5 Christmas food hacks

When you think Christmas food in the Philippines, it's usually ham (with pineapple glaze in a foil packet), Queso de Bola, and the often-ignored fruitcake. If it's your turn to contribute to the Noche Buena feast, here are some Christmas food hacks that could make things more interesting.

Queso de Bola crisps

So you've been #blessed with more than one Queso de Bola. Whether these cheese balls came from your company raffle, or your ninang, or your own grocery list, there is just one important question: How are you going to eat all that cheese?

Our family discovered the answer accidentally one post-Christmas meal. We decided to melt the remaining Queso de Bola in the toaster, thinking we would have cheese dip. We were wrong—melting the cheese in the toaster results in crisp Queso de Bola, which is even better!

For thinner crisps, grate the cheese and sprinkle evenly on the pan. If you're feeling fancy, add some chili flakes or herbs before baking.

Jelly Ace bells

This one is less a food hack than it is an excuse to eat lots and lots of jello. What you really want here is the plastic cups, which, if you haven't noticed, make very good bells when inverted. All you need to do is to apply a coat of glue to the cups, then sprinkle the cups with lots of glitter. Attach a loop of string, and you've got yourself a homemade Christmas ornament. These also make good gifts for people you don't really like. Just kidding. Maybe.

Pepper

You know that cousin you have who always orders extra hot sauce? Well, Christmas is the perfect season to test their tolerance on the Scoville scale. Adding red and green to any food will give you an instant Christmas-y look. You could just use bell pepper, but where's the fun in that? You can put chili on everything from pasta to the brownies, and speaking of brownies...

Cookie cutter everything

Get Christmas-themed cookie cutters and start experimenting. Obvious applications include pancakes, brownies, and well, cookies. Not-so-obvious would be, well, Christmas eggs to go with your leftover ham. These also double as stencils for Christmas decor, if you're into that.

Fruitcake ice cream

There are a few people who love fruitcake, but there aren't enough of them. Proof: We have two whole fruitcakes in the freezer, and I can't even remember what year they're from. A solution: crumble the fruitcake and drown it in vanilla ice cream. It shouldn't be too different from fruit salad, right? No? Well, it's worth a try. — AT, GMA News