Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Christmas Ornaments!

Man, look at me go!! Two blog posts in a week! I'm on fire! Haha, clearly this is what happens when I'm not in school, I have to fill my time pretending like I have a life when really...I am sitting at home alone with a cup of tea and my computer. Again. SIGH, what a life haha jk!

Anyways, the purpose of this post is, of course, about my lovely Christmas ornaments that I've done up this year. I didn't make them, just bought the little plaster molds and then painted them and put a gloss on. I used to do this every year with my grandma, and have so many homemade ornaments it's ridiculous! Now believe me, the ones I made as a kid were PRETTY attrocious, haha they look hilarious and to be completely honest...I'm not sure these are really all that much better. But there's something so nice about having a bunch of mismatched, homemade, goofy looking ornaments on a Christmas tree. So here are my lovely creations!



Well there you have it! Two Christmas ornaments just begging to be hung on a Christmas tree. Which I will gladly do! Not the prettiest ornaments you'll ever see but I like them because they're homemade, and for me that's an important part of Christmas.

Stay tuned for my next DIY project (and no, I don't mean my wooden chairs that I mentioned once and haven't mentioned since) when I shall be attempting to knit socks....oh dear.

Cheers!
Holly

Monday, December 5, 2011

Kitchen Adventures: Gingersnap Cookies!

Finally another installment of Kitchen Adventures! This one wasn't too daunting, cookies seem basic enough right? Well they are..thank god. The first time I tried to make gingersnap cookies, not only were they hard as rocks but they were burnt on the bottom and somehow I feel like the process was a lot more difficult than the recipe I tried tonight.

Overall the recipe was pretty easy, it was fun to mix it by hand, nothing like getting all gooey when you bake lol! One thing that I don't like about this recipe (which can be easily fixed) is that there isn't a lot of ginger and if you're like me and you LOVE gingery gingersnaps then I would put in extra for sure!! However, the redeeming factor for these cookies is that they're lovely and soft and chewy. Believe me, I've had four already! And they were delicious! SO, by all means give this recipe a try, I think it needs some tweaking before it's worthy of anyones recipe box, but I think with a little extra ginger they might be just perfect!


I got my recipe from Food.com and Katherine from Alberta recieves full credit for this recipe, here's the link if you care to peruse the reviews and ratings, or other recipes of hers: http://www.food.com/recipe/gingersnap-cookies-soft-chewy-98652.
But to make life easier I'll put the recipe below...

Chewy Gingersnap Cookies
2 1/2 cups flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground ginger (add more! lol)
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1 cup sugar
1 cup margarine or butter
1 egg
1/4 cup molasses
1/4 cup sugar on a plate for later

1. Mix the flour, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon and cloves well and set aside.
2. In another bowl mix with a beater 1 to 2 minutes the sugar, margarine, egg and molasses.
3. Add the dry ingredients and mix by hand.
4. Take one good size tablespoons of dough (or more to make a bigger cookie) and roll into a ball.
5. Roll the cookies in the sugar on the plate
6. Bake at 350 on an ungreased cookie sheet (air-insulated type is best) for 10-12 mins