Baking on Day 15

Hello Everyone,

I'm a bit later with my post today. I've been busy baking for Preview Night down at In Between Stitches tonight. I hope to see some of you there. Here's what I'm bringing to add to the dessert buffet ..... Raspberry Shortbread .....yummers!! Here I go with the butter again. Use the real thing for the best taste. Here's the recipe from the Wilder Family Cookbook.

Raspberry Shortbread

1 cup butter, softened
2/3 cup sugar
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 (10-ounce) jar seedless raspberry or blackberry jam divided
1 ½ cups powdered sugar
3 ½ tablespoons water
½ teaspoon almond extract

-Beat butter and 2/3 cup sugar at medium speed with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Gradually add flour; beating at low speed until blended.

-Divide dough into 6 equal portions; roll each portion into a 12- x 1-inch strip. Place strips on lightly greased baking sheets.

-Make a ½ inch-wide by ¼ inch-deep indentation down center of strips using the handle of a wooden spoon. Spoon half of jam evenly into indentations.

-Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. Remove from oven; spoon remaining jam into indentations. Bake 5 more minutes or until lightly browned.

-Whisk together powdered sugar, water, add almond extract; drizzle over warm shortbread. Cut each strip diagonally into 1-inch slices. Cool in pans on wire racks.

-Yield: 6 dozen

Source: Southern Living 1999 Annual Recipes

I used both blackberry and raspberry. We almost like the blackberry jam better. I made a double batch so I could keep some for us and pass some on to friends for an early Christmas indulgence. Form your logs first.

Make the indentation in the log with a wooden spoon.

Fill them to the rim with the seedless jam.

Flaky, tasty, pretty....what more can I say other than make a batch to share.

I'll be bringing my two, yes only two blocks from the Party in the Garden BOM that will start in April 2010. I have a few more months to finish. I just put the windows on this block last night. My granddaughter says I still need to add a doorknob.

Don't you wish you could peak inside to see who lives here?

As always,

Lynn

Making the day count......16

Hello Everyone,

So instead of counting everyday, I'm making everyday count. Whether it's making something for Christmas, or making the day a special day for someone.

This morning I decided to leave the fiber in the pantry. No Raisin Bran and granola for us.....we were having pancakes! Not just any pancake, but pancakes in the shape of gingerbread men, Christmas trees, snowflakes and snowmen.

I wanted to practice making these first, so what better test subject than my husband, Joe. He wouldn't mind if one of the snowmen just happened to get decapitated during the cooking process! But, I didn't want to traumatize the grandchildren.

I mixed up a regular batch of Krusteaz, my favorite pancake mix. I learned that I needed to spray the molds first with a cooking spray. I waited patiently for bubbles to form before removing the mold. These molds have little handles that don't get hot and were very easy to use.

OOPS, a little leakage here.....Mr. Gingerbread was engaged in a hearty laugh!

Once the mold is removed, you have a nice, fluffy pancake that's ready to be flipped. We had fun making these this morning and just as much fun eating them. (It was a lot more fun than cold cereal!)

I use my Christmas plates the whole month of December. In the past, I only used my Christmas plates on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. That was silly. Now I use them....enjoy them.....what was I saving them for? They bring pleasure to me and make the table so festive.

Bon appetit and make your day count....not just at Christmas, but everyday throughout the year.


As always,

Lynn

17 Days to go......

Hello and Happy Holidays to Everyone,

Just 17 more days until the BIG day. We did a little more shopping for the little kids this morning. We got out early to beat the crowds....but there weren't any crowds at all.

This quilt is called Christmas Windows by Brandywine Designs. http://www.brandywine-design.com/ You can see the whole quilt on their website. I have to fold the first row down to make sure the quilt fits over my fireplace. Speaking of fireplace, it is blazing right now because we are having a cold snap in sunny California this week.

This is my husband's all-time favorite quilt that I've made. It travels from the cabin to home and is on display throughout the whole year.

The block size is 9" and the pieces are just large enough to make your applique go fairly quickly. This is the 2nd quilt that I quilted on my Handi Quilter and I remember being absolutely terrified when I started up the machine. I was so afraid that I was going to ruin the whole quilt. Notice that I didn't show you the borders? They are okay....but I can do so much better now. But we all have to start somewhere and this was my somewhere.

I've incorporated as many plaids, checks and stripes as I could to give it a nice "country" charm.

I've got to get back to work here. I feel and look like Mrs. Claus puttering around the house hanging garlands, making persimmon cookies while listening to Christmas music. It truly is the most wonderful time of the year. Mr. Claus is reclining on the couch pretending to be intrigued with CNBC....but I know better. The occasional snorting sounds are a dead giveaway that he's dreaming of sugar plums.

As always,

Lynn

Day 19....I think????

Happy Holidays Everyone,

I love to wrap presents. In my eyes, the wrapping is part of the gift. Our 7-year-old twin granddaughters were over the other day and they helped "Grammy" make gift tags. Emily added cute little dots to her alphabet. I love the look she created.


Kinsey practiced on paper first before she decorated the shipping labels.


Emily loved coloring in the little shapes with colored pencils.

I bought a box of Christmas stamps at Michael's a few years ago that were a great purchase.

The shipping tags are very inexpensive and come in two different sizes.

So all we needed were some cute stamps, colored pencils, shipping labels and two adorable little girls and there you have it......the gift tags are finished.

Zinny had fun being with her little girls.

Hopefully we won't have an earthquake while we man our booth at Ruby Hills Winery in south Livermore. We will be at our booth again today selling wine-related items. Yesterday there was live music, appetizers and of course the wine was flowing to the hundreds of attendees for the Holidays in the Vineyards event.

Did you notice the quilts used as props? They are my contribution to the effort, but I put a NFS tag on them. I can't sell my quilts! I can give them away to family and friends, but I can't sell them to strangers!

I hope everyone has a wonderful, creative and joyful Sunday.

As always,

Lynn

Day 21.....Santa I can explain.....

Good Morning Everyone,

I can explain why I missed day 22......I was at the mall with my discount coupons looking for good deals. Off I went at 9am not aware that the mall didn't open until 10am. Don't those people know I'm on a mission to get things done early!

My objective was to purchase cute clothes for all of the little ones......and I found lots of good deals. I was back home by noon working on more pillows.

This wonderful fabric, Civil War Homefront by Barbara Brackman, just arrived at the shop (the stripe is from my stash.) These pillows will be great to use year-round. I finished two and have four more almost completed.

I've been asked multiple times, "What does your husband do while you quilt?" Well for those of you that live locally, stop by Ruby Hills Winery this weekend and look for the Sew'n Wild Oaks booth in the barrel room. This is the fabulous Holidays in the Vineyard weekend sponsored by the Livermore Valley Winegrowers Association. Here's the Holiday in the Vineyard website information http://www.lvwine.org/event/68/1259989200_1260075600/Holidays_in_the_Vineyards_Saturday_Sunday.html

This is the second year we've had a booth. Joe makes items out of wine barrels and barrel staves up at his workshop at the cabin. The hot item this year is a dog bed that we named the "Bark-a-Lounger". He makes towel racks, quilt racks, candle holders, ice chests, serving trays, etc. It keeps him busy and creative. He's been at the cabin all week finishing up several projects while I was home decorating and quilting.

Remember the Stone Cottage quilt? Joe incorporates the barrel hoops also in his designs. He tries to utilize all of the parts of the wine barrel.

He arrived home yesterday with all fingers intact. He's had a couple of run-ins with his belt sander in the past. I tease him that he's trying to enter the witness protection program when he inadvertently sands off a few of his fingerprints...OUCH!

I hope you all have a great day. Today we will be getting ready for the show. We have a list of chores and a check-list of items that we need to pull together.

As always,

Lynn

Day 23....Gift Tags and some decorating

Hello again,

In the words of an old song, "The days trickle down, to a precious few......" I'm feeling that it is more than a trickle....the fire hose is open wide and the days are flying past in record speed.

Yesterday the decorating began in earnest. The tree is up and the living room is pretty much a wrap. Now on to the rest of the house. I still have some ornaments that I should give to the kids for their tree, but I just can't part with some of them yet.

If it stands still, it gets decorated!! Poor Zinny wasn't too happy about her new look. I'm convinced she's the dog in the Grinch movie. She is getting big enough to carry a sleigh across the sky filled with Kibble.

For those of you with little ones, here's an idea that I've done in the past. The little boys are old enough to hand out presents, but they can't read their names. So I make little tags with their pictures on them.

They love to crawl all the way under the tree and look for their picture. I did this for the little girls before they could read and it was a big hit. There is a lot of free clip art online. I bought a Debbie Mumm Winter Wonders CD full of clip arts, borders and fonts. I've used it now for several years.

The CD is still available on her website in the scrapbooking section. The Autumn and Summer CD's are excellent also.

So my friends, back to work for me. I'm turning the kitchen and eating area into Gingerbread Land.

As always,

Lynn

Day 24.....REALLY??..ALREADY???

Hello Everyone!

I'm back from spending the Thanksgiving holiday making memories with two of my children and their wonderful families. The whole Wilder clan couldn't make it to the cabin, but the majority of them were there with us.

We had an agenda that only included having fun and putting the Christmas tree up. The tree is 15' tall and weighs 300 lbs when it's all assembled. We need the brute strength of our sons to tackle this tree.

Grandson Austin was the designated high ornament placer. He's getting so tall that he won't be needing a ladder.

Thanks to friends and family, we have many special "cabiny" ornaments. My sister has outfitted our entire tree by giving us ornaments over the past decade that include moose fishing, moose in canoes, bears skiing...you get the picture. The ornaments are adorable.

We have rakes and brooms of all sizes that fit little hands. Little Jess and Zinny cleared the driveway.

Harleigh cleared a path so we wouldn't slip on the pine needles.

Austin and Harleigh both stacked wood.

The little boy cousins raced down the driveway under close supervision.

Remember playing so hard as a child that you literally just curl up and fall asleep. This is my little grandson Kade, that did just that. So much fresh, crisp air, playing with Zinny and running up and down the hills as fast as his little legs could carry him attributed to his utter exhaustion.

Today and the rest of the week I'll continue my preparation for Christmas by decorating the "city" house. Maybe I'll just curl up on the floor at the end of the day too. I found a quote by Leonardo DaVinci that fits the picture of Kade.

"A well spent day brings happy sleep."

Here's wishing all of you "happy sleep" tonight.

As always,
Lynn