36 Christmas Posts: Music, Humor, Poems, Stories, Quotes

Explore a bonanza of Christmas offerings from music to humor to quotes to food and lots of good stories - and poems, both original and traditions from the past.

From Denny:  The adventure of blogging began two years ago and I've never looked back. Talk about fun! Christmas will always remain my favorite time of the year. Yes, I'm one of those people who holds in their heart the mantra of "I Believe!" Santa represents the goodwill spirit that humanity needs to cultivate and spread in abundance from generation to generation.  Goodwill is the fuel we all need on the Path of Hope as each generation struggles to learn and grow.

These posts represent two year's worth of posts. If I keep at it, just think, in a couple of more years I might make it to 100 Christmas posts! :) Take a look and take your pick to nourish your Christmas Spirit and help soothe your stress that always seems to visit during the holiday season.

Thank you for all your support on all my blogs this year! And may you and yours enjoy a wonderful New Year as well!

Lots of Christmas season humor to make you laugh during the stressful holiday rush:


Funny Christmas Conversations Story - Do you remember the funny and downright lame excuses your parents used to give you when talking about Santa coming to visit on Christmas Eve? 3 videos, Cajun Night Before Christmas video poem.

Funny Christmas Cartoons - Check out the irreverent cartoonist offerings for the holiday season.

Funny Holiday Fashion: Gluttony Pants - Get the latest holiday clothing to ensure comfortable holiday feasting.

Funny Life Cartoons This Week - 6 Dec 2010 - Enjoy some laughs while you shop til you drop this holiday season.

The Funny Side of Christmas - Cheeky Quote Day! 16 Dec 2009

Cheeky Quote Day! 23 Dec 2009

Funny Christmas Quotes and More Holiday Fun

Funny Story: Lovable Inflatable Christmas Louise - Don't you just love it when your friends send you these hilarious emails by anonymous authors?

Santas Curmudgeon Version of The Christmas Story

Funny Essay on Why Santa Must Really Be A Woman - Check out the funny reasons why someone thinks Santa might really be female (warning: slightly risque Photoshop photo)

Roundup of Late Night Funnies 28 Dec 2009

Lampooning Late Night Funnies Roundup 21 Dec 2009

Roundup of Late Night Funnies 7 Dec 2009

Editorial Cartoons 5 Dec 2009

Fun Christmas Blog Post Dividers and Animations



Holiday Food:

Holiday Recipes From Dennys Food and Recipes

Serious Christmas posts, poetry and music:

Gifts From The Heart, A Christmas Poem

A Man In Love - A true story of just how far a man will go to survive when he is in love during war time - a holiday poem story about the struggle for love reunited.

Christmas Poem: Some Children See Him

Christmas Love Story: The Burglars Christmas

Christmas Story: The Gift of the Magi

Christmas PEACE Poem by Longfellow: Christmas Bells

Original Christmas Poem Story: The Night Before Christmas

The Nativity Christmas Story Retold Thru Unusual Questions

Christmas Story: Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus

Christmas Story: Christmas Day in the Morning

Lanugages of the World: How to Say Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Original Story by Dickens: A Christmas Carol

Music videos:

Music Video: You Raise Me Up by Josh Groban

Music Video: The Prayer by Josh Groban, Celine Dion, Charlotte Church

Music Video: In The Arms Of The Angel by Sarah McLachlan and Josh Groban

Music Video: O Holy Night by Celine Dion

Music Video: Note to God by David Foster and Charice

Music Video: The Christmas Shoes

Music Video: Where Are You Christmas? by Faith Hill

Music Video: Mary, Did You Know? By Clay Aiken




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*** Come by for a visit and check out my other blogs:

The Social Poets - news, politics
The Soul Calendar - science, astronomy, psychology
Visual Insights - photos, art, music
Beautiful Illustrated Quotations - spiritual quotes, philosophy
Best Spiritual Posts
Poems From A Spiritual Heart - poetry
The Healing Waters - health news
Dennys People Watching - people in the news
Dennys Food and Recipes
Dennys Funny Quotes - humor

Holiday Recipes From Dennys Food and Recipes

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Happy to be here!

How are you dear readers and followers? I am very happy to come back! what happened you may wonder? let's just say some health related issues kept me away. Nothing to worry about, just going through some changes :)
I definitely missed blogging, baking and photography. I Missed all of you, fellow friends. To everyone who follows my blog and always waits for new recipes and pictures, I say sorry for being absent for so long. I am sure all of us go through stages where we find ourselves unable to surmount life's demands, and I am sure you would forgive my brief disappearance.



Although I have been inactive lately, I was following amazing works from different flickrer/ bloggers. I got the ispiration for these cupcakes from the amazing Aran of Cannelle Et Vanille. I had mascarpone, wanted to have Tiramisu but since it takes some time to make I thought about making something quicker, cupcakes! I made few changes to the recipe in order make it more "tiramisu-ish", I added some coffee to the batter. I also made a mascarpone cream icing flavored with vanilla and coffee instead of the whipped ganache. The icing turned amazingly light and tasty....
I hope you try this recipe and I also hope everyone is enjoying this time of the year and the coming holidays!



Tiramisu Cupcakes (adapted from Cannelle Et Vanille)

Cupcakes (makes 11 to 12 cupcakes)

1 stick of butter, room temperature
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 large eggs, room temperature
3 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
1/2 cup buttermilk, room temperature
1 tsp espresso powder
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda

1- Preheat the oven to 350F. Line a muffin tin with baking cups and set aside.
2- Combine the chocolate and the coffee. Melt over a double boiler. Set aside to cool.
3- In a bowl of a stand mixer, combine the butter and the sugars. Whisk until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, whisking well after each addition. Mix in the melted chocolate.
4-Add the vanilla and half the buttermilk. Add the flour and baking soda then the remaining buttermilk.
5- Divide the batter between the liners and bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Mascarpone Cream

300 g mascarpone cheese, room temperature
150 ml heavy cream, chilled
80 g sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla paste
1/2 tsp coffee extract

Whip the heavy cream and sugar until soft pick. Add the mascarpone and whisk until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla and coffee extract.

Pipe icing on the cooled cupcakes and decorate with shaved chocolate. enjoy!

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Apricot Crostata

The 2010 November Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Simona of briciole. She chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ to make pasta frolla for a crostata. She used her own experience as a source, as well as information from Pellegrino Artusi’s Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well.


























I was pretty excited when I saw the challenge for November, because I've actually

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Double Layer Pumpkin Cheesecake

Instead of making traditional pumpkin pie this year for Thanksgiving, I'm gonna try this recipe for pumpkin cheesecake.  Half my family likes pumpkin pie and the other half doesn't, but we all love cheesecake.  Does that mean the whole family will like pumpkin cheesecake?  

Ingredients (recipe from allrecipes.com)

2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 eggs

1 (9 inch) prepared graham cracker crust

1/2 cup pumpkin puree

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 pinch ground cloves

1 pinch ground nutmeg

1/2 cup frozen whipped topping, thawed

Directions

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).

In a large bowl, combine cream cheese, sugar and vanilla. Beat until smooth. Blend in eggs one at a time. Remove 1 cup of batter and spread into bottom of crust; set aside.

Add pumpkin, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg to the remaining batter and stir gently until well blended. Carefully spread over the batter in the crust.

Bake in preheated oven for 35 to 40 minutes, or until center is almost set. Allow to cool, then refrigerate for 3 hours or overnight. Cover with whipped topping before serving.

 I made my graham cracker crust by following a recipe from the Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook.  If you don't have this cookbook you can also find the recipe online at http://www.bhg.com/recipe/desserts/graham-cracker-crust/.

Here's the first layer.

Instead of using separate spices, I just used 3/4 tsp. of pumpkin pie spice for the pumpkin flavored layer.  I poured the pumpkin layer on top of the first layer and put the cheesecake in the oven to bake.

The Results...
Did everyone like this pumpkin cheesecake?  Almost everyone did.  My husband and I thought it was very good.  This was my little girls' favorite dessert.  We also had apple and cherry pie, but their favorite was this pumpkin cheesecake.  My son was the only one that didn't like this cheesecake, but he told me he doesn't like ANYTHING with pumpkin in it.  He won't eat pumpkin bread, pumpkin bars, pumpkin cookies, pumpkin pie and now he can add pumpkin cheesecake to his list.  If you do like pumpkin and cheesecake than I think you'll really like Double Layer Pumpkin Cheesecake.  It was rich and creamy like you'd expect and the pumpkin layer was very mild compared to eating pumpkin pie.  Although my son would disagree, the rest of us thought this was a great holiday recipe and we would definitely eat it again.

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Pink Pecan Pie Macarons

"What does Fall mean to you?... Does fall mean Thanksgiving, or deep cinnamon flavour, are apples your calling or do falling leaves announce the season to you? Or then, is it the warm comfort and luxury of hot cocoa or warm spiced cider?"
-Mactweets

l'Automne. Quite simply my favourite season of the year, when the river valley is an explosion of reds and golds, and the sunny but crisp days mean

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Pa Tong Goh (Deep-fried dough stick)

Many cultures have dishes made by deep frying dough of one form or another.  Pa Tong Goh or Deep-fried dough stick is a You tiao in Chinese are popular breakfast foods in Chinese culture. They are 2 different taste in Thailand are savory and oily in taste and sweet taste. The texture is crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside with large cavernous holes.  Pa Tong Goh or Deep fried dough are normally eaten as an accompaniment for rice congee or soy milk and all hot drink in the morning for Thailand.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups of all purpose flour
• 1 cup of warm water
• 2 tbsp of vegetable oil (for mix)
• 1 tsp of salt
• 1 tsp of sugar
• 2 tsp of baking soda  
• 1 tsp ammonia
• 2 cups of vegetable oil for fry

Preparations:

1. Dissolve the salt, baking soda and alum in the water. 
2. Mix the water and flour into a dough.  Let stand for 15 minutes, then clean your hands and knead until the dough is smooth and elastic.
3. Place the dough on an oiled surface and roll into a shot strip. 
4. Cut into short strips. Press two strips together and roll them lengthwise.
5. Heat the oil and add the dough sticks, a few at a time, and deep-fry, stirring constantly, until golden brown. 
6. Drain well and serve warm with rice congee or soy milk and all hot drink.

   

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Khao Tou (Stir Sweetness Sun Dried Rice)

Khao Tou is a Thai dessert made from rice, the rest eating.  By make them to the rice mill and then dried thoroughly.  Mix of water with sugar and shredded coconut together. Add roasted rice and stir to first sort mold insert pot.  Baking with smoke fragrant candle and Jasmine flower.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup sun dried steamed rice.
• 1 cup Sugar Palm
• 2 cups shredded coconut
• ½ cup water
• Fragrant Candle
• Jasmine flower

How to cook:

1. Bring sun dried steamed rice to roast until turn to yellow and crispy and ground thoroughly. 
2. You should separate out the rough ground and pounded it again.
3. Mix sugar palm, shredded coconut, water and ground rice in a big pan, picking up scent and heat,
4. Continue stirring until shredded coconut sticky well.
5. Poor the roasted rice into pan and stir to combine to raise.
6. Preparing the mold with oil make easy to bring dessert out from mold and made it clearly see the pattern.
7. Mold the dessert into a ball size fit with a mold and press firmly and strike out of mold until finish.
8. Bring all the “Khao Tou” keep in a pot (must big enough)
9. Add jasmine flower in the pot and turn candles light and place on top of the Khao tou and blow off fragrant candle and then cover the pot.
10. Leave it over the night.

   

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