DIY Christmas rush

I just realized I have a little less than 2 weeks to finish several gifts and get them mailed out. Not including the gifts I am not sending, but want to be able to have boxed and wrapped so it doesn't seem like a last minute thought.

One gift that I'm making is a holiday CD holder.  I made about 5 Cd's from my Itunes account of Holiday music I've collected over the years.  These I'm putting into a  small case made from card stock and scrap booking papers.  The person that is getting this I think will truly enjoy it, and its something that they can open when they get it, and use every Christmas afterwards. 

Trying to finish up a scarf which I think I will make into a cowl to go with a hat I made last month, is also on my list. It shouldn't take too much longer.

And some major sewing projects.  This wouldn't be so bad, but I'm going to San Francisco to visit my daughter for a few days this week, and would like to have achieved most of this before going.

Just saw, a great recipe for homemade vanilla, using 3 vanilla beans, 1 TBS of Rum, and fill the rest of the bottle with Vodka, takes 7 months to cure.  Wow, I might have to do this for a couple bakers in my life.

Gingerbread for the little one's

I love the smell of gingerbread baking.  Its one of the most tempting smells during the holidays.  Gingerbread cake, gingerbread cookies, even gingerbread lattes have a certain appeal.

When my daughter was in preschool the teacher shared this very simple recipe for :

Gingerbread Cookies

1 package of instant butterscotch pudding

1 egg

1/2 cup brown sugar

                                                    1/2 cup butter

                                                 1 1/2 cups flour

                                                 1 tsp Cinnamon

                                                         1/2 tsp soda

                                                     1/2 tsp ginger

Mix all ingredients to form a dough.  chill dough for about and hour or longer.  Roll out, cut and bake cookies at 350 degrees for 10 -12 minutes.  Yields 12 cookies.

Make the dough up in the morning, then its ready to use later when the kids come home from school. Or if you children like to do the mixing, we made it a 2 day project. One to make dough, and one to cook and ice the finish cookies. I like that it only makes a dozen instead of a larger amount.



a little martha stewart sample



making cookie gifts

Do you find that you have more people you want to remember at the holidays than your pocket book could possibly handle?  I know I do, and I'm always looking for things that are meaningful in some way to my friends.   I want something that will offer a bit of myself.  Since I love to bake, my favorite idea is to pick a cookie or two that's special and make those. Put into a cute container, you can give someone a little taste of the holidays without overwhelming them with too much. 

In my family my mother made these cookies called Kolatchkies.  She recieved the recipe from a neighbor when I was bout 7 or 8 and always made them after that.  Ours were made with a nut filling but I've seen others do them with a fruit filling.  .
I still make kolatchkies, it wouldn't be Christmas without them.

 Since everyone is looking for ideas, I thought I would share this link its got a few ideas too, brought to you by Real Simple http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/recipe-collections-favorites/easy-recipes-handsome-holiday-gifts-00000000023442/index.html

 
So todays little gift is my family recipe for Kalotchkies

ingredients: 1 & 1/3 cups of sifted flour

             1 cube of butter (1/4 lb)

                                             4 Tablespoons light cream (half & half works)

Mix all ingredients into a dough, and roll thin on a surface sprinkled with powder sugar.  cut into 2 inch squares and place a  1/2 tsp of nut filling in the center of each cookie. have the square look like a diamond,  then fold up 2 opposite corners to look like a swaddled baby.  Bake at 375 degreees for 12- 15 minutes til lightly golden and filling is puffy.

When cookies have cooled, sprinkle powder sugar lightly over them to look like snow.

Nut filling:  1 cup of ground walnuts

        1 beaten egg white

                     1/2 cup of granulated sugar

                  1 1/2 teaspoons of vanilla

Blend ingredients together and use 1/2 tsp per square.

we have some new friends who are from Russia originally and they make a similar cookie.  They cut their squares a little bigger and use a bit more filling.



how quickly Christmas comes.

Only last week it was Thursday and  Thanksgiving.  Suddenly on Friday its Christmas.  We have always put up Christmas decorations the weekend of Thanksgiving, more because of time and they are so involved, you want to enjoy them as much as possible.  This year, we were so busy enjoying having our daughter home that we did not.  Our time was spent with her, attending movies, shopping for her birthday, and enjoying good meals together.

So this week I'm looking trying to figure what decorations to put up.  Since the house is still on the market, I feel like I should not put up all the usual doo dads. So I'm trying to find things maybe a little more elegant and less clutter like.  Is there such a thing?  After being at the craft store, I wanted to just borrow their tree and bring it home.  Life would be easier. However I did decide to change my floral arrangement in the foyer, and this is what I was able to create.  You know when you see something in the store, and you think I want to change that up, and make it my own? After I made this, it would have been less expensive to purchase theirs, but then mine has my own touch on it.  I love the little red bird as he is the little surprise in all the green, white and gold. 

I thought I had a great idea for the large wreath to put over my fireplace, i bought a stand for wreaths, and the wreath would have covered it all up, and I wouldn't have to put a hole in the wall, something I'm very conscious of these days.  But alas, the wreath ways so much it won't stand up.  So I believe all that's left is a nail.  Bummer.

After that I'll probably drape the garlands on the stairwell (which is made for garland and begs for it) and call it good for a couple weeks. 

Hope your decorating is going well.

Loving the "Artic Blast" and Pumpkin soup

Our recent snow storm was hailed as the Artic Blast by the news people.

The roads yesterday were miserable and 2 hours for 25 miles was pretty average across the freeways.  My hubs spent 4 + hours driving 50 miles from work. Riding the metro wasn't really a better deal, as everyone was stuck on the roads and the myriads of accidents, ice, and confusion.
Seattleites aren't really good at snow driving. It's just a fact.

Now the sun is out, and its quite beautiful but the temperatures are low.
So to warm you up, I'm going to share my Pumpkin soup recipe.  There are so many versions of this soup, and everyone has there favorite.  I put this one together a few weeks ago.

PUMPKIN SOUP

1 sugar pumpkin med size cut in half seeds removed, and roast with meat side down on foil lined baking sheet.  I cook at 450 degrees for about and hour or the meat is very tender.
1 can of light coconut milk
1 Tbsp approximately of mild red curry paste
1 16 oz can of chicken broth ( you can use more if soup is too thick)
additional, 1/4 tsp ginger, 1/4 - 1/2 tsp coriander-ground, cayenne to taste, if you don't like ginger or coriander, not a big deal if you don't add extra.
about a quarter of finely chopped onion.
(seasoning is so up to individual, I try to not use much salt, as it is usually in the chix broth.)

Put all the ingredients into soup pan, and heat, I use and immersion blender to smooth out the pumpkin, be careful to not splash your self, or use the blender before heating the liquid. You could also put half the mixture into a regular blender and repeat with 2nd part.

Once it is all heated thru serve with some yummy whole wheat french bread, and a side salad.

Hope you enjoy it.  It warms up your kitchen as well as your table.

How time flies.

I just realized its been about a month since my last post here.  Not intentional to let so much time pass, sometimes it just happens.

I'm still waiting for my home to sell, which is nerve racking as the time gets closer to the holidays.  Between trying to keep up the appearance of constant house cleaning, and trying to keep and eye on the market if it does sell, its quite tiring both mentally and physically.   Obviously now is not a great season to sell a house, however we don't always have total control.

My daughter celebrated her 19th birthday last week, the first one away from home.  It was very weird as a parent to not share that day with your child.  We sent an edible fruit bouquet to her dance classes, with birthday balloons, and her friends went out with her for dinner and desert.  In the meantime, she has found new digs to move to after Thanksgiving.  So she'll be saying goodbye to the flop house, and hello to the challenge of moving in the city without a car.  I believe she will be much happier in the new place, she will have her own bedroom, and the girls all speak English. As you may remember her so far she's had a Korean roommate who had very little English language skills, and currently has a roommate from Turkey. This girl has better command of the language, but long conversations are still difficult.
In 2 days she will be coming homing to celebrate Thanksgiving.  Last year she was in the local Macy's parade on black Friday, and we spent all of the day downtown, this year that's not happening.

Well this is just a quickie.  I will post some more in the next day or two. 
Oh yes we have Snow!  Snow before Thanksgiving, is quite uncommon in Seattle overall, and to occur before the Thanksgiving holiday is even rarer.

Fall

I love Fall! The weather for a bit is sunny, dry and crisp while the leaves begin to change colors. In the Seattle area this can be quite short, before the rain begins to settle in but it doesn't dampen the spirit of fall.

The leaves still turn colors of red, yellow and brown. They still fall with a crunch sound underfoot.  The skies are clear but you smell the hint of wood burning from the many fireplaces in the area. What people don't often know is the rain isn't a constant happening- MOST DAYS (occasional freakish storms do happen). It's off and on throughout the day, with many dry periods.  This is a little tree in my backyard that doesn't get many flowers in the summer, but when the weather turns it becomes a beautiful red. I wanted to get one last picture before it loses it leaves.

I love the fall colors as well.  I'm very fond of yellow and reds.  When I was a teenager, my room was done in yellow and white, and my grandmother helped me make my first quilt which was done in yellow gingham, yellow solids and a print that was yellow, orange, and green.  I love color in general, but am not committed to any one color scheme. I like prints so that I can pull accent colors out that are in MY favor at the time.

Being fall, I feel the need to decorate, regardless of selling my house.  It hurts my soul to not be able to put something seasonal out .  I ran to the craft store, looking and searching for nothing to cheesy or commercial.  I found this  rustic candle holder, which I  LOVE!  I filled it with fall potpourri that has some pops of color, and then bought electric candles for the  holders.  I'm a huge fan of these battery operated candles.  I can put them on when I leave the house for a showing to set a mood and not worry that anything will catch a fire. There are so many types out, and most are set inside candle wax, so even if your into scented candles, you can still have them. 

Then I found these Chinese lanterns, which are the coolest plant when you see them in a garden.  They grow these lovely papery lantern shaped flowers that dried are so beautiful.  I've even seen these used for making cute pumpkin decorations. But I've put them currently, they may not stay, inside my cake keeper, along with one of those lovely buttery colored battery candles.  I just had to bring this pop of color to my dining room table.


you don't see the wire where its placed.



Lastly I found a twig pumkin that I filled with mini lights that were orange and yellow colored, added a spray of fall flowers to it for color.  It's not much but now I feel that I have some seasonal decorations which will last me until Christmas and with Luck we will hopefully be in a new home.