The festive season means we can put aside the cautious eating and finally indulge in some of the tempting treats Christmas brings. The recipes below attempt to cover a variety of tastes, from the traditional to the obscure and from the healthy to more indulgent.

1. Gammon with Tomato Sauce

Ham is often regarded as a festive food and gammon provides a scrumptious dinner time favorite that proves enjoyable for all the family! To enjoy this recipe to the fullest, select a creamier tomato sauce in contrast to the thinner, more watery sauces. The saltiness of the gammon is balanced by the sweetness of tomato sauce and contrasting textures.  Just the smell of this recipe is sure to work up an appetite!

2. Duck and Mango Salad

A duck and mango salad is a healthier option for those who are trying to watch their weight over Christmas. A perfect twist to a traditional salad by adding succulent pieces of duck and juicy mango slices. Duck is the ideal Christmas meat as it is not a usual household choice but provides great taste, especially alongside the fruitiness of the mango.

3. Apple Cider

Warm up Christmas parties with an infusion of festive apple flavored cider. Simply heat and mix regular apple brandy, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg over a hob and inhale the smell of complimentary flavors. Other festive variations include cranberry or orange cider

4. Cinnamon Christmas Buns

This recipe is similar to the classic cinnamon swirl but exchanges a flaky pastry with a softer doughier base. Add raisins and a thin layer of plain icing to the top of the bun to increase the festivity of this recipe.

5. Homemade Cranberry Sauce

Known for accompanying turkey on a traditional Christmas Day meal, cranberry sauce is an instant British favorite. The base ingredients are simply fresh cranberries and sugar however there are so many variations of this recipe, including the addition of ingredients such as tangerine, port or even rosemary.

6. Gingerbread Truffles

Add a twist to classic chocolate truffles by adding gingersnaps! These soft and luxurious truffle balls combine the festivity of gingerbread with the well-known beauty of dark chocolate. Toasted nuts can also be added to provide a satisfying combination of textures.

7. Spiced Cauliflower Soup

As a delicious vegetarian option spiced cauliflower soup combines the flavors of various complimentary vegetables with the spice arising from the use of Worcestershire sauce, Tabasco and mixed spices.

8. Cinnamon and Hazelnut Toffee

The softness of the toffee beautifully contrasts the crunch of the hazelnut and with the addition of cinnamon this recipe is the ideal Christmas party crowd pleaser! If preferred, the hazelnuts could be substituted with other nuts such as pecans.

9. Chestnut, Sausage and Marsala Stuffing

Christmas cannot pass by without the incredible sticky deliciousness of stuffin. This recipe can be enjoyed either alongside a prepared meal or perhaps as leftovers in between two slices of bread. Additional ingredients include herbs rosemary and thyme.

10. Spiced Orange Mulled Wine

Mulled wine is a traditional festive favorite but combining it with the sweetness of orange segments, black peppercorns and a cinnamon stick create a new and creative take on a Christmas classic. Ensure to serve this recipe warm for maximum enjoyment.

Christmas can provide the ideal opportunity to experiment with recipes and ideas. It’s easy to stick to traditional Christmas ingredients but add some spark and creativity to the festive season by trying the above recipes.

Written by Rebecca Hubbard, who helps out Cooks Paraphernalia, a design kitchenware retailer offering products such as wmf cutlery or pressure cookers.

The kitchen is a multipurpose space in our home dedicated to cooking, eating, entertaining and socializing. Since the kitchen is where we spend plenty of our favorite pastimes, its design should be not only be functional, but warm and inviting. If you’ve outgrown the look of your kitchen, small DIY upgrades and stylish renovations can significantly improve how you function in this space.

Lighting Replacements

Install new pendant light fixtures above your kitchen table and island. Pendant light fixtures are available in a wide range of of traditional and contemporary styles. Choose from extensive diverse options such as the colorful Pharos Modern Pendant Light (Niche Modern), unique Hand-blown Oculu Design Pendant Lamps (Niche Modern), charming Vintage Canning Jay Chandelier (LampGoods) and classic Bronze Funnel Pendant Light (Home Depot).

Rustic Accents

Home remodeling and design experts at Houzz.com suggest integrating rustic elements to create a warmer ambiance. Install custom wooden blinds for a distinctive and country home appearance. Distressed hardwood flooring will also create the organic feel of a farmhouse; laminate and vinyl hardwood flooring are low-budget options that can still aesthetically mimic the look of real wood. Houzz.com’s ideas include hanging copper pots and pans from a ceiling rack and pairing a kitchen bar or island with antique wooden stools.

Cabinet Refacing or Door Painting

Refacing your cabinetry or painting cabinet doors for a fresh look is a budget-friendly option for revamping your kitchen’s overall appearance. Remodeling the look of your kitchen with contrasting colors or textures can create a dynamic and stunning design. If your kitchen has a warm ambiance, then install dark chocolate natural wood or striking teal cabinet doors to become the aesthetic focal point. Another contrasting design idea is to paint the top and bottom halves of your kitchen two opposing colors. Mix beige with a dark blue-gray hue, white with a scarlet red, citrus with grapefruit pink or turquoise with sunshine yellow.

New Accessories

Upgraded kitchen accessories and tools can instantly change your kitchen’s appearance. Whether you hang organizational boards and racks on the wall to eliminate counter top clutter or swap out old hardware with stylish new handles and knobs, your kitchen will look fresh and made over.

• Crate & Barrel Stackable Glass Storage Jars, Heritage Hill Glass Jars with Lids and Stainless Steel Clip Canisters are decorative storage solutions. Fill jars and canisters with spices, sugar, flour, pasta, candy, snacks or even wine corks to display on countertops.
• Bowls and vases make eye-catching statement pieces. Place Pottery Barn vases in different shapes and sizes in kitchen corners and nooks. Accent vases with flowers, grass, wax fruit or themed ornaments such as seashells, acorns, holly or leaves.
• Chalk board paint will not only add character but also function for your kitchen. Paint the doors of a couple cabinets or your freezer and refrigerator doors. Adorn your chalk board with a running list of groceries or inspirational quotes. Children will also love to use the new surface as a playful canvas for drawing.

Other fun kitchen accessories include a Williams-Sonoma Tuscany cookbook holder, Kamenstein Revolving Space Rack with 16 Filled Jars and a Chateau-Thierry or 1940s Garment Shop Clock from Restoration Hardware.

This post was provided by Best Hoods, innovative and designer cooker hoods which are energy efficient, quiet and attractive with unique features.

Your home revolves around the kitchen, but it’s easy to forget this sometimes, especially in the busy run up to Christmas.   However, with our simple tips and tricks, it’s easy to inject some seasonal cheer in to the most important room in the house:

• Candles. Large church candles of different sizes look elegant huddled together on a window sill. Scented candles are lovely for a Christmas kitchen too.  Vanilla, cinnamon and pine are some of the most traditional holiday fragrances. But you can also find actual ‘Christmas’ scented candles that give your room instant holiday spirit. Candles create a lovely ambiance and warmth in a room. So dot them round your house for a simple, seasonal update.

• Ornaments. Intricate baubles and decorations look great when they’re hung from the handles of kitchen cabinets and on doorknobs.  Apple and pear shaped decorations are given a Christmas twist with added shimmer and sparkle. Pile these up in a glass bowl for a striking centerpiece on Christmas day.  Taking a walk around a Christmas market in your area can also help you to unearth some great trinkets, ideas and inspiration.

• Festive Foliage. Seasonal plants and flowers can’t fail to add little hints of Christmas magic to your house. Poinsettias are the ultimate holiday bloom. But incorporating roses, ivy and mistletoe in to your kitchen will brighten the bleakest of winter days.

• Christmas Candies. Christmas is the time of plenty, so it’s a great idea to fill your kitchen with jars and tins full of treats and titbits. Candy canes, traditional Italian style biscuits and cakes not only taste great but look inviting presented in bowls in the centre of the table.

• Be proud of your kitchen. If you’re hosting Christmas this year, it’s so important that you’re working in a kitchen that you’re proud to show off to friends and family. Make some time before the countdown to Christmas to organise your kitchen. Go through your cupboards and make plenty of room for your festive food and treats. A stylish, statement kitchen is truly the centre of your home.

A new and contemporary cooker hood will transform any kitchen from drab to designer. A hood from Best is beautiful and efficient, and provides the latest in extractor design and technology.  Choose a striking pendant hood – such as the Vintage – to add an extra touch of sparkle to your kitchen.

The following is a guest post from Barrie Smith

There’s a whole world of modern home accessories to choose from, whether you’re currently decorating your pad or on the hunt for the perfect home gift. Choose from something elegant and traditional, modern and funky or just unmistakably practical! Here’s our round-up of 5 great decorative accessories for your home:

Hanging Picture Pockets

Forget overpriced picture frames, now you can hang all those precious family photos in one place with these affordable and handy hanging picture pockets. Available in various sizes including a giant format to fit the back of a door, these photo pockets are also ideal for framing holiday postcards and special messages. The Large Hanging Picture Pockets can hold up to 40 photos in 20 pockets. For a nice home decor gift, fill a hanging picture pocket item with pictures that are sentimental to the recipient.

Russian Doll Bedside Glass Set

If you’re looking for a modern yet dainty piece of home decor, this practical bedside glass set could be just the thing. This useful, ornamental item is beautifully hand-blown and engraved to look like a Russian Doll of the 19^th century. The set features a jug and glass ideal for the bedside table, keep your water fresh throughout the night until you need to quench your thirst. This item measure 7” high and is hand wash only.

Scratch Maps

Add a real feature piece of art to your wall with an unusual scratch map! These are poster size maps that feature a scratch-able silver layer. You can choose from a UK & Ireland or World version on which you can scratch the places you have been once you visit them. This is a great accessory for any home; get the whole family involved as you discover new geographical locations. Scratch Maps make the perfect gift for any well-traveled friend or colleague and would make a fun feature for an office too.

Message Cushions

Discover these traditional looking feather-filled, elegant piped cushions with a modern twist! These elegant cream moire fabric accessories feature fun phrases on staying young or choose from other age-related messages. These accessories make the ideal birthday present or a nice treat for yourself when you’d like to make a statement on your sofa.  Made in England they measure 9″ x11”. Remember, you can never have too many cushions.

Key & Coin Organizer

Never experience that mad rush to find your keys again! Keep them in the same place each and every day with this specifically designed key and coin organizer. This modern and stylish accessory will look great on any desk, kitchen top or sideboard and will ensure you know exactly where your keys are every morning. This practical organizer also has a compartment designed for you to pop any loose change in when you get home each day. No more lost coins in the washing machine and you’ve always got change on hand for when you need to pop to the corner shop!

Article written by Barrie from PresentsForMen.co.uk – offering a unique collection of over 2,500 gifts including kitchen accessories.

Kitchen gadgets for Mom are always a great gift idea.  Whether Mom is an extraordinary cook, a baking whiz or just loves to putter around in the kitchen, these gadgets will make her heart flutter.

Microplane 40020 Zester/Grater

For years I used a standard hand held cheese grater to zest lemons, grate chocolate and so on.  It wasn’t until I bought a microplane that I realized just how important it is to have the right tools in the kitchen.  This handy kitchen utensil easily allows Mom to grate, zest or shred in the palm of her hand.

Silpat Non-Stick Baking Mat

Love, love, love my Silpat!  I use this non-stick silicone mat almost every day.  I simply slide it over top of my baking sheet and I can be sure that whatever I am baking, from cookies to scones, will come out with a delicious golden brown bottom with no burning or sticking.  And I love the clean up.  No more scraping burnt bits off of my cookie sheets.

Wilton Easy Flex 3-piece Silicone Spatula Set

Every Mom needs a good spatula set in her kitchen.   While I do love my wooden spoons, a silicone set comes in very handy as well.   I love that these ones are heat, odor and stain resistant and come in three different sizes.

OXO Good Grips Pastry Scraper

At first glance, you may think that this tool couldn’t possibly have many uses in the kitchen.  Well that would be a very wrong assumption.  This versatile scraper can be used to easily slide chopped veggies from a cutting board, it can be used to measure and cut bread and pastry dough and for the lazy cook it makes slice-and-bake cookies even easier to divide!

Wilton Elite 3-Tier Cooling Rack

This one is on my very own Christmas list this year.  Right now I have a single tier cooling rack in my kitchen and use it all the time.  The problem with only one tier though is that there isn’t enough room for even a single batch of cupcakes and cookies and they end up overflowing onto my counter.  A second and third tier would be fantastic!

KitchenAid Pasta Roller Attachment

If you have read my review of these excellent Kitchenaid Mixer Attachments then you know how much I adore them.  They simply attach to the side of Mom’s stand mixer and within minutes she’ll be cooking up fresh tasty strips of homemade pasta.  This is one kitchen gadget for Mom that the whole family will get to enjoy!

Cuisinart 7-Speed Hand Mixer

Whether Mom needs to whip up a quick batch of muffins for the school bake sale or the kids want fresh whipped cream atop their hot chocolate, a hand mixer will be Mom’s best friend.  Armed with this multi-purpose kitchen tool, Mom will be able to handle any kitchen challenge you throw at her.

EatSmart Digital Kitchen Scale

For health conscious Moms a digital kitchen scale is a great kitchen gadget gift idea.  This scale allows her to keep track of calorie intake as well as control portion sizes so she can keep her New Years resolution on track this year.

Progressive 19 – Piece Measuring Cup and Spoon Set

Over the years, I have lost or broken more than my share of measuring cups and spoons so I am always on the look out for great quality measuring sets.  I love the colors of this smart set (white, red and gray) and the fact that they are durable and dishwasher safe makes them even more attractive.  So if Mom has a drawer full of mismatched measuring cups she will love this neat and tidy collection.

Oregon Scientific AW131 Grill Right Wireless Talking Oven/Barbeque Thermometer

If there is one thing that my husband does better than me in our kitchen it is definitely cooking meat!  I always struggle with knowing whether or not the meat is cooked properly.  This wireless thermometer takes away the guesswork.  You simply stick the probe in the meat, set it to the temperature or doneness level you desire and let it tell you when the meat is ready.

Each year when I write out my baking list for Christmas I always include a simple sugar cookie recipe.  These cookies are easy to make, fun to decorate and are very versatile at the holidays.

I use an easy sugar cookie recipe for a variety of reasons.  For one, the recipe is great for the kids.  They can mix the ingredients – or add them to the food processor (have you read my review of the Cuisinart Food Processor yet?), they love to decorate them and there aren’t too many kids I know who don’t enjoy eating sugar cookies.

What I love about a great sugar cookie recipe though is that it is super easy to jazz these cookies up a little and take them to bazaars and cookie exchanges too.  With a little royal icing and a holiday shaped cookie cutter, you can make some truly spectacular cookie creations!  Sugar cookies really are that versatile.

My favorite easy sugar cookie recipe comes from one of my all-time favorite cookbooks Sugar: Simple Sweets and Decadent Desserts by Anna Olson.

If you are Canadian you are probably familiar with Anna Olson.  She is the host of Sugar on Food Network Canada as well as the spokesperson for stores like Home Hardware and The Bulk Barn.   She also owns a whole foods bakery in the tourist destination of Niagara-On-The-Lake that is really beautiful and rustic.  If you are ever visiting the Niagara region it is worth a stop.

I actually had the pleasure of meeting Anna at a local food show in Toronto and she is very “sweet” and down-to-earth .  I even got her to sign my copy of Sugar and have, on more than one occasion, proudly shown it to anyone who visits my kitchen.

The cookbook and the recipes are simple, elegant and comforting – especially the cookies and I hope Anna’s sugar cookie recipe finds its way onto your Christmas baking list too.  Enjoy!

Want a gingerbread cookie idea that is a little outside the box this Christmas?  Well I can guarantee that these gingerbread cookie cutters from Fred and Friends will help you get exactly what you are looking for.

The company Fred & Friends is making some big waves in the cooking and baking world these days with their innovative and uniquely hilarious kitchen products.  They are fun and unusual and people everywhere are scrambling to get their hands on them.  Unfortunately though, this means many on and offline merchants are quickly selling out of Fred’s holiday items making them difficult to get your hands on.

If you are lucky enough to find a place where Fred’s stuff is in stock, buy an extra set because as soon as family and friends get a peek at your unique gingerbread cookies, they are going to want some cookie cutters of their own.

Whether you go with the super trendy and popular Ninjabread Men or the equally funny ABC (Already Been Chewed) set, your cookies will be the talk of the town this holiday season.  Can you imagine the look you would get at the church bazaar, the school bake sale or your girlfriends cookie exchange if you showed up with cookies like these?  It would be memorable that’s for sure!

I think I might go for the ABC cutters and take them into my son’s classroom as a special holiday treat.  A bunch of grade 2 boys are sure to get a kick out of half eaten gingerbread cookies right?

You know those exquisite Christmas trees you see at the holidays?  The ones with the perfectly coordinated ornaments and dainty ribbons wrapped just so around the branches?  The ones with just the right number of lights and a beautiful star sitting atop like a golden crown?   I see them too – just not in my living room!

No, the Christmas tree at my house is usually misshapen, leaning slightly to one side and without fail, seems to always have a burnt out light bulb right in the front.  It also does not have perfectly coordinated ornaments.  It has baked clay hand prints that are so heavy they almost pull the branches right down to the ground, pipe cleaner reindeer that I have to re-shape after a long year in storage and one-of-a-kind paper snowflakes.  Needless to say, my tree is more sentimental than sensational.

But when I saw these copper kitchen ornaments from Williams-Sonoma I thought they would be a wonderful way to combine the sentimentality that I love about my tree with a more polished sophisticated look – at least on a few branches.   They would represent me and my love of both cooking and kitchen gadgets – a little piece of me on my tree.

These cute ornaments are actually miniature versions of classic French cookware ( I wonder if Julia Child decorated her tree with things like this?) and come as a set of three with a tiny 2“kettle, skillet and colander tied on a red ribbon.  They would look so beautiful when the lights reflected off of them.

So on my tree this year, if you look really closely in amongst the hand painted wooden Santa Claus’ and the crumbling year-old popcorn strings, you may just catch a glimpse of a shiny copper ornament peeking out so perfectly polished and pretty.

Our little Halloween party over the weekend was a hauntingly good time.  The kids bobbed for apples, carved pumpkins and made their own “Mummy Dogs” and the adults munched on ghoulishly good treats like this yummy Caramel Toffee Dip and more.  It was a fun-filled night for all.

But as much as I love Halloween, I am always a tiny bit excited to see it come to an end.  After a month of looking at ghosts and goblins haunting our yard and fake cobwebs (and of course some non-fake cobwebs) covering everything, I’m ready for a change.   I’m ready for some festive holiday cheer instead of all the doom and fear.  Thankfully Christmas is right around the corner.

So here at Mom’s Kitchen Gadgets, I’ve decided that the next 8 weeks will be dedicated to my absolute favorite time of the year -Christmas!  Oh I can just hear my husband now….. “Isn’t it a bit early to start thinking and writing about Christmas?”  To that I say Bah Humbug!  Let the Countdown to Christmas begin!

Here are a few things I plan to feature here over the next few months:

• The gadget gift idea I have for teacher appreciation gifts this year.  I am really excited about this one!

• Kitchen gadget gift ideas for everyone on your Christmas list – even teenagers!

• Some of my favorite Christmas recipes and the tools I use to help me get everything done in the kitchen.

• My creatively crafty sister will share some of her awesome ideas for make-your-own kitchen gadgets.  Yes I said make your own!

• Fabulous holiday kitchen items to bring some extra cheer to your home this Christmas.

• And there will be stocking stuffers galore.  These gadgets are small on cost but big on wow factor!

Needless to say I am really excited about what’s to come.  It’s already beginning to look a lot like Christmas.