What's Winter?

We took Patrick to the park on Saturday, a first for the little guy. Explaining winter to a child who goes to the park on January 3rd to find grass and blue skies and is actually a little warm in his sweater is going to be a challenging task.

He refused to wear his sunglasses, something he's going to need in this bright desert sun. Maybe we can get him a pair that straps on.

He was so fascinated by the grass.

So many interesting things to see...

New Kitchen Stuff + Late-night Insanity = Weak-In-The-Knees-Yummy Food

There seemed to be a theme to the Christmas gifts I received this year. I got a set of vintage mixing bowls from my grandma; a new extra large skillet and another Pampered Chef spatula from Luke, something not every husband could give to their wives without getting dirty looks; a Martha Stewart cookie cookbook from Luke's brother; and this deliciously shiny green KitchenAid mixer from Luke's mom. By the end of the Christmas weekend, I was sooo ready to start cooking.

I had planned on cooking a special meal last Monday for our anniversary, but that ended up not happening, so I decided, somewhat last minute, to do it this Saturday...at 6:00 at night. Heaven help me if I ever decide to do this again any later than noon. We were finishing off dessert at midnight.

Anywho, I turned to my Julia Child cookbook for inspiration. I made Fricassée de Poulet à L'ancienne [Old-fashioned Chicken Fricassee with Wine-flavored Cream Sauce, Onions, and Mushrooms]. This sauce is so absolutely, decadently creamy. Had I not known better, I would have sworn it was made with cheese. Oh my word, let me tell you, butter is the magical mystical ingredient that makes everything turn to heavenly bliss.

Each of the ingredients are prepped and cooked separately, using parsley, thyme, and a bay leaf, which gave the braised onions (I used the little tiny ones) the flavor of French onion soup.

For dessert, I made this Reine de Saba [Chocolate and Almond Cake] with Glaçage au Chocolat [Chocolate-butter Icing]. Aside from the decorative sliced almonds around the edge, the cake itself is made with a bit of almond extract and a generous addition of pulverized almonds. Since my little food processor decided to stop working, I found that Bob's Redmill Almond Meal works just great; in fact, it is much finer than I probably would have been able to get the crushed almonds, making the cake that much smoother, which is a plus for me since I'm not a huge nut fan to begin with. The icing is simply melted chocolate and butter.

AND, the secret ingredient that makes this cake beyond heavenly... both the cake batter and the icing call for a couple tablespoons of fresh coffee.

Who else is gettin' weak in the knees people??

Silhouettes at Dusk

So Full

After two days of celebrating Christmas with both my family and Luke's, we are beyond full. Full of ham and salads and rolls and lots and lots of desserts. I made these two tarts for Christmas Eve. This one is a vanilla custard tart with fresh fruit on top. These berries were so perfectly sweet!

And this one is a lemon tart. Very tart indeed!

And our bellies aren't the only things that are full. We all, especially Patrick, were blessed beyond belief by the gracious generosity of our families. This is just one of the sweet treasures given to Patrick this Christmas. A precious wooden rocking horse and a very dashing red cowboy hat.

We are full of food, full of love, full of blessings in every way. I hope you all can say the same.

Creative Gifting

For lack of better ideas this year, we got gift cards for our family members. But if you know me, I can't just give a gift card. It seems so impersonal. So I did a few other things to spruce up the package.

I made these little gift card wallets out of card stock and scrap booking paper. I glued two pieces of card stock together back to back and then attached a smaller piece of decorative paper to the inside for a pocket. I then machine stitched around the perimeter to reinforce and attached an elastic band through two little eyelets to hold them shut.

They make for nice little envelopes for those gift cards that would otherwise be somewhat impersonal.

Everyone who got a gift card this year also got a dozen of these Crunchy Dried Cranberry-Chocolate Chip Cookies wrapped up in these beautiful boxes. I got the plain white boxes at JoAnn's, carefully disassembled them, and glued them to the wrong side of this elegant fabric. I then just cut out around the box and reassembled it with a bit of glue. The cookies inside were wrapped up in red cellophane, and the boxes were then tied up with this beautiful gold ribbon and a sprig of sparkling berries.

I wrote out the recipe for the cookies on these little cards and slipped them under the ribbon on the back of the box.

For my mom, my grandma, and my aunt, I baked these chocolate banana tea loaves inside of these fun ceramic pans, wrapped them up in more of the red cellophane, and included a hand-written recipe card.

I guess it turns out that our not-so-personal Christmas ended up being quite a bit more unique than expected.

Christmas New And Old

I absolutely love decorating for Christmas. I love the lights. I love the ornaments. I love the vintage. I love the surrounding of special treasures both new and old. This simple vintage nativity is always a favorite. It is a sweet reminder of the King whom we celebrate this season.

This beauty is both new and old. It was an early Christmas present from my grandma. She thought my studio needed a dress form, and she found this great vintage one (probably from the 40's) at a Goodwill back in Indiana. They brought it all the way here with them.

All of the parts are adjustable, so if I ever decide to actually use it, I'll be able to fit it to my size.

This quilt in the background is a yo-yo quilt that my great grandmother made.

Here's one of Luke's ornaments from when he was little.

I love these old song books. The Christmas Carols one has bright colorful illustrations to go with each song.

These are some vintage garland beads (probably from the 40's or 50's). They look almost like little candies piled up in this dish.

A little wooden train for Patrick nestled under the tree.

And the newest addition to our Christmas collection, for the newest addition to our family. My brothers and I all had Snow Babies for the tree, so I thought it was the perfect first Christmas ornament for Patrick.

Merry Christmas everyone!
With Love,
Luke, Tarrah & Patrick

Cute As A Cupcake!

I've been dying to share this one with all of you. It was a gift for Chef Madison that her mother asked me to make, and she got it today as an early Christmas present, so I'm finally free to let you all in on the cuteness.

I used this adorable cupcake print for the body, a cherry red fabric with tiny white dots for the trim, and some sweet yellow fabric with red and orange dots for the details.

The back comes together with these extra long ties.

And this pocket is trimmed with some fun rick rack. I fought the urge to make two little pleated cupcake pockets with appliqued frosting trim as well as a set of matching potholders with the leftover fabric. As I informed Madison's mom, despite every creative inch of my being begging me to add these extra details, reason and sanity won out during this already busy holiday season. Perhaps another time... Happy baking Chef Madison! You are now properly outfitted!

All The Trimmings

One of my favorite things to do is throw a party. What could be better than opening up your home, fellowshipping with friends, and filling everyone's bellies with lots of good food?

So, we spruced up the house - I sincerely hope no one tried to open any of the closets...

...put up some festive decorations...

...filled the house with beautiful flowers...

...covered the countertop with plates of scrumptious food...

...and of course, lots and lots of cookies.

It was a very happy home indeed.

Cookies to Share

This Saturday morning is the ladies' brunch and cookie exchange at our church, and I made these cocoa shortbread stars with drizzled white chocolate.

I found these cute little tins on sale at JoAnn's to store each bundle in. I'm excited to see what everyone else made!

A Stocking for Patrick

One of my fondest memories of Christmas as a child was opening up my stocking on Christmas morning and pulling out all of the little treasures inside. My mom made stockings for me and my brothers for each of our first Christmases that we continued to use throughout our growing up. Mine and my brother Sean's were made out of felt with little appliqued felt cut-outs and our names stitched on the tops. For Troy, she made a beautiful cross-stitched stocking.

Well, I thought it only fitting to carry on the Christmas tradition and give Patrick a hand-made stocking, because a store-bought one just wouldn't do. I didn't have a pattern for this, so I just bought several different colored pieces of felt and started cutting out pieces until I had the look that I wanted.

The base is made out of a sturdy felted wool that will hopefully stand the test of time through many Christmases to come. The rest of the stocking is made out of synthetic felt.

All of the cut-outs are appliqued and top-stitched on, leaving a raw edge around each of the pieces. Everything was then embellished with many - I repeat MANY - teeny tiny little beads. I think my favorite part is the little snowflakes.

Merry First Christmas Baby Boy. We love you!