We Have The Bestest Daddy!

It is typhoon season here in Japan.  Know what that means?  Rain.  Rain.  And more rain.  Oddly though, it is only enough rain to keep my kids inside all day, but not enough rain to keep my husband from golfing.  What’s up with that???

So yesterday, with the three girlies trapped inside and my husband out on the course, we got a bit crafty with paper, tape, markers, and stickers.

I HIGHLY recommend heading down to your local craft store and letting the kiddos pick out a pack of stickers….the nice 3D kind like Jolee’s Boutique, with a cute theme……and letting them create little masterpieces for Daddy.  Yes, it is probably more expensive than a Hallmark card, but it will be so unique and special.

Amber picked out a ‘farm themed set’.

“A treasure you find in the farm?”, she wrote.  “Unscramble this….aFhtre.”

Allie went with a tropical theme.  (I know.  We have brown carpet.  Gag.)

I LOVE the end of her poem…..And even though you’re obsessed with golf, And are on the course all the time, I still respect and love you, And golf isn’t a crime.  Bahahahaha.

Abbey did her card up fancy with a classy ‘theater’ themed card, telling daddy that she looks up to him and that he makes her proud.  I think he got a little choked up with this one.

Finally, not to be outdone by my girls, I actually made a golf bag with tape, a paper plate, and a poster board.  Yeah I did.

Complete with bubble gum golf clubs and a chocolate play book.

My husband’s wife is so awesome!

Caramel Corn

Every year, my wonderful sister in law sends us a HUGE package of goodies for Christmas.  By goodies, I mean things like homemade toffee, gingerbread, and mini banana breads.  This may not sound like too big of a deal, but some years, depending on where we are living, she has to send the package half way around the world.  She lovingly wraps up the breads and cookies so they can make it to foreign lands….like Japan, Germany, and Mississippi. 

I should say we most look forward to this package because it is full of little pieces of love from home.  But if I be totally honest, the main reason that I want it is because it always always always contains Caramel Corn.

Inevitably I end up being all grinchy about this delicious stuff because there is simply not enough to stuff non-stop into my mouth, and still be able to share with the rest of my family.  So this year, I was forced to make my own.

This recipe is from Paula Dean, and not from my sister-in-law, but it tastes the same. (I don’t actually have the recipe from her.) I wouldn’t be surprised if my SIL was Paula’s personal recipe tester or something like that.  Carol….you are a baking/cooking superstar! 

Caramel Corn

Via Paula Deen www.foodnetwork.com

Ingredients:

• 1 cup butter
• 2 cups packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup light corn syrup
• 1 teaspoon baking soda

Preheat oven to 200 degrees F.  Over medium heat, combine first 4 ingredients and boil for 5 minutes. Remove from heat; stir in baking soda. Stir well. Pour over 8 quarts popped corn. Stir to coat well. Bake in large roaster or pan(I used two cookie sheets) for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes. Spread on waxed paper to dry.

Candy Cane Kiss Cookie Bark

I have been resisting making sugar cookies this  year. (Here’s My Fav. Recipe)  I just don’t have the energy to roll, cut, and decorate even though I LOVE them so.

But alas, it is Christmas.  I made soup, sixteen of my mom’s famous cheese balls, and even did a craft…..but no desserts or cookies.  My husband just isn’t satisfied with a bowl of M & M’s and the kids are begging to make some goodies to take to our neighbors.

I bought about one hundred bags of Hershey’s Candy Cane kisses because they always run out quickly at the commissary and those things are the bomb diggity.  But even I can’t eat one hundred bags.  (Okay, maybe I don’t have one hundred bags, but I have a lot.)  So I googled Candy Cane Kiss recipes, found one that was easy enough for my daughter to make, and dug deep into my Christmas soul to grant her and a friend permission to use my Kitchen Aid. 

Thank you Abbey & Sydney for helping me make these!  They will be perfect for Santa!

Peppermint Bark Cookies
(Recipe from www.recipegirl.com some ingredients
have been modified.)

Ingredients:

·        2 cups all purpose flour

·        1/4 teaspoon salt

·        1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature

·        1 cup granulated sugar

·        1 teaspoon vanilla extract

·        1 large egg yolk

·        1 bag semi-sweet chocolate chips

·        1 cup chopped Hershey's Candy Cane Kisses (or use crumbled candy canes)

Directions:

 1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray 13x9x2-inch metal baking pan with nonstick spray. Line bottom of pan with long strip of 9-inch-wide parchment paper, leaving overhang on both short sides of pan.

2. Whisk flour and salt in medium bowl. Using electric mixer, beat butter in large bowl until creamy, about 2 minutes. Gradually beat in sugar. Continue beating until mixture is light and fluffy, stopping occasionally to scrape down sides of bowl, about 3 minutes. Beat in vanilla, then egg yolk. Gradually add flour mixture, beating on low speed just to blend.

 3. Drop dough by the tablespoonful into prepared baking pan, spacing evenly. Using moistened fingertips, press dough to form even layer over bottom of pan. Pierce dough all over with fork.

 4. Bake cookie base until light golden brown and slightly puffed and edges begin to come away from sides of pan, about 30 minutes. Place pan on rack; immediately sprinkle chocolate chips over cookie. Let stand until chocolate softens, about 3 minutes. Spread bittersweet chocolate over top of cookie in thin even layer. Immediately sprinkle chopped candy cane kisses over the chocolate layer.

 5. Chill until chocolate is set.

 6. Using paper overhang as aid, lift cookie from pan and transfer to work surface. Using large knife, cut cookie into irregular pieces.

Linking up with........

The Sasse Life...uber cute blog!

Reindeer Poo and Grinch Pills

Because my two oldest girlies are in middle school this year, they each have seven or eight teachers.  My normal go-to gift of a Barnes and Nobles gift card multiplied by sixteen, just isn’t going to fly financially…….no matter how much of Santa’s magical reindeer dust I use.

The girls are old enough to understand that presents cost money, but they are also old enough that they really enjoy giving their teachers a little something.  So, via ideas from Pinterest, the girlies got a little crafty and made their teachers and friends Reindeer Poop and Grinch Pills!

For the Reindeer Poop (found on Blooming Where I'm Planted) Abbey made her own toppers and filled cellophane bags with Whoppers candy. 

The poem reads,

Santa looked at his list.

He even checked it twice.

And he did find out,

You haven't been too nice.

Since coal is so expensive,

Here's the inside scoop....

Santa is filling your stocking,

With lots of Reindeer Poop.

She added a “thumbprint” reindeer head, drew on the antlers and eyes, and stuck a pom-pom nose on with a glue gun, and stuck on a Santa sticker.

Cute huh?

Allie sort of thought the poop was gross, so she went with the Grinch Pills.

We found this idea on Custom Creations by Tamera Bennett but we couldn’t find green Tic-Tacs in Japan so we improvised with Eclipse gum.   Allie made a simple card to stick on the cover and tied it with shiny red curling ribbon.  (Right click on the image and save, to print your own.)

 

Both girls stuck a To/From tag on the bag of their little treats and the projects were complete!

Merry Christmas everyone, from the Three Girlies!  Abbey, Allison, and Amber!

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Valentine's Day - Ready To Blast Off

I am a sucker for Valentine’s Day.  I LOVE to make stuff and give it out…..but mostly I LOVE to get stuff.

That sounds bad.  I don’t mean I am greedy and want a bunch of stuff, but when someone takes the time to think of me by buying me something, or making me something, or even just writes a little note….I feel loved.  It’s my silly love language.

Unfortunately, this elevates things like birthdays, anniversaries, and of course Valentine’s Day, to crazy levels of expectations on my part, and utter failure on my husband’s part.

Poor guy.  He works hard for me so I can stay home with the girls.  He calls during the day to tell me he loves me.  He cleans the house….and from what a lot of my friends say, their husband’s don’t do that.  AND he gives me a really nice hug or back rub whenever I want.  He pretty much nails the other four love languages of humanity but WHY CAN’T HE BUY ME A FREAKING CAMERA OR WRITE ME A LOVE NOTE ONCE IN AWHILE???????

Anyway, it wasn’t much of a surprise when he called me this morning from across the world to say, “Gosh honey, I didn’t get you anything for Valentine’s Day.  I promise I will take you out for Chinese when I get home.”

Sigh…..

So the girls and I, lonely and bored, decided to have a major craft festival on the dining room table today.  We made over 75 Valentine Rockets to hand out and I’m thinking they turned out pretty awesome! 

To make them, you will need:

©     Rolls of Lifesaver candy, or Mentos for the longer ones (We used a Japanese candy because I guess Japan doesn’t have Life Savers.)

©     Hershey’s Kisses

©     Red Construction Paper

©     Orange and yellow tissue paper

©     Glue gun

©     Double sided tape

First, cut the construction paper to fit around the candy rolls. (3 x 3 inches for the Life Savers, and 5 x 3 inches for the Mentos)  Now is a good time to write your message onto the cut cards leaving a bit of space for the overlap on the bottom of the card. 

 Glue or tape the paper around the rolls of candy.  We used double-sided tape.  You can now use a hot glue gun to stick a Hershey’s kiss onto one end of the roll.

Lastly, take a small square of tissue paper and glue it on the other end for the flames of your rocket.  We decided to use orange and yellow for some added flame excitement, but just orange looks cool too.

The kids made a bunch.  We used mint Mentos for the teachers because they were bigger and mints are more grown up!

I made a few for my fantastic girlfriends who have been checking up on me while hubby is away.

Now the kids are all ready to get “candied out” at school for V-day and I even though I had fun with my girlies, I was starting to stew in my not-getting-anything-for-Valentine’s day tears…..and guess what came in the mail?

Yay!  Okay…..it’s from my mom…..but who cares!  Yay!  I got a present! (And my girlfriend made it!) 

And honey baby dearest husband of mine.  I love you and I miss you!  I can’t wait till you come home and you better bring me back a present so we can go and have some Chinese! 

I have linked up with…….

Sweet-n-Spicy Garlic Dill Pickles

Sweet –n- Spicy is such a good combination, don’t you think?  My husband makes the coffee every night so all I have to do in the morning, when I am not the most pleasant person, is flip on the switch.  Awwwww…..he’s so sweet.  He also takes my CENSORED and he CENSORED it as he CENSORED CENSORED CENSORED me in bed.  Oooooh….SPICY!

Not only is he a sweet-n-spicy guy but he likes to eat sweet-n-spicy food.  For instance I might make him an egg sandwich for breakfast and he will put salt, pepper, grape jelly, and Tabasco sauce on it.  Don’t knock it until you try it.  I can say that because he force fed me once.  Anyway, he likes this pickle recipe and since there are three jars of it in the refrigerator he’ll probably put them on his egg sandwich this morning.

Sweet-n-Spicy Garlic Dill Pickles

 

·        One 16 ounce jar dill pickle slices

·        2 cups of sugar

·        ½ to 1 Tablespoon hot pepper sauce (I use Cholula)

·        5 pressed garlic cloves or 2 teaspoons chopped garlic

·        ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes

Pour ALL of the ingredients in a bowl.  Usually, I make several jars at a time, like five for us and one to give away.  (I can eat a jar of these a day.)

Other recipes call for much less sugar, like just a half of cup.  This is bad.  Don’t make those.  Make mine.  Also, use Cholula hot sauce and not Tabasco sauce like other recipes say.  This is very bad also.  People will not like your pickles if you use Tabasco sauce.  Just make mine.

Where was I?  Oh yes, put all the ingredients in a bowl. (Save the pickle jars because you are going to use them later.) It is okay if you used the garlic from a jar.  Fresh is good, but there is so much sweet and spice going on you won’t be able to tell.  Just don’t use garlic powder....blech!

Now stir the mixture all together until the sugar is mostly dissolved.  Cover with plastic wrap and chill for 24 hours.  You may want to stir them occasionally if you think of it, but sometimes I forget and they still turn out fine.  Be sure you taste one if you stir it, so you can get an exciting sneak peek of flavor!

Next, take them out of the refrigerator and fill the jars with pickles.  Once the pickles hit right before the rims, pour in the juice.  For some reason I always have a few pickles that I can’t get back into the jars.  It is important that you leave some room for some juice though, so just eat those extra pickles yourself. 

Here’s a little FYI for you.  Re-jarring the pickles gets a kinda messy.  You will want to rinse the jars off after you put the lids back on.  Just in case you don’t know this, when you rinse things off they get wet.   When wet they can be slippery.  When you drop a slippery jar of pickles on your kitchen floor it will break and you will have a sticky, filled with glass shard, catastrophe on your hands.  I am not saying this happened to me, but it might have.

Your pickles are ready to store, eat, or give away after the lids are secured.  If you are going to give them away however, you might want to jazz them up.  It will make your friends feel special.  I decorated mine with a sort of fall harvest theme for Thanksgiving.  I know that I should have fancied up the lids also…..but there isn’t a Hobby Lobby within about 4000 miles of me.  Hope you like my pickles!

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