Blessings

From our house to yours...

Wishing you the merriest of Christmas'!  May your stockings be filled with all that you wish for!

Family Traditions...

Rollin' in the Dough!

Gee...would'nt that be nice if we really were rollin' in the dough?  As in raking in the big bucks...just stacks and stacks of cash as far as the eyes could see.  I know money doesn't necessary "buy" happiness but is sure could help to make life a little more happier.  I'm just sayin' is all.   I mean how unhappy could one be with the ability to purchase that brand new (to me), completely re-furbished 1967 Chevrolette Convertible Corvette in Candy Apple Red?   Seriously now...if I could drive one of those every day with the top down and my hair blowing in the wind I'd find it pretty hard to NOT have a smile on my face.

But that is a whole other kind of dough than the one I'm talking about today.  Today, I shall share my grandmothers famous Tea Cake Cookie recipe.  My mom and I make these every year at Christmas Time.  They are seriously addictive...not to sweet but JUST right.  I love to eat them with a tall glass of ice cold milk...or a hot cup of coffee...or tea...or because I saw them sitting there and my hand just gravitated towards them.  It doesn't matter if I just ate a 9 course meal.  If I see these, I MUST eat six one.

Don't they just becon to you?  You know that they do.  You wanna just reach in and grab one doncha?  It's ok.  I won't laugh if you tried to pull it off the screen.  I wish this screen had a scratch-n-sniff application for you to upload.  Just imagine the smell of the most divine sugar cookie-esque smell EVER and then double that.  YUM! 

This year, we deciced to let all the grandkids (my nieces, nephews and boys) make and decorate the cookies.  This was a test of wills for me as I am a obsessive freak bit obsessive with making perfect cookies.  But I do believe that they pulled off some pretty awesome master pieces if I do say so myself (and I do say so!).

It starts like this...

Measure out all your ingredients...like DUH!

Mix it all up in your candy apple red Kitchen Aid mixer (ooh la laaaa).

This step is the most important of all...sample your batter.  I mean, you HAVE to make sure it tastes good after all before you turn it into cookies.  Geesh!

Then roll out the dough to 1/4" thickness. 

Then you grab all the little hands you have to start cutting out the dough into fun Christmas Shapes.

After the shapes are cut out and on cookie sheets, put them in the oven to bake for 12ish minutes (or until they are a light golden brown).  If you were smart you'd take a picture of this step for people to see what they are suppossed to look like...but I did not experience one of those smart moments.  I will blame it on the chaos involved with having seven children helping in the kitchen.  That's my story and I'm STICKING TO IT!

While they are baking whip up a batch of the tea cake cookie icing...make it any color you wish...then let the little ones go to town decorating them.  With any luck, they will look like this when the are all finished.

Santa would be so proud to see those waiting for him Christmas Morning with an ice cold glass of milk, don't you agree?  HECK Yeah he would!  Now go get your rolling pin out and start Rollin' in the Dough!

Do you have a special cookie recipe that you love to bake during the holidays?  If so, I'd love to hear about it!

Tea Cake Cookies:

1 cup crisco or butter

1 1/2 cups sugar

4 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

4 1/2 cups flour

2 tablespoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon butter flavoring (optional)

Oven 350 degrees

Cream shortening and sugar together.  Add eggs and vanilla - mix well. 

Combine dry ingredients in separate bowl.

Add dry ingredients and mix well.

Roll dough on floured surface 1/4" thick, use cookie cutters to cut shapes

Bake on ungreased cookie sheet for 12 minutes or until light golden brown. 

Tea Cake Icing:

1/2 stick butter

2 cups powdered sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

4 tablespoons milk

Use whisk attachment and beat the butter and powdered sugar until smooth and well blended.

Add vanilla.  Add milk one tablespoon at a time until desired consistency.

Linking up to the following parties...

The Girl Creative

Skip to My Lou

Craft O Maniac

Chic on a Shoestring Decorating

Fingerprints on the Fridge

Shabby Nest

Whipperberry

Mixing it up...

Family Style!

We have a tradition in my family at Christmas Time.  Well, I call it a tradition but its more like an ADDICTION!  You see, my mom has this problem.  She believes that every room in her house MUST have a Christmas Tree...and each tree has to have it's own "theme" if you will.  And because she has so many grandkids (seven, but whose counting...) she feels that they too deserve to have a tree at her house.  I mean why not, Right? 

So every year we get all the grandkids together at "The Meme's" house to decorate the kids tree.  This year I decided to mix it up a bit and incorporate some baking into the chaos fun.  And since all kids like anything on a stick I thought that cake pops would be a good messy choice. 

Its starts off easy enough with a simple sheet cake...

Nothing fancy...just a plain white cake of your choosing.  Then the fun begins...just dive right in and crumble it on up with your hands. 

My hands look a little like birds feet to me (on the right there)....I'm just saying.

Once its all crumbled up dump it in a bowl and mix in some of your favorite icing.  This can be homemade or straight from a can.  I choose the can option.

Yummmm...



Mix it up till all the crumbs hold together and its kinda sticky....fun!  Have I ever mentioned that I can't stand sticky fingers?  I seriously can not...it's almost like a phobia.  I hate it just about as much as I hate handling raw chicken.  EWWWW!  Just the thought of it grosses me out!  In light of this phobia of mine, the following was a true labor of love for me - Rolling the stuff into balls...(insert body wiggle here a.k.a the willies dance).

Just looking at this photo gives me the willies...

Macey seemed to like getting her hands all dirty and sticky though :)



I put this in cuz I love Macey peeking in...I didn't even know she was there :)



After you get all your little cake balls rolled, poke holes into them using your lolipop stick then pop them into the freezer for about an hour so they get firm.  Once they are firm melt some chocolate.  I forgot to take a picture of what I used but it was Wilsons White Chocolate Peppermint discs and Wilsons Milk Chocolate discs.  Both were purchased at Hobby Lobby.

I love the little flecks of the peppermint...not to mention the taste of it.  Anything with peppermint in it is a hit in my recipe book!  YUM-MERS!

First dip the tip of your stick into some chocolate and place it into the hole you made earlier.  And let the dipping begin! 



Bust out every Christmas colored sprinkle you can find...cuz you can NEVER have too many sprinkles!



And shake shake SHAKE it on bay-BEE!

And get all the help you can get doing it!

Then show off your awesome work...

Ain't it pur-dy?  Don't be jealous...you can make some too!  It's easy breezy lemon-squeezy!

So what family traditions does your family participate in every year?  Did you start anything new this year?

Linking this up to the following parties...PARTY ON!

Finding Fabulous

Chic on a Shoestring Decorating

Fingerprints on the Fridge

Shabby Nest

Whipperberry

And the stockings were all hung...

In hopes that St. Nick soon will be here!

19 days and counting!  Christmas is ALMOST here!  Are you as excited as I am? 

I'm not going to bore you with alot of words today.  Just a few photos to peruse...

I love the cozy feeling of sitting in front of a roaring fire with Christmas Stockings hung and toasting marshmellows with my men.  It really brings the joy of the season "home" for me!

You can find this partying in the following places...

Savvy Southern Style

Blue Cricket Design

Someday Crafts

Finding Fabulous

Chic on a Shoestring Decorating

Fingerprints on the Fridge

Shabby Nest

Whipperberry

Decking the Halls - Part 3

O' Christmas Tree O' Christmas Tree...O' How I ne-ver remem-ber the words to Thee...

(That must be sung to the tune of O'Christmas Tree)

How many of you wait till very LAST to put your tree up?  Me, Me, ME!  I did, I did!  Yup, that is correct folks...the tree was the last stop on my decorating list this year.  I honestly don't know why.  It wasn't hard...I mean, seriously...how hard is it to sit and drink a cup of coffee while you watch your mister slave over putting each piece of the tree painstakingly together whilst cursing over the lights that aren't working because he didn't plug the cords in together correctly and almost (I say almost because I had to intervene at this point) throwing the whole thing out the front door with the intentions of taking a chainsaw after it to "Fix the problem".  Please keep in mind that this is NOT a real tree hence my concern over the chainsaw solution.  But...he did look really cute bent over with his hiney in the air trying to "fix" it (without the use of a chainsaw) :)  I'm thinking it turned out quite nicely myself!

(close up of ornaments...duh...like you could'nt figure that out)

(view from living room)

(view from dining room)

(looking into the living room)

I love all the twinkly lights at night :)  They make me happy every time I walk into the room. 

But just because I want all the colors to show up for ya...I took a few during the daylight too.  I'm just cool like that :)

(Just keeing it real with the dog in the room)

(Looking from the dining room to the entry)

So when did you put your tree up?  Was it first or last or some where in between? 

Linking up to the following parties...party on people!

Finding Fabulous

Chic on a Shoestring

Fingerprints on the Fridge

Shabby Nest

Whipperberry

Decking the Halls - Part 2

The Tree in the Window

I didn't have a plan this year when it came to decorating for Christmas as I always have in years past.  Usually I have sketches drawn up months in advance on how I want to decorate the mantel and what I envision the entry way to look like...what colors I see in these spaces.  This typically involves creating a budget specifically for Christmas Decorations.  Who does that?  Please tell me I am not alone here.  My Christmas Fund is set up months...sometimes as much as 7 months in advance!  GHAH!  Who thinks of Christmas in June besides me?  Seriously people...its an illness.

This year has been different.  Much due to circumstances that are beyond our control...and some due to the desire to show our children that Christmas is so much more than the decorations and presents under the tree.  Christmas is about family and "giving" of oneself to others.  This year our motto for the season is "simplistic".  Our decorations are simple and meaningful...used from what we had on hand.  If I had a space that needed a little "something" I either made it ... or robbed it from my moms house!  YEA, thats right!  You gotta use all the resources you have people!

After I tackled the wine bar I set my sights on the kitchen.  It is the "hub" of our home.  Lots of conversations and laughter are had in this room so it needed to come alive with the spirit of the season...but in and understated kind of way.

It started with the tree on the window seal.

I had that cute little metal star in my wine bar on the neck of a bottle and thought it would make the perfect star for the tree...SNAG!  Then I remembered an old bucket that I used to hold wash cloths in under my kitchen sink...SCORE!  And thus the Christmas tree was born.  I love how it turned out don't you?

Then it was time to dress up the shelf a bit...


The mason jars were already there so I filled them with some mini ornaments that I had from last year.  The wooden trees are from a treasure hunt at my mom's house!  Thanks mom!  The stocking hanging from the hook was a homemade gift from my mom for Mr. AKM and my 1st Christmas together.  I love that it works in this space :)

And in the end...this is what we had to greet us for breakfast in the morning....

A Christmas ball of "Joy"!  So tell me what your motto for the season is!  Are you going all out or reigning it in this time around?

Linking up to the following parties...

Savvy Southern Style

Blue Cricket Design

Seven Thirty-Three

Some Day Crafts

Michele Raven Designs

Finding Fabulous

Chic on a Shoestring

Fingerprints on the Fridge

Shabby Nest

Whipperberry