Snapshots of Christmas

Three more of our favorite things from Christmas! Ritz Peanut Butter Crackers dipped in white chocolate. Addictive. Very, very addictive.

Snowman Soup. Hot Chocolate Mix with chocolate chips, M&Ms and Marshmellows. A very nice gift and very thoughtful!

Snyder's Pretzels with chocolate and an M&M on top. Yummy. Also Addictive.

Keep these in mind for your Christmas gifts and celebrations for next year.

Electric Griddle, Excuse for a Party!

So my husband got an electric griddle for Christmas because he is a Pancake-a-holic. We were so surprised at how perfect the pancakes came out and then later in the day we made grilled cheese sandwiches (13 Weight Watchers points! Good Grief!) and they turned out really well too.

This winter we are going to start having people over every Thursday. We figured sandwiches on the griddle served with hot soup or breakfast for dinner, might be a great excuse to have people over.

It also helps that we have a direct connect to the best maple syrup on the planet, Currey Farms Maple Syrup out of Michigan.

Tea With 13 Other Ladies

 

Pictured here are just the desserts from the afternoon tea. 3 kinds of chocolate, 1 carrot cake and 1 cheesecake. YUM!

I've been to a Tea House before, it has just been a long, long time. This time I went with 13 other ladies and we sat in an English Tea Room in a small down town about an 1 hour from my house.

It was a lot of fun! I am not a huge hot tea drinker myself, but the triple chocolate cake was delish!

You'll have to give it a try.

Christmas Stockings

Santa worked over time on a Christmas Stocking holder for a family of 40+. Top Row is the original family and in most cases the stockings they grew up with. Parents and 6 kids and their spouses in birth order. Middle Rack is the Grandchildren and in some cases their spouses because they range from (33 to 3) and then on the bottom row Great Grandchildren.

It's really cool to have a large extended family. We always hold our Christmas together the day after Christmas. The party includes appetizers, wine tasting, a large lunch buffet and soooo many desserts. Then a massive gift exchange.

This year we exchanged everything from earth friendly...a soil kit and the bags at the grocery store that you can use over and over again, but never actually buy..someone made a donation in our name to the Local Food Bank, family heirlooms were gifted out(which brought joy and even tears to many eyes), maple syrup from a family maple syrup farm, favorite wines, to books, homemade goodies,blankets and games. It was awesome!

Single, Double or Triple Chocolate Chip Cookies

There is a lot of virtue in following a recipe. I find a lot of times that people just decide "to add" or take away. My suggestion is, make it like it says the first time and then change things up next time you make the recipe. That being said, I recently tried a recipe out of a Williams-Sonoma Cookbook: The Essentials of Baking.

When you get to the chocolate chip part...you can have a little fun. I've changed up the chip part of this recipe several times and every time they taste good.

Triple Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temp. (or I put it in the microwave and soften it slightly)
1/2 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
6 tbs. granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup semisweet(plain) chocolate chips
3/4 cup white chocolate chips
3/4 cup milk chocolate chips

Kelly note: for double chocolate chip: 1 cup semisweet choc. chips and 1 cup milk choc. chip cookies. For single chocolate chip cookies: 2 cups semisweet choc. chips.

My favorite of three: believe it or not...the single chip. Guess I just like a plain choc. chip cookie

Place rack in the middle of oven, pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Drop dough on cookie sheet placing cookies 2 inches apart. Bake cookies until the bottoms and edges are lightly browned and tops firm to touch about 10-12 minutes. Let cookies cool on baking sheet for about 3-5 minutes, then move them to a cookie cooling rack. Makes about 30 cookies.

Don't let them go too long in the oven...they'll come out "brick-like".

Enjoy!

Chicken Soup

Here is what I do to make "homemade" chicken soup.

Kelly's Chicken Soup

4 Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts
1 onion, halved
1 stalk celery, chopped
1 tsp. salt (you can add more later...)
1/2 tsp. pepper (you can add more...)
1 bay leaf

2 carrots chopped
1 cup frozen peas
Noodles- elbow, shells or bow ties as many as you like but be carefully not overload your soup!

Place chicken breasts in large pot, cover with cold water and then add another cup or so of water. Add onion, celery, salt, pepper and bay leaf. Bring to a boil. Simmer and cook for about 15-20 minutes. (Makes your house smell good too!) Remove chicken and let cool. Bring broth back up to a boil, add carrots, frozen peas and noodles. Cook according to noodle packaging.

While the noodles, etc. are cooking. Slice your chicken into small pieces. Add chicken to the broth towards the end of the noodle cook time.

Sometimes we pour half of our broth into another sauce pan and just make enough noodles for one sitting...then we put the rest of the broth in the fridge and make the rest with noodles later.

Idea taken from: Martha Phelps Stamps: The New Southern Basics Cookbook

cookie exchange from last week!

we had an informal cookie exchange during our MMO (mom's morning out) last week. everyone brought 3 dozen cookies and (having bought gift boxes for the cookies at kb's suggestion) several of us filled the boxes equally for everyone to have a box to bring home. it definitely would have been a lot of fun if it (and adult time) was the only focus...but it was nice to bring home a variety of christmas treats to enjoy at home.

News Article about Food Prep.

Ran across this article today on the 5 dirtiest foods. It was pretty interesting. Made me really think twice about peach season.

http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/health/the-5-dirtiest-foods-327375/

Hope all your Christmas plans are coming together. I had to remind myself today that Christmas is about loving our family and friends. So stressing, may happen, but excessive stressing and complaining doesn't do anyone ANY good. Besides the whole point of the season is to celebrate the biggest gift of all, a baby born in a cattle stall that would take on things much bigger than we'll ever understand.

Back to baking for me! :-)

2nd Annual Cookie Exchange

Today marked my culdesac's 2nd annual Cookie Exchange. It was a bit smaller this year, than it was last year, but I was so glad to have time to hang out with my neighbors and friends.

This year I wrapped gift boxes and covered them in wax paper to help display the cookies. It's kind of a fun way to do it, when you don't have a lot of space.

I had each of my guests bring 3-4 dozen cookies to swap. We didn't eat cookies at the actual party, we had appetizers. I served: cheese fondue, chocolate fondue, Spinach Artichoke Purses, Baby Quiches and a Veggie Tray.

We had all kinds of cookies. Plum cookies, peanut butter cookies, double chocolate chip cookies, lemon crisps, Ginger Molasses, Gingerbread, Ginger Salt and George's M&M Cookies. And they made the house smell wonderful.

P.S. Trader Joe's Apple Cider is AWESOME.

Oreo Cupcakes!

So, we have a sweet little friend who celebrated her 2nd b-day this weekend. She has some food allergies, but recently was given the "all clear" to have Oreo Cookies. Since she can't have cake, her mom found some festive cupcake holders and filled them with Oreo Cookies instead. The Birthday Girl was quite pleased.

Laura and Jeremy's Black Friday Cook-Off

My friends, Laura and Jeremy, have all their family gather for Thanksgiving and the following day (Black Friday)they have an Appetizer Cook-off aka Black Friday Cook-Off. The winner wins their named written on the trophy pictured above. Pretty cool, huh? The trophy is made of mostly kitchen utensils and tools.

Biscuits

Ty's version of the only way to eat biscuits, with honey poured all over them!

I tried! They tasted great, but I need to figure out how to make them rise better.
My husband poured honey over them and devoured them. I got the recipe from Williams-Sonoma "The Essentials of Baking"

They Taste Good but Need a New Name...Baking Powder Biscuits. :-)
2 cups all purpose flour
2 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
6 Tbs. cold unsalted butter cut into 1/2in pieces
3/4 cup whole milk (I used 1% which could be part of the problem)

In a bowl, stir together with a spatula or wooden spoon, the flour, baking powder and salt. Add the butter. Using a pastry blender or 2 knives, cut in the butter just until the mixture forms large, coarse crumbs the size of small peas. Pour in the milk and mix withi fork or rubber spatula just until the dry ingredients are moistened. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Place dough on to lightly floured work surface. Knead dough a few times until it clings together. Roll or pat out dough until it is 3/4 inch thick. Use 3-inch round biscuit cutter, cut out biscuits and lift straight up. Place biscuits on baking sheet that is lightly buttered or covered with parchment paper. Gather scraps repeat rolling, cutting and placing biscuits.

Bake biscuits until lightly browned 15-18 minutes.

A Christmas Tea

A friend and I had a Christmas Tea this year. We are surrounded by women that we really enjoy seeing either at school, in our neighborhood or in our church, but found that we never really get the chance to sit down and talk without distraction.

So we decided to throw a Christmas Tea and invite women from various parts of our lives. We had a really awesome group of ladies and will probably do this again next year or maybe a few times a year.

I have pictures, which I will post later.

It really was an amazing time. We took a group picture, sat around talked, tried different appetizers and desserts. The home we were in was beautiful and we didn't have any agenda, other than to sit down, chat and eat. No program, just fellowship.

I really had a good time and look forward to doing it again!

Campbells Select Harvest Soups

Try them they are really good. And they are low on the Weight Watchers points. They are around $1.50 each, but that's a good lunch. My hubby and I can split a can of soup and have salad or fruit or sandwich on the side and it is plenty!

Check them out.

I did try the sugar cookies...

...and they turned out wonderfully! We had some friends and a neighbor over (7 cookie making kids total) and I made the cookie dough the night before (which proved to be a very good idea). Loved the recipe....loved the icing. :)

I know that Kelly has mentioned that our littlest has had some health things going on (i'm posting a picture so you can see who it is that you've been praying for)...

thank you so much for praying for us! Things are improving and we continue to have follow-up appointments every 3 or so weeks. I've been so thankful for how often I've heard friends tell me that their friends are praying or their church is praying....complete strangers showing us their support has been a blessing!

Needless to say, we haven't been very hospitable...it's been a semi-inward time for our family with Leighton being sick and the 7 of us passing a bad cold around for 5 weeks. However, we have been shown hospitality (wikipedia says: Hospitality is also known as the act of generously providing care and kindness to whoever is in need.). We have had many random needs filled by friends close by (meals, grocery shopping for us, watching 1 or more kids, folding laundry, spending time with me while I had to spend hours and days in the hospital) as well as far away (praying, sending money, gift cards for a meal, grandma driving 16 hours to spend a week with us, daily phone calls to check in)....it has been a sweet picture of hospitality to my extroverted heart....and a challenge to me as I think through "generously providing care and kindness to whoever is in need". Kindness is hospitality?? definitely something to remember.

Anyways, thank you. You are much appreciated.

Friends Tried the Sugar Cookie Recipe

So, my friend,Karen tried the Sugar Cookie recipe. She doubled it and did it with around 8 kids. I think they had a good time.

My First Set of Actual Dinner Guests

They were my first actual set of dinner guests. And I let them know it about 15 times in the course of their visit with us. They were so gracious and thoughtful and I was a complete wreck.

They weren't just my first dinner guests, they were complete strangers. So here I was having to not only make my first company meal, but I was having to do it for strangers! And let me remind you that I am an introvert. Which made it even more crazy!

I made an Irish Stew kind of number,which proably wasn't heart healthy, but it tasted good and I put in a Mrs. Smith's Apple Pie,which is always a safe bet for dessert.

They actual liked the food and once I relaxed, I could actually enjoyed them.

But I can honestly say, that this first time having someone into my home, was where the term "Mad Hostess" was probably first spoken. My poor husband, he probably didn't realize how mad I would get b/c of my perfectionism. It was graduate housing, so it was only 900 square feet, but the whole thing had to be spotless. The food had to be perfect and the table setting flawless. I think I probably fussed about everything and with everything.

I think I may have even accomplished making my guests nervous for me.

So while the meal may have come off as a success, my heart was a mess. My attitude a mess. The way I treated my family a big mess. And that's were God's grace comes in, I may have failed, but God used the time to point me in the right direction, towards Him. I have to say I failed and failed at hospitality more times than I can count, but God has (and is) taking this angry, perfectionist, selfish-need to succeed heart and turning it to something He can use.

Gloves, Hats, Mittens, Oh, My!

I was storing all the hats, mittens, etc. in a container and then digging through it on a regular basis, since my girls insist, and I mean INSIST on wearing accessories. So, I decided that wasn't going to work for me. It takes to long to dig through the stuff.

So I thought about an over the door shoe storage thing I had and I put it to work. These things are awesome. You can store Barbies, Groovy Girls, Card Games, Art Supplies. So far so good. I figure if I have to many accessories for my current set up, then we can rotate accessories or we need to give some to the poor. I have them in the front hall closet where we have our coats.

Applesauce

I tried my hand at homemade applesauce. It made the house smell wonderful. It tasted pretty good and it made me think how yummy it would be over vanilla ice cream.

Here's the recipe:

4 to 6 apples - peeled, cored and chopped
3/4 cup water
1/4 cup white sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon


DIRECTIONS
In a saucepan, combine apples, water, sugar, and cinnamon. Cover, and cook over medium heat for 15 to 20 minutes, or until apples are soft. Allow to cool, then mash with a fork or potato masher.

Kelly note: The applesauce can get kinda sweet. But I love sweet, so I asked my hubby and he said the same...this is good, but...we could probably cut back just a little on the sugar. So you are going to have to figure out if it needs less sugar or not. I would suggest making it once and then making the call for future batches. I think it will probably depend on the apple as well. I actually made 3 batches of this stuff tonight b/c I had so many left over apples from Thanksgiving.