Festive floof! Anyone decorating yet?
Comments (35)
- 4 years ago
Here's my tree. I have flashing lights and still ones so its impossible to capture is true glory in a picture but here it is.
My tree topper projects moving snowflakes on the ceiling. I have to admit I was a little disappointed. I thought they would be bigger but I like it anyway.
- 4 years agolast modified: 4 years ago
My 20 foot tall Santa. I have a twenty ft tall snowman too but for some reason he is not inflating fully so until I figure out why Santa is on his own. Related Discussions
Festive floof! Celebrating then and now.
Comments (8)I liked Christmas as a child, but once I became an adult, it was more stressful than anything else, and my mother took it too seriously. She felt compelled to have everyone together for Christmas, and this became more difficult when the family got larger and had other places to go. I left home at 18, and so after that, I returned as a guest. I have no holiday traditions of my own, although I used to celebrate the summer solstice when I lived in Venice, as that was a good time to have a party there. When I did visit my parents for Christmas and/or Thanksgiving, I would do much of the cooking, partly because my mother did not like to do it and partly because I was better at it, and my nieces especially appreciated it. I found exchanging gifts to be more stressful than enjoyable, and so I did not like that as an adult. We sometimes played board games, and I did enjoy that. As a child, we alternated having Christmas at my parents' house and at my maternal grandparents' house. My mother was an only child, and so her parents were always with us at holidays. My father had two older brothers and an older sister, and we never celebrated any holidays with them. His sister had moved to New Mexico, and we almost never saw her at all. His two brothers had married two sisters, and so they were very close to each other but not to us. Since their children were double first cousins, they were much like one family (and closer to each other in ages). My father's family was not big on Christmas, partly because his sister had converted to Jehovah's Witness (because of her husband), and she had converted my grandmother. I believe that JWs do not celebrate Christmas, as I remember, but my grandmother was not the typical JW. In fact, being inventive (with a couple of patents under her belt), she had created her own version of the religion, probably from her imagination, which was far from conventional. No one knew where she got her ideas, but she did enjoy going out and witnessing. However, when the other JWs found out what she was telling others, they tried to get her to stop witnessing, but to no avail. I was told not to listen to my grandmother because she was "off her rocker," but I found her stories entertaining and imaginative. My grandmother owned the waterworks in town because my grandfather (who died before I was born) and his father had dug a bunch of artesian wells, and so the people in town pretty much had to put up with her, even though they thought she was a bit crazy. She never forced people to pay their water bills, and so my father had to do that for her. She thought water should be free. Anyway, my father's side of the family did not celebrate Christmas in a conventional way....See MoreFestive Food Floof! Do you dare?!?!?
Comments (30)While I've been baking bread and challah (brioche type dough) all my life, the only yeast pastries I've made often are hamentashen in a sweet version of my mother's challah recipe. Last week, I had this sudden thought, "Pumpkin babka!" This has been a great year for pumpkins. So instead of figuring it out myself, I searched for recipes on the 'net, and found a chocolate with pumpkin dough, and one more like what I'd had in mind, which was pumpkin-pecan filling in a rich, soft dough. I usually have great results with blog recipes, and I was sleep deprived, so even though I reviewed the ingredients before saving the recipe, I didn't actually read them through for quality. BIG mistake! I don't know if it's meant to be a sabotage (the comments were useless, only discussing the pretty pictures in the post). It sort of reads, to my bread self like it was partially scalled with oopsies. I've done that scaling a recipe for myself in my head, without writing it down when I was tired. I don't know, for sure, but looking back, it also doesn't match the instructions in the demonstration. It's, um, whack! There were plenty of places where I had warning signs and should have stopped and read it over and quit, but I didn't. I was tired beyond thought. When I started the first step, and it said 2 1/2 TBSP yeast to 3 -4 cups flour, I should have stopped. I just figured she meant teaspoons, and adjusted accordingly. Then I read the gigantic amound of sugar and salt. I always adjust those to taste anyway, so I kept going. When it said 8 eggs and half a pound of butter, I just figured she knew something I needed to learn. Um. No. The result, as you who bake know, was a glutinous cake batter. I added about a cup of flour and ran it with the dough hook and let it "rise" (not that any rising was happening). Good thing I've learned so much about high hydration baking. I poured it out onto the baking mat. There was enough gluten development at this point that it didn't spill away, just made a stable lake. Much as I would have liked to use my big steel bench scraper, one can't on silicone, but a big bunch of cast flour on it, scrape up some goop with the small plastic bench scraper and push it over, led to a more stable mound. Still too soft for even a stretch and fold, but holding its shape as a mound. I covered and let it rise. And it did! And when I heavily dusted with more flour, it was manageable and rolled. It was too soft to twist nicely, but enough so that the middle has a nice distribution. You can't see the layers, though. The dough was still too soft and smushed together. And it was so soft that the outside was almost burning before the inside was done, and the corners were dry because of that. The filing was good. That's a keeper. So is the butteriness of the dough. The end result was fine eating, though not exquisite. I think if I added a little extra butter to the hamentashen dough it would be more like what one needs, and I think more filling proportionate to the dough. I had been surprised that it didn't call for toasting the pecans, but they came out great from raw. Because of the restriction I put on the excess sugar, it's really good with cranberry sauce! While chatting, i mentioned it to the Thanksgiving cousin, and that I'd put the second loaf in the freezer. She asked me to bring it, but I don't know if anyone ate any. At least I don't have to find someone to feed it to! Which is why one tests recipes ahead. I also tried to make the handkerchielf rolls. I don't think there's any saving that one. I mean, they're rolls but they have a kind of gummy mouth feel, and that's after I overbaked them a little! Nasty. The recipe was designed to sell the baking dish. I'm thinking I could rescue them with custard. Pumpkin bread pudding is in the offing. Maybe with a cranberry hard sauce. The worst breads make the best bread puddings!...See MoreFestive Food Floof! Christmas Treats!
Comments (44)Lizbeth: For my Green Chile Pinwheels, I use one drained, 4-ounce can of chopped green chiles (Hatch or Bueno are my preferred brands for quality). Here's my recipe for my Biscochitos. Biscochitos Ingredients ¨ 3 cups butter (originally called for lard) ¨ 1 1/2 cups sugar ¨ 2 large eggs, beaten ¨ 1 teaspoon anise extract ¨ 3 teaspoons vanilla extract ¨ 7-8 teaspoons anise seeds ¨ 1 teaspoon salt ¨ 1/’4 cup brandy ¨ 5 cups all-purpose flour ¨ 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder ¨ 1/4 cup sugar + 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon for topping Directions: 1) Cream sugar and butter. Add in beaten eggs. 2) Next add in the anise and vanilla extracts, anise seeds, salt and brandy. Mix well. 3) Mix in the flour and baking powder. Roll out your cookie dough, thick or thin depending on your preference. 4) Cut into star or flower shapes with cookie cutters, and sprinkle with a mixture of sugar and cinnamon. Move to cookie sheets. 5) Bake in preheated 350-degree oven for approximately 12-15 minutes, BUT WATCH THEM! Bake only until golden. Browned cookies will taste terrible! ** This baking time is for our high altitude here at 6,000 ft. You may need to adjust it for lower altitudes!...See MoreFestive Food Floof! Christmas!
Comments (45)I managed to do everything I planned to do despite having a bad reaction to the latest round of chemo on the 20th. We went back to our home in the country and I was feeling relatively OK the next day so I did some prep for cooking, making the sausagemeat stuffing for the turkey and freezing it. I had made pumpkin pies and brownies before we went down to the city for the treatment and put them into the freezer in our unit there. I was glad that I did as I felt dreadful on the Friday and Saturday. I was a little better on the Saturday so I continued with prepping, chopping bread cubes and celery and onions etc for the bread stuffing, then we had to pack it all up and head down to the city again as DD and her little family were arriving at the airport in the early evening. We were lending them DH’s car so at least he had to be there. It was touch and go as to whether I would be up to driving my car down (as opposed to DH’s sister bringing him back to the country and then him driving both of us in my car) but through sheer stubbornness I made it :-). Sunday morning I felt almost human again so I put the ham I had pre-studded with cloves into the oven and basted it with a mix of orange juice, cranberry sauce, honey and mustard at regular intervals. It turned out delicious and moist :-) As it happened I didn’t need to bring salads so I made the cheesecake I had planned to make and that was me done for the day. We took the ham and the desserts and all our presents to my BIL’s place and had a great evening with the whole extended family and then divvied up leftovers. I gave away a fair amount of ham, which was fine with me as I had bought a large one just for the purpose. Christmas morning I made the bread stuffing then stuffed the turkey buffe with it then sealed it in with the sausagemeat stuffing. We took that, the remaining ham and a pumpkin pie to the holiday apartment where DD is staying. Her DH made waffles with fresh fruit and maple syrup for brunch, then we played with DGS and opened presents while the turkey roasted along with the potatoes. After a while DD made an appetiser of brie wedges coated in panko and fried, along with cranberry sauce and rocket salad. Then we had the turkey, ham, green beans with prosciutto, roasted Dutch carrots, cauliflower cheese, hasselback potatoes, bread sauce and gravy and big puffy mini Yorkshire puddings (made by DSIL), followed by pumpkin pie at a decent interval. It was a lovely low key day and we had a great time with DD, DSIL and DGS, who is the most delightful baby 🥰...See More- 4 years ago
Some of my scented wax cubes. The actual fragrances are apple cinnamon, cinnamon and Christmas tree.
Candy cane, Vanilla Buttercream and eggnog.
Winter candy apple(the bath and body works scent) cinnamon/cranberry and cinnamon/orange.
- 4 years ago
I changed our bedding Thanksgiving evening. I never could find a festive enough comforter but SO suggested this one so I went with it.
Must have my Peanuts Christmas sheets with it.
4 years agoRed and white poinsettia wreath on the front door. On the front porch blue icicle lights with blue, silver and white gigantic snowflakes around the porch. The mat in front of the door says Let It Snow! There is a rotating light on the fireplace that says Let It Snow! that alternates with a snowman. Blue and white lights.
Inside I have three trees.
First is a snowman and Santa tree. Some of the ornaments are handmade from an exchange I participated in. The garland is popcorn, that I make every year. I can tell you it's far easier with stale popcorn, and a really thin needle. The topper is a red and green plaid bow.
The second tree is purple, blue and silver, that's an angel tree. This ornament is me. My Mommy gave it to me. My hair, the color I was brought home from the hospital in, and I play flute.
The third tree is decorated with ornaments I've had my whole life, or are from an ornament exchange I participated in for a really, long time!
amylou321 thanked rob333 (zone 7b)- 4 years ago
Ooo rob! You reminded me of the poinsettia I found at publix! Had to have it of course. I took a picture right away to send to my mom, who told me I was impossible.......
4 years agoThe inside was decorated last weekend. I'm not a Christmas fan so it is simple. I gave a lot of my stuff to my kids when they moved out. The outside I did this week when we had a warm day in the 50s. All the outside stuff fits in one container. Most of the stuff stays up all winter.
I don't like empty planters. I have 3 of these wall planters.
The window box. The candles and bells come down after Christmas. .
The swag comes down and the rest stays up for winter.
We do have some blow ups and lighted deer, but my hubby is in charge of those and I told him it is up to him to put up or not. He chose not. Lolamylou321 thanked functionthenlook
4 years agolast modified: 4 years agoThe inside is done except for the tree. We bought one today (about double the price than it was last year! ), but it will not come inside until the 23rd. For the other stuff on the inside, we carted in about 20 boxes worth of stuff from the garage. Lots of little stuff that takes a lot of time to arrange. My younger daughter has been laser cutting/ painting stuff this year to sell at craft fairs, so that’s where the penguin came from. The Swarovski Santa was a gift from my older daughter’s then boyfriend now fiancé when he came for the first time. It’s in front of a tree a friend made. So lots of stories behind all of this stuff.
amylou321 thanked Iris S (SC, Zone 7b)
4 years agoSince we will not be home for Christmas I simply inserted some festive items amongst my usual ” stuff”.
amylou321 thanked grapefruit1_ar
4 years agolast modified: 4 years agoamylou321 thanked morz8 - Washington Coast
4 years agolast modified: 4 years agoMy mostly finished tree and unfinished mantle. I ordered new stockings and they are supposed to arrive (finally) this week.
My halls are about as decked as they are going to be. I have put a wrap on the mailbox, new wreath on the door, fresh greenery in pots by the entrance, put out some Christmas pillows, added a nativity scene and some white twig trees in the breakfast room, and touches in other rooms. Almost every room will have something, even if it’s just a Christmas hand towel or a little faux tree. Easy stuff.amylou321 thanked OutsidePlaying
4 years agoI have 2 trees done and most of the inside decorations done. Haven't put out the outside blowups or lights yet.
One of the many wreaths I made that are scattered around the house.amylou321 thanked ravencajun Zone 8b TX- 4 years ago
4 years agoOur tree from a couple years ago, but it looks exactly the same right now. This year it seems to be especially fragrant. Just love the smell!
Cute mini boots and pitcher from our daughter.
Candle and little trees.
amylou321 thanked chloebud
mojomom