Christmas On A Budget: FOOD!

Today’s topic is one of my favorites. I think giving (and recieving!) food is one of the best gifts out there! It’s not too expensive, it’s practical, and pretty much everybody loves a sweet treat. I make my friends and family a gift basket of homemade foods every year!

I happen to love to bake, but I can understand the intimidation of baking. However, I fully believe that if you can read, you can bake. Obviously, some recipes are easier than others, but for the most part following a recipe is super easy! Just take your time, and make sure you read each step. If you’re a really newbie baker, I recommend reading through the whole recipe at least twice before starting so it’s a bit familiar. And don’t forget to double check that you have ALL the ingredients! There is nothing more frustrating than getting halfway through a recipe and realizing you’re missing a key ingredient….not that I’ve done that or anything. *Cough*

Below are some of my favorite baking recipes to give as gifts! These are all links to my personal recipes, a lot of which are old blog posts! Therefore, please ignore all the funky footer stuff going on at the end of some of them, and the poor food photography (with lack of watermarks). 😉

1. Banana Bread. I think this tops my list of gift-giving food. It is a staple of my yearly gift basket.

2. Peanut Butter Buckeyes. A simple, quick, and delicious treat!

3. Molasses Cookies. A bit time intensive, but they are my all time favorite cookie!

4. Zucchini Bread. Less sweet than the above banana, this bread is a savory classic.

5. Pumpkin Spice Cookies. More of a fall treat, but so delicious!

6. Peanut Butter Blossoms. This is my classic Christmas cookie. My mum made them every year growing up, and it doesn’t feel like the holidays without them!

7. Lemon Bar Brownies. This recipe has a bit more to it than the others, but is still pretty easy! And absolutely delicious – I get raves about these.

8. Chocolate Pie. This is one of the richest chocolate mousse pies I’ve ever had, and it’s so simple to make.

Now that you’ve whipped up some yummy goods, lets talk presentation. Packaging up your lovingly homemade goods into a gift basket just adds a punch of holiday cheer! My biggest money saving tip for this? The dollar store. I go there every year to stock up on my food ‘gift wrap’. As I prefer a rustic Christmas look, I always start with a basket but really, pick any container that suits your fancy. I wrap my breads in plastic wrap, place cookies or other treats in cute boxes (or baggies), then add some ribbon or bows around the basket and call it a day! Cheap, easy, and pretty to boot.

Crunched for time, or truly doubting your baking ability? No problem! Make Food In A Jar! To me, this is one the best gifting concepts of all time. I love to give soup jars! Here are some of my faves from around the internet, and they make great last-minute gifts too.

(Click the pic to take you straight to the how-to!)

Cul-de-sac Cool shares five different cookie-in-a-jar recipes, with the free printable label tags to go with!

Our Bower shares this yummy looking Multigrain Chicken Soup in a jar.

The Frugal Girls shares a yummy looking Hot Chocolate in a jar! Be sure to check their French Vanilla Hot Chocolate too! (My hubs may be getting this in his stocking!)

Sassy & Sweet shares this Spice Tea in a jar.

Hope you found a new gift to give someone today. Next week for Christmas On A Budget: From Kids, and For Kids!

Life In Photos #30

It’s been a rather off week on the blog! I missed yesterday’s 5 Fandom post, and only put up one other post during the week! Yikes. I’m blaming the five days straight of rain we had. Ugh. I don’t mind a rainy day, but a full week of rain just makes me want to sleep until it’s over. Also, because of all the rain, I hardly took any photos this week. I find that when we’re around the house I take so many fewer pictures. Looks like I need to get back in the swing of things next week!

Last weekend (before all the rain showed up!) we took a walk around the neighborhood. I love this tree! My little just couldn’t resist the giant leaf pile waiting at the base and had to take a running leap.

She spent so much time lining up all her stuffies just right and really wanted me to snap a picture! So cute.

We whipped up some sugar cookies and then had a decorating party yesterday! She liked spreading on the frosting, but sprinkles were definitely her favorite part.

Clockwise from top left…

1. Our jack-o-lantern turned to mush already (curse you, rain!) so we had to snag a new pumpkin for our little. She picked painting instead of carving, and made this free form ladybug.
2. I let my little pick out one of those quarter prizes from the grocery store machines, and she got this grow-in-water lobster. It started out so cute and quickly turned terrifying haha! It looks like a face hugger from Alien.
3. The finished products of our cookie decorating!
4. I have been doing SO much plush sewing! I’ve since finished getting all of Princess Luna’s pieces cut out, and started her stitching.

Today we are having our first D&D session with the group we put together! I’m excited. It’s been about ten years since I’ve played D&D, and I can’t wait to jump back in. Hope your weekend treated you well!

Iced Pumpkin Spice Cookies

It’s no secret that baking is one of my favorite fall activities. I love to bake goodies for people. We celebrated my best friend’s birthday this past weekend, and she absolutely loves my pumpkin spice cookies. So of course I had to make a fresh batch! These pumpkin spice cookies are one of my absolute favorite cookies to bake. They bake up soft (the only way to go if you ask me), and have a perfect balance of sweet between the cookie and icing.

These cookies always seem extra special to me as I only make them in the fall. I suppose I could make them any time, but they are just such a perfect fall cookie (especially since pumpkin spice is all the rage!). Whip up a batch with the recipe below!

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups flour (I split mine half white flour, half whole wheat flour)
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar (I cut mine down to 1 1/4 cup – it makes a difference with how sweet the icing is!)
1 cup pumpkin puree
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla

• Preheat oven to 350F.
• Mix together flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and salt. Set aside.
• In a larger bowl, cream the butter and sugar together. Beat in egg and vanilla until creamy, then beat in the pumpkin until smooth.
• Add in dry ingredients, and mix thoroughly together.
• Drop tablespoonfuls onto lined cookie sheets (foil or parchment paper). Bake for 15 – 20 min (I find 16 minutes perfect!).
• Transfer to a wire rack to cool. Make sure they cool completely before icing them.

Icing Ingredients:

2 cups confectioner sugar
3 tbsp milk
1 tbsp butter, melted
1 tsp vanilla

• Combine all ingredients in a bowl until a semi-thick icing is formed. Add more milk to thin if necessary.
• Once cookies are completely cooled, just smear some on with a knife. The icing will harden some on the outside after a bit, but it never gets crunchy-hard – it’s one of my favorite icings for that reason. The perfect texture!

If you’re not an icing fan, these cookies are just as yummy without icing. I love them plain with a cup of tea. If you are making a plain batch, I highly recommend using the full 1 1/2 cups of sugar so they don’t taste too bland or get a bit overpowered by the spices. Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

Life In Photos #25 (plus an award!)

Between a little rain, cool weather, and the little miss being gone for a day this week at Mimi’s house, we didn’t do any big walks! Just the short round trip to the post office. And since most of my pics come from fun things spotted outside, it made for a small photo week.

This event is so rare I had to capture it! My little still naps semi-regularly, but it is a rare day she gets so tired that she just crashes out on the couch. So cute!

My tomatoes went insane this year. I have already picked about twenty-five, and I have more than twenty still on the plants outside – and I only planted TWO TOMATO PLANTS. I will certainly be learning to make sauce this year!!

We put a blanket down on top of our rapidly deteriorating already-fixed-by-duct-tape computer chair, and it has become Edgar’s new favorite spot.

And lastly, I baked my third new recipe of the month – Crunchy Nut and Honey Cookies. They came out just fine, but certainly aren’t anything too special so I’m not going to dedicate a whole post to the recipe. Yummy though, and I discovered I like macadamia nuts! Whoo!

In lieu of the usual Instagram roundup (since I wasn’t too active on that this week anyway) I’m going to share an award! Jessica of The Pyreflies nominated my little blog for the One Lovely Blog Award! Thanks so much!!

The Rules Of The Award
1. Thank the person nominating you and link back to them in your post.
2. Share seven things about yourself.
3. Nominate fifteen or so bloggers you admire.
4. Contact your chosen bloggers to let them know.

So here we go, seven random things about me:

1. I really love to write, but never do it anymore. It’s a confidence thing.
2. I adore piano music. I find it so incredibly soothing, and inspiring. It’s usually my go-to choice when I draw.
3. I absolutely hate the taste of cherry, real or artificial. It’s kind of a gross story, but suffice to say it was ruined for me in childhood.
4. If I were rich, I would own an absurd amount of shoes I’d probably never wear.
5. My one vice is soda. I don’t smoke, or drink alcohol, but at the end of the day I do love a Pepsi.
6. I feel naked if I leave the house without earrings.
7. I’m pretty sure I’d have a mental breakdown if I had to live without lip balm.

 

And here are thirteen of my favorite blogs (participate if you want to!) that I’ll nominate. Some I’ve followed for awhile, some I’m new to, but they are all blogs whose posts I look forward to in my inbox!

Fiction Incarnate : Gamerwife : incendiarism : My Life as a Teacup : Bookworms in Dresses : Sword of Nerdom : The Beauty Glitch : North East Nerd : Awkwardly Alive and Pleasantly Peculiar : Scrawny Girl : Sincerely, Sara : The Pyreflies : Nerd In The Brain

Check them out if you haven’t!

Life In Photos #24

Our morning walks are still going strong! We decided to walk up near my mother-in-law’s house this week as she has some excellent back country roads to walk on.

My little miss had a blast collecting as much mica as she could find! She now has her own mica jar to fill to the brim.

We stumbled upon this gorgeous view on one of our walks. I am absolutely having our family photos done here this year! Especially once the leaves start to turn – it’s going to be so beautiful!

This tree in particular. I can’t wait until it turns, and we can take photos with it. So perfect!

I ended up having an little impromptu photo shoot with my miss when we came upon this rock. I am so in love with the pictures! I took about fifty! I have a ton in color too, which look great, but these two black and whites are a couple of my faves. I just love black and white photography.

And lastly, my little is so into ‘reading’ to her stuffies/toys lately. She has always loved to, but lately her stories are getting so much more complex! I love listening to her (though so far my attempts to record any haven’t been stealthy enough haha) and just basking in her imagination. It’s definitely one of the most amazing parts of becoming a parent.

Clockwise from top left…

1. This little fox is my first pattern that I designed myself for a plush! There’ll be a bit more info about him on this coming WIP Wednesday.

2. I attempted to make little French Macarons this week and boy was it a baking fail haha! However, despite looking all wrong, they really did taste delicious.

3. I don’t often do selfies, but I got tagged for one this week and my little had to photobomb.

4. We’ve still been having lovely visits with our donkey friends! The baby’s fuzzy head just kills me!! So cute!!

 

This Week We. . .

• Had a sleepover with my best friend, and her daughter (who is my daughter’s best friend – we are a double trouble team!). We took the kids to Beans & Greens which is an awesome local farm/store that has lots for little ones to do – for free! We had so much fun feeding the goats, cow, and pig. The chickens weren’t out the day we went, but they often have them. In the fall there is a hay maze, and other fun things! Their store is great too – tons of fresh vegetables, and lots of yummy baked goods as well. It’s a great place.

Mini best buds!

Awesome teepee made out of leafy vines!

• From there we went to Imagination Station, a wooden playground that is just FABULOUS. There is so much for little kids to explore there – all kinds of wood tunnels, bridges to climb, tires to play in, and of course the standard playground fare of swings, slides, and see-saws (or as my best friend’s adorable daughter calls them ‘Up-Downs’).

Isn’t it amazing! I just love this place.

• As you can see at the top of this post, I finally got a dang bee photo! I’ve been wanting a bee-on-a-flower photo all summer, and the opportunity finally presented itself. Yay for me!

• I finished up a commission but I can’t post it yet! It’s being delivered this weekend so I’ll post about it next week – don’t want to ruin the surprise!

• We baked chocolate chip cookies. And then ate most of them at the above best friend sleepover. Om nom nom.

• I ordered and received my Indie Purchase Of The Month to fulfill my 1AM Promise. I got a SPECTACULAR print (see below) from Papyrusaurus. I love me some tenth Doctor! Got some gifts from there too. . .which again I can’t post in case of surprise ruining. Just a side note about the store – I was really impressed by their customer service! I had a question about a print which they responded to very quickly, and when it came time to ship them, she emailed me double checking my address as it seemed wrong – somehow the address was set up to ship to a Wal-Mart somewhere instead my home address! What?! Point being, she had the courtesy to check and fix it which I really appreciated!!

I mean seriously, does it get any better?

And although I know it’s supposed to be Fun Fact Friday, yet again I have nothing prepared. I swear Friday comes twice as fast as usual sometimes. . .so I think I’m gonna to say Fun Fact Friday’s will be an occasional thing instead of EVERY Friday. At least for now! Happy weekend everyone!

Connect With Me

C is for Cookie. . .

. . .that’s good enough for me! You’re welcome for getting the Cookie Monster song stuck in your head. 🙂

I love to bake. I thank my grandmother for instilling that in me – one of my absolute favorite memories with her is being probably four, standing on my stool up at her counter and making homemade bread with her. She still makes it by hand to this day. Nowadays, my baking tends to be more dessert focused than hers ever was! In the summer baking is usually a rarity for me – it’s just too hot and humid. I got my fill of summer baking last year when I was doing a weekly farmers market selling my baked goods – every Friday was spent in my kitchen for a ten hour baking day in 90+ degree heat. I definitely don’t miss that part of it!

Lately, despite the week and a half straight of rain up here, it has still been a hot humid mess. However, it finally cooled off enough that I didn’t mind running the oven. My little miss requested chocolate chip cookies and I was happy to oblige.

I’m not a mum who minds mess. I love to include my little girl in as much as possible in the kitchen – even if it means added mess. I make the biggest mess ever baking anyway, so really she can’t add much more mess than I already do. Case in point – she didn’t spill a single thing while helping me make these cookies whereas I accidentally ripped the flour bag and poured flour all over myself and the kitchen floor.
Mommy – 0. Toddler – 1.

The recipe I use is a modified version of one I saw on Pinterest. I’ve tried many a chocolate chip cookie recipe, but this one is definitely my new favorite (at least when I’m using my modifications).

Ingredients:

3/4 cup butter (or spread) I use Country Crock Spread, which isn’t real butter and it works perfectly.
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 cup white flour
1 cup wheat flour (I always split my flour in cookies and breads between white and wheat. Sometimes I use entirely wheat flour. It certainly doesn’t make them healthy, but it’s slightly better! And there is no discernible taste difference.)
2 tsp cornstarch
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

First, preheat your oven to 350F.

Combine your butter and sugars.

Stir until they are a smooth creamy consistency.

Add in your egg and vanilla, and mix together.

Then add in all the dry ingredients.

And stir it all up into a dough!

Then pour in your chocolate chips and mix ’em up.

And don’t forget to eat a few chips. . .

And of course a spoonful of cookie dough!! Yeah, we eat raw cookie dough in this household.

Scoop onto tinfoil (or parchment paper if you prefer) lined cookie sheets. I never used to see the point in a dough scoop until I did the farmers market. They were the easiest way to get uniform-size cookies and things! And now that I have one, I use it every time I make cookies.
Anywho, pop them in the oven for NO MORE than 12 minutes. They WILL look undercooked on top, but trust me, they aren’t! You end up with a soft chewy delicious cookie, that will stay chewy for days! I’d eat them within a week though. This recipe yields a minimum of 24 cookies – I usually end up with 28 – 30. Enjoy!