Happy Christmas!
Hoping you and yours had a very Merry Christmas! We have had a house full for the past few days. It's been an adventure in cooking for me as my father in law is on a pretty strict menu... no flour, no sugar, no wheat. So, just for fun, here is the dinner menu (with recipe links) we've been eating.

Tuesday night, chicken in the crockpot with rotisserie flavors. Instead of a whole chicken, I used a package of chicken thighs and doubled the spices. It ended up being a bit peppery but very good!

Wednesday night, pot roast in the crockpot. We make this quite a bit.

1 chuck roast about 2 1/2 or 3 lbs
2 TBSP vegetable oil
10-15 small potatoes
pearl onions
baby carrots
bay leaf
1 TBSP beef boullion (or 1 cube)
1 cup water
1 tsp basil
a cup of chopped (bite sized) celery
(usually 1 TBSP Worcestershire sauce - I omitted this for dietary reasons)

In a large skillet, heat oil and sear the roast on all sides. Place the carrots and potatoes in the bottom of large crock pot. Put meat on the top. Add onions to the sides. Put boullion, basil and bay leaf (and Worcestershire sauce) on the top. Add water and cook for 8-10 hours on low or 4-5 hours on high. Add celery during the last 2 hours of cooking.


Thursday Night - Merry Christmas - no need for a recipe here. We had prime rib (pre-cooked from Sam's Club), homemade mashed potatoes, salad, green beans, homemade apple sauce (made in the crockpot and frozen), dinner rolls, cottage cheese, and cranberries.

Friday night - My friend J suggested this recipe for Crock Pot Carnitas and it was really good. We made some long grain white rice and made tacos with it.

The in-laws left tonight for their journey home. We still have company but we can eat whatever we want now! Tomorrow we're having Korean Ribs (in the crock pot!) and Sunday (even though it will probably be just us), Porcupine Meatballs with spaghetti.
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More gifts...
Here are a few more gifts that I made for the kids.
This is a felt pencil case (complete with Cars pencils) made for my nephew. My friend JL sent me a how-to link to this Martha Stewart craft. Nice and easy.


Next up is a skirt for Bug. My friend K helped with the sewing on this one during a church craft night. I used this tutorial from Grand Revival Designs.



The next one gave me some trouble. I had originally wanted to use this tutorial from House on Hill Road. I had the pink and white striped fabric matched with a green material. Unfortunately, after I was 1/2 way through, I realized that the green material was just too stretchy to use. So, I cut it off and bought some green cotton fabric. Brought it home, washed it and cut it then remeasured it and realized that the material was about 4 inches too short. Thinking that the fabric must have shrunk in the wash, I bought the green and white polka dot fabric. Once home, I measured it to cut and after much consternation, realized that the tutorial didn't mention that the fabric needed to be 60" wide. Then I called my mom and asked her to help me tailor the other tutorial of a larger size. This is the result, a skirt for my 9 year-old niece.

I'll have a few more that I can show you on Christmas after the gifts are opened and a few more that won't be revealed until we celebrate Christmas with my parents in about a week.
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No, if you are family, you do not need to stop reading. These are a few of the gifts I've sewn for those younger kids who do not regularly go online!

The first two are dresses I made out of fabric remnants and t-shirts. The purple floral one is for my niece and the teal paisley one is for Ebabe.



This pillow was made with fabric my friend J had left over. You don't have to do much other than sew in a fairly straight line, turn the fabric right-side out and stuff with poly-fill.
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Make Your Own Holiday Gift Bags

A few years ago, Chip's sister gave us a gift wrapped in a bag made out of Christmas fabric that she'd purchased at her church bizarre. I thought it was a cool idea and it was the perfect size to use for a travel pillow pillow case. (My children have all used a travel sized pillow from about 8 months old until they move into a BIG kid bed.)

This year, since I'm trying to do more homemade gifts, I decided that some of our gifts would be wrapped in Christmas bags! I went to the fabric store and picked up some festive remnants. The girls helped me to sew some small bags for their hand made gifts for relatives. Although we could have made them drawstring bags fairly easily, we kept it simple and tied the top of the bag with ribbon and attached a tag. Voila! Very festive, re-usable, "green" wrapping. Plus, you can make them in a variety of sizes or patterns.

This is so easy, anyone can do it (seriously, my 4 year old was able to do this with only a little help from me). Start by ironing your fabric. Then fold under the top and bottom edges 1/4 inch and iron. Fold another 1/4 inch and iron again. Then stitch on the edge of the fold.


Fold the top to the bottom with the right-side of the fabric facing in.
Stitch along the two sides about 1/4 inch from the edge, making sure to go all the way to the top edge. Trim excess thread. Turn your bag right side out and there you go! Easy-peasy. Add gift, ribbon and tag then place under the tree.
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Homemade Teacher Gifts

We try to make something for our teachers to show our appreciation and our Christmas joy. We've made ornaments, done recipes in a jar, made stationary. This year, we made Holiday Samplers which contained 2 pieces of 3 different kinds of fudge and a small bag of candied pecans. I placed the fudge in special holiday themed Ziploc containers, three layers separated by waxed paper. The nuts were bagged in festive bags and stuck on the side of the fudge. I tied some curling ribbon around the container and tucked notes the kids had colored for their teachers on the top. Although we've only passed out 4 of them, the reception so far has been great!

Here are the recipes for the fudge we made.

Dark Chocolate Walnut Marshmallow Fudge
3 cups of semi-sweet chocolate chips
touch of salt
1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 TBSP butter
3/4 cup chopped walnuts
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups marshmallows
Combine chocolate chips, 2 TBSP butter and condensed milk in a saucepan. Melt over low heat, stirring frequently. Once all the chips have melted, remove from heat and stir in nuts and vanilla. Pour mixture into a square pan (8x8 or 9x9 works best) lined with waxed paper or tin foil.

Melt marshmallows in small saucepan with 1 TBSP butter. Pour over top of fudge and swirl with a metal spoon. Cool in fridge for about 2 hours.

Once the fudge has hardened, take it out of the pan and peel from the tin foil or waxed paper. Cut into squares and put in an air tight container. Store in refrigerator for best texture and flavor.


White Chocolate Peppermint Fudge

3 cups of white chocolate chips
1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
1 TBSP butter
1/2 cup crushed peppermint candies (mash candy canes - good way to get out pre-holiday aggression!)

Combine chocolate chips, butter and condensed milk in a saucepan. Melt over low heat, stirring frequently. Once all the chips have melted, remove from heat and stir in crushed peppermint. Pour mixture into a square pan (8x8 or 9x9 works best) lined with waxed paper or tin foil.

Cool in fridge for about 2 hours. Once the fudge has hardened, take it out of the pan and peel from the tin foil or waxed paper. Cut into squares and put in an air tight container. Store in refrigerator for best texture and flavor.


Peanut Butter Fudge

2 cups of semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 TBSP butter
2 cups peanut butter chips (or peanut butter - use crunchy if you like nuts in your fudge)
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Combine chocolate chips, butter, 1 cup of peanut butter chips and condensed milk in a saucepan. Melt over low heat, stirring frequently. Once all the chips have melted, remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Pour mixture into a square pan (8x8 or 9x9 works best) lined with waxed paper or tin foil.

Melt 1 cup of peanut butter chips in the microwave for about 20 seconds. Stir and zap again for 20 seconds or until it has melted. Pour over top of fudge and swirl with a metal spoon. Cool in fridge for about 2 hours.

Once the fudge has hardened, take it out of the pan and peel from the tin foil or waxed paper. Cut into squares and put in an air tight container. Store in refrigerator for best texture and flavor.

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Easy Birdfeeder Project

So I can't take credit for this project as it was completed during Boo's Brownie Troop meeting.

Completely Edible Birdfeeder

You need:
Slice of bread
Cookie/Shape cutter
yarn or string
creamy peanut butter
birdseed

Use your shape cutter and slice the bread into a shape. Cut a small hole in near the tip of the bread and string the yarn through. Allow to sit for an hour or two to dry out a bit.

Once the bread has dried a bit, smear it with peanut butter.


Pour birdseed into a medium sized bowl. Dip bread into bowl. It should come up covered with seed.

Hang outside and enjoy watching the birds!
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Festive Cookies
Although I enjoy making Christmas cookies, I have realized in the last few years that I don't really like having the girls use cutters to make them. It's just too messy and too much work to roll the dough out and have them only use the center! This year I came across the cutest, easiest Christmas cookies at Little Birdie Secrets and was inspired!

We changed a few things, used the cookie dough that I bought from the preschool, and had a good time decorating them (with a bit of snitching candy in between!).





They are just sugar cookies coated with white frosting and decorated to look like snowmen. We used licorice for the smile and the top of the ear muffs, gummy lifesavers for the ear coverings, M&Ms for the eyes and candy corn for the nose. Very easy, very non-messy, very tasty!
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Oh Nuts!
I have a friend who makes the best candied pecans every year. They are mouth-wateringly delicious. Until I met her, I'd never had candied nuts before. I've asked for the recipe but decided I couldn't wait to get it. So, I did something I don't usually do and struck out on my own! I based my recipe on a common one found online but changed amounts and the type of sugar.


Here is my recipe for candied pecans.




1 lb of shelled pecans
2/3 cup of brown sugar
1/2 tsp of cinnamon
1 egg white
1/2 tsp of vanilla extract


Mix all ingredients but the pecans in a large plastic bag or bowl with an air tight lid. Add nuts and mix until pecans are covered. Bake on lightly greased pan for 15 minutes at 275 degrees. Allow to cool fully before removing from pan.




We're using these as part of our teacher gifts this year. I think these are even better than the ones my friend makes! After I made the first batch, I asked her about it and she uses white sugar and condensed milk in her recipe. I'll post it too when I get it so you can compare and make your own decision that mine are best... I mean, which ones are best!
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O Christmas Tree!
So, while it may seem that I have taken a leave of absence here on the blog, I have still been busy. Several of my recent projects are Christmas gifts, and since family is a large part of the audience of this blog, it doesn't seem right to post them now. So, come January, there will be few Christmas present projects to read about. In the meantime, hang in there with me for a few decoration and Christmas snack/food ideas!

One of those decorating ideas came to me while shopping for fabric at JoAnn's. In the holiday aisle there was a garland made from what looked like pipe cleaners. I decided that we could make one for less money and more fun. I was right about the fun... Money-wise, it was a wash. I let Bug pick out two packs of pipe cleaners in the colors of her choice. I was leaning toward the really bright(almost neon) colors but she chose some very subtle ones.
Here's what we got:
I cut each of the pipe cleaners in half and we wove them through each other (like a paper chain) twisting the ends around each other so they weren't sharp. We ended up with about 20 feet of chain. Almost the perfect amount to wrap around our tree! The girls are very proud to have made such a cool decoration!
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