Christmas island

My kitchen island -- which I just got around to decorating this afternoon -- has a baking vignette of sorts.  As I've mentioned, the baking book is just like one my mother had.  Some of the cookie cutters are old and from my grandmother.  I've had the milk bottle quite a few years and display it every Christmas.  The little rolling pin was used by my girls when they were little, and the small red-handled board is one I found at my parents' home. 

Here's the cookie recipe if you're interested:

CHRISTMAS CUT-OUT COOKIES

1 cup shortening (may use half margarine)
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. almond extract
3/4 tsp. vanilla
3/4 tsp. orange extract
2 unbeaten eggs
2 1/2 cups flour

Combine all but the flour and beat thoroughly. Add flour and mix well. Chill dough thoroughly.

Roll small portions of dough 1/4-inch thick and cut out. [Edited to add: decorate cookies before baking with sprinkles and colored sugars; or, bake the cookies plain and frost when cool.]

Bake for 8-10 minutes in 375º oven.

This is from my friend Marilyn's late mother, Fran.  The cookies are wonderful; such festive flavors!

And just for fun I gave one of my island pictures a sepia tone.  Looks like it could have been taken 50+ years ago, doesn't it?  Love it ... it could have come straight from my mother's kitchen.

A few minutes at my crafting desk

... or, my 94¢ repurposing project!

I had such a good time at my little crafting desk yesterday, just in the very few minutes of time that I had available.  It all started with a little 94¢ jar candle from Walmart in the Hot Apple Pie scent.  I was surprised and pleased at the nice scent of this inexpensive little candle, but was very disappointed when the candle became unusable with about a quarter of the wax still in the jar.

The  other day, I gouged the remaining scented wax out of the jar and added it to the similarly scented wax in my tart warmer.  The little jar was so cute that I had to think of a use for it.  I was surprised at how easily it cleaned up.  The label is an easy-peel one, which helped, but I was able to wash the jar quite clean and dry it until the glass sparkled.

Then the fun began!  I knew at this point that I wanted to create a very simple little snow scene inside the jar.  The "snow" could of course be epsom salts.  But what to use for a house or building?  I tried a miniature paper house I'd made a couple of years ago, but it didn't fit into the jar.  I dug through my small tote of Christmas embellishments and found a set of 2 vintage miniature plastic houses.  At one corner of each little red house, a Christmas tree was barely attached.  The unit wouldn't fit into the jar as is, so I twisted it ever so gently and the tree easily broke off.

I wanted to add some snow and glitter to the roof and tree.  Here are a few pictures of the process.  My little desk is topped with favorite Christmas cards under the glass; hopefully that won't be too distracting.  For snow, I couldn't find the snow medium I knew I had, so used a "snow-writer" from a clearance sale; just squeezed some out of the tube and applied it with a little paintbrush.

The raw materials

After snow and glitter were applied to house and tree

I used a tiny funnel to add epsom salts to the jar

After house and tree were placed

Then the lid was added (I removed the plastic gasket to make it prettier) and a length of baker's twine tied around it.

Hope you have enjoyed this simple little project.  I surely did!

Looking a little more like Christmas

vintage card from my collection

So yesterday I did just a couple more Christmasy things.  The front door wreath, which is a grapevine wreath twined with silk ivy, is changed up every season by adding trims.  I have a small chalkboard in the center of the wreath which currently says, "Happy December".  To the wreath, I did something I've never done before and tucked in springs of evergreen from around the yard.  I hung on a few sparkly beaded candy canes and called it good.  The photo below shows the wreath dressed for winter, but you can picture it as I've just described.

Another wreath look from a previous year

Then I also put up my three Christmas card banners over the dining room windows.

And then lastly I added a few sparkly snowflakes and icicles to the garland above the picture window.  Things are looking a little more like Christmas!

This is how it usually looks at Christmas, but so far there's just the center ornament and a few snowflakes and icicles.

A special daily Advent calendar

This beautiful graphic is by Abby at Little Birdie Blessings and is from Day 2 of the Advent calendar.

If you have not yet visited the 25 Days of God-Given Gifts Advent calendar being shared by Abby at Little Birdie Blessings, you will want to go on over and catch up with reading and enjoying this meaningful feature. I have been so blessed by it already that I want to share it with others.  Abby includes her lovely graphics as well as Scripture verses to accompany her listing of some precious gifts from our heavenly Father's hand.  Do stop over at Abby's blog and be encouraged!

Five favorite festive cookies!

vintage illustration from my collection

I pondered over what to share today, but decided to link to some of our very favorite cookie recipes.  By now, many people are starting their Christmas baking, and I don't know about you, but I am always looking for a new Christmas cookie recipe to try.  I love to hear about other people's favorites!  So I will share a few of ours with you.

I had shared the link to Chocolate Mint Crisps a few days ago, so we'll call that a bonus recipe.

Photo from Taste of Home

My granddaughter made a batch of these on Saturday.  Instead of Andes mints on top, we sprinkled about 6 of the Toll House Chocolate Mint morsels.  I had gotten bags of these for under 30¢ apiece after Christmas last year, so I had plenty to spare and could skip the expense of the mints.  It worked out great.

Chocolate Spritz cookies, which, surprisingly enough, are not pressed cookies, are another favorite in our family.  I don't have a photo of them, but they are small round chocolate cookies dipped in multicolored sprinkles.  They were a big favorite from my childhood, but my husband adores them.  They're one of his specialties now.  You can read about them here:Chocolate Spritz and the story behind them.  If you do, be sure and look at the comments.  There you will find that another blogger, Terri from Christmas Tree Lane, left a comment saying that her mother had been telling her about these very cookies.  Terri was delighted to find the recipe!

Now, in one of those serendipitous happenings that are such fun, I just was looking through my Gooseberry Patch Cozy Country Christmas book.

I've acquired a number of Gooseberry cookbooks for free by having recipes published in them, but sometimes I forget which recipes are in a particular book.  Well, my Chocolate Spritz recipe in in this one.  And, get this -- Terri, the very same Terri who left a comment on the blog recipe -- also has a recipe published in the same book!  Neat, I thought.

Another of our favorites is Raspberry Almond Shortbread Thumbprints.
 These are so pretty, a shortbread with raspberry filling and an almond drizzle.  They look so nice with other cookies on a cookie tray.

And then there are Eggnog Logs.

Photo from Taste of Home

These are a huge favorite with so many people that I wouldn't dare not make them.  I do change it up a bit from the recipe.  I leave out the rum extract in both cookie and frosting because I don't like boozy flavors.  I shape the logs by hand rather than rolling into a long rope and cutting.  It just works better for me.  The frosting calls for 2 tblsp. of cream, but I usually substitute eggnog if I have some on hand.  And I usually grate some nutmeg on top.

And I can't forget Whipped Shortbread Cookies.  These are a long-time favorite in our family.  I usually dip them in red or green sugar, but they are also very pretty with a candied cherry half on top.  Christmas sprinkles are nice, too.

Photo from Taste of Home

Just one more for now: Double Drizzle Pecan Cookies.

Photo from Taste of Home

I had made these for years as Praline Cookies, nice brown-sugary cookies with chopped pecans and a praline frosting on top.  Then they showed up as a prize-winning cookie in Country Woman, with the added refinement of a chocolate drizzle on top.  I made a batch of these on Saturday as well.  They taste as good as they look!

Hope you will try one or more of these recipes!  Enjoy!

I am linking up today with Sandi's No Place Like Home at Rose Chintz Cottage.  Be sure you go on over and take a look at the delightful links others have posted!  Also linking with the Gooseberry Patch Christmas Cookies and Candy Recipe Roundup!

2015 Baking List

Here's the baking list so far.  It's always subject to change!  I did do a bit of baking yesterday in the real (as opposed to virtual) Christmas kitchen, along with my 12-year-old granddaughter.  We made Chocolate Mint Crisps, Double-Drizzle Pecan Cookies, Chocolate-Dipped Orange Slices, and some orange-coconut candies.  I used these items to make up cookie plates to take to a get-together last night and to church today.  All were well received!  I will share a few more details tomorrow, hopefully.

One of this year's Christmas cards

cover image from image-source.co.uk

This year I was well ahead of the game with choosing our Christmas cards.  I like to buy them on clearance after Christmas, but often find that there are none left that I like.  I've been finding that I can get clearance cards from places like Dayspring  or Current in the summer or fall and can find some beautiful, inexpensive selections that are just what I'm looking for.

Like the one above, from Dayspring.  It has everything I like in a card.
* It has a beautiful picture.  This one, with artwork from image-source.co.uk, fits that criteria for me.  Liberal use of glitter doesn't hurt anything either.
* It has a meaningful message.  This one is: "Praying that your Christmas is filled with joy and blessed by the wonderful promise God fulfilled when He sent His Son.  Have a wonderful Christmas".
* It uses Scripture from the King James Bible.  This isn't an absolute for me in purchasing cards to send, but I love the King James and I like it when a Christmas card uses a Bible verse that's a bit out of the ordinary.  This card uses John 4:42.
* And I saved money!  I can't remember what I paid for these, but it was no more than $5 for a box of 18.

I also purchased two more designs of Christmas cards and may share them here later in the month as time allows. I've just sent out my first one, going by my easy get one/send one Christmas card system.  Have you sent out any Christmas cards yet?

A few Christmas things getting done

Just a simple little progress report here today.  A few, a very few Christmas things are getting done this week.

I took down the fall decor and began putting up a few Christmasy items.  My hutch is decorated sparsely, my table has a Christmas cloth,  and I changed out the bittersweet in my transferware pitcher for some pine and fir branches. No time to get pictures now, but it looks nice.  More decorating will get done over time, but my main goal this week was to get the fall things put away and get out a few Christmas things, just enough to give a slightly festive feel to the house.

My Gooseberry Patch Christmas plate -- so sweet

This is a photo from last year, but that hutch shelf looks the same this year.  The other plates are after-Christmas buys from Walmart a few years ago.

Have bought most of my Christmas baking supplies and hope to bake a few cookies tomorrow.  This is one of the recipes I'm planning to make: Chocolate Mint Crisps .

They are not extremely crispy, just crisp on the outside with a chewy chocolatey center and a swirled melted Andes mint on top.  Fabulous!  One of our favorites.  I'm supposed to take a dessert to a Christmas get-together on Saturday night and I've pretty much decided it will be cookies.  I can make several kinds, take a cookie tray to the party and have some Christmas cookies ready to stash in the freezer.

Sent out my first Christmas cards this week, too.  Now, to get off the computer and attempt a few minutes of Christmas crafting before it's time to get supper!

Suppertime in the Christmas kitchen

Photo from Taste of Home

I know I've mentioned this before, but the slow cooker is one of my favorite and most hardworking helpers in the Christmas kitchen. Many, many days I will put a slow-cooker meal (most often soup) together in the morning and it will just cook happily away while I do other necessary,  and often more interesting, things.  If it's soup, then I just bake a quick side like cornbread or biscuits during the half hour or so before supper, and we are all set.

Last night was just such a night.  The things I had to do during the day included taking down my fall decor and putting up the beginnings of Christmas -- just enough to begin to look a little bit festive.  And then I also spent time at my dad's and did a bunch of other necessary tasks.  No crafting got done except a bit of crocheting during a phone call, but with the busyness of the day otherwise I was thankful that supper was taken care of.  This is the recipe I used for the soup: Fiesta Sweet Potato Soup.  It's delicious!

For an accompaniment, I made Iron Skillet Biscuits which are a new favorite recipe of ours. I didn't make them in an iron skillet, but in a black speckled 9-inch square pan.  This time I did try making them gluten free with the Bob's 1-to-1 baking flour, but the texture wasn't as good.  I'd previously tried using 1 cup of regular flour and one cup of the Bob's 1-to-1, with great success, but I really need them to be gluten free for the sake of my joints, so I'd probably make them with all 1-to-1 again.  As my husband pointed out, they were a lot better than no biscuits.  And he's right.

Do give these biscuits a try.  They taste a lot like Cracker Barrel's biscuits, but are actually even better, I think.  And they use a minimum of ingredients, which is nice too.

What about you?  Is your slow cooker already one of your kitchen helpers?  If not, give it some thought.  It could free up some time for you as it does for me.  And, if you do use your slow cooker more during this busy season, maybe you have some recipes to share.  I would love to see them!

My best tips for gluten-free Christmas baking!

Welcome to my Christmas kitchen!  I try to get in here every day in December, but I truly can't guarantee that this year.  I also try not to write duplicate posts for my two blogs, but this one does bear some similarity to today's post on my regular blog, Across My Kitchen Table.  I got to thinking how there are quite a few readers of my regular blog who don't visit here in my Christmas kitchen, and vice versa.  I don't want anyone to miss out on these tips for gluten-free holiday baking, hence the similar postings.

I mentioned a few days ago how I had stocked up on Bob’s Red Mill 1-to-1 Gluten Free Baking Flour.  This is a wonderful gluten-free blend that works beautifully in Christmas cookies and other cookies, brownies, muffins, biscuits and so on.  It can be used cup for cup in place of all-purpose flour in your regular recipes.  When I mentioned this on my regular blog, a reader asked if this flour could be used to make loaves of bread.  In my limited experience, it doesn't work for yeast breads, and the flour bag doesn't mention such breads at all.

But there is still hope!  Jeanine, at  Faithfully Gluten Free, provides a fabulous resource for all sorts of gluten-free recipes, including yeast breads and rolls.  Hers is the best gluten-free site I've found, and her recipes are consistently wonderful.  Jeanine is a mom -- so kids will love her recipes -- and she also has celiac disease, so you need not fear that there's any hidden gluten in her recipes.  I've tried her baked donuts, many muffin recipes, coffeecakes, cinnamon rolls, and what I consider to be the world's best gluten-free sandwich bread.  And it's so easy!  Once you have all your dry ingredients in the sifter, this sandwich bread is no more difficult than baking muffins.  I highly recommend it.

So there you have it!  Happy baking!  And come on back and visit my Christmas kitchen again!  I hope to be here almost every day.

Planning for Christmas baking ...

From a vintage cookbooklet in my collection

Yes, I've begun making a few plans for my Christmas baking.  No baking list as yet, 

~ last year's baking list ~

but hopefully I can get to that soon.  However, I've made two important purchases that are going to make my Christmas baking go more smoothly.

1) I purchased two large bags of the wonderful 1-to-1 gluten-free baking flour from Bob's Red Mill.

This works beautifully in Christmas cookies.  The xanthan gum is already added and it's formulated to work in your regular recipes.  It does not work in breads, but works very well in cookies.  Last year was the first year I'd heard of this flour, and I was so pleased with how it performs.  If you live in New England, I recommend purchasing this in a Market Basket supermarket.  The price is far more reasonable than other sources I've looked at.

2) I bought a new nut chopper!

Photo from King Arthur Flour

I can't even tell you how many years I have needed a new one.  One year, in the midst of Christmas baking, the jar to my old nut chopper broke.  I was in the middle of a recipe and my hubby was in the kitchen at the time.  He suggested using the clean, empty jar from some maraschino cherries I had just used in a recipe to temporarily fill in for the missing jar.  It worked, but it never worked well (one had to hold the chopping mechanism in place on top of the cherry jar).  Still, somehow, I have gone on for years with this makeshift arrangement.  The other day, it toppled out of a cabinet and, of course, came apart.  I decided then and there I had had enough, and I threw both pieces away.  By day's end, I had found a new one on Amazon.  It's the same one in the picture, but is out of stock at King Arthur.  It arrived Tuesday and has already been washed and dried, ready to use!

And I almost forgot this one:
3) Bought two rolls of parchment paper at the Dollar Tree.  I will often make multiple batches and varieties of cookies on a typical day of Christmas baking, so it's really helpful to use parchment paper and not have to wash the cookie sheets until I am all finished for the day.  It was a happy day for me when I discovered parchment paper at Dollar Tree!

Are you thinking about Christmas baking yet?  Have you made any plans?

58 days???

Adorable image from The Graphics Fairy

Really?  

This morning I got an email from Dayspring Cards reminding me that since there are only 58 days until Christmas, I needed to remember to purchase Christmas cards.  I was pretty sure a Christian company like Dayspring wouldn't lie to me, so I did some quick calendar math and found they were right:

 4 days left in October
30 days in November
24 days in December (before Christmas)
58 days

Thankfully, I have already purchased Christmas cards.  (And I bought two boxes of them from Dayspring!)

However, that is only one thing crossed off my list.  This was a good reminder to me that I need to get moving on any handcrafted gift ideas!

Links to the felt campfire and s'mores patterns

This little guy looks so at home!

For those who didn't catch it on my regular blog, here are the links to the tutorials I used for the felt campfire and s'mores:

I will start with the roasting sticks and the marshmallows.  There are all kinds of ideas out there, including using dowels for the sticks (not a good idea, I thought) but this is the one I settled on:  Felt Marshmallows and Roasting Sticks.  The sticks are actually chenille stems (pipe cleaners) wrapped in felt casings.

All of the photos below are by grandson Sam, age 11:

The kids set up the campfire surrounded by stuffed animals who are toasting marshmallows.

This shows the drawback of using chenille stems -- maybe a little too much bendability.

But, on the upside, they do look like real sticks.

Just like around a real campfire, some are toasting marshmallows ...

And some are munching s'mores.  Others are just waiting their turn!

The campfire, logs, graham crackers, chocolate bars, and melted marshmallows all came from this tutorial: Felt Campfire and S’mores. As you can see, the campfire is in two pieces so it will be two-sided and three-dimensional.

The only part I had to sort of figure out on my own was the campfire ring of felt "stones".  In retrospect, I sort of wish I had attached the stones together into a ring shape, but I felt it would be more fun for the kids to "build" the fire ring for themselves.

A snail and turtle share a s'more

A Dalmatian munches a s'more

Hope you have enjoyed this look at the felt campfire and accessories.  It does make a great group gift for siblings.  For more felt ideas, check out my Fun with Felt Pinterest board!

Felt campfire and s'mores!

Animals around the campfire!

This will be a pretty short post.  I just want to share a few pictures of the felt campfire and s'mores I made for the grandkids.  I plan to write a longer, more involved post about it, complete with links to the patterns I used, on my regular blog. 

The kids were nice enough to set up the campfire, complete with stuffed animals toasting marshmallows and enjoying s'mores.  Then Sam (11) took photos!  (Only the next two are mine.  You can easily tell the difference in photo quality!)

I took this pic of a s'more without the lid on, back when I made them.

My marshmallow/stick photo was blurry, but I wanted you to have a closer look at them.

Animals busy toasting their mallows

He looks right at home in this woodsy scene!

So cute.  This guy must be a puppet.

A turtle and snail enjoy their s'mores!

So there are just a few pictures.  For more information, stay tuned and I will soon be putting a post with links and more photos on my regular blog.  If you have grandkids who enjoy campfires and s'mores, this might make a nifty idea for them for Christmas!