Photo Dump for January 2010

Well, this isn't much of a photo dump. I only took one picture in January. It must have been a slow month. Marky sent me some pontoofs of my very own. I love them with all of my nerdy knitting heart! Thanks Moko!

Photo Dump for December

December was pretty eventful. Of course, much of this month revolved around food. I found some really fun recipes that will make it into my regular rotation.
First, I made some 3-ingredient cookies. I got this recipe from a friend in DC. These aren't as good as pumpkin bread with chocolate chips, but they will do in a pinch. All you need is a spice cake mix, pumpkin and chocolate chips! How fun is that?! Instead of chocolate chips, I used chocolate covered blueberries. It was a fun flavor combination. It always makes a ton of cookies, but considering my tendency to continually snack on them, it works out great!
I found a fun looking recipe in a Taste of Home magazine for some Bubble Bread. I had to try it. I made the dough and divided it. You flatten each ball of dough, drop a bit of jam in the middle and pinch it closed. I used up the last of my blueberry refrigerator jam. You then line and layer all the balls in a pan.
Ta-da! Ready for the oven!
I'm still trying to figure out why I took two "pre-oven" pictures. Oh well, it IS a photo dump, so you're just getting everything.
Here is the "post oven" picture. It smelled so yum.
I inverted it onto my cake saver. Kind of fun.
The end result was pretty good. The only problem was that it called for a tube pan, but I don't have a tube pan. I just used a regular loaf pan. Unfortunately that made the center all gooey. But the edges sure were delish! I ended up using much of the salvageable middle to make bread pudding.
I also tried a recipe I found for some cinnamon buns using Bisquik. It looked and smelled good, but the end result was dry and just tasted like a mildly sweeter biscuit. A real disappointment if you've ever had Mammy's cinnamon buns ("Would you like some butter on your buns?" "We'll talk about that later!"). These were definitely not worth making again.
Well, with all of my desires to bake during the month of December, I wanted to find something special for my Christmas Eve dinner. I was perusing AllRecipes one day and came across a recipe for Scotch Eggs. I had never heard of Scotch Eggs, but the pictures and comments really made me want to try them. I decided to make them for my holiday dinner. I began by boiling some eggs. I covered each egg with sausage (maple flavored is my favorite) and then gave each a breadcrumb coating.
I then cooked them first on the stove until they were browned. All of the turning made them kind of square-y.
After that, I lined them on a pan and put them in the oven to cook all the way through.
And they're done! Hmmm...pre oven and post oven look pretty much the same.
I then made some green beans and funeral potatoes to go with them for a complete holiday meal. I cut them in half to serve because....well, because they look cool that way.
Here are the eggs up close. They were especially delicious slathered with country dijon mustard.
There were plenty of left-overs for the rest of the week.
Gosh Holly, enough with the food, already!
Well, I wanted to do something fun for my little Valiant 9 class on the Sunday before Christmas. I found a wooden box on clearance at a craft store. I bought some paint and lacquer and went to work. Maybe I should have taken a before picture. Oh well...
I covered it in stars, and put one big bright star on the top in the middle. I bought some gold beads, and frankincense and myrrh pellets to put inside.
I also bought some little wooden boxes at the craft store (only $1 each!). I brought markers, beads and jewels so each of the kids could decorate their very own box.
I filled each one with a little plastic baggy of gold, frankincense and myrrh. I also put a little piece of parchment paper in each one. I "antiqued" the papers by burning the edges, and managed to do it without setting off my smoke alarm. I was proud of myself. I had each of the kids write down on their piece of parchment what their gift would be (help your mom do the dishes, be nicer to your little brother, etc.). They were really cute.
The weather was pretty mild for the holiday. This is a picture of just outside my front door. We got snow on Christmas Eve. It all melted away in two days.
The weather got good enough that I was running around in flip-flops. Yay! I love flip-flops! Not many shoes can accommodate my sausage toes, eh.
Mammy and Pappy sent me a Christmas package in the mail. When I went to go pick it up, the postal worker asked if she needed to confirm the name on the package. I told her that I should just be to "Holly". The postal worker was silent for a second and then added, "...Wolly Doodle All the Day?!" Um...just give me the package! Funny, of all the mail I've received over the years, this was the first time anyone has called me out on it. Ha ha!
I waited to open it on Christmas Day. So fun!
It was such a fun, peaceful Christmas. Thanks, eh! I love you guys! (I know, I know Pappy..."we're not guys").