Grandbaby number one of the twins. We hope to visit in February.
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kitchen snowflakes
December 9, 2007 – 10:21 pm
The kitchen is decorated with snowflakes and icicles. This collection continues to grow. Each year new ones are added and older plastic snowflakes are removed.
We have four south facing windows and two east facing windows, all topped with a garland that is lit with blue and white lights. The snowflake ornaments hang from the garland.
Our friend Gary made this beautiful ornament for me, along with quite a few others. It is made from the glass from a lamp made for me by a friend in 1972. The lamp had come apart and Gary used the glass to make these.
I love the look these ornaments give the kitchen.
Several years ago, I was in a Christmas store and saw ornaments hung from the ceiling with mirrored garlands. I took that idea and used mirrored garlands to hang snowflakes from the 12′ ceiling in our kitchen.
~~Rhonda
a special ornament
December 9, 2007 – 9:21 pm
In the early 40’s, when my mother was a young girl of about eight years of age, her father took her and her siblings to visit his mother at Christmas time. Grandmother’s house was small so she decorated a tree in the yard rather than the house. They didn’t find her at home, but my mother’s father told the children they could choose an ornament from the tree. My mother chose this small elephant.
It hung on the tree in our home for all the years of my childhood and after. A few years ago, my mother gave the elephant to me and now it hangs on our Christmas tree each year. It will be passed on one day to my daughter Sarah Jane who is named after her Great-great-grandmother, the original owner of the elephant.
~~Rhonda
Toffee Bar Crunch Biscotti
December 7, 2007 – 1:02 pm
We put a bowl of this on the coffee table at the open house. After the party there were only two pieces left. It smells *wonderful* while baking and tastes as good as it smells. I’ll be making it again. ~~Rhonda
Toffee Bar Crunch Biscotti
6 T. butter, melted
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 c. brown sugar, packed
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon butterscotch extract (I couldn’t find this, so left it out)
3 eggs, beaten
3 c. flour
1 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups chocolate-covered toffee bar, chopped (I used 1 1/2 c. toffee bits plus 1 c. mini chocolate chips)
1/2 cup pecans, chopped and toasted (Don’t skip the toasting. It does make a difference.)
Cream together butter, oil, sugar and brown sugar in medium bowl. Mix in vanilla and butterscotch extracts. Add eggs.
Combine dry ingredients and stir into creamed mixture. Add chopped toffee bar and pecans.
Line baking sheet with parchment paper. Dough will be sticky, so lightly flour hands. Form into two logs (I decided after baking that four would have been better.)
Bake at 350* F for 25-30 minutes or until center is set. Cool for ten to fifteen minutes. Slice crosswise into 1/2-inch slices. Return slices, cut side down, to baking sheet. Bake 10-12 minutes on one side, then turn over and bake opposite side an additional five minutes. Cool on wire racks. I cut the slices in half before the additional baking.
After they cooled, I packed them in zippered storage bags and placed them in a plastic container for freezing until needed.
I dipped the end of each piece in chocolate when thawed. It made about 60 pieces.
The recipe is from Gooseberry Patch 1999, p. 89.
Daniel’s Cookie Bar Bites
December 7, 2007 – 11:41 am
My son Daniel enjoyed making chocolate chip cookies when he was younger. Still does. 🙂 He used the recipe on the back of the Nestlé Toll House chocolate chips package and often doubled it to make cookie bars. I don’t remember when the idea came to me to use the cookie bars to make these little yummy treats. It seems I have been making them for years. They are a great favorite at the open house. Men seem especially to like them. I underbake the cookie bars by a tiny bit, so the bites are chewy and soft. And I use mini chips so the cookies are loaded with little bits of chocolate. After cutting the bars into 1-inch squares, I dip them in chocolate and sprinkle each one with decors.
Daniel’s Cookie Bar Bites
Cream together:
4 sticks margarine (2 cups), softened
1 1/2 c. granulated sugar
1 1/2 c. brown sugar
When light and fluffy, add:
4 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
Mix well.
In a separate bowl, stir together:
6 c. flour
2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. baking soda
Add to sugar mixture and combine thoroughly.
Add and stir:
2 12-oz. bags mini chocolate chips
Spread in a greased cookie sheet with 1″ sides.
Bake at 375* F for 17 minutes.
When cool, cut into 1″ squares and dip in melted chocolate. Sprinkle with cookie decorations / decors.
For dipping chocolate, I melt chocolate chips and add 2 oz. unsweetened chocolate for each 12-oz. bag of chips.
I make the bars ahead, cut them (removing the raised edges), freeze them between sheets of waxed paper and, after thawing, dip them in chocolate the day before our annual open house. When dipping I put them into the melted chocolate upside down so the bottom becomes the top. That ensures the tops of the finished cookies are smooth and the edges as square as possible.
I’ve also made the same recipe as little hearts, for a baby shower and for a ladies’ tea, using a 1-inch cookie cutter. For the tea, I dipped the hearts in dark chocolate and topped them with frosting flowers and sugared violets.
~~Rhonda
Spiced Cranberry Punch
December 6, 2007 – 10:31 pm
This is a delicious hot (or cold) punch. My all time favorite hot punch. I served it at the home extension Christmas party this evening. ~~Rhonda
Spiced Cranberry Punch
1 c. sugar
4 c. water
12 whole cloves
4 (3-inch) cinnamon sticks
2 T. minced ginger root
8 c. cranberry/apple juice cocktail
2 c. orange juice
1 c. fresh lemon juice (from 6 lemons)
Orange slices and cranberries (optional)
Additional cranberry/apple juice cocktail (optional)
1. In a large saucepan, combine sugar, water, cloves, cinnamon sticks and ginger; mix until sugar dissolves. Bring to boiling; simmer 10 minutes. Remove pan from heat. Cover; let stand 1 hour. [At this point the punch base can be strained and stored in the fridge for 1-2 days.]
2. Strain punch mixture into a large bowl (chilled punch) or crockpot (hot punch). Stir in cranberry cocktail, orange juice and lemon juice. Chill or serve hot. If serving cold, garnish with orange slices and cranberries or fill ice-cube trays with orange slices, cranberries, and addition cranberry cocktail; freeze, and use to chill when serving.
Makes 16 servings. From “McCall’s Favorite Christmas Ideas,” 1992, p. 108.
home extension Christmas party
December 6, 2007 – 10:14 pm
This evening my home extension group came over for our annual Christmas party. The weather was cold and cloudy all day. Around 4:00 p.m., we began to get a little sleet and some freezing rain. A few women had to cancel as they live out of town and didn’t want to risk the roads, but we still had 13 at the party and we had a wonderful time. Everyone brought either an appetizer or a dessert. I provided coffee, iced tea, and hot punch.
After touring the house to see the decorations and the trees, we sat down to enjoy the delicious food. It was quite a feast!
We had so much good food, some of it had to overflow to the drinks table.
Even DD enjoyed the treats.
Chocolate Peanut Butter Truffles
December 4, 2007 – 10:00 pm
This recipe is a crispy yummy ball of peanut butter goodness. We have open house guests who look for this particular goody each year.
Chocolate Peanut Butter Truffles
1 c. crunchy peanut butter
1/4 c. butter or margarine, softened
2 c. crisp rice cereal
1 c. powd. sugar
1 package (14 oz.) chocolate candy coating [I add 2 oz. unsweetened baking chocolate]
2 T. vegetable shortening
1 package (14 oz.) white candy coating
multicolored sprinkles
1. In large bowl, combine peanut butter and butter. Add cereal and sugar,
mixing until evenly combined. Drop mixture by rounded measuring teaspoons
onto waxed paper-lined tray; roll into balls and set aside. [It’s very
sticky. If you refrigerate it first, it’s not as messy.]
2. In top of double boiler, over hot water, melt chocolate coating and
shortening. [I do it in the microwave.] Dip each peanut butter ball in
chocolate and place on waxed paper-lined tray. [Let stand till hardened.] Dip
balls in melted white candy coating and top with sprinkles. May refrigerate until
firm. You can drizzle chocolate over the white candy coating instead of using sprinkles if you want to.
3. To serve, place balls in small candy paper liners.
~ from Women’s Day “Holiday Baking”, Vol. IV, Num. 4, 1994, p. 65
I use a small ice cream dipper to form the balls. Make them smaller than you may be tempted to. After two layers of coating, they will be much larger than you may expect.
After the chocolate coating has hardened, I pack them between waxed paper in a freezer safe container. I dip them in the white candy coating a day or two before serving.
~~Rhonda
Sour Cream Sugar Cookies
December 3, 2007 – 10:40 pm
If I could make only one kind of cookie for Christmas, this would be the one *everyone* would ask for.
Sour Cream Sugar Cookies
Cream:
2 c. sugar
1 c. shortening
Add and mix well:
1 c. sour cream
3 eggs
1/2 teaspoon almond extract (or 1 tsp. vanilla or lemon, but almond is the best)
In a separate bowl, mix well:
5 c. flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
Add flour to creamed mixture and mix until well blended.
This makes a very soft tender dough. It should be chilled for a few hours before rolling. Remember that adding more flour and doing more mixing makes dough tougher. I roll this out on a floured counter and cut it using floured cutters (just dip them in flour between cutting each cookie). I save all the leftovers till I’m done, then knead them smooth (knead as little as possible), then cut more cookies.
Bake at 350*F for 10 minutes.
This makes a lot of cookies. I actually double it for Christmas and never have enough! They go fast!
My favorite frosting for these cookies (and for decorating cakes):
2 pounds of powdered sugar
1 cup shortening
1/2 c. water
1/2 tsp. almond extract
Mix till smooth. Tint with paste or gel food coloring. This sets quickly so add sprinkles as soon as the cookie is decorated. I use cake decorating tips to decorate the cookies. A leaf tip makes great Christmas trees, holly leaves, and wreaths.
~~Rhonda
a good time was had by all
December 3, 2007 – 4:21 pm
We really had a wonderful time at the open house yesterday. Many thanks go to all those who helped, especially my sister Genny who comes several times each year to help decorate, set up trees, cut greenery, etc. Though by Saturday I was wondering (as I do each year) if we would be able to get everything done, the house pulled together well.
The weather was rainy, extremely windy and got colder as the day went on. The temperature was about 60* F at noon and down to 36 by 6:00 p.m. But it didn’t keep down the crowd by very many. We usually have about 200 guests and this year we had 170+. It was a tremendous amount of work, but a tremendous amount of fun, too. DH wasn’t able to take as many pictures as I had hoped he could, but others took pictures and I hope to get some copies of those. The party was supposed to start at 2:00 pm and we had company as early as 1:30, so we didn’t have time to take “before” pictures which I like to do each year.
Our friends Gary, Laurie, Bethany and my sister Genny all helped in the kitchen which was great. It’s become a tradition and we so appreciate their generous gift of time! They keep the cookie trays full, the coffee filled, and the punch flowing. I don’t have to give it a second thought. I know it’s in good hands.
The grand-baby tree was a favorite. Everyone liked it.
On the right side of this counter I have a deer. It sits on a piece of tabletop glass which is elevated on wooden blocks. We put white lights under the glass and batting on top. Makes a lovely night time display.
The grand-baby tree sits on the counter in the addition where the guest room, laundry room and downstairs bath are located. Across from the tree there are pictures of our children as babies. I wrap them each year as gifts.
The laundry room and downstairs bath, just off the hall in the addition, have a garden theme for Christmas. The little tree in the laundry room is decorated with garden ornaments, pansies, birds, butterflies, and insects. The tree sits in an old wooden sugar bucket from DH’s family farm.
The wreath on the laundry room door has pansies and small green balls on it.
On the bookcase in the guest room, we display the book A Tale of Three Trees.
The tree in the guest room is decorated with a Victorian theme.
We had a slide show of the baby pictures in the library on my computer and a slide show in the office of cookie making. Guests enjoyed those.
The piano in the office is decorated with pictures of our children. These are pictures that have been used in our Christmas cards in years past.
The young lady who cleans house for us came today and vacuumed cookie crumbs throughout the house. But she didn’t have to do much other cleaning. My kitchen crew had cleaned the entire kitchen, took the serving tables apart, put the tablecloths in the wash, etc., so Sam cleaned the baths and vacuumed the floors. Made it all fresh again. I delivered cookies to the teachers/staff at DD’s school and then did my grocery shopping while Sam cleaned. Now I am enjoying a very quiet relaxing afternoon, which is quite a change from the hectic work we’ve been doing for a few weeks.
Thursday night about 15 women from my home extension group will be here for our Christmas party. The 14th we are hosting a house concert by Nathan Clark George. He has a beautiful Christmas album and will be performing songs from that on the 14th, accompanied by two other musicians.
On the 15th, 12-15 women from a local PCA church are coming for a house tour and potluck supper. A busy but fun time of year.
Time to get supper started. I will try to post more this evening.
You can see these and other pictures on my flickr site.
~~Rhonda