Real Men Can Cook

Ta-Dah. Need I say more? After months of planning and dreaming it out in my head, countless hours of sewing and building, and a really handy hubby and his tools, our little manly kitchen for our little men got done...with some felt food to boot.

old entertainment center step aside and welcome

A Little Manly Kitchen

This particular project was my brain child. From the little man kitchen (seen a girl version done on the blogosphere) down to each of these meals (Breakfast of Champions in previous post). If you have any questions, just let me know. I am working on getting patterns and how-tos. I am super happy to share them with you, you just need to ask...and send gummy bears...kidding.

Second round of felt yummies already in the works...

Traditions

This time of year is filled with so many traditions. We, like most families, have some of our very own that are fun and important to us. Here is a photo recap of some of our Christmas Eve Traditions.

We--

wake up to find a maze of string that leads us to a new Christmas book, this year it was The Dinosaurs Night Before Christmas since our boys LOVE dinosaurs

make and frost sugar cookies for Santa

have a dinner of pizza and root beer floats

read the story of Jesus' birth and act it out with our Little Peoples Nativity (no photo...I don't know why)

write letters to Santa

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. To all our family...we sure missed each and everyone of you.

To all you wondering...yes I know you all are...kitchen and food got done. Will post my Christmas accomplishment later this week.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas 2009! We had a great and somewhat eventful year, and if you are regular followers of this little piece of the blogoshpere, then you already know all the juicy details...so in light of not wanting to be repetitive...there will be a lack of year recap in this holiday post.

Our little family would simply like to wish all of our friends and family, and strangers who wander here a very merry Christmas and a wonderful 2010.

                                   

My Own Dose of Holiday Cheer

I've been needing a little TRUE holiday cheer. I have been focusing too much on production of presents and that has been causing me stress. So imagine how happy my heart was when I got these pictures back from Cole's school holiday bazaar. Most of you know my kids DO NOT like to get up close and personal with the man in red. These are my very first pictures of my boys with Santa ( you can see Jack took some bribing candy cane in hand). My three little men are the best dose of holiday cheer. They are who I do all the crazy holiday plans for.

To pass on some further cheer, I also included their letters to Santa. Cole's is pretty clear (although stuffed whale was to tease Aunt Natters who hates whales). Jacks is a drawing of rockets. Have a great holiday rest of the week.

Also, because it is Recipe Thursday and I didn't post one last week...here is a link for a yummy dessert recipe...no picture or retyped recipe included...I know what a slacker! Trust me though it is delightfully awesome.

Gingerbread Pumpkin Bars

Technically challenged

SO I drew the pattern for this food last Thursday...I had this clever idea to make the felt food the "recipe" for recipe Thursday. Alas, nothing worked as planned. I tried just scanning it in and hoping it would print off if you clicked on the picture link in the blog. False. That route cut off a good majority of the pattern. Then I had a genius idea to upload it into google documents and link that. Mostly false, that worked except that it shrunk the pattern. I think I could still get that option to work if I had patience and wanted to split the pattern up and figure out the scale adjustments...see doesn't that already sound like too much work?

Someone graciously emailed me a link to a free pdf converter. It worked like a charm...except now I am not sure how to make that link show on a blog...if you even can. SO here is my solution, it does take some part on your behalf...

Email me if you would like this pattern:

I will then email you back this pattern in pdf format and then attach typed out instructions. This doesn't seem very efficient and I assume there is a better way. I will figure it all out, but my brain was starting to read "blah, blah, blah" as I was trying this morning, so I decided to take a break from the sleuthing.

So, if you want this pattern (giving me some much needed positive reinforcement), my email address is on the side of the blog. I check it all the time.

PS I have been creating some other foods as well and would be willing to make up patterns for those too depending on how the response for this is.

Breakfast of Champions...Pattern to Come

Wahoo...one meal down. When I finished this I may have actually giggled and clapped in glee. My favorite part might be the little pat of butter and syrup on the pancakes. I had a lot of fun creating this little meal for my little men. I know they are going to love it.

I can see it now...both of them cooking away in their play kitchen (handmade Christmas project numero uno) "frying" up some bacon and "flipping" up a couple of pancakes.

I have drawn up a pattern for this breakfast of champions. I even got close to being able to put it up on the blog (scanned/edited)...but I am figuring out the technical difficulties of doing so with out a pdf program. Any of you smarty pants out there feel free to shoot me an email telling me how to do it. I hope to have that up by Sunday.

Since a proper breakfast can't always be made...okay in our house never made, I also had to provide my boys with a quick breakfast of strawberry pop tarts.

Next....lunch!

Reunited and It Feels So Good...

Yes I have a new crafting companion. After much wailing and gnashing of teeth, meet my new machine. As you can see our new relationship couldn't have happened at a better time. My Christmas present line up of felt food has been put on hold waiting for this thing. Now I can bust it out...at least that is the plan. In fact, all my crafting dreams and plans have a better chance to see completion now that I have a machine that works.

Here is what is on my Christmas get done list:

Felt food-

an array of breakfast, lunch, dinner, sweets and groceries

so far I have 2 pancakes cut out and partially sewn, 2 strips of bacon cut out, 3 pop tarts bejewelled, and one pop tart done

groceries cut out

toys for Case

pj pants for boys

ties for boys

tree skirt

Did I just hear someone laugh at the ridiculousness of that list? Or did you laugh at my level of sanity??

Don't worry I am laughing too. Hey and guess what? I am under no delusion that this is all getting done, but a girl needs to set goals right.

It's Beginning to Look a Little Like Christmas

Oh Christmas decorations, how I am grateful for you. You are really the only holiday decorations we have ever had. So remember how grateful I am for you even if my love has now run dry.

I have seen these decorations for 8 years and boy do they need some sprucing up. My original tastes have changed a bit. In fact, I left quite a few of our decorations in the box and sent them back downstairs. I had grand intentions of crafting some stuff up this year, but alas I am still WAY behind on doing the felt food project.

So our house may just look a little like Christmas this year, but that is okay. My crafty plans, well I can write them down and create another year.

Besides, our house may look less like Christmas this year...BUT we still have the true meaning of Christmas in our hearts and home, and I know it is cliche, but that is really what is most important.

Gobble Me Up...Some of That

Our Thanksgiving feast is starting to have some recurring appearances of certain delightfully yummy dishes. Here are some of our recurring stars: raspberry jello pretzel salad, spinach salad, garlic mashed potatoes, pumpkin praline cheesecake, and this scene stealer...

 Bacon Herb Turkey

I saw this on a Martha Stewart show a couple of years ago. It was being done with just a turkey breast but when I heard the word BACON I thought to myself..."self, everything is better with bacon...who says I can't do that with a regular turkey?" And then I swear I heard, "No one...just do it."

So without much ado...bacon lovers get your pens ready...not bacon lovers...wait is there such a person?

May I present....

Bacon with a side of Turkey

Turkey

(I did this for a 20lb bird, adjust ingredients accordingly)

1 lb of bacon, cooked and crumbled

(bacon drippings reserved)

1 stick of butter, softened

3 T of minced garlic

4 T chopped fresh sage

2 T chopped fresh rosemary

1 1/2 T chopped fresh thyme

1 1/2 T chopped fresh oregano

 4 T coarse salt

1 T black pepper

Start with a properly thawed bird. Prep it the way you would prep any turkey (aka remove all that stuff that shall not be named, from the place that shall not be name...eww) and place it in a roasting pan.

Chop up all of the fresh herbs. Mix softened butter with garlic, 2 teaspoons of salt, and all of the herbs, until you have a paste. Set aside.

Lift skin, gently from the entire breast of the turkey (yes this part is kind of gross too...not for the faint of heart). Once the skin has been loosened, take the paste and put it under the skin. Try to insert as evenly as possible. After the paste is evenly distributed, go ahead and take your hands out of the skin and press from the outside of the bird everywhere you put the paste...just making sure the good stuff is all pressed in.

Now as if the butter and bacon on the inside isn't good enough...take those reserved bacon drippings and go ahead...remembering that it is Thanksgiving and calories don't count today...and brush the turkey all over the outside. With it all coated, sprinkle with  rest of salt and pepper.

Cover with tin foil and cook at 375 for the recommended time for a turkey (at the weight you have) with no stuffing (here is a hint...this does vary between turkey companies, Martha, online guru's, you great aunt Betsy, and every cookbook known to man...so remember to check the temperature of your bird. The goal is 165 degrees). Take foil off for the last 30 minutes allowing for a goldeny goodness.

Make sure to let your Bacon Bird rest about 20-30 minutes before cutting into it.

Can you smell that? Smells like love...all because a pig and turkey fell in love.

Grateful

Need I say more.  Okay, so I still will. I am grateful to have had family here. Grateful for their love and support. I am grateful for this holiday season and what it implies. I am grateful that the turkey was done and ready pretty much on time. Grateful my hubby had some extra days off. I am grateful he let me decorate the table in a non-efficient-for-eating way. Grateful for all the extras that we have. Grateful. Wow am I grateful.

PS take a little time to check out the mugs of my cute boys in the above pic!

my table setting, I sure love it