Month: December 2016

December 12, 2016

Someone is 15 in our house!

Time is flying by in my house.  How did our 4th child become 15??  I know I haven’t aged a bit!

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Chocolate cake with blackberry filling.

This cake was so fun to make!!  I always bake the cake in the morning and assemble in the afternoon.  This year I baked the cake in the morning as usual.  Our 18 year old daughter had just come home from college the night before so we took her out to lunch.  I love when all the kids are back!!!  One is still away but will arrive this Friday – good times!!  Anyway, back to the cake.  After lunch, we came home and I expected DD to go out with friends.  Instead she asked to help with the cake!  We assembled it together and she decorated it!!  Doesn’t it look great!  Working in the kitchen with the kids is one of the things I really treasure.

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Breakfast Waffles

The birthday girl had her friends stay the night so we whipped up something special for her morning breakfast.  Yummy!!

December 7, 2016

Christmas Placemats Finished!

I had such a great time going to the fabric store to purchase new fabric.  Now, don’t get me wrong, I have piles of fabric here in the cabinet and I usually use the fabric that I already have on hand.  BUT…I really wanted something new!!  I love these fabrics for my placemats!

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Chosen Fabrics

Since I will be appliqueing designs on the front of the placemats, I wanted something that wasn’t too distracting – hence the snowflake design.  The back I felt could be anything and I fell in love with that snowman fabric!

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Tux, the sewing cat.

Tux always has to be near me – preferably in my lap.  Sometimes it can be difficult to use the machine when she is right in my face!!  Haha!!  She’s such a cutie though.

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Snowman Placemat

I made three of these…

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Reindeer Placemat

Two of these…

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Santa Placemat

And two of these!

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Seven placemats for a seven person family!

I completely LOVED making these!  If you would like to make some for yourself, head over here for the placemat tutorial and here for the free applique patterns.  They are from Shiny Happy World.  Her purchased patterns are awesome too.  I have made many things from her patterns, they are well written and easy to follow.

 

December 4, 2016

Shaved Brussels Sprouts Salad

I saw this recipe on Chowhound (don’t you just LOVE that name?!) and since both my husband and I and a few of the kids like brussel sprouts, I thought I would try it.

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Yummy recipe!

My edit:  I don’t think it really took 50 minutes to make, more like 30 minutes or so.

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Mustard and garlic sauce.

First you make the sauce and set it aside.

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Use a box grater to grate the eggs.

Then you grate the eggs – I had never done this before and it was tricky to do without also grating my fingers!

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Shaved brussel sprouts with the mandolin.

A great use for my mandolin!

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Brussel Sprout Salad

Mix everything together with some toasted pine nuts and there you go!  I thought this salad was delicious!!  This was all I ate for dinner the night I made it.  The kids however, were not so enamored.  Too bad because I could really eat this at least once per week.