Holidazzle 2011

Last night was the final night of the Minneapolis Holidazzle parade.  We hadn't done the parade in years, mostly because it is either too cold, or it's snowing, or it's freezing rain.  Not ideal conditions by any stretch but then add 4 children into the mix and you have a recipe for disaster.  But we have had a little break in the weather and friends suggested we go.  When we asked the kids, they had zero recollection of ever going (see...those memories of frozen feet, fighting for a spot on a skyway  in huge crowds are forever burned into my memory) so away we went.
Actually, we went down in shifts because the husband and middle daughter had the opportunity to go to the Vikings game.   AND passes to the Gridiron club.  That's a once in a lifetime opportunity for an adult so she'll have quite the story to tell in school today.  We met up with the boys with the rest of the kids (minus the boy) at Rock Bottom Brewery for dinner before the parade then walked the 2 blocks to Nicolett Mall and LaSalle and managed to find a nice little square for the kids to sit until the parade started.

The husband went to Target and bought a giant box of candy canes and distributed them to everyone around us.

Luckily we didn't have too long to wait before the parade started:

And it really doesn't go on for very long, maybe 20-25 minutes.  I ended up moving back so little kids could see but I managed to get a few of the fun floats (I missed the circus train :-( ) like Pinocchio:

Hansel and Gretel:

The Nutcracker:

And of course Santa:

We could not have asked for a better night.  It was clear low 40s, no snow, no rain.  Just perfect.  I hope this is one of those memories that last them because I'm not sure if the weather will cooperate again.  EVER.

And I'm too old for cold wet feet.  Just sayin'.

Song #3

My husband will hate me for this but I love it.  Frank Sinatra doing Jingle Bells.  A Jolly Christmas Jingle Bells.  Yeah.  It's different.  But I like it.

 
 

Treat #4

Nope, today's post is not a cookie but it is just as good if not better than a cookie.  And to think I made it well into my adult life before I had ever tried it.  It=Peppermint Bark.  Just a couple years ago my SIL introduced me to Peppermint Bark and I was HOOKED.  But not just ANY peppermint bark.  William-Sonoma Peppermint Bark.  OH YES...there is a difference.  However, I think I've said (repeatedly) that I am cheap and sometimes (like in the above link) they're sold out.  But  mostly I'm cheap.  So I did what everyone does.  HELLO Bing.  And when you put in the above words WITH recipe, well, one pops up.  A recipe that is.  So, I tried it and Ba-da BING!  Perfection.

Peppermint Bark
12 oz chocolate chips (fairly good quality...best to use semi-sweet)
12 oz white chocolate  (look at pkg and make sure it has cocoa in it, I could only find Ghiradelli bars, the others were only vanilla chips.  So I used 3- 4 oz bars)
1/2 tsp peppermint extract
1/2 cup crushed peppermint candies (I use candy canes, smashed with a mallet)

 Line a 9x13 pan with foil and spray.  Spread semi sweet chocolate chips over foil

and place in a 250 degree oven for 5 minutes til chocolate is melted.  Smooth with an offset spatula and cool until firm (about 20 min or so in fridge). 

 

Melt white chocolate  in a double boiler or in a metal bowl over simmering water (don’t let bottom of bowl touch water), until chocolate is almost melted. You can use your microwave for this if you’re brave but be CAREFUL or your chocolate will seize!

Remove bowl from water and stir until completely melted, stirring in extract. Let cool a little bit so it doesn’t melt the chocolate layer when you pour it on top. Pour this over chocolate layer, and, working quickly, spread to cover.

Sprinkle with crushed candy.

When it's all done, you will want to hide it.  Because EVERYONE will want a piece and it'll be gone before you can say "Bob's your uncle" (by the way, he is).  Might as well hit William-Sonoma and buy it.  OR you hide it.  The choice is yours.  Choose wisely Grasshopper.

Song #2

The next version of Christmas songs:  Do You Hear What I Hear?  by Carrie Underwood.  My husband turned me onto her (he obviously had already been turned on ;-) ):

 
 

What is YOUR Favorite?

Everyone has a favorite version of a song.  And especially Christmas songs, because these seem to be remade with regular frequency.  So, I decided that these last 9 days (SHOCKED aren't you?  Yes...there are only 9 days til Christmas), I'm going to post my favorite versions of Christmas songs.
First one is Baby, It's Cold Outside...my favorite version is Zooey Deschanel/Leon Redbone from Elf.  One of the reasons why I like this version so much is because, unlike the Dean Martin, this version isn't about one voice (Dean's) but rather it is a cool combination of both male and female parts and you can hear both sides.
Never heard it...well...this is your lucky day.

 

Sugah.....Ah, Honey, Honey Cookie #3

My mom never made sugar cookies, well, not the kind you see today.  She would make her version (or recipe) that were a sour milk cookie with a dough that you rolled out.  I remember making them once, then staying up really late (I think I was in HS) by myself to decorate them.  What I remember most was that they were a lot of work to decorate.

Then, with the birth of my middle daughter, co-workers sent me a cookie bouquet.  OMG did I ever love those cookies and thought, I need to make these.  Of course, I recognize my limitations with regard to how they would look* but I still thought I could get close.  And as luck would have it, Ladies Home Journal happened to put a recipe in one of their magazines for a Soft Sugar Cookie. Right up my alley.  Here it is:

1 cup butter softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 tsp grated orange zest
4 1/3 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
8 ounces sour cream (I use lite)
Mix dry ingredients in a medium bowl.
In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar, beating 1-2 minutes).  Add eggs, vanilla and orange zest and mix well.  Add in flour mixture alternately with sour cream scraping the bowl often until well mixed.  Divide dough into 3 equal portions, wrap in plastic and refrigerate until firm (several hours).  Note...this dough is VERY soft when it warms so work with it quickly and be sure to  keep your surface well floured.  It's the softness of the dough that makes the cookie so tender so working with it quickly helps you NOT to incorporate too much flour.
Heat oven to 400.  On lightly floured surface roll out dough one portion at a time, keeping the remainder refrigerated, to 1/4 in thickness.  Cut with cookie cutters, place on cookie sheet (those AWESOME aluminum ones you went out and bought from Sams Club because you NEEDED good cookie sheets) 1 inch apart.  If you are NOT decorating with frosting, you can sprinkle with colored sugar and bake for 6-9 minutes until edges start to turn golden brown.  Let cool slightly on pan before removing to rack to cool completely.

Now, I will be up front and honest when I say, I love watching Martha Stewart especially when she works with Royal Icing, BUT, that stuff scares the sh!t out of me.  I have never tried it either, but it does.  So one day I went searching for a recipe that was similar and came across Toba Garrett's Glace.  It's super easy to make and to work with:
1 lb confectioners (powdered) sugar
3/8 cup milk (I use skim)
3/8 cup corn syrup
flavoring and colors (I actually use concentrated food gel/paste to color)


Mix all together well.
Now, what I do is I found these squeeze bottles at Walmart and bought a bunch at $.50 each and fill those with the icing.  It makes it easy to control where it goes.  If you get your icing to the right consistancy, it will not drip off the cookie.  I use the same process as Martha (just a little more ghetto) by outlining the cookie then flooding it (although I have found that using the tip of the bottle to move the icing around allows you not to over flood and the icing will stay on the cookie).  Sometimes I'll add colored sugars, sprinkles, or even additional colors and take a tooth pick and drag it through the cookie to create some fun designs.  Here are my girls (and her buddy) decorating:

 ENJOY...I always do.

*oddly, in only a few areas do I really care about looks.  And cookies seem to be one of them.  I've had to learn to let go.  Not an easy task but then the alternative is me being up until 2am decorating cookies.  I've decided I like my sleep more than pretty cookies.

This Just In...Boiling Water is HOT!

Warning....picture to follow is pretty gross.  You can decide for yourself if you wish to continue.  So, this past Sunday, the boy was making his own dinner of Ramen noodles.  Well, he was doing what any 17 year old boy would do, he was eating his dessert of homemade vanilla bean cheesecake FIRST and he allowed his water for his "entree" to boil rapidly.  He made his noodles and was pouring it into a bowl while holding the bowl over the sink* and water/broth sloshed over the rim of the bowl and onto his left hand.  He called me and I told him to do what I knew to do for burns...run it under cold water to cool down the burn as quickly as possible.   I got him a cup of ice water for him to submerge his fingers in. He did so but he claimed to be in A LOT of pain.  Now, ever the sympathetic mother who rushes to console my children for all their bumps and bruises *pause for those who know me to stop laughing*, I said C'mon Bud, it's a burn, it hurts.  I get it.  Man up.**  I did get him a super strong pain reliever so that he could sleep and I allowed him to miss his first hour the next day when he left a note for me that he didn't get to sleep until late and could he miss his study hall in the morning. (see...I'm not COMPLETELY heartless).  He had wrapped his pinky, ring and middle finger for the night and for Monday.  He said that his ring finger was all shiny but somewhat numb.  Tuesday it blistered, he drained the blister then pulled at the skin and it came right off.  Wednesday morning I got my first look at it and I became alarmed.  It didn't appear to be infected but OMG it looks HORRIBLE.  He had been really good about keeping antibiotic ointment on it but still...UGH...So I asked him to have his school nurse take a look at it and maybe dress it appropriately.  I got the text from the boy saying the nurse said it really  needs to be looked at by a Dr.  Followed by the phone call from the nurse telling me that she responded as I had...initially.  A little over exaggeration until she saw it.  Hence, the phone call saying please, Please, PLEASE get him in to a Dr.  Some of the worst infections she's ever seen came from burns.  So, I called, got him in, picked him up, took him to the Drs and this was the pic as he removed the bandage we had put on that morning:

 

Nasty right?  He lost several layers of skin all the way around his finger.  The good news (if you can call it that) was the Dr said that while it looked bad (a deep 2nd degree burn), it looked good.  Meaning that everything we had been doing was right.  She said continue to keep it covered with antibiotic cream for a couple more days so that the new skin growth will be protected, then by Saturday he needs to start leaving off the bandage.  The only "issue" is that he needs to start bending the knuckle (which he can't) so that he retains flexibility in the new skin growth.

The other good new is that it shouldn't scar horribly.  He'll have a pink discoloration for a while but that should eventually fade.  WHEW!

Let's recap:

1. Pouring boiling hot water into a bowl while holding said bowl...bad.

2. Potholders..good.

3. Mother appears to be missing the compassion (or at least empathy) chromosome.

4. Boiling water is hot.

*I give him credit for doing this over the sink.  It DID save me from having a mess of broken pottery, Ramen noodles, and chicken broth all over my floor and base cabinets.  Well done son!

**NO...I did not actually tell him to Man up.  At least not out loud.