January Sewing Class

**So sorry, but there has been a change in plans. I was unable to find the interfacing for my boxes, and had to order some online. I will reschedule the boxes for another month, and will still plan on either an open sew day or another project. (most likely crayon rolls)

Here is just one more excuse for a bunch of us ladies to get together. It is always fun to do a new project, but why not with your friends. I found these really cute storage bins a while back and thought it would be a great way to start the new year off right. Let's get organized. I am going to use mine for my sewing stuff, but why not for your babies room, or even for you kids toys or school supplies. There are a hundred different ways to use them!

RSVP to the right and I will send you the supply list.

Happy New Year and Rustic Rolls

I am so excited for 2011! I have so many fun ideas and great things that I want to do. The year couldn't have started out any better!

I really like watching America's test kitchen on PBS. It airs on Saturday afternoons, so it is perfect after doing all our house chores the fam sits down and to see what awesome stuff they are doing.

So after getting home from our New Year's sleepover and cleaning up all the Christmas decorations, I was worn out and settled in for an episode.

My down fall in eating habits is carbs. Any kind really, but mostly in the bread category. I love them, give me a good roll or slice of cinnamon bread and I am good to go.

So you can imagine my excitement when I turned on my favorite show and they were doing breads!

I thought I had learned a lot before, but wow this was a great episode. Okay now I am sounding a little nerdy, and rambling. I will get to the point...

Rustic Dinner Rolls!

They were the best. A lot of raising steps, but well worth it. They were a hit, and yes we downed all 16. (with the help of a couple of friends)

Let me know if you have any questions, and I think I will even do them for one of my cooking classes this year.

Oh yum

Christmas candies done and passed out. I have to say they turned out nice. The centers were so yummy. The lemon and orange were delicious, but I would say the raspberry was my favorite.

So with Christmas a few days away, I can say I am done and am going to sit back and enjoy.
With the exception of a couple of pies, a frog eye salad, I don't have any more baking to do.

What will the new year bring? Lots of new projects! I am going to start a small cooking group and a monthly sewing group. So next week I will be getting lots of ideas put together and a schedule down.
I also have a special project up my sleeve. Hopefully I can get it going, and hope it will be a hit.

2010 has been an amazing year. I am so blessed to have had so many wonderful experiences.
Thanks to all of you, have a Merry Christmas and a very happy New Year!

Christmas candies

Every year we have the tradition of making holiday candy. Dave's Grandma was a great candy maker so I have lots of fun recipes from her. I also have a few from my childhood that I remember making with my Mom and Aunt.

But this year, I went outside of my normal box and decided to try something new. My sister-in-law CiCi starting making hand dipped chocolates a few years ago, and they are to die for. My favorites are her orange cream. So I did some research, and try it out.

I am so excited to get them dipped. I had no idea what to expect when making up the fondant, but it all turned out okay. I made some peppermint, orange, lemon, cherry and chocolate.

Of course I am still doing my normal root beer caramel's, and cashew brittle, but it is always fun to add some more goodies to the neighbor packs.


This is what I poured onto my marble from the pan, I wasn't sure how I was going to get that to a nice creamy chocolate center.



But after a lot of kneading they came out perfect. Now just waiting to be balled and dipped.
(I will post the finished product later)

Learning our ABC's

I saw this really cute idea on a blog that I follow. It took me a little bit to collect the orange juice lids, but finally got them all, and Morgan and I did the project in less than an hour! All it took was 2 pieces of 12 x 12 scrapbook paper, a set of capitol letters (I used the cute puffy polka dot ones), 26 orange juice can tops (no sharp edges) and a empty peanut can or jar with wide mouth.

Chase is doing really good at recognizing all his letters, he did however learn that they slide really well on the floor and uses them as hockey pucks. Needless to say, I have to put them up when we are not using them to learn!

Kitchen Tools

I love anything kitchen. So if I am near a Williams-Sonoma or Spoon's and Spice, I stop in and just browse.. People love cars, books, or clothes, I love kitchen tools.

With a new sugar cookie and donut recipe, I learned a couple of new tricks of getting them the perfect thickness.
So I put my honey to work in the wood shop and saved me some dough. :)

I had the standard size rolling pin, but I saw Alton Brown rolling out his donut dough with a little bit of a longer one. The reason is so that he could roll it along these handy little sticks. They are cut at 3/4 of an inch thick so that your dough will roll out to that measurement.
Now with sugar cookie dough, you don't want it that thick, so I have a set that is 1/4 of an inch. The perfect sugar cookie.



If you don't have a wood shop or a honey in a wood shop, I did find some plastic rings and a long rolling pin at Williams-Sonoma that do the same thing. Also the sticks can be found at any craft store in different thickness's.

enjoy!

Big fluffy donuts

As another Halloween tradition that started way back when and I brought back a couple of years ago is homemade donuts.
I have tried a couple of different recipes and this years is the one I am sticking with.
They were so good. One of my fav's from food network is Alton Brown. (here it is) I love how he gets so scientific about stuff and really explains things. Try it out. I think I will try a maple glaze next time.
Good thing I only got one and the rest got gobbled up, they would have been dangerous lying around.