New Years Eve

I'm planning to enjoy this last day of 2015 doing what I love - walking the dog, making stuff, hanging out, eating crab legs and drinking champagne...then tomorrow I will hopefully wake up and start writing my next 365 page book. Happy New Years Eve to you and yours!

PS: a quick tip in case you will also be opening champagne tonight - first carefully remove the cage from the top of the bottle, put a kitchen towel over the cork and grasp the cork thru the towel, then slowly pull the cork out while still holding the towel over it. Yes, popping the cork off and having it shoot into the air is more fun and dramatic, but you'll save yourself the chance of leaving a divot in the ceiling, spraying champagne everywhere, or hitting someone in the face. Don't ask me how I know.

Breakfast Pie

I have had this recipe for years from Borchers Bed and Breakfast in northern Michigan - don't remember how I ended up with it; I probably either asked for it or drooled enough over the pie at breakfast that they gave the recipe to me so I'd stop eating their pie and make my own...not sure. Either way I didn't steal it haha and hopefully they are cool with me sharing it! If you're ever in the area and stay there tell them I'm still making it and we LOVE it :)

This is a great thing to make for overnight guests, a Holiday breakfast, or just when you feel like pie for breakfast (!) - it's hard to tell there is cream of mushroom soup and velveeta in it, I know that might sound a little unhealthy but sometimes it's worth it. I double the recipe and usually put one in the freezer; it also holds well if you want to make it the day before. Enjoy!

layer chopped hard boiled eggs and cubed Velveeta over hash brown mixture

top with puff pastry, here I am trimming the edges to fit. I sealed the edges by
pushing a fork into the dough all around the top. 

brush with an egg wash - I whisked one egg with a splash of milk

delish!

Click here for recipe and notes on changes I make. You can also find it under "eat" on the top of this blog.

http://makemydaycamp.blogspot.com/2015/12/breakfast-pie.html

Recycled Christmas Card Crafts

Here's some fun things to make out of the Christmas cards you received this year - I hate throwing out all the pretty cards and love that they can be used again:

* gift tags: simply cut out the image you like and punch a hole in the corner, add a ribbon or cord.

                                        

* bird hanging: download a bird silhouette, trace onto the card and cut out. I cut the wing out of a different part of the card for contrast and glued it on. poke a hole in the top and bottom, string a few beads onto 2 short pieces of thin wire, then attach thru the holes you poked. I made a loop in the top wire for hanging, and to keep the beads on the bottom wire, loop the wire back thru the beads (see the picture).

* initial tag or tree ornament: use a stencil of the letter you want (I played with fonts and sizes on my computer and then printed out the one I liked), trace it onto the backside of the card and cut out. hole punch the corner and tie on a ribbon.

*small notebook: using the whole card including fold, cut the card into the size of the book you want. this one is 4.5"x 4". fold the inside of card up 1/2" (I made a score line first to get a sharp crease but you can just fold it) and trim the front of card up about 1/2" (the front of card tucks into the fold of the inside card - adjust how long the front of the card is to fit into the inside fold). cut a few pieces of scrap paper a little smaller than the card, I did them 4"x 3.5", put the pages into the folded up part of card and staple. close the book by fitting the front cover under the fold.

fold one edge of the inside of card 1/2", then trim the other side to fit into the fold
(I drew a line where I will cut to fit)

*gift box: this snowman card only needed an inch off the bottom to fit exactly on this box. find an image or whole card that fits on your small boxes and trim, then glue onto the box top.

Storing Christmas Lights

This idea might seem like extra work right now while you are putting all the Christmas decor away, but come next Christmas you'll be glad you did it - yes, throwing all the lights in a box is quicker but I'd regret it when opening the box next year and having to deal with the jumbled mess! I've seen reels and containers in the store for organizing light strands but I'm good with DIY'ing it - not fancy but it works. Cut up pieces of cardboard (I used left over boxes from Christmas presents), probably 12" or so square  (or rectangle, doesn't matter) depending on how long your light strands are. Wrap a single strand of lights around a square, cutting slits in the cardboard at both ends to secure the plugs. Write on the cardboard where you used the lights if you want to remember. Then stack all of them in a box to store. There, you just saved yourself some hassle next Christmas :)

Butter & Bread Pudding with Salted Caramel Whiskey Butter Sauce

Whew, that title is a long one :). Made this for our Christmas dinner and thought I'd share. I've never made bread pudding before and up front I'll say it's never been my favorite dessert (it's a texture thing more than a flavor problem for me) but Dave loves it so....I saw this recipe here and wanted to try it. Since I don't eat it very much I'm not sure how it stands up to others, if it's the "best" ever - but I didn't hear any complaining while it was being devoured last night. I followed the recipe exactly for once - I think the recipe is a keeper but I might make a couple changes next time:

 I stood the bread up in the pan which looked pretty, but the sauce didn't cover the top part of the bread so it got quite crunchy - almost like toast. That wasn't a problem for me since I don't like the custardy texture of the bread soaked in the egg mixture, I just broke off the crispy bits and dipped them in the caramel sauce - which is by far my favorite part of this dessert. The sauce is wicked. If you don't want the crunchy parts then you might want to lay the bread down so the custard covers more of the bread.

I used plain old sliced white bread, which was fine since you are just soaking it in eggs and cream basically - but a loaf of unsliced bread cubed up would be even better!

I will add more spice next time, it was a little bland and extra cinnamon would help.







Other than that try this recipe - even if it's just for the caramel sauce. I'm tellin' ya - dip the crunchy pieces in that sauce and tell me it's not sinfully good and addictive!

this sauce is a must try!

Crunchy Fruity Granola

Janis has been making this recipe for years, it came out of a children's cookbook so I was thinking it was going to be super sweet or something to get kids to eat it haha, but it isn't - and it's really good!

I've never made granola before, turns out it isn't hard at all and you can easily control the ingredients - just put in what you like. I added white and dark chocolate chips, and sprinkled a little coarse salt in...yum.

 Dave is allergic to nuts and it's not easy to find granola without them, so I made him a batch with cranberries, raisins, sunflower seeds, and chocolate chips filled with coconut - delish.




I  have a couple tips for you (and myself next time):

(1) actually read the directions all the way thru before you start, or you'll be picking the cranberries and raisins out of the mix before baking it like me...

(2) instead of spraying the baking sheets with non stick spray like we did, use parchment paper! It stuck to the sheets pretty good and took a lot of scraping to break it up.

 We made 5 batches and ended up with 11 pint sized mason jars full. To give as gifts we cut circles of Christmas paper for the top and are putting ribbon around the lid.

Merry Christmas!

One of my favorite Christmas Songs....

and Holiday wishes from Sarge :)

A Little Grinch For Christmas Eve

Pop Up Gift Wrap

I lied, still not posting granola. I hope you weren't planning to make granola on Christmas Eve - if so I'm sorry and the recipe is under "eat" on the top of the blog if you can't wait haha! I wanted to show you a last minute gift wrapping idea that I just tried and is so cute - do this if it works with your paper design!

Measure and cut the wrapping paper to fit your gift. Find where on the paper the top of your box will be and where you want the pop up shape to be. Lay the paper on a cutting mat and using an exacto/craft (something with sharp pointy tip) knife cut very carefully around the shape, leaving the bottom intact. Fold the shape up making a sharp crease along the base of the shape so it will stand up on its own.

 In this case I used polar bear paper and traced around one bear, trimming along the bottom just as far as it took for the bear to stand up.






My bear is a little big and I'm afraid it won't want to stay up so I turned the paper over and backed the shape with a piece of cardstock I cut out to fit the stand up shape - stuck it on with my stampin' up glue roller thingy. If your shapes are small they should stand up on their own.





Push the shape back down and wrap the present like usual. I wrapped a white box so where the bear is cut out is white - if you want put a piece of paper on the box where the cutouts will be so you won't see the box top under the cutout.  Then stand the cut out shape back up.




Here's a close up of what it looks like wrapped...

And here's the back side...

Table Decorating

Here are three ideas for decorating your Christmas table, all simple projects and hopefully you have time to go get anything you might need if you want to do any of these! I know I said yesterday that I'd post granola today, but I thought you might want to see these while there is still time so I'll post granola tomorrow :)

First idea is just styrofoam cones covered with Christmas cardstock and taped in place. I put the cone on the back side of the paper and made a line while rolling the cone on the paper to make a template. Then cut on the line. Roll the paper around the cone and tape. I put a mini bow on the top to finish.

 Second idea is for my friend Candy, she asked if I have any Christmas napkin folding ideas and I found this one that is pretty simple to do. I don't have any green napkins so I used this one, you get the idea. See the directions here.

 Last idea is my favorite - I saw this on Facebook and tweaked it a little using what I have on hand. It's 2 white plates, silverware, a paper dinner napkin for the scarf (I folded it back and forth accordion style and put between the plates to hold it), a paper cocktail napkin for the hat, a hershey kiss for the nose and 2 m&ms for the eyes. I love this setting, made me laugh while taking the picture - adorable!

Hot Chocolate Spoons

My friend Janis needed gifts for her neighbors  so we made granola for the adults and these hot chocolate spoons for the kids - I'll post the granola tomorrow (it 's really good). They turned out SO cute, I'm loving this for gifts!

I saw the idea here - instead of candy melts we used a tray of chocolate I found at the grocery store meant for melting right in the tray and dipping strawberries or whatever.

Melt the chocolate according to directions. Spoon chocolate into ice cube trays using about 1 1/2 tablespoons in each of the squares. Decorate with toppings and insert spoon into each square. After it is completely set gently remove from the cube trays.

We decorated with crunched up candy canes, mini m&ms, andes mint bits, and colored chocolate chips.

To package them we cut off the ziplock top on cute treat bags I got at the dollar store, put in a chocolate spoon and a few mini marshmallows, tied with bakers twine, and attached a label with directions (which are to stir into a glass of hot milk). I found the label from here, and then made a sheet of them to print out.

We used 16 oz. of chocolate and made 20 spoons.

Framed Wifi Password

Here is a handy little idea that lets house guests know what your wifi password is without you having to dig around trying to find it over and over again (I say this from experience...there is no way I can remember ours, it's a bunch of random letters and numbers) -  print out your wifi network name and password, put in a frame and display on a shelf or nightstand in the guest room.

I found this idea on Pinterest and there was even a free printable I used instead of coming up with my own design...you could take the time to make up your own design, or if you have nice penmanship you could just write it out of course - but I'm all for using someone else's creation in this case! However you want to make it, it's a nice idea and thoughtful addition to your guest room (if you don't have a guest room I would still print this and put it in a convenient place for when you need it). I found the printable here,  follow directions to download and add your information if you are using that design.

I have it displayed on a shelf in the guest room

Corn Bread Mini Muffins

We are going to a chili cook-off/reverse caroling party tonight (reverse caroling is us sitting in someones driveway and caroling while people walk by) in an amazing local neighborhood that goes bonkers crazy with holiday lights and decorations - it's very impressive I must say. Every tree, wire, lightpost, window, mailbox, probably even their dogs get lit up...and they have hundreds of people walking around looking at them every night for the holiday season. We are going on our Vespa's because the parking will be awful so taking chili is out of the question for me (I measured my crockpot and Vespa "trunk", nope - not going to happen), I decided to bring mini corn bread muffins as our contribution instead.

I don't have an actual "recipe" that I follow but I've been making this for years and it's really good. I start with a boxed corn bread mix, in addition to the egg and milk it calls for add a small can of drained jalapeños, a small can of creamed corn, and about 1/2 cup shredded cheese (I use whatever I have - today was mexican blend but cheddar or monterey jack are good too). Spray a mini muffin tin with non stick spray, fill with about 1 tablespoon of batter (I use my small cookie scoop so they are all pretty much the same size). Bake at 350' for 12-14 minutes or until light brown. Cool on a wire rack. Makes about 40 bite size muffins - I'm not sure how many full size muffins this would make, I'd guess 12. You could also make it in a 9" pan or pie plate, adjust the baking time as needed.

Melting Snowman Cocktail

Awwwwwww, it's melting....look how cute this drink is, and it tastes good too! Super easy, hardest part was fishing an orange jimmie out of the jar of sprinkles :)

Vodka, Kahlua, and cream poured over ice, top with whipped cream and decorations. Try it! (Well, try it if you drink and/or like Kahlua - it's never been my favorite but it's really good mixed with cream!)

1 1/2 oz. vodka (3 T.)
1 1/2 oz. Kahlua (3 T.)
2 oz. light cream or half and half (1/4 cup)
miniature chocolate pieces
orange jimmies
whipped cream
ice cubes

Add ice cubes to a 10-12 oz. glass. Pour in the vodka, Kahlua, and cream, stir to incorporate. Top with whipped cream, 2 mini chocolate chips for eyes, and an orange jimmie carrot nose. Makes one cocktail.


Click here for the recipe from BHG.

yep, alcohol in the middle of the winter scene again...