For today I am just going to share my tentative Christmas cookie list for 2022.
Now, my hubby has been baking for a week or more already. He has already baked dozens of cookies. In fact, he has baked the first nine varieties on this list. He told me, though, that he wants me to choose a few different kinds to bake myself. So everything from Christmas No-Bakes on down is on my list. We will see how far I get!
How about you? Have you started your Christmas cookies yet?
Well, maybe toffee baking bits would be unusual to some people, but I nearly always have them on hand. Even the coffee glaze uses just a couple teaspoons of leftover coffee.
An interesting feature of this recipe is the Cake Spice -- a dry spice mixture which Jocelyn makes and keeps on hand in a jar to use in baking. It seems like it might give a warm fall and winter flavor to these muffins.
These muffins would make a nice kitchen gift. The coffee glaze and the sprinkle of chocolate mini chips (alternatively, I think chocolate jimmies would also work well) make them a little bit fancy.
I've learned that I can trust Jocelyn's recipes. She is an amazing and prolific baker who has never steered me wrong yet.
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| Photo from Inside BruCrew Life |
I just may try these for some of the kitchen gift recipients on my Christmas list!
Hopefully I'll be sharing recipes, poems, planning ideas, craft projects, and much more. Not to mention the daily Christmasy activities that happen in a Christmas-loving home this time of year!
Mr. T is sure to be baking something with a festive aroma to draw readers into the kitchen, so I'll plan to meet you all here tomorrow. See you then!
Wow! It's rare that I actually think to post an update on Rudolph Day, so I'm pretty tickled to have thought about it today.
I'm not as far into Christmas preparations as I'd like to be. I've planned some of my handmade gifts (mostly play food and calendars) and have completed a few items so far.
I've purchased a few Christmas gifts and I've done a good bit of work on my Christmas list.
We're doing a Christmas program at church and I will involved with that, so there are practices to think about. Thankfully, the program is scheduled for early in the month (the 11th) so that will make things less busy closer to Christmas Day.
My hubby, though, has already made a good beginning on the Christmas baking list. He's made three batches of Heavenly Delight fudge already, along with double batches of Secret Spice Cookies, Chocolate Spritz, and Chocolate Mint Crisps, and a large batch of Whipped Shortbread.
I'm also beginning to plan and schedule December Daily posts here -- and hopefully in my Kitchen Table blog as well. And I'm busy listing vintage Christmas cards in my Etsy shop.
So that's what's happening here as of November's Rudolph Day! How are your Christmas preparations coming along?
For October, I thought that these Pumpkin Praline Muffins, from Amy at Positively Splendid, looked like the perfect muffin recipe to try. I love almost anything pumpkin in the way of a dessert or bread, and these look like a combination of both.
The praline topping looks especially enticing, and it certainly sounds easy. It's composed of simple ingredients like brown sugar, sour cream, and salt, in addition to the pecans.
Amy also suggests that adding dried cranberries to these would be a nice touch. It would certainly add a splash of festive color! I'd guess that fresh cranberries might also work.
I'm planning to bake these muffins for friends next week as a birthday gift, so I can report on how they turn out. I'm thinking I may add cranberries to some of the muffins and see how that works.
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| photo from Positively Splendid |
Would you make these for a kitchen gift? Or are you tired of all things pumpkin spice?
As I was considering what muffin recipe to try for September, it occurred to me that an apple muffin would be just perfect. The early apples are appearing in supermarkets now, and picking your own apples at an orchard is a real possibility too. We did some apple picking at a local orchard last year for the first time in decades, and had so much fun!
I don't have an apple muffin recipe that I consider outstanding, so I did a little bit of looking on my All About Apples Pinterest board and settled on these Apple Cobbler Muffins from Julie Blanner.
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| Photo from Julie Blanner |
Julie says that these apple cobbler muffins freeze really well, and that's good to know. One could bake them at the end of apple season and freeze them until needed for Christmas kitchen gifts.
There you have it! Hope you try this recipe! I'm pretty sure I'll be baking these soon.
Recently our Nevada daughter and her family drove across country and spent ten days with us here in New Hampshire. She brought me and her sister sweet little hostess gifts -- mug rugs she had purchased at the 2022 Ozarks Homesteading Expo, which their family had attended on their way East. Mine has tufted titmice, as you see, and the one she brought for Carrie had chickadees.
I thought these mug mats were so cute! And they look easy too. The bird postcard motif looks as if it was stitched to the ticking stripe fabric by hand, using a buttonhole stitch and green floss.
These could be made with any type of rectangular fabric motif. I love mug rugs and am always wanting to make more for gifts. Stay tuned ... I may actually make some similar ones at some point.
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| Photo from Victoria magazine, July 1997 |
Gingerbread-Blackberry Muffins
3 cups flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 Tablespoon ground ginger
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
3/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1 cup softened unsalted butter (2 sticks)
1 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
1 cup dark molasses
4 eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1 1/4 cups fresh blackberries
Preheat oven to 350º.
Grease 18 regular size muffin cups (or 8 to 10 of the Texas-size ones).
In a bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, and all of the spices.
In another bowl, using an electric mixer, beat the butter with the brown sugar until light. Gradually add molasses, eggs (one egg at a time) and buttermilk until combined well.
Add the flour mixture to the buttermilk all and once and stir until just combined.
Layer the batter with the berries (evenly divided) in the muffin pans until each pan is 3/4 full.
Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until the muffin tops spring back when touched lightly. Let cool in the pans for 5 minutes, then gently remove muffins to wire racks to cool.
I'm sure frozen blackberries would work in this recipe, but if I used the gigantic frozen berries from the grocery store, I think I would cut each one in half.
I did a major purge of my magazine stash several years ago, but I couldn't bring myself to throw away my saved issues of Victoria. So glad I didn't, as some of the grandgirls enjoy them. Plus, I get to find recipes like this one!
It was a difficult choice trying to decide what to share for my final Christmas in July post this year. I finally decided to share one last fudge recipe.
But first, a word about the vintage advertisement at the top of the page. It's from a 1958 Woman's Day magazine. I've been going through some of my stash and scanning particularly fun ads. I couldn't resist this one, particularly since my grandmother made 5-Minute Fudge every Christmas. I will likely end up tossing these older magazines, even though I love them. The stories and decorating ideas are still good, but the pages are so brittle! We will see, however.
Now for today's fudge recipe. It's for Samoa Fudge and it is from Aimee at Shugary Sweets. It's a spin on the flavor of the Girl Scout cookies called Samoas. It combines chocolate, coconut, and caramel flavors. Samoas are my hands-down favorite of Girl Scout cookies, so I am eager to try this fudge recipe.
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| Photo by Shugary Sweets |
I hope you will enjoy this fudge if you try it. I surely intend to do so.
Thanks to all who have spent time with me here in my Christmas kitchen this July. It's been fun!
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| The main Nutcracker fabric, in Cream |
Here's another fun Christmas fabric collection to share with you all: Nutcracker from Dear Stella. It's described on the Fabricworm site as "Nutcrackers, ornaments, gingerbread men, sugar plum fairies, and holiday cheer all digitally printed on quilt weight cotton fabric". Here are some of the other designs from the collection:
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| This one features festive Christmas baubles |
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| Gingerbread men! |
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| This print is called Nutcracker Suite. |
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| And this one, my favorite, is called Sugar Plum Fairies. |
We may think of mid-century gift ideas as not particularly extravagant. Things cost much less back then, and many gifts were handmade.
Yet high-ticket Christmas gifts were sometimes given. In looking through old Christmas magazines, I came upon a few of them that my readers might enjoy seeing.
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| A sewing machine was a hoped-for gift .... |
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| What a surprise! |
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| Give the gift of books! |
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| How about a Coffeematic, circa 1958? This was an expensive gift at around $30. |
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| Ship'n'Shore blouses were a favorite gift for ladies or girls. |
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| The gift packaging for these Cannon towels was pretty fancy! Really, some of them were additional gifts in themselves -- fruit baskets or magazine racks. |
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| Last but not least, extension phones! These were not advertised as Christmas gifts per se, but as handy helpers during the Christmas season. |
Recently I was looking for an easy coffeecake to bake for a ladies' brunch at church. (Long story -- the brunch was scheduled for May, but first sickness and then other events -- our merger service for example -- kept pushing the date back until here we are near the end of July and just now having the brunch. It's no one's fault, but there it is.)
The weather has been exceedingly hot and humid and I couldn't have felt less like baking. I went searching for something a little different and found this Cranberry Breakfast Cake which looked quite simple and seemed as if it would be delicious any time of year.
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| Photo by The View from Great Island |
I couldn't bring myself to bake during the day so decided I would start early the next morning. I sifted the dry ingredients together the night before and left them in a quart-size ziptop bag, to save time in the morning. If I had thought of it, I would also have placed a stick of butter in a covered bowl to soften.
Then in the morning it was a quick matter to get everything together. Sue warns that the batter (really more like dough) will be quite thick, and it truly was. Adding the frozen cranberries really stiffened it up. It was quite a challenge to spread the batter evenly in the pan, but with the help of a small sandwich spreader I was able to do so. I did sprinkle a handful of the berries on top as Sue suggested. Since I had no sparkling sugar (a situation I will try to remedy), I sprinkled on a bit of regular white sugar instead.
This came out so delicious and was so easy! It would be a great choice for Christmas breakfast or any festive breakfast or brunch time during the holiday season. And it's good in July too, if you can bring yourself to turn the oven on!
I've written before about the Methodist Church Christmas fair which was such a part of my childhood Christmas seasons. It seemed to get our family into the Christmas spirit.
There was time for photo ops throughout the fair, when kids could have their Polaroid photo taken with various Christmas props. The photo at the top of the post is one of these. I've posted others in the past, but this is one I found more recently. It's faded and scratched. I'm not sure what story it tells.
My brother Mike is on the left and my brother Tim is at the right. In the middle is my cousin Diane. I find it interesting that only Diane is looking at the camera. Both boys look rather sad and although they are holding props -- Tim has a Santa doll and I'm thinking Mike is holding a book -- they don't seem to be paying attention. I'll never know what thoughts were going through their heads, as both have left this life some years ago.
It's a little slice of life in a faded Polaroid. I wish I knew more about it. Have you ever come across a mystery photo like this?
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| Photo from Pixabay |
Before starting my Christmas in July posts, I came across a great resource of 40 Fantastic Fudge Recipes from Andrea at The Cottage Market. Peppermint Oreo Fudge is the first one I picked, and now I'm sharing Double Decker Oreo Fudge. This is a recipe from Naomi Robinson at Bakers Royale. It's one of those nice and easy fudge recipes that uses a can of sweetened condensed milk.
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| Screenshot from Bakers Royale |
Doesn't it look good? I think it would make a really yummy Christmas gift. Maybe a tin with some of the peppermint oreo fudge and some of this might look nice. But not everyone likes peppermint, I know. I'm pretty sure I'll be trying this double decker oreo fudge come December, if not before!
I found this vintage Christmas card among paper treasures from my parents' home. I'm thinking it's from the late 1950s or very early 1960s. This was a card sent to my grandmother by her sister-in-law who lived in New York City. I found it very interesting that Nellie would choose a card depicting the city rather than the typical countryside or forest Christmas images. I think she had always lived in the city and considered it home, and so this scene would epitomize the Christmases she had known.
Skaters are milling about on a frozen pond while skyscrapers loom in the background. The scene is captured within a pretty evergreen wreath trimmed with pine cones and a bow made from real red satin ribbon.
I have a couple of other cards with city scenes, but none as nice as this one, which will eventually be listed for sale in my Etsy shop.
Here's another Christmas poem for you all this Christmas in July. It's another from a vintage Christmas Ideals magazine.
SLEIGH RIDE
Beside the hearth the sleigh bells hang
And wait my touch to sound again
That joyous ring that once we heard
As prancing steed tossed high his mane.
Our songs were gay, our laughter rang
Across the fields of glist'ning snow,
For we were young with carefree hearts
Those Christmas Eves of long ago.
"We're going home. We're going home."
Those singing bells would seem to say
As round the bend to lanterned door
Our cutter sparked its icy way.
And now the holly spray I twine
Between each shining silver bell.
I'm glad I lived in sleighing years
That only in my memory dwell.
-- Martha D. Tourison
I am just a little bit too young to have lived "in sleighing years", but I loved this poem!
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| An older fabric from my fabric stash ... |
This week's featured Christmas fabric collection is Joyful Joyful by Stacy lest Hsu for Moda Fabrics. Below are a few screenshots:
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| This one is called Festive Paisley Cream. |
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| This one is Floral Birds in cream. |
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| This is Holly Berries and the color is Field. |
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| And this is Oh Little Town in Midnight. |
Aren't these fun fabrics? I love the colors. It's fairly unusual to see a fabric with nativities, but I really like this.
I was mentioning earlier this month about how pastels were in vogue for Christmas a few decades ago. Vee mentioned, rightly, that it's a cyclical thing. What is "in" for decorating seems to come and go every few years. It's the same with clothing styles.
I am drawn to the vintage Christmas pastels and have occasionally done entire small trees in pastels. I am also drawn to ornaments with little scenes peeking out from inside. So when I saw these DIY Vintage-Style Ornaments from Michelle at The Scrap Shoppe, I was pretty much smitten.
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| Photo by Michele at The Scrap Shoppe |
Michele made these by painting clear plastic ornaments with a front opening. As you will see when you read the tutorial, these can be found at Amazon, under $20 for a dozen of them. She dresses up inexpensive bottle brush trees with little pearls, to place inside. (Now, why have I never thought of doing this? I have bottle brush trees on hand and I have sweet pastel pearls on hand from a project years ago. I also own several high-end bottle brush trees with pearls on them. No idea why I have never thought of making my own!)
These are so sweet! If I can part with $20 for some of the ornaments, I will plan to make some this year!
