True. So true.
Perhaps that’s why I felt inspired to construct my latest BuzzFeed post around porn for coffee addicts. But not just any porn. Holiday porn.
Here are a few examples:
*shudders*
Oh, my… are you salivating yet?
If you haven’t abandoned your computer in pursuit of your favorite coffee mug, then check out the rest of the tantalizing photos at 45 Photos Of Holiday Porn For Coffee Addicts.
May your holidays be ever joyful. And fully caffeinated.
These Norwegian Spice Cookies are my mom’s favorite Christmas cookie.
I know that, originally, we had copied the recipe from a magazine. Many years ago I typed it up and put it in my recipe binder. Unfortunately, I don’t know the original source. But I’ve made a few changes over the years anyway (to turn them into the proclaimed “ultimate” spice cookie), and so my own version of the recipe is featured here, along with a printable version.
But first, all the yumminess my camera could capture:
I just love how the shadow of the mixer in the mixing bowl looks like a Christmas tree. :)
This is the butter and sugar about to be creamed together, with the eggs and vanilla waiting patiently nearby.
When you blend together the dry ingredients (flour and spices) be sure to thoroughly sift them together. I use a fork for this. You want the spices to be evenly distributed.
I know it looks like a lot of spice when you’re measuring it out, but don’t worry, it won’t look like that much once it’s all mixed – and the flavor is fantastic!
The gooey, spicy, luscious dough…
Once it’s blended, it’s pretty soft. At this point you need to divide the dough in half, shape each half into a disc, wrap the discs in plastic wrap, and refrigerate them for an hour.
I’ve found that the easiest way to do this is to lay out a sheet of plastic wrap on the counter and scoop the dough into the center of it. Fold the plastic wrap over the small mountain of dough and shape generally into a flattened circle as you pull the wrap over and around the dough.
It’s sticky, so using the plastic wrap to shape it instead of your hands saves you some time and aggravation.
After you’ve had an hour to clean the mixer, sort through your cookie cutters, place some parchment paper on your baking sheets, and dance to a few Christmas songs, then the dough will be ready to be rolled out.
You could actually leave it in the refrigerator for a couple of hours, but I don’t think I’ve ever left it overnight. After a few hours the butter in it gets too hard to roll out and then it needs to sit at room temperature for awhile, but if you leave it too long then it gets too soft, and that just makes my life complicated… so, really, between 1 to 2 hours is best.
Usually, in the midst of Christmas cookie baking marathons, I’ll make this dough, put it in the fridge, make and bake another cookie (like chocolate chip, for example), and then cut out and bake these. Works out pretty well that way.
And look at the spices in those snowflakes: you can SEE the cinnamon, the cloves… *mouth waters* …mmm, you should smell the magnificence.
And these reindeer cookies are a great way to illustrate that flour helps you cut out the cookies. The dough is soft and will stick to the cutters, but dipping the cutter in a dish of flour before stamping out a couple of cookies will help the dough to fall right out of the cutter.
Also, peeling away some of the dough surrounding the cookies before trying to lift them will help. As will using a spatula like the one pictured below, or like this.
But, sometimes I peel away the extra dough, and sometimes I don’t bother. I certainly don’t pull away ALL of the dough… except for in the above photo because I thought it would make a neat picture. :)
But you really only need to do a little at a time to help with transferring the cookies to the baking sheets.
If you’ve rolled out the dough without enough flour under it, the cookies will stick to the counter. Just dip your spatula in flour before sliding it under the dough to loosen them.
And remember, with soft cookie dough like this, flour is your friend:
You should put flour under the dough, on top of the dough, on the rolling pin, on the cookie cutters, and on the spatula. I mean it: flour party.
If there is too much on the finished cookie, just blow off the excess before baking. Any extra at that point will be absorbed by the egg wash that you put on the cookies just before baking.
Although, I have to admit, I sometimes forget to add the egg wash. But that’s okay. It’s not essential to the cookie, but it does add a nice shine and a silky smoothness to them.
The above picture is what was left of my dough after I collected all the scraps, rerolled them, cut out more cookies, and did it all again. I got two small stars out of the last roll.
But we don’t waste food in our family.
Especially cookies.
So, I rolled up these scraps into a circle, flattened it into an oval, and placed it on my last sheet of cookies to bake. After all, sometimes these last-of-the-scraps creations are the best part of making cookies. :)
And really, these cookies are great two ways: thick and soft or thin and crunchy. My mom likes them crunchy, I prefer them soft. Luckily, that’s an easy problem to solve when baking multiple trays: just cook some longer.
So, even tho the directions call for 10 to 12 minutes, I’ve cooked some larger ones up to 14 or 15 minutes. Just keep an eye on them, to prevent burning.
Once the cookies were fully cooled, I sprinkled them with powdered sugar. This step is not necessary, and I wouldn’t suggest doing it until you are ready to eat/serve them, but it is a nice touch.
Oh, and I didn’t bake them in that little metal pan – it was just to keep the sugar contained. :) The cookies need to cool on racks before you add the powdered sugar.
These ultimate spice cookies go great with coffee:
And with Christmas trees:
Ultimate Norwegian Spice Cookies
Ingredients:
3 cups all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
4 teaspoons ground ginger
2 teaspoons ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temp
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 egg white mixed with 1 teaspoon water
Powdered sugar (optional)
Combine flour, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, nutmeg, cardamom, and salt in a bowl until well blended.
Beat butter and sugar in a bowl until creamy. Mix in eggs and vanilla. Gradually add flour mixture.
Divide dough in half, flattening each piece into a disc. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for one hour.
Preheat oven to 350F.
Roll dough about 1/8 to 1/4 inch thickness on a well-floured surface. Cut out cookies with cookie cutters that have been dipped in flour. Place cookies on ungreased baking sheet, preferably covered with parchment paper, and brush with the eggs white mixture.
Reroll scraps and repeat with remaining dough.
Bake cookies for 10 to 12 minutes or until just browning on edges. Cool on wire racks. Store covered.
Before serving, as an optional step, you can sprinkle them with powdered sugar.
*****
Click for the FREE printable PDF: Norwegian Spice Cookies
Merry Christmas!
And Happy Baking! :)
Actually, all I had intended to do was make mini chocolate chip cookies… until my daughter said, “I want to put sprinkles on them!”
Whoa.
How did I ever come up with creative ideas before I had a 3-year-old to guide me???
Seriously.
Anyway, as you can see from the batter, we actually poured the sprinkles right into the mix so they would be spread throughout the miniature cookies.
And when we scooped them onto the cookie trays to bake, we made them smaller than normal, about a half of a teaspoon each.
Perfect for elf-sized hands. :)
Elf-Sized Chocolate Chip Confetti Cookies
Ingredients:
1 1/8 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 large egg
1 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate morsels
1 cup rainbow sprinkles
Preheat oven to 375F. Combine flour, baking soda and salt in a small bowl.
Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla extract in a large bowl, with a mixer or by hand. Add egg.
Gradually blend in flour mixture. Stir in chocolate chips and sprinkles.
Drop a half teaspoon of batter onto baking sheets. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, or until lightly browned.
Cool on wire racks. Store covered.
*****
Click to PRINT the free PDF of the recipe: Elf Sized Chocolate Chip Confetti Cookies
And, of course, don’t forget to share some cookies with your elf.
Merry Christmas! :)
I love how these crystal snowmen catch the light of the low winter sun.
These snowmen are our version of the traditional borax Christmas ornaments. I used white pipe cleaners (chenille sticks) to represent the snowmen: one per ornament/sun catcher.
The above photo shows how we made them. They were pretty easy for my 3-year-old to help with.
We took one stick and made it into a circle, twisting the ends around each other to seal the shape. Then we twisted it a little over a third of the way up to create the bottom circle of the snowman, and again to create the torso and head.
I tied some thread to the top of the snowmen and wrapped that thread around the handle of a spoon that fit over a wide, 1 liter measuring cup. You can do just one ornament in a smaller glass, but I wanted to do two at a time.
Make sure you have a enough room to hang the snowmen, then take them out of the glass. Fill the glass with water and boil it in the microwave, or add boiling water from another source. Mix in the borax and stir gently, then put the snowmen back in. Let it sit overnight. Done!
You’ll need:
pipe cleaners (chenille sticks)
thread
4 cups boiling water
1/2 cup borax
After sitting overnight, dump out the water. If the crystals that formed on the snowmen attached to crystals on the bottom of the glass, simply chip them gently away with a fork. Then, unravel the thread from the spoon and tie a loop to attach to suction cups for a window or a hook for a tree ornament.
What kind of borax ornaments have you made?
And don’t forget to check out these other Christmas crafts:
Our next Christmas craft this year was a felt Christmas tree that was bigger than my girls.
It’s a similar concept to our Halloween felt board, but much, much bigger.
And more fashionable.
I had actually intended on doing a more traditional-looking felt Christmas tree, kind of like this tree that I saw last year.
But then I came across these amazing felt sheets:
Score!
With these printed felt pieces I could make a delightfully girly Christmas tree instead! :)
Found them at Walmart, of all places. And I bought a yard of dark green felt from their fabric department, for the tree. I thought about getting some dark purple or a paisley patterned piece heavy with lime green (they sell precut pieces like these at Michaels), but I decided to stick with the green. I liked how it looked.
And I was going to cut a star from one of the pieces I had, but then I came across those adorable pink felt star ornaments on sale at Michaels. For forty cents, I couldn’t pass them up. Especially since they matched the felt I already had.
Because I didn’t want to screw up the tree while cutting, I folded my yard of fabric in half, lengthwise, and drew a tree pattern on it with chalk, instead of just cutting it out by hand, like I do most things.
Then I cut out the ornaments. I cut rough squares and then cut circles out of them. I cut a dozen ornaments from the two with zebra stripes, but only six from the other two patterns, to give them some variation of size.
Then I had to decide where to hang it. I tried using tape, even packing tape, but it was kind of heavy, so I didn’t consider the tape sturdy enough.
I tried sticking the felt directly to the stucco wall on the porch, thinking it would stick like felt does to brick, but the stucco was too smooth because of the paint.
I wound up going with Command Strips (pictured above). The picture hanging ones come with a texture similar to Velcro, so, instead of using the 8 pieces as a set of 4 hangers, I stuck the rough side of the strips right on the felt tree. Then I peeled off the sticky backing and stuck it on the wall.
The main reason I used the Strips is because I can adjust the tree. With a gentle pull, the felt comes right off of the rough side of the strips. And, when it’s time to pack up the Christmas decorations, I can gently pull the Strips off the wall. (But always follow the directions – if you do, they won’t harm your wall, but if you don’t, they’ll take the paint right off.)
Although, if you prefer, you could just leave the tree on the floor and let your kids play with it that way. But I think they have more fun with it if it’s hanging up. Like this:
I love the felt for playing. It’s great for both my preschooler and my toddler. They can put the ornaments on the tree, take them off, rearrange them, make patterns, and then do it all over again.
And I love that I found these fancy felt sheets. I was prepared to do the tree in traditional colors, but I love this concept. It’s so easy to change up the colors. Like, you could do a white Christmas tree instead. Or blue. Or green, but with just gold ornaments. Or whatever colors you’ve used to decorate your home for Christmas. What a great way to personalize an interactive toy for your kids!
Have fun with it!
And please share if you’ve made your own! :)
And don’t forget to check out these other Christmas crafts:
December can be dangerous.
Especially when I find myself inspired to make things like chocolate Christmas trees that perch on sprinkle-coated brownies.
And it all started because I was hungry when I walked past the candy melts in the grocery store. Never shop hungry.
Anyway, the result was these adorable chocolate Christmas trees, which I placed on top of little, square brownies that represent crunchy Christmas presents. :)
Before baking the brownies, I coated the top with nonpareils. While the brownies were baking, I melted the green candy in a baggy in the microwave (at 50% power).
Once the chocolate was melted, I snipped off a very small point on the corner of the baggy, and squeezed out the chocolate onto waxed paper in the pattern of a Christmas tree.
To make the trees, I went back and forth, tracing out a triangle shape. Make sure the lines are thick enough and enough of them are touching each other. If the lines are too thin and too far apart, the trees will probably break. Also, be sure to draw a “trunk” at the bottom of the tree, so that you can stick it into the brownies.
As soon as you draw a tree, stick a flower or star-shaped large sprinkle at the top, preferably in yellow to represent the tree star, and sprinkle nonpareils over the rest of the tree, to represent the ornaments.
I used Christmas colored nonpareils, but you could also use the normal multicolored ones. I used the same nonpareils for the brownies and trees. And for the tree star, I used flower sprinkles that are available year round. Those are easy to reuse for other holidays, since all I needed were a handful of the yellow ones.
Let the trees completely cool and harden. A couple hours is best. You could also draw them on a cookie sheet that you place in the fridge if you’re in a hurry.
Once the brownies and trees are both completely cooled, cut the brownies into squares. In the center of each brownie, use your knife or a toothpick to break through the shell of sprinkles and make a little hole for the trees.
The chocolate trees are fragile, so you don’t want to have to put much pressure on them to get them into the brownie. Gently, but securely, insert the trunk of the tree into the hole in the brownie while holding the tree as close to the bottom of the “branches” as possible, instead of pushing it from the top.
You don’t need a whole bag of candy melts to make trees for one tray of brownies. About half should do it.
But I made extras because these chocolate trees will keep fresh in a container for, well, at least the rest of the season. I’m saving my extras for the cookie trays. :)
This Santa-inspired personalized Christmas photo ornament has long been one of my favorites. I created a couple of different ones for my Zazzle stores (like this and this), but this one pictured here is the most popular.
The reason I’m posting about it today is because I’m excited that people have been saying such great things about it!
Some of the comments left on Zazzle include:
“This was my first time ordering a product from Zazzle and I was extremely pleased with the outcome. The product was well made and the order was executed very efficiently. I received the product quicker than expected.”
“This is a nice ceramic ornament. The ribbon hanging cord is an added touch. Not flimsy at all. Good quality.”
Okay, not raving I-must-have-this-right-now-type comments, but still nice. Nice enough to share. :)
Actually, the matching plate:
got a slightly better-sounding review:
“This plate can be a gift for any occasion. The process of ordering was very simple, and the delivery was fast. While the colors suggest a Christmas gift, I gave this as a shower gift. The colors came out beautifully, the font choices were great and the recipient loved it!”
So, either way, I’m pretty excited about this design. If you like it, too, please leave me a comment to let me know!
So, I was helping my aunt get organized for a yard sale, and she had some extra boxes from her recent move. She asked if I needed them for anything. I took one look at the big box and thought: gee, that would make an awesome gingerbread house!
And maybe that wouldn’t be everyone’s first thought, but, hey, I mean the thing was already the right color…
So, I took it home, and I sculpted the box into a gingerbread house with some packing tape and a box cutter.
I made the roof by cutting off two of the top flaps and taping those to the remaining two flaps that were still attached, as you can see in the photo above. Taped them together to form the ridge of the roof.
I then cut out a door and three windows (1 big arch in the back to match the door and 2 small circles on the sides) with the box cutter.
I taped down the flaps on the bottom, too, to secure the floor, being careful not to remove too much for the windows and such, to not compromise the structure. I mean, I only expect it to last the season, but it still has to hold up to the excitement of a 1-1/2 and 3-1/2 year old.
I took the scraps from the door and carved two gingerbread men for their house. I decorated them with glue and glitter.
Because there’s always room for glitter.
Here you can see my girls decorating the gingerbread house.
I made some candy canes, peppermint candies, and gumdrops out of construction paper ahead of time. I made the peppermints by adding a red star to a white circle (close enough), and cut arch shapes from a few colors to represent the gum drops (or spice drops).
And I cut a few waves to represent snow (icing) stuck to the end of the shingles, to give the roof some character.
My girls and I then glued everything on together, and they decorated the house with markers as well.
They drew on the outside walls, the inside walls, the roof, the edges of the windows, the floor, and even on the little gingerbread men.
They decorated it, played in it, dragged it around the house, then decorated it some more.
It was a big hit.
Above you can see the two of them inside the house, decorating it with markers.
To make it yourself, you’ll need:
large cardboard box
packing tape
box cutter
construction paper
glue / glue sticks
markers
And before I go, one more photo, showing the little candy cane heart on the back of the house :)
And don’t forget to check out these other Christmas crafts:
This November, in the spirit of Thanksgiving and Autumn, one of the projects we did was to make these Turkey Treasure Buckets.
My girls LOVE being outside.
They’d sleep out there if I let them.
Anyway, I wanted a project that would involve nature. So we made some turkey buckets to collect autumn leaves.
Unfortunately, we don’t have a ton of beautiful, colored leaves where we live in Florida. Our backyard pretty much has a bunch of brown Live Oak leaves. And some sticks, and some mulch, and some grass…
So, nature: yes. Beautiful fall colors: not so much.
I feel bad, too, because we we just in Georgia a couple of weeks ago and we collected a ton of fantastically bright fallen leaves. But I didn’t think to bring any home with us.
So, we improvised. Used what we had.
And the kids had a blast.
We started with some copper-colored mini buckets from the bargain section of Target and a handful of clothespins.
We painted the clothespins with a variety of colors and sprinkled sequins over the wet paint to represent the turkey’s feathers. It was messy, but fun. My girls love painting.
And we only did one side. You could do both if you prefer.
I cut a quick face out of construction paper while they were painting, and they helped me glue on the eyes, beaks, and waddel. Then I hot glued the faces to the buckets. This was a sure way to keep them securely attached, but with an easy way to remove them later to reuse the buckets for another project.
Then, they clipped on the clothespin “feathers.”
Voila!
Here’s a picture of my baby searching the backyard for treasures.
The clothes pins are a little heavy, but my girls wanted as many as possible. You could always use less if the weight is problem for you.
And here’s one of the buckets, filled with leaves and sticks.
They had so much fun with this. And they played with the buckets over and over, filling them with all kinds of treasures, including tiny toys.
And I had a blast watching them and helping them seek out fun discoveries in the backyard. It’s so great to spend some outdoors with my girls. I’m sooooooo happy that the coolness of fall is finally showing its face in Florida!
Happy Halloween!
Mwabwahahahahaha… [insert creepy voice here]
But no holiday (or any hour of any ordinary day either) would be complete without coffee.
So, for this holiday, I’m sharing with you some thematically appropriate awesomeness via Etsy. ‘Cause I just think Etsy rocks.
Roaming Rosie 