Breyers used a 1.5 quart container of their Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream. You can, of course, use holiday flavors: candy cane ice cream, eggnog ice cream, gingerbread ice cream, etc.

Check out this Christmas sprinkle mix and Christmas confetti, both from Wilton. Or, use crushed candy canes or instead of the sprinkles

Find more nifty ice cream creations at Breyers.com.

RECIPE: ICE CREAM CHRISTMAS TREE ORNAMENTS

Ingredients For 12 Pieces

1. LINE a jelly roll pan with aluminum foil, then spray with nonstick cooking spray. Freeze for at least 20 minutes.

2. SCOOP the ice cream, using a large round ice cream scoop, into 24 firmly packed scoops. Arrange the scoops flat-side down on the pan and freeze for 2 hours. Meanwhile…

3. MAKE the ornament “hangers.” Poke two holes in the small, flat side of the peanut butter cups with a skewer. Add a licorice “hanger” by pushing the ends into the holes. Freeze.

4. PRESS two scoops together to form a completely round ornament; repeat with the remaining scoops for a total of 12 ornaments. Arrange them on the pan and freeze at least 1 hour.

5. ROLL the ornaments in the sprinkles, leaving a bare spot on top to attach the hanger. Attach the hanger by pressing it onto the top of the ornament. Freeze for 3 hours or until ready to serve.
  

[2] You can served ginger cookies, ginger snaps, or your cookie of choice. Here’s the recipe for these ginger cookies (photo © Plugrá).

If you’re too busy racing around and don’t have much time to prepare something special for family, friends or colleagues, here’s an easy treat from QVC’s chef David Venable.

It’s Gingerbread Dip or Spread—yummy with cookies, cinnamon-flavored snack chips, and sure, crudités.

Says David, “There isn’t a more perfect potluck or office party recipe out there, foodies. This takes seconds, needn’t be cooked or kept warm, and uses ingredients you probably already have on hand.”
 
 
RECIPE: GINGERBREAD DIP FOR COOKIES

Ingredients For 2 Cups

 
Your Choice Of Dippers

1. PLACE the cream cheese, confectioners’ sugar, molasses, nutmeg, ginger, cloves and cinnamon in the bowl of a food processor. Process until the mixture is smooth.

2. SCRAPE the mixture into a medium-size bowl and fold in the whipped topping. Transfer to a serving dish.
  
 

If an apple a day keeps the doctor away (see below), it stands to reason that an apple dessert helps, too.

We have two slow-cooker apple recipes for you today. The second is like apple pie filling. Both are classic fall and winter desserts, suitable for weeknights or for company. They can be served warm, at room temperature or chilled.

While you can prepare both recipes in an oven, a slow cooker with a liner saves you from scrubbing a pan—and leaves the cooked apples juicier, too.

Both recipes were developed by Reynolds Kitchens.

RECIPE #1: SLOW COOKER STUFFED “BAKED” APPLES
WITH CINNAMON & BROWN SUGAR

Prep time is 20 minutes, slow cooker time is 3 hours. You can make the recipe even healthier by replacing the brown sugar with half as much agave syrup*. While there’s not a lot of refined sugar in the recipe, every little save helps.
 
Ingredients For 4 Servings

“Baked” apples from the slow cooker. Photo courtesy Reynolds Kitchens.

 
*Want to cut back on sugar? A better choice than sugar is agave nectar, a low-glycemic natural sweetener from the agave plant. Agave nectar has a glycemic index (GI) of 32, half that of table sugar (GI 60-65). Honey has a GI of 58, pure maple syrup has a GI of 54. Here’s more information on agave.
 
Preparation

1. LINE a 5- to 6-quart slow cooker with a Reynolds Slow Cooker Liner. Place the sliced apples in the liner.

2. COMBINE the oats, raisins, brown sugar, butter and cinnamon in a small bowl. Spoon the mixture into the centers of the apples, patting down with the back of a spoon or a narrow metal spatula. Mound any remaining oat mixture on top of the apples. Pour apple juice around the apples in the cooker.

3. COVER and cook for 3 hours on low.

4. TRANSFER the apples to serving bowls and drizzle with the cooking liquid.

More like apple pie: apple slices slow-cooked
with cinnamon. Photo courtesy Reynolds
Kitchens.

RECIPE #2: SLOW COOKER GLAZED CINNAMON APPLES

Prep time is 15 minutes, slow cooker time is 3 hours (low) or 2 hours (high).
 
Ingredients For 8 Servings

Preparation

1. LINE a 5-to-6 quart slow cooker with a Reynolds Slow Cooker Liner. Open a slow cooker liner and place it inside a slow cooker bowl. Fit the liner snugly against the bottom and sides of bowl; pull top of the liner over the rim of the bowl.

2. PLACE the apples in the bowl and drizzle with lemon juice.

3. MIX the granulated sugar, brown sugar, flour, cinnamon and nutmeg in a medium bowl. Sprinkle the mixture over the apples; stir gently with a rubber spatula to coat the apples. Drizzle with butter.

4. PLACE the lid on the slow cooker and cook on the low-heat setting for 3 hours or on the high-heat setting for 2 hours, until the apples are done.

5. CAREFULLY REMOVE the lid to allow the steam to escape. Transfer the apples to serving bowls and top with ice cream or whipped cream; or spoon the apples over a scoop of ice cream. Serve with cookies, if desired.

6. COOL the slow cooker completely; remove the liner and toss. Do not lift or transport the liner with food inside.
 
 
 
“AN APPLE A DAY” ORIGIN

According to a website that tracks the origins of English phrases, the earliest known print reference dates to Wales in 1866:

Eat an apple on going to bed, And you’ll keep the doctor from earning his bread.

By the turn of the 20th century, a number of variants of the rhyme were in circulation, including the one popular in the U.S.

Why were apples singled out to keep the doctor away? While they are healthful*, the answer is more complex. In Old English, “apple” was used to describe any round fruit that grew on a tree. Adam and Eve’s forbidden fruit is cited in English as an apple; but the word in the original Hebrew and the subsequent 1611 King James version of the Bible, it simply called “a fruit.”

Most historians believe that the apple originated in the Dzungarian Alps, a mountain range separating China from Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan (far away from the Middle East/Garden of Eden). Scholars believe that the fruit tree in the Middle East, the designated home of the Garden Of Eden, may actually have been a pomegranate.

 
*According to Phrases.org.uk and medical resources: Apples contain vitamin C, which aids the immune system, and phenols, which reduce cholesterol. Apples help to reduce tooth decay by killing bacteria that adhere to the teeth. Cornell University researchers believe that the quercetin in apples protects the brain cells against neuro-degenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s Disease.