My family does Christmas morning at my parents' house each year. We do a yummy brunch while opening gifts. In previous years I've made this coffee cake, but wanted to do something different this year. Also, being dairy free, I was worried about finding frozen yeast rolls I could eat. For several years I've eyed Pioneer Woman's cinnamon buns, but they look like too much work (especially when we are hosting Ryan's mom for dinner on Christmas Eve, when I should be preparing it). And there is a lot of butter in that recipe! Any time I see an overnight/wifesaver type of recipe pop up on Pinterest I add it to my Christmas board, so after some browsing of the options I came across this Overnight Caramel French Toast. It does call for a bit of dairy, and the heavy cream was concerning, but I was able to find substitutions for everything! Dairy Free Overnight French Toastmodified from Six Sisters' Stuff Topping: 1 cup packed brown sugar 7 tablespoons dairy free margarine (I used Earth Balance buttery spread) 1/3 cup less a tablespoon soy coffee cream 1 tablespoon corn syrup Optional: crushed nuts (pecans or walnuts would be good) French Toast: 6 eggs 1 cup dairy free milk (or use the coffee cream if you won't have any other use for it) 2 teaspoons vanilla 1/2 teaspoon salt dairy free bread slices to fill your pan (I found a nice airy artisan bread at my local grocery store with lots of holes to sop up the batter) Directions: Coat a non-stick 9x13 baking pan with something to keep this from sticking. Yes, it's that sticky. I did a light coat of olive oil and we had issues. So don't skimp, especially on the sides. In a 2 quart saucepan mix and heat the caramel sauce until smooth. Don't boil it! Transfer into the baking pan. In a bowl that will fit your bread nicely (to sop up the very last bit of egg batter), mix the French Toast ingredients (except the bread). Dip your bread to get it sopping wet and transfer to the baking pan. I placed mine on a 45 degree angle so I could get more bread in, the original recipe placed them flat. I think there is enough caramel sauce you can fit in the extra bread and still have lots, but feel free to be caramel greedy. Cover and refrigerate for at least 8 hours. Bake uncovered for 20-25 minutes at 400 F until bubbly and toast is golden brown. Let stand 3 minutes. Place a serving tray over top of the pan and invert so if flops out and the caramel goodness is now on top. Scrape any caramel still in the pan over top. Serve immediately (as if you could resist). If I make this again (and I am very tempted to), I will add a teaspoon or two (or five - I'm an addict) of cinnamon to the French Toast batter, as I found the bread a bit lacking in flavour. I'm not a fan of nutmeg or I'd also add that. Sorry for no photo, it was quickly devoured!

Growing up, his grandmother's date squares were one of my dad's favourite treats. These super sweet goodies were also one of my favourites. We now make three pans of them; one for each household, and they all quickly disappear! Oatmeal Date Cake (Date Squares)2 cups oatmeal2 cups flour1 cup brown sugar1/2 cup butter1/2 cup lard (shortening)1/2 cup sour milk1/2 tsp baking sodaMix all together. Split in two. Press half into bottom of 13x9x2 inch pan. Spread filling. Put rest on top.Filling:1 lb dates1 cup brown sugar1 cup waterBoil until mushy.

My maternal grandmother made the most amazing, runny butter tarts, and I was lucky enough to get a copy of her recipe before she passed away ten years ago. I've actually had to share it with a few of my relatives because they'd lost their copies. This year my dad substituted maple syrup for the corn syrup. The tarts ended up a bit less runny, but super tasty. I'm usually lazy and use frozen tart shells, but I forgot them at home this year (we bake at my parents'), so I actually made pastry for them! Very indulgent of my father and husband (as they are the primary eaters, since I can't have dairy this year). Butter Tartsegg1/3 c butter3/4 c brown sugar (packed)1/4 c corn syrup (or maple syrup)1 tsp vanilladash saltnuts, raisins or both (or none - my choice!) Beat egg.Add butter and sugar and beat.Add other stuff (except nuts & raisins).Grandma plumped up raisins in hot water first (or you could use rum). She'd put nuts/raisins in tart shells and spooned the wet mixture on top. For yummiest results you want the wet mixture so it would just fill the tart shell, but kind of rounded. This will help avoid it boiling over the edge while cooking.Bake at 375 for 8 minutes.Lower temp to 350 until brown (for another 5 to 10 minutes) or done.I discovered that my old oven doesn't actually get even close to as warm as it claims, so if you like them runny, cook at 325 for 8 minutes then lower to 300 for about 15-20. Thanks to that oven, I can't cook a "solid" butter tart! (Which rocks for my Dad who loves them runny, but Ryan doesn't like them quite that messy.)

I love how quick this recipe is to put together. It probably isn't the most Christmas-y of recipes, but that is when it's become a tradition to make it in my family. This would probably be great at Haloween as well. Poppycock 1/2 cup butter or margarine1 cup packed brown sugar1/4 cup light corn syrup1/2 tsp. baking soda1 cup peanuts8 cups popped popcorn (1/3 cup unpopped)In three quart glass bowl, combine butter, sugar and syrup. Cook in microwave on High for 3 minutes.Stir. Add baking soda and stir gently until light and foamy. Cook 1 ½ minutes. Stir in nuts. Add popcorn (make sure you remove any un-popped kernels first) and stir until well coated. Cook 1 ½ minutes. Spread mixture onto buttered parchment paper. Let stand at room temperature for 1 hour to harden. Loosen mixture form parchment paper and break into pieces.

Nuts and bolts have been a family favourite for years. We can often go through five batches of this in a holiday season. I've made them so many times it's almost become an art. I've put a bunch of my tips into this version of the recipe.   Nuts and Bolts 2 cups Shreddies/Chex2 cups Cheerios2.5 cups pretzels1.5 cups peanuts ½ cup butter (melted)1.5 tbsp Worchestershire sauce¾ tsp garlic salt¾ tsp celery salt While butter is melting in the microwave, measure dry ingredients into a 9x13x2” pan. Add Worcestershire sauce, garlic and celery salt to butter. Stir until combined. Drizzle over dry ingredients. Mix (get in there with your hands!). Bake at 250 for 30 minutes, stirring once. Stir after it comes out of the oven and again after about ten minutes of cooling for best flavour distribution. I actually don’t own garlic salt and will substitute garlic powder. And I’m always a little heavy on the Worcester. Makes it taste better! I also strategically measure my ingredients in the reverse order to what they are listed above so the Chex and Cheerios get the most sauce.

Several years ago, a co-worker told me the story of her infamous turtles. She found the recipe in a Company's Coming cookbook when she was young and foolish, and gave it a try. She hasn't gone a Christmas since without making them, and now makes several batches to give away to family, friends, co-workers, and her husband's staff and clients. I figured what the heck, I'll give it a try. And now I'm in same conundrum. These babies are a lot of work, but are incredibly tasty. I can't eat commercial turtles any more (they also look ridiculously dinky to me now), and they used to be one of my favourite holiday treats.   Turtles1.5-2 lbs Pecans (I buy the 1kg bag from Superstore and use it all or the 2lb bag from Costco and have a bit extra caramel)1.5 c corn syrup1 c butter1 can (approx 1 cup) sweetened condensed milk1 c packed brown sugar 2c semisweet chocolate chips (or more – I normally need at least twice this; and buy the good chocolate, Chipits don't melt well) Cover several large trays (cookie sheets, cutting boards, etc) with plastic wrap, parchment paper or Silpat. Combine syrup, butter, sugar, and condensed milk in a heavy saucepan. Bring to a boil while stirring. Continue to boil slowly over low heat stirring constantly for about 25 minutes to medium hard (soft-ball) stage (250F on a candy thermometer – a small amount dropped in ice water will form a firm ball that can hold its shape but can easily be flattened; the colour will start to get a bit darker at this point). Remove from heat and mix in pecans. Spoon 3-5 pecans and caramel into clumps onto trays. Freeze until firm for easy dipping. Melt chocolate chips. Dip pecan clumps (balance on forks). Place back on plastic wrap to set. Makes 5-9 dozen depending on cluster size. First paragraph takes about an hour. For information on soft-ball stage, view my YouTube video I made for friends last year.

Every year I get together with my dad and sister to do a day of marathon baking. As both my sister and I have kids under 1 (plus my sister's older two), we decided to split the baking up over two days - it was still a marathon! Day 1 My sister had a birthday party to take her kids to in the morning, so Dad and I started the day by making butter tarts, then prepping the crusts for tourtiere we'd make once my sister arrived. I hate making pastry, but I'm told the butter tarts turned out great (unfortunately, I can't eat them this year because of our daughter's dairy intolerance). The crust for the tourtiere ended up a little dry for both the butter and the non-butter version; I suspect part of this due to using shortening instead of lard. We finished off the day with a few batches of nuts and bolts and poppycock. Overall, I'd say going dairy free using Earth Balance buttery spread worked out okay for everything but the pastry (and I'm just not that good at making pastry). Ryan actually said he liked the poppycock better than in previous years. Day 2 This was a day of torture for me. I spent most of it dealing with a cranky baby or making turtles. Those stupid things are a labour of love and contain so much dairy I can't even look at them without my daughter getting ill (she did have a minor reaction that night, so I suspect I licked my fingers by accident). My sister and dad also did up some shortbread and date squares, and one more batch of nuts and bolts. The dairy free date squares were very tasty - more like what I remember from my childhood than what we've been making in recent years (it's amazing the difference butter makes!). We had some extra time so we also tried making up a batch of sugar cookies. Mine ended up with a strange almond flavour which we suspect was due to the Earth Balance, though it doesn't contain any nuts.   I've split the recipes up in their own posts so this one isn't a mile long! Turtles Nuts & Bolts Poppycock Shortbread Buttertarts Date squares Sugar cookies Tourtiere