Thank goodness!

Thank goodness the Mayans were wrong and yesterday wasn't the end of the world!  I may have stayed up just in case (I really did!) But, sort of unintentionally.  See, my FAVORITE little baker, Ms. Marjorie Johnson from right here in MN was on Leno again last night.  I ADORE her so much.  So, I stayed up to catch her bit and then just kept watching and soon enough the clock ticked midnight, I held my breath, and the clock ticked on.  Whew!  Because if the world had ended last night, I would have done a lot of baking for naught!  Last night:  Fruitcake cookies & those yummy Turtle cookies I previously mentioned.  I didn't grab a pic, but when I get a pretty platter all together I will share (a picture) with you.  :)  

 We're getting ready! And our silly Smurf Elf is anxious to get on the road too!

The Hustle

I started this holiday season in decent shape, buying gifts as I saw them, making lists and getting ideas for treats to bake.  And now we're T minus 2 days until we leave for the holiday excursions and I have lots to do!  I'll be hustling and bustling that is for sure.  Our Christmas cards went out, so that's good news.  We had a good time making them this year!  And for the first time ever we got the best shot on the first try!  Typically, it takes us a good hour or more and dozens of pictures to get one!  Hurray for something that was easy!

Smurf Elf (our Elf on the Shelf) has been keeping Ella on her toes, but we keep faltering at bed time.  As I'm typing, she's upstairs walking around, back and forth talking to her stuffed animals, just about anything she can do to skip going to sleep.  So....she's been testing our patience that's for sure!  But Smurf Elf has been a lot of fun and I'm planning a post with all of the silly things Smurf Elf did this year.

Baking this year?  I've been fitting in as many cookies as possible!  This past weekend it was cutout sugar cookies and gingerbread men (first time ever I've made these!)  It was fun to decorate, and Ella joined in too.  Those are packed and in the freezer.  There was a red velvet cake based cookie with peppermint and candy canes that I made earlier this week.  AMAZING!  I had to get those in the freezer quick or they'd be gone by now.  Next up are some new recipes from Barefoot Contessa and a Pinterest find (Turtle cookies! - Say WHAT?!)  If only I could bake all day long....

Ella finally got to visit with Santa last week at the Best Buy family holiday party!  I wasn't there but she had a great time and keeps talking about it.  :)  They have live reindeer, which she really liked.  And, here's a great shot of her with the Big Man himself.

For fun, here's last year's picture!

 

Merry Christmas from us to you!

Let It Snow (A LOT!)

well, it's happened again.  The forecast was perfectly and totally WRONG!  Last night, the word on the newscasts was 3-5 inches of snow for the southern metro counties, more to the north and tapering off by noon Sunday.  Woke up to maybe 2 inches and it was snowing.  Went to church, had the Sunday School Christmas program, left church, still snowing.  Catch a weather report.  Oh, the heaviest band of snow is now across the Twin Cities.  Expect 10-15 inches of snow.  Will snow all day.  9:21 p.m. Sunday night.  Still snowing!!  So it goes in this lovely land of 10,000 lakes. 

A few pictures from Ella's first Sunday School Christmas Program.  Love her outfit.  She looked so precious up front with all the kids.  They did a great job. 

Ready and waiting to use that kazoo!  They sang Joy to the World singing the first verse and then using kazoos in the next verse.  It was so cute!  And Ella sang her heart out!

 

 

We did make the most of this snowfall today!  This really was kind of Ella's official first romp in the snow.  Last year's measily snow falls and frigid temps didn't allow for any fun in the snow.  So, what a fun time we had!  We built our first snowman of the season.  Technically it's a girl.  Ella has named her Ella Snowman.  She's so silly.

 Ella's face in this picture is hilarious!  She's like - what is Daddy doing?!?!

 

And the best part after playing in the snow - hot chocolate with marshmellows - even better in a reindeer mug.  :)

Weekending into December!

Happy December!  We had a busy weekend to kick off the Christmas season!  Lots of fun (and not so fun) memories!  The not-so-fun?  My Escape had to go to the shop for a few repairs that I've been trying to avoid - but then last week when I started my car after arriving back to transit station and it stalled out, and then when restarted, was chugging and violently shaking, I decided I should probably get it figured out.  Talk about an embarrassing drive home that night!  But, it appears to have been corrected to the tune of a lot of money that is now not available for Christmas presents!  So it goes.  I'm relieved it's running better now and I will totally cry the day I have to rid myself of this Escape (which Jay keeps bugging me to do!)

Anyway, on to the fun stuff!

New wreath I made for the front door:

I'm loving it!  And the best part?  I got all the supplies from the Dollar store!!  It can stay up through January and maybe even February.  Sweet!

Our Elf on the Shelf "Smurf Elf" arrived on Saturday morning, bringing a little gift for Ms. Ella.  She was super excited, so cute!

It was Home Depot project Saturday, so Ella made a holiday picture frame - and impressed us even using the screwdriver this time!

I spent a little time working on this scarf for Sunday school teacher gifts:

And, these gifts for preschool teachers:

Where would I come up with this stuff if Pinterest wasn't around?!?!  The snowmen are Ghirardelli Peppermint Bark bars, and I found a printable label for the hand sanitizer via Pinterest that I could personalize to add the teacher name!

Saturday night was Dazzle Days in downtown Farmington, so we headed out to enjoy the horse driven carriage rides and tree lighting ceremony.  Note, pictures are not that great because I forgot the real camera!

Standing in line for the carriage ride and a train was going by!

I love this family picture even though it's super low resolution, etc.!

Smurf Elf showed up Sunday morning reading Ella's new favorite Curious George book, which she thought was "so silly!"

And last night Ella sweetly gave Smurf Elf a skirt to wear (and put on at the North Pole, of course!)

Here's Smurf Elf today - "working" which is what Ella says when she's playing on this little laptop!

I think that about sums it up!  Jay has been working on a little homemade sled using recycled wood and I can't wait to finish it so I can share!

Thanksgiving 2012 Recap

Our Thanksgiving this year was pretty low-key.  Just my little family!  :)  My mom spent the day with Grandma Alice, so no turkey was to be had there, and Jay's parents had already made other arrangements since all the "kids" were going to be away.  It was actually really fun to make the entire dinner and all the other fun stuff that goes along with a Thanksgiving feast!  (I mean, who doesn't love to get up at 4 a.m. to put the turkey in?!) :)  I just did the crockpot variety, but it was delicious!  The weather was fantastic most of the day, so we were able to walk off some of our stuffing to make room for homemade pie (with a scratch crust - I was even impressed with myself!)  

The day before the feast, Ella & I set out to pick up a few holiday presents (we are ON THE BALL this year!)  We stopped by Macy's so Ella could write her postcard to Santa:

According to this postcard to Santa, she wants a baby, a bear and umm....a clock!  HA!  She couldn't think of something so she glanced up and saw this "clock" at the Santa mail station, so of course then she wanted that.

We spent some time at the park even!  Such a rare treat for the end of November!

Next up for the pre-feast?  Pie making of course!  Here's some pictures I took along the way.  The recipe was from the Better Homes & Garden November issue- check it out - the pie was delicious!  Their picture (on the cover of the issue) totally trumps mine, but I think you'll agree that the turkey pie crust cut-outs are ADORABLE!! 

I have to comment here about this above photo.  So, I don't have pie weights nor did I have a bag of dry beans in the house, so I had to improvise in order to pre-bake the crust.  I was searching all over the kitchen, thought about using rice (and thankfully thought better of it) and ended up using some of our polished (washed of course) rocks from our trips up to the North Shore.  I mean COME ON!  Totally hick!  I was laughing the whole time.  But, they worked great, so there's a good tip for you to file away for pie making!

Ella got a bit bored during the pie making, so she had to check out her new Elmo's World Happy Holidays movie (with Baby of course!)

 Carmel apple pie filling

 Cherry / cranberry mixture

YUM! (see the turkeys?!)

 

 

I am so blessed to have these two turkeys in my life.  We had a wonderful weekend (despite Ms. Ella's new 'tude), but still, she's 3, and we'll work on the listening....and not saying no to everything I ask...and above all else, being thankful for this little family of ours. 

Princess

Ms. Ella attended her very first non-family birthday party after preschool a few Fridays ago (a little late getting this post up!).  Her preschool friend Joy turned 4 on the 13th (we share birthdays!).  Joy's mom had a princess tea party (pizza too!) and Ella had a great time.  I snapped this pic of her after the girls dressed up for the tea party:

She didn't want to wear the Rapunzel dress because she already has that one at home (ha!) so she went low-key princess with the tulle skirt and giant tiara.

Continuing with the princess theme, Disney Junior debuted a soon-to-be new series Sofia the First: Once Upon a Princess.  Ella and I watched it together, and I thought it was really cute.  Cinderella even made an appearance at the end.  We're looking forward to the new episodes coming next year.  Here's the best I could get of her during the show.  I wish the picture could better capture her excitement!!

Cookies to gobble up!

Happy post-Thanksgiving week!  I tried this new recipe for our holiday this year and not only will your house smell amazing but the treats taste delicious too!  Perfect for your  upcoming Christmas cookie exchanges!  And, egg free.

Source adapted from: Holiday Baking by Sara Perry

Maple Ginger Cut-out Cookies

1 1/4 C. all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1 tsp. ground allspice
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 C. butter, at room temperature
1/2 C. packed light brown sugar
1/2 C. maple syrup (the real stuff!)
2 tbsp. orange juice
1 tsp. grated lemon zest

How To:

1.  Whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, ginger, allspice and cinnamon.

2.  In Kitchenaid mixer, beat butter on medium speed until creamy (recipe notes approx. 30 seconds).

3.  Beat in brown sugar until no lumps remain.

4.  Beat in maple syrup, orange juice and lemon zest, scraping bowl to fully incorporate all ingredients as necessary.

5.  Add half of the flour mixture and beat on low speed until blended, then add remaining flour mixture and scrape sides/beat until blended.

6.  Shape dough into flat disc shape (approx. 6" diameter) and wrap in plastic wrap.

7.  Refrigerate for 2 hours or until firm.

8.  Line baking sheet with parchment and preheat oven to 350 degrees.

9.  Roll dough on a greased silpat or silicone mat to 1/4 inch thick. Tip: Spray the rolling pin for easier rolling!  Also, re-refrigerate dough scraps before re-rolling!

10.  Create cut-outs using a 3" turkey shaped cookie cutter (or cutter of choice).

11.  Bake 8-10 minutes until lightly browned on the bottom. Be careful not to overbake!

12.  Allow cookies to set up on pan before transferring to wire rack to cool completely.

13.  Gobble them up, or frost using your favorite cookie frosting!  Note: I had grand plans to frost these turkeys but I ended up skipping it and leaving them.  They are SO delicious!! 

Here's my trusty kitchen companion

Pull Apart Apple Bread

I found this recipe for an apple pull apart bread on Pinterest a while back and decided to give it a go last week.  In reading the recipe I was a little intimidated because (a) I haven't had much luck with making dough and getting it to rise properly and (b) the stacking (you'll see what I mean in a bit) seemed tricky.  But, I thought I'd try and see.  Feeling ambitious?  Here's the recipe I used along with a few pictures along the way (source: http://half-bakedbaker.blogspot.ca/2012/09/apple-cinnamon-pull-apart-bread.html):

Dough:
1/4 cup (4 tablespoons) butter, melted

1/3 cup lukewarm milk
1/4 cup lukewarm water
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups All-Purpose Flour
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 package instant yeast (equivalent to 2 1/4 tsp.)

Apple Layer:
2 tablespoons butter, melted

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
3 Granny Smith apples peeled, cored, and thinly sliced

Topping:
1 cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoon milk
1/4 - 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

How-To:

1. Whisk together the butter, milk, water, eggs, and vanilla extract.

2. Using the Kitchenaid mixer with the dough hook - Mix together the flour, sugar, salt, and yeast, then add the wet ingredients. Mix and knead until the dough is smooth. If dough seems too dry add a little water, if it seems too sticky add just a little flour, up to a 1/4 cup.  I had to add a little more water to make the dough come together.

3.  Dough goes in a lightly greased bowl (cover and rest until doubled in size - approx. 1 hour).  Note, I just left my dough in the Kitchenaid mixer bowl

4.  Turn out the dough onto a lightly greased surface. The original posting tip was genius!  I just sprayed my silicone silpat mat with Pam cooking spray! Roll the dough into a 12" x 20" rectangle, mine wasn't this big - I did what I could!

5.  Mix vanilla into melted butter.  Brush dough with butter mixture.

6.  Sprinkle the brown sugar evenly over dough.
7.  Sprinkle the cinnamon evenly over brown sugar layer.
8.  Add an even layer of apples.
9.  Cut the dough into six even strips, about 3" wide and then stack the strips on top of one another.
See:

10. Cut the stack into six pieces, about 2" wide, like so:

11. Turn & layer the cut pieces vertically in a greased loaf pan one in front of the other.

12. Cover the pan and allow the loaf to rise for 30 to 45 minutes, until dough reaches top of pan.
13. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 to 55 minutes in the center of the oven, tenting it with foil after 30 minutes.
14.  Cool 15 minutes, then turn onto wire rack.
15.  Mix & drizzle glaze over bread while warm
While still slightly warm, spoon the glaze over the top of the bread.

YUM!  The final picture doesn't do the bread justice.  It was good and wasn't really as difficult as I was thinking it would be.  However, for the dough rising, it took a long time from start to finish.