Happy December!

I now know that I will have no time at all for holiday crafting this year, what with the big changes E and I have going on! I'll be lucky if I mail out Christmas cards from a box. So today, I took advantage of my last little bit of fun time and got my Christmas craft on...


After making several garbage bag wreaths for Halloween over the past few years, I decided I wanted to make something similar for Christmas, but with different materials. There is just something so fun about the fluffy knots of those wreaths and they literally take under an hour to make once you get the hang of it.

I decided to use linen since I had a bunch on hand, but you could use any fabric, felt, or even white trash bags. You can have this entire thing done during an episode of Community, so pour yourself a glass of wine and get going!


You will need:

• 1 12 inch wire wreath form (one with a double set of wires like I have here)
• About 1 yard of linen or burlap fabric
• Scissors
• Embellishments like ribbon, feathers, beads, faux birds, berries and leaves, ornaments, little toys, etc.
• A hot glue gun
• Don't forget that glass of wine! You may want to avoid red is you are a slob like me, though. No need to spill on your pretty wreath!

Lay out you fabric and begin cutting or tearing it into strips that are about 1 1/2 inches wide and 8 inches long. Don't go measuring anything; just eyeball it because they don't need to be perfect! As you work with the knots the edges will fray and create the fluffiness that will fill out the wreath.

Take a strip of fabric and loop it around the inside two wires. Secure with a double knot. Continue until inside ring is full of knots. Repeat for the outside ring. Once your wreath form is full of knots, give each one a good fluff and tug to help fray and fill out the wreath.

Now comes the fun part. Embellish your wreath to your creative little hearts content by tying on ribbons and ornaments, spray it with adhesive and throw some glitter at it, or fill in the spaces with hard candies, whatever! Just secure everything with hot glue. The hot glue gun is a crafty girl's best friend, so put it to good use! I went with a green theme since the recipient of this wreath said she tends to decorate in shades of green. I tied on a vintage glass ball ornament and a few iridescent bows, and added some sparkly berries and ferns. I wanted it to be simple, but with a little bit of vintage appeal. Don't forget to tie a small loop of ribbon to the back of the wreath form so that you can hang it.

Now I'd love to say I'm going to make more of these, including one for myself, but that's a lie. Time, time, who's got the time? If you make one, I'd love to see it and live vicariously though other peoples crafting, so don't forget to send me a photo!

One more time...

Phew! I'm back from a 5 day Thanksgiving extravaganza in North Carolina and man, am I tired! 28 hours of driving, way too much food, a little too much wine, and many rounds of LCR later, and all I wanted to do today is nap! Unfortunately, 5 days worth of emails and real life responsibilities have thwarted my attempts at sleeping for 14 hours straight. Thanksgiving was so much fun, but I'm not even going to bother posting food photos or recipes since I'm sure all of you have finished eating up leftovers and have shut the book on Turkey Day until next year. Bring on the December holidays!

I'm already in the Christmas mood thanks to the Regatta in North Myrtle Beach, and lucky you guys, I can help you with your holiday shopping, too! Online Poster Printing has given me a chance to offer you another giveaway in time for the winter shopping season (that is if you didn't finish all of your shopping in the Black Friday madness, you crazy people!).

The details:
Giveaway Prize: (1) 16x20” Rolled Canvas for One Lucky Winner
Size: 16x20 rolled canvas
Shipping: FREE UPS Ground Shipping in the US
Eligibility: Limited to US Residents due to shipping costs. We will negotiate better shipping rates soon.
Giveaway ends Monday, 12/6/09

You can check out samples of the rolled canvas prints here and read reviews of their products here. These rolled canvas prints make great gifts, whether you are printing a family portrait, a favorite landscape photo, or anything else you can think of.  I'll be using mine to print a gift for my mother, but I can't say more just in case she reads this! If you'd like to win, all you need to do is:
1. Leave a comment describing what you will do with your print. Don't forget to leave an email address so that I can contact you if you win!
2. This time, I am offering you the chance to earn up to 2 extra entries, too. Just tweet or blog about this giveaway and link back to me. Then leave me an extra comment with the link to your tweet or blog entry! Winners will be chosen on Monday, December 6th and your prize claim info will come directly from the sponsor.

So get commenting if you want to knock one gift off your list! And check back soon for more giveaways and recipes, and the big spill (cause I have fricking huge news people! But I can't tell you until all of my friends and family in the real world have answered their phones :) I know they'd kill me if they heard it here first!).

I'm so stuffed!

I shouldn't be surprised by that, since I just inhaled the plate of food you see here :) You'd be stuffed, too!

This month,  BakeSpace is hosting a recipe contest with Libby's. (Anytime I see a Libby's label I think of my poor cousin! Libby had to suffer years of torture thanks to their theme song, which now is stuck in my head. WTF.) We all had to create an original recipe using Libby's Pumpkin Puree, so today's belly buster is my entry. I've made so many pumpkin recipes in the past few weeks, I'm afraid I may get sick of it, but let's hope not!

Pumpkin Ricotta Baked Stuffed Shells
* serves 6

Ingredients:
½ c.each: pumpkin puree, ricotta cheese, shredded parmesan cheese, and seasoned bread crumbs
1 tsp. salt
½ tsp. dried sage
¼ tsp. thyme
¼ tsp. nutmeg
½ lb. jumbo shells
2 Tbls. butter
2 Tbls. all purpose flour
1 c. milk or cream
¾ c. shredded smoked mozzarella
6-10 fresh sage leaves
1 Tbls. olive oil

Preparation:
Cook shells in boiling salted water until al dente (about 12 minutes). Drain and set aside.

Blend all ingredients up to nutmeg with a fork until combined. Set aside.

Melt butter over medium high heat in a small saucepan. Add flour and salt and cook, stirring constantly, until smooth and bubbly. Add milk and stir constantly until all lumps disappear. Add smoked mozzarella (seriously, I am getting addicted to this stuff. It is so delicious alone, but it adds just the right amount of nutty, smoky flavor to other ingredients.), remove from heat, and stir until melted and smooth.

Spoon 1/3 c. of cheese sauce into the bottom of a 9x9 baking dish. Fill each shell with about a Tbls. of ricotta mixture and place into the pan. Once all shells are filled and fit snugly in pan, pour remaining sauce over the top. Bake at 375 for 25-30 minutes or until sauce is bubbly.

This last step is not really necessary, but I like crispy sage! It fills the kitchen with a lovely smell, and it adds a punch of flavor. But I suppose, if you must, you can skip it. If not, then heat olive oil in a small sauté pan over high heat. Add fresh sage leaves and fry until crisp, about 4 minutes. Serve shells hot with crispy sage garnish.

I also had a bunch of sauteed spinach with mine, and it was such a good lunch! I imagine it would be a nice addition to a Thanksgiving table, especially if you have vegetarian friends coming over or relatives who for some ungodly reason don't like turkey. They are quick and can definitely be made ahead of time, stored wrapped in the fridge for a day or two, and baked just before dinner time.

Print this recipe!

We have a winner!

Congrats to Gina of Moneywise Moms for winning 50 custom cards from Digital Room! Thanks to everyone who entered, and keep coming back for more offers :)

Nigella's Eggplant Involtini

This week's theme for I Heart Cooking is potluck, which means of course, that we get to make anything we want! I picked up Nigella Lawson's Feast about two weeks ago and have read it through at least twice since. One thing I love about her books is how beautiful and funny they are, even if it's unintentional. I can almost hear Nigella talking  in her lilting little accent as I read, which makes it seem so natural and amusing when she describes the dishes and preparations. One of the recipes that immediately jumped out at me was her Involtini, made with eggplant and what looked like a fantastic creamy filling. I decided to make it this week, since I had most of the ingredients together already. Nigella says, "You get a decent wodge of involtini out of this." A wodge? So I only bought one eggplant (the recipe calls for two or three) but I only needed to feed 2 people, not 6. It still made enough invotini for dinner and lunch the next day. The only other changes I made were in the filling. Nigella calls for fresh mozzarella, which I imagine would have made the filling a little more wet. I used smoked mozzarella (thanks to Giada for turning me onto that!) for the filling and plain shredded mozzarella for the top since I had some and didn't feel like shredding any fresh cheese by hand. So what, I'm lazy!

Involtini with Eggplant

Ingredients:

1 large eggplant (approximately 1 lb.), sliced lengthways in slices at most 1/4 inch thick

1/2 c. extra virgin olive oil

1 cup tomato sauce

1/2 cup shredded mozarella

For the filling:

1/2 c. crumbled feta

1/2 c. smoked mozzarella, cut into small cubes

1/4 c. shredded Parmesan

1/2 c. pine nuts

1/3 c. raisins, soaked in hot water for ten minutes and drained

4 Tbls. extra virgin olive oil

3 Tbls. bread crumbs

1 garlic clove, minced

Zest of one lemon

1 tsp. fresh mint, chopped

2 Tbls. fresh parsley, chopped

1 egg, beaten

Preparation:

First things first. You need to slice up that eggplant. The one I bought was easily the largest eggplant I've ever seen, and it was a serious bitch. Maybe if I had a giant mandolin slicer it would have been fun, but no (add that to my wishlist!). I f'd up the slices completely. Maybe 3 or 4 of them were even and the rest were a wonky mess. Ah well. Once you have your eggplant sliced, you need to brush the slices with olive oil and cook for about 4 minutes per side, until they are softened. I used my pretty little grill pan, not realizing it was only big enough for one slice at a time until it was already hot and oiled (now that just sounds wrong!). Had I realized this earlier, I would have just cooked the eggplant on the outside grill and had it over with in ten minutes! Set them aside to cool.

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees while you make the filling. This part is easy! Just dump everything in a bowl and toss it together. Looks yummy just as is, no? Now take a slice of eggplant, plop a dollop of filling onto one end (maybe a large tablespoon, I didn't really measure, and neither does Nigella), and roll. Place the rolled eggplant, seam at the bottom, into a 9x9 inch baking dish. Repeat, repeat, repeat.

Once all of the involtini are snugly resting in the pan, pour tomato sauce over the top. Now don't go using any fancy pants pasta sauce here. You want plain and simple canned tomato sauce with nothing added to compete with the flavors in the filling! Sprinkle shredded mozzarella over the top and bake for 25 - 30 minutes. Allow the dish to rest 10 minutes before serving.

I've got to tell you, we frickin' loved this. The combination of the smoky cheese and the brightness of the lemon zest, wow. E couldn't figure out what he was eating because with every bite he'd taste something new. "Wait, are there raisins in this? And lemon? Nuts?" While this wasn't the quickest dish to make, I will absolutely make it again. I actually prepared the dish the day before and baked it just before dinner. You could certainly cook the eggplant and make the filling a few days ahead, too. In fact, I have extra filling sitting in my fridge right now! I'm thinking I'll roll it in a bit of parma ham and make a grilled cheese sandwich, yum!

p.s. I did participate in last week's theme (Man Food) but decided not to post it until I've really perfected the recipe. I had E choose a recipe from Feast and of course, he picked the T-Bone Steak with Potato Wedges and Onion Rings, which I immediately refused to make. No deep fried food in this house thank you!  Instead I thought to marry the two sides into one dish. I made baked sweet potatoes with a crusty coating made from a little bit of  French's Fried Onions and a Rib Eye. It was delicious, but the potatoes weren't quite right, so I'll post them once I work out the kinks!

Cake Fail!

or How Not Following Directions Can Be a Good Thing

On my last visit home, I got to spend an afternoon with my sister Christina at her school's Health and Wellness Fair. As the school nurse, she had to give out free blood pressure readings, while I cruised around entering raffles, making fun of the hoola hoop teacher (although at 55, she had a slammin' bod, and all the moms in the room were eyeing her with hatred), and getting free massages. I didn't win anything (I don't know what I'd have done with a basket of jump ropes anyway), but I did get a recipe from the people manning the apple table from Oak Haven Farms. The recipe is supposed to be for apple brownies, and I couldn't wait to try them. I have also been trying to figure out a way to get rid of the rest of the caramel candy corn I bought for Halloween. The bag has been taunting me from a high shelf for weeks, and my strength to resist was fading. This seemed like the perfect marriage of flavors, so I started messing with the recipe.

It wasn't until the batter was in the oven that I realized that I have made these before. Way back in high school I worked at a little coffee shop called Java. It was the first and only job that actually paid me to bake. I loved it! It was there that I first learned to make chocolate meringues, scones, and what I thought were crazy muffin flavors. The owners let me make anything I wanted from a huge shelf of cook books, even if no one ever bought them (who knew Raspberry Cream Soda muffins were a bad idea?). The owner also had a family recipe for apple brownies, which I made all the time and had completely forgotten about. Once that smell filled my kitchen, though, it was like I was transported back in time.  I wish I still had that recipe, but sadly I have lost touch with them and the shop closed years and years ago!

You can see why I'd be excited about this new recipe, hoping it would turn out like the first. After about 40 minutes of baking, I checked the pan and... mush. The center was wiggle jiggle central, while the edges had just begun to crisp. Blast! I looked back at the teensy print and realized I wasn't supposed to use a 9x9 pan, but a 9x13 pan. WTF? I was soo mad at myself, but I just let it bake and bake and bake. An hour and 15 minutes later, the brownies were cooked through, and I left them to cool.

Once cooled, I ran a knife around the edges to loosen the brownie and tipped it out onto my cutting board to slice. Lo and behold, the bottom of the brownie was amass with glistening caramel, which oozed down the sides into little pools. The candy corn had sunk to the bottom (although oddly the apples had not) and melted completely to form a sticky caramel sauce. It looked just like an upside-down cake. I was irritated for a minute, but then I fuigured, "Whatever, it'll probably taste ok!" Oh my God, you guys, it was so good! Much better than I remembered with the addition of the caramel! The "brownie" turned out to be nothing like a brownie at all, but was more like a dense, moist cake. It was delicious served warm with a little vanilla bean ice cream, and might be a good Christmas morning treat. That's a list that's steadily growing in my head, and it isn't even Thanksgiving yet. Sheesh.

Caramel Apple Accidental Upside-Down Cake
Adapted from a recipe from Oak Haven Farms, Scotland, CT

Ingredients:
1 cup softened butter
2 cups granulated sugar
2 eggs
3 cups crisp apples (like Cortland, Red Delicious, or Fuji), peeled and chopped into 1/2 inch pieces
1 cup carmael candy corn
2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
3 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. allspice

Preparation:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease the sides and bottom of a 9x9 inch glass dish with cooking spray. Don't be stingy!
In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar, beat in eggs. Add remaining ingredients except for apples and caramels, stir until just combined. Fold in apples and caramels. Pour into prepared pan and bake for 1 hour and 10 - 20 minutes, or until top is golden brown and crusty and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Allow to cool completely in the pan before running a knife around the edges and tipping out. Slice into squares and serve upside down, so caramel drips over the sides.

Print the Recipe!

Pumpkin Pie Bread Pudding

After getting obsessed with Zoe and Jeff's Master Bread recipe, I decided to jump on board the baking group for their new book, Healthy Bread in 5 Minutes a Day. It's based on the same principles of the original book (baking fresh bread with ease and simplicity, and no kneading!), but with many healthier alternatives. Michelle of Big Black Dog is the group's host, and you can learn all about the baking group on her blog if you are interested in joining. Once the book is released in January, we will bake our way through it. I can't wait to get my copy, which I won from a random giveawy on Michelle's blog. There is also a "secret recipe" released just for the group in November and December, so we are all getting an early start. This month's bread was Pumpkin Pie Brioche. You'll have to visit the blog to get the recipe (we are not allowed to post the recipes due to the copyright), but it's well worth it!

The other nice thing about the group is that you have lots of participants to ask for tips and opinions, which is important for a bread baking newbie like myself. I'll be honest, looking at the breads made by other members of the group made me so very jealous! They are all beautfully golden, sparkling with sugar, and perfectly photographed. My bread, well, let's just say it came out badly. It looked flat, dense, and, even though I doubled the spices as recommended by group members, it didn't have the punch of flavor I had hoped for. I decided to dress it up a little and make a bread pudding. Of course, it turns out I wasn't the only person with this idea! Michelle's bread pudding is so pretty. I made mine after dinner, but I hate taking pictures of food at night because the lighting in my kitchen is garbage, and everything looks muted and sickly. Despite that, it was delicious, and I'd definitely make it again.

Individual Pumpkin Pie Bread Puddings:

Ingredients:
1 cup half and half
2 eggs
8 oz. pumpkin puree
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. ginger
1/2 tsp. allspice
4 slices of pumpkin pie brioche, slightly stale, cut into cubes
1/2 cup dried cranberries

Preparation:
Whisk together all but the last two ingedients. Fold in bread and cranberries. Spoon evenly into greased ramekins and let stand for 15 minutes. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 25 minutes, or until tops are golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Serve warm, topped with a drizzle of maple syrup and whipped cream.

So yeah, not the prettiest dessert I've made, but E ate the whole thing, which sometimes attests to the fact that he loves something, and sometimes is only proof that he's hungry. He is a champ when it comes to inhaling a bag of Doritos in 3 minutes, so his finishing a dish isn't always the highest compliment :)

If you want to be really impressed by this bread, your best bet is to check out the mouth watering posts by the other group members here in the Bread Braid. You'll be drooling all over your keyboard, I promise.

Print the Recipe!

Giveaway time again!

Hey peeps! I get to host another giveaway, this time thanks to the folks at DigitalRoom.com. They make high quality  greeting cards, prints, and more. You can check out reviews of their products here if you are so inclined. And since we are friends, I need to tell you that in addition to offering you guys a prize, I get a set of 50 cards myself as a thanks for hosting the giveaway. Double sweet :)

Here are the details:

Prize Offered: (50 ct.) 7 x 5" (folded to 3.5 x 5") Custom Thank You Cards with plain envelopes

Shipping: Free UPS Ground within United States

Eligibility: Limited to US Residents.

How to Enter: Just leave me a comment! Tell me what you'll do with your cards, and don't forget give me your name and email address so that I can contact you if you win.

What to do with your cards: Send thanks to your friends and loved ones, duh! Even if you haven't had a big wedding, a birthday party, or any other bash lately, it's always nice to send thank you cards. Why not send one to your best friend for being so full of awesome? To your mom for being supportive? To your significant other for taking out the trash?

This giveaway ends on November 22nd, so get to commenting! Good luck everyone!

Happy Veteran's Day

To my Papa, a Veteran of the Korean Conflict and hands down the greatest man I've ever known. He was one of those sadly dis-appearing people who would give anything for his country and family, who respected everyone no matter what race, religion, or belief, and who gave love and support in place of anger or disapproval. We all miss you dearly!

To my Uncle Tom, a Vietnam Vet and kayaking, wood chopping, lobster boiling badass. Sure that's a funny description, but it's true! He's one of the coolest people around, and has been an essential part of keeping our family traditions going strong.

To all of you out there who fight for us, even when we criticize you, the military, and our government as a whole. Thank you for knowing there is something bigger going on out there, despite personal politics, and that we are all worth being protected, no matter what we believe in.