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A favorite recipe at Christmas that can become someone’s favorite gift. Share it with the ones you love.

I take this to our family gathering for the holidays. Everyone likes it - the “meat eaters” don’t miss the giblets. You can make it vegan by deleting the mushroom soup and increasing the broth, also use no/low fat soup if you like. Multi-grain, nut and sourdough breads all work great. Originally submitted to ThanksgivingRecipe.com. Pecans can be substituted for walnuts.

This month’s session is about Organic Beer, and this month is hosted by the wonderful blog Beer Activist. Already there are some wonderful blog entries from a wide variety of beer bloggers about many different organic beers. It’s my goal here to help educate you guys a little bit about cooking with organic food.

What is organic food? Wikipedia has a good (but lengthy) section about what organic food is. Here’s a good overview, taken from the first paragraph of the Wikipedia link:

Organic foods are produced according to a certain production standard. For crops, it means they were grown without the use of conventional pesticides, artificial fertilizers, human waste, or sewage sludge, and that they were processed without ionizing radiation or food additives.[1] For animals, it means they were reared without the routine use of antibiotics and without the use of growth hormones. In most countries, organic produce must not be genetically modified. however by definition GMO’s do not use pesticides or fertilizers to prevent disease, therefore are organic just not socially accepted as natural or ‘organic’.

Organic Kitchen, although maybe not the nicest-looking site, has a good set of links about Organic Gardening. Seeing that this is the time when people plant their home gardens (at least in Colorado), these links will help you get started down the path of organic gardening.

One of my favorite sites, Treehugger had a great article on organic food from about 6 months ago. It’s a very detailed blog entry, and pretty technical. But if you’re really interested in this, it’s a great resource for those looking to learn a great deal about organic food.

The organic beer trend is hardly a new one, as referenced by this Co-op America entry about organic beer. Their lists of organic beer aren’t up-to-date, but this link will give you a good idea of where the organic beer revolution began.

Looking for organic beer, but too lazy to actually go to a store to seek it out? Never fear, because Diamond Organics has mail order organic beer. Their beers are single beers, so you can get an assortment of organic beer to complement the food from your organic garden without leaving the house!

A nice break from typical hamburgers and much healthier for you. These chicken burgers are flavorful, fairly simple to make, and quite delicious. I serve these burgers on chive biscuits with tomato chutney. Eat to your hearts content!

Great muffins made with fresh or frozen blueberries.

A yummy pumpkin pie with NO sugar added. If eggs are not part of your diet, substituted 1/2 cup egg substitute for 2 eggs. Originally submitted to ThanksgivingRecipe.com.

Cake mix, pie filling and your favorite lemon-lime soda are all you need to make this versatile dessert.

A new way to make mashed potatoes that is creamy and smooth!

This is a nice tender cake - one of my Mom’s specialties from years ago. It is a great cake to take along to a picnic.

A chunky and very spicy sauce with chicken makes a nice hearty topping for angel hair pasta.

A sweet cake made with Cola soft drink and marshmallows.

I was given this recipe when touring a home in our community that was presented in full period costume and celebration for the Christmas holiday. In 1821 a German settler brought to the area the first tree for decorating, presented the traditional Yule Log ceremony and offered Wassail Punch.

For the true chocolate lover, this cake is moist and dense and you are going to love it. Great with cream cheese frosting or cooked fudge frosting.

A simple way to spruce up your burgers. Cook out on the grill, or just fry in a pan indoors. Serve on buns with lettuce, tomato, ketchup, mustard and onions.

A yummy cardamom flavored batter to use with a krumkake iron. These can be served plain or filled with flavored whip cream.

A creamy meringue frosting. Use sherry instead of vanilla for an interesting change of pace.

Quick easy snack that the kid’s can help make - especially if you have an air popper. Beware, this can become addictive!

You ‘ll need a food dehydrator for this one, but it just might be worth the purchase. Two dozen cherry tomatoes are cut in half and dried for 12 hours. Very, very easy and delicious.

This is a wonderful cheesecake. The eggnog doesn’t overpower the cheesecake and the cheesecake doesn’t overpower the eggnog. The result is sinfully smooth and delicious!