Begging

I ordered James' Christmas presents from amazon this year. When the gifts arrived and I tried to bring the box into the house but quickly learned that he could smell his favorite toys through the packaging.  I knew I couldn't find a hiding spot good enough to keep him away, so I moved the package into the garage.  James proceeded to spend most of the evening at the garage door begging for his presents. 

Please let me have my presents early!

Advent Calendars

One of my favorite traditions as a child was our advent calendars.  My grandmother created us beautiful cross-stitched calendars and every year would attach small gifts that we would open on each of the days of December leading up to Christmas.  Even now as an adult my calendar is still replenished with gifts from my Grandpa who likes to keep the tradition going just as much as I do.

As you can see Christmas is close!

 Since I loved this tradition so much I made Kenny a calendar of his own.

Was Kenny's calendar.. notice the bones. : )

But as you can see I quickly learned that this calendar doesn't have much room to hold the average gifts I pick for Kenny and would hold up better for James. Kenny's gift now reside in a bag where all his presents are numbered and easy to pick out.  

All three of us open our gifts together each night and celebrate the holiday season. : )

Homemade Vanilla Extract

It is a good thing that no one visits this blog yet or I would be caught giving out some of my Christmas present secrets early. : ) After seeing many similar projects on Pinterest I decided that I had to attempt this project to give out as a homemade gift this year.   I mean who wouldn't love fresh homemade vanilla extract. 

I started out ordering these bottles and vanilla beans from amazon, and picked up a 1.75 of cheap unflavored vodka from the liquor store.

Vodka and vanilla beans steeping.

To start the project I ran the bottles through the dishwasher and allowed them to dry.  Then I split the vanilla beans in half and again down the center of each bean.  I then placed 2 full beans in each bottle and filled the bottle with 6 ounces of vodka.  And that is it folks. For the next 6 weeks the vodka and vanilla beans will need to steep, and then will be ready for whatever baking adventure you have planned. I am keeping the bottles in a cool, dry spot, but even in the back of your spice cabinet will work. Once you start to run low on vanilla extract you may add more unflavored vodka to the bottle and repeat the steeping process.

To finish my bottles into presents I have created the following labels using Microsoft Word and plan to attach them with ribbon.  Once I actually complete this step I will add the finish product photo.

Labels- need to be cut out and attached to bottles.

Good thing we have 5 more days until Christmas. : )

*** Edited to add finish product photo.

Christmas Cookies

If you haven't started your Christmas baking yet you have to follow this recipe...

from : http://annies-eats.com/2007/12/12/christmas-cookies/
Ella’s White Sugar Cookies
Ingredients:
1 cup butter softened
1 cup powdered sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 ½ t. almond extract
1 t. vanilla (or the seeds of one split vanilla bean)
1 t. salt
2 ½ c. sifted flour

Directions:
Cream butter in mixer attached with paddle.
Add 1 cup of powdered sugar.
Blend in egg, almond extract, vanilla, salt and flour.
Chill dough until firm approximately one to two hours.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Roll to ¼” thickness on well-floured surface.
Cut out rolled dough with cookie cutters.
Place cookies on wax papered cookie sheets.
Bake for 8-10 minutes. Pull cookies before browning occurs.
Once cool frost and decorate.

Yields approximately 40 cookies depending on size of cookie cutters used.

For icing I used Wilton's standard recipe

Royal Icing
Ingredients:

4 cups powdered sugar, sifted
3 tbsp. meringue powder
8 tbsp. water (edited from original recipe to make for piping consistency)

Directions:
Combine all ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. 
Mix on low speed until the sheen has disappeared and the icing has a matte appearance (about 7-10 minutes).  Transfer the contents of the mixing bowl to an air-tight container for coloring and storage.

If you follow my adapted recipe for royal icing the original consistency should be ready for piping. If you want to color the icing I would do that now by adding in a few drops of your selected color.  I prefer to use AmericColor gel paste which I have found to work better than anything else on accurate coloring and keeping the consistency of icing. With the thickened icing you will need approximately 1/4th of the prepared recipe for outlining.  Place this amount into a piping bag, with a #5 tip, and slowly outline the shape of your cookies. Once completed squeeze out any remaining icing back into the sealed containers.  Allow the cookies at least one hour for the outline to harden.. Slowly add in water a tbsp at a time to the remaining icing until the consisting is now thin enough that it easily slides off your mixing spoon.  Once that is done it is now time to "flood" or fill the interior of your cookie.  I found that toothpicks allow you to reach the tiny corners and crevices of the shape with ease. 

If you want to add any sprinkles I would do that after all cookies are filled in.  Cookies need to sit out at least 24 hours for the icing to set up. Once this is done you can package up your cookies and even stack them. If you want to pipe a decoration onto the cookie you must at least 24 hours for the cookies to harden up and then allow them another 24 hours for piping to set before being able to pack up the cookies. 

I wish I had photos to include with this post but the cookies were just too good that they were gone before I had a chance. : ) Again if you haven't baked cookies yet you must get over your fear and try working with royal icing.  I may never ice a cookie in regular frosting again.