Not Fair!

 was wakened most cruelly this morning.

There I was, dressed in a glamorous empire waisted gown of gold, my long silky hair all wavy down my back and long cream colored gloves covered my arms to just above the elbow.  It was just him and me in this large room.  He had just walked in and stood looking breathlessly at my beauty.  He, (Tom Selleck) was just about to ask me to dance when suddenly, there was a little boy's piercingly high pitched voice yelling right outside my door that tore me right out of that wonderful dream.   Not fair, not fair, not fair...

Wouldn't you just know it?  Of course, having Tom Selleck as the leading man in the dream might just be showing my age, but who cares?  It was Tom and it was about to get good.  Darn it.

The cruel little boy and I just finished rolling out yesterday's failed nut roll dough (the second batch of the nut rolls turned out fantastic) and made cookies with it.

They're actually not bad.  Maybe my baking mojo hasn't left me completely.  I made an icing from orange juice and powdered sugar and coated the cookies.  Once they are dry, I'm going to get out the food color markers and let the kids color them, probably some time this evening.

This will be the last of the cookie baking that is to be done for this Christmas season.   Tomorrow I'll be cooking a Pork loin and making some Creamed Spinach for my part of the Christmas Eve dinner we'll be having with my In-Laws.

This is the last post until after Christmas.  I'll be out of town for about a week or so, enjoying the Holidays and spending time with family.

Have a Very Merry Christmas!

Where's my baking mojo gone?

I decided that today would be a good day for baking.  The Eldest was as school and the Youngest went off with his Grandpa.  Yes, school is still in, today is the last day though.  So, using a recipe that I got from here, I started making my nut rolls.  Well. 

Somehow, I looked at my recipe card all wrong and got my sugar quantities backwards with the bulk of it going in the dough.  Guess what?  My dough didn't rise.  All those ingredients (4 cups of flour, 1 cup milk, 1/2 pound of butter, 2.25 tsp yeast), wasted, at least on this recipe.

I have now started over and am waiting for the dough to rise, again.  I feel like such a dumba$$ right now. 

Hopefully, the first batch that went wrong won't be a total waste.  I'm going to roll it out and make some cookies from it.  If it goes wrong there too, at least I will have tried to save the ingredients.

On the good side, I did not royally screw up the 7 cups of pecans that I've substituted for the walnuts that the recipe called for.  At least I woke the hell up and stopped and re-read the recipe before doing that.  Thank God for small favors!

I'm planning on having these Nut Rolls on Christmas morning.  Something really easy and already made so that we don't have to deal with making breakfast that day.  Our Christmas mornings are chaotic enough all ready, what with the two boys and a bazillion toys and wrapping paper and cats and dogs everywhere. 

Wish me luck that I can actually succeed in making these, will ya?

Christmas Jewelry and Yarn Bowls!

I've got some earrings to share with you today.  The local Bead Shop, (I guess in yarny type terms that would be the LBS) had some really cute kits for Christmas earrings.  I made the Christmas trees a few weeks ago and the Snowmen today:

I think the little snowmen are absolutely adorable and I can't wait to wear them.   They were super easy to make as well.  I used sterling lever backs and t-pins.  The type of beads in the kit were way to fancy for just any cheap old findings.  Cute huh?


As far as knitting goes, the shawl is coming along.  I figure a few more movies out to do it. 

Also in the pic, (besides the little boy feet - he insisted on getting in the picture somehow - he's as bad as the cat), is my new yarn bowl!  My best buddy got me this at a Holiday market.  It's so funny, she had no idea what the bowl was until she asked the crafter and she knew I was the only person in the world (her world that is) that would figure out what it was.  Sure enough, I opened my present today and said, "Yay!  A yarn bowl!"  She was very smug about the whole thing of course.  :)  I love her.