something for those in need...charity starts at home, and often times brings us blessing in the most unexpected ways.