Kitchen Time

Martha made an appearance and she brought help. Christmas Eve was spent in the kitchen. It was a long day. Dishes were washed, dried and washed again. I made a batch of ginger bread cookies that had to sit in the refrigerator for a couple of hours. I mixed up a batch of orange-cranberry bread after chopping up walnuts and cranberries. While the bread baked, I mixed up a batch of sugar cookies. The kids cut those into shapes and placed them on the cookie sheets.





Into the oven for 8 minutes then removed to cool. Once the sugar cookies were made, we rolled out the gingerbread cookies. I made white frosting and we filled decorator bags.




As they decorated and worked together, I made a broccoli salad and dough for dinner rolls. I washed and dried and washed again.




It was a busy but very productive day in the kitchen. Special cookies were made just for Santa and the rest were to be enjoyed by our friends and family.



I made it, last minute made it, but we have cookies for Christmas.

White, Sweet Fluff, Part II

Those sticky white marshmallows were a hit. They have a delicious flavor with a hint of vanilla. They melt in your mouth. They were fun to slice with a pizza cutter. The second part of the recipe is easier than the first part, mainly the cleanup.

So I sliced, pulled them apart and I rolled some in colored sprinkles. So festive and a great gift idea. We gifted about half the pan since we don't need all that sugar. We have enough sugar around this house so any I can gift, I'll gift.

They are tempting little cubes of fluff. I offered my mother-in-law one and she said no. However, I showed them to her and she said, "Oh, I'll try one." She did like them although she refused to take any home with her.

We just stirred them up in hot mugs of cocoa! They did not melt but then again, the hot cocoa was more warm than hot as our children like to be able to drink it without waiting. The fluff cubes were delicious and we'll be drinking more hot cocoa over the next few days.

This recipe, I have been told, is a keeper. A new recipe to add to our Christmas recipe list. I'll definitely be making these again and again.

White Fluff, Part I

Tonight I crossed another treat off my Christmas list. For the first time ever, I made homemade marshmallows.

Let’s just say messy, sticky, gooey.

The recipe only had a few ingredients. I did not have to stand over the heavy pot and stir until the contents reached the soft ball stage. It did take time but hopefully, the end results - taste test tomorrow - will be worth it.

Below are some pictures from part one as they have to sit, covered, for six hours or overnight. I chose the overnight option. Tomorrow, I’ll cut them into white chunks of fluff and the kids can roll them in colored sugars.

For 15 minutes my mixer ran on high to beat the mixture until it doubled in capacity.



Creamy, sticky fluff.

Spread in the pan and ready to set.


I did say sticky, didn't I? Let's say clean up went well when I used boiling water to wash everything.

Finding Martha

I am struggling. Procrastinating. Avoiding and stressed.

It is a jolly time of year and I am feeling anything but jolly.

Don’t get me wrong, I do like Christmas. Our children make it special. They get so excited about Santa’s visit, tree decorating and baking. However, this year, it has been harder than normal for me to get in the Christmas spirit.

Every year I struggle with emotions. I miss my family. They are so far away. I miss the way our Christmases were. Christmas Eve we would spend with extended family and enjoy a delicious meal together. We'd play with cousins and open presents. We were all together. I have fond memories of the good old days, when family members were still here with us. We didn’t have much but we had each other and I love those memories. They are so special. Change definitely upsets me this time of year. At my age, you’d think I’d just accept it but I miss my family and being together.

Is it the weather that has me blue? That is a possibility because in upstate New York we have about 2-3 inches of snow. I associate Christmas with snow-covered trees, fields, houses and roads. Oh, the wonderful white beauty of snow. I would like to wake up to a heavy snow fall Christmas morning and have 10 inches of snow already on the ground. I am not sure my husband would agree with that as he tends to the snow removal. However, it certainly would be delightful and beautiful. I know two kids that would jump for joy over snow. After opening presents, they’d quickly dress, grab their new sleds and head outside to the back hill. They’d sled until their cheeks were red and declare “hot cocoa time” as they undressed near the coal stove. I do hope we have snow over the holiday break. Personally, I want a run or two down the slope! That might be just what I need.

And to top this whole “mood” off, I am baked out and this is not the time of year to avoid the kitchen. I have two days to get cookies baked, frostings colored, candies hardening and marshmallows setting. I have managed to bake one sour cream cinnamon-pecan coffee cake, and one batch each of snowballs and spritz. I have the ingredients in my cupboards. I don’t need to go to the store for anything. What I need to do is put my apron on and stir, mix, roll, cut, boil, spread, sprinkle… you get the idea. Where do I find the motivation? My plan is to turn the radio on – hopefully to hear good Christmas music, ask the kids to join me and together we can get some treats made. I have never lost my “Martha” before. I need her back.

Will I find my Martha?

One Small Hand

I have managed to knit and purl my way through one mitten. I searched and found an easy knit pattern, grabbed a ball of leftover yarn and sat down determined to knit. That was over a week ago. It was simple to figure out the easy pattern. I was thrilled when the top of the mitten started to take shape. Then the thumb became easier to visualize as I knitted. Then cut the yarn, pull it through the remaining stitches and the top of the mitten was completed. Now on to the part I don't like. Sewing the seams. This step had me worried as I did not want one to see where the seam was sewn. So what did I do? I put that little mitten back into my knitting bag and walked away. Unnecessary delays due in part to a lack of confidence in my abilities.

Sunday night, that determination hit me again, apparently because I failed to bake up a storm with only 5 days left before Christmas! Needle in hand, sitting in front of our fireplace, I sewed. I took my time and sewed. It did not take very long to stitch the mitten together. The outcome put a smile on my face. I love when a finished project makes me smile.

Then the reality of this project hit me. One needs two mittens to stay warm. Little or big, I need to make two. That’s the problem with sock and mittens, you have to make two. Anyway, I did not let this realization dampen my enthusiasm. Monday morning, in the rush to get ready and leave the house, I grabbed my knitting bag. I spent my lunchtime starting the second mitten. Thirty minutes later the cuff was knitted and I was ready to knit the thumb area so perhaps, with 30 more uninterrupted minutes, I can finish the second mitten. I’ll have a pair. My first pair of mittens! These will be too small for anyone in our house so I will gift them to a friends’ child.

I managed to bake a sour cream pecan-cinnamon coffee cake last night and while it cooled, I knitted. They are so cute...



Aren't they adorable?



I'm smiling and today I bought the double pointed needles I need to start a pair, yes a pair, of socks for the love of my life.

Are you ready to rumble?

Party...not rumble! And that is what we did yesterday. We celebrated our sons' seventh birthday a week early. He loves sports - football, baseball, soccer so we went with a sports theme.

I haven't decorated a cake in a while but I was happy with the outcome of the helmet cake. He chose the colors. I decorated. I was happy because when he saw it, he said it was "awesome". One hurdle cleared!


We invited five classmates and they arrived around the same time. Our son was so excited! He planned to give them a tour of our house, but not the closets (thankfully, yes, I smiled at that). They they ran around. Six active boys. Will the house ever be the same?

Friday night, using a piece of white poster board, I cut out a field goal. From the leftover pieces, we cut out six footballs. Olivia and Elliott colored them and made the shapes look like footballs. We used these for a game - just like pin the tail on the donkey - but instead the object was to place the football in the field goal to score. The boys loved the game and they played it twice. More running around until I gathered them to play a Football Fever word find. They tried it and after one boy found a word, I said they could play again.

Lunch was served, they laughed at the table and had fun.

The time for presents arrived and they were like little rioters around our son. I could not get good pictures or get them to sit down. One present after another was opened and then they ran around for a while.

The last game, before serving the cake, was a quarterback passing game. I set a box up on a chair in the hallway. Each "quarterback" had three tries to throw the small, soft football into the box. They were so excited about this, that it took a while to calm them down. After determining the throwing order, they settled down. One boy would throw the ball, another boy was stationed behind the chair to return the ball, and after the 3 attempts, the boys rotated. It went very well, and surprisingly, it was quite a challenge.

Cake time! After singing Happy Birthday, they all settled down to eat cake and ice cream. The blue frosting colored their lips and tongues - quite a sight!

The time flew by and one by one, parents arrived to pick up their child. Our son had a great day and really enjoyed having his friends over. What a nice group of boys!

Happy Birthday to our son - we love you!

Real Estate

When one has a hobby, or multiple hobbies, space can be an issue. A large issue. Depending on available space, one can make progress on craft projects or fail to start, let alone finish a project. I enjoy various crafts – baking, crocheting, knitting, scrapbooking and journaling, card making, sewing and cross-stitching. I know some of these hobbies don’t require a lot of space. I can crochet or knit in a chair, on a bus, almost any place; however, I do need storage for my yarn, hooks and needles.

I do have my room for baking (although it desperately needs to be remodeled)!

We have a house that is big enough for our family and yet it seems as though there is little space for me to spread out, work and leave a craft project.

The big guy has a room, yes a room, in the basement to house his hobby items. It is a rather large area, with shelving, a large dresser, closet area and a door. I even outfitted it with camouflage curtains. He has had this room, his room, for years. And during these years, when I have wanted to sew (like those camo curtains) or work on projects, I had to cart everything to our kitchen table, usually later in the evening, work on the project, and pack everything back up and put it away. Just getting motivated to gather my items often stopped me.

The winds of change have blown through our house.

Did I mention I now have a craft room? I now have a craft room. Technically, it is not a dedicated room but it is space. My space. Space that I plan to use. I have been excited, almost giddy, because I have a room – space – where I can get items out, start projects and leave them – behind a closed door. No more digging out craft boxes, sewing machines, scrapbooking supplies (wait, I still have to do that) BUT I have a table – my work surface – that I can pile high with whatever I intend to work on and (this is the best part) I don’t have to pack it all up and put away. I CAN LEAVE IT OUT! Are you catching my excitement?

And how did I manage such real estate, you may want to know. I simply rearranged our guest bedroom over the holiday weekend. I moved furniture, mopped, dusted and got rid of items. The big guy helped me move an old kitchen table into the room and there it is…my craft room.

I plan to work on filling those scrapbooks that I have. I have prep work done as some of my recent photos are sorted. Oh to think we’ll have scrapbooks to browse, cards to send and perhaps I’ll get a large cross-stitch project finished within a year (I won’t tell you how many years it has been sitting in the closet – I just hope I can still read the legend).

I still have more organization and sorting to do but I am happy and making progress. So happy… sometimes I just sit in there, my craft room, and enjoy a cup of hot tea.

Can it get any better than this?