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Happy Holidays!

Last minute gift -- Find It

Just a quick last minute gift idea! My sister bought Find It for each of the kids and they loved it! Maddie carried hers around all day. And the adults were getting into it too -- which is always fun. So I can highly recommend this gift for kids of pretty much any age. (There are even mini pillow versions for little kids.)

Holiday Punch (or a Very Martha Christmas)

It's been all about Martha Stewart around here. First there were the cookies -- oh, and btw, Maddie and I made two more batches of cookies from the book -- Old Fashioned Sugar Cookies and Grammies Chocolate Cookies which were both awesome! And then there was this punch which is from her website. It is the Southern Comfort Punch and everyone liked it. In fact, we drank the whole thing! I have to mention that I didn't put in nearly as much alcohol as she recommends  since I was the second to last house in the progressive brunch and we still had to drive (even if it was only 4 blocks to my Mom's house!)

Doesn't it look pretty in my thrifted punch bowl?

Fantasy Fudge

I mentioned my love for Fantasy Fudge in my last post and then I had a strong desire to make some -- so I did. It's one of those special things that only gets made at Christmas time which makes it all the more delicious. The original recipe came from Bambi -- our neighbor who was like a grandma to us. I always remember her making a tin of it this time of year, and after she moved away, we took over the tradition.

 

Here is the original recipe in my mom's hand. I photo copied a bunch of recipes from her cookbook a while back and I like seeing them in her handwriting so much, that I never copied them onto new recipe cards. I have made some changes, but the basics remain the same. Here is my version:

Fantasy Fudge 

Makes 1 9" X 13" pan or about 60 pieces.

Ingredients:

3 c. Sugar
3/4 c. Butter (1 1/2 sticks)
2/3 c. Evaporated Milk (Not sweetened condensed!)
1 12 oz. bag of good quality bittersweet chocolate chips
1 Jar Marshmallow Fluff (The kind in the glass jar, not plastic tub) approx. 2 c.
1 tsp. Vanilla Extract
2 c. nuts of your choice -- optional

Combine sugar, butter and evaporated milk in a saucepan -- mixture will expand as it boils, so make sure the pan is large enough). Bring to a rolling boil on med high heat and boil for 5 minutes, stirring constantly.

Remove from heat and add chocolate chips, marshmallow fluff, vanilla extract and nuts (if using).

Use a hand held beater to thoroughly mix ingredients -- make sure to scrape down sides and stir bottom corners of the pan several times.

Pour into parchment lined 9" X 13" pan. Leave on the counter to cool for about 1 hour then refrigerate an additional 1-2 hours before cutting.

Lift fudge and parchment out of pan and using a long knife (I use a big bread knife), cut into individual pieces. Store in layers separated by wax paper or parchment in a tin in the fridge.

I spent the weekend bowling, making aebleskiver and decorating the house for the holidays

So I don't have much to show here. Instead I will do a meme that my sister, Amanda, sent me via email over two weeks ago. . .

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping Paper -- In fact, I'm coordinating all my packages this year. Plain red paper with black ribbon and black and natural straw ornaments.
2. Real tree or Artificial? Artificial -- two actually. There is the big, traditional tree in the family room and a Swedish tree decorated with mostly straw ornaments and tomtes in the dining room. (I know, real trees are better for the environment if sustainably grown, but we bought the trees years ago.)
3. When do you put up the tree? near the beginning of December. We put it up yesterday (Dec. 8th).
4. When do you take the tree down? The beginning of January. Pete usually takes it down for me -- yeah! (I absolutely hate taking down the decorations, but enjoy putting them up.)
5. Do you like eggnog? Yes, in moderation. I usually buy one carton so that I can make a few eggnog lattes during December.
6. Favorite gift received as a child? Hmmmm. . . don't really remember -- probably Capsela or Legos.
7. Hardest person to buy for? Pete. He never really wants anything and the one thing he likes -- books -- he has *lots* of already.
8. Easiest person to buy for? Maddie -- kids at this age (she's 8) are into letting you know what they want!
9. Do you have a nativity scene? Um, no. As atheists, we don't really get into that sort of thing.
10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Mail -- although we are pretty bad at getting them out. We did purchase cards at IKEA in November and I got some stamps last week, so we are part way there.
11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? I'll try to be nice here and simply say that people should probably not buy me clothes. (Except for my mom -- she buys us great jammies every year!)
12. Favorite Christmas Movie? New-ish: The Polar Express (watched it yesterday!) Old-ish: It's a Wonderful Life.
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? December -- I purchased my first gift last week and I'm almost done today. I start creating a list on Amazon in November and then go online and purchase things as I finalize them. I love having it all shipped to me so I don't have to deal with carrying heavy packages and fighting crowds!
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? I've never re-gifted, but I have re-sold or taken some to a charity shop.
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Fudge! I make Bambi's Fantasy Fudge. Bambie was our neighbor when we were growing up and was like a grandma to us. She made the best fudge. I'll have to post the recipe here soon.
16. Lights on the tree? Yes. Colored on the big tree and all white on the little tree.
17. Favorite Christmas song? Hmmm. . . anything traditional and secular.
18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Stay home! We go to my mom's which is about 4 blocks away and the weekend after Christmas we go to Pete's mom's for the day which is only about an hour away.
19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? Sure! Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner & Blitzen. And don't forget Rudolph!
20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Angel on one tree and star on the other.
21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Both -- we have a lot of family!
22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? Shopping. I don't normally like to shop, so you can imagine how I feel about shopping this time of year. Thank goodness for the internet!
23. Favorite ornament theme or color? Love traditional, Swedish ornaments -- hence the Swedish tree.
24. Favorite for Christmas dinner? Hmmmm. . . My mom makes an AWESOME Thanksgiving dinner, but she doesn't have a specific Christmas dinner, so it varies from year to year. Lately she makes her famous stew on Christmas Eve which is delicious.
25. What do you want for Christmas this year? A happy, healthy family and for everyone to keep their jobs. I'd also like an end to the recession and world peace -- not too much to ask, right?

The Black Sheep Bags Holiday Party (or, what Maddie & I do while Pete is at the company Christmas party)

A good time was had by all (all being Maddie & I) at the annual Black Sheep Bags Holiday Party. Let me explain.

Each year Pete's company has a Christmas party -- when he worked at the company prior to his current one, they were extravagant, wild, free for alls (including exotic dancers for the men & women!) Spouses were never invited. It was a time for the employees to kick back and blow off steam or something. Don't get the wrong impression -- Pete is in finance, this was a commercial real estate company -- the owner was just a bit, um, interesting (maybe you've heard of him -- he is the current owner of the Chicago Trib and the Cubs too). Now Pete works at a straight laced bank and the parties are calmer, but spouses still aren't invited. So Maddie and I have our own party at home.

There was cookie making and decorating, and we watched Rudolph on TV while eating appetizers:

Yes, those are fish sticks -- Maddie insisted we have appetizers since it was a party -- and a fine dinner of mac & cheese from the box (a special treat for Maddie, not me) followed by card games -- Scrambled States 2 & good old fashioned Uno. (Those would be great stocking stuffers -- and I have to mention Wig Out! too which is a super fun card game!)

We ended the night by laying in bed reading, waiting for Pete to get home. It's a fun little tradition that I hope to continue for years to come.

Lego Advent Calendar

I love Legos -- LOVE them. Not only did I play with them as a child -- I have purchased them as an adult -- for myself. Luckily, Maddie is very much into Legos too, so I now have a partner in crime. In fact, today I purchased the LEGO City Advent Calendar for her (and me). I love that there is a little Lego project for each day of December!

And the free shipping from Amazon is perfect -- I swear I've been doing almost all my Christmas shopping through Amazon the last couple of years. This way, when I actually do go shopping at the holidays, it's more for fun -- and I don't have all the heavy packages to carry around (this has so helped my holiday spirit!!)

And to get back to the whole Lego thing. Last week Maddie turned 8 and I bought her the Lego Creator Beach House which is awesome! It makes 3 different houses and we've already put together 2 of them. I love this because Maddie really enjoys actually putting the things together (as do I) so a set that can be reconfigured in different ways was perfect for her.

Fun!!!

Potica

A true cottage industry -- potica!  Does anyone else out there eat this at Christmas?  We always had it growing up, but I wasn't sure if it was a Catholic thing or a Midwest thing or what.  After doing a bit of searching around on the web, it appears to be Slovenian in origin. 

Now first of all, it's delicious.  Maybe it's hard to tell from the photo, but it is made from a dough rolled very thin and then crushed nuts and honey (and other things I'm sure, but I don't know what) are added and then it's rolled up.  This creates *many* layers of goodness!

And you don't buy these at a store -- you don't even buy them at a bakery.  You need to find a local woman who knows how to make them and sells them at the holidays.  I love that idea!  Because of this, some poticas are more bread-y, some are more nutty, some are dryer -- it's very individual.  I'm sure the recipes are passed down in each family.

There are some recipes out there on the web, these are some that looked unique or had helpful illustrations:

• Potica Bread -- looks like a nice variation and makes a pretty loaf!
• Potica -- has instructions with photos
• Potica-Povitica -- a cookbook devoted entirely to Potica!  I've never seen this and don't know anything about the company publishing it -- but it looks interesting.

So, does anyone else out there eat Potica at the holidays?  And if you have a family recipe that you are willing to share, I would love to have it.  I just might try making my own some time for fun!

Pretty Much Finished

Whew!  The home remodeling stuff for this year is pretty much finished.  The painters left yesterday afternoon and by bedtime the tree was up.  What do you think of the new wall color?  Here is what it used to look like:

Quite a change, huh?  I guess it's pretty dramatic -- I think it looks like chocolate and was joking Pete that I wanted to lick the walls.  I think it works since the room is so big -- and is connected to the sun room, which makes it even bigger.

Speaking of the sun room. . . it's painted the same color. 

And here's a view from the family room, into the hallway and then the dining room.  The hallway used to be gold:

And the dining room used to be red -- now it's a sage-y green/grey:

Now for a few final photos of the office:

My awesome painter painted my wooden IKEA magazine holders to match the room color.  Now my built in looks so fancy!

And speaking of IKEA -- we got some amazing straw ornaments and I decorated my office with some of them:

And a close-up:

I just looped the ornament string around the string holding up one of the slats and then back around the tip of the ornament.  Kinda festive -- which I like since I usually reserve all my holiday decorating for the main part of the house (family room, dining room, hallway).

I'm so glad that this is finished (well, except for window treatments for almost all the first floor windows -- ugh!)  I feel like I have my house back after three weeks of having workers in and out.  It was so worth it though!

Halloween weirdness!

Can you see the jack o' lantern in my coffee?  How weird is that?!?!  Now I'd like to be able to brag that I am a master of latte art and I planned it that way, but I totally did not!

Every morning before school time, I make myself a latte and lately Maddie has a steamer (steamed milk with a touch of vanilla).  So this morning I filled my cup and her cup and had a little extra steamed milk left in the pitcher so I just swirled it over the top of my latte -- et voila!  A Halloween miracle!

Happy Halloween all!

Corned Beef and Cabbage

My grandmother on my mom's side was Irish, so I suppose I have a good bit of Irish in me.  Growing up my mom often made corned beef and cabbage for St. Patrick's Day and I always loved it.  A special treat that only appeared once a year.  Since I've left home, I've tried making this dish a few times, but it was never quite as good as I remembered my mom's being.  This year I brought out the big heavy cast iron pot and started over 3 hours before dinner time.  This heavy pot and the long cooking time did the trick!  It was so good!

I also made some Irish bread.  And while not very authentic, it was delicious.  I made it in an angel food cake pan to cut down on cooking time -- thus the shape.  And if you are interested -- I used the recipe from the The King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion.  Sometimes you just need to forego the whole grains. (I also have their whole grain cookbook -- King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking -- which is awesome!)

And you can't for get the beer!  Some nice Irish Stout -- Beamish Irish Stout to be exact. 

I also made a non-Irish dessert -- the Salt Lick Bars that were posted over at Bake and Shake.  Yummy!  (Although I didn't use enough salt on the top.  I only had the fine grained sel de mare and really needed the flaked or larger grained stuff.)

Lots of crafting to photograph and talk about soon!  Knitting and Quilting and Cross Stich -- Oh My!

The Queen of Electronics

That's what Maddie calles me. And she's the Pricess of Electronics. So funny. Although I do feel a bit like the queen of Nintendo products right now. For Christmas I received this:

The elusive Nintendo DS Lite Coral Pink! Along with these cool games:

• Elite Beat Agents
• Clubhouse Games
• Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2 March of the Minis

And Pete did everything he could to find a Nintendo Wii for me, but there were none to be found. He even waited out in the rain on New Year's Eve morning to try to get one -- but no luck. After running to another town Tuesday night and missing the shipment of Wii's at Meijers, I did a run yesterday to a local Target and found one! (There were only 2 left when I got there -- whew!)

Of course I had to get some games for this too:

• Super Monkey Ball Banana Blitz
• The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

Woo-hoo!!

So, basically I've been playing video games -- thus not much to post on the blog. Now I'm off for a little more Zelda -- I'll be back when I find time to craft!

Happy Holidays!

Santa's Phone Number

Check this out if you have little ones! It's Santa's phone number: 800-972-6242

I guess every day there is a new message between now and Christmas. I listened to it first before I let Maddie call and it's cute! Santa tells the kids to behave and such -- Maddie thought it was cool.

BTW, I found this over at Moki's blog. She's been posting lots of holiday things this month.

Working on Episode 2!

I recorded episode two yesterday afternoon and I've been working on editing it and adding some music samples in little bits of free time today.  I'm going to let Pete take a listen to make sure I didn't miss anything and then I'll put it out there.  I also tried to make the Stitch-Cast site a little prettier this week. 

Today was a big day for Maddie.  The annual Easter Egg Hunt!

Every year they have a nice egg hunt in my Mom's neighborhood for the kids and grandkids.  All very friendly and fair.  It was a little chilly, but bright and sunny!

We also went out to the "country" to see my Mom's new cottage on the river and visited an old farm town.  Look at these cool Lustron fronted shops:

At least I think they're Lustron.  (Don't know what Lustron is?  There's info here and here of course.)

So that was our day.  Hopefully the second episode of Stitch-Cast will be up tomorrow!

Green

I almost posted this under the category "gardening" as I'm not much of a gardener and I have as much to do with the moss growing as with anything else in the yard.  Ah well. . .

Spring seems to have sprung around here.  The mosses and lichens are growing around the yard, and I have to say that one of the things I love about an old house is the history which produces such things.  We have little stone borders and walls here and there (some falling down) and the mosses really are very pretty when everything else is still grey and brown.

Why else would I have green on the mind? 

From a girl who's 25% Irish . . . Happy St. Pat's Day!

Santa was good to me. . .

I must have been a good girl this year because Santa brought me lots of wonderful things.  My favorite of them all is this beautiful Needle Tree that Theresa's Dad made.  Somehow Pete, Theresa & her dad conspired to have this beautiful work of art made just for me!  I could hardly believe it when I opened the package and saw it there!

Don't know what a Needle Tree is?  It's for holding your knitting needles, of course!  And holding them in style, I might add.  Theresa's dad made her one of these a while back and I have admired it *so* much!  I'm so flattered that her dad made one for me! 

I received lots of other goodies too!  (I'm spoiled -- really I am!)  Pete got me some CD's (Chutes too Narrow by The Shins & The Tyranny of Distance by Ted Leo & The Pharmacists -- both *excellent*), a super comfy robe, A Man without a Country by Kurt Vonnegut (my all time favorite author) and he's getting and assembling a new desk chair for me.  Don't I have a great husband?

Other favorite gifts -- lots of Origin's ginger stuff from my sister, MAC make-up brushes from my Mom and an awesome Le Creuset French oven (cast iron pot).  Yeah, I'm a lucky woman!

I almost forgot (probably because after I opened this gift it was taken away again for safe keeping) my Mom got my sisters and her tickets to see Wicked!!  It's going to be a girls day out -- to lunch and the show.  How fun is that?!?

Favorite gifts that I gave: The Final Solution print by Jay Ryan of The Bird Machine.  He is one of Pete & I's favorite artists.  And Jay Ryan's new book -- 100 posters, 134 Squirrels.  (Pete has been looking at this book a lot -- so I think I did good  :)

And of course it was fun getting gifts for Maddie.  She is so appreciative & filled with wonder at this age -- it's very fun. 

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday!

Happy Holidays!

Hope everyone has a great holiday! I'm off to drink some glogg, watch some presents being opened and open a few myself maybe :)

The end of a tradition?

As most of you in the Chicago area know, Marshall Field's was bought by a big department store conglomerate and they are soon changing the name to Macy's.  This doesn't sit well with all the Chicagoans that I've talked to about it.  Despite this, we made our annual trek into Chicago to go eat in the Walnut Room at Field's by the big tree.  This year it was done all in silver and blue and the ornaments were from Swarovski.  It was gorgeous!

And the trip wouldn't be complete without a visit to Santa!  Here is Maddie proudly displaying her "I Saw Santa" pin. 

It was a lovely day (despite the migraine I had) and the lines weren't unbearable.  And now I have a stack of Frango boxes downstairs calling my name -- yum!

I stayed up late and read the first 4 chapters of Wendy Knits

.  I'm really enjoying it!  I'll give a full review as soon as I finish!

And tomorrow. . . coffee filter snowflakes!

Swedish Christmas

Here's my holiday table.  I took a picture going the other direction where you could see both trees lit up, but I'm afraid that the "candlelight" setting on my camera requires a *very* steady hand -- something I didn't have after 2 cups of glogg (more on glogg later. . .)

And here's our smorgasbord (did I spell that right, Pete?)  Swedish Christmas is heavy on the meat and starch.  From top to bottom we have: traditional rice pudding with lingon berries, jello salad, Swedish meatballs, potato sausage, ham, scalloped potatoes, limpa (Swedish rye) and cardamom tea rolls. 

Before dinner there were lots of snacks including Bond-Ost (a caraway seeded cheese) served with knacke bread (hardtack -- like rye krisp kind of).  Oh -- and Sil (pickled herring).   And of course there was glogg!  Glogg is a mulled red wine that you drink warm and it is so good!

The next morning we had cardamom braid and coffee cake from the Swedish Bakery -- yum!

It was lovely to have Pete's mom here for a few days and Pete was wonderful (& so was Maddie).  I will leave it at that, other than to say that I will not be having Swedish Christmas here next year.  I'm glad that I did it for Pete's mom's sake though.  Maybe her daughters will step up next year.

Swedish food resources:

• Swedish Bakery -- I had to have all the baked goods shipped to me from Swedish Bakery because there was bad weather the day we were supposed to go up to Chicago.  Everything arrived here in great condition -- well packed and fresh!  You can see pictures of most of their baked goods on the website.  I ordered cardamom braids, Andersonville coffee cake, limpa, cardamom tea rolls and cinnamon bread.  Yum!
• Wickstrom's -- Wickstrom's is also in Andersonville (in Chicago) and they are a Swedish deli.  You can get the Bond-Ost, Knacke Bread, Sil, Glogg mix and tons of other things.  I haven't ordered online from them, but I have shopped there in person and they are wonderful! 

Winter Wonderland!

We have two *huge* fir trees in the front yard and I love how they look covered in snow.  Up top is tree 1 and here is tree 2. . .

We are supposed to get 4-5 inches south of Chicago where I'm at and having just shoveled our drive and walkway, I can confirm that we have already gotten a couple of inches.  Here's a shot of my "kitchen" garden this afternoon. . .

I like to leave the stems because I think they look very cool in the winter all covered in snow.

And tonight is the Stamping Online / Black Sheep Bags Holiday Party!  I told Maddie this last night and I also told her that daddy couldn't come.  She looked at me incredulously saying -- He can't come?  You mean you won't let him into the house?  Yep, I said.  It was hysterical -- she couldn't believe what she was hearing!  In actuality it is Pete's company Christmas party tonight and he always jokes that Maddie and I hold our company party the same night. 

Ours will be much tamer than his if previous years are any indication.  See, Pete works for this real estate company in Chicago headed by a huge real estate tycoon (he's like the Chicago version of Donald Trump.)  And every year he throws a *bash* for his employees with his own money.  At these parties there are sometimes exotic dancers dancing around in their skivvies -- I kid you not!!  Needless to say the spouses are not invited.  I've seen pictures though and it is wild.

In contrast, Maddie and I will be hanging out, eating Mac & Cheese and relaxing.  We already had our outing to the bookstore earlier in the day in order to avoid the snowstorm.  Time to go knit!

A little bit of Swedish Christmas

Yesterday on our trip to IKEA I saw a lot of Swedish ornaments and I decided it was time to use our second christmas tree this year.  This is a whole Swedish tree and is sitting in the corner of out dining room.  Here's a close-up of a traditional Swedish ornament:

The straw ornaments are very traditional, as are the tomte's hanging from it.  Don't know what a tomte or tomten is?  See my post from last December.

Straw animals are popular too -- darn forgot to photograph our big straw reindeer!  But here is a picture of a cool straw wreath I bought at IKEA:

Pretty cool, huh?  And more Swedish Christmas info will follow.  I'm having the traditional Swedish Christmas dinner for all of Pete's family at my house this year, so I'll be sure to blog about that too!  And if you want to read more on your own, Pete's Mom got me the book Swedish Christmas by Catarina Lundgren Astrom a few years ago.  It has a lot of recipes for Swedish holiday goodies as well as some info on the traditions.

And I'm collecting info on Dala Horses too!  More on that soon!

Tomte

I've been meaning to post pictures of my Tomtes for ages and when Wendy posted about Swedish Christmas last week, I went into action.  Okay, not really.  After a couple of days I talked Pete into taking pictures for me, and now 3 days after that I'm finally posting. 

That picture up top is our biggest Tomte and he sits on the mantle.  Notice his lovely sweater! (which I did not knit.)  So, you're probably asking what a Tomte (or tomten) is.  Well, I found a definition of Tomte here and I found more Tomte info here.  But basically they are little elves that live in your house (on your farm. . . under the house. . .) and they are sometimes thought of as Santa or Santa's helpers.  Oh yeah, and they are Scandinavian.  Here's another. . .

This guy is a little smaller and more freindly looking! than the first one.  Our niece used to be scared of the Tomte in my in-laws house (he looked like the first one up there).

Then there are these little wooden tomtes (here's a website that sells all kinds of them) that come in all varieties.  The tall hat guy is Pete's and was given to him by a family friend years ago.  And here's mine. . .

We bought this a few weeks ago when we went up to Andersonville in Chicago.  While there we ate Swedish pankcakes with lingonberries at Svea and got lots of goodies from the Swedish Bakery. 

I must admit that I only have a touch of Norwegian in me.  However, Pete is almost entirely Swedish and I have loved learning about the Swedish heritage. 

And if you want a cute children's book about a Tomten  check out The Tomten by Astrid Lindgren it's one of Maddie's favorites!