Just call me Mrs Claus

I love Christmas!

I mean I really love it!!  Like, get giddy when I think about it sort of love!

This year I especially love it.  Maybe it is my new surroundings or the fact that I have a wonderful family and friends that I just can’t wait to spend extra time with. Or maybe it is the fact that I am ULTRA prepared for it with all my presents beautifully wrapped and made, just waiting to be distributed.  I love being prepared. Just look at my pretty tree.

It has been for 2 weeks now and has so far survived Tanner.  He doesn’t even go for unwrapping the presents either.  He just picks them up and says how pretty they are, then puts them down (sometimes in different locations around the house).

I usually do a pretty good mix of homemade and store bought presents.  This year I feel I have really outdone myself.  I won’t give away ALL of my secrets because some of my friends and family who read this will be the lucky recipients of these presents but I did some pretty awesome homemade with LOVE gifts.

I got some freezer meal ideas from the Fabulessly Frugal website!  AWESOME!  I honestly felt like I had invented the wheel and wondered why I haven’t always done freezer meals.  A friend from high school also has a bunch of really great freezer meal recipes HERE on her blog that I just can’t wait to try now!  Of course I had to try some of the recipes out before gifting them.  Here is the Ham and Cheese Braid…DELICIOUS!!

 

I also made these little gems- Homemade Brownie mix in a Jar.  I think they are so cute!

 

Whether buying or making your presents, I hope your holiday preparations are going just as well!!

Merry 11 days till Christmas!!

Krumkake

Being the good Scandinavian girl I am, I decided to make Krumkake this year.  My Grandma Huesmann usually makes this but I decided to give a try for myself.  It is easy but time consuming.

As you can see, it is a very high tech and modern machine we use :)

 

We borrowed this iron from my mom’s friend Patty.  I might have to scour thrift stores and garage sales this year to find one of my own to use for next year.

Recipe:

3 eggs beaten

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup melted butter

1/2 cup flour

1 tsp vanilla

Combine beaten eggs and sugar; beat well.  Add melted butter, flour, and extract.  Cook as directed with krumkake iron.  (Basically it is like making a very thin, mini pancake.  Then you roll it up around the rolling cone-or in my case a turkey baster.)

Here is the finished product.  To eat fill with whipped cream and topped with a cherry or strawberry.  DELICIOUS!!!

Tanner thought the whipped cream was mmm mmm good :)

COMING IN DEC....12 Day of Christmas Cookies

What is this about you ask?? Well, I have been thinking about things to blog about and decided to take on a a Christmas project and blog about it. Every year, I usually host a cookie bake at my house, but since I am prepping my house to go on the market and don't technically live there right now, is seems logistically impossible to host a bake this year. Instead I will be doing my cookie baking and blogging about it. Starting Dec 1st is my 12 days of Christmas Cookies. These aren't going to be your Grandma's chocolate chips either. I am abandoning all that is comfortable and known to me in the world of baking (Classic peanut butter kiss, sugar cut-outs, and spritz) and making 12 days of cookies that I have never attempted to make before. Here's where you come in. I am taking suggestions for fabulous, fun, possibly daunting and time consuming cookies. Paul has already been scanning the cook books and giving me suggestions. (After I explained to him that brownies were NOT cookies, he grudgingly took the 3 types of brownies off the list) Please e-mail me @ heidi_lynnc@hotmail.com with any recipes you may want to see but never had the ambition or time to tackle yourself :) I will be making roughly 6 dozen of each cookie.

I will post the recipes and pictures of my final projects as they are produced. I will also be honest about the time and ease of the recipe so I can either encourage or warn other Christmas cookie bakers about it. Side note to family and friends- like what you see or not, you may just be getting a gift basket of these cookie creations. There is no way I am going to spend my Dec eating 72 dozen cookies :)

Cookie Making Today!!

So this afternoon my friends and family are coming over for our annual cookie bake!! I provide all the cookie basics (flour sugar, etc.) and they bring the extras for a cookie of their choice. Then we bake away until we have piles and piles of delicious treats to share with everyone!! I can't wait to see what we make this year :) The picture is the cookie I am going to attempt to make called a Caramel Macchiato Thumbprint. I'll post the recipe and pictures of my finish product after today :)