Russian Tea

Man, I feel like I need another weekend just to recuperate from my weekend.  Anyone else feel like that?  My weekend was very busy, but very fun.  I'm hoping to finish up some last minute crafts and our Christmas cards this week.  Then I can relax a little and enjoy our birthdays and Christmas.

For today, I'm just going to give you the Russian Tea recipe I promised.  It actually doesn't taste much like tea, which is just fine by me.  I don't like any kind of tea... except this.

My family has been making this recipe for years.  I remember enjoying a good cup of this stuff as a child.  I've seen other similar recipes that have lemonade mix in them.  I'm not sure what the difference is since I've never tasted that kind.  I'm gonna stick with old faithful!

You will need:

3/4 cup sugar

1 cup Tang

1/4 cup instant tea (plain)

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground cloves

Mix it all together!

You will need about 3 teaspoons per cup of hot water.

You may want to add more too taste.

Enjoy!

Girls Night Cookie Exchange

Last night I hosted my first ever cookie exchange.  It was lots of fun!  I plan on making it a tradition!

We had a small crowd, but that was OK because I have a small house!

Our list of goodies:

Egg Nog

Soda

Hot Chocolate, Russian tea and coffee

Of course, white trash and some Christmas gummies

veggie pizza

Fruit,

and these yummy brownie/coffee mouse delights

MMMMMMMMMM.....

We ate

 

 

We played board games

and we rocked a little Guitar Hero and eventually Rock Band

(I really wish I had a picture of Jen playing the drums!  Good times!)

We also laughed and laughed!

And, obviously, we exchanged cookies...

I made gingerbread cookies.

I got a little razzed about not decorating them, but quite frankly I just did not have the time.

Plus, I'm not a frosting kind of girl anyway.

I think they taste great as is! :)

The recipe is really simple too.  It's not one of those where you use messy molasses or anything like that.  I found it last year on Allrecipes.com and plan on using it every year.

1 (3.5 oz) package cook and serve butterscotch pudding mix

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1 egg

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1. In a medium bowl, cream together the dry butterscotch pudding mix, butter, and brown sugar until smooth.  Stir in the egg.  Combine the flour, baking soda, ginger and cinnamon; stir into the pudding mixture.  Cover, and chill dough until firm, about 1 hour.

2. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Grease baking sheets.  On a floured surface, roll dough out to about 1/8 inch thickness, and cut into gingerbread shapes with a cookie cutter.  Place cookies 2 inches apart on the prepared cookie sheets.

3. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven, until cookies are golden at the edges.  Cool on wire racks.

Gift Wrapping (Part 2)

Well, besides my husband's gifts... I think I'm finally done wrapping.  I love how they all turned out.  Each one is unique and special.

A few more ideas for you....

We won't see Michael's sister and brother-in-law.  Their gift is going to be shipped to them.

Instead of trying to go all fancy, just to throw it in a post office box and be ruined--I went simple.

I wrapped his sisters gift with yarn.  Plain red yarn.  I told you I'm a fan of the criss cross.

I criss crossed the ribbon all around the gift multiple times.  Then I took the yarn, bundled it in the middle, and tied the gift tag around it.  Simple, yet still cute.

Here's a twist on the multiple bow thing...

Sorry about the picture.  I had to get creative because that wrapping paper is like a straight up mirror.  I was showing up in all the pictures!

Yet another multiple bows gift...

(and yet another picture that proves I need a new camera!)

This next one is for my brother.  I bought a few of those wood stars from Jo Ann's.

I think they were something like 59 and 89 cents.  Not bad. 

That's cheaper than most of the store bought big bows.

Then I painted them with paint I already had.

I used a little glitter paint (that I already had).

And wrote on it with a paint maker (that I already had).

Cheap, easy, but a big statement.

 

Here's another ornament frame as a label.

I love the ribbon on this one!

I can't take credit for the next one.  I actually saw it in a Martha Stewart catalog and thought it looked neat.

My grandma is one of those people that have everything, or goes out and buys it if she doesn't.

She has made it very clear that if we feel the need to get her something, it should be gift cards.

So that's what I've been getting her the last few years.

Yep.  It's in there.  She's gonna hate it, cuz it's gonna make a mess!! :)

I took some scrapbook paper and shredded it in my shredder.

I already had the jar, so I just filled it up with the shreddings and added the gift card in the middle.

Clever huh?

I think this last one speaks for itself...

It's mini cookie cutters!  Adorable right?

Man, sometimes I just amaze myself! :)

Have fun wrapping!!!!!

White Trash

No, I'm not talking down about someone who may or may not be a redneck.  I'm talking about one of the best Christmas treats ever.  My aunt has been making this for years and years, and I have been making it for friends for the last five.  It's always a HUGE hit.  I guess it could also be called Christmas crack.  It's seriously that addicting.  It's super easy to make too.

First, you need a very large bowl.  I bought this bowl just for the annual white trash making.

The line up:

2 cups mini pretzels

5 cups cherrios

5 cups corn chex

2 cups salted peanuts

1 lb M&M's

2 pkgs (12 oz) white chocolate chips

3 tbsp veg. oil

Throw the first five ingredients into the bowl

(I use pretzel sticks and just break them in half)

Put the white chocolate chips in a bowl and mix with 3 T veg. oil

Microwave for 2 minutes and stir.

Then pour over the mix and stir

It will look something like this when done

 

Then spread it out in a thin layer on foil or wax paper

Let it sit for a while and dry.  Then break it up into small pieces. 

I just roll the foil up to help break it.  It keeps my hands clean too. :)

BEWARE, you will end up with a lot!

Like... a large bowl for my cookie exchange party.

And... a bowl to take to my bosses and Little Man.

And... a bowl for Michael to take to work because some random guy at his work is asking about it.

And... a bowl to take to my husband immediately.

And... an extra bag to replenish supplies as needed.

WARNING: This snack WILL be hazardous to your health, but will be so worth it.

Oh how I love thee... (3)

...let me count the ways.

#3 I love that Michael doesn't yell at me.  In fact, he's never once even raised his voice to me.  Some of you may be thinking, "Well duh.  He shouldn't yell at you."  But let's be real.  This happens in marriages all the time.  I am so thankful that I married someone who treats me with dignity and respect.

Handprint tree

I have another Christmas tree craft for you.  This is from last year too.  Little Man loves to paint his hands on things.  I took a huge piece of white paper that we had and painted a Christmas tree with handprints.  Then he added the decorations with his fingerprints.  I think it it turned out super cute.  I just did this as an easy afternoon art project, but it would look cute on an apron or pillow if you are looking for a grandparent's gift!

Homemade cards as a gift

Do you have someone on your Christmas list who has everything?  If they don't have it, they just go out and buy it.  You know the the type.  Maybe you have four or five of them on your list like I do?  Michael's grandma is one of them.  She's in her late 70's and has everything she could possibly ever want or need.  Her favorite thing to get is things in bulk from Sam's Club! :)  Michael's family gets her things like trash bags and toilet paper and laundry detergent because that is what she really wants.  I'm sorry.  I don't care how much someone asks for it.... I just can't bring myself to buy trash bags for Christmas.  The last few years we've gotten her books.  She likes to read and has appreciated them, but it's hard to know what she's read and what she hasn't.  This year we decided to go with some homemade stuff.  I am going to fill a basket with russian tea (recipe to come), a very nice candle, and some cards that I made.  Who can't use some thank you cards or birthday cards?  I wouldn't give these to someone who makes them for themselves already.  But I've found the non-crafty person really enjoys these.  I did this for part of my bosses gift last year and they both just raved about them.

Michael's grandma is a simple kind of person, so I tried to keep the cards that way too.  I didn't want to go too crazy like I may do if it was from myself.  I wanted to make sure she would actually like to give the card! :)

I really like the paper on this one.

One of my favs

The red music note has little beads on it.

 

I heart paisleys

 

The coloring didn't show up too well on this.  It's coral.  I added silver beads to this.

Another one of my favorites

The circles have glitter paint on them. (a little hard to see in the picture)

 

 

This says "You light up my life" on the inside

 

Bundle them up all cute, and there you go...