Holiday Baking: Eggnog Crumb Cake

 

First, we need to get some formalities out of the way: namely, I almost never bake from a mix!  I've evolved to be a snotty brat that way.  After we got married, I started discovering how to cook and bake, and the first time I made an actual cake from scratch, I was shocked.  It tasted NOTHING like the boxed cakes I had previously made up to that point.  It tasted so much richer, so much more simple and basic but at the same time more complex.  I also decided that, if I'm going to go through the hassle of busting out my mixer, cracking eggs and adding dry ingredients to wet ingredients, I might as well go the whole nine yards and make everything from scratch.  At that point, it's already a project, so it makes more sense to use pantry items instead of a pre-packaged mix.

All that being said, I've come to find that Trader Joe's Baking Mixes are essentially like the real thing.  They save time during the holidays, but they also require the use and addition of real ingredients like butter (instead of oil or shortening) and milk (instead of water) to keep the cake tasting completely homemade.  I've been happy with their brownie and blondie mixes, and I am thrilled with their Cinnamon Crumb Cake, pictured above.

After making it once, I decided to switch things up for the holidays and add eggnog to the base of the cake.  The recipe calls for milk, so I made a quick substitution.  Since eggnog is so thick, I still added 1/3 cup of milk to the batter until it reached a good consistency (as for any cake.)  The finished product was delightful!  The eggnog wasn't overpowering, but at the same time it had a strong presence in the cake.  It went along beautifully with the cinnamon crumb top.  This cake was perfect for a holiday weekend morning with a cup of coffee.  I need to go back to Trader Joe's and stock up on some more to make for this weekend and maybe next weekend!

I'm going to remind myself of this tip next year, to substitute eggnog in baking products for the holidays.  It's an easy way to put a holiday flourish on an everyday treat!

Handmade Holidays: Trees!

These fabric trees are so cute and so fun!  My sister-in-law has the pattern and made herself a very pretty one.  She very graciously offered to make me a couple.  What I like about these is they are so customizable...  You can use one fabric for the whole thing, or two coordinating prints.

This first one uses a traditional holiday fabric, and it utilizes the leftover yardage from one of the fabric wreaths I made.

The second one has glittery blue and grey/silver fabric, and I picked them because they're non-traditional Christmas colors; really more like winter colors.  I'm thrilled with how they turned out!  Thanks, Stacy!

Christmas Cats Behaving Badly

So, we've only been cat owners for a couple of years.  We adopted our first cat, Seamus, the day after Christmas in 2010.  Even though he was only 4 months old, he deftly figured out ways to attempt to destroy our Christmas tree!  We usually take it down after the New Year, but we took it up a couple days after having him that first Christmas.

Cats are so curious by nature, and they're so agile....a Christmas tree is basically their version of Christmas Morning.  They jump it, scale it, bat at ornaments, bite the branches.  Last year we decided not even to put up our tree because we were so mentally exhausted trying to think of ways to prevent them from being absolutely ludicrous.

This Christmas, we decided to put the tree in our bedroom and keep the door shut at all times.  I actually love this compromise.  While we don't have the lit tree in our living room, we have all of our other decorations out there to make it seem festive all the same.  And having it in the bedroom is so unbelievably cozy.  At night, Mr. My Blog for Bonnie and I have it lit while we read before bed.  On weekend mornings, we've turned it on first thing in the morning while relaxing for a few minutes before starting the day.

Of course, the cats got wind of the fact that it's in there, and occasionally they'll barge their way into the room when our arms are full of laundry or we're unsuspectingly exiting the room in the very early mornings before work.    We let them have their fun and explore the tree...I have to say, taking these photos was an exercise in hilarity!

I love this one...I took it minutes after hanging the stockings.  They're totally contemplating all the trouble they can get into!

Handmade Holidays: Wreaths

Earlier in the fall, I decided that my Christmas wreath needed to be replaced.  Actually, I threw it away last January as the decorations came down and the bone-chilling cold started to set in.  I was given the wreath as a Housewarming present back in 2003, and while it was a gorgeous wreath, the years of constantly being hung up, taken down, and stored took their toll.  Instead of being circular, the wreath was decidedly oval-shaped.

I started looking to Pinterest for some ideas.  What I really wanted to do was make one of those new ornament bulb wreaths that seem to be taking over people's boards.  However, after reading some tutorials, I discovered that the people who made them were having issues:  the wreaths would fall, shattering the ornaments, or the hot glue wouldn't be enough of a bonding agent to adhere them to the base and they'd start slipping away one by one.  Ack!  I'm not much of a crafter, and I need some fool-proof ideas and designs.

I came across a couple of posts about fabric-covered wreaths.  This sounded perfect for me!  One day in October, I went to the fabric store and selected two Christmas prints.  I picked 2 because I couldn't narrow the choice down to just one.  I also selected two small foam wreath bases for about $4 each.  I then went to the Holiday decorations section and selected some "pickings" to glue on top of the finished wreaths.

This project was perfect for me because it really didn't require any precision.  I cut the fabric into free-form strips with my sewing scissors.  Then, I wrapped each strip around the wreath and secured them into the back with my sewing pins.  The wreath was covered in about 10 minutes and then I hot-glued the decorations on top.

I have one wreath on our outside door and the other above our TV in the living room.  They're small, but cute.  And I was able to use the leftover fabric from the wreath on our door for another decoration: a stuffed fabric tree that my sister-in-law graciously made for me! (post on those to come soon!)

Don't Underestimate the Goodness of This Cheeseball

 

Thanksgiving week has drawn to a close.  For many of us, we won't be seeing some of the food we indulged in until next Thanksgiving:  so much of what we eat for that holiday is specific just to that particular Thursday in November.

However, some of it can transition over to December and join us for all of our Christmas and New Year's festivities.  This cheeseball recipe is one of them.  I plan on making it at least once more in December to bring to a party or to an event.

I made this for Thanksgiving and it was a true hit.  How do I know?  Well, our family Thanksgiving is a food fiesta if ever there was one.  We have family come in from New York and Massachusetts and it's our one "big holiday" all year because it's the only holiday we do with extended family.  In our family, Thanksgiving is bigger than Christmas, and we treat it as such.  We double and triple our recipes to make sure plenty of leftovers exist for the entire weekend.  After eating at 1 or 2, we gather in the living room, take naps, catch up on gossip, watch football, have coffee and beer, and then we take all the food out of the fridge again around 6 or 7.  After eating again, we play games.  As we were taking all of the leftovers out for Round 2 of our Thanksgiving feast, several people asked if there was any more of this cheeseball leftover.  For a lowly cheeseball to be referenced among the many Thanksgiving sides and main dishes, you know it was popular.  In fact, I have yet to meet someone who doesn't like it.

I made this cheeseball years ago, in the early 2000's when I saw Paula Deen appear on an episode of Oprah and whip it up for the audience.  For whatever reason, it entered the rotation and I didn't bring it out again until this year.  I'm glad I resurrected it, because it is ridiculously easy to make and it makes 2 giant cheeseballs.  

Here's the original recipe:  Fisher Nutty Bacon Cheeseball.  Here's how I adapted it; mainly, I doubled the amount of cream cheese to make 2 balls instead of 1, I use walnuts instead of pecans and I only roll the ball in walnuts, not walnuts and bacon (I found that the bacon would constantly fall off the cheeseball...instead I just add all of the bacon to the mixture since it gets divided among 2 separate cheeseballs.)

Ingredients:

2, 8 ounce packages of cream cheese, very softened

2 cups sharp cheddar cheese, shredded

1/2 cup milk

1/4 cup crumbled blue cheese (I usually add a bit more, here)

1 jar pimiento, drained

1/4 cup minced green onions

3/4 cup walnuts or pecans, chopped and divided

10 slices bacon, cooked, drained and finely chopped

Directions:

Place softened cream cheese in a large bowl and mix on medium speed for a couple of minutes.  Add milk and mix again.  Add remaining ingredients, including half of the nuts and mix again until well incorporated.

Divide mixture into two.  Turn out onto plastic wrap or non-stick foil and shape into 2 separate balls.  Wrap the balls and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.  After 2 hours, unwrap and roll each ball in the remaining chopped walnuts or pecans.  

Serve with crackers.

Enjoy!

Read more: http://www.oprah.com/food/Fisher-Nutty-Bacon-Cheese-Ball#ixzz2DFHn3Smt

1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese , softened

1/2 cup milk

2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese

1/4 cup (1 ounce) blue cheese , crumbled

1/4 cup finely minced green onions (white part only)

1 jar diced pimento , drained

3/4 cup Fisher pecans , divided (Of course, any nut will do!)

10 slices bacon , cooked, drained, finely crumbled and divided

Salt and pepper

1/4 cup minced parsley

1 tablespoon poppy seeds

Read more: http://www.oprah.com/food/Fisher-Nutty-Bacon-Cheese-Ball#ixzz2DFHn3Smt

  

Handmade Holidays: Sock Snowmen!

 

Why hello there, little buddies!

Aren't these snowmen absolutely darling?  Would you believe me if I told you they're made of socks and rice?  They are!  And they're some of my new favorite Christmas/Winter decorations!

I'm going to try to highlight some of my handmade Christmas decorations on the blog for the upcoming weeks.  I'm blessed to have an extremely talented mother-in-law and sister-in-law who have made things for me over the years, plus I recently discovered a craftiness gene that had previously been dormant all my life.  I've made a couple things too, which I will talk about on here.

Mr. My Blog for Bonnie and I have lived in our condo for 10 years next summer.  Let me say that again....TEN YEARS.  I don't know how that's possible, since clearly I am only in my early 20s right now.  Ha!  Time certainly flies, and while you don't always realize it, you start to see it in small ways.  One itsy bitsy way I discovered that a lot of time had passed was by looking at my Christmas decorations from last year.  To be brief:  they had seen better days.  My wreath was kind of mashed and mangled into more of an oval shape than a circle; some of my table runners and random decorations were a little shabby looking.  I decided this year to bring some new things out, some things that represent where I am now that I'm in my early 30s as opposed to my early 20s when we bought this place.  Namely: some handmade items.  Handmade has become a true love of mine.  When I was 22, it would pretty much have taken a true Christmas Miracle for me to walk into a craft store and buy the materials needed to make a wreath, or a quilt, or anything.  I would much rather have bought the items pre-made in a place like Target or Walmart.  Fast forward to 9 years later: when I realized I needed new wreath, I happily went on Columbus Day weekend to buy the materials.  I really liked two fabrics so much that I ended up buying 2 styrofoam wreath bases so I could make two instead of having to choose for just one!  Times, my friends, have changed.    

This Sock Snowman idea originally comes from the blog Then She Made.  But really, it comes to me via my sister-in-law.  She found the idea on Pinterest, where it had somehow eluded me even though I pin on there an embarrassing amount of time.  She showed me her finished snowmen and was gracious enough to provide me with 2 extra tube socks she had leftover from her project.  When I furiously texted her "Where do I buy twine for this thing?" her husband very sweetly bought me some from Home Depot, accurately realizing that me strolling through a giant store like that searching for a tiny ball of twine would be like the start of any sprawling Greek tragedy:  the scope and horror of the drama would appall everyone. 

I had so much fun making these little guys.  They are so easy and I think they're absolutely adorable!  Click on the link for my sister-in-law to go to her blog post on the Snowmen, where you'll be directed to the post that gives step-by-step details on how to create these.  Check out some additional shots below!

 

Too cute!  I added a little Bokeh to this shot to make it look like snow was falling on my cute little snowmen.  I'm bizarre like that.

 

Here's Rupert curiously checking them out just after I finished hot gluing their little hats on.  

It's Black Friday, so many people, myself included, will start decorating their homes for Christmas soon.  Enjoy the start of the season!

It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas

Today is a beautiful fall day, the type we don't usually see as much of in November as we do in October.  The temperature is a gorgeous 63 and the sun is shining.  Given all that, it makes it extra hard to believe that we're very quickly starting to stare Thanksgiving in the face.  That's right...my absolute favorite holiday is less than two weeks away!

Christmas is always encroaching its way into our lives as soon as Halloween is over, but once Thanksgiving winds down, forget it.  It's here, in its full-blown and festive manner.

So when I stopped over my mom and dad's house this morning so Mr. My Blog for Bonnie could help them with a computer issue (I believe this is the #1 duty of all sons-in-law, to help their in-laws with computer glitches) I was so thrilled to see my mom already had a Christmas decoration up.

Turns out she got this pre-lit decoration from a local Christmas craft fair about a weekend ago.  She liked it so much that she's left it plugged in on their brick fireplace ledge ever since.  Me being me, I recognized a chance to play around in Color Splash and took a photo.  Here it is!  Cue "Merry Christmas, Darling" by The Carpenters....

Baking for the Holidays: Cranberry Bliss Bars

It's November and I, for one, don't think it's too early to start baking for the holidays!  It helps that it's November in Ohio, which right now means it's super chilly, winter-coat-type weather.  With the time change this past weekend, it's now pitch black at 6 pm.  It seems like we're moving into winter at a very rapid pace.  Is Thanksgiving really only a little over 2 weeks away??  Pretty soon homes and neighborhoods will be alight with Christmas decorations, and Holiday music will be playing in stores and cars.  So, given all that, it isn't too early to be getting in the spirit, right?

I started out with a holiday baking recipe that's perfect for Thanksgiving, Christmas and even into January:  Cranberry Bliss Bars.  If you, like me, have ever popped into a Starbucks from November through Christmas, you've seen these bars in their bakery case.  Seeing them every year is almost more exciting to me than seeing the famous pumpkin spice latte each September.  I think it's because the Cranberry Bliss Bars are so festive looking...white frosting dotted with ruby red cranberries...  They just look like winter!  Better yet, they go great with a cup of coffee!

About a year ago, I joined Pinterest.  My sister-in-law invited me and this recipe was one of the first that I pinned and actually tested out.  We got new carpeting installed last Veteran's Day weekend, and I shut myself in our bedroom as the workers got down to business and went what can only be described as berserk on that site, pinning basically everything under the sun!  I think I made these bars the very next day.  I gave some to my parents, who loved them, and took them into work, where everyone enjoyed them also.  I'd say that from last November to January, I probably made these about 4 times.

This recipe comes from Recipe Girl and you can check out her recipe and method here.  I've done pretty much the same thing as the original recipe, with a couple of notable exceptions.  First, she calls for baking the bars in a 9x13 pan, which would replicate the thin-sized bars that Starbucks serves.  For whatever reason, I baked them for the first time in a 9x9x2 pan.  The pan, obviously, is slightly larger than an 8x8 but not as large as the 9x13.  I think this makes for the perfect thickness for the bars.  If you like them on the thin size, by all means go with the 9x13 pan.  Additionally, at the end she calls for melting some extra white chocolate to add to the frosting and drizzle on top of the finished frosting.  I omitted that because I realized that if I did, I'd have an extra 6 ounces of white chocolate, which translated into enough for another batch at some other point.  I don't miss the white chocolate at all: the bars are perfect without it!

I whipped them up this week with our fireplace blazing.  I also, for the first time, tuned into Pandora and listened to a Christmas station.  It was so much fun, and a great sample of what's to come in the very near future:  namely, lots of baking for others and for the season.  Only what's great about making these now is that I also don't have a laundry list full of other seasonal responsibilities hanging over my head:  shopping for gifts, wrapping gifts, decorating, making side dishes, dashing out to parties, etc.  It was so relaxing to bake these without any other holiday obligations looming!

I'm looking forward to making these at least a few more times in the next 8 or so weeks!