Eggnog Ice Cream

Made eggnog and froze it. Very good!

Strawberry Jam

As it turns out, you DO need to use lemon or lime juice when making strawberry jam because it helps hold the jam together if you are not using pectin. It's a good thing I keep an ice cube tray full of lemon juice in my freezer. (Hey when lemons go on sale, they reaaaaaaly go on sale)

2 lbs strawberries
4 C. sugar (2 lbs)
1 lemon juiced

Yield 3 small jars jam.

Hidden Candycane Kiss Cookies

Makes about 30 cookies

10 Tbs. unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 a large egg (whisk one egg in a small bowl, then divide equally in half and only use one half)
3/4 C. icing sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 1/2 C. all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 C. finely chopped Candy Cane Hershey's Kisses (about 10 Kisses)
~2 Tbs. granulated sugar
About 30 additional, unwrapped Candy Cane Kisses

*Note that you should only need to buy one 200g bag of Candy Cane Kisses for this recipe, as a bag contains about 45 Kisses and you need about 40 for this recipe.

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350°F.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine icing sugar, butter, vanilla, and egg. Beat at medium speed, scraping the bowl often, until creamy (about 2-3 minutes). In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients in the electric mixture in two additions, mixing well after each addition, until well blended. Stir in chopped Kisses. Scoop about 1 tablespoon of dough and press a Candy Cane Kiss into the middle of the ball of dough, molding the dough around the Kiss so that it’s completely covered by the dough. Try to smooth out any lumps; if the cookie looks lumpy before baking, it will look lumpy after being baked! Repeat with remaining dough; you should end up with about 30 cookies. Pour granulated sugar into a shallow bowl and gently roll each cookie in the sugar to coat. Place on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet and bake at 350°F for 10-12 minutes, then cool on a wire rack. To make things go quicker, work in batches.

Stamped Cookies

These taste just like a sugar cookie, but contain red food color.

City Chicken

The origins of the dish are from Germany the word "Huhnstadt" or translated "City Chicken" dates back to the early 1700s when raising chickens within city limits became illegal due to over crowding and health issues. Inexpensive cuts of pork served on skewers became a substitute for chicken as a meal. The first references to city chicken appeared in newspapers and cookbooks just prior to and during the Depression Era in cities such as Pittsburgh. Today, cooks use better cuts of meat (usually pork loin, beef, or veal) than they had in the past. Despite the name of the dish, city chicken almost never contains pigeon. The dish is popular in cities throughout the eastern Great Lakes region of Ohio and Michigan as well as the northeastern Appalachian regions of Pennsylvania and Upstate New York. City chicken is commonly found in the metropolitan areas of Binghamton, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Detroit, Erie, Pittsburgh and Scranton, hence, the dish's 'urban' title.

Sweet Corn Cake

Chi-Chi style corn cake recipe made without masa harina or a box of Jiffy corn mix.

1 1/4 C yellow corn meal
3/4 C flour
2 1/3 tsp. baking powder
3 Tbs. sugar
3/4 tsp. salt
1 (15 ounce) can creamed corn
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup melted butter

Mix until ingredients are combined. Pour mixture into a 9x5 inch loaf pan. Bake, uncovered at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until liquid has been absorbed. Use an ice cream scoop to serve sweet corn cake as a side dish or for dessert.

Snowball Cookie

A snowball cookie is different from a Russian Tea Cake. Snowballs have chocolate chips, Tea Cakes have nuts. No nuts for me thanks.

Christmas Gift Tags

Tag Blanket

I made this taggie blanket for my niece. The loops are all quadruple reinforced with zigzag stitches. I hope she likes it.

Painting Smock

Matching painting smocks for your favorite 2 year old and her doll.

Asian Pork Medalions

Pork on a stick
1 tsp. brown sugar
2 splashes soy sauce
1/4 tsp. ground ginger

Combine ingredients and marinate while you are at work. Grill under broiler for 10 minutes each side. Served with vegetarian noodle soup and grilled zucchini.

Apron

It's times like this when I wish I had a child sized dress form.

Chair Cover

I made a slipcover for D's office chair. It kept rubbing against the wall making black marks, so we needed a quick solution. I like this fabric. I was thinking of making my bedroom drapes out of it.

Sugar Cookies

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla

In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in the flour. Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour (or overnight). Preheat oven to 350*. Roll out dough on floured surface 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Cut into shapes with any cookie cutter. Place cookies 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets. Bake 6 to 8 minutes in preheated oven. Cool completely.

Candy Cane Cookies

2 1/4 C. flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 C. unsalted butter, room temperature
2/3 C. sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon peppermint extract
1/2 tsp. red liquid food coloring
1/2 tsp. green liquid food coloring

In a bowl, whisk the flour with the baking powder. In another bowl, beat the butter and sugar until creamy. Add the egg and peppermint extract and beat until combined. Add the flour mixture and beat until you have a smooth dough. Remove half of the dough from the mixing bowl. To the remaining half add the red food coloring and beat on low speed until well blended. If you find the dough too soft, cover and refrigerate for 30-60 minutes. Repeat with other half and green food coloring. Take a piece of red dough and a piece of green dough. Separately, roll each color on a lightly floured surface, into a long rope. Place the two ropes side by side, gently press together, and twist the two ropes to form a spiral. Place the cookies on a parchment lined baking sheet, spacing the cookies about 2 inches apart. Shape each cookie into a cane shape by bending one end into a hook shape. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake cookies for about 8 - 10 minutes or until set and the edges of the cookies are just starting to brown. Remove from oven and let cookies cool completely on baking sheet. Cover and store in an airtight container for about a week. Yield: 2 dozen cookies.

Double Chocolate Cookie

2 1/2 C. flour
3/4 C. cocoa powder
1 tsp. baking powder
1 C. (2 sticks) butter room temp.
3/4 C. brown sugar
3/4 C. white sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
1/4 C. fresh hot coffee
1 1/2 C. chocolate candies (4 packages of pretzel M&Ms)

Preheat oven to 375*. Sift dry ingredients together. Cream butter and sugar and eggs. Add flour mix to butter mix, add coffee and vanilla. Fold in M&Ms. Drop spoon fulls of dough on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 8-11 minutes. Yield 3 dozen.

Sugar Cookie Bars

Bar Sugar Cookies
Recipe Source: Land o’ Lakes

Ingredients:
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 ¼ cups powdered sugar
1 cup butter, softened
1 egg
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375°. Line a 9x13” baking pan with foil and spray with nonstick cooking spray. Set aside. Combine all ingredients in the bowl of an electric mixer (or in a large bowl if using hand mixer). Beat at medium speed, scraping the sides as needed, until well mixed (about 3-4 minutes). Spread dough into the bottom of the 9x13” baking pan. Bake for 18-20 minutes, until they just start to brown. Cool completely before frosting.

For the Frosting
Ingredients:
4 cups powdered sugar
½ cup butter, softened
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 to 4 tablespoons milk
Food color, if desired

Directions:
Combine powdered sugar, ½ cup butter, and vanilla in a large bowl. Mix slowly with a hand mixer, adding enough milk for desired consistency. Add food coloring if you want tinted frosting. Spread over cooled cookie bars and decorate with sprinkles, if desired. Cut into squares.

Yield: approximately 24 bars, depending on size.

Baby Pants

I am making my nieces coordinating pajama pants for lounging around in. This was my first attempt at making button holes for draw strings. Why are button holes so complicated? The solid pants are elastic and the polka dot pants are draw string with ribbons. Blue and green, pink and purple. Looks like the girls get matching book bags for their pj's too! Thanks Momtastic.

Stroganoff

I just got a heck of a deal on 1.5 lbs of fresh mushrooms, and couldn't think of anything else I would enjoy more!

Spooky Tree

Lasagna

Quick Tortellini

15 minute tortellini
Bring 2 quarts of water to a boil. Add 1 bag frozen three color (vegetable) cheese stuffed tortellini. Boil for 5 minutes, then drain, do not rinse. Top with leftover salsa, cheese and sour cream.

Pumpkins

Bulldog Hat

Hey now bulldog, don’t you rush in with your eyes wild. Hey there big bear, take a moment to decide. All these angels scared to walk the wire line. Stand tall, angels, says the bulldog with a smile.

Beef Vegetable soup

Beef bones
2 onions
black pepper, 5 juniper berries, 1 bay leaf
6 cups water
5 stalks chopped celery
1/2 bunch curly parsley
1 C. green lentils
1 bag mixed frozen vegetables
1 C. leftover wild rice

Stuffed Porkchop

Make a small serving of stuffing and set aside. Butterfly two pork chops, season generously with bicentennial rub, poultry seasoning or sage and black pepper. Place a mound of stuffing inside and pin shut with a toothpick. Sear on each side. Place in a baking pan and bake for 25 minutes or until no longer pink. Serve with brussel sprouts (and bacon).

Tortoise

Tortoises (Testudinidae) are a family of land-dwelling reptiles of the order of turtles (Testudines). Like their marine cousins, the sea turtles, tortoises are shielded from predators by a shell. The top part of the shell is the carapace, the underside is the plastron, and the two are connected by the bridge. The tortoise has both an endoskeleton and an exoskeleton. They are generally reclusive animals.

Pileated Woodpecker

even larger in person

Lamby Hat

I made another baby hat today. This one sports a baby lamby on the front. I did not add a pom pom yet because I was still debating between white, grey, or black. Size 3-6 months.

Soft Pretzels

Recipe is here. There are some things I observed while making these. Pretzel dough is sticky and pretzels are difficult to roll out to appropriate length. You boil these in water and baking soda, which gets very foamy. The pretzel will float after about 25 seconds if you are boiling the water hard enough. The recipe says "Oil the parchment" not "Spray some Pam at the parchment paper"; lay down some oil or you will be eating stuck-on bits of paper. Pretzels that were not brushed in egg yolks did not look appetizing and appeared a bit burned. Pretzel salt, Kosher salt, and table salt are not interchangeable. Mine turned out great!

Space Invaders Hat

I knit a space invaders hat for D in red and blue. This hat fits much better than the Denver hat. I used size 11 needles, and cast on 55 stitches using double strands of a worsted weight wool (Stitch Nation Washable Ewe). I knit in k3,p1 for the first 4 rows, then continued knitting straight for the next 6 inches. This seemed like a great place to include a little color work! I then worked a standard decrease: Row1 k4, p2tog Row2 k3, p2tog Row3 k2, p2tog Row4 k1 p2tog Row5 p2tog Row6 bind off and bring thread through all holes and pull shut.

Cleveland Cassata Cake

Recently I learned that there is such a thing as a Cleveland Style cassata cake. It differs rather significantly from its Italian-Style counterpart. Took me a long time to find a decent recipe, but HERE. Did you know this cake takes 11 eggs to make?! I made one for my apartment manager because she has been so very nice.

Baby Totoro Hat

Took a little bit longer than anticipated. The ears were causing me distress.

Caturday

Special animated edition.

Baby Ski Hat

Fall Salmon

Fresh salmon with wild rice, mushrooms (and garlic), and green beans. Due to popular request the recipe for wild rice is as follows.

1/2 C. wild rice
3 C. water (and a little chicken soup.. I put it in everything)
a dash of flavor (salt, chicken bullion, whatever)
Cook wild rice for about 45 min until it looks like it is starting to split, then add
1/2 C. white rice
Cook until all liquid is absorbed. (20 min?)

Denver Hat

I knit this for D. He thinks it looks silly. I think it looks fun! Pattern.

Wreath

We made a seasonal wreath. I was jealous of the neighbors' decorations.

Baby Poncho 2

The color is called cheery cherry. Sized 6 months.

AIO Pocket Diaper

I was overjoyed to find PUL fabric at JoAnns the other day, and decided to finish a project I started a while back. This is a All In One diaper with a pocket in the back if you need to add a doubler. Also, it can be turned inside out for much faster drying. This is a petal style soaker. Also, check out my snaps!! I had a fun time doing snaps for the first time.

Slip Covers for Pillows

I have a 14" pillow. So, I cut one 15"x15" pieces and two 10"X15" pieces. Tutorial can be found here. I added a ribbon for the middle instead of fringe. This is the fabric I am using to lengthen my curtains as well. I am calling the color evergreen.

Sauerbraten

2 C. water
1 C. cider vinegar
1 C. red wine vinegar
1 medium onion, chopped
1 large carrot, chopped
1 Tbs. plus 1 tsp. kosher salt, additional for seasoning meat
1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
2 bay leaves
6 whole cloves
12 juniper berries
1 tsp. mustard seeds
1 (3 1/2 to 4-pound) bottom round
1 Tbs. vegetable oil
1/3 C. sugar
18 dark old-fashioned gingersnaps (about 5 ounces), crushed

Recipe on Food Network. Marinate for 3 days!

Baby Poncho

Sized for 6 month old.