Merry Christmas Ya'll!

O ($9.97) Christmas tree

Sometimes it saves to procrastinate -- An 8 foot Frasier Fir marked down to $9.97! Decorated with the new Phillips retro-sized cracked ice lights, with every 5th light flickering...making picture taking fun!

Merry Christmas, Tinsel Tim!

The perfect gift for Secret Santa-giving and you have to keep it under $3. And it's a black ink pen, too! "Tinsel Tim" also comes in green and you'll find it at CVS.

Chewy Ginger Wedges (Trees!)

Credit L for this idea -- With sprinkles the wedges became decorated Christmas trees for the school bake sale today! This is one of our favorite recipes, which is from Pillsbury's Fast and Healthy magazine (May/June 1993). (And yes, that is last year's Costco wire ribbon...with gold trees!)

CHEWY GINGER WEDGES

1 cup brown sugar, packed

1/2 cup canola oil

1/4 cup molassess

1 egg white

2 cups flour

2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon cinnamon (Penzeys Ceylon for pow!)

1 teaspoon ginger

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon cloves

Heat oven to 375. Grease bottoms only of two 9" pie pans. In large bowl, combine brown sugar and oil. Beat 2 minutes or until well-blended. Add molassses and egg white. Beat an additional 2 minutes. Stir flour and all remaining ingredients into brown sugar mixture, blend well. Divide dough into 2 parts; press in bottom of greased pans. (Sprinkle with sprinkes/jimmies and press lightly into surface.) Press around edge with fork. Score each lightly into 16 wedges. Bake at 375 for 13-15 minutes or just until edges begin to brown and center is set. My oven I do 6/6 minutes, switching racks. Cool, cut into wedges.

Fudge socks

My husband makes about eleventy-billion varieties of fudge for Christmas gifts. And I make just as many bags, or as he calls them, "socks." Recognize the Costco ribbon? And that green fabric is circa 1986 (not carbon-dated, but old business card-dated!). The bags are approximately 7" x 11" -- easily socking a zip-loc of chocolate (dark, milk and white with peanut butter, almonds, walnuts, pecans, peppermint, Heath bits...) goodies. Thank goodness we finally packed them last night. Out of sight, out of mouth and tummy!

Free Christmas holiday music downloads from iTunes

I am really enjoying the free songs from iTunes. (Though I passed on Michael Bolton and you all know I did for the Carol of the Bells!) I just got "O Come O Come Emmanuel" by Carter's Chord, "It Came Upon A Midnight Clear" by Jaci Velasquez today, and "Sleigh Ride" by Los Straitjackets a few days ago. Nice to discover otherwise-never-heard-of artists and to jostle up the Winter Songs playlist.

If you aren't killing plants, you aren't really stretching yourself as a gardener!

I like that quote, too, Brenda Beust Smith! Click here for this week's Lazy Gardener column in the Houston Chronicle for a photo of the statue with this saying and other holiday gifts for gardeners.

Target Finds

"Uh, only you would see a package of Happy New Year necklaces and visualize them as tinsel decorations on a tree?!"






And I'm going to use these to sprinkle on top of the Rice Krispie bars for the upcoming (another!) bake sale. Aren't the tiny gingerbread people cute?

Land O Lake's Annual Warm Up the Holidays recipe brochure

...features butter of course, and chocolate! Go to http://www.landolakes.com/ for the brochure or to download the recipes. (These are the Chocolate Caramel Drizzle Bars)

I need a man!

Of ginger! People, everything is bigger in Texas...including the 2007 edition gingerbread man in Smithville. Home of "Hope Floats" and adorable real-life gingerbread bungalows. Sigh, T and L seriously fear I will chuck it all and move my sewing room to this burb. God bless the WWW, USPS, UPS and DISH-TV. I could do it! I'll even volunteer at the library for their "Little Bookworms" program when I'm not stitching and drinking myself silly. . .

I love Smithville, it has the closest 7-Eleven to Houston. While I am not a coffee nor Starbucks fan, I like my seasonal drinks (of the cappucino and latte type) from the machine and getting punched on my Cafe Combinations card (purchase 6 hot beverages, get the 7th free. 7-Eleven, you are so clever).

Remembering our soldiers during the holidays

Has your email inbox been flooded by well-meaning friends suggesting sending holiday cards and gifts to our soldiers at Walter Reed Hospital? Unfortunately, this will not work.

Click here for the back story and other alternatives to show our support.

SWAPS

Here's a small collection of L's Girl Scout SWAPS (Special Whatchamacallits Affectionately Pinned Somewhere) and a neat link to a collector's website. I thought the angels might be a fun project for a troop, crafting afternoon or Christmas gift tags. The center is a paperclip with a pony bead threaded through 1/4" ribbon. The angel pin is three pony beads, a 6-sided faceted bead, a wooden bead topped with a 1/2" sequin.

Oatmeal Pecan Cookie Mix

This is from the November/December issue of Simple & Delicious. Normally I don't post recipes from current issues, but Taste of Home's sister publication, Simple & Delicious is sometimes hard to find on the newsstands. But if you can find it or you already have it, the recipe is in their Express Lane section on page 11. If you don't feel like baking to gift, you can layer the ingredients in a 1 quart jar to give as a present!

Oatmeal cookies are a hard sell in our house. We tried the Everyday Food "Healthy Oatmeal Cookies" (Issue #45), and they bombed. But what intrigued me with this one was -- Rice Krispies and pecans! No chocolate chips, no spices to wonk the taste. I gave it a chance and it succeeded! I reduced the butter by one tablespoon without any noticeable difference. Next time I will increase the pecans to 3/4 cup - yum!

1 cup flour...1/2 cup sugar...1/2 teaspoon baking soda...1/2 teaspoon baking powder...1/2 cup packed brown sugar...3/4 cup old-fashioned oats (not quick oats)...1/2 cup chopped pecans...1 cup crisp rice cereal.

Additional ingredients: 1/2 cup butter, softened...1 egg...1 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a small bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking soda and baking powder. If you are gifting and not baking - in a 1 quart glass jar, layer the flour mixture, brown sugar, oats, pecans and rice cereal, packing well between each layer (it will look pretty!). Cover and store in a cool dry place for up to 6 months.

Include the prep instructions with your gift tag -

To prepare: In a large mixing bowl, cream butter until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla. Gradually add cookie mix. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls 2" apart on greased baking sheets. Bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes or until golden brown. Cool for 2 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks.
Yield: About 3 dozen
Source: Beverly Woodcock

Christmas Song I Can't Stand!

The Carol of the Bells! I don't know if it is because we had to sing various variations in choir, folk group or just overplaying. Merry, merry, merry, merry Christmas....merry, merry, merry, merry Christmas just makes me want to cover my ears and throw myself against the walls - make.it.stop! (Perhaps if I try to visualize these chocolate bells, it may help)

Now anything by Mannheim Steamroller, especially his first two CD's, and "Pat a Pan" from Christmas Live. LOVE. And all-time favorite religious carol - "Oh Holy Night" Just put these on repeat/shuffle along with Sarah McLachlan's "Song for a Winter's Night" and I'm all set. No bruises from wall-impacting and sanity still intact.

Fa, la, la, la, la - Finale!

"All these Hello Kitties are starting to creep me out, Mom!" So here's the last one -- the snowflakes were Target clearanced table confetti from a few years ago (there were also tiny red and green pom poms in the package. Original price $2.99, I paid 29 cents), the wreath is an earring from the current Target Dollar Spot and the chiffon petticoat is a sheer pink ribbon gathered and tacked underneath her dress.

"Jingle Belle"

Yes, those are itty-bitty jingle bells along the hem, alternating with gold sequins...click the photo for a larger view.

"Pearl"

Tat the Cat

Hello Kitty gets tatoo'd! My first Christmas 2007 HK found a new home yesterday, so I went to Target to get another. I lucked out and found the bracelets in purple, only one. And then on the other side of the display

I found twinklies - a sparkly 16" crystal necklace, which may turn into ornaments, embellishment or even purse handles....and tatoos - the press-on rhinestone kind. In shades of purple and pink (they also have green). Why sew when you can press?

Here's the purple version -- I used one of the bracelets again as the hanging loop, cut apart the flower to embellish her bow and put the snowflake design on her dress.

I used the two bottom tatoos for the pink version, the flower on the dress center, and split the second floral design into a bow decoration and created her own arm (paw?) tatoo. I threaded the charm from the earlier pink bracelet onto pink and red ribbons, keeping with the pink/red tatoo combination. (I like pink and red together, though some think it's just so wrong. But then, this is a Hello Kitty with a tatoo, and an attitude!)

Now this is cool - for hot stuff!

Glad Simple Cooking OvenWare - Bake, Serve, Store, Go! For $4.99; you get 2 red 9" x 12"and 1 green 8" x 8" pans, with lids! Perfect timing, perfect sizes. So much better - fun, sturdier and cheaper - than those disposable foil pans. I need to bring dessert for L's Thanksgiving school party on Tuesday and was fretting about the possibility of my good bakeware not finding its way back home.

More Hello Kitty at Target's Dollar Spot

I had to go to three Targets to find the pink version! Only $1 for the 4" tall kitty, along with the two bracelet/necklace combos to be repurposed for embellishing.

I used one of the bracelets for the hanging loop, heart beads on the bow and scarf, the faceted and seed beads on the hem and little hoop earrings. 15 minutes to Hello, Kitty!