Peppermint Ice Cream, No Bake Cherry Cheesecake & Texas Tumbleweeds}

THIS GIVEAWAY IS CLOSED

Hi everyone I have a special treat for you today. I know you have heard the saying "Christmas in July", but in my case it's Christmas in June!!!! Yes it's that time again where I bring you another tasty "Gooseberry Patch Early Bird Review". Well in my case not so early bird. I have been a bit under the weather since returning from trip so this post has gone up much later than planned. I apologize in advance.

This ends up being a great thing for you because now you do not have to wait to get your hands on a copy of Quick & Easy Christmas. You can purchase this wonderful cookbook way before the holiday season. I have to say I thought it would be really hard to get into the Christmas Spirit in the dead of summer, but I was wrong. Quick and Easy Christmas brought me back to one of my favorite holiday seasons.

I got a big jump on choosing a few festive ideas for gift giving and yummy ideas for my holiday cookie trays. It's always so hard to choose what items I will be baking up so this book really helped. I added a list inside my cookbook so I will be recipe ready when Christmas time rolls around.

All of the recipes are located at the end of this post

Let's jump right into things and get to a few recipes. I chose Homemade Peppermint Ice Cream from page 182 as my first recipe to try. Seeing that we are in the heat of summer here in Texas I thought some festive ice cream would hit the spot. This recipe was really easy to make and perfect for a small ice cream maker since the recipe makes 1 1/2 quarts.

I have a 4 quart ice cream maker so this recipe doubles easily. This peppermint ice cream tasted just like the ice cream you get at Braums or Baskin Robbins, SO THUMBS UP!!! WE LOVED THIS ONE! Since it was summer I could not find candy canes, so we used Starlight peppermints instead.

During the Christmas season I am known for making lots of holiday treats. Homemade gifts are my favorite to share with family, friends and my kids teachers. I always start early and freeze most it so I have plenty to go around. When I was thumbing through Quick & Easy Christmas I was paying special attention to quick treats to add to my cookie and candy list. Every year I have my favorites, but I love tossing in a new treat from time to time.

These cute little Texas Tumbleweeds from page 180 immediately caught my eye. One because I thought the name alone was eye catching. And two because I am huge butterscotch fan, so anything using butterscotch chips is right up my alley. I usually use pretzels in several of my candy recipes, but this recipe used an interesting treat, potato sticks.

It also called for pecan pieces, but since my nutty kids dislike nuts I kept them pretty big and used pecan halves so they could pull them off, but everyone else could still enjoy them. I loved the sweet and saltiness of this candy and the potato sticks added a nice crunch. These sweet little treats would make a nice Texas themed gesture to send to a loved one. I think the name was very fitting for this candy.

The third and final recipe I chose was titled Fastest Cheesecake aka No Bake Cheesecake from page 157. Over Memorial Day weekend fast is what I needed, so I turned to this recipe as a time saver. I needed one extra dessert to complete my memorial day festivities. Something yummy, but something that I did not have to spend a lot of time and ingredients on. This recipe was perfect.

While mixing up the cheesecake ingredients I was a bit skeptical. You see this was a no bake cheesecake that stated it took 15 minutes to mix up and only one hour to chill. Hmm I thought that was pretty quick by the consistency of the cheesecake I thought for sure it would take overnight to set up.

Well I was wrong.!!! For me this cheesecake took 3 hours of chilling time to set up, but by far still quick and easy in my book. Since I was making all the desserts in the morning this wasn't a big a problem for me. I have to tell you everyone was quite impressed with the taste of this cheesecake. It really tasted like I spent all day on this recipe. This cheesecake earned it's place in the Quick & Easy Christmas Cookbook.

Quick & Easy Christmas has 6 yummy chapters:

• Breakfast & Brunch
• Snacks & Appetizers
• Soups, Sides & Salads
• Mains
• Desserts
• Slow Cookers

Here is a peek at just a few of the recipes I have jotted down to try:

Peanut Wonton's, Feta squares, Jalapeno Puffers, Sycamore Farm Christmas Drink

4 Ingredient Breakfast Pizza, Blueberry Muffin Cake, Baked Apples with caramel

Make ahead morning casserole, Man bars, Chocolate coconut bars, Buttermilk syrup

Chicken & Dressing Bake, Old fashioned mashed potatoes, Ham & Potato Casserole, Cola Ham, Cranberry Turkey Breast

I can't wait to start cooking up all those yummy dishes. What I love about this cookbook is that most of these recipes can be prepared in just 30 minutes! And here's another perk most of the recipes require 8 ingredients or less. Now that's what I'm talking about. My thoughts have always been less time in the kitchen during the holiday season is more time for me to spend with family and friends. Isn't that what it's all about?

I also wanted to let you know that Gooseberry Patch has been kind enough to send me an additional copy to share with one of my readers. Thank you Gooseberry Patch. If you can't wait to get your hands on a copy of Quick & Easy Christmas you don't have to. Right now Amazon Books has it for $11.53 and $9.99 for their Kindle Edition. While you're there purchase an extra copy because this will make a great Christmas gift for anyone who loves to cook.

How To Enter The Giveaway:
Just leave a comment on this post letting me know what Christmas Recipe puts you in the holiday spirit? (mandatory entry) For me it's baking a batch of my favorite Holiday Eggnog Bread. It just isn't Christmas until make this yummy treat.

Additional Entries:
You can do any or all of the following for extra entries. Please leave a separate comment for each one.

1. Become a Fan of Gooseberry Patch on Face book. When you have done that, return to this post and leave a separate comment letting me know that you are a fan.
2. Join Gooseberry Patch "Circle of Friends" so you can stay Gooseberry Patch updated.
3. Become a New Fan of Mommy's Kitchen on Face book.
4. Mention this giveaway on your face book page. Come back and leave a comment telling me so.
5. Become a New Google Follower to Mommy Kitchen (left side of my blog page)
6. Tweet the following for another entry: Win a copy of @gooseberrypatch Quick & Easy Christmas at @mommyskitchen http://tinyurl.com/3dpam5g #reviews

Last day to enter this giveaway will be Wednesday June 15th at midnight (CST). I will pick a random winner using random.org and announce the winner on this blog, face book and twitter. Good Luck to everyone. Contest open to U.S & Canadian Residents only due to shipping charges.

Review Recipes: 

Peppermint Ice Cream
1- cup milk
2/3 - cup sugar
2 - cups whipping cream
1/2 - teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 - teaspoon peppermint extract
2/3 - cup candy canes, crushed

Whisk together milk and sugar until sugar is completely dissolved. Add cream and extracts. Pour into an ice cream maker. Churn about 20-25 minutes until thick and creamy or according to manufacturers directions for one quart of ice cream. Add crushed candy canes, churn an additional 5 minutes. Makes 1 1/2 Quarts. ( I doubled the recipe for a 4 quart ice cream maker)

Texas Tumbleweeds Candy
1 - 11 oz packages butterscotch chips
1/2 - package vanilla almond bark
1/2 - cup creamy peanut butter
4 - cups shoestring potato sticks. (found mine at kroger)
2 - cups broken pecan pieces or you can use pecan halves

Place the butterscotch chips, vanilla bark and peanut butter in a microwave safe bowl. Microwave on defrost in 3 minute intervals until everything is melted and smooth. Add the shoestring potato sticks and mix until well coated. Stir in pecans and drop by teaspoons onto waxed paper. Refrigerate until candies are hard. makes about 3-4 dozen candies.


Easy No Bake Cherry Cheesecake
1 - 8 oz package cream cheese + 3 oz cream cheese, softened
1 - 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk
1/4 - cup lemon juice
1 - 9 inch cookie or graham cracker crust
1 - can pie filling of your choice or strawberry or raspberry preserves.

In a medium bowl beat cream cheese with an electric mixer until smooth and fluffy. Gradually add half of the condensed milk, beating constantly. When half of the milk has been added, beat in the lemon juice until smooth. 

Beat in remaining condensed milk. Beat in remaining condensed milk until smooth. Pour into crust and cover add pie filling and chill for at least one - three hours. Makes 8-10 servings. 

Disclosure: Gooseberry Patch provided me with a copy of "Quick & Easy Christmas" for the purpose of this review. They also provided me with an additional copy to use in a reader giveaway. With that being said the opinions & comments stated above are entirely my own. I would like to thank Gooseberry Patch for choosing Mommy's Kitchen as a "Early Bird Reviewer" and for sponsoring this giveaway.