Christmas Goodies...continued!

 

The last time I posted, I said there would be more goodies to come; so here are a few MORE things I made over the holiday season:

Gingerbread "dudes" with mini chocolate chip eyes. As I confessed in one of last year's Christmas posts, I don't make my gingerbread dough from scratch - I know, it's hard to admit...
 

 this year, my "helper" was in charge of the eyes...

I bought a fabulous new, hand-crafted copper deer cookie cutter from a small shop in Wisconsin and made some super cool gingerbread fawns.

I used this genius concoction to put spots on the deer - best idea ever!

My tiny "helper" and I (and my Mother) made a huge batch (as in four dozen cookies or so) of my Grandmother's infamous Date Pinwheel Cookies (see 12/18/11 post for recipe).

 

For Christmas dinner, I roasted two beef top round roasts (we wanted to make sure we had enough meat!) and oven-roasted some veggies (separately).  I combined diced red potatoes, diced sweet potatoes, baby carrots and diced onion in a big resealable bag and tossed them with olive oil and salt and pepper. I roasted them on a baking sheet at 350 degrees with the twin roasts for one hour, and then added sliced baby portabella mushrooms and roasted for another 30 minutes.  Next time, I think I'll roast the veggies at a higher temp so they get a bit softer.

 

Speaking of roasted veggies; I think I forgot to post a recipe for these yummy beans I made for Thanksgiving. Sooooooo good, I had requests for the recipe (sorry!) and there were NO leftovers! Here it is in all it's glory:

Roasted Green Beans with Mushrooms, Balsamic and Parmesan (originally found at http://kalynsprintablerecipes.blogspot.com)

8 ounces mushrooms, sliced in 1/2-inch slices
1 pound fresh green beans
1 1/2 Tbl. olive oil
1 Tbl. balsamic vinegar
salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
2 Tbl. grated Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  Wash mushrooms, let dry and slice into 1/2-inch slices. Trim the ends of the beans off, and cut beans into bite-sized pieces.  Put cut beans and mushrooms into a resealable bag.  Whisk together the olive oil and vinegar and pour over beans and mushrooms. Squeeze the bag to coat.  Arrange on large baking sheet with lip and roast 20-30 minutes. Season with salt and pepper and serve with a sprinkling of Parmesan cheese.