It's the Life

Christmas 2011

Templeman Christmas 2011

 

 

The Boys Christmas Decorations:

 

I hope you are all having a wonderful Holiday Season!

Holiday Wrap

I am a big believer in good packaging. I am a product marketer's dream. I've purchased many things simply because I loved the bottle or container it was in. Like buying a few bottles of coke when I could get a 24 pack of cans for the same price...

 

In the same spirit, I like to decorate my holiday gifts. For one, they look like a continuation of the Christmas tree decorations, but they also add to the gift giving fun.

It's really easy to add a few extra touches to your gifts. I made a tutorial of how I did mine, but use your imagination and do something that says "this gift is from (your name)"!

Most of these things I just had at my house. 

I started by adding a small glitter dot sticker to the fabric brad.

Then I inserted the metal tabs of the brad into two of the holes of a slightly larger button.

Now fold the brad tabs down to secure them all together.

So cute! That might be cute in a little girls hair.

My gift tag is just a 1.5x3 inch piece of white paper.  I stitched a line down one side with my sewing machine and then used a glue dot to attach the buttons. You could stop here and just use this for a gift tag. Especially for a smaller gift.

Next I added a couple glue dots to my 3x3.5 inch paper.

Secure the snowflake a little off center.

Use another glue dot to add your tag to the snowflake. These snowflakes came in a pack of 8 for $3 at the craft store. I think the fabric brads were the most expensive item I used, but I love them.

Hole punch the top corner and your tag is done! 

Now we do the raffia ribbon. You can use any kind of ribbon, but I have a thing for the raffia. Make a simple knot and leave some strings to attach the bow.

To make a bow with this thin raffia, you just take a long strip and fold it back and forth until you get two loops on each side.

Set the folds of raffia on the knot you already tied on the gift. Take the strings from the knot and tie the raffia folds to the package.

Isn't that cute?  This is why I love the raffia for gifts. Now all you have to do is use the long strands to tie on your gift tag.

I liked the gift plenty with just the gift tag, but I wanted to add one last thing. When I did the cake table for my nephew's first birthday, I had sewn a bunch of circles together to make the birthday sign. I thought I would do something like that again. Using a glue strip not only made sure the stitches won't come apart, but now I can glue it to the package.

I think adding the stitches makes it more "from Andrea". 

I just love it. I made sure to wrap a gift to myself so I can keep one!

To: Andrea    From: Yourself

If you live in Utah and you are interested in decorating your gifts, you should go to a Roberts craft store. They are, sadly, going out of business and everything in their stores is 40% off.

Happy Holidays!  

Christmas Ornaments

This summer I was able to get a new pre-lit Christmas tree for 90% off! It has all white lights, so I decided I would put this one in my front room.  The tree in my family room is all gingerbread and candy, so I wanted this tree to be completely different. 

 

I have a bunch of snowflake ornaments from my wedding reception.  I thought they would be a good start. I used to have a really small tree in my old house that I would put these on, but there weren't enough to make a nice looking regular sized tree.

I've been walking around the holiday section at a bunch of stores trying to decide what look I wanted for this tree. I was having a hard time deciding until I saw these babies!

How I love them. I think I might go get a few more so they can be clustered together in a few different places. 

 

Next I saw these. I fell in love with that deer.  This is not a style I would ever guess I would want for my tree, but I couldn't stop going back and checking out that deer. He's fluffy on the underbelly and legs, he's wood chips on his back covered in white glittery paint.

I don't have very many ornaments on this tree, but it will be fun to continually collect things for it through the years.  

Caramel Popcorn

During the holidays my mom always makes caramel popcorn. Her recipe is sticky, gooey and wonderful. Here is how you make it:

Bring your butter, sugars, water and cream of tartar to a boil. (Recipe here) Once it starts to boil like the photo above, let it continue for 5 minutes.

While it boils you can pop your popcorn. I did about 1/2 cup of kernals to get a large bowl of popped.

You are going to want to use a pretty big pot, because once it's boiled for 5 minutes you add your baking soda and it foams and rises. Keep stirring it as it foams.

Now pour it over your freshly popped popcorn. Use a wooden spoon to gently stir it all around. Make sure you get caramel on every piece.  It will rush to the bottom of your bowl, so you will want to make sure and scrape the bottom.

There you have it. Easy and inexpensive! This is so delicious. I've never met a popcorn I liked better. 

Now that you have a really good caramel recipe, you can add anything to it to make fancy popcorn like you see in gift boutiques and chocolate shops! Let's see what I have on hand...pecans...toffee chips...milk chocolate...How about a second batch!? 

I made the caramel sauce the exact same way, but before I poured it onto my popcorn I added some chopped pecans to the bowl. You could use any kind of nut here.

Once the popcorn, nuts and caramel were well combined, I dumped it out onto a parchment paper lined cookie sheet. I thought about stopping here, it looks really good with just the addition of the nuts...  

...but this bar of milk chocolate was begging me to melt it down and drizzle it over the top. I used a knife to cut the chocolate into shavings. I added 3/4 of the shavings to a microwave safe bowl. I heated it for 30 seconds. Then I took it out and stirred and stirred until it was all melted. Then I added the remaining 1/4 of the chocolate to the bowl and stirred until it was melted as well.

I used a spoon to drizzle the chocolate over the top of the caramel popcorn & nut mixture. Then I sprinkled some toffee chips over the top.

Oh baby! Place this in the freezer for 15 minutes so the chocolate hardens. Once you take it out, you can break it up into chunks and put in a serving bowl.

How good does that look!? Never over pay for fancy popcorn again! Download a pdf of both of these recipes here. 

(My orginal plan when making popcorn was to melt down white chocolate and sprinkling crushed candy canes on top. Then I realized it's the same recipe as the almond covered chocolate & candy canes I made earlier.  So, if you want to, you could follow the instructions here to cover your popcorn instead of almonds with white chocolate and sprinkle crushed candy canes over the top. Delicious!)

Coca Cola Christmas

 

I saw these at the grochery store this weekend.

 

I love the carton packaging, I love the shape of the bottles. I had to have them.  If you know someone who likes coca-cola items, this would be an inexpensive gift they would love.

Candy Cane Love: Chocolate Snack Cake

This is possibly my favorite chocolate cake recipes. It's an unusual recipe, it doesn't even have eggs in it, but it is delicious. 

I haven't ever put frosting on this cake.  It doesn't need it.  I usually put whipping cream and toffee chips, but since it's candy cane season, I thought I'd go with ice cream and candy cane pieces.

 

So good!

Click here for other Candy Cane Love

Gumbo

I made Gumbo last night. I know it doesn't seem like something that should be congratulated, but making it really is an act of love. It's lots of chopping, lots of stirring, lots of waiting, and did I mention, lots of stirring? But let me tell you something...it is worth every minute spent. 

This is the first time I've made it when I haven't had a house full of people. We used to have a few friends over for dinner and a movie nights. That was before we all started having kids and then one of us had the nerve to move away. We would get together, try new recipes and watch a movie. I don't remember which of those friends brought this recipe to try, but it is by far one of the favorites we made.

We also decided to serve it over Spanish Rice, which was a great addition to the already yummy gumbo. Click here to download the recipe.

The recipe makes a very large pot of gumbo. It will take you a couple hours to make this, but if you have the time, it's totally worth it.

Candy Cane Love: White Chocolate Covered Almonds

If you asked me if I like candy canes, I would probably say no. I don't ever just eat a candy cane, or anything else peppermint. But if you asked me if I like candy cane ice cream...well, then I would say "this half gallon is all for me, right?" One of my favorite things about this time of year is candy cane ice cream.  

A few weeks ago, my friend Rachel, shared with me a store bought candy covered almond.  It was good, it was crunch-y, cream-y, candy cane-y and delicious.  She told me  how much she paid for a small bag of them...and then I said, "we can make these".  So we did. And this is how:

First you need some peppermint candy canes. To my surprise, it is much easier to find cherry flavored than peppermint.  I wouldn't recommend cherry for this recipe.

You need raw almonds.  

And you need white chocolate.

Start by cutting or shaving your chocolate.  A serrated knife works best. (ha-ha Tara, serrated knife...good times).

If you just put a big hunk of chocolate in the microwave or double broiler, you will end up with some of the chocolate starting to burn, while you still have a big chunk un-melted. This allows the chocolate to melt evenly.

Next, you smash up a candy cane. I put mine in a zippy bag and smash with a big spoon.

I wish I had some vanilla ice cream on hand...

Another thing about the chocolate.  You need to put about 3/4 of the chocolate in either a double broiler or you can do what I did and put it in a bowl, microwave for 15 mins (CORRECTION: 15 seconds!), stir, microwave for 15 mins seconds, stir.  (If I was doing a big batch I would use a double broiler.  This was a small batch since I wasn't really sure if it would turn out well.)

Once your chocolate starts to melt stir it all until it's smooth. Now you add the remaining 1/4 of your chocolate to the melted chocolate and stir.  This "tempers" the chocolate. It helps it not burn or get lumpy while you dip.

Now that you have tempered your chocolate, go ahead and add your candy cane dust.  I saved a little bit of mine to sprinkle on top at the end, but you don't have to do that. Stir the candy cane into the chocolate.

Add your almonds.

Stir and stir until they are all coated.

I dumped the bowl onto my cookie cooling rack that I had placed on top of a cookie sheet. This allowed the chocolate to drip down instead of puddle.  I used a spoon to help spread them out.  I wanted them to be individual almonds, not a big cluster. Once they are all spread out, you can sprinkle your left over dust on top.

You can let them dry on the counter like this for a bit, but if you have your son and the neighbor boys doing their best to contain themselves before digging in, you can put them in the freezer for a few minutes and they will harden up real fast.

Give the kids a few to hold them off while you get a couple last photos...and then try to taste one yourself before they are gone!

These would make a great thank-you or small holiday gift. Put them in a clear baggie, tied with a ribbon.  I have a few other candy cane treats in mind this year. I will keep a list of them as they post in my recipe section under "Candy Cane Love".