Happy Belated Fat Tuesday!

I made two king cakes this year, the first for us at home to test out Alton Brown's cinnamon roll recipe as king cake recipe and the second to take to work. The first one I made, which I didn't photograph for some reason, turned out pretty fat, and it took forever to bake. I thought it might've even been a little underdone, but at least it seemed moist. The one I made for work was a better shape, but I think I overbaked it a little-it was dry. The recipe worked well otherwise. This is the one I took to work, along with a photo of the king cake table.

Kooky Spooks!

Corrie and I were trying to remember what these plastic Halloween costumes with an inflatable head on top of your own head were called. I could only remember kids wearing them for one year, possibly two, back in 1980 or 1981. Thanks to Google and Corrie somehow remembering what they were called, here they are:


I'm sure there are tons of blog posts like this one where people are recounting these outfits. There are also a few still in their packaging for sale on Ebay, of course!

Varmints make good Valentine's Day gifts

I knitted this snake and mouse combo from mochimochi land for Corrie as a surprise Valentine's Day gift. Weeks ago when I was perusing patterns online, Corrie saw this one and said he had to have it. I wasn't going to overlook such an easy gift idea, so I secretly worked on it out of the view of Corrie for a couple of weeks.


The idea is the mouse fits completely inside the snake, which this mouse did fit in all the way before I felted it in the washer. (A project made from wool yarn will shrink and become a totally different-looking beast once it's been washed.) I think I felted it too much, which took out the elasticity in the snake, so now the mouse will only fit in its mouth. I told Corrie I could make another smaller mouse but he said that was ok. Oh, those aren't hats on their heads, either-those are toupees.

Mochimochi land offers tons of projects I'd like to make, like this groundhog in his own mound of dirt.

I like this one too where the mouse and snake have made an appearance.

holiday craft wrap up

It became quite clear this holiday season that while I love to knit and crochet, I really don't like finishing my projects. I waited until the 22nd, 23rd and 24th to finish several gift projects when I had them ready to be finished weeks before.

For example, I originally wanted to give one of these cute elf gnomes to my sister when I saw her for her birthday at the end of November, that way she could have it for December decorating. I think I had most of the parts made, but sewing it together and stuffing didn't sound like a lot of fun. Well, at least she'll have it for next Christmas.

Another Christmas gift project that actually went a bit better was these crocheted cookies. Except for the peanut blossom cookies that required a little bit of stuffing, the only finishing I had to do was to sew two sides of each cookie together. I made quite a few of these earlier in December but still needed to make a couple more Christmas Eve so I would have enough to fill a jar for my mom.


Once I got in my "finishing project" mode, I also dug out these crocheted candies I made last year (or possibly the year before-yikes!) and added cellophane wrappers and ribbons. I would like to cover my entire tree with them.

If I'm able to hold on to the finishing bug, maybe I'll starch the batch of crocheted snowflake ornaments I came across as well!

Next year's Christmas card

I think we have our photo for next year's Christmas card. Norman likes to "help" the most while wrapping presents.

successful sugar cookies

Growing up, our annual Christmas cookie baking day was always December 23. That seems like it would be cutting it pretty close to the big day, but I think the cookies were baked primarily for our neighbors and probably also to give my sister and I something to do to pass the time until Christmas. (so we'd stop asking/begging to open presents)

I still bake some of the same treats we made all those years, including my mom's special oatmeal cookies (took several years and batches of failed cookies to finally find out that she also adds a cup of wheat germ to them, which was conveniently left off of the original recipe. Once I added that, I had the same oatmeal cookie I remembered from my childhood!) the cinnamon popcorn, caramel popcorn, and classic sugar cookies. The sugar cookies were always the grand finale of baking day because they were fun to make and involved using the green and red sugars and sometimes a few redhots if we had them around. (we were frugal with our varieties of colored sugars and cookie decorations. and cookie cutters-I only remember having a santa shape, a bell, a tree, and a star.) My mom always rolled them out, which I thought was the unfun part, and my sister and I decorated them.

Once I grew up and was out of the house, I wanted to make those same buttery sugar cookies. The recipe my mom used was actually my grandma's: (I would recommend a double batch)

1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 tbs milk
1 tbs vanilla
1 1/4 cups flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

Mix butter, sugar and eggs together. Stir in milk and vanilla. Stir in flour, baking powder, and salt. Chill dough. Bake cut-outs at 425 degrees for 5-7 minutes.

I tried this recipe time and time again but always found it so sticky that I had to add tons more flour to have a chance at rolling it out. I've asked my mom several times if she left anything off the recipe, and she claims she didn't. She still makes them, too-I've asked if she has a hard time rolling them out, and she says she doesn't. My baking skills have improved over the years, so maybe it would be worth trying this recipe again sometime. I've since moved on to Alton Brown's no fail sugar cookie recipe, which is really good, but they don't taste like mom's. (although the recipes are so similar!!)

Alton's recipe ingredients: (a lot more flour and butter in comparison, but one batch might make a lot more cookies than my grandma's batch)

3 cups flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 tbs milk


Last weekend, I made Alton's recipe and enjoyed using the variety of colored sugars and cookie cutters I now own.


Maybe for Valentine's Day I'll try my grandma's recipe again. I think sugar cookies make a nice Valentine's treat.

Cinnamon popcorn

This is one of the first recipes I remember begging my mom for after I moved into our apartment and I was so new to cooking that I needed a recipe for boiling water. (kidding) Although I think it's fair game for a college girl to ask for a cinnamon popcorn recipe that her mom used to make at Christmas.

Recipe courtesy of a 1980s copy of the Holt County (Missouri) Cookbook:

3 quarts popped corn (12 cups)
1 stick butter or margarine (I use butter!)
1/2 cup white sugar
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1/2 tsp. salt
8 oz. red hots
1/4 tsp soda
1 tsp butter flavoring (I usually skip this or add a little extra butter instead.)

Melt butter, sugar, corn syrup, salt, and red hots in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir constantly until melted.

Add soda and butter flavoring-mix well. (It will foam up at this point.) Pour over popcorn in a large bowl and mix well until popcorn is covered. Pour onto a baking sheet with sides or into a 13x9 pan and bake for 1 hour at 250 degrees. Stir every 15 minutes.*

*I think technically you're supposed to let it cool on paper towels, then store in an airtight container, but I usually leave it on the baking sheet for a minute or two and then dump it into whatever container I'm storing it in. Spreading it out to cool keeps it from forming big chunks of popcorn, but I'm not against the big chunks (I like them in my cream of wheat as well) and they're easily broken apart with a spoon when you're serving it. (when serving the popcorn, not cream of wheat.)

Another tip-don't try to get a taste of cinnamon tastiness by swiping the candy coating off the spoon or out of the saucepan immediately after cooking-you will burn your finger and your mouth. I know this because I made the mistake last night. I knew I would get burned, but it didn't stop me.

Here's the end result from last night's batch. Very red, and very tasty!

Anyone up for a game of spoons?

I used to think that spoons was a game the Corwin family made up, but since growing up and talking to others, it sounds like this is not a unique activity to my family. (If you aren't familiar with it, the point is to collect four of a kind in your hand, after which you can grab a spoon. Then everyone else can grab a spoon. There's always one less spoon than players, so whoever doesn't get a spoon is out. You keep doing that until you have one winner.)

This year, my sister, her husband, our dad, and I made the trek down to the sticks outside of Auburn, Kansas, to my Aunt Susan's house for a great Thanksgiving dinner. I remember first playing spoons at my grandma Corwin's house back in the 80s, and we're still playing it everytime we visit.

Since I kept getting eliminated early in the game, I had some time to take photos and camera videos. Here's a good one where the little one almost blurts out what cards my cousin Andy is looking for. He'll need more training before he's ready to play.

And here's a shot of my sister after taking the last spoon and defeating our Aunt Barb. Aunt Barb had been the spoons champion, but my sister is giving her a good run for her money these days.

Yes We Carve

I guess creating an Obama-inspired pumpkin this year is not going to make mine the most original jack-o-lantern on the block:

Your Blue isn't Patriotic Enough

I was determined to enjoy a slow-paced Fourth of July at home, which I did, although looking back it seems like a lot happened in one day. I started the morning with an 8:45 bike ride with Terence and Manjit; I thought 8:45 sounded like the crack of dawn on a day off, but I was back home before 11 with 20 more miles to log on my transcontinental trip. Then I baked a sweet potato pie while Corrie smoked pork.

After a stint of practicing my clarinet for tonight's Star Spangeled Spectacular concert at Antelope Park, (struggling to play for an hour without all of the muscles in my face giving out. I have no idea how I used to play 3, 4, 5, or 6 hours a day in college) Corrie and I made our great-tasting Star Spangled drinks. When I was mixing the blue layer, Corrie told me the blue wasn't patriotic enough, so I added more blue food coloring. After careful coaching, Corrie got the order of the layers right as well.


I also finished the long-awaited crocheted cat bed. I thought by crocheting, rather than sewing, the seams together I would get a nice-looking corner to everything. It looked nice on some edges, but trying to single crochet the arms and back onto the main piece was kind of difficult. It's not perfect, but hey, it's a couch for our cats.


Norman waited out the final couch assembly with a nap on the extra foam from what I put inside the couch.


Around dinnertime, I gave my dad a call to see how he was doing and to recall past July Fourths. When we were growing up, sparklers and snakes were the only legal things in Omaha (they might still be) so well ahead of the Fourth before the state troopers were keeping an eye out, we'd make a stop at Rockport on the way back from seeing relatives in Missouri. The parking lots of those two shops were always full of cars with Nebraska plates. My parents followed a pretty conservative budget for fireworks, so we usually got a nice assortment of fountains, sparklers, tanks, parachutes, snakes, and smoke bombs. We were never too interested in most of the stuff that just made noise. At some point, my dad had to start buying festival balls, which would make up the finale of our show every year. Despite very careful and stringent rules placed by my parents, we had one or two fires growing up. My dad only remembers the one time a stray firework caught the bushes on fire, but I think there was also another time when something caught on fire on the roof.

The day ended with me shutting all of the windows and trying to make all of the cats who were hiding under the bed (Norman and Todd) feel better. They were not fans of fireworks.

Star-Spangled treat

It's not too early to start stockpiling the Bacardi pina colada and strawberry daquiri frozen mixers. If you wait until the week of the 4th to do so, you will be like me last year, who had to go to 6 different stores to get 2 cans of pina colada and 1 can of daquiri mix.

I spied this recipe last year in the Lincoln Journal Star, and while I can't find the copy I clipped, I found the same recipe at allrecipes.com, which is a pretty good site that welcomes user reviews, ratings and photos. (besides the really extreme user comments, I like getting an honest opinion on a recipe from someone, maybe a helpful tip on what they'd do differently the next time so I can do it that way the first time.) Here's the direct link, or you can view the recipe below as well:http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Star-Spangled-Mixers/Detail.aspx

Our photo from last year's rendition. Corrie flipped the order of colors in the big one-every bomb pop I've ever had has the white in the middle. I think a couple of the user comments mentioned that it's hard to make a batch at home and not have it melt, but Corrie just made each batch (start with the white, then do the blue, then wash your blender, then make the red) and froze them in their own containers. Then we had bomb pop frozen drinks for the next week!

Star-Spangled Mixers

Submitted by: BACARDI® Mixers Rated: 4 out of 5 by 4 members

Yields: 15 servings

"Show your patriotic spirit at your next party with these stunning red, white and blue layered blended ice drinks."

INGREDIENTS:

2 (10 fluid ounce) cans BACARDI® Mixers Pina Colada frozen mix 1 (10 fluid ounce) can BACARDI® Mixers Strawberry Daiquiri frozen mix

1 1/2 cups BACARDI® Rum Blue Curacao or blue food coloring 15 cups ice Strawberries, for garnish

DIRECTIONS:

1.	Blend together 2 cups or 1 can of BACARDI® Mixers Pina Colada mix, 1/2 cup of BACARDI® Rum and 5 cups of ice for 45 to 60 seconds or until uniform. Add 7-10 drops of blue food coloring or Blue Curacao to taste. Blend and fill each cocktail glass 1/3 of the way full.
2.	Repeat step 1 using BACARDI® Mixers Pina Colada. (Without food coloring.)
3.	Repeat step 2 using BACARDI® Mixers Strawberry Daiquiri.
4.	Garnish with strawberries and serve immediately or freeze and serve for a tasty treat.

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © 2008 Allrecipes.com

Printed from Allrecipes.com 6/23/2008