MIA - Merry Christmas

Sorry I've been missing lately.  I fully intended to do several posts about Christmas but this month completely got away from me.  This was by far the busiest Christmas I've had in my married life.

Unfortunately, I don't have any craft or recipe to post about this time either.  What I do have is an adorable picture of my Santa-loving baby girl.  

Hope everyone had a great Christmas!

Shimmering Pinecones

Remember when I said that I had another use for pinecones in my Pinecone Owls craft?  Well here it is.  This is a very easy craft using glitter.  Does anyone else get excited over glitter?  I have been eyeing this Martha Stewart fine glitter for literally years but it was $30 for a pack of glitter.  I've even had it in my shopping cart many times but in the end I have always put it back before going up the register.  I just couldn't justify it.  Finally last month when I was shopping for my Pinecone Owls I saw that it was on sale for 40% off!  I must say that I absolutely love it too!

Supplies:

• pinecones
• glitter (Like I said, I love the Martha Stewart brand but any will work.)
• glitter glue or elmers glue (You need a thin glue with a fine tip bottle.)
• paper to catch all the glitter

You should plan to glue and glitter the pinecone in two sections to have a dry spot to lay it down so the glue to dry.  Squeeze glue out onto the edges of the cone scales on one side of the pinecone.

Sprinkle glitter onto the glued scales.  Be sure to lay out some paper because most of the glitter you pour out wont stick to the pinecone.  This way you can pour it back into the bottle.  I like using newspaper because it already has a crease to funnel it into the bottle.

Tap out excess glitter, rotating the pinecone to get it all out.  Set it aside to dry.

Repeat with the other side.

You can even do more than one glitter color on each pinecone.  Just make sure that the first color of glitter is dry before adding the next.

I displayed mine in a gold sleigh by the front door.  Other ideas for display include putting them in a tall, wide and clear vase, an apothecary jar, a decorative bowl or even making them into ornaments for the tree.  Have lots of fun!

Butternut Squash Soup

Butternut is the ingredient that brings me the greatest feeling of Autumn harvest.  I love it in just about any way and it is super nutritious.  One of my absolute favorite forms of butternut is in a creamy, velvety soup.  Many times I've had butternut soup that was way too sweet.  This soup is more savory using the butternut as its own natural and non-overwhelming sweetener.

Ingredients:

• 3 T butter
• 1 onion, sliced
• 4 cloves garlic, pressed or minced
• 1/2 tsp. thyme
• 1 butternut squash, peeled and cut into 1" cubes
• 8 cups water
• 4 chicken bouillon cubes
• 1-2 pinches cumin
• salt and pepper

*You may have to adjust ingredients to taste, depending on the size of your squash.  If you have a large squash you will probably need to add more water and spices.

Wash and peel your squash.  Peeling can be difficult but it is important to not leave any peel behind.

Cut it into even cubes of about one inch.

Slice or chop (it doesn't matter because it will be pureed anyway) your onion and put it into a large soup pan with the hot melted butter.  Add the garlic and cook until the onion has softened.  Do not brown or caramelize the onion!  Mix in the thyme.

Add the butternut cubes, water, and the chicken bullion cubes.  You could use 8 cups of chicken broth instead of the water and bouillon.

Bring to a boil and simmer for about 15 minutes until the squash has softened.

You must remove the pot from the heat source completely at this point.  Using a stick blender, puree the soup until no chunks are left.  Be very careful not to splatter hot soup out of the pot.

It works best if you tilt it to the side slightly so all the chunks and pieces fit under the blender.  If you find it's getting too thick to blend, add a little bit of hot wa

It will look something like this when all the ingredients are pureed.  Add the salt, pepper and cumin to taste and blend or stir it through.

This soup is delicious and would be great for a light dinner on Thanksgiving Eve.

Blackberry Blush

My friend Bekah just started a new etsy shop!  She handmakes these beautiful wristlets.

She's also giving one away, so "like" her on facebook and follow her blog!

Pinecone Owls

So sorry for being MIA recently.  We have had a super crazy couple of weeks around here filled with an ear infection, the stomach flu and a cold.  Luckily, with the bad times there were some good ones.  Like my dad's birthday, two of our niece's baptisms (even though we could only make it to one) and our nephew's first birthday party.  AND I have managed to create one Thanksgiving project that I had planned.  Wohoo!

Look at these little cuties! These owls are very easy to make and this is a great project for kids to help out with.

I have to admit that I stole this idea from my teachers way, way back in elementary school.  My sister Cristina was the first one to do this project at school for Thanksgiving when she was in fourth grade.  Her owl is on the left.  I, being just one grade younger was extremely excited to get to make my owl the next year.  After all that anticipation, they had us make them differently and I ended up making that little number to the right.  I didn't even realize how un-cute mine was until I brought it home the last day of school before Thanksgiving break and set it down next to my sister's...  Complete disappointment.  I have been wanting to redo it for the last couple years and I finally got everything together and did it.

Materials Needed:

• pinecones  (I bought mine at clearance from a craft store.  They are lightly scented but not strong.  If you live somewhere that you can easily collect them from under a tree that works too.)
• cotton balls (pulled apart into smaller pieces). 
• felt (I used white, black and a couple shades of orange and tan.)
• craft glue
• scissors
• pencil

The bag of pinecones that I purchased came with two different types.  If you run into the same thing just separate them like I did.

The dark brown pinecones that are wide with a good amount of spacing work best for this project.  The other ones wont go to waste because I have a Christmas craft underway for them.

Use the felt to create the owl's face and body parts.  I started with the eyes, using the cap of my glue to get a good circle.  You'll also need ears, wings, a beak, a belly and feet.

Glue the overlapping felt together with craft glue then lay out your owl features.

Dot some glue onto the "petals" of the pinecone then stuff them with cotton pieces.

Now you should have the owl's body and body parts.

Glue all the body parts to the pinecone and you're done!  Isn't he cute?

You can even make a family of owls!  They are the perfect addition to my Thanksgiving decor. 

Chicken and Gnocchi Soup

In honor of cooler (kind of ) weather I'm posting my version of a delicious Italian soup, Chicken and Gnocchi.  If you have never had gnocchi, it is a potato pasta.  I had always thought gnocchi would be difficult and was intimidated by it but it is actually VERY easy.

Gnocchi:

• 2 potatoes or one can of whole potatoes (You will need one cup of mashed potatoes, and the canned potatoes generally mash down to just over 1 cup.)
• 2 cups flour
• 1 egg

If you are using fresh potatoes, peel and boil them until cooked.  For canned potatoes, drain out all the liquid.  Put the potatoes in a bowl to mash them.

Mash up the potatoes with a potato masher.  Once the potatoes were pretty well mashed I used a fork to get rid of some of the larger lumps.  If it's a tiny bit lumpy it will be okay.

Put the potatoes in a bowl with the flour and egg and mix together.  (The gnocchi for this soup is meant to be a little bit bland.)  Once the ingredients are well mixed the dough will look lumpy.  Knead the dough together with your hand until it comes together.

Divide the dough in half.  You will only need half of the gnocchi dough for one batch of the soup.  Wrap the other half of dough in plastic wrap and put it in the freezer for next time.

Roll the dough half into the shape of a long breadstick.  I always forget that the dough expands when it's cooked and end up with huge gnocchi pieces that barely fit into my mouth.  So, the narrower the better.  Divide the dough in half again and roll out two lengths of dough if that makes it easier to thin it out.

Cut the bread into bite-sized smaller than bite-sized pieces (because the dough expands).  I like to roll each piece once on the counter or cutting board to soften up the edges.

If you were to make these for a purpose other than soup, like under pasta sauce, you would start off with salted boiling water.  Drop the gnocchi in (they should sink to the bottom).  Once they make their way back up to the top (3-4minutes) they are done. Remove and cover with pasta sauce.

In this case we will leave them and move onto the soup...

Chicken and Gnocchi Soup:

• 1 T. olive oil
• 1 small onion, diced
• 3 celery stalks, diced
• 3 garlic cloves, minced or pressed
• 2 carrots, shredded
• 1 pound chicken breast, cooked and cubed
• 4 chicken bouillon cubes
• 6 cups of water
• half recipe of gnocchi
• 6 ounces baby spinach leaves
• 1 T. corn starch with 2 T. cold water (optional)
• 2 cups milk, cream, half & half -- your choice
• salt and pepper to taste

Prep your veggies and boil or steam your chicken.  Once the chicken is cooked and cooled, cut it into bite-sized pieces.

Heat the oil in a large soup pan over medium-high heat.  Add the onion, celery, carrots and garlic to the hot oil.  It is very important that when you cook with oil that it is hot prior to adding ingredients.  If you add ingredients before the oil is hot they will end up absorbing a lot of the oil and you'll need to add more to compensate.  No need for the extra calories.

Once the veggies are tender, add the water, bouillon and chicken pieces.  Bring the soup back up to a simmer.

Drop in the gnocchi, careful to unstick them before they fall into the pot.

When they are done, they will float to the top like this.  This should take 3-4 minutes.

Stir in the spinach.

Allow the spinach to cook and wilt for about 3 minutes.

Add the milk and bring it back up to a simmer.  If you want a slightly thicker soup, add the corn starch/water mixture with the milk.  It doesn't make a huge difference but my husband likes it better thicker.  I prefer it brothy so sometimes I don't add it.

Salt and pepper to taste.

This soup is amazing and perfect for Autum!

Home - Made Oreo Cookies

I went on a hunt for home-made Oreo cookies when I was still pregnant.  There are many recipes out there but all of the ones I found had cream cheese in the frosting.  Most of you are probably trying to figure out why that would be a problem because it seems that everyone in the world LOVES cream cheese... except me.  I don't like the taste, smell, texture or the way it coats your mouth.  And I'm sorry but the real Oreos don't have any cream cheese in them either.  You can imagine my happiness one day when I found it.  "It" being a recipe that didn't require cream cheese for the filling!  Hallelujah we have a winner!  Since this was months ago I don't remember where I found this recipe, or I would give the author credit...

Mmmm doesn't it look delicious?  Two crispy cookies with a creamy center.

INGREDIENTS

Cookies:

• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 2/3 cup cocoa powder
• 1 stick softened salted butter (you can use unsalted and add about 1/8 teaspoon of salt to the flour mixture)
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Filling:

• 1/2 stick softened butter
• 1/4 cup vegetable shortening
• 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

We'll start with the cookies:

In a medium sized bowl, sift the cocoa and flour (and salt if you are using unsalted butter) together.  I used a fork rather than an actual sifter.

Cream the softened butter and sugar together in a mixer.  Once the mixture is well combined and has started to cream, add the egg.  Let it cream together.  Add the vanilla and mix a little bit more.

Add the dry ingredients and mix just until incorporated.  You'll probably need to scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl with a rubber scrapper.  The dough should look slightly thicker than brownies and be really sticky.

Split the dough in half the best you can.  Put one half on a floured sheet of wax paper.  Flour another sheet of wax paper and lay it on top.

Roll it out so it is about 1/4 inch thick. Do this again with the other half.

See how sticky it is?  Without the wax paper the dough would stick to the counter and rolling pin.  In order for the dough to be workable, stick the rolled out dough in the refrigerator for at least one hour.  The dough should be stiff with a little give.

Once the dough is cold and has stiffened, it should peel of the wax paper pretty freely.  Remove just the top piece off wax paper at this point.

Working quickly, use a round cutter to get circles and place two inches apart on a baking sheet.  My circles are two inches in diameter.  I wouldn't go any larger because they do spread out a bit in the oven.  Refrigerate for 20 minutes more before baking for 20 minutes in a 325 degree oven.

Note:  If you line your baking sheets with foil, clean up is a lot easier.

When the cookies are removed from the oven and completely cooled on wire racks they should be crispy.

Now for the creamy filling:

Cream the butter and shortening until they become fluffy.  Then beat in the powdered sugar and vanilla. I added some orange food coloring for Halloween at this point.  It's hard to see the color because I don't like to add a lot.  I think too much food coloring makes it taste bitter... does anybody else think this or is it just me?

Put the frosting in a baggie and cut the corner.  This will make frosting the cookies much easier.

Line the cookies up on the cooling racks.  I play around with them a little bit to match the circle sizes.  Some might be a little wider or smaller if the dough was rolled out thicker or thinner than 1/4 inch.  Then flip one cookie in each pair over.  Squeeze out a blob of frosting on the flipped over cookie.  Place the other cookie on top and squish down the frosting.

My dough made about 32 cookies with dough to spare.  Because I used 2 cookies per "Oreo" so I ended up with 16 sandwich cookies.

Recipe Text:

Cookie Dough-

Sift the cocoa powder and flour (and 1/8 teaspoon salt if using unsalted butter) in a bowl.

In a mixer, cream the butter and sugar.  Add the eggs and cream together.  Add the vanilla and continue to cream.  Add the dry ingredients and mix until just incorporated.

Divide the dough into two.  Place one piece between two floured pieces of wax paper.  Roll into 1/4 inch thick.  Repeat with the other half of dough and stick both sheets of dough int the fridge for at least an hour or overnight.

Cut the dough into an even number of two inch circles.  (Re-roll and refrigerate the scraps to get more cookies.)  Place on an ungreased baking sheet two inches apart.  Refrigerate for an additional 20 minutes and preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

Bake the cookies for twenty minutes.  The edges should be SLIGHTLY darker than the middle (I could barely tell there was color change, and they were perfect).  Let cool completely on wire racks.

Cream Filling-

Using a hand mixer, cream the butter and shortening until fluffy.  Beat in the powdered sugar and vanilla (and food coloring if desired).

Flip half of the cookies upside down and top each with a dab of filling (about one tablespoon).  Press the other cookies on top.