Santa was here!

It is hard to believe Christmas 2021 has come and gone….actually twice at our house. Due to busy schedules our family gathered and celebrated Christmas on two different December weekends this year which was lots of fun. To help things run smoothly some advanced preparation was required so to keep things organized the family planner was full of lists, schedules, lots of notes and of course a few Doodles. 

All types and colors of pens and pencils are fun to draw with and so is chalk.

Our chalkboard needed updating after Thanksgiving so a Santa with a list in hand really summed things up. This Jolly Old St. Nick seemed to capture the planning and organization that was ahead for this Christmas and a good reminder to stay on task.

Of course there was a lot of baking and Santa Bread was back on the food list this year. In fact, there were two batches of cardamom Santa Bread. The first was for another Bake & Take dinner which we delivered just a few days before Christmas and the second one was made for the family Christmas Morning Brunch.

Depending on the size of the Santa there is usually enough cardamom bread dough to make a braid as well.

Lots of fun with Santas this year!

Happy Thursday!

Bake & Take :: Chicken dinner x's 2

Just popping in with a quick post about our latest Bake & Take meal that we delivered this week. Miss E was here and helped prepare and deliver this dinner which was lots of fun.

As is usually the case during the holidays, there was a lot going on in our kitchen including some serious baking. Cookies, candy and desserts were in progress while at the same time we worked on our special dinner to deliver. It was loads of fun and it all worked out. We walked the dinner over right on schedule and were back in no time to enjoy our duplicate dinner which was still hot. A fun day!

Happy Thursday!

MLS Cup 2021 :: stamped sugar cookies

Today is the Major League Soccer Cup and since the Portland Timbers are in the championship game our neighbors are having a viewing party. 

We wanted to take something to contribute to the snack table and thought stamped sugar cookies would be fun.

So cookies it was.

The hubs helped come up with messages that would fit the space on the cookies.

Once they were baked I added a little border of buttercream frosting to finish them up.  

The timing was perfect, as they were finished and ready to be delivered just before kick off. 

Go Timbers!

Savory Beginnings

Appetizers, hors d’oeuvres, snacks, or whatever name suits your fancy,  are a tradition and always a fun start to our holiday gatherings.  They might be simple, or sometimes extravagant, occasionally elegant, usually festive or all over the board but the key for us is to try not to over indulge before dinner is served, which is always a challenge. Much easier said than done.

For Thanksgiving this year we had a fun new addition to our traditional pre~Dinner snacks. Our youngest son and his friends offered to bring food and create a Charcuterie Board full of assorted meats, cheeses, nuts, crackers, breads and spreads. 

They all live out of state and decided to shop together for the all the food before they departed and then assemble the board once they arrived several hours later. They went right to work and had it arranged in no time. The kids had thought of everything and created such a beautiful board, or technically speaking…a platter, of appetizers that we could not resist taking photos of before we started snacking.

We really did not need many other snacks, or really any for that matter, however I could not hold back and made some Bacon Wrapped Dates which are so yummy and a family favorite. How could I resist?!

Rosemary Cashews and Pear chutney are a couple other crowd pleasers as well and both are easy to make ahead of time, which I did. There were no complaints. 

The beautiful Charcuterie Board was definitely the centerpiece of our pre~dinner fun though and a special beginning to our Thanksgiving Day.

Making memories one savory snack at a time!

Happy Tuesday!

Thanksgiving :: chalkboards

Blessings, 

Cookies, Pudding & Pumpkin Pie ... OH MY!

Thanksgiving dinner is always the traditional fare at our house consisting of turkey and stuffing with a side of dressing, potatoes and gravy, a variety of salads and of course cranberry sauce. As for dessert, there are always a couple of pumpkin pies and a few other sweet treats as well, and as tradition would have it, there were plenty of choices.

If pumpkin pie was not your thing or you needed a chocolate fix these Chocolate espresso acorn cookies were just the ticket. The recipe was one that I clipped from the newspaper years ago and is definitely a keeper. The cookie dough is rolled by hand into acorn shapes, baked and then dipped in white chocolate and topped with a mini chocolate chip. So easy and absolutely delectable.

The gingersnap cookie cups filled with pumpkin mousse and sprinkled with English toffee bits were easy to make and so good that it was hard to stop at just one. 

Our dessert menu included some gluten~free options as well. These GF Pumpkin Cupcakes turned out great and tasted wonderful. I topped half with butter cream frosting and for a diary free version I made coconut milk frosting. It was my first attempt with coconut milk and I was amazed at the flavor and how easy it was to make. A great dairy~free alternative. The cupcakes were frosted Thanksgiving morning and since things were so busy they were gone before any pictures were taken so, you never know, you may see the frosted version next fall.

Ginger Cardamom Pumpkin Pudding has graced our Thanksgiving feast before.

It is so wonderful that I decided to add it to the menu again this year. This dessert also happens to be gluten~free which is a nice option for everyone.

Since Christmas is right around the corner I could not resist decorating some of the Gingerbread Cookie Cups with festive gingerbread men sprinkles to serve after Thanksgiving.

A sweet transition into Christmas.

So there you have it, sweet endings to a wonderful Thanksgiving day.

Thankful, Grateful, Blessed!

Home Sweet Home ~ DIY card

We have another first time home owner in the family which means another homemade card.

It is fun to make cards for the kids to mark such a big event. This one is similar to the one I made for our niece and her husband.

This time though, I perforated the edge instead of stitching it on the sewing machine and added shading to the edges instead of outlining. The grass, clouds, heart and sun were all sketched first and then hand cut. Once the sun was cut it was put through a roller to give it the wavy texture. The geometric shapes were also custom cut to fit the card.

New house cards are a fun reminder that 

There is no place like HOME!

Happy Thursday!

A MOO ~ velous :: Construction Site :: Surprise Birthday Party!

It is always fun to plan a birthday party, especially a surprise party, which is exactly what Mr. Wonderful and I did. What made it extra special is we set it up early one Saturday morning at our kids new house which is going through a complete DIY makeover. This required a bit of thinking outside the box as they have not moved in yet so of course there is no furniture.  In addition, the kitchen plus one bathroom were both temporarily out of service. And, on top of that, we had also removed all of the flooring in the entire house as well as some walls so our options for set up were very limited. However, there was one small area where we had just finished the floor and painted a wall which was the perfect, and only, little spot for our surprise party. 

The baking and prep was all done at home the night before and then packed up and delivered the next morning. 

During one of our Home Improvement work days she had asked me about Carrot Cake and mentioned she had never tried it. As soon as she said that the MOO ~ velous :: Construction Site :: Surprise Birthday Party idea was conceived. 

The birthday cake was a 6” double layer dirty frosted carrot spice cake.

It was frosted with a cinnamon butter cream frosting and then a homemade caramel to drip down the sides. YUM.

And then, just for fun, I also made a dozen carrot spice cake cupcakes. 

We had planned on bringing a folding table for our little party however when we arrived we discovered we had forgotten it. Bummer. Since the kitchen is out of service we had to come up with another idea for set up and with some quick thinking Mr. Wonderful grabbed a board and four large paint buckets and made a small table. It was perfect but a bit too short to sit at however,  it worked perfect as a serving table. The chalkboard suffered some smudges during transport however it could have been worse. Thankfully I was able to tidy it up with my fingers before they arrived since I had not packed any chalk. 

We also needed a card to go with her gift so while the cake was baking I made her a birthday card. Since she mentioned she liked cows I decided to use that as the theme. I sketched a cow template and played around with some wording using my stamps.

Once everything was cut and stamped it did not take long to assemble this fun birthday Cow Card. 

The Surprise Party was ready in the nick of time as they arrived shortly after we finished setting up. It was a fun surprise and a Moo ~ velous way to start the day at the construction site!

Happy Saturday!

LINDOR Chocolate Truffle Cupcakes sprinkled with English toffee bits

It doesn’t get much better than that! 

These were cupcakes that I made to take to a Mom’s Group dinner recently. My original plan was to sprinkle the tops of the frosted chocolate cupcakes with Heath English toffee bits but as they were baking I remembered I had some wonderful Lindt LINDOR Chocolate truffles and thought those might make great cupcake toppers instead.

It was hard to decide which topping I liked better so instead of choosing I went ahead and used them both.

Needless to say, it was the right choice. 

There were no leftover cupcakes to bring home so I would say they were a hit! Especially since there were only five of us at dinner. There are, however, a few more chocolate truffles to enjoy so it was a success all around. 

Happy Tuesday!