Last Minute Christmas Gifts

Need some last minute gifts for friends, neighbors, family? Try a few of these on...

I love this plate above. My sister Michelle designed it. It's such a beautiful holiday decoration with a wonderful saying to bring the Spirit of Christmas to your home. Although I've categorized this in with the gifts, I'm keeping mine! The plate was only $2.50 at Tai Pan Trading. The font is Civitype.

This is another Michelle design. Such a fun, cute idea for families with little children. I'll be keeping one of these as well! The font is Disney and the cut file for the Santa head, well, is Michelle's. Maybe she'll share? But of course you can put in any Christmas doodlebat.

I really like this gift above for couples, teachers, neighbors, etc. Really, any woman would be happy to get one of these! Including myself...you guessed it. I'll be keeping one of these as well. I can't help it - I'm a selfish being! This is a Mindy idea. The tag on these are going to say, "You're gettin' muffin for Christmas!" Inside are some spatulas and I'll be putting in muffin mixes as well. So cute! Thanks Mindy! Here is the cut file for the trees.

Christmas tree cut file - .svg

I wish I had taken a picture of the advent calendar. I haven't finished mine yet, but Mindy and Michelle made such cute ones. I'm going to try to find the paper I want so it fits with my decor. I'll show you when it's all done!

Good luck with your last minute gifting!

Pie Crust

I got a request for these pie recipes that go with the apple pie recipe I gave a long time ago and the cut file for the small individual pie boxes. I've loved this crust recipe for a LONG time. Recently my mom did pies for a young women's activity and she researched and tried a lot of different recipes and found that the ones just like this (with only slight variations) were the best and most loved. So without any more ado, here is the recipe for a great standard pie crust for a whole double crust pie or chicken pot pie.

Pie Crust

2 c flour
2/3 c plus 1 Tbsp cold shortening (can sub the 1 Tbsp with butter)
1 tsp salt
6 Tbsp ice water (approx)

Cut shortening into flour until like coarse cornmeal. Add water gradually. Mix lightly with a fork.

One hint here: don't be afraid of water. Be afraid of mixing too much. Some of the best pie crusts I've made have been just a little wetter than I thought they should be. I barely mix with a fork and make sure that as I put in the water, I am sprinkling it all over and I try not to get any one spot too wet.

Split dough in half. Put half of dough on floured wax paper. Sprinkle flour on top of the dough and cover with plastic wrap. With hands on top of the plastic wrap, form dough into a ball. Roll out dough from center to ends all around the circle, making sure not to roll too much. Keep the plastic wrap stuck to the pie crust and fold the dough in half. Fold dough in half again, removing the wax paper as you go, but keeping the plastic wrap adhered. Put the dough into the pie pan, using the plastic wrap to center and pull the dough to the right areas so the whole pan is covered.

(These steps will help you with a number of things. First, cleanup is a snap. Second when you roll out, the ball shape will help you create a better circle without as much waste and breaking of the ends. Third, it makes putting the dough into the pie pan easy peasy.)

Pour your pie filling into the crust. Top with a little butter for apple pie. Repeat dough steps for other half of the dough. Fold the top dough under the bottom dough and crimp to seal. Cut slits in middle of pie. I like to then brush with milk and sprinkle sugar on the top. I bake apple pie at 400 degrees for 50 minutes.

If you're making the little pies, here is the recipe I really liked for that:

Mini individual apple pies

Enjoy!!

The Little Christmas Giveaway Winner Is...

Sopranoannie

Congrats!!!

Ann...will you email me via melinda.ford1@gmail.com so I can send you the files? I couldn't find it on your profile!

Thanks everybody! I hope you get to enjoy the files, whether or not you won!

Merry Christmas and Little Give Away

Merry Christmas everyone!

For the holidays, I'd like to do a couple things...first - offer you a new box cut file for your Ritz and sugar cookies! If you make this file as big as a 12 x 12 paper will allow, you will be able to fit exactly four of each kind of cookie inside, just right.

Wrap it up with a 1 1/2" - 2" ribbon and put a tag on it. Oh...another merry christmas to you...I've provided the tag I made in word with a cut file to go with it so you can edit, print, then cut. Hooray! Easy as that! The fonts used are Freebooter script (free) and DB Seasons Greetings (could be free...see below! - otherwise, found at scrapnfonts.com).

For my last little surprise, I'd like to give away a couple of great fonts I bought two of at scrapnfonts.com. So, leave a comment by Friday night at midnight and I'll random number in Excel to see who will win the following fonts:

DB Seasons Greetings (used for the tree on the labels)

LD Cursive Flourish

I know it's not a big thing...but, hey! It's free!!! (and I can afford to do it!) So leave a comment and see if you win!

Files:

Christmas Octagon Box - .svg

Label - .svg

Word Labels - .doc

Word labels cut file - .scut

Sweet Christmas Treats

Hi there! We've been busy over here creating some goodies to give out to neighbors - I'm sure we're not the only ones either! Stress city is almost over - I can't believe how much work making goodies is. Thank goodness for awesome helpers! Thanks Jen, Sarah, and Amy - you're babes! (quite literally too, they're gorgeous!)

The first new recipe we tried was sugar cookies with chocolate and crushed peppermint. My favorite part about this is the new sugar cookie recipe I found while searching for this cookie (that I was introduced to by a good friend in school. (Thanks Kristi!)

You can find the awesome new sugar cookie recipe here: Delicious Sugar Cookies

Tips: Cream butter and sugar while the butter is cold. I used a thin vase to cut out 1 1/2 - 2 inch circles for this recipe. (You'll see why this is important tomorrow!) The chocolate used in this recipe is just chocolate chips, so it's not tempered and needs to be kept in the freezer/fridge. If I did it again, I might just use the sugar cookies on their own with festive sugar crystals on the top. This recipe does NOT need frosting. It is delicious without!

If you want the chocolate peppermint version, here it is: Chocolate frosting and filling recipes

For this next dessert, there is no real recipe needed. If you've never had them, you must try them. This is one of my all time new favorite Christmas goodies. (Introduced to me by my used-to-be neighbor Jill Morris - who is not there to make them for me this year, so I'm doing it myself - miss you girl!)

Recipe (sort of): Make peanut butter Ritz sandwiches by smearing some peanut butter in between two Ritz crackers. Dip them in chocolate candy coating. Chocolate almond bark worked well. Make sure you don't use chocolate chips - they won't set at room temp. Drizzle with almond bark (white). Let set. Done!

I'm very excited about these next ones too. Caramel chocolate covered pretzels are the ones I really wanted to get the hang of this year. This is an AWESOME recipe!

Caramel Chocolate Covered Pretzels

Hints/Tips: Do not cook caramel to soft ball stage. It will be too hard...it will stick to wax paper without any kind of successful chance of being removed (unless you like a mouthful of paper)...but it will make delicious caramels! So, when she says boil for five minutes, she means five minutes! When you dip them, do not place directly on the wax paper. Prop up on the cookie sheet so that you will have less to mold (which can get sticky). Don't mold the caramel at room temperature...you'll get sticky. Have I mentioned it's sticky? Make sure it's been in the fridge for a while first.

Also, make sure you use chocolate almond bark or Wilton's candy coating, etc. Don't underestimate the power of tempered chocolate! You will be SO happy with these pretzels! I know I am!!!

P.S. Stay tuned for tomorrow or Tuesday, as you will need something to put the cookies in! :)