Hoppy Holidays

Bunnies are such good sports. This is Poppy. She and her sister, Pansy, are our two new Orange babies. I had to share.

 Vinca, a Blue Otter doe, has stolen our hearts with her kissing. Maybe we should name her Mistletoe instead.

We have 8 tiny reindeer, but no sleigh. Maybe next year. I have several people trying to talk me into doing a calendar. Hmmm....sounds like a lot of work to me.

If you didn't squeal when you saw the pictures, there is something wrong with you.

Tat's a Wrap

Since I still haven't managed to unplug myself from the grid during the holidays, this last month has been crazy. Just like it has been for everyone else. If the Christmas season isn't crazy and stressful for you, for pity's sake, let the rest of us in on your secret, please!

Goodies are being baked, gatherings attended, and gifts made and wrapped. Yadda yadda...and humbug (not really).

In spite of being forced to take time off from tatting while my finger healed from a nasty mishap involving a sharp pointy object and a soda bottle, I have managed to finish the last few projects that I was planning as gifts. Other than being tatted, they have nothing whatsoever in common.

 Cross "Hope", pattern available on In Tatters--Lizbeth thread, size 20, in white and Christmas green mix (#601, 152). I really like how the colors lined up on this one. It was an easy pattern and will probably become a staple. I added a somewhat random Josephine chain to make it a bookmark.

 I really hope she doesn't read here, because this dragon is for Renee. She loved the green and gold one that I have, so I made this one for her. I think these are more her colors though, and I love how they look on Anne's Dragon. The thread is Lizbeth Black and  Falling Leaves (#604, 100), both in size 20. Someday, I'm going to be brave and tat this pattern in something really tiny, like a size 80 or 100.

Renee, if you are reading, act surprised.

I couldn't make up my mind whether I wanted to make a wreath or a snowflake, so I tatted Jon Yusef's Hearts in a Snowflake pattern in Christmas colors. Again, with Lizbeth size 20, in Christmas Red and Leaf Green medium (#671, 684--I think). This pattern was not difficult, but it was the first thing that I made after my boo-boo, so I'd like to try it again (with beads) sometime when my hand is less...gimpy. My tension needs to be more consistent on this one.

I've lost count, but I think I'm somewhere near 19 or 20 motifs for the challenge now. Not far now!

Stuffing of the Month Club

There are as many Stuffing recipes in existence as there were Pilgrims at the first Thanksgiving. Maybe more.
I thought it would be fun to share a few here. Feel free to add your favorites to the comments below.

Oh, and if you live south of the Mason-Dixon line, Stuffing is the bread dish (plus seasonings) that you serve with a meal--stuffed inside a turkey or alongside. I believe ya'll call is Dressing.

Old World Corn Stuffing
3 c. day old bread cubes
1 can cream style corn
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 t. grated onion
1/2 t. sage
1/2 t. basil
1/2 t. salt
1/4 t. pepper
broth, optional

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. You may need to add a little broth. The bread should be moist, but not soggy. If baking alone, pat into a greased casserole dish and bake at 350* for 30 minutes--covered or uncovered, depending on how crispy you like it.
Incidentally, this is fabulous with pork chops. Brown the chops in olive oil, and season with salt and pepper. Add the drippings to the stuffing if you like. Alternate the stuffing and chops vertically in a buttered casserole dish and bake at 350* for 1 hour.

Christian Family Thanksgiving Stuffing
1 c. butter, melted (Yes, they're Norwegian)
3/4 c minced onions
12 c. bread cubes
1 1/2 c chopped celery
1 t. pepper
1 t. sage
1 t. thyme
1 t marjoram
poultry seasoning to taste--about 1 t.
broth to soften

Mix all ingredients in large bowl. Stuff and bake turkey per instructions. Extra stuffing can be baked at 350* till golden, or heated in a Slow Cooker.


Willard Family Cornbread Stuffing
Make Cornbread (use yellow cornmeal and a recipe with no sugar), cool and crumble fine
Boil a chicken (a whole chicken, giblets and all--none of this boneless/skinless breast bit), remove from broth (reserve), cool and shred. Chop giblets fine.
Egg
Onion
Sage to taste (remember, sage intensifies as it cooks)
S&P to taste

This is all that there is to the recipe, so the rest is personal preference. You can saute the onion or add it raw. Add a little shredded chicken or a lot, but be sure you use at least some of the dark meat. This is a Southern dish, after all. One egg or two? Moisten the stuffing with the broth, but don't make it soggy.
Bake it in the bird, or by itself. Probably 350* until cooked through and beginning to brown on top. *Shrug* It's stuffing, not a thermonuclear reaction. It doesn't have to be precise. Or even the same every time. (Unlike the other side of the family, where it's "Heaven help you" if you try to get creative with a traditional recipe.)

A new one to try (Just so you know, I stole this one out of the current issue of Midwest Living):

Butter-Roasted Corn Bread Stuffing
3/4 c. flour
3/4 c. yellow cornmeal
4 1/2 t. sugar
1 1/4 t. baking powder
1 t. kosher salt (I'm asking myself why it needs to be Kosher since they're going to add sausage later)
1/3 c pine nuts, toasted
1/3 c shredded sharp cheddar cheese
1/4 medium onion, chopped (okay, it says 1/2 inch pieces, but I'm not measuring), 1/4 c
2 ounces uncooked mild Italian sausage link, cooked and thinly sliced (efficiency isn't their strong suite, is it?)
1/2 t snipped fresh rosemary (don't cut it or chop it-make sure you snip it)
1 large clove garlic, minced
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 egg yolk, lightly beaten
3/4 c milk
3 T unsalted butter, melted and cooled
4 1/2 t olive oil
2 T unsalted butter, melted
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper

Okay, all poking fun aside, this sounds ridiculously delicious and I plan to try it this weekend. However, I am not typing out the next 4 paragraphs of instructions, so here's the abbreviated version:

Preheat oven to 425*. Temper a shiny 9x9 pan in the hot oven while you mix.
Blend 1st 5 ingredients. Stir in next 7 ingredients. In a separate bowl whisk egg, yolk, milk and 3 T butter. Add all at once to flour mixture and stir until just combined. Will be lumpy.
Add olive oil to hot pan and swirl to coat. Pour in batter. Bake at 425 for 17-20 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on wire rack 10 minutes. Invert bread onto rack and cool completely. Cut into 1 inch pieces.
Oven at 400* (I imagine this could even be the next day, if desired). Spread cubed bread in shallow baking pan. Drizzle with 2 T melted butter and toss to coat. Sprinkle with S&P and bake 10 minutes, turning a few times, until golden brown and with crisp edges.

There are so many more good stuffing recipes, for all seasons, so this will like be a repeat topic. Who needs a jelly of the month club when you can have Stuffing?

Happy Independence Day!

This is one of the cards that J has been sending to others. We thought it was appropriate for today. Have a safe 4th of July!

Christmas Lite

If you've been wondering what we've been doing this holiday season, I'm going to suggest that you simply go back and reread the baking posts from last year. That pretty much covers what I've done since Thanksgiving.
Lefse, Kringla, cookies, fudge, caramels and brittle are all done. I haven't had the heart to drag out any of the rest.
The girls have done all of the decorating. That's one of the advantages of having children that just keep getting older every year. They remember where everything goes and are responsible enough to be careful with the fragile items. I just opened the boxes and let them loose.
I slapped some paper on the presents and they artfully arranged them under the tree (which we wouldn't have at all if it wasn't already pre-assembled in the basement). I have a little bit of tatting to finish and then I'm done.
M is happily crafting with perler beads and whatever else she can coax me into bringing out.

The holidays take a certain emotional connection to pull off with pizazz. Combine a lack of pizazz (it's more like pffzt!) with my already dominant slacker traits and what you get is truly pathetic.

There's always next year.

~There is another component to this. More on that later this week.

Mother's Day Tribute

I'm having difficulty coming to grips with my Mother's Day present this year. Not because it's ugly, or because I have no idea what I'm going to do with it. It isn't one of those gifts that only a mother could love. In fact, it is a beautifully delicate citrine and silver necklace and matching earrings.

What I'm having trouble with it that it was made by a 17 year old girl who was rescued from the sex trafficking industry in Thailand.
On May 1st, our church held a ladies' tea for all of the churches in our community. There were women there from many different faiths who came together for one purpose: to support The Well.
The Well is a branch of ServantWorks (which has interesting connections to Cup of Cold Water, started by our across-the-road neighbors, btw) that works in Thailand to free women from the slavery of prostitution. The husband and wife team in Bangkok purchases half an hour of a young lady's time and presents the opportunity of escape to her.  Anyone who wants out is accepted into The Well. Currently there are three homes where the women can come to live with their children. They are involved in Bible studies and other recovery programs, and are taught a trade to support themselves. Their jewelry, clothing, and paper goods that they make are exceptional in quality and very reasonable in price.

The jewelry is called Narimon, a Thai word which suggests purity. Like the woman at the well in Scripture, these young ladies leave a devastating life of sin and oppression and come to Christ, who makes them pure in spite of their past.

Each piece of jewelry comes with a card that has the name and age of it's creator on it. I love the connection that gives. It is an opportunity to pray for that individual by name. But it is also very emotional as well. To think that the necklace that I am wearing today was made by a 17 year old girl who has already know such horrors in her life is a crushing thought. You know that wasn't the life that her mother imagined for her.
Each night, we tuck our children safely in, most of the time without a second thought that their lives could be so much different.
So amid all the flowers, candles, and bath salts that will change hands today, I can think of no better gift than something that helps some other mother's child live the life of safety that I take for granted for my girls.

If you are interested, you may contact ServantWorks and arrange to have one of the Narimon jewelry parties in your home or church.

The Gift of Gifts

The Gift of Gifts

O Source of All Good,

What shall I render to thee for the gift of gifts,

thine own dear Son, begotten, not created,

my Redeemer, proxy, surety, substitute,

his self-empyting incomprehensible,

his infinity of love beyond the heart’s grasp.

Herein is wonder of wonders:

he came below to raise me above,

was born like me that I might become like him.

Herein is love;

when I cannot rise to him he draws near on wings of grace,

to raise me to himself.

Herein is power;

when Deity and humanity were infinitely apart

he united them in indissoluble unity,

the uncreated and the created.

Herein is wisdom;

when I was undone, with no will to return to him,

and no intellect to devise recovery,

he came, God-incarnate, to save me to the uttermost,

as man to die my death,

to shed satisfying blood on my behalf,

to work out a perfect righteousness for me.

O God, take me in spirit to the watchful shepherd, and enlarge my mind;

let me hear good tidings of great joy,

and hearing, believe, rejoice, praise, adore,

my conscience bathed in an ocean of repose,

my eyes uplifted to a reconciled Father;

place me with ox, ass, camel, goat,

to look with them upon my Redeemer’s face,

and in him account myself delivered from sin;

let me with Simeon clasp the new-born child to my heart,

embrace him with undying faith,

exulting that he is mine and I am his.

In him thou hast given me so much

that heaven can give no more.

*from The Valley of Vision, A Collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions

Merry Christmas to All! My prayer for all of you is that you have better places to be on this Holiday than in front of the computer.

If you share a faith in Christ, then I also pray that in the midst of all of the busyness our celebrations often bring, you will find time to contemplate on the WORD made flesh.

Favorite Things

These are a few of our Favorite Things at Christmas time:

• Nativities--wherever we can see them
• Music--Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir, St. Olaf, Mannheim Steamroller, New Irish Hymns #3
• Candles--just not making them
• Lehnertz Avenue--This is a street in Aurora, IL where each house puts up part of the Christmas story, Scripture on one side and characters all moving toward the huge nativity in the park on the other, and you drive past the whole thing. There is music playing and if it happens to be snowing a little; well, it doesn't get much more perfect than that. When you get to the circle at the far end, there is a Charlie Brown story. They have been doing this since before my parents were born.
• Being up to our eyeballs in Family
  
• Fuzzy PJs
• Special sweet treats (but you knew that already, didn't you?)
• Snowflakes--as long as we don't have to go anywhere
• Snuggling by the fireplace and reading together
  
• The grace given to us in the form of Immanuel

Christmas Caramels (last recipe this year, I promise)

Candy Thermometer
1 c. butter
2 1/4 c. brown sugar
1 c. light corn syrup
dash salt
15 oz can sweetened condensed milk (not fat free!)
1 t. vanilla

In a heavy saucepan over medium low heat, melt butter. Then add brown sugar, syrup, and salt and stir until well combined. Slowly add sweetened condensed milk. Stirring constantly (a heat resistant utensil with a flat edge that will be flush against the bottom of the pan works best), cook until mixture reaches 245*. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Pour into a greased 8x8 inch pan, cover and cool over night. When cool, cut into small squares and wrap each square in wax paper. Store in air tight container.
*This recipe is not hard, but requires patience. It should take about 20 minutes to reach the right temp and you cannot stop stirring or it will burn. Please be mindful of the high temps you are working at as well.

Slacker Gingerbread House

Being a self proclaimed Slacker Extraordinaire, I thought I'd share my Gingerbread House instructions with you.

1. Make a pot of strong coffee to sustain you through the process.
2. Wander around the house looking for cardboard, scissors, tape, exacto knife, ruler and cutting mat.
3. Put on Christmas music for inspiration.
   
4. Clear off the breakfast table so you have a place to work.
5. Eat a Snickerdoodle.
6. Trim all but two flaps opposite each other from a nice sized priority mail box. (fig 1)
   
7. Answer the phone.
8. Mark the center of the two remaining flaps and draw a diagonal line from the center down to each corner of the flaps and trim off the resulting triangle. These will form the peaks of your roof at the front and back of the house.
9. Measure the distance between front and back of the house as well at one of the sloped sides of the peak. These will be the height and width of the two panels you need to cut to finish the roof.
10. Cut remaining roof panels.
11. Eat a Chocolate Snowball.
12. Use masking tape to secure the additional roof pieces in place.
    
13. Eat another Chocolate Snowball.
14. Cut four long, narrow strips of cardboard, slightly taller than your house and tape them together to form a chimney.
15. Secure the chimney to the side of the house.
16. Let the dog out.
17. Let the dog in.
18. Cut a large rectangle out of strong cardboard for your base.
19. Use masking tape to secure the house to the base on all sides. (fig 2)
    
20. Eat a Thumbprint cookie.
21. Gather all of your decorative candies, unwrap them and arrange them in separate bowls.
22. Sample each kind of candy for quality control.
23. Mix up one batch of ornamental icing at a time (4 c. powdered sugar, 3 T. meringue powder, 1/3 c warm water--whip until stiff peaks form).
24. Taste icing.
25. Find soda to get rid of icing taste.
26. Apply icing to one panel of the house at a time and stick your candies on in the desired patterns.
27. Stop after two panels to make lunch for the kids.
28. While you're eating lunch, take a look at Ryan's Gingerbread Barn (hereafter to be known as the RGB).
29. Decide that your project is a poor cousin to the RGB, but hey, you've got three little girls helping you and by gum, you're going to finish anyway.
30. Console yourself with the fact that yours will be done in a matter hours, whereas the RGB has taken days.
    
31. Make new batch of icing to replace icing that has hardened in the bowl.
32. Give child instruction to hide the jelly bellies from you before you eat them all.
33. Frost and decorate 1 1/2 panels.
34. Answer door and sign for last package you needed for presents.
35. Frost and decorate remaining panels.
36. You are 18 gumdrops short of finishing even though you swear you didn't eat any of those.
    
37. Call husband to have him pick up more gum drops on his way home.
38. Save glob of icing to finish gumdrop border later.
39. Pass out on living room floor in Sugar Coma.
40. Blog about it.

M's idea was to build a new piece each year until we have a village. Needing to save them from year to year is part of the reason we used cardboard instead of gingerbread. I'm also working with kids who don't have the patience or delicacy to work with real gingerbread. My college roommate and I made gingerbread houses in our dorm room without the aid of any kitchen facilities using the cardboard method. I have been sold on it ever since.

fig. 1

fig. 2

The gingerbread boy and girl have been part of our decorations for years. They fit perfectly.
My rosemary trees are pretty pathetic. At least I had the presence of mind to install short straw sockets for them before I frosted the base so I can replace them easily.

Christmas Cookies

Your house is probably much like mine around the holidays. There are just certain activities, recipes and other traditions that make the season for your family and friends. Without them, it just doesn't feel right.
I'm guessing that cookies are probably one of those traditions. For us, there are four must-make recipes. Any others are welcome, but just nice extras. The Thumbprints, Almond Butter Cookies, Chocolate Snowballs and Maple Walnut bars are not optional.


Thumbprints

1/2 c. shortening
1/2 c. softened butter
2 eggs, separated
1 t. vanilla
2 c. flour
1 /2 t. salt
1-1 1/2 c finely chopped nuts

Preheat oven to 350*. In a medium bowl, whisk flour and salt. In a large mixer bowl, cream shortening, butter, sugar, egg yolk and vanilla. Slowly add flour mixture. In a small bowl, beat egg whites until foamy but not stiff. Roll dough into walnut sized ball, dip in egg white and roll in nuts*. Place 1" apart on a greased cookie sheet. Make a depression in center of each ball with your thumb. Bake 17-20 minutes, or until they begin to brown. Cool completely and fill the centers with buttercream icing.
*I'm going to share my trade secret for not making a complete mess at this stage. Get your materials closely lined up: egg white near your right hand, dough in front of you, nuts near your left hand and cookie sheet at your left side (or reverse it if you want). Use just your palms to roll the dough balls and drop them about four at a time into the egg. Then use only your right finger tips to coat them with the egg and drop them into the nut bowl. Then use only your left finger tips to roll them in the nuts and place them on the cookie sheet. By assigning a specific task to each part of your hands, you will keep from polluting each step with the others. You'll be able to finish quickly and not spend half the time washing your hands.

Buttercream Icing

5 1/3 T. softened butter
1/4 c. milk
1 t. vanilla
dash salt
4 c. powdered sugar
food coloring paste (made by Wilton-liquid FC works, but you will need much more to get the desired color. Pink is for Valentine's Day.)

In a small mixer bowl, beat butter, milk, vanilla, salt and food coloring until smooth. Gradually add powdered sugar until icing reaches desired consistency. You will want it to be a little stiff. After you fill the thumbprints, let the cookies sit out until just the surface of the icing dries so that it won't stick to your plastic wrap.

Almond Butter Cookies

3/4 c. sugar
1/2 c. butter, softened
1/2 c. shortening
1 egg
1 T. light corn syrup
1 t. almond extract
1/2 t. salt
3 1/3 c. flour*

Cream sugar, butter, shortening, egg, syrup and extract. Gradually add salt and flour and mix until just combined.
Now you have options. You know those clay cookie molds like the Brown Bag Cookie Molds? This dough works really well with them. Follow the mold instructions. Bake at 350* until the edges just begin to show a hint of browning.
You can also roll this dough out and make cut out cookies. Or you can use it in a cookie press. *If you use a cookie press, cut the flour down by about 1/2 cup so that the dough is soft enough to use with the press. I'm partial to the cookie press. What slacker wouldn't be?

Chocolate Snowballs

3 c. flour
2/3 c. unsweetened cocoa powder
1 c. softened butter
2 c. sugar
2 t. vanilla
2 eggs
1 c. powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 325*. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour and cocoa. In a large mixer bowl, cream together butter, sugar, vanilla and eggs. Slowly add flour mixture and blend until dry and crumbly. With your hands, work the dough until a ball forms and the sides of the bowl come clean. Roll the dough into small balls and place 1" apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. You should get 4 1/2-5 dozen cookies. Bake for 16-18 minutes, or until outside of dough is dry but inside is still soft. Cool on pan. While just barely still warm, roll the cookies in powdered sugar. Try not to eat them all in one sitting.

Maple Walnut Bars (These are DH's personal favorites.)

2 c. flour
1/2 t. soda
1/2 c. light brown sugar
1/2 c. softened butter
1 c. real maple syrup
1 egg
2 t. vanilla
1 c. chopped nuts

Preheat oven to 325*. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour and soda. In large mixer bowl, cream together sugars, syrup, egg and vanilla. Add flour and blend until just combined. Pour into greased 8x8 inch pan and bake 45-50 minutes, or until it tests done with a toothpick. Cool completely and then frost. Store in fridge.

Maple Frosting

1/2 c softened butter
2 oz. softened cream cheese
1 T. brown sugar
3 T. maple syrup
6 T. powdered sugar

Cream all ingredients in a small mixer bowl and frost bars.

Snickerdoodles

1 c. shortening
1 1/2 c sugar
2 eggs
2 3/4 c. flour
2 t. cream of tartar
1 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt

4 T. sugar
2 t. cinnamon

In a mixer bowl cream together shortening, sugar, and eggs. In separate bowl, whisk flour soda, salt and cream of tartar. Don't make the mistake of thinking the cream of tartar is optional unless you want nice little concrete circles on your cookie tray. Gradually add flour mixture to sugar mixture and blend well. The dough will be crumbly. With your hands, work the dough until it forms a ball and the sides of the bowl are clean. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour or so. When chilled, form walnut sized balls of dough and roll them in cinnamon and sugar mixture. Place 1 1/2 " apart on ungreased cookie sheet and bake at 400* 8-10 minutes. You do not want them to brown.

**Just in case you're wondering, these are all handwritten recipes in my very own personal stash, and therefore fair game. ;)

Snow Machine

The Slacker in me loves to decorate with snowflakes. Sure they're pretty and festive, but they are also easy to store and you don't have to take them down until some time in March or April.
A number of years ago I stumbled across Dave's Snowflakes, bought the disk and have been cutting snowflakes ever since.
They cover our tree, hang from a huge mobile in our two story foyer (which the girls think is funny because it's a snowmobile) and are sprinkled throughout the rest of the house. When we're done with them, the whole stack stores easily in a manila envelope.
Another benefit is that the project is easily transported. I have a ziploc with a stack of pre-printed patterns and some scissors handy and can take it with when I know I'm going to be sitting in the dentist's office or riding in the car. Just fold and snip away, dropping your scraps into the bag.
Every year I try to add a couple dozen new flakes to the mix. It's fun to curl up in front of the fireplace and make snowflakes with the girls will we listen to books on tape or watch favorite holiday movies. And the best part? If you make a mistake, it's only paper.

Candlemaking for Dummies

After the not so successful attempt with the wax earlier this week, we decided that we needed to find a project that we could do. Ta-Da! Button Candles:

This project was also in the Gooseberry Patch Christmas books (book 3, p. 39) and I am happy to report that they were easy and fun.
What you need:

• Pillar candles
• buttons
• glue dots (the book recommends hot glue, but neither I nor my 7yo are allowed to use a hot glue gun)
• wire cutters

We already had a jar of buttons that we found at an antique store a while back. That jar has provided hours of entertainment for us. It is so fun to sift through them and make up stories about where they might have come from and the people that could have worn them. I highly recommend trolling the antique stores for collections of old buttons. They have so much more character than the newer ones.
The rest is simple. Put glue dot on button and then put button on candle in a random unpattern. M made the green and red one without any help from me.
Some of the buttons had a raised loop or hook on the back. I used a pair of jewelry wire cutters to clip that off so that they would be flat. If you do this, please be careful and take the proper precautions. I don't want to hear about anybody shooting their eye out with a ricocheting button.


**Wake up call**
On a personal note, the GBP comment yesterday made me curious and so I did some digging via Google Analytics, etc. I made a startling discovery too. People do read this blog. And I'm not just talking about my mother and a couple of letterboxing friends. While I'm not sure why, a surprising number of people are paying attention.
That is both thrilling and terrifying. No author writes in public and prays that no one ever reads it. This humbling realization means that I need to be more responsible though. So this is me...being responsible. Over the holidays I have posted a number of recipes that were not mine to post. For that I apologize. I have removed a number of posts and will be more careful in the future. The last thing I want to do is go to jail for an appetizer.

For those of you who really wanted those recipes, but didn't write them down in time, all I can say is "Buy the Gooseberry Patch books. They are completely worth it!" I have been disappointed occasionally, but it is almost always my own fault.

Tag It!

In the middle of another adventure today, M and I made lots and lots of gift tags using the snowflake stamps (and about every other craft media that we could drag out.) Here are a few of the successes:
We stamped a silver snowflake on dark blue paper, mounted that on a kraft brown square and covered it with a piece of shimmery vellum. The curls are pipe cleaners.
The tag in the center is much cooler than the photo can show. We used a large snowflake punch on the blue paper and then mounted that on white background paper. We filled the center with an iridescent powder and embossed it. Since the center of the snowflake just had glue stick gel in it and not embossing ink, the result looks like tiny drops of wet mist.
The tag on the left is the snowflake punch cutout on white stamped paper on tan background. We took an 8 1/2 x 11 sheet and stamped a random pattern of different colored flakes on it and then cut it into squares with decorative scissors.
The tag on the right is the same stamped paper mounted on blue card stock and embellished with cute little snowflake buttons that were in a mixed bag that we found by sheer serendipity the other day. I asked the lady restocking the shelves at Michael's if they had any Christmas buttons and she handed the bag to me out of her cart. It was the only one in the store.
See, more of those buttons from the accidental find. For all of the tags we stuck to a color scheme of dark blue, light blue, silver, white and kraft brown.
These are my favorites. We stamped a silver flake on some paper scraps that we had (they have dark blue felt-like patches) and mounted them on slightly longer strips of dark blue. Then I used the same five stitch binding technique that I use on my logbooks and attached tiny jingle bells with silver embroidery floss.
These were our warm ups this morning. A silver stamp and a fun button on white and dark blue paper.

Now I'm wondering if it would be tacky to ask the recipients if I could have these back after they open their gifts so that I can use them again next year. ;)

Bag It!

One of M's first projects with the snowflake stamps was to create some gift bags. While we have an overabundance of wrapping paper, the only bags we have are for girlie baby showers. So, we made a few to use for packing our Christmas baked goodies.
Blue, white and silver snowflakes finished off with a dusting of light blue spatter painting (which doesn't show up very well in the photo) and the bags are ready. The surprise was that my messy little crafter did not like the spatter painting.

*On a stamping note, we had purchased a super cheap silver embossing ink pad from Michael's to use on the bags (Craft Smart pigment). While I have not tried it for embossing, it did not work very well for our purposes. The ink is very oily and the oil bled into the paper around the stamp image. It also never completely dried in spite of my taking a heat embossing gun to it. The pad was very juicy however and the ink cleaned up nicely with the Staz on stamp cleaner.

Project Blizzard

The books by Laura Numeroff in the If You Give a Mouse a Cookie series are some of our favorites. They are perfect illustrations of the Sequences that I mentioned earlier. Our own edition began when I made the mistake of giving my crafty child the Gooseberry Patch Christmas books some weeks ago. She now has a list for me that will take until August to complete.
At the top of that list was her desire to make our own wrapping paper this year. To that end, I began carving...
In the meantime, about a dozen rolls of Christmas paper were discovered in the basement. No worries though. We have already dreamed up several other messes that we can make with the stamps. Stay tuned...

Norwegian Lefse

To a certain extent our Christmas baking, at least the Norwegian part of it, is a mild Sequence. (If you are unaware of Sequences, you need to find a copy of Patrick McManus' book The Night the Bear Ate Goombaw and educate yourself.) We need 1/4 c. of Whole Milk to make Potato Cakes. Nobody sells milk in 1/4 c. containers, and so we are left with nearly a half gallon of milk that no one in this household will drink. So there is nothing to do but make Lefse with it.

What is Lefse, you ask? It's a Scandinavian tortilla that you fill with Salt Cod, potatoes and melted butter for Beitas on Christmas Eve. Or spread them with butter and dust with sugar like the potato cakes. Are you beginning to sense a theme here? You can do what you like with them, as long it involves Butter. You get bonus points if you include potatoes with the butter.

In order to make Lefse, you will need some special equipment, as follows:

• A Lefse Grill--an oversized electric griddle. Lefse griddles are larger. They also have no sides.
  
• A specialized rolling pin--the surface is carved into tiny squares. (mine is only parallel lines, not squares, but I can live with that.)
  
• A Lefse Stick--Every Norwegian community seems to have stories floating around about Somebody's Great Grandmother using the stick out of the bottom of a roller shade when the real thing wasn't available.
  
• Extra large new pizza boxes--Pizza boxes?! Of course. You have to store the Lefse in something when it's finished.

The recipe:
Four, Two and a stick. Well, that 's how I learned it anyway. Let me 'splain.

4 c. flour
2 c. whole milk
a stick of butter (this should be no surprise by now)

I should note that there is also Potato Lefse, but that's a different recipe. We'll do basics first.

Measure flour into a large bowl. In a heavy saucepan, heat milk and better until it begins to steam. Turn off heat and pour milk over flour. Mix with a spoon until combined and then knead with your hands until smooth. It will be very hot, so be careful. (Actually, this is my favorite part. By the time I make the Lefse, I've usually already done quite a lot and the heat feels good on my aching hands.) Form into a 13" log, wrap in plastic wrap and set aside.
Taking one inch at a time, roll out on a lightly floured surface with the Lefse rolling pin until you have a large circle (Much heated discussion has taken place over the merits of circle vs. square Lefse. Essentially, circles are prettier, but squares are more functional. Mine tend to look more like the continent of Africa.) You want it thin enough to be able to read through...almost. As you roll, alternate the direction of your motion, so that the pattern on the rolling pin goes every which way. You will also want to flip and re....

Oh, forget it. The only way you're going to learn how to do this properly is to come to my house and let me teach you. I'm pretty sure that if I haven't lost you yet, I certainly would when we got to the part about hanging it on the stick. And I'd never be able to digitally translate how to soak them.

Det blir alltid plass til ein velkommen gjest.
So when are you coming?

Christmas Kitchen II

The King's Singers and Mannheim Steamroller are playing on the stereo today. A quick re-read of the last post tells me that I need to tone down the sugar a notch; which is unfortunate since we made Cashew Brittle today*.

But first we'll do the Potato Cakes we prepped for yesterday. In the middle of all the rest of the projects yesterday, I peeled, cooked and mashed potatoes. I should note that this is the only recipe in my kitchen for which I ever peel potatoes. Here is the rest:

Potato Cakes

8 c. cooked, mashed potatoes
1/4 c. whole milk
2 t. salt
1 stick butter

In a large bowl, add milk, salt and butter to potatoes and mix well. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

2 c. potatoes
3/4 c. flour
1/8 t. baking powder

One batch at a time, mix cold potatoes, flour and baking powder until thoroughly combined. Dough will be very sticky. On a well floured surface, roll dough to 1/16th inch thickness. Cut 6 inch circles (I use a sherbet lid. Sophisticated, huh?) and cook on a hot griddle (400* or so) until golden brown spots form. Flip and repeat on other side.
You need to work fast to get the dough rolled out while it is cold. As it warms it will be harder to work with unless you use a lot of flour. Too much flour can make them tough though. I find it useful to keep a pastry brush handy to brush off excess flour before cooking. Once the circles are cut and moved from the rolling surface, however, they can sit for a little while until there is room on the griddle. Electric griddles work better than stove top. If this is your first time making these, I highly recommend that you have a second person there to man the griddle, so you can concentrate on rolling. Once you get the hang of it, you will be able to coordinate rolling and flipping.
If you are not covered in flour from the waist up when finished, then you didn't do it right.
To serve, spread a thin layer of butter on a warm potato cake and heavily dust with sugar and tri-fold them. You did know this was a Norwegian recipe, right? They work equally well when used in place of a tortilla and stuffed with ham, scrambled eggs or whatever else you can find.
You should get 45-50 cakes out of this, with about 1/2 c. of extra potatoes left over.
They freeze well, but you will need to put a layer of wax paper in between each one as you stack them. The wax paper isn't necessary if they are just going in the fridge.


Evil Cashew Brittle

1 c. butter (Not margarine!)
2 T. light corn syrup
1 c. sugar
1 1/2 c. cashew halves

In a heavy saucepan, bring butter, syrup and sugar to a boil. Over medium heat, boil 5-6 minutes, stirring constantly, until candy thermometer reaches 300*. Remove from heat, stir in cashews and immediately spread on greased parchment paper on a baking sheet. Cool completely and break in pieces. Store in an air tight container. You can double this recipe, but any more than that and it becomes too difficult to spread out before it hardens.

*In this case today isn't actually today. My posts are slightly off kilter with reality, so what I'm writing about happened on Friday.

The Christmas Kitchen

Now that Nano is over, I am finding myself in need of something to keep from going into writing withdrawal. I don't really want to start editing until January.
Soooo...after schoolwork was done for the day (I'm writing this on Thursday), we converted the kitchen into Christmas mode. I had done some serious grocery shopping on Monday and now the cupboards that are packed like a South American bus. We had to set up a card table to hold all of the extra baking supplies.

There are just certain recipes that have to be made this time of year; whether as part of our gifting traditions for specific people or "just 'cuz". I think it's cute, but every year the guys that DH works with send home a stack of empty tins. No note. No instructions. Nothing but the implied request to "please, pretty please fill these with something yummy?" Cashew Brittle and Fudge are the stand by recipes that I make for them.

Today, we plugged Christmas with the Rat Pack and A Looney Tunes Christmas into the stereo and made one gigantic recipe of Multigrain Pilaf (which will serve our supper needs for weeks to come), one batch of Cider Cranberry Sauce, Two 9x13s of Fudge, and the 8 cups of mashed potatoes for the Potato Cakes that I intend to start tomorrow. We also broke in the shiny new 7 1/2 quart color coordinated brick red Crockpot with a batch of Potato Soup.

Recipes? I thought you'd never ask!

Multigrain Pilaf

16 cups water
16 cubes or 1/4 c bouillon, if desired
1/2 c. dry Oats (not Oatmeal)
1/2 c. pearled Barley
2 c. Brown Rice
2 c. Wild Rice
1/2 c. Amaranth
1/2 c. Quinoa
1/2 c. Buckwheat

In large stockpot, bring seasoned water to a boil and add Oats. Simmer 20 minutes and add Barley. Cook 5 minutes and add brown and wild rice. Cook 10 minutes and then add Amaranth. Continue cooking 5 minutes and then add Quinoa. Cook 5 more minutes and then add Buckwheat. Cook 15 minutes or until grains are tendier. Add additional water in small amounts if necessary. Drain any extra water. Cool completely, divide into containers and freeze. This makes about 24 cups of Pilaf, but it freezes very well. If you choose to cut the recipe in half, cut the amounts, but not the cooking times.

Cider Cranberry Sauce

6 c. fresh cranberries
1 1/2 c. cider
1 1/4 c. sugar
4-5 long strands of orange zest
2 t. lemon juice

In a non reactive saucepan, bring all ingredients to a boil. Lower heat to a simmer and cook 10-12 minutes. Cool and store. Or you can eat it. It's your choice. Goes especially well with ham. Or ice cream.

Fudge

1 c. butter
1 c. milk
4 c. sugar
12 oz semi sweet chips
12 oz Brach's stars (if you can't find them, use milk chocolate chips)
2 squares unsweetened chocolate
18 large marshmallows
1 c. nuts, optional

In a reinforced saucepan, bring butter, milk and sugar to a boil. Remove from heat and pour over remaining ingredients (you might want to put them in a bowl first). Stir until your arm falls off or the marshmallows are completely melted, whichever comes first. Pour into a 9x13 pan and cool overnight. I got smart this year and let my Kitchen aide do the stirring. This is supposedly the Fannie May fudge recipe, but what are the odds?

Potato Soup

6-8 potatoes, cut up
carrots and celery (specific, huh? Well, I use about 2 c. of each)
1 large onion, chopped
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 quart chicken broth
2 c. milk
1/2 stick butter
4 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled (Eh, why not? Throw in the whole package.)
1 container sour cream (I'm guessing it's the small container. What do you think?)

Throw all of it, except the sour cream, in a large crock pot and cook the begeebers out of it. Add the sour cream before serving. Cheese is good too; but isn't it always?

A Turkey Egg

I am going to attempt to be profound for two seconds today before I go overdose on tryptophan.
Every year we take one day out of 365 and feign thankfulness for home, family and daily provisions. Except that most of us have never known true need to begin with. You can't know real feasting unless you have also known fasting.
It's like singing the National Anthem before a sports event. You don't really feel patriotic, but you have to get it out of the way before the game can start. So we come together, hold hands with people we rarely see the rest of the year, talk about the 5 kernels the pilgrims ate and then gorge ourselves like happy ticks in the woods of Wisconsin. Thanksgiving becomes nothing more than a precursor to the gluttony that Christmas has become.

Wow. And now I've laid an egg in the middle of my blog. What do you think we should do about that?

Here's my proposal:
In the spirit of the Native Americans who saved our collective tail feathers by sharing what they had both physically and by way of teaching, I suggest that we spread the bounty farther than the card tables in front of the football game. My personal choices are World Vision and Partners International.

**I realize that this post is teetering on the edge of a rant. I want you to know that I am not standing on a soapbox. I have picked it up and am whacking myself in the head with it.

A Puzzle for the 4th

Last night I stumbled upon the perfect LTC to share today, and since it looks like it is going to rain on our parade, I have time.
Quite some time ago, I made a number of LTC puzzles (and here are two more). Well, one of them didn't get quite finished. They are still sitting in a box and only need some minor assembly and they would be ready for trade (hint, hint).
When I get this one listed it will be Jigsaw Puzzles: I Love America, or something like that. It is difficult to tell, but the pocket has fireworks embossed in an iridescent, sparkly ink on it.
This LTC uses all recycled stamps. The USA stamp was from the International Triple postal project, Global Housewarming. It made it's way around the US, Canada, and the UK before coming home. The fireworks were part of one of my Periodic Table trading cards; Phosphorus, to be exact.

I wish everyone a happy, safe Independence Day!