For all those who have an appetite for fun and get an irresistible festive tickle for yummy fruitcakes, gingerbread cookies, chestnut soups, apple ciders, sizzling turkey on the table, hot chocolate fudge and more, here are some easy-to-do and great-to-taste Christmas recipes for you to lay hands on ! These recipe ideas for Christmas would surely juice up the your Christmas dinner table and have your guests—friends, family or beloved—craving for more ! Remember, Christmas recipes have to be different from the run-of-the-mill everyday menu, precisely because it’s Christmas ! A well thought-out Christmas recipe would instantly bring your invitees in the holiday spirits. So pull up your socks, slip into the chef’s gear and kick off a culinary carnival with these cool Christmas recipes. Treat your folks to your sumptuous Christmas recipe ideas this season. Get started now.

Apricot Fruitcake Recipe

4 eggs
1 lb candied mixed fruit
1 cup dried apricots
1/2 cup apricot nectar
1 cup water
1 cup white sugar
3/4 cup butter
1 cup golden raisins
1 pound red and green candied cherries
6 candied pineapple slices
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup chopped pecans

Stage 1
First keep two 9 inch tube pans greased or buttered. Next, preheat the oven to 275 degrees F (135 degrees C). Cook apricots in water over medium heat until they are a little pulpy. Sieve them and let aside to cool. Now beat only the egg yolks until color turns lemony. Then beat the egg whites until stiff peaks are formed. Mix the butter and sugar together. Next add the beaten egg yolks and the apricots in this and blend thoroughly.
Stage 2
Add the candied cherries, raisins, candied pineapple, and mixed dried fruits in a bowl, that is coated with one cup of the flour. Put the flour, baking soda, and salt into this. Add this flour mixture alternately to the earlier mixture of stage 1 along with the apricot juice. Meld this batter into the mixed fruits. Add the chopped pecans or walnuts and fold in the beaten egg whites. Turn the batter into the greased or buttered pans.
Stage 3
Bake your mixture at 275 degrees F (135 degrees C) for about 2 hours. Garnish the fruitcakes with candied pineapples and cherries. And there you are all done and dusted with your yummy Christmas fruitcake recipe in real !

All in a Soup ! Here’s the Recipe.

5 cups chicken stock
2 chopped garlic and cloves
3 chopped onions
2 ½ cups whole cooked chestnuts or 1 (9-12 oz) can whole chestnuts
1 1/2 apples, peeled, cored and chopped into 1-inch chunks
3/4 cup thick cream
Salt and pepper (as per taste)

Simmer onions and garlic for about half an hour. Add chestnuts (drain it if canned) and apple pieces to the onion-garlic mixture. Cook for another 10-15 minutes. Now pour in the chicken stock and cook until the mixture is uniformly soft. Put contents into a blender or food processor and blend till it liquefies. Strain and add cream and seasoning to taste. Serve hot and steaming. This is one of those Christmas recipes that enhance the festive appetites like no other. So watch out, it’s all in a soup !

The roasted turkey recipe you’ll get under our Thanksgiving sections. So while you check it out there, here’s some more groovy Christmas recipe ideas to rev up your richly laid-out Christmas holiday table !
Steamed Fish—Recipes getting a little fishy, aren’t they ?

6 (6 ounce) fillets of any fish (salmon, trout, cod, halibut etc)
3 tsp onion powder
3 tsp dried dill weed
1 pinch garlic powder
1 pinch lemon pepper
2 tsp dried parsley
2 tbsp lemon juice
1/4 tsp paprika
Salt as per taste

Keep the oven preheated to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Cut 6 squares of foil, big enough to cover each fish fillet. Put the fillets at the centre of the square foils and scatter each with parsley, dill weed, onion and garlic powder, seasoned salt, lemon pepper and paprika. Now sprinkle lemon juice over each fillet and fold the foil over fillets to cover them completely. Lastly, place the foil sets on a baking sheet and bake in the preheat oven for half an hour. These make delectable Christmas eatables that your friends, folks or sweetie pie would love to savor to the last bit.

It’s Ham Honey ! Tantalize your taste-buds !

5 lbs ready-to-eat ham
2 cups honey
2/3 cup butter 1/4 cup dark corn syrup
1/4 cup whole cloves

Keep the oven preheated to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Then score ham and stud with the whole cloves. Put the ham in a foil-lined pan. Now heat the corn syrup, honey and butter in the top portion of a double boiler. Make sure the glaze is warm while you’re baking ham. Baste glaze over ham and bake for 1 hour and 20 minutes in the preheated oven. Moisten ham every 10-15 minutes with the honey glaze. In the final 4-5 minutes of baking, turn on broiler to caramelize the glaze. Remove from oven and let it settle for a few minutes before serving. This Christmas recipe will leave everyone drooling for another helping for sure. So why not give them a helping ‘ham’ this Christmas ? Go have them slobber for more toothsome treats. And remember to wish them a very Merry Christmas too !

Are you looking for a different pie recipe?  Do you want to impress your family and friends with something new?  Why not try this brownie pie recipe?  It is yummy and will impress any chocoholics in your group.  And the best part?  It is suitable for the diabetics and dieters in the group.  Get out the pie plate and give it a try today!  You don’t need to wait for a special occasion; treat yourself.  You’re worth it!  HINT:  This also makes a good birthday treat for those who prefer pie over cake.

BROWNIE PIE

1 stick of butter

1 cup Equal Sugar-Lite

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

2 eggs beaten or 1/2 cup egg substitute

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/4 cup flour

1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts

Prepare your favorite sugar-free piecrust shell but do not bake. 

Melt butter in saucepan and blend in cocoa powder.  Blend in other ingredients, except nuts.  Mix well.  Add nuts and mix in.  Pour into pie crust shell.  Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes.

For a special dessert, add a scoop of sugar-free vanilla ice-cream to each pie slice and drizzle sugar-free chocolate syrup (I love the Russell Stover brand) over top of ice cream. Sprinkle with chopped nuts, if desired. 

Note:  For a chocolate lovers’ birthday treat, dress each slice as mentioned above and insert a birthday candle into the ice-cream of the honorees’ slice.  Or you could put the candles on the pie before serving, then cut into slices, add the ice cream and syrup after the candles have been blown out.  That would probably work better with a child and the other method better for an adult.

Are you just wasting your savings in a traditional savings account? Many Americans out of habit settle for very low interest savings rates. But, you don’t have to. There are many great options today for high interest rate savings.

What are high interest rate savings? These are payments made by the bank to you for leaving your money in the bank. By depositing your money in the bank, your bank utilizes a portion of it in its loan operations where it subsequently earns through interest and loan charges. In effect, the income they receive trickles down to you, their source of money. This savings interest rate is actually an effective incentive system. Why so? If you save more money in your bank account through your deposits and savings, you end up receiving a higher return on the savings interest rate than other people would.

The last one is perhaps the most obvious feature of the bank that people do not take advantage of. A bank, being a financial intermediary, can actually help you save money efficiently. Here’s how.

First, you are required to keep what is called a maintaining balance in your bank account. This means that even if you make deductions in your account, the bank requires you to save a bare minimum in order to continue enjoying their services. And yes, that translates to a forced saving on your part.

When it comes to financial management, even business professionals reach a consensus as to what is the most effective, reliable, and secure means to manage your money, and that is through the bank. Your bank is an effective means to manage your bills payments, keep track of your transactions, receive your income and whatever extraneous cash inflow, and help you save effectively.

Another feature of bank saving is the fact that you are free to continuously add to your account whenever you can. Otherwise, your money will remain safe in your bank. Moreover, while it’s staying in the bank, you are actually earning interest rates on your money.

Banks have a threshold amount for you to be able to participate in the bank’s long-term, higher yield savings schemes. Time-deposit accounts, mutual funds and the like require you to leave your money untouched for a longer period of time. In exchange for the bank’s use of your money for a longer period of time, the percentages of interest return are double those that you would get in a regular savings account. You can add increments of a certain amount in order to increase the capital you invest in your time-deposit account or mutual fund. An increased account obviously translates to bigger interest gains.

Talk to your local bank about their savings schemes. They offer various mechanisms to encourage us consumers to entrust their money to them. In a bank, your money is in a safe place, and it is growing while it stays there.

But, don’t just settle for a low interest rate for your savings account. Do your research. Go online and find a high interest rate and open an account at that bank.