27 posts tagged “christmas”

I took the week off from work with the intent of sewing all week, of course after the new XBOX360 release with netflix, I got sucked into Jericho... second season was a major dissapointment, the fact that I watched both seasons in a room where my sewing machine was not very productive, but the mind escape was good.

Then I got to sewing.  I finished binding (which I have yet to learn to love) made a few dish clothes... and loaded them (well the quilts and a few of the dish clothes) up on my etsy shop.

I am even offering free shipping on quilts for the holidays!! 

Another UFO completed.  I think I started out with the intent to make a table runner, but now it is a lap/baby quilt.  I still need to put the binding on it, so OK it isn't exactly complete, but close.

Not sure what to do with it.

06goodies

Show us your loot!

Yesterday I had an absolutely lovely Christmas.  I went up to P&J’s house Christmas Eve and helped get the Santa goods read. 

Alex slept in until almost 9 which is pretty incredible given she is four.  When I got up I made monkey bread, which I was shocked to learn no one at the house had ever had.  Annette asked that I get her the recipe.  If you are reading this scratching your head this is how you make Monkey Bread:

Monkey Bread

3 packages refrigerator biscuits

1 c brown sugar

1/2 c sugar

1 stick margarine (melted)

1 tsp cinnamon

Cut biscuits (dough) into quarters.  Mix sugars and cinnamon together.  Roll quarters in sugar and cinnamon mix.  Throw into greased (or nonstick) round bunt cake pan. Sprinkle half of the remaining sugar mixture over top.  Mix melted butter with other half and pour over top.  Bake at 350° for 20-40 minutes.  Turn monkey bread onto oven proof plate or round pizza pan and bake another 5-10 minutes.

There are a lot of recipes out there, but this is the one I like the best because it is the simplest.

At P&J’s I got the coffee maker I had asked for (which is what I used to make the coffee I am drinking right now – works great) and a really cool book on underground railroad quilts. 

When I got home I talked to my sister and open the stuff she sent me and then the gifts from my mother.  Then I moved on to my gifts from Miss. Ess who send me this super cool pedestal dish, a pin with a part of a map of Ohio on it, lace crocheting pattern and supplies, a scrabble book that I did not already have and a bunch of other fabulous goodies. 

Kelli came over for dinner and gift exchanging.   I made a delicious dinner inspired by shepherds and macaroni and cheese. 

Saturday I made a big pot of homemade beef chili (I do not actually measure anything when I cook chili so measurements may not be exact):

2 Habanera Chili

2 ½ lbs leanest ground beef

1 small onion - chopped

1 large (whole) shallot – chopped

1 table spoon grape seed oil (or other cooking oil)

2 habanera – chopped

1 green bell pepper - chopped

2 cans of black beans - drained

1 can red kidney beans - drained

3 cans stewed tomatoes

1 small can tomato paste

¼ cup brown sugar

3 tablespoons cumin

2 tablespoons lowery’s

1 tablespoon chili powder

1 cup filtered water

Chop and prepare onions and peppers.  In a large pot over medium heat oil and add onions and one habanera cook until the onions are translucent.  Add beef salt and other spices.  When beef starts to brown add water and cover to allow spices to infuse the meat.  Stir regularly to keep from burning.  When beef is cooked through add all other ingredients and let simmer.  Serve hot.

I prefer to let chili sit a day before serving, but this is not necessary.

When I got home yesterday I opened Christmas gift and then I got cracking and cooked up some macaroni and cheese.  I used a pretty basic macaroni and cheese recipe with a little twist here and there.

Spicy Macaroni and Cheese

16 oz grated jalapeño jack cheese

16 oz grated cheddar

8 oz crumbled feta cheese

4 oz cream cheese

2 ½ cups milk

1 stick butter

1 shallot - chopped

1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

2 teaspoons Lowery’s seasoning salt

2 small bags of macaroni

1 tablespoon flour

Cook macaroni according to package directions and set aside in a baking pan.  In a large pot melt butter over medium heat.  Add chopped shallot cook until translucent.  Add flour and cream cheese and mix until cream cheese is soft.  Add milk and mix until thickened.  Add salt and cayenne pepper.  Add cheese and melt into sauce.  Pour over macaroni and mix. 

(Optional: sprinkle with seasoned breadcrumbs and bake)

Bake at 350° until the top is brown and the cheese is bubbling.

Though macaroni and cheese is a delicious dinner, it was Christmas I decided I would make it even more delicious.

I took about half of the macaroni and cheese and put it in a deep roasting pan and spread it over the bottom of the pan.  I then added a quart of chili over the top and spread it out.  Then I mixed up two boxes of Jiff Cornbread mix and poured this over the top.  Bake this in a 350° until top is golden brown.  Serve warm.

After I cooked all of that up my friend Kelli came over and we had a gift exchange, she brought me a huge sewing basket filled with all sorts of goodies.

Overall I had a quite lovely Christmas possibly the best yet.

I purchased a crow for a friend of mine for Christmas, before I packed it up and mailed it I decided that I should take some pictures of it in my plants. 

They are with my old camera and are nothing fancy, but they sort of crack me up.

There is a ton of stuff I was planning to do today, but I decided that sleeping until noon was a far better plan.  I made Chili for tomorrows dinner which is step one. It is now in jars since I do not have an abundance of pots and pans and I will need the pot tomorrow for the macaroni and cheese.

I packed up a non-Christmas related box to mail out to a friend of mine; I cleaned out the refrigerator; I talked to my sister; I took out the garbage and recycling; wrapped some Christmas presents.  My niece is getting an American Girl doll, I made her mother a purse, her father is getting a Sudoku book and new addition Mason is getting a shirt. 

So far I feel like I have been pretty productive for only having been functioning for about 2.5 hours now.

Merry Christmas to everyone!

Tonight was the Christmas boat thing, I know it has a more official name but I cannot recall what it is just now.  Anyway, there were a ton of boats out on lake union all lit up with Christmas lights.

I think maybe I cannot focus well at night?  Perhaps I should get my eyes checked.  I used my camera remote and my tripod. 

Oh and if someone could please tell me what I am doing/not doing to cause the reflection on the image I would appreciate it.

Some days I really love my apartment.

Tonight my friend Kelli had a Christmas party; parties at Kelli’s means three things, lots of lovely food, lots of lovely people and lots of lovely liquids.  Tonight was no exception. 

The highlight of the evening may very well have been watching the macaroni and cheese brown, Swedish meatballs and ham, and I do not even like ham… it is a good year for pig, perhaps not for the pigs, but for eating them it is. 

Kelli’s father is up from Texas and a local friend of his shared poop jokes over scraps of ham.

Infamous yellow mustard and peeps dare (come on I dare you); resulted in a mustard in pie dare.  Now apple pie and horseradish is delicious, so I am thinking she got off pretty good…?

I also picked up a snowman for my deck – you can check it out from Gasworks park or Lake Union if you are in the Seattle area.  All I can see is his ass.

Show us some great giftwrapping.

My tree has been swallowed.  Much of what is here are my gifts for others; which if I wanted to be all neat and tidy about things I could put everything under the table that the tree sits on, but then what fun would that be?  None I say, none.

I have to admit that my own personal gift-wrapping this year has been well, sad really.  See last year I bought this shiny wrapping paper that was on sale at the end of the season.  It turned out to be Mylar which except when wrapping fruit baskets is kind of difficult to work with since you cannot fold it and tell it to stay put.  This year I decided I would just use it all up and say a year of sad wrapping would have to be the way it goes and so it goes.

At any rate the gifts that are nicely wrapped in pink are from Miss. Ess which I think look quite nice with my tree.  The blue goodies are from my sister.  I have received 5 parcels in the mail this week.  I love getting parcels in the mail.

Ok so I think that most of the people who read my blog have received their Christmas cards.  This here is the design for the second card.

Hopefully by next Christmas card season I will have my etsy shop up and running and will sell these and other clever cards as well as other fantstic hand crafted goodness.