Elfy is HERE!

I posted awhile ago about the "Elf on the Shelf" tradition that we are adopting this year. But the elf that was on the website was so creepy, and I couldn't find a plush one anywhere! I used my cricut paper doll cartridge and printed out an elf die-cut on white paper, then used that to make one out of scrap pieces of felt. I cut out 2 of each clothing piece and hair so that he'd have a back side too, then sewed him up! The first one I made was for the Papas. I have since made 2 more elves. One for us, and one for a lady who saw a picture of him on a Coast Guard Wives website in the craft forum. She e-mailed me to ask if she could buy one!

So I sent her one with a drawstring bag, custom letter for her kiddos, decorated envelope from the North Pole, and a print out of the origional Elf on the Shelf Story. I was up til midnight finishing the one I was selling, but it was a lot of fun and Derrick was preparing his lesson for church anyways!

Here he is in all his 10 inches of glory... He arrived in the "mail" today from the North Pole (ok, I door bell ditched him on the porch after lunch) We read the letter, named him "Elfy", and quickly put him on the fireplace mantle. They can't wait to see where he is going to be in the morning. Dallin was giddy, very giddy. It was so much fun. They wondered why he was made of fabric. I told them that he came to life at night when he flew back to the north pole, but he turned back into a doll in the morning because a real elf would be too big to sit on a shelf. They bought it :)

This little elf is on his way to my other kids, Natalie, Evan and Miles right now ;)

Breadmaker Rolls

My Aunt makes the BEST rolls ever. She even gave me her recipe and they turn out ok for me, but I have issues with dough. I don't know if it in the rising or kneading, or just plain mixing the dough, but they didn't turn out as light and fluffy as hers. A friend gave me this recipe several years ago and I will never make any other rolls again. They are soooo easy and turn out perfect every time! Just throw everything in the bread maker and put it on the dough cycle! I use this recipe for rolls, hamburger buns, cinnamon rolls, etc. Just shape it in different ways!

Jana's Breadmaker Rolls

1 c. water

2 T. butter or margarine

1 egg

3 1/4 c. flour

1/4 c. sugar

1 tsp. salt

1 T. yeast

melted butter

Place all ingredients into bread machine. Select dough cycle. Allow to run entire cycle.

Dump out onto lightly floured surface. Divide dough into roll pieces. Place in greased bun pan. Cover and let raise 30-40 minutes. Brush melted butter on top of each roll.

Bake in preheated oven @ 375 for 12-15 minutes. Cool on wire rack.

Enjoy!!

Carmel Corn

This recipe came from Paula Deen. It is fantastic. We make it every year for the holidays along with english toffee, chocolate-covered pretzels, and buttery spritz cookies. Today I made some for Dallin's preschool teachers. It takes about an hour and a half to make, and makes a ton! Very easy to do, enjoy! Oh, and everyone on here is special because we never share this recipe with anyone, at least anyone who lives by us. We don't want them stealing our idea for holiday treat bags, lol. But nobody here in Ohio reads my blog, so we're good! I'm making this for my visiting teachers and teachees this year.

Start with popping 8 quarts of popcorn (3-4 batches) Place it in a large roasting pan.


It wouldn't be true to form of Paula without butter. So in a saucepan, melt 1 c. butter and add 2 cups brown sugar, 1/2 c. corn syrup and 1 tsp. salt.


Bring to a boil over med-high heat and boil for 5 minutes, stirring CONSTANTLY. Add 1 tsp. baking soda and mix well.

Pour over 8 quarts of popcorn, make sure to mix and coat evenly, and bake @ 200 degrees for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes.

Cool on waxed papper and enjoy!

Thanksgiving Treats

Carmel Corn Goody Sacks

Today was the last day of preschool before Thanksgiving break, so I decided to make Dallin's teachers some goodies. With the help of my trusty side-kick, Aaron, I made carmel corn (recipe on my food blog) and some fabric sacks to put it in. It was a hit! I decided to make these this morning after dropping him off at preschool, so I only had 2 hours before I had to get ready to pick him up! Maybe someday I'll learn to plan ahead for things like this so I don't feel so rushed, lol, but everything was very simple and we finished in plenty of time...



The sacks took 5 minutes. Just take a large rectangular piece of fabric, fold it in half so that the fold is on the bottom. Sew up the sides. Don't worry about hemming the top, just cut across with pinking shears.

The wall hangings came from some fabric I found at Joann's a couple of years ago. It has recipes printed on it!! So cool. It also had these cute little decals printed on it. So I cut one out, sandwiched it with a piece of batting and a brown piece of fabric. Sewed around the edges, then trimmed it with pinking shears. Then I wired it with some rusty craft wire and added a raffia ribbon.


Derrick picked up a bunch of note pads for me when he was in Anchorage one year. I love Mary Engelbreit, and these were $1 at Michaels. So I stuck one of these in each sack.


Then I filled a gallon ziploc bag with caramel corn 3/4 full and put that in the sack with the notepad.

Added a gift tag and I was done! The teachers loved the sacks and it was so easy to make. Everything was finished in under 2 hours, and I have now guaranteed my son's place as favorite student, lol. Just kidding.

Chocolate Chip Cookies---BEST EVER!

This recipe comes from Brianne Roberts. After seeing and trying this from her blog, I will never use any other recipe! They are so soft and perfect. Even Derrick likes them, and he usually doesn't like chocolate chip cookies. I may steal recipes, but I always give credit where it is due! For those of you who don't follow her blog, here is the recipe. I think the difference is the pudding mix. It makes them so moist. I added macadamia nuts to mine. Yummy!

Beat in large bowl:

1 C butter, softened
1/4 C sugar
3/4 C brown sugar
2 eggs
1 t vanilla

Mix in:
2 1/4 C flour
1 t baking soda
1 pkg choco chips/M&M's/whatever you like
1 pkg (4oz serv size) Jell-O Vanilla Flavor Instant Pudding & Pie Filling

Bake for 9 minutes at 375 degrees

Homemade Smelly Play Dough

Play-doh is cheap, but homemade Play Dough is cheaper and fun to make! Aaron and I made this batch and colored it with an orange kool-aid packet. Orange is his favorite color. This recipe is great because it's texture is the same as store-bought Play-doh and not gritty from salt like a lot of homemade recipes. This recipe makes a TON, I halfed it, but used the entire package of kool aid.


Smelly Play-Dough

3 c. flour
1 1/2 c. salt
3 c. water
2 T. oil
1 T. cream of tartar
food coloring or 1 package kool-aid mix.

Heat all ingredients in sauce pan on med heat. Stir until dough forms and pulls off the sides of the pan. The dough might be a little sticky still, but should be hard to stir. Remove from heat and let cool slightly. Knead 4 or 5 times, then play! Store in air tight container.

Aaron LOVES to play with play-doh, he could sit at the kitchen table and play all day.

Handbag Tutorial

http://www.mamaspocketbook.com/freebies.htm

I used this tutorial to make this handbag today. It took about 2 hours start to finish. I am giving it away as a Christmas gift. Now I need to find some tutorials to make a couple of small make-up bags to give away since I have extra material! This handbag took 1/2 yard of each fabric, so it was pretty inexpensive. Check out the tutorial!

Oh, ETA that I just found a pattern for cosmetic bags! Yay! http://www.clothworkstextiles.com/pdfs/patterns/classicblackquilt.pdf

Crockpot Chicken and Biscuits

This recipe is incredibly easy and tastes delicious! Don't let the picture fool you, most things in the crockpot don't look as good as they smell or TASTE! I made this tonight since I was going to be busy until 5. Dinner was in the crockpot at noon and I knew I was good to go.

3 chicken breasts cut into 1" cubes
3 large potatoes, peeled and cut into 1" cubes
1-2 cups. baby carrots
1 c. celery (optional)
2 cans cream of chicken soup
1 c. water
1 package Lipton onion soup mix (dry)
1/2 tsp. poultry seasoning
1/2 tsp. black pepper

Put chicken and veggies in crockpot. Mix the rest of the ingredients and pour over.
Cook on high for 6 hours.

Serve over hot biscuits. Until someone can find me a recipe that is better than Pillsbury's frozen biscuits, I am going to stick to the store bought ones! You can do dumplings with this recipe too, but I don't like dumplings. For that you would drop spoonfuls of biscuit/dumpling dough over ingredients in crockpot for the last 30 min.

Serves 6-8.

Chili Lime Chicken

Chili Lime Chicken

Another low fat favorite. 15 minute dinner, gotta love that! I served this tonight with a green salad, rice-a-roni, and chocolate chew cookies! Enjoy!

1 T. olive oil

2 T. flour

1/2 tsp. chili powder

1/2 tsp. garlic powder

1/4 tsp. salt

4 (3 oz) thin-sliced skinless chicken breasts (1/4" thick)

1/2 c. chicken broth

2 T. lime juice

2 T. cilantro (optional)

In a large nonstick skillet, heat the oil. In a large ziplock bag, mix the flour, chili powder, garlic powder, and salt.

Add chicken and shake until coated. Transfer the chicken to the skillet, shaking off any excess flour; saute until cooked through, about 3 min. on each side.

Pour broth and lime juice over the chicken; heat to serving temperature, about 30 seconds. Transfer chicken to plates.

Spoon the pan juices over chicken with cilantro.

Serves 4.

Elf on a Shelf...

I found this idea on a forum and thought we'd adopt the tradition in our home! After Thanksgiving a litlte Elf shows up at the door (store bought or homemade). He sits on the shelf "watching" to see if the kids are being naughty or nice. Each night after the kids go to bed, the elf returns to the North Pole to report. The next morning the elf will have returned and will be sitting somewhere else. The kids get to try to find him each morning in his new place. This continues until Christmas Eve when he returns to the North Pole until next year!

You can buy kits for $30 and they'll ship you an elf, but I'm not going to pay that. We'll figure out a way to have his arrival be special. I am going to look online and at stores for a little elf this month. Happy Holidays!

http://www.elfontheshelf.com/#/about-us

Ceramic Snowflake Ornament...

Painting a baby's hand is next to impossible since it is always in a clinched fist. This is why I chose to do her foot, lol. When Dallin was 4 months old, I put him through the trauma of painting his hand for tiny ceramic plates to give to our parents as wall hangings for Valentine's Day. He was screaming by the end of it. So...this was a lot easier, but still not perfect, oh well! I thought it would be a nice Baby's 1st Christmas ornament for her and very easy. I used ceramic paint and a Sharpie pen, then added a coat of Mod Podge over the pen markings because it would rub off otherwise.

I saw these ceramic ornaments at Michael's on Saturday and thought they were so cute! They had all different shapes. I used Mod Podge and attached a picture of the kids. That's it! I'd love to have a whole tree of these photo ornaments. Maybe I'll make one every year. These are going to be sent to Grandparents and Great-Grandmas this year with their Christmas packages. Total cost: $1.50. I am going to go out and buy some square tiles and mod podge photos on the front for wallhangings in our house. I saw a friend that did that in her kitchen yesterday and it looked so neat!