Below are a few classic holiday recipes for your family:

Buttery Eggnog: This is alcohol free eggnog that can be enjoyed by the entire family, including children and expectant mothers. Ingredients include: 6 eggs, ¼ cup sugar, 1 teaspoon butter flavor extract, 4 cups milk, ¼ teaspoon nutmeg, ¼ teaspoon cinnamon, Use a whisk to mix the eggs and sugar in a saucepan over low heat. Stir in 2 cups of milk and cook mixture over low heat. Make sure that you continually stir until it thickens a bit. Remove from heat and mix in the rest of the milk and the butter flavor extract. Chill before serving.

Holiday Cheesecake: Acquire 1 Graham Cracker Crust or make your own graham cracker crust. Ingredients include: 2 (8 oz) packages cream cheese, softened, 1/2 C Sugar, 2 Eggs, and 1/2 Tsp Vanilla. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Beat cream cheese until fluffy. Add the remaining ingredients and beat until smooth. Pour into crust. Bake for 35 minutes. Remove and let it to completely cool. Now, make the topping: You will need 1 C Sour Cream, 1/2 C Sugar, and 1/4 Tsp Vanilla Extract. Mix until well blended. Pour over the cheesecake. Add a fruit topping. Place in the Refrigerator until it is time to serve. It is a delicious holiday sweet.

Classic Holiday Glazed Ham: Ingredients you will need include: 1 ham (half or whole), 1 jar of maraschino cherries, 10 – 15 whole cloves, 1 can of sliced pineapples, 2 tablespoons yellow mustard, and 3/4 cup of brown sugar (light). First you must preheat the oven as stated on the package that the ham was in. Then bake the ham as instructed from the cooking directions on the package. About 45 minutes prior to the ham being completely cooked, remove it from the oven. Arrange the pineapple slices on top of the ham and hold them with the cloves. If you are not using cloves, then use toothpicks. Put a cherry in the middle of each pineapple slice and hold them with a toothpick or clove. In a bowl, mix the mustard, brown sugar, and the juice from the can of pineapples to make the glaze for the ham. Bake the ham for 30 minutes. Take the ham out of the oven and it is ready to be carved.

Rum Ball Recipe: This recipe is a delicious holiday treat. Ingredients include 200 g (7 oz) finely ground shortbread cookies, 200 g (7 oz) butter, melted, 50 g (1.7 oz) cocoa, 300 g (10 oz) powdered sugar, 1 tablespoon vanilla extract, 1 tsp rum, and 1-2 eggs. Mix all ingredients together and then shape into balls.

This holiday season take a little time to make some classic holiday recipes for your family, neighbors, and friends. You will enjoy adding traditional holiday customs in this high-tech modern world.

For most, of course, Paris is still the Mecca of France, however there are many other cities that are well worth visiting on a camping holiday in France. Here are four interesting cities where you can blend excellent camping together with city sightseeing.

Bordeaux

Wine lovers on a camping holiday in France will naturally gravitate towards Bordeaux, the principal city of one of the country’s major wine growing regions. If you time your visit right, you’ll even get the chance to be in the city during its famous Fête du Vin at the end of June and the beginning of July, an annual festival celebrating the very best of Bordeaux’s wine.

But the city has more to offer than just fine wines – the charming 18th century buildings make it a lovely place for walking and architectural highlights in the city include the Grand Théâtre and the Cathédrale Saint-André. If you need to get away from the bustle of the city, head over to the beautifully designed Jardin Botanique.

Cannes

Cannes becomes the centre of the film world every May with its International Festival, but it has plenty to offer visitors at any time of the year. Situated in the sunny Côte d’Azur, Cannes boasts a range of attractions, ranging from the designer boutiques on the promenade to the luxurious yachts that are moored in the Old Port. Chic, trendy, and boasting a gorgeous beach, Cannes is the ideal destination for fashionistas, beach lovers, and celebrity spotters.

Grenoble

Known as “The Capital of the Alps”, Grenoble is located just at the foot of this famous mountain range. The most dramatic sight in Grenoble (apart from the mountains that loom in the background) is La Bastille, an ancient fortification that overlooks the entire city. Visitors can also catch a cable car from here up into the mountains for some stunning Alpine views. Other notable sights in the city include the excellent Museum of Grenoble, filled with ancient antiquities, and the Palace of the Parliament of Dauphiné.

If you choose this area for a camping holiday in France, you’ll get access to both Grenoble itself and the mountains that surround it – an outstanding combination!

Dijon

It may be most well known in the UK as a brand of mustard, but the city of Dijon has much more to it than that! The fine Renaissance architecture of the old town is a pleasure to walk around, and the city’s cathedral is unmissable. The city is a gastronomic centre and home to some of the finest restaurants in the country. Gourmets will be in heaven here, especially since it is the capital of Burgundy, another very important wine region.

As can be seen, there’s more to French cities than just Paris, and each of the examples we’ve given have excellent campsites only a short distance away.

The Meat

The main meat in the region is the Carollais beef cattle, and as such meat eaters are guaranteed large rich portions. Often this can be mixed with fine wines, like in the eponymous boeuf bourguignon, a traditional recipe of the region combining these two fine elements with baby onions, bacon and carrots. Coq au Vin follows a similar formula, only with chicken instead of beef. This style is repeated with many other dishes, and if your French isn’t that good, look out for the phrase “a la Bourguignonne”. There are bound to be some restaurants near your campsite in Burgundy serving this kind of food, given it’s such a popular local fare.

There are plenty of other meats if you’re not a chicken or beef eater, various hams, hare, calf head and even some river fish – usually poached in white wine, with bacon, onions, garlic and butter. Finally of course, there are the snails, and although many people will turn their noses up at them, the humble ‘escargots’ are delicious, served as they are stewed with Chablis, carrots, onions and shallots, then stuffed with garlic and parsley butter. If you consider yourself a connoisseur, you may wish to consider the black snails (the best of which are raised on grape leaves) which are considered amongst the best in France!

The Cheese

The cheeses are another fine part of the region’s cuisine, and a very nice gift to bring back from your holiday spent camping in Burgundy. The best ones are Chaource (creamy and white), St-Florentin, the orange skinned …poisses and various types of goat’s cheese from Morvan.

The Sauces & Condiments

The region’s most famous condiment is the mustard. As well as being the birthplace of the Dijon variety, there are hundreds of other types available, ranging from the blisteringly hot to the pleasantly mild. The ingredients in each variety vary, and can include the likes of tarragon and honey. You may well end up looking to take these back as souvenirs from your time spent camping in Burgundy!

As well as the wine based ones mentioned above, cream based sauces are also common, sometimes mixed with the mustard like in andouillette de Macon, for example.

The Wine

The region’s wines are celebrated the world over for their high quality and delicate flavours, and it would be a crime not to enjoy a bottle or two over your time spent camping in Burgundy. As a general rule of thumb, the farther north the vineyard, the richer the flavour of the Burgundy wine. Here, the pinot noir grape gives a delicate combination of velvet textures and complex flavours. Towards the south of the red Burgundy region is Beaujolais where gamay grapes are used providing a more dry, fruity flavour, allowing them to compliment all kinds of food.

So worry not – your holiday spent camping in Burgundy should not involve trying to light a portable stove and open cans of beans. With many fine restaurants across the region, it’s all too easy to be having some truly outstanding gourmet food prepared for you by experts – you may want to “accidentally” leave the can opener at home…

You do not have to be a gourmet chef to cook like one, says Jill Blashack, president and CEO of Tastefully Simple, an easy to prepare gourmet foods company. I do not have time to cook, and many other people are in the same position.

The following are some tips from the experts at Tastefully Simple on how to be prepared at short notice for any kind of gathering this season More entertaining takes place during the holidays than all the rest of the year put together. Relatives come to visit, friends and neighbors drop by unexpectedly  this time of year you have to be prepared for a party on short notice

Archive good recipes. From time to time you run across a recipe that would be great for entertaining a quick and easy soup, an interesting hors d’oeuvre, a good mulled cider mixture. Keep an active file of the ones you want to try so they are ready for you when you need them. This way you would not have to scramble when you need to find something to make at the last minute.

Keep important staples on hand at all times. There are certain items that your pantry should not be without during the holidays a variety of crackers, chips and mixed nuts cream cheese for a cheese ball sour cream for an easy dip; some fresh spices such as ginger, cinnamon and cloves for mulling and condiments such as mayonnaise, mustard, preserves and chutney. It is also a good idea to have a selection of beer, wine and soft drinks available.

Stock some items that can be ready to serve quickly. Even if you do not like to cook, you will be able to whip together a menu that will impress your friends and relatives with the help of a few Tastefully Simple products. Each one is either ready to serve, or can be prepared by adding just one or two additional ingredients.

Ensure your gathering will be a success with these simple, savory dips

Tastefully Simple Spinach & Herb Mix, Garlic Garlic and Bacon Bacon Mixes

1 and half cups sour cream

1 and half cups mayonnaise                                

3 large red or green bell peppers

Tastefully Simple Bountiful Beer Bread Mix

12 ounce beer or any carbonated beverage

3 tablespoons butter, melted

Prepare all three dip mixes with sour cream and mayonnaise as directed on packaging chill in separate bowls for 2 hours. Prepare Bountiful Beer Bread Mix with beer and butter as directed on package cool and cube. Carefully slice tops off bell peppers, seed, core reserve lids. Fill each pepper with one of the prepared dips. Place filled peppers next to lids on lettuce leaf lined plate serve alongside basket of Bountiful Beer Bread cubes for dipping. Makes 3 cups dip.

But with all the other things going on during the season, it’s hard to find the time to cook something nice for your guests. How can you put together a gourmet menu at the last minute?

“You don’t have to be a gourmet chef to cook like one,” says Jill Blashack, president and CEO of Tastefully Simple, an easy-to-prepare gourmet foods company. “I don’t have time to cook, and many other people are in the same position.”

The following are some tips from the experts at Tastefully Simple on how to be prepared at short notice for any kind of gathering this season:

* Archive good recipes. From time to time you run across a recipe that would be great for entertaining: a quick and easy soup, an interesting hors d’oeuvre, a good mulled cider mixture. Keep an active file of the ones you want to try so they are ready for you when you need them. This way you won’t have to scramble when you need to find something to make at the last minute.

* Keep important staples on hand at all times. There are certain items that your pantry shouldn’t be without during the holidays: a variety of crackers, chips and mixed nuts; cream cheese for a cheese ball; sour cream for an easy dip; some fresh spices such as ginger, cinnamon and cloves for mulling and condiments such as mayonnaise, mustard, preserves and chutney. It’s also a good idea to have a selection of beer, wine and soft drinks available.

* Stock some items that can be ready to serve quickly. Even if you don’t like to cook, you’ll be able to whip together a menu that will impress your friends and relatives with the help of a few Tastefully Simple products. Each one is either ready to serve, or can be prepared by adding just one or two additional ingredients.

Ensure your gathering will be a success with these simple, savory dips:

Tastefully Simple Spinach & Herb Mix, Garlic Garlic and Bacon Bacon Mixes

1 1/2 cups sour cream

1 1/2 cups mayonnaise

3 large red or green bell peppers

Tastefully Simple Bountiful Beer Bread Mix

12 ounce beer (or any carbonated beverage)

3 tablespoons butter, melted

Prepare all three dip mixes with sour cream and mayonnaise as directed on packaging; chill in separate bowls for 2 hours. Prepare Bountiful Beer Bread Mix with beer and butter as directed on package; cools and cube. Carefully slice tops off bell peppers, seed, core; reserve lids. Fill each pepper with one of the prepared dips. Place filled peppers next to lids on lettuce-leaf-lined plate; serve alongside basket of Bountiful Beer Bread cubes for dipping. Makes 3 cups dip.