Christmas Odds and Ends

So I think I finally got my Christmas mojo back after our annual Cookie Swap this week. The girls all made their favorites: K made chocolate dipped macaroons, and her famous tri-color Italian cookies. P made yummy spritz and delectable chocolate chip,as well as her coconut macaroons. I made snowballs, peanut butter, and snickerdoodles. K was a wonderful hostess and it was a great way to begin Christmas week.

Most of my cookies are bagged or boxed and ready to be handed out as treats to some neighbors, etc. I still have a little baking magic left in me and plan on making some more chocolate chip cookies and a childhood favorite of my husband's: kipfels. I get such a cookie-baking sickness at this time of year. I don't know what it is, but I have this insane compulsion to BAKE, BAKE, BAKE. And the more variety the better.

Besides cookies, I've made some other little food items to give as gifts. Hope this Country Soup warms the gift recipient. The ingredients look pretty all layered together too.

I also made some "Mommy and Me" cookies for K and my sister-in-law. I know their children are into baking right now; this could be a good activity if it's snowy or rainy and the kids can't go outside to play. Although, um, it might be more of an activity for the mommies than the kids. Sorry, Moms!

Well, it's pretty enough to use as a decoration if they don't want to make the cookies.

This idea is from Bakerella. These are her Cowboy Cookies. I loved the idea so much when I first saw it. And guess what? So did K. She also reads Bakerella's blog, and she made me a gift jar for Christmas too! Very funny. Great minds think alike. It is such a cute idea; I guarantee there are thousands of these jars floating around this year!

My final Christmas treat is Snowman Poop. I saw the idea on the web a couple months ago and knew I had to make them for gift toppers--I am really immature. Last year I crocheted pretty snowflakes for gift toppers. This year? Poop. Unfortunately my printer ran out of blue ink, but here's how the label was supposed to look:

And on that scatological note, I hope you have a very merry Christmas!

The Mister and I Cook Up Some Fun: Kitchen Date- October

BC (before Little C), my husband and I were always out and about heading to the movies, dinners, or travelling. We also dated for six years before we got married and during that time we probably had
hundreds and hundreds of dates. We must have been subconsciously filling our date quota for the future, b/c since the little man showed up, we rarely go on dates anymore.

This can be hard for me and for other parents of young children in a similar boat, but it does have some benefits.: 1.) When we do get the opportunity to go out alone, we always have a great time. Before, we went out so much that we took it for granted, and it wasn't always as fun as it could have been. 2.) It forces you to find other ways to have "date"-type fun at home.

A couple months ago my husband randomly brought up the idea that we should bake something together. I love cooking, baking, oh, and definitely eating! And I thought it was really sweet that he wanted to do something that was clearly more in line with my hobbies than his.

We made a really simple recipe (on the back of the canned apple pie filling) for Caramel Apple Cheesecake . It was really delicious; the cheesecake was light and creamy and the sugary caramel-apple filling added the perfect amount of gooey sweetness. After sampling it to make sure it wasn't poisonous, we wound up bringing most of it to a family dinner for dessert.

Even if it tasted rotten though, the whole baking experience was so much fun. It felt like the perfect date (even though the Little Man was napping upstairs and my husband and I were only in our kitchen and not at a trendy restaurant eating a gourmet meal). Some parts of it were even like scenes out of a romantic comedy: there was witty banter, lots of laughing, and there even might have been some dancing in the kitchen with a few kisses here and there. I know, gag me, but it's true.

So with the success of our first Kitchen Date, I knew we had to try to make this a bit of a tradition. Obama and Michelle might make date night a monthly priority, but even though we're not running the country, my husband and I will be lucky if we get a chance to do this every few months or so. We just don't seem to have the time to do it with more frequency.

Anyway, I figured a quick and easy Kitchen Date idea would be to combine my husband's enthusiasm for rice krispie treats with my love of Halloween. I thought back to when I was a kid trick-or-treating at a childhood friend's house. There was one woman in her neighborhood who always made popcorn balls. As a kid I had ambivalent feelings about these treats. When it was early in the evening they couldn't compete with the alluring peanut butter cups and and crunchy butterfingers, but after noshing on such sweet candies for awhile the popcorn balls beckoned attractively to us--almost offering us the palate cleansing promise of a real food as opposed to a sugar and corn syrup concoction.

These modern day popcorn balls are made from real air popped popcorn with a hefty dose of M&M's and salted, mixed nuts thrown in. They're held together with the same butter and marshmallow mixture used for rice krispie treats. The recipe can be found here.

I wouldn't go as far as to call them healthy, but compared to peanut butter cups and butterfingers, these sweet treats contain healthy fats, fiber, and protein. Just the right touch of healthiness on Halloween night.

If, of course, they make it to Halloween night. In lieu of dancing during this kitchen date, my husband and I kept shoving these in our mouths instead. Hey, we had to make sure they were safe to eat!

Jalapeno Hell

Today's Public Service Announcement is brought to you by The Learning Things the Hard Way Corporation:

For the past couple weeks, I've been wanting to make a savory dish using Mango, which is currently in season. I was thinking about a chicken entree utilizing mango in some way. I started collecting recipes long before I ever started cooking. I remembered an early recipe for Mango Salsa that I had hand-written in my first cookbook binder. (I don't know the original source for this recipe, however I did a web search and it seems to be from here.)

It seemed perfect. I scanned the ingredient list:

Mango
Red bell pepper
Basil
Red wine vinegar
Lime juice
Sugar
Jalapeno pepper (optional)

I remember looking at the word "optional" when reading. For a split second I considered not using the jalapeno, then I thought, "Nah, I've been liking hot things more as I get older. Plus, I'm a real tough broad and I can handle it."

When I was cutting the infamous jalapeno--uh, sans gloves--I felt pretty brave, thinking only of how the hot pepper would taste. I didn't realize that I would actually be able to feel its heat before the darn thing even got to my mouth. For maybe 1 second I had a mental flash of my mother warning me once to never touch the seeds of a pepper and to use gloves/ utensils when handling one. Then, in the next instant, I told myself that my mother was talking about a scotch bonnet pepper and not a jalapeno. I chortled ignorantly to myself and continued touching that OPTIONAL jalapeno, blissfully unaware of the agony I would feel in the next half hour or so.

It was soon after I had assembled my salsa and refrigerated it for my coveted chicken dinner, that I felt a tingling, burning sensation under my nails. Hmmm. Did I have a splinter under there? Impossible. How could I have splinters under all my nails? Then the tips of my fingers started to burn too. Was it from using cleaning products earlier in the day? No, I didn't use anything I haven't used a million times before. Slowly it began to dawn on me...it was that demonic pepper!

I searched the Web for trusted internet remedies and found a host of people on a website who are as dumb as I am. I'm just grateful that it was only one pepper that I touched. (One person chopped up 40 of them for canning--gloveless. I think she had to go to the hospital for her burns). And I'm also glad that I didn't touch my face, eyes, nose, etc. like a lot of my other fellow dopes.

This recipe is pretty good but it's not exactly worth third-degree burns.

So, here is my advice: 1. Always wear gloves when handling a Jalapeno. 2. Always listen to your mother and when in doubt, call her for clarification. 3. Making a Baking Soda Paste with water seems to provide the most relief for a Jalapeno burn, not that I know from experience or anything...

Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue

My neighbors are prepping their house for their at-home wedding in a couple weeks; I must have weddings on the brain. This week it seems like I've been subconsciously adhering to the wedding tradition of something old, new, borrowed, and blue.

I decided I wanted to make a baby hat for P. because her NEW son was born just a couple weeks ago and I can't wait to meet him in person.

Here is an OLD pattern for a BLUE baby hat for Baby M.

The yarn is so incredibly soft, like the softest terry cloth you've ever felt. It has an interesting texture to it. I received a skein of it as a gift at christmas time and I've been waiting for somebody to have a boy so I could make a hat out of it. The hat is for next year. It runs large, so hopefully Baby M will have a big head too like Little C., my husband, and me.

I also decided to try my hand at baking something NEW this week because my OLD college friend is coming to visit K's newest baby and we needed something sweet to munch on. I decided to BORROW this recipe for blondies (or congo bars) from Bakerella.

I had a taste yesterday and they are real diet-killers, let me tell you.

On my actual wedding day, by the way, I did adhere to this wedding tradition (I'm sure most brides do). The old and borrowed was my mother's earrings, the new was the dress/ shoes, and the blue was underwear. I was thinking of wearing a blue garter, however, it was about 99 degrees in July and I can only imagine having had to fuss with a sweaty, itchy garter constantly digging into my leg. Maybe that would've made for some interesting pictures though?

Girls Night: February

It was my turn to host Girls/ Boys Night last Friday. It was great seeing everyone especially since I haven't felt like getting out much because of the snow. K. was 9 months pregnant (she's at the hospital in labor right now, actually! I can't wait to meet the new little one!), so it was especially nice that she ventured out.

I've been craving Spinach-Artichoke Dip so I randomly used this recipe. I really liked it and would definitely make it again. And I've been in the mood for Monkey Bread ever since I had my sister-in-law's a month ago in South Jersey. I used this recipe. I always put white frosting in the center of the "bread" because the million cups of sugar already in the recipe are obviously not enough for me. K. and P. brought goodies as well. I think I ate myself into a food coma.

I decided on a practical craft that I found here. It seemed pretty easy: save tin cans with lids from the recycling bin and cover them in decorative paper. Kids always seem to have a ton of junk, like broken crayons, markers, little toys, etc. These tins are easy storage.

It's also a great way to recycle if you are trying to be more green.

Baby C. likes to roll his empty containers around on the floor. Here's another tip for new parents: don't buy your child any toys; just give them trash to play with. Baby C. can have the nicest toy in the world sitting right in front of him, but he will inevitably want to play with an empty box of spaghetti or toilet paper roll. Why is this? If he had his way he would beeline for the trashcan, knock it over, and then spend an hour or two happily sifting through the garbage. Nice. Maybe he'll go into Maintenance when he's older? He also likes putting his hands in my mouth and picking away at my teeth/ gums. So, he may gravitate toward dentistry instead. Who knows?

We will be taking a short hiatus from Girls Night since K. will have her hands full with her little newborn. P. is also expecting in the spring, so we will probably not meet regularly for a little while.

Girls Night: December

I've been meaning to post about the aforementioned Cookie Swap and wanted to make sure I did before December ends.

The week before Christmas P. hosted at her house and the husbands wound up coming along too; We separated from the boys, leaving the babysitting duties to them, to perform the swap, and to eat/ drink, gossip.

P. supplied these adorable gift boxes for the cookies. K. made a delicious hazlenut cookie with Nutella (!) and her beautiful tri-color italian cookies. P. made yummy chocolate chip and butter cookies. I made peanut butter, a small batch of plain sugar cookies, and snickerdoodles.

The cookies tasted divine, and really, what can beat homemade cookies? Well, P. brought out an indoor S'mores set, and we all set to work roasting our marshmallows at the dining room table. I couldn't decide which tasted better--fresh cookies or hot, gooey s'mores. It was so much fun! (Although I set my marshmallow on fire about 5 times.)

It was kind of nice to have the boys in the vicinity. K. threw out the idea of maybe scheduling another Girls Night at a time when the boys could get together with each other for a couple beers while we crafted. We'll see if  that works out. We might have to change our name to Girls/Boys Night or Craft/Beer Night. Maybe the boys could join us in our crafting. Is there a craft that involves drinking beer? I'll have to do some research.

It was a great night. The only negative was that there was a snow storm about 24 hours later. So, I was snowed in with about 6 dozen cookies. I emerged from the house a couple days later. We lost a few dozen cookies, but gained several pounds. They were really good cookies, though, so it was worth it!

Presto Pesto

I waited until almost the last possible moment, but I finally "harvested" my basil plant. It was the best plant I had in the past 4 years and I'm sorry to see it go--sniff, sniff. But I couldn't wait to make pesto!

This recipe comes my way from my mom who in turn received it from her boss. It is so good--buttery, garlicky, basil-ly...everything I want in a pesto.

I had enough basil leaves to make a few batches to throw in the freezer. I can not wait until the cold, wintry weather; I'll pull out this pesto and instantly smell the brightness and warmth of summer!

Ingredients:

1/2 cup pine nuts (roast them in a pan until fragrant)

handful of spinach leaves

1/4 cup fresh basil

2 tsp minced garlic

1/2 cup Parmesan cheese (can use a mixture of Parmesan and Romano)

6 tablespoons softened butter

1/2 cup olive oil

1/4 tsp salt

pinch of pepper

1. Throw everything in a food processor and blend. (I use a handheld emulsion blender)

2. Smell the pesto goodness in your kitchen .

3. Enjoy on pasta of your choice with family or friends!