Christmas Presents

Since living with Martha Stewart my senior year of college, I learned of number of great cooking/sewing skills. I have decided to put those skills to good use this year and make most of my Christmas gifts.

So what have I been making? Flat Iron/Curling Iron cases and matching Cosmetic Bags.

Read: Necessities.

I am in love with the final product, especially the one for my lovely roomie.

I'm in love!

So I used the same material you would use for a hot pad to create a Flat Iron/Curling Iron case.

Flat Iron Case open.

I decided to go with a black and white polka dot fabric for L since that is totally her.

 

The Flat Iron case closed. 

Then I created a matching Cosmetic bag.

Matching Cosmetic Bag

For L's I used a black and white gingham as the lining. I usually just use the same fabric though.

I also made one for my little cousins, mom, and sister, but each with a fabric that fit their personality. I love this type of gift because they can be really personal. For L's, I added her initial to personalize it a bit more.

I think they look so great together.

I also bought some Kate Spade earrings so her gift wasn't just a homemade craft that cost under $10...

 

I put the earring box inside the Cosmetic bag when I wrapped it. Here you can see the inside lining too.

 

Here it is all together! I am so happy with how it all turned out. I think she's gonna LOVE it. I hope so at least. 

The Final product.

I used the Kate Spade tissue paper to wrap it in a box and then wrapped the whole thing in my new argyle wrapping paper.

Oh how I love the holidays!

Christmas Cookies

So this year I got really into the Christmas spirit of baking cookies. It helped that I had a friend in town who was all about cookies, or galletas (she's from Chile, in town for K's wedding) 

I discovered a recipe on how to create my own slice and bake holiday swirl. So I gave it the old college try. My phone was on it's last leg, hence the TERRIBLE pictures. BUT, the cookies were so cute I couldn't help myself. Did I mention I also made Christmas Funfetti Cookies and Sugar Cookies with Christmas Cookie cutters? Because I did. 

I started out easy. With the Funfetti Christmas cookies. It's pretty easy. Just add an egg or oil or something to a box of funfetti cake - and you get cookie dough. Its great. And yummy. 

Then I went for the basic sugar cookie. It was ok. But I have yet to find a Sugar cookie recipe that I LOVE.

Now that the not from scratch stuff was over, the REAL baking could begin. Swirl Sugar Cookies

I started by making cookie dough, dividing it in two, and dying one green. (I suppose you could do red too, but I used green.) I rolled both sections out into long rectangles. Placed one on top of the other, and put them in the fridge. Then I rolled it up like a log and poured sprinkles in a dish and rolled the dough in the sprinkles. Back in the fridge for another hour and then voila: 

Ready to slice!

Ends like this are perfect to cut off...and EAT!

You can see how nicely they turn into little circles, covered in sprinkles. 

Love the swirl, its perfection!

The log all sliced up. 

Put them on an ungreased cookie sheet...

Then pop em in the oven. 

You can see them cooking. 

 

And they come out so cute!

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The sprinkles melted slightly into the cookies for a perfectly festive look. 

And there you have it, ALL my Christmas cookies!

 I can't wait until the next holiday! MLK day? Presidents Day? Valentine's Day?

Winter Wonderland in OTR

Door decorating contest at work again this year. Last year was an EPIC fail. (Pretty much everything fell off the door as I was explaining it to the judges...it was bad).

So this year we were prepared. It turned out AWESOME. I even wrote a poem which I'll post later - Twas the Night Before Registration.

We had George (Washington of course) throwing snowballs at a Hoya Bulldog. There was the White House Christmas tree and the Washington Monument and lots of snowflakes. I hope we win, but if not, it was still a lot of fun.

The Full Effect.

George Hiding behind his fort.

Watch out!

That Hoya is going down!

The poem!

And a Welcome Sled for good measure.

I hope you are enjoying the Holidays just as much as I am.
Merry Christmas!

Christmas in DC!

So last year was my first Christmas in my own apartment (as opposed to dorms and such) so my roommate and I got a tree and lights and wreath and all sorts of decorations. The works. That was actually the first real Christmas Tree L had even gotten in her entire life! Can you imagine, never growing up with a real tree? You miss out on the smell and the mess and the whole real tree thing. So we decided to go to Home Depot and shrink wrap a tree to Frank (my Sonata) to drive him home.

This year we went the more expensive but easier route. We walked the mile to Eastern Market to pick out a smaller tree and carried it all the way home. That's city life for you I suppose. Anyways, the tree was $40 and personally I think it would have been cheaper/easier to just go back to Home Depot but I guess this is all part of the experience of living on Capitol Hill.

So we got the tree set up, added the lights and ornaments we got last year. Hung up our stockings, put lights around the spiral staircase, listened to some Christmas tunes, drank hot chocolate and baked Christmas cookies (that did not really turn out so well.) Needless to say it's going to be a very festive Christmas yet again. I'm looking forward to enjoying all of this for another month still!

Our little tree.

Ornaments. Our theme is gold and read-clearly.

Our initialed ornaments.

The finished product!

Our front door. I think it's pretty welcoming.

 Merry Christmas! You are welcome to stop by anytime!

Thanksgiving as a real grown up.

So I went home for Thanksgiving and did indeed bring a pie on the plane with me. That's right, I made an apple pie from SCRATCH and then used a round cake carrier to bring it on the plane with me back to Minnesota. Everyone was surprised and also a little impressed (I think). The pie turned out great. Comments: I could have added more cinnamon or cooked it longer. I think I'll add more apples next time, because they cooked down a lot more than i anticipated. But overall it was a great first attempt at making a pie by myself. And look at how beautiful it turned out!
 

I think it looks a little better uncooked. Look at those edges!

 Golden Brown. Perfection.

 I also was able to bake the Sweet Potato Casserole and made some Roasted Parmesan Green Beans that were a HUGE hit. I like this whole learning to cook and growing up thing.

I also cooked dinner for my mom and Gramma one night. I made my famous Lemon Apricot Chicken with Apple/Pear and Mint Salad. They loved it. Gramma even went back for seconds! That's when you know you've finally made it big. 
 

Apple, Pear, Mint Salad

Apricot Lemon Chicken

Making momma proud.

Candy Corn Cookie Fun

Since today is Halloween and I'm not big on dressing up, I figured I should still do something festive. So I decided to make Candy Corn Sugar Cookies. Now, don't let the name fool you, there are no candy corns involved in this process, other than the fact that the cookies look like little candy corns. I love to bake, and my office loves to eat the cookies I bake, so I figured it would be a perfect match.

This was probably the most fun I have had baking cookies in a while. And I decided to document the process with photos!

So I started with a simple sugar cookie mix. I didn't have time to make it from scratch, so I just used a box. Also, I have yet to find a sugar cookie recipe that I actually like, so the mix always seems to be the best bet for me. Once I had the dough, I divided it into 3 parts and left one section the normal color, dyed one section yellow and the last section orange. I lined a small bread pan with plastic wrap and layered the dough inside. First white, then orange, then yellow. I smoothed out the top and placed it in the fridge to chill for a couple of hours.


When I took out the dough, you could clearly see the 3 layers.



Then I sliced a 1/4 inch section and you could really see the layers.


Next I cut little triangles out of the dough.


I think if I had used a larger bread pan I might have been able to get more triangles out of each slice, but this worked just fine.



Once all the triangles were all cut, I set them all out on the pan. I put granulated sugar on some and some orange sprinkles I had on others. For one batch I dipped the ends into sugar and some I left plain. Not sure which ones turned out best, but they all looked so cute.


I baked them in the oven for about 10 minutes. (I like to leave them a little on the doughy side so when then cool they are nice and soft).


I let them cool on the pan for a couple minutes.


And moved them to a wire rack to cool.


They actually look like little candy corns. I was quite pleased!


Finally I layered them in a Tupperware to bring to work for my coworkers to enjoy!


Such an easy treat. But so fun!