There’s no rule saying ornaments can decorate only trees, so think outside the fir and hang a few glass
and homemade orbs in a window for extra sparkle.
HERE’S HOW
Attach lengths of nylon filament to the window frame with a pushpin, and suspend the ornaments. To make the glittery d.i.y. snowballs, cover a styrofoam sphere with styrofoam glue and shredded mylar and let dry before hanging.
Gingerbread Men
3 cups flour
2 tsp. McCormick® Ground Ginger
1 tsp. McCormick® Ground Cinnamon
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. McCormick® Ground Nutmeg
1/4 tsp. salt
3/4 cup (1/2 sticks) butter, softened
3/4 cups firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup molasses
l egg
MIX flour, ginger, cinnamon, baking soda, nutmeg and salt. Beat butter and brown sugar in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy. Add molasses and egg; beat well. Gradually beat in flour mixture on low speed until well mixed. Press dough into a thick flat disk. Wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate 4 hours or overnight.
ROLL out dough to 1/4-inch thickness on lightly floured work surface. Cut into gingerbread men shapes with 5-inch cookie cutter. Place 1 inch apart on ungreased baking sheets.
BAKE in preheated 350°F oven 8 to 10 minutes or until edges of cookies are set and just beginning to brown. Cool on baking sheets 1 to 2 minutes. Remove to wire racks; cool completely. Decorate as desired.
Makes 2 dozen.
snowman cake
MAKES 24 servings
prep 15 minutes
BAKE at 350° for 43 minutes
EQUIPMENT
2 8-ounce ovenproof glass bowls 2 12-ounce ovenproof glass bowls 2 4-cup ovenproof bowls or
metal ball pans (such as Wilton) 9 foil cupcake liners
Chopstick or wooden skewer
INGREDIENTS
2 boxes (18.25 ounces each) yellow cake mix
8 large eggs
2 cups buttermilk
2/3 cup vegetable oil
1 bag (14 ounces) flaked coconut
1 roll strawberry fruit leather (such as Fruit by the Foot)
2 cans (16 ounces each) vanilla frosting
1 orange fruit slice
12 mini chocolate chips
2 cream-filled chocolate cookies (such as Oreo)
1 thin chocolate cookie (such as Famous chocolate wafers)
Heat oven to 350°. Coat bowls with nonstick cooking spray; coat with flour. Place foil liners into muffin-pan indents.
Combine cake mixes, eggs, buttermilk and oil. Beat on low speed until just combined. Increase speed to high; beat until smooth, about 2 minutes. Spoon 2V2 cups batter into each of the largest bowls, 1 cup batter into each of the medium bowls and Vi cup batter into each of the smallest bowls. Divide remaining batter among the 9 prepared cupcake cups.
Bake at 350° until cake is golden and a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean: about 17 minutes for the cupcakes, 22 to 25 minutes for smallest bowls, 30 minutes for the medium bowls and 40 to 43 minutes for large bowls. Transfer cakes to a wire rack and cool completely.
Meanwhile, place the coconut in a food processor and pulse until finely chopped. Transfer to a medium bowl. Cut fruit leather into a 6-inch and an 8-inch length. Fold each in half, pressing to secure, to get 3-inch and 4-inch lengths. Use scissors to cut fringe on short end of each piece.
Invert cooled bowl cakes onto work surface. Trim flat sides to make level.
Place one of the large bowl cakes, flat-side up, on a platter. Spread top with vanilla frosting. Place the other cake layer on top, flat-side down, to create a ball. Spread a thin layer of the frosting all over cake. Gently press the coconut all over to cover.
Repeat with the remaining cakes to make 2 smaller balls.
Place the medium ball on top of the large ball. Insert a trimmed chopstick or wooden skewer for support. Place the 2 pieces of fruit leather as the scarf on top of the middle cake. Add the small ball cake on top. Add more coconut, if necessary.
Cut the orange fruit slice into a %-inch triangle for the nose and attach in the center of the small cake. Add the mini chips, pointed-end in, as the eyes and the mouth. For the hat, attach the 2 cream-filled cookies to the flat chocolate cookie with some of the remaining vanilla frosting. Arrange hat on top of snowman.
Spread remaining vanilla frosting on top of the cupcakes, sprinkle the tops with the coconut and serve with snowman.
PER SERVING 530 calories; 25 g fat (8 g sat.); 5 g protein; 73 g carbohydrate; 2 g fiber; 463 mg sodium; 73 mg cholesterol
Just recovering from the loss of a six week old Sarah… she was a brown, black and white “cow” Pekeignese. She was always on the small side and also on the non-active side so some of the first warnings went unnoticed.
Falcore - Foxie - Sarah - Chompers (Only one to make it through this nightmare was Falcore)
She first showed signs two days ago getting slower and slower and sleeping for longer periods of time. She stopped eating all together last night even with the temptation of something she absolutely loved.
I took her to the vet this morning and got the bad news. Sarah was bloodless…. the flea attacks in our home, that we had been doing everything we could to get rid of them, had literally sucked all the blood out of her tiny little body. The vet showed me her gums and her tummy and they were both very white along with the inside of her eyes.
The news was heartbreaking as the main treatment was to be a blood transfusion which could topple off at $500.00 plus which was clearly beyond my income level. So the next course of treatment was automatic deworming for worms (to see if this would help also) and a strong dose of vitamin drops. The idea was to help Sarah build her white blood cell count up… which would also help in her breathing better since she was starting to struggle with now by building her white blood cells up giving her more oxygen………. In addition to that getting rid of fleas.
Now I will tell you my wife and I have been vigilantes in getting rid of fleas. The house is cleaned and vacuumed, “dog safe” poison is placed all over our yard and especially around the perimeter of our house, we spray flea sprays in the house as well as use flea powders that you sprinkle everywhere and then vacuum up. We make mixtures of lemon juice and lemon extract sprays that get sprayed on the dogs and we bathe them in dawn lemon and flea citrus shampoos. Other then helping with Sarahs’ environment, there was nothing more we could do for Sarah since she was so small (weighing in at 1 lb) and was under three months.
I brought Sarah home after the vet gave her her worming medicine and I gave her her dosage of vitamins (1/2 vial every 12 hrs). She got worse and worse and eventually she left us and this world today just six hours after I took her to the vet.
My family and I are very hurt and saddened but I wanted to share my story in case someone else is having this problem and maybe I could prevent your baby from leaving you too early.
These artists use what God left behind that was once beautiful to create a new beautiful art……. These pieces of art just leave you with a good feeling in your heart…
Country & Victorian Times 