Post Christmas Post...

Well, Christmas is over and we are ready to welcome in the New Year. With this warm weather and an extreme lack of snow, I am still having a hard time believing it is almost January!

We have had a wonderful 5 days with my parents. How fun to have them with us for Christmas. We had our traditional Christmas breakfast Monday morning of egg dish; fruit cup and Swedish Tea Ring. But then we broke from tradition for our main meal and I tried something new. Prime rib and twice baked potatoes!!




I was so nervous cooking the prime rib (never done it before) but it came out even better than I had hoped!! My hubby was in heaven and could have eaten the whole thing himself!!! He showed some self restraint and we even had enough leftovers for sandwiches the next day!




Sumo stayed very close to the kitchen just waiting for even the tiniest of morsels to fall to the ground! (I did sneak him a few pieces of meat...but Steve is not to know!!!) I mean really now, how can one resist that adorable face???




I did sneak in some knitting and have two things ready to felt when we head to Galena tomorrow. The first is a bowl that I am going to use as a candy dish this year at work. It is a pattern from the One Skein book and is made with Lamb's Pride bulky. I can't wait to felt it and fill it with Dove chocolates. Yum.






The second is another bag using 'Kirstin's Bag' pattern. I love the purples in it and am excited to see it felted.






I put a button on this bag and added a snap and a fabric covered bottom piece and gave this bag to my mom. The button I added is an antique button from the button jar she 'lent' me last summer.




On the cooking front, we made a double batch of Cream Wafers today...a favorite cookie of ours. It was also a special request from Ryan who wanted to send some home with Mallory tomorrow for her family. With lots of help, they are not too bad to make, so we whipped up a double batch.

Cream Wafers

1 cup butter
1/3 cup whipping cream (35% butterfat)
2 cups flour
granulated sugar

1. Mix butter, cream and flour. Chill one hour.
2. Heat oven to 375 degrees.
3. Roll dough 1/8 inch thick on lightly floured board.
4. Cut into 1 1/2 inch rounds. (I use a tupperware 'midgit' container)
5. Coat sides with granulated sugar.
6. Place on ungreased cookie sheet.
7. Prick each cookie with fork in 4 places
8. Bake 7-9 minutes or until slightly puffy
9. Put two cooled cookies together with creamy filling.

Creamy Filling
1/4 cup soft butter
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1 egg yoke (Optional)
1 tsp. vanilla

1. Mix all ingredients together until smooth.
2. Tint red or green (or any color!) if desired.

I leave you with these adorable smore snowman ornaments that we received from a friend which I guess represent Steve and I (I'm the one with the knitting needles!!!) They go very nicely in my snowman bathroom.


Until next time...