Happy New Year!

I'm taking a little time off until the new year. Our Christmas was fantastically chaotic, but I seem to have caught a cold so I'm planning to lay low for a few days. See you all in the New Year. I hope you have a wonderful holiday!

Finally Christmas at The Browns'

We're just in under the wire. Hubs and the kids cut a tree from our yard (forest) yesterday, we located the missing box of decorations, and it just started snowing. Christmas can officially come now!

The rest of the house is just too messy to show! Hope you're all ready for the big day!

Green the Season: Homemade jams and jellies

Here they are, the final teacher gifts of the year. We gave all of our teachers a jar homemade raspberry topping (top of your pancakes, waffles, ice cream or tongue) or apple butter -- the ones I canned using the microwave this summer!

I printed simple labels for the top of each jar, tied some Christmas ribbon around them, and added a little chalkboard tag with their names. The tags came as raw wood {from Pick Your Plum} and I painted them with chalkboard paint.

{Sorry for the wretched lighting. Our house is like a little cave at night.}

Meatless Monday: Kale & Mushroom Hand Pies

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What began as a completely experimental and impromptu breakfast idea turned into a fab appetizer with these kale and mushroom mini pies. I'll try not to dislocate a shoulder patting myself on the back, but I never ever just break out the pots and pans and start cooking without any direction. Today I did -- recipes be damned -- and I'm in love with the results!

Ingredients:
- 1 bunch Red Kale
- 2c Mushrooms
- 1/2 Yellow Onion
- 3/4 Chicken or vegetable broth
- Gruyere or any other cheese you like
- 1 box pie crust (2 pieces of dough)
- Egg (to brush on the crust)
- Salt, pepper


Everything here is approximate since I was flying by the seat of my pants. I chopped about 1/2 of a yellow onion and sauteed it in olive oil for several minutes, until it started to turn clear. Roughly chop one bunch of red kale (my "bunch" was pretty small) and throw it in with the onions. Chop about 2 cups of mushrooms while the kale is cooking down and throw them in too. I sauteed all of this for several minutes, adding salt and pepper to taste, then added about 3/4 cup of broth. Allow this to come to a boil, turn down to low, cover pan and let it all simmer for about 10 minutes.

While your veggie mixture is simmering, roll out your dough. I used boxed dough, because I'm a slacker like that. It comes with two pieces per box. I rolled it out thin and used a cookie cutter to cut out about 20 pieces, then put the scraps together and kept cutting more until it was gone. You could do circles, squares (and fold them into triangles once filled) or any other shape you'd like. I did stars because I was feeling like a star. Ha.

Heap the veggie mix onto each piece of dough. {Tip: If all of your broth hasn't cooked off, you can add a bit of flour - just sprinkle in a little bit at a time and mix, until it forms sort of a gravy.} Top with a piece of cheese, then another piece of dough. Smash the edges of the dough together to seal. Brush the top with beaten egg.


Cook at 350 until golden brown. I cooked mine on a baking stone and it worked out great.

These came out too small to be breakfast foods, in my opinion, but they'd be great for tea, with other tiny foods, or as an appetizer. However you eat them, they were delish!


This post is linked to: Midnight Maniac Meatless Mondays | Just Another Meatless Monday | Motivate Me Monday |

#Upcycle: DIY Mercury Glass Jars

I pinned this DIY Mercury Glass tutorial from iVillage way back in the summertime as a reminder to try it out one day. Little did I realize "one day" would be five months later! The timing is perfect though, because it's just not Christmas without a house full of mercury glass.

If you haven't tried DIY mercury glass, the technique is beyond simple! I raided our recycle bin at home for glass spaghetti sauce jars to use as vases. You can use glass candlesticks, votive holders, an old lamp - anything your heart desires. {Confession: I actually pulled two of those organic juice bottles from the big dumpster at the recycling center.}

Clean your surface, remove any labels or glue. Spray the surface with water in a spray bottle, then spray on your spray paint. iVillage recommends Krylon's Looking Glass Spray Paint. Unfortunately, it was no where to be found in my teeny little town, so I had to use an alternative. Next time I get down to the "big city" of Denver I'll be hunting down the Krylon, for sure.

These little vases turned out very sweet regardless. They're much splotchier (?) up close, which I think makes them look more authentic.

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Update: Krylon's Looking Glass spray paint definitely works better for that mercury glass look! I finally found some at Hobby Lobby and used it to cover these little votive holders.

I'm planning to put on one more coat, but I had to put them out tonight for Hanukkah! I filled them with white beans, which you can see through the glass, and just popped the candles in. It's my DIY Shiksa Menorah.

This post is linked to: House of Hepworth | Strut Your Stuff Thursdays | Transformation Thursday | Freestyle Friday | Success U | Tidy Mom |

Homemade Butterfinger Bars...yum

Tis the season for cookie exchanges! Macy's brownie troop is hosting one tomorrow afternoon and I've been heming and hawing over what to bring. Baking is not my forte, but I needed to redeem myself after last year's lame store-bought mix chocolate chip cookies.

This year I had to step up my game. I'm hoping these homemade Butterfinger bars I found on the blog Making Memories are a hit. They have three ingredients: candy corn and peanut butter (in equal parts, melted together, then cooled) covered in chocolate. Now, before you turn your nose up at candy corn melted with peanut butter, I have to tell you that I was equally skeptical. It really does taste just like a Butterfinger bar though.

Instead of making them in bar form, I used my mini muffin pan to make bite-sized pieces. They're a little sloppy looking, but they were my first batch. C'est la vie!

Try it. You'll be amazed!

Ethiopian coffee set winner!

Good morning everyone! We're huddling for warmth this morning in the snowy mountains of Colorado. I guess winter is finally really upon us.

As promised, Random.org and I have picked a winner for World Vision's Fair Trade Coffee Pack...

peace love and rainbows said...
liked world vision on facebook (gidgetnfroggi) 

 Congratulations! I'll be emailing you soon with instructions.

If you didn't win, you can still support World Vision and our friends in Ethiopia by donating $50. You'll receive a printable gift certificate that you can give a loved one for Christmas, along with a package of coffee from OneCup.org, a beautiful bag made from African cloth and a hand carved olive wood scoop.

If coffee isn't up your - or your recipient's - alley, there are many other gifts to choose from.

Spray Painting in the Snow

When a girl's got to spray paint, a girl's got to spray paint. You don't hear people saying "Oh Santa, it's all snowy outside. Why don't you just wait for a nice day to deliver gifts?"

I have a fire in the fireplace, a cup of hot cinnamon tea, Christmas music on Pandora, and all of my Christmas decorations waiting eagerly to be displayed. I picked up some clear glass candlesticks at the thrift store yesterday and had to get them painted. But it snowed. As Tim Gunn would say, "Make it work!"

Right after I took that picture I went to bring them inside. As I was bending down, a huge pile of snow slid off the roof and onto my head and the candlesticks, ruining the not-quite-dry paint job.

Moral of the story: paint in a dry place. But not in your living room. Not that I tried that. I'm just saying that I personally find silver wood floors to be very holiday-ish.