My Christmas Dinner. Booyah.

I love to cook! And it’s not often I get to cook a big, gigantic meal and I haven’t done this for a while, so I’m very excited. Also because it’s the first time Dustin & I are hosting Christmas supper, and on Christmas day! THAT’S A BIG DEAL.

This is going to take a few double rye’s.

 

***************************************

Turkey with Bacon Sage Stuffing

Brown Sugar Glazed Carrots

Meat Pie (or French Canadian Tourtiere, if you want to be fancy!)

Roasted Lemon Garlic Broccoli with Parmesean

Whipped Potatoes

Flaky Buns (Pillsbury- carbs in a tube!)

Cranberry Sauce

Salad my mom and sister are bringing

Cabbage rolls my Aunt is bringing

Apple + Lemon Merengue Pie (From the frozen foods section. Sue me.)

Salt Dough Ornaments

So, it snowed. I’m not sure what it is about this time of year, and snow. It makes me wanna do stuff. CrAzY stuff. Like carve pumpkins and hang my outdoor Christmas lights and rearrange all my furniture and bake and make homemade  Christmas ornaments. I might have done all of these things in the past 48 hours.
Anyhow, I found a wonderful salt dough Christmas ornament recipe. You mix this goop up, use shapes to cut out “cookies”, bake for two hours and then you can paint them. Cheap, friendly, cheerful Christmas ornaments. Guess what, family! I love you all so much that everyone is getting these. Ha ha!
We made these once when I was very young and we still have a few of these homemade ornaments kicking around. Once you bake this stuff it is nearly indestructible.Keep in mind this recipe is made for teeny ornaments to go on presents next to tags. I TRIPLED it and got two sheets of various sized ornaments. Paint with paint afterwards. Hang on tree. Cherish. I remember licking these as a kid, they are saltier than salty chocolate balls.

Homemade Christmas Ornaments – Salt Dough Craft

What you’ll need:

• ½ cup salt
• 1 cup flour
• ½ cup water
• Rolling pin- I used a glass. I guess I need a rolling pin.
• Cookie sheet
• Toothpick
• cookie cutters:  I got a box of 101 (seriously, 101 cookie cutters) from Michaels for 17 bucks. It has the alphabet, numbers, and a bunch of different holiday designs.
• Acrylic paints
• Glitter glue or glitter paint
• ribbon- I used silver elastic type stuff from the necklace making section @ Michaels. Could also use regular xmas ornament hooks.

How to make it:

1. Preheat the oven to 250 degrees F.
2. Mix together, salt, flour, and water until dough is formed.
3. Knead the dough on a floured surface until the mixture is elastic and smooth. If dough is too sticky, sprinkle with flour, continue to do so until stickiness is gone. Do not add too much flour, this will dry out the dough and will cause it to crack before you get a chance to bake it.
4. Roll out the dough to about ¼” thick with a rolling pin that has been dusted with flour.
5. Use cookie cutters to cut out as many trees and stars as you want.
6. Use a toothpick to make a hole toward the top of the shape. Poke the toothpick into the shape, then holding toothpick straight up and down, make a circular motion as if you were stirring something. Keep circling until the hole is the size you want.
7. Place all shapes onto an ungreased cookie sheet and place into the preheated oven.
8. Bake for 2 hours.
9. Remove from oven and allow to cool completely.
10. Paint
11. Use the handle end of the paint brush/toothpicks to dot on ornaments by dipping into paint then dotting onto ornament.
12. When paint is dry, use glitter glue or glitter paint to put a sparkling cover coat on your ornaments. Use some type of clear coating when the paint is dry.
13. When dry, thread ribbon through hole and tie in a knot in the back.Could also use regular wire hooks for holiday ornaments

Tips:

• If your ornaments are large enough, you can make two holes in each so that you can thread ribbon through like a button, only showing a small amount of ribbon on the front.
• These make adorable pins to wear to school. Just don’t make a hole. Glue a pin back to the back of the completed ornament instead.
• Uncooked salt dough doesn’t keep well, so only make enough dough for the ornaments you are going to make.

Lily and I are going to attempt to paint these over the next few weeks. MMMMmmmm  non toxic Crayola paint. Couldn’t they at least add some vitamins? This is a great craft for younger babies or toddlers since you can give them a bowl of paint and let them decorate these on their own.

 

Recipe By: Amanda Formaro at Kaboose.com

Recipe Goodness.

So the meal planning thing has been going pretty good. Sometimes I switch it up and make something else (but still a real meal), and I’m starting to remember that I enjoy cooking. Most of the time. Here’s what I made last week:
Taco Soup
Meatloaf + New potatoes with onions
Teriyaki Chicken
Italian sausage & tomato rotini
Dustin has been happy not coming home to noodles and/or and a tin of cat food to dip some crackers in for supper. I have been pretty happy with all of the recipes I searched for to get ideas to make a meal plan for two weeks, and so far the only recipe I haven’t liked is the italian sausage dish. I’m pretty sure I just ate a big bowl of ice cream instead after everyone went to bed.

Lily is rotten, so I bought new mugs.

And of course twelve seconds after my last post, Lily starts hitting me. Hitting my legs, hitting Dustin’s legs, hitting herself on the head…and always with that look in her eye..What are YOU going to do about it? Give me not as many TIMBITS?
Hitting is wrong! Don’t hit Mommy! I just bought you a dancing Frankenstein doll when I could have gotten some new lipstick or a paperback or a bag of popcorn the size of Alaska from Kernels.
Sigh.
But aren’t my new mugs gorgeous? The pattern reminds me of the mugs my at my grandparents house. They make coffee and tea that much more wonderful.And a shout out to my Mother! Happy 52nd Birthday, Yo. Or, as Lily says, HAPPY DAY!