Wrapping up the year: Happy Holidays!

As many of you may know, Penumbra Online's Fall 2021 journal edition is finally out, which means many of us at Penumbra are wrapping up and preparing for our next semester at CSU Stanislaus. Despite our Spring 2022 edition call opening 12/8, we as a whole will be on hiatus from 12/18 to 1/28/2022. You may still email and message us at penumbra@csustan.edu and @csustanpenumbra; however, we may be slow on replying back. That being said, we still want to share in some of the holiday spirit that begins around this time of year, starting with music!

Penumbra Online has been curating playlists for our Summer and Fall editions of the journal, and this week, we're releasing our "Festive Christmas" playlist, which has over three hours of holiday tunes, both young and old. We hope you'll enjoy this last Fall playlist, preferably while doing something you love. If you'd like to give it a listening to, the link for it is down below.

"Festive Christmas"

One of the ways I love enjoying this time of year is making something my mom calls "Christmas Crack," which, as the name suggests, is addictive as it is delicious. I used to make these with my mom every year for my teachers, from elementary to high school. Since the recipe is fairly simple, it was always a quick and easy gift to make and give to those who are fans of chocolate and peppermint! For those who may be unfamiliar with this sweet treat, I'll share how my mom makes it here:

1. Preheat your oven to 300 Fahrenheit. While doing this, line a baking sheet with saltine crackers, enough so that the whole tray is covered.

2.  Next, melt butter to pour over the crackers. My mom uses a whole stick, but I'll leave that up to you.
​
3. After, put the tray in the oven to bake "until golden brown." I find that this is code for 5-10 minutes.

4. Once your buttery crackers are properly browned, take them out and add chocolate chips while the tray is still hot. This will help the chocolate be melted when you smooth it around to cover all the crackers. My mom says to just cover the entire tray, so measurements here are, again, to your liking. 

5. After smoothing your chocolate, this is the time for toppings! My favorite is sprinkled, crushed candy canes, which I take pleasure in crushing with the side of a meat tenderizer against the counter. But walnuts or toffee are also great!

6. Lastly you'll want to freeze these so they stick together better. This step isn't necessarily vital, but it does help speed up the cooling process.

And that's it! I hope you enjoy and maybe try out these easy and fun treats, and if you have recipes or traditions you have with your families and friends, feel free to share them down below. We at Penumbra Online hope you have a pleasant rest of your 2021, and we'll see you next year!

author

Andrea Wagner