It's A Wrap!

A number of years ago, a friend gave me her gift wrapping tip and I've followed it ever since.  Each year I buy one large roll of wrapping paper and some basic coordinating ribbon and bows.  I wrap all the presents in the same paper. I don't have to worry about whether I have the right color bow for the package I just wrapped or whether I have enough paper on the roll for the present I want to wrap! It is a very effective way to wrap a bunch of presents and I think it also makes for a pretty presentation under the tree, everything matches. I usually don't have a lot of wrapping paper and supplies to store after the holiday season is over.  It's a system that has worked out very well for me.

I like to make gift tags, each year I do some with the same general theme.  This year snowflakes is what I've been making. I know it's more cost-effective and takes less time to just buy some tags but I find this a rather therapeutic endeavor. I usually make my tags during football games on Sundays.  I'm being productive and it helps to keep me from throwing things at the TV when my 49ers are losing (ugh, what a dud of a season we are having!)

Christmas is pretty much a wrap for us, we celebrated with the grandchildren and our daughters last weekend. December 2014 finds us with many scheduling conflicts, such as fathers' visitation schedules, in-law (and out-law) holiday plans and two of the granddaughters are in the Nutcracker ballet so their days are packed with rehearsals and performances. We are expecting grandbaby #4 in a week or so, and will be traveling four hours for the delivery.  We didn't want to chance having a family gathering and getting "the I'm in labor phone call". So, we had our dinner and gift opening a little early. I find that as our family grows we just have to be flexible! Due to the crazy schedule I did very minimal decorating, just a few kid-friendly decorations. I didn't put up our big Christmas tree, just a small one. Now that I am done with shopping and wrapping, won't be cooking Christmas dinner or brunch, and won't have a lot of undecorating to do I am finding myself feeling quite relaxed. All I need to make this Christmas complete is a healthy grandson!

 

 

 

 

Sausage Minestrone Soup with Orzo

Though I love to bake, and share many of my baked creations here, I do cook, too.  We eat most of our evening meals at home. In the summer we grill a lot. In the winter months we eat a lot of soup.  Soup is easy to make, can be made from almost any ingredients and usually results in leftovers for the next day's lunch or dinner. After Thanksgiving I made stock from the turkey carcass. I used the stock in this soup, as a substitute for the chicken stock. This soup is a favorite of ours, especially in cold weather.  We've been getting some much-needed rain in Northern California. This soup, cornbread, and a glass of wine made a great dinner!

The meaty flavors from the sausages really enhances the tomato-flavored stock. This makes a big pot of soup.  I shared with my neighbors, a co-worker and we had leftovers for dinner the next night.  It also freezes well.

Sausage Minestrone Soup with Orzo

1 pound sweet Italian sausage
1 pound hot Italian sausage
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion, peeled and diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 ribs celery, sliced
5 carrots, peeled and sliced
1 can (28 ounces) chopped tomatoes
12 cups chicken stock
4 cups tomato juice
2 bay leaves
1 can (16 ounces) chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 can (16 ounces) red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 can (16 ounces) cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
1 large zucchini, diced
1 large summer squash, diced
1/2 cup dried orzo
3 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Line a baking sheet or a roasting pan with parchment paper or foil.  Place the sausages on the pan and bake for 25 minutes. Let cool on a plate lined with paper towels.  Cut into 1/4 to 1/2-inch slices. (It's important to cook the sausage separately so that there is not a lot of excess fat when you mix it into the soup).

Heat a stockpot over medium-high heat.  Add the olive oil, onion, garlic, celery, and carrots.  Saute for 8 minutes.  Add the tomatoes, stock, tomato juice, bay leaves, chickpeas, kidney beans, cannellini beans, and cooked sausage slices.  Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium, cover the pot, and simmer for 40 minutes, adding more stock or water if too much liquid evaporates.  Remove and discard the bay leaves.  Add the zucchini, summer squash, and orzo.  Cook for an addition 10 minutes.  Stir in the basil and season with salt and pepper.

Orzo is a small, rice-shaped pasta.

Cranberry Rolls with Orange Cream Cheese Frosting

I still had leftover cranberry sauce from Thanksgiving (I think it multiplies in the fridge!) I am trying to be better at utilizing leftovers so have been brainstorming for uses. I used some in these cookies and we really enjoyed them. I make rolls with orange marmalade as the filling so thought that cranberry sauce would work, too. Instead of a regular confectioners' sugar glaze I opted to do a cream cheese frosting. Cream cheese frosting would make a car bumper taste good! I've always loved cranberry-orange nut bread so thought a little orange juice in the frosting would be a great combination on the rolls. I took my experiment to the office and the rolls were declared a success.  They were quite yummy!

Again, I went to my Zo bread maker as I began these rolls after work. Between doing chores, making dinner and generally unwinding, there usually isn't enough time to also make yeast dough. The bread machine saves a little time. While I made dinner the bread machine mixed and kneaded away. Instead of soft music playing while we ate, we had the "thunking" of the dough in the bread machine! Yes, my kitchen is full of ambiance! After the bread machine ran through it's cycle all I had to do was roll out the dough into a rectangle, add the filling and roll up into a cinnamon roll shape. I refrigerated the pan of rolls overnight.  They rise up quite nicely.  I take them out while the oven is warming up, then bake as usual. I think doing overnight yeast breads is a great time saver! Plus it's a great way to get just-from-the-oven-warm yeast bread with hardly any effort in the morning.

After their overnight refrigerator rise.

Any sweet dough or cinnamon roll recipe will work for these.  You can also use frozen bread dough found in the grocery store.

 

To assemble, on a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough into an approximate 9x14-inch rectangle. Spread 1/4 cup of softened butter over it, then sprinkle with 1/3 cup granulated sugar. Spread a thin layer of cranberry sauce over this (I used homemade sauce so did a few pulses in the food processor so it was not so chunky).  Do not spread all the way to the end of the dough as it will ooze out during the rolling process.  If it does, just remove the excess! Starting with the long end, roll the dough into a cylinder shape.  Cut into 12 pieces (I used dental floss to cut with). Place in buttered 9x13-inch pan.  Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 30 to 45 minutes.  Alternatively, refrigerate overnight.

 

Bake at 375 for 25 minutes or until browned and no longer doughy (test with a toothpick or skewer). Let cool for 10 minutes; frost with orange cream cheese frosting.

 

Frosting: 

3 oz cream cheese, softened

2 cups of powdered sugar

2-4 tablespoons of orange juice

2 teaspoons of orange zest

In a mixing bowl, mix the cream cheese until it's smooth and creamy.  Add the powdered sugar and continue to mix. Add orange zest and 2 tablespoons orange juice and continue to mix.  If the frosting seems thick, and more orange juice.

A warm roll and a cup of tea made some tax research much more pleasurable!

 

 

 

 

Cranberry Thumbprint Cookies

We've all had, or eaten, thumbprint cookies.  They are little bites of shortbread with a small dollop of jam in them. They are so easy to make and can be made with whatever type of jam you have on hand (I love them with apricot jam).  Today I used leftover cranberry sauce from our Thanksgiving dinner.  The cranberry sauce was homemade, and on the chunky side, so I pulsed it in the food processor a few times to make a smoother sauce.  Usually, I use vanilla extract in these cookies but used almond extract today.  I loved them!  My Hubby, who will only eat the canned, jelled cranberry sauce, really enjoyed them, too.  It's our secret that I used the homemade sauce!

If you like a cookie with more texture, you can roll the cookie dough balls in some finely chopped nuts. It's a recipe that's easily adaptable to everyone's taste!

They are habit-forming, bet you can't eat just one!

 

Cranberry Thumbprint Cookies

1/2 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1/4 teaspoon pure almond extract (or vanilla extract)
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup cranberry sauce (or jam of your choice)

Glaze:
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoon milk
1/8 teaspoon pure almond extract (or vanilla extract)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

On medium speed, cream together butter and sugar.  Add egg and almond extract; mix well.

Gradually add flour and mix until just combined on low speed.

Roll into teaspoon-sized balls and place on a baking sheet.  Make a small indentation, with your thumb, into the center of the ball, slightly flattening the dough as you do so.  Fi
ll the indentation with a small scoop of cranberry sauce.

Bake for 8-10 minutes, until bottoms are slightly brown.  Cool on a cooling rack.

For the glaze, whisk together the powdered sugar, milk and almond extract until smooth. 

Drizzle the glaze over the cookies.

Egg Nog Pull-Apart Bread

Oftentimes I will make cinnamon rolls for a morning treat.  I like to make the rolls the night before, then let them do a slow rise in the fridge overnight.  In the morning all I have to do is take them out of the fridge, let rise while the oven is warming up, and bake. It's an effective way to get a fresh yeast dough treat without getting up three hours before everyone else does!

My son loves egg nog.  At the holidays I always buy a container for his use.  I've made breakfast dishes before using eggnog, things like French toast and waffles.  I've made cookies and cake.  I started thinking about making a cinnamon roll using egg nog in the dough. I ran across a recipe for "Monkey Bread"; the pastry with balls of cinnamon goodness that you literally pull apart to eat. A lightbulb in my head went off and I thought I could do that with egg nog! It worked quite well!

I used my bread machine to make the yeast dough, substituting 1 cup of egg nog for the liquid. Your favorite sweet yeast dough can also be used, doing the same substitution.  The balls of dough are rolled in a sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg mixture.  Once baked, an egg nog glaze is poured over the still-warm bread. It was very good with our morning coffee!

This was a fun baking project to do with my granddaughter.  She enjoyed putting the dough into the melted butter, then the sugar mixture.  Her touch isn't very light yet, we had some squished pieces but that's quite ok! She was quite proud of her efforts!

On the last rise, before baking.

Egg Nog Pull-Apart Bread

Dough: (or use bread machine recipe, substituting egg nog)

1 cup warm egg nog
2 1/4 teaspoons yeast
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

Glaze:
1 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons egg nog

In a large bowl, stir egg nog, yeast and sugar together.  Let sit 10-15 minutes or until it starts to foam. Stir in egg, oil, half the flour and salt. Slowly incorporate remaining flour until dough starts to get smooth but still a little sticky. Place into a well greased bowl and let rise 1-2 hours or until doubled. Punch dough down, remove from bowl and cut into bite-sized pieces.

(After dough has doubled you can put in refrigerator overnight).

Spray a 9-inch baking pan with baking spray or coat with butter.

Melt butter in small bowl or shallow dish.  In a separate dish, combine sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg. Dip each dough piece into butter, then the sugar mixture.  Place into the cake pan.  Let dough rise another 30-45 minutes.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Bake 25-30 minutes, testing with toothpick to make sure bread is fully cooked.  Cover with foil if top and edges are browning too quickly. Remove from oven.

Combine glaze ingredients; spoon over warm bread. Pull apart the dough pieces and enjoy!

Happy Thanksgiving!

My table is set, pumpkin pies are cooling, pie dough is ready for the apple pie. Vegetables have been washed and prepped.  The serving dishes are assembled, wine fridge is stocked.  I think we are ready for the big day!  We will have a small crowd this year, only 8 of us.  We started with a larger number and it's gradually gotten to this.  Alas, I ordered the turkey for a larger crowd, have a 21-pounder in the fridge. Yikes! My guests will get take-out containers of turkey and I'll be incorporating leftover turkey in all sorts of things in the coming days! 

I kept the table pretty simple this year, some pumpkins, gourds and a few flowers.

Our menu is pretty basic and doesn't change much from year to year.  On this day of the year it seems that everyone wants the familiar menu, it's not the day for change.  We will be serving:

Roast turkey
Cornbread dressing (we don't stuff the bird)
Mashed potatoes and giblet gravy
Sweet potato soufflé
Sauteed green beans with cranberries and bacon
Cranberry sauce (homemade and my Hubby's favorite, the canned jellied kind!)
Homemade yeast rolls

Pumpkin pie
Apple streusel pie

I love the Woodland Spode dinnerware. Someday I will splurge and get the china.

I love this holiday.  It incorporates so many of my favorite things, I call it the 4-F holiday...Food, Family, Friends and Football.  And naps.  How bad can a holiday be when you get to stuff yourself with a great meal then get to take a nap?

 

I love a little splash of purple with the traditional fall colors.

There is a lot of turmoil in our Country right now but we all have so much to be thankful for. In the words of Theodore Roosevelt "Let us remember that, as much has been given us, much will be expected from us, and that true homage comes from the heart as well as from the lips, and shows itself in deeds."

"The" Crib

In 1982, pregnant with our first child, my Hubby & I bought a Jenny Lind-style crib. I loved the simplicity of it and the vintage charm it possessed. We were newlyweds, didn't have extra money, and the crib was probably beyond our budget.  But we put it on layaway (remember those days?) and saved for it. Our son  and daughter both used it, we just changed the bed linens. Once they outgrew it, it went up in the attic.  My sister had twin boys in 1988 so down the crib came for their use.  After that the crib stayed in a corner of the attic, with the intention of being used for grandchildren at Nana & Papa's house someday. In 2010, while pregnant with her daughter, my daughter said she would like to use the crib.  So, down from the attic it came once more! It was reincarnated as a white crib for our granddaughter's use. When she was done with it my son told his sister that he wanted to have the crib, he and his wife were hoping to start a family soon.  Now it's 2014 and our first grandson will soon sleep in the same crib that his father once did 32 years ago. Another reincarnation of the crib has taken place as my daughter-in-love's father painted it to her specifications.

My sister told me the other day that this is a well-loved crib. I agree but also add that the occupants of the crib are well-loved, too!

The crib may not be an antique, may not have monetary value, but, to our family, it is priceless!

Jared - 1982

Our cat, Krisha (who lived to be 21), loved the crib, too!

Jenna - 1986

 

Waiting for Avery - 2010



Waiting for Jacob - due date 12/24/14.