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On Christmas morning at my house, I want some easy but special nibbles to enjoy while we open presents. This is probably the most relaxed I'll be all day. As soon as we clean up wrapping paper, we change out of our PJs and start packing the car to go to my mom's house across the county for lunch. Not only do I take presents, I find myself taking more and more of the meal -- either dishes I've made ahead or the ingredients, recipes and kitchen equipment to prepare them. This year I'll be doing everything at her house. But that's another post. I make these easy rolls to treat myself and others throughout the year. They are just different fillings for crescent roll dough. CHOCOLATE HAZELNUT BRUNCH ROLLS 3 tubes of crescent rolls dough (If it's the traditional triangle cut, you'll have to push the perforations together. For this recipe, try to get the new variation where the dough is in strips or one big sheet.) Jar of Nutella chocolate-hazelnut spread (look f...

If you need something to fill in your Christmas Eve dinner party buffet or if you were asked ot attend a holiday potluck at the last minute, try these elegant and supremely easy little wonders. Buy some whole pitted dates, some goat cheese and some walnuts. I'm assuming you have powdered sugar and orange juice on hand. Split one side of the whole date. Grab a little piece of goat cheese and stuff it in the date. Plop a walnut half or piece (depending on the size of the date) on top. Drizzle the whole batch with some icing you whip up by mixing a little orange juice into some powdered sugar.

I bought a dozen pastel Wilton silicone cupcake bakers when they first came out more than a year ago just to try them. It has taken me awhile but I finally used them. I baked 24 cupcakes for one of my daughter's birthday parties. [She had two this year; one with each side of the family because they live in different towns.] I have just one cupcake/muffin tin and I didn't want to hold over the second half of the batter. Here are my observations of the silicone baking cups' performance: 1. The cakes didn't brown as dark (or at all) as the cakes in paper wrappers. Not that that is good or bad one way or the other. 2. Though the cakes pulled away from the sides of the cups as they baked, it was hard to remove them from the holders without tearing the cakes. This is because the cups have to be so sturdy so as not to collapse under the batter. You can't bend and manipulate the silicone holder as easily as paper which will yield or "give", thus leaving the delica...