Last Minute Christmas Favorites

Now's the time for anything that's lickity split. These are all tried and true and if made, your praises will be sung from the tops of Christmas Trees.

Appetizer


Best Mini Pigs In A Blanket w/ Cheddar and Sausages

Dessert


Homemade Cranberry Bliss Bars


Heath Bits Toffee Butter Cookies


Triple Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies with Fresh Cranberries

Main Dish

 
The Best Shrimp...Ever

Warm Beverage to serve your visitors


Dirty Chai

Quick Projects...in case somebody is bringing you an unexpected present.  Gulp.


Deer Pillows


Dresden Plate

Happy Holiday-ing!

Heather

No Chill, Easy as Pie (easier) Sugar Cookies...And they're delicious, too!

Tis the season for cookies. It just is.  I can't imagine the Christmas season without inhaling several dozen varieties of this sweet delight.  Cookies are just about the perfect treat, too.  They're little, but they have such a huge variety that you can never get bored with a cookie.  One of my favorites is one of the simplest, sugar cookies.  Soft and pillow-y, sweet but not too sweet (until you add the frosting) and comforting as can be.  Plus they're dang fun because you get to cut them out using fun cookie cutters and decorate the heck out of them.  They're a good time.

There are several reasons my sugar cookies are the best.
* You don't have to chill the dough before baking.  This means when the need for sugar cookies arise, you can have some made in less than 30 minutes.
* They are so yummy!
* They're fun to decorate...I guess this is the case with any sugar cookie, but trust me, mine are the best.

* They always turn out perfectly.
* You don't have to get your giant mixer dirty.  They're so easy, you make them by hand and don't even break a sweat.  You do need your mixer for the frosting though....

Making sugar cookies is a no-brainer for me, I just happen to almost always have the necessary ingredients in my pantry and my family just, really loves them.

EASY NO CHILL SUGAR COOKIES
Makes approximately 3 dozen cookies, depending on thickness of dough and size of cookie cutters **see above picture**

Preheat oven to 400 F.
Line cookie sheets with parchment paper

5 C. Flour (have more on hand for flouring your surface, and I always need more to get my dough stiff enough)
2 C. Sugar
3 tsp. Baking Powder
1/2 tsp. Salt

Combine the above ingredients in a large bowl.

1 C. Shortening

Cut this into the above flour mix by hand. I just mush the shortening around in the dry ingredients with my fingers until there are no large chunks left. Make a well in the middle of your dough mixture

3 Eggs, beaten
1 C. Milk
1 tsp. Vanilla

Combine the above ingredients together and then pour into the well in the dry ingredients

Gradually blend the flour mixture to the wet ingredients until all flour is incorporated. The dough is likely to be very sticky now.  I place the dough onto your very clean and liberally floured counter top and knead flour into it until it is no longer sticky and won't adhere to your surface when rolled out and cut. 

Grab your rolling pin. Roll your dough to 1/8" - 1/4" thick.  Test if it is sticking at this point. If it is excessively sticky, grab up all the dough and knead in some more flour. If it's just a bit tacky, pick up each corner of your dough and toss some more flour under it. If your dough sticks at all to your counter top, the shapes you've cut will not come off cleanly and will not be as beautiful...oh, they'll be tasty, but we're after looks too with these cookies.

Cut dough using your favorite cookie cutters.  Re-use the scraps!!  This dough is very forgiving and doesn't get tough.  I have rolled and re-rolled my scraps many times and the results are delicious every single batch.

Place on parchment-lined cookie sheets. Don't get them too close to each other, but don't worry either, these cookies don't really spread much. So you can get away with an inch between.

Bake for 8-10 minutes. They should not be brown at all, but remain lily white on top and lightly golden underneath, but not gooey in the center.

Allow to cool on paper towels completely.

Decorate with Frosting. YUM!

VANILLA BUTTERCREAM FROSTING
3 C. Powder Sugar
3/4 C. Salted Butter, softened

Combine the above ingredients in the mixer until well mixed

1 1/2 tsp Vanilla
1-2 Tbl. Milk

Add to creamed mixture and beat until smooth and fluffy and spreadable. Add food coloring and mix well. Pipe or spread this on your cooled sugar cookies.

It's fun to personalize these cookies with names or just by tossing on as much frosting as you think acceptable in fun designs.  This frosting is so good, please don't buy store-bought frosting any longer.  This one is easy and delicious, but I would say use regular, salted butter as it lends a bit of complexity to what could be overly sweet if there was no salt in it. 

Make these, everyone will thank you.

Thanks for reading!

Heather

Homemade Christmas

I thrill at an after Christmas sale as much as the next person.  The opportunity to buy a holiday gem at half price and get to add it to my holiday decor the following year.

What I love even more than sweet savings, though, is to create my own Christmas crafts during the holiday season....as long as they're simple and I won't tear my hair out trying to figure out something complicated.  The Christmas season is not the place for complicated.  I want to be able to enjoy the process and make it start to finish in an evening or less.

Here are my favorites.  Most use simple felt, thread, embroidery floss, ric rac and the occasional button embellishment.  Oh, and a pile of beads and wire, and some serious help from the bead lady.

Santa has special stockings that he puts goodies in for my crew.  They are ones that Mama personalizes and sets aside Christmas Eve for him to fill

Construction is simple enough.

Cut out two pieces of felt in the shape of a stocking.  This took me a few times to get the size just right, so they were big enough to fill with presents...or coal.   So, draw out a stocking template bigger than you think it will need to be. You can always cut it down if too big.  I would also say practice filling it to make sure you have enough space. 

Decorate the front of the stockings with whatever adorable felt pictures your imagination can come up with....or in the case of Daddy's stocking (and you are tired and just want to get it done), a Christmas tree and dots.  Embroider a name at the top, embellish with sequins, buttons, ric rac etc...whip stitch the front and back sides together and call them done.

Back in the days before I had any money to buy Christmas decor at half price, I made my own ornaments, again with felt. The Mister and I have been married a significant amount of time, but I still enjoy putting our first Christmas ornaments up on the tree each year.

The mittens are just two pieces of felt, blanket stitched together, with a piece of faux fur glued to the top.  You really could just use a single piece of felt and sew the blanket stitch around the edge for aesthetic reasons.

The stocking ornaments have ric rac sewn decoratively down the front.  Easy and cute. I sewed the front and back pieces together using the sewing machine.  If you don't want to stitch the ric rac on, a hot glue gun is your best friend.

Eventually you graduate from felt and move on to beads.  These are our Christmas spiders.  There's a lovely story behind them: They say an impoverished family had nothing to decorate their tree with one Christmas, and so a family of spiders spent the entire night, Christmas Eve, weaving and spinning their webs all over it to make it beautiful.  Santa came in and knew how hard the spiders had worked, but that the people might not see the beauty of a tree covered in spiders web, so he touched the web and it turned into tinsel.

Everyone, please have a Merry Christmas this year and if you don't celebrate Christmas, please have a wonderful holiday season.  And get out the glue gun and your pile of felt and see what you can come up with.

Happy Crafting!

All because I learned how to knit...Merry Christmas

Look, if I am taking the time to teach myself something new and crafty, you better believe I am going to show it the heck off to everybody I know.  And that means give it to everybody I know.  Merry Christmas, have some fingerless gloves.  Love, Heather

What's that, Dad, you don't think you'll wear fingerless gloves?  Aw, give them a try.  You might like them.

I'm sorry dear, I didn't hear you correctly, did you say there's no way in H-E-Double Hockey Sticks that you're going to wear a pair of fingerless gloves to work, that the fellas will MOCK you?  Don't worry about that, I made them all a pair as well.  Wish them a merry Christmas for me, will you?

 Girly, Brother?  You think these gloves are girly?  Haven't you heard the term metrosexual?
 

Thanks Grandma, I love you, too.  sniff sniff.  I'm glad you think the gloves will help with your arthritis.  Oh, and tell Grandpa not to wear his shoveling snow, they're not water proof.

Maybe they're not for everybody, I dunno.  But, I am making a bundle of them and love them more each time.  This may be because every time I make them I get just a teensy bit better at knitting.  The first few I made....let's just say they are a bit questionable.  That's why the teal ones are mine.

The thing I like about this pattern, is using the beige yarn for the main body of the gloves and the lighter gauge, gray yarn for the frilly top and for the bow, it gives it a sort of antique-y look that I really like.  And then I get to have fun with the cuffs.  Plus I love the combination of knit and crochet.  Knitting might never take the place of crochet for me, but I sure am glad to have the know-how.

This is the free pattern I used. Thanks, Creative Yarn.

Thanks for reading!

Heather

Toffee Butter Cookies

This simple cookie doesn't look like much, but oh baby, does it taste wonderful.  It's kind of like those potato chips, you can't eat just one, same deal.  You pick one up, they're deceptive, you think, this isn't going to be much, just something to munch on until the good stuff gets here.  Bite.  Chew.  Close eyes. Heaven.  The caramelized toffee hits you and it tastes so much bigger than you could ever have imagined!  Quickly snatch another one, maybe two more, hoping people aren't watching you make a pig out of yourself.

I originally came across this recipe in America's Test Kitchen's annual Cookie magazine.  I have saved it for many, many years.  It is a go-to recipe for me, because it's easy and so, so good.  I have adapted it a bit to fit my tastes.  This cookie does require chill time, so be aware.  You can't just whip up a batch completely spur of the moment, you've got to give it a couple of hours to chill.

Toffee Butter Cookies
Adapted from:Cook's Illustrated Holiday Baking Magazine, 2008

2 1/3 C.  Flour
1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Kosher Salt
16 Tbl. Regular, salted butter, softened
1 C. lightly packed brown sugar
1 Egg...fresh, perhaps?
2 tsp Vanilla, homemade if ya got!  I used bourbon vanilla, it was yum!
An entire bag of Heath Toffee Chips.  Either plain toffee or the toffee with chocolate, I like them both...but I do lean towards the toffee with chocolate.  I'm a chocolate kinda gal.

optional ingredients for chocolate drizzle
1 Cup chocolate chips (I use a mix of semi sweet and milk)
A small dollop of vegetable shortening.  Probably a teaspoon or two

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Combine flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl and set aside.

Cream butter and brown sugar until light brown and fluffy.  Add egg and vanilla. Mix until combined.  Add flour combo and mix.  Add the heath chips.  Mix.

Now, take your dough and split it in half.  Throw one half of  it on a large piece of plastic wrap and begin to form it.  You want it to be shaped approximately 2 inches wide and 1 inch thick.  Nice and rectangular.  This can take a bit of doing.  I use the plastic wrap and help mush it and squish it and form it.  I open and close the plastic wrap, making it tighter each time to help the dough squish down to the appropriate size and shape.

Do the same to the other half.

Refrigerate, in the plastic wrap for about 2 hours.  You can also freeze them for about half an hour and they'll be fine.

Using a sharp knife, slice logs into cookies, about 1/4 inch thick.  Place on a parchment-lined cookie sheet.  You can pack them in pretty close as they don't rise much.  Bake for about 11 minutes, until just beginning to brown around the edges.  Let cool completely.  DEVOUR!

Wednesday's post is going to be about how to take them up a notch and add chocolate drizzles.  But, trust me when I say these cookies are perfect just as they are.  Oh, and they are so good for dunking in hot cocoa!

Thanks for reading!

p.s. not to freak you out, but Christmas is in 9 days.  That means 8 more shopping days left...and 8 more days to make Christmas Cookies!!!  Get busy!

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Heather

 

Cranberry, Orange and White Chocolate Love

I have loved these bars for a long time.  Ever since I was in...we'll just call it...college...and my roommate brought these to my folks house for dinner one Sunday...I found my dessert bar soul mate.

Starbucks rolls these around every holiday season and I used to pine for them all year long.  I no longer need to pine.  They're also good for my family because I have a brother in law who's allergic to chocolate.  Poor guy, I know.  Even if you don't have somebody with a chocolate allergy in your family and really, really REALLY like chocolate, you have got to make these.  

I got the recipe from this website and only changed it a bit.  I even went so far as to buy the correct size pan for these...10 x15.  Who has a baking pan that size?  Unthinkable.  I think next time though...I will just use my 8 x 12.  They might be a bit thicker...but not by much.  Also...go buy the orange extract that it calls for.  I know, I know, I didn't have it on hand either...but, by golly...it's an important part of this recipe!  Do it. 

Cranberry Bliss Bars...Starbucks knock-off
adapted from Cookin' Diva on Food.com

Bars
2 Sticks butter, softened
1 C. Brown Sugar
1/3 C. Sugar
3 Eggs
2 tsp. Orange Extract
2 C. Flour   Plus a tiny bit for coating the cranberries before they go in the batter
1 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp ground ginger (next time I'm going to put finely diced candied ginger in it...oh yeah)
3/4 C. Dried Cranberries
3/4 C. White Chocolate Chips

Frosting
3 oz. Cream Cheese, softened  (look for the 3 oz mini block of cream cheese in your dairy section. Perfect.  Because if you're like me...you are never going to use the rest of the huge block of cream cheese and it's just going to sit in your fridge taking up space for a good few weeks until you wise up and toss it....I should not be so wasteful, I know.)
2 Tbl. Butter, softened
3 C. Powder Sugar
1/2 tsp. canola or veg oil

Topping
1/3 C. Dried Cranberries, chopped
Grated orange peel.  Just grate the entire orange using a micro-plane grater...use all the zest
1/3 C. White Chocolate Chips
1/2 tsp. canola or veg oil

Preheat oven to 350 F. 

Prepare you baking dish by first spraying it all over with non-stick spray.  Over the cooking spray, place a piece of parchment.  You can cut it to fit exactly, or just scrunch it in.

Prepare your bars by mixing your butter and sugars in a mixer until nice and fluffy.  Approximately 5 minutes.  Add eggs and orange extract and mix until just blended.  Add the remaining dry ingredients except for the cranberries and mix until just combined.  Place your cranberries and white chocolate chips in a bowl and toss around with a tablespoon of flour in and coat completely.  (By doing this step, you are going to prevent the cranberries and chocolate chips from sinking to the bottom of the pan...it's important.  Do it.)  Once they are coated with flour, fold chips and cranberries into your batter.

Spread batter in your prepared pan and cook for 18 to 28 minutes (look, I know this is a huge amount of time difference, I mean, 10 minutes.  I put such a range because depending on your pan size, you don't want to overcook these and make them too crumbly.  They should be moist and delicate.  Start checking at about 18 minutes, once they are golden brown, take them out and let cool completely.

Frosting time...

In mixer, combine cream cheese and butter until nicely mixed and fluffy.  Add orange extract and powder sugar and mix until fluffy again.  You may need to add a Tablespoon or so of milk, if it's too thick.  Play it by ear.  Spread over cooled bars.

Now for the topping...

Sprinkle cranberries and orange zest on top of the frosting.  So pretty!  And perfect for any family event or holiday cookie party you are going to this season.

Combine the oil and remaining white chocolate chips in a microwave-safe bowl. Zap for 30 seconds at a time until the chocolate is just starting to melt, (you'll still see outlines of the chocolate chips, that's okay). Stir until completely melted. Drizzle over the top of bars. Allow the chocolate to harden before cutting.  This is so you don't make a giant mess with your knife.

If you want to be like Starbucks...cut into triangles. Devour on sight. My family loved these. The Mister couldn't stop eating them. Please, if you want a non-chocolaty dessert that's sure to please, this is the one. Because...white chocolate doesn't really count as chocolate...right?  It doesn't.  There is no actual cocoa solids which makes it not chocolate.
So pretty.  And so yummy.

So remember these sweet bites of goodness, when you're planning your next holiday dessert.  They will be a hit.

Thanks for reading!


Heather

Triple Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies with Fresh Cranberries

Tis the season to start thinking about Christmas Cookies...or, if you don't celebrate Christmas, to think about some seriously good cookies, that you really, really, really need to make.  These cookies are one of my favorites, probably the #1 spot, actually.  I got the recipe originally from my Mom and I've made a few changes, like increasing the amount of cranberries from the original, because I really love the zippy burst they provide.

They're just the right amount of rich and sweet and tangy and crisp.  And the red from the cranberry makes them so pretty.  Pretty enough to give as a gift.

Triple Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies with Fresh Cranberries
1 C. Flour
1/2 tsp. Kosher Salt
1/2 tsp. Baking Soda
Large dash Cinnamon
10 Tbl. Butter, room temperature
1/2 C. Granulated Sugar
1/2 C. Dark Brown Sugar
1 Egg
1 tsp. Vanilla Use homemade if ya got it!!
1 C. Old Fashioned Oats (don't use quick cook....or steel cut, for that matter)
1/2 C. Milk Chocolate Chips
1/2 C. White Chocolate Chips
1/2 C. Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
3/4 C. Fresh Cranberries, chopped in large pieces (cutting each cranberry about in half as you want nice big pieces of cranberry)

Preheat oven to 350 F.

In medium bowl, combine flour, salt, baking soda and cinnamon, set aside.

In stand mixer, cream butter and both sugars until lighter in color and fluffy-ish.

Add egg and vanilla, mix until incorporated.

With mixer on low, add flour mixture and mix until just combined.

Add oats and all the chocolate chips.  Mix.

Add the cranberries, and, last time...Mix.

On parchment lined cookie sheet, spoon dough out in teaspoon-sized dollops.  You're using butter here, so the cookies spread a bit and are a touch crisp and a bit chewy.  They're heavenly.  So you want to use a tinier amount of batter than you would normally use per cookie.

Bake about 14 minutes, until golden brown. 

Eat as soon as they are cool enough to hold.  Don't wait a minute more.  Dunk in milk.  Definitely make these for your friends and family, they will thank you...and beg for the recipe, just like I did.
 

Thanks for reading!

Heather

Homemade Christmas Ornament...Thanksgiving Fun

What kid (cough, cough, Mom) doesn't love fluffy stuff and crafting with feathers?  I am telling you, Ornament 2013 is going to be a hit Thanksgiving afternoon.

Oh, I just want to squish them and squeal at their cuteness...don't you?  And of course I had to go with a chicken design this year.  2013 is the year of the chicken for my family.

Here's how to make them, easy and quick...a bit feather-y...but so much fun!  This post is a bit picture heavy, but trust me, this project is so easy to make and the kids love em!

Supplies needed:

Craft Glue. Styrofoam balls, mine are 3" or 76 mm, white feather boa and red feather boa to be cut up and any add'l feathers if you so choose.

Scissors, tiny craft pins, small black buttons, ribbon for beak and feet, embroidery floss to make a loop to hang on the tree and a curved needle, often used for tying quilts and/or suturing festering wounds....

Thread curved needle with floss, insert into what will now be the top of the chicken, curve it around and back out...so easy, and no styrofoam balls were broken during this procedure...which is what I thought a straight needle might do.

Pull thread through, remove needle and proceed to tie in double knot.

1.  Cut cute chicken cheeks out of fabric.  Be creative.  Have fun.  My cheek circles are just a touch bigger than a quarter.

2.  Thanksgiving day, you could have several cheeks pre-cut and let the kidlettes choose their favorites.  I am also going to have all my balls pre-strung with the floss.

3. Cut a length of ribbon for the beak, approximately 3 to 4 inches.  Be generous because you can trim it later if too long.  In the middle of the ribbon, you are going to bend it like in the picture.  This is so you can pin the beak on.  I can't describe this move in words....Just look at picture. 

4.  Pin beak on.  One pin in the top loop, and one in the bottom loop.  Arrange beak so it is open wide.

5.  Position cheeks in a way that is pleasing to you.  for me, this is slightly below the top of the beak.  Glue in place.

6.  Glue on eye buttons.  Position them so they are in the top corner of the cheek, with the edge of the button slightly hanging over the cheek.  This is for optimal cuteness.

7.  Take another 3 inch length of ribbon, fold it in half in the shape of a V.

8.  Pin feet ribbon on in 3 spots.  One at the top and one on each foot.   This is so your feet stick out at the appropriate angle.

9.  Cut off a bit of red boa...glue to top of head, be careful of thread.  The reason I have you glue on the comb before the white feathers is so you know where the top is.  Be careful and hold the comb up when you're putting the white feathers around it, or you will glue the comb down.   Enjoy the adorableness you have made thus far.  Ohhhhh I just want to squish you! 

10.  Time to start on the feathers.  If you choose to use some colored feathers, put them on first so you can overlap them with the white ones.

11.  Cut a bit of the white boa off...separate into feather and fluff...chunks.  The face needs smaller bits of feather and fluff, but you can cover wide swaths of backside with larger pieces.

12.  Start gluing.  I just glue a small section and stick on feathers.  I start around the face first.  After the entire ball is covered in feathers and fluff, I trim around the eyes if they are being obscured like in this picture.

13.  Be prepared for feather fluff to go....everywhere.  Up the nose, in your hair...use this extra fluff to cover any glue-y spots that aren't covered in feathers.

Using a small piece of muslin, put the year and name of whoever made the chicken.  Glue it on.  I just wrote in pencil.  I find markers bleed, and it's not going to be washed, so I figured pencil is just fine.

While feasting, let these little fluff-balls dry.

 Who's pretty?

 Yes you are!

 Gotta love the green cheeks.  Not my kids, of course, but some child who likes green.

This chicken, was sprayed with glitter spray paint.  Hard to see, I know.  This is a fun idea to add a little shimmer but I found that it matted down the feathers a bit...which I didn't like the most.  So I decided against spraying them all with it.

Thanks for reading!!

Heather

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Homemade Hot Cocoa Mix

My kids came home from school today and they were FREEZING.  Hot chocolate was immediately what they wanted to have to help warm them up.  It's what they request after a hard day of sledding and playing in the snow, and it's clearly what is needed for the brittle drive home from school....60 degrees. 

Problem.  Ain't got no cocoa mix.

Solution.  The internet knows what I need.  I have heard tale of putting powdered milk in homemade cocoa mix, and as I happen to have some powdered milk, I wanted to use it.  Thankfully I found Alton Brown's cocoa recipe.  Click here for the delicious recipe I based my own recipe off of, and know it was just what I needed.  Minus the cayenne pepper.  I was sure my children would revolt at that one.

At first I wasn't going to post the ingredient proportions I had used, out of respect for Alton's recipe, then upon further inspection on the web, this recipe is out there in many forms, so here's my unapologetic version of it.

Homemade Cocoa Mix
1 cup Cocoa Powder
2 1/2 Cups Powdered Sugar
3 Cups Powdered Milk
1 tsp. Kosher Salt
2 tsp. Cornstarch

Combine all the above ingredients in bowl and mix well.  Store in air tight container.

My my, isn't the powdered milk extremely...yellow.  I don't use it very often, so I was quite surprised.  One of the things I liked about this recipe is that it uses powdered sugar.  Seems to me that would dissolve much more nicely than granulated sugar.  I didn't have the Dutch Processed Cocoa Alton recommends.  Ooops!  Regular works great!

I'm on a bit of a get ready for Christmas kick today, but looking at this lovely cocoa mix, I am thinking if you gussied it up, it would make such a nice Christmas present for your neighbors.  Gonna keep that in mind myself.

It takes about 3 largish spoonfuls of mix to water ratio.  I never warm my girls' water up too hot.  Don't need a lawsuit on my hands similar to that coffee incident many years ago.  My kids are so litigious. 

The sad thing is, they didn't love Alton's version.  It has a very deep chocolate flavor.  I did like it, so I consider it a success.  I am altering it and making it more kid friendly by adding some more powdered milk and powdered sugar, both, and the proportions I ultimately used are listed above.  This gives it a more milk chocolate flavor vs. dark chocolate.  They did gobble up the marshmallows and then headed back out into the frigid wasteland known as Fall and commence trying to sell my neighbors pieces of beef jerky, one jerky piece for a dollar.  I definitely owe my neighbors some yummy cocoa mix this year.

I am expecting them back in any moment needing a way to warm themselves up....luckily I've got the solution right here in my cup.

Thanks for reading!

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Heather