Christmas 2010 Do-It-Yourself Presents

Everyone has received their presents, so it's time to share my do-it-yourself present of the year.  Well, all except one person - so act surprised when you get your gift! 

I made Rice Therapy Bags that can either be heated or kept in the freezer, depending on if your muscles or headaches like heat or cold more!  I read about a variety of fillers, such as flax seed and Bulgar, but plain rice seemed to work well.  If anyone ever has a problem with it smelling off, return and I will refill with fresh filler!

I made three different types of therapy bags.  Each piece had an inner rice bag made of muslin and filled with essential oil scented rice and an outside cover.  The neck bags and eye pillows have lavender scented rice for it's relaxing qualities.  I just filled a bowl with rice and added essential oils until I thought the scent was about right.  Below you can see the rice bag for the neck therapy bags, wrinkled because this was Joe's bag and it has already been used - by me!

 Next you can see the cover for the eye pillow.  See how each cover has a simple folded edge that makes it really easy to put the heated or cold bag in and take it out.  I made the covers with a soft flannel and a pretty brown corduroy.  This project started as a reuse project.  I was looking for ways to reuse old clothes that weren't really good enough to give away.  I had a long brown corduroy skirt with a hole in it that I used for these covers.  Can you just imagine putting the warm bag inside the cover and laying the soft warm flannel against your tired eyes after a day at the computer?

 I also made some with some soft green flannel.  This is the finished neck bag and also a square muscle therapy bag I made with muscle cooling mint essential oils.  It feels good on my knees and I made myself 2 of them!  I am finding these indispensable during ski season already!

 Below, you can see how I wrapped them pretty and put directions on them.  I took the idea for the bags and directions from the SewMamaSew blog, but she had her directions in a pdf and I needed to make changes so I redid them.

 I hope everyone enjoys their bags and they help your neck and other muscles to relax.  Finally, it is ski season so we will end with the requisite ski hill picture.  This was taken Dec 28th at Steamboat - it was a perfect day on the slopes.  More snow is on the way today!

Christmas Treat #6: Toffee

A short post this morning.  There are a lot of toffee recipes and I used the one off joyofbaking.com for Buttercrunch Toffee.  Toffee is always a winner.  It has crunch and chocolate and it's not hard to make.  I tend to play with the chocolate.  Here I used almonds for the nut; mixed bittersweet and dark chocolate and used brown rice Syrup in place of corn syrup.  I only need one word to describe it, Yum!

I'm not taking time to type the recipe, as snow awaits!  This picture was taken on the Five Chair at the Canyons on Christmas Eve.  This chair leads us to my all time favorite run, Mystic Pines.  If I could only do one run for the rest of my life, that would be it!

Christmas Treat #5: Peanut Butter Fudge

I'm in a candy mood this Christmas.  It's best that way, I'm not very interested in eating candy, only making it.  This is the easiest fudge ever and Joe gave it high compliments.  Of course, he's just high on sugar at this point, so....   Most of you know I love peanut butter, no I am not exaggerating.  It is the only thing I feel the need to give up regularly - for a couple days - just to prove I can.  But I am picky, I won't even touch the stuff with sugar in it.  Just plain ground peanuts for me please!

Peanut Butter Fudge

1 cup smooth peanut butter ( I used natural peanut butter with no sugar)

1 cup unsalted butter

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 pound powdered sugar

Line the bottom and sides of an 8x8x2 inch pan with aluminum foil or wax paper.

Place the peanut butter, butter, and salt in a large microwavable bowl and cook in the microwave for two minutes on high.  Stir and continue to microwave (if needed) until the ingredients are completely melted.  Stir in the vanilla and powdered sugar.  Spread the fudge into the prepared pan, smoothing the top with an offset spatula or spoon.  Cover and place in the refrigerator until cool. 

Can be stored in the refrigerator for up to one week.

Notes:  I may try chunky peanut butter next time and a little less powdered sugar.  But I think by using the natural peanut butter that adds to the peanut flavor and keeps it from being too sweet.

I think I got this recipe from joyofbaking.com.

Christmas Treat #4: Date Nut Balls

I just love dates.  I'm not sure where this came from, but this time of year I am delighted to easily find them in the store and I am on my 3rd box already.  I enjoy them chopped up in cereal or oatmeal, straight when I need a sweet fix without candy, and my go to appetizer this fall is Blue Cheese stuffed Dates wrapped in Bacon.  You yeah - go ahead and imagine what that tastes like - but don't wait long if there is a plate of them around, because they go fast!

This is another treat out of the Grandma Heuermann book of recipes.  I googled "date ball recipes" to determine if I wanted to make a change and most recipes are pretty similar.  I really enjoy these and one of them totally takes care of me when it comes to sweets.  But hey, a combination of dates and coconut, do we expect them to be anything less than great?!!?

Date Nut Balls - Thanks to Grandma H
1 cup sugar
1/4 lb butter
1 cup dates, cut up
1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon almond extract
2 cups puffed rice cereal (I use Kashi 7 Whole Grain Puffs)
1/2 cup chopped nuts (I use pecans)
Enough Coconut, in which to roll balls. 

Mix sugar, butter, dates and egg in a nonreactive saucepan.  Cook for 10 minutes on low and stir constantly.  Cool.  Add almond extract, cereal and nuts. 

Form into small balls and roll in coconut.  I used a small sized cookie scoop to form the balls and drop in the coconut.  It worked perfectly without the messy hands! 

Notes: I use sweetened coconut, only because I can't get unsweetened locally, but it's on my list for Salt Lake City and I think these would be great with unrefined sugar and unsweetened coconut.

I am becoming a big fan of having many sizes of cookie scoops, they can be used for so many great things not only cookies, but candy, melon balls, etc.  They aren't cheap, but fast becoming an essential kitchen utensil for me!

Christmas Treat #3: Grandma's famous Cinnamon Cookies

I can't put it off any longer.  These are the cookies, of which I will make multiple batches and give the most away.  These are my husband's favorite cookies.  They come from Grandma Heuermann and are cinnamon shortbread type cookie.  I've already made 2 batches this year and foresee the need for another, luckily - they are easy!  If you love Cinnamon as much as I do you'll understand that I have been known to serve these for dessert with homemade Cinnamon Ice Cream and hot coffee.  Yum Yum!

Cinnamon Cookies - Thanks to Grandma H
1/2 lb. butter
1 cup sugar
3 teaspoons cinnamon
1 egg, separated
2 cups flour

Cream the butter and the sugar.  Add the cinnamon and 1 egg yolk in order, mixing well after each addition.  Then mix in the flour, just until mixed.  It may seem a little dry, don't worry.

Dump on a large cookie sheet with sides and spread flat on the cookie pan.  I find it works best (less messy) to spread it out with a piece of saran wrap between my hands and the cookie dough.  Get it as thin as possible. 

Brush with the 1 unbeaten egg white and sprinkle with finely chopped pecans.  Bake 15 minutes at 375 degrees.  Or just until lightly golden across the top.  Cut immediately after baking.

Christine's Alteration:  I always have to make the above recipe as is, but for me I often make a batch using whole wheat (regular or pastry) flour and unrefined sugar.  Just as good, but different, these have a more caramelized flavor.

Christmas Treat #2: Pumpkin Waffles and Coconut Macaroons

A marathon baking session takes sustenance, plus my poor husband has not had a good breakfast in way too long.  Sunday morning before beginning with cookies and candy, and after shoveling the driveway and doing an early morning grocery store run, I made Pumpkin Waffles.  I just love Pumpkin Waffles and have, of course, adapted a recipe that came with my Cuisinart, 2 slice waffle iron.

Super Multigrain Waffles - with Pumpkin additions

Ingredients:
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup unbleached flour - I usually use all whole wheat.
1/2 cup old fashioned oats
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup soy milk(I usually use whatever I have, often FF or skim regular milk)
2 Tablespoons pure Maple Syrup
1 teaspoon pure vanilla
6 Tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
2 Tablespoons flaxseed oil
1 cup  yogurt
Can add 1/2 cup fruit and 1/2 cup nuts.

To make Pumpkin:
I substitute Pumpkin for the yogurt and add 1 teaspoon of cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg, and 1/8 teaspoon cloves

Other changes: I am always messing with the butter, oil ingredients.  I often substitute a couple tablespoons of ground flax seed for a couple tablespoons of butter.

Directions:
Place flours, oats, baking powder, baking soda and salt in mixing bowl and stir to combine.  In a separate bowl stir together eggs, milk, syrup, and vanilla.  Add to the dry ingredients. Stir in butter, oil, and yogurt (or pumpkin).  Let batter rest for 5 minutes while your waffle iron is heating up.

Cook waffles as directed by your waffle maker.

The real treat for today is Coconut Macaroons.  These did not visually turn out as I imagined, but they are good.  I think this may be a recipe that needed to be changed a bit for our altitude.  For festive reasons, and just because everything is better with chocolate, I melted a little dark chocolate and drizzled it on top.  I am not going to share the recipe because it is pretty vague and there are much more detailed recipes throughout the web, just google Coconut Macaroons and try one!  If you are looking for a fairly easy and quick recipe, that is actually not horrible on calories, this is your cookie!

Christmas Treat #1: Pecan Brittle

This week on the blog we have a special treat!  I'll be doing daily blog posts with a different cookie or candy that I've made for Christmas every day.  With any luck, I'll keep baking and have to go beyond Christmas Day with this plan!

Those of you that are familiar with my Christmas baking, know that I almost always make peanut brittle.  The recipe is from my Mom and we love it.  But, this year I am having trouble finding raw peanuts, so I thought well, I've seen brittle with other nuts... and I have pecans...  I haven't given up on finding raw peanuts, but this will hold us over until I do.

I did a google search and picked a recipe from the Savour Fare blog.  It is different than my peanut brittle recipe.  Two main differences are no butter and 1 Tablespoon of apple cider vinegar.  I know!  I ready that and thought really? But, the candy is really good and easy.  You can click here to go to the Savour Fare blog and find the recipe.  It takes a candy thermometer, but there isn't any reason to be afraid of a candy thermometer.

Enjoy!

Deja Vu

I'm going to post an update to Joe's August post regarding breaking his ankle.  Our week started out at the hospital 8 AM Monday for the second surgery on Joe's foot.  This surgery took out all his hardware and unfortunately, also found some tears in the tendon by his ankle, right where he'd been having pain and swelling.  This is good because everything is out of the ankle and the Dr. sewed up the tendon tears, everything can heal now.  This is challenging for Joe because he was ready to be done and fixed.

 Joe is back in a cast for 3 weeks and on crutches. The Dr. compromised and said he could start putting some weight on it in a few days and work down from two crutches to one, but he still needed to go in the cast.  In order to sew up the tendon tears the Dr. had to remove some of the connective tissue between the bone and the tendon, which needs to heal. At least it's festive!

Here is the 4 screws and the plate, all washed up and out of his ankle.

We are thankful we aren't flying this Christmas and had sadly admitted it would be hard to go to the planned Bronco game on Dec 26th.  After a couple days of wallowing, which was easier since I had to be in Phoenix Tues/Wed, Joe has risen to his normal good attitude.  He had graciously said I should ski as much as I can since it's already a good snow season.  We'll see what that means.  :)

For those that like the yucky pictures, there is a scar just like this on the other side of his foot.  :) I think he was just worried the scar wouldn't be impressive enough only being cut once.

Thanks to our friends for the wonderful support, help and good wishes.

Growing Greens in Winter

Last year I requested an Aerogarden for Christmas - thanks Marilyn!  It grew herbs last winter but this winter I thought I'd see if I could grow some fresh salad greens.  It will be interesting to see how long the greens keep growing as I use them, but I'm enjoying them so far.

Spaetzle

That's right, for all you Germans out there I made Spaetzle Sunday night.  I was cookbook browsing for a comforting, warm dinner idea and I came across the recipe for Herb Spaetzle - I thought "I have a Spaetzle maker"!  Thanks to Grandma Lisel and my mother-in-law for passing it on, originally because I was talking about ricing potatoes.

I do not have a picture of the Spaetzle, it looked lovely on the platter surrounding a sliced port roast, with roasted vegetables on the side, but of course, after we'd all dug in Joe said, "Did you take a picture?"  For those that don't know what Spaetzle is, it's like a German noodle, or dumpling, similar almost to gnocchi.

This recipe is from the Farm to Table Cookbook: The Art of Eating Locally by Ivy Manning. It's a lovely book organized by seasons, which is my favorite way for cookbooks to be organized.

Herb Spaetzle
3 eggs
3/4 cup milk
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 Tablespoon minced mixed fresh winter herbs (thyme, rosemary, sage)
2 1/4 cups flour (I used white wheat flour)
2 Tablespoons butter

1. Whisk the eggs, milk, salt, pepper, and herbs in a medium bowl.  Sift the flour over the mixture and stir with a wooden spoon until smooth and thick.

2. Bring a large pot of salted water to a simmer.  Hold the spaetzle maker over the water and add 1/4 of the batter.  Scrape it back and forth, forcing little bits of batter into the simmering water.  Remove the bits with a slotted spoon as they float to the top (almost immediately), transfer them to a saute pan with the butter, and keep them warm over low heat while continuing to cook the remaining batter.

3. When all the batter is cooked and in the saute pan, raise the heat to high, briefly toast the spaetzle in the butter until golden brown, and serve.
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We ended this meal with the perfect dessert, a wonderful Gingerbread cake found on the Simply Recipes blog and posted by Garrett McCord.  The below picture is from that wesite, although my cake was very similar, my plate wasn't nearly so pretty.

Soup and Bread

Is there anything better than a bowl of hot soup with a piece of crusty on the outside, soft on the inside, warm, fresh bread?  I have been trying to make a big pot of soup every week for lunches during the week or even suppers, if the hubby is gone or I have evening meetings.

This past week I enjoyed a nice pot of Black Bean soup.  Of course I add more vegetables than they called for including a package of the handy garden kale in the freezer and I pureed some of the beans.  One of these days I'm going to have to give in and get a pressure cooker just for making beans.  I'm not the best at getting my beans rehydrated and soft enough.

It took us awhile to get the hang of bread here in Green River, WY.  Being around 6,500 feet means one had to make some changes to the bread.  Joe is actually the guy who figured it all out.  Back when I was working on the last degree, he patiently made batch after batch lowering the yeast each time.  We use almost 3/4 t. less than the recipe lists.  Then I figured out the next trick - more water!  This is just a 100% whole wheat loaf using the bread maker and look how high it is!  WooHoo!

Back to the sewing machine and my Christmas project.  I look forward to posting about it, after everyone has their presents, of course!

Busy

Well I am feeling a bit pressed for time right now, so this will be short.  I can assure you that I have pictures to post but for now I will leave you with a rather unappetizing picture - I do apologize - and a quick note about a problem solved.  There are two things of which I never use a whole can: tomato paste and chipolte chilies.  The problem is they only last so long in the fridge and too often I end up throwing 1/2 a can away, not to mention I end up with red stained tupperware dishes! 

Well I finally got on the stick on Sunday and pulled the tomato paste and chipolte chilies out of the fridge.  I sprayed my handy ice cube tray with a little oil and divided them out into individual portions, about 1 T for the tomato paste and one chili per each cube.  I stuck them in the freezer and a few hours later went back out and popped them out and into separate baggies.  How great!  I've already used a chili this week in a soup, it was both easy to use just one and I must say it was easier to chop up the chili without making a total mess of my cutting board!

If, as I am, you are a little overwhelmed right now with work, the presents that need to get mailed soon, the Christmas letters that are written but still not printed out, and the increase in social activities (which are supposed to be fun!), the ski patrol cross I really must get sewed on my jacket, and more; I wish you a quite moment with a Tom and Jerry, or your favorite warm drink, in hand and the Christmas tree lights to gaze upon.