Home(made) for the Holidays

This December, like most others, I'm busy crafting and cooking. With Christmas drawing closer I'm starting to wonder if I put too much on my plate this year but I wouldn't be happy if I wasn't busy and there's something about making something with your own two hands that's so much more satisfying than buying the same thing.

I can't go into much detail (yet!) on some of my projects (spoilers!) but here's what I've got in the works this year:

To kick things off I made my sister a Cookie Monster scarf for her birthday at the end of November. I forgot to snap a picture of it before shipping it off. Maybe she'll be nice enough to send one or wearing it of her wearing it so I can share it with you.

Chocolate Hazelnut Granola

Now that I'm a mom, breastfeeding takes a lot out of me. As in I'm hungry ALL THE TIME! I love granola because you can pack a lot of energy and nutrition into a small snack. Plus, oats are great for improving your milk supply if you're breastfeeding. For a while I was just having my husband buy me granola cereal at the grocery store. Then on our last shopping trip, as I looked glumly at the comparatively large price tags and small box sizes of the granola-y cereals I decided my money would be much better spend on some oats and nuts to make my own granola. I was also motivated by the ingredient lists on many of the mixed grain cereals available. Sure the Post Great Grains cereal I'd been eating before was delicious and healthier than say Coco Puffs, but sugar was still listed higher on the label than oats were.
So on to the granola making! Yesterday morning after I let the dog out, I whipped up a batch of granola, popped it in the oven, and by the time I'd finished my pre-breakfast morning chores, the granola was ready. Awesome!
Making your own granola is seriously easy and not a huge money investment for a kitchen stocked with some basics. Rolled oats can be bought in a large can for about the same price as those expensive store bought granolas; you'll get enough to make serveral batches of granola, or change it up and make oatmeal, cookies, bread... yum! Nuts are a little pricier depending on what kind you get but worth the investment I think and you only need about a cup for every 3 cups of oats. I have lots of walnuts and almonds on hand anyway because I use them in my baking all the time.
I found a great mix and match granola recipe here and came up with a chocolate hazelnut recipe.

Dry:

• 3 cups of rolled oats
• 1 cup of choppped hazelnuts
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tbsp cinnamon
• 1 tbsp cocoa powder

Wet::

• 2/3 cup honey
• 2 tbsp canola oil

Instructions:

Easy peasy! Preheat the oven to 350 F and line a 13x9 in cake pan with foil. Use a spatula to mix dry ingredients in a large bowl, then add the wet and mix that in too. Dump the oat mixture into your baking pan and bake for 50 minutes, stirring once about half way through. For optimum crunchy goodness, let cool and store in an airtight container.
Enjoy!

Making Christmas!

We've been busy making lots of sweet treats for the holidays! In an attempt to save some money this holdiday season in preparation for the arrival of our little one, we decided to make tubs of homemade goodies.
You might remember the marshmallows we made last year. They were so good & easy that we made two batches this year. The first batch was mint like last year but we scaled back from 1 1/2 tbsp of peppermint extract to just 3/4 tbsp. The results were a huge improvement! The second batch was vanilla for which I kept the original recommended 1 1/2 tbsp and, again, I think this is a little too much.
Paula Deen's Marshmallow Recipe

Next I made caramels. First and LAST time! They were delicious but a pain in the butt! I used this recipe from Taste of Home. Here's why I won't be making them again even though they were heavenly:

1. They took FOREVER! My aching preggo back stood at the stove for 2 hours before the caramel finally reached hard ball stage. It seemed the more I stirred, the more the molten sugar refused to get any hotter but if I paused in stirring it threatened to boil over and/or burn to the bottom. Maybe my stove just stinks. 
2. They took forever! Then I foolishly thought they would be firm enough to hold their own shape once cut. No such luck.After the caramel cooled I cut it up and piled it into my gift tubs. The next day I returned to find a giant gooey blob. So... cut again and the Mr and I spent the better part of an hour cutting little wax paper squares and individually wrapping each little caramel. 
3. They are pricey. Obviously this is also true of the marshmallows we made but the marshmallows have the virtues of being quick, easy, and infinitely better than store bought. Of these qualities, the caramels were only marginally better than store bought and so in my opinion, not worth the time and expense. 

The last item in our holiday goody bins were gingersnaps made with Mr's grandmother's recipe. They rock! Everyone we watched open a bin immediately went for one of the cookies first. 

Cherry-Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

Recipe time! Mr. & I finally have a weekend to ourselves and we are preparing in case we need to bunker down for the upcoming "Frankenstorm" (the weather folks are saying that a cold front from the west is going to collide with hurricane Sandy from the east to bring us snow all next week). So of course cookies are a must. Hey, oatmeal and dried fruit are healthy right???
Here's the recipe based on Food Network Magazine's Mix & Match chocolate chip cookies.

Cherry-Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies
Ingredients: 1/2 c softened butter or margarine
1/3 c white sugar
1/3 c light brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla (I was going to try 1/2 vanilla and 1/2 almond extract but didn't have the almond on hand)
1 c flour
1 c oats
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Mix ins: 3/4 c chocolate chips
1/3 c chopped dried cherries

Directions 
Beat butter and sugars until fluffy, beat in egg and vanilla.
In a separate bowl stir together remaining ingredients up to mix ins then beat this dry mixture into the wet.
Stir in mix ins until combined.
Refrigerate batter for about 30 minutes until it's cold and a little more firm.
Scoop onto cookie sheets and bake at 350 F for 12-15 minutes.

Apple vs. Pumpkin: October update

Apple vs Pumpkin Fall 2012 is under way.

So far it's a close battle: 

Team Apple has 8 Pinners, 99 followers, and 29 Pins. 

Team Pumpkin has  10 Pinners, 105 followers, and 25 Pins.

Take sides:

• Check out the Boards on Pinterest. 
• Comment here to: share links, tell me about projects you tried on the boards
• And now add to the Linky below!

Add to Team Apple!

Add to Team Pumpkin!

Apple vs. Pumpkin: Choose your side!

I don't know about all of you, but my Facebook and Pinterest feeds are being overwhelmed with pumpkin everything at the first sniffs of fall. Where are the apples?!?!
Don't get me wrong, you all know I can enjoy some pumpkin and tis the season, but Johnny Appleseed doesn't have his own holiday for nothing!
So I propose a friendly competition of sorts between the top two classic tastes of fall; Apple vs. Pumpkin!
How to participate:

1. Comment below with a link to your favorite pumpkin or apple recipe or craft.
2. If you Pin, follow me on Pinterest (if you don't already) and comment with a request to be added as a Pinner to one or both of my Pinterest boards. 
3. Share as many recipes/crafts as you like. Pick a team or support both sides! 
4. Share this blog post with as many people as you want. The more participants, the merrier! 

Happy Fall and let the competition begin!

Team Apple! Ham & Apple Pie

  

Team Pumpkin! Pumpkin Bottom Cupcakes

Sunday Night Baking

Tonight we've been baking up a storm! I found a recipe for Chai Spiced Sugar Cookies on Thurday that I've been dying to try ever since. Tonight I finally got around to making them and they are as yummy as I'd hoped!