Tuesday Tutorial: Dinner Rolls

I have found the recipe for the best dinner rolls ever, and if like me you still have 3 Christmas parties to go to yet on New Year’s weekend, you’re in luck!  These dinner rolls will make you the hero of your party!

Start out by mixing all your ingredients in a bowl, and let it raise until it gets nice and big, like that…

Next, roll them out, and I have found it works best to allow your 2 year old daughter to help, it’s more fun and entertaining that way!

See how neat and clean she makes it?  (yeah, it took daddy 2 tries in the wash machine to get those pants clean!)  Granted, that amount of flour is probably waaay too much for these rolls!

Then, smear on the butter, again allowing the 2 year old to help!

Those silicone brushes are the best…just like an art project! 

Cut out the rolls, roll them up and bake them, and despite the 2 year old help, they turn out beautiful!

Don’t forget to brush a little more butter on top when you’re done, because that is what really makes these rolls, the excessive amounts of butter we use.  Without it, why would we make New Year’s resolutions? :)

oh yeah, that one there, that’s the one my 2 year old made, it was great too!

Here’s the link to the Diner rolls.  That girl at How Does She is amazing!  Subscribe to her blog while you’re there!

And, Happy New Years, and thanks for a great year from the Sassy Sisters!

The YUMMIEST cookies I ever made...

These cookies are not the prettiest, I will admit.  But they are soooooooo good. Especially if you like German Chocolate Cake, and have an entire house of people who don't.  The best part about them is that they are QUICK and EASY (my two favorite words!

I found the recipe in 2010 Better Homes and Garden's Ultimate Cookeis and Bars magazine.
1 box German Chocolate cake mix
1/2 C butter (melted)
1/4 C milk
1 egg (lightly beaten)
3/4 cup rice crispies
1 /4 c flaked coconut
1 containter of German chocolate frosting (the kind with the pecans and coconuts)

Preheat oven to 350, combine mix, butter, milk and egg,beat on low unitl well mixed, then add the crispies and coconut.  Spoon onto an ungreased cookie sheet.  Bake for 10-12 minutes and then let stand for 1 minute on cookie sheet before transferring to wire rack/wax paper to cool completely.  Frost and enjoy!  If you are into presentation, you can garnish with toasted coconut or pecans.  You might also want to flatten cookies a bit before baking, it looks prettier that way!

The best part (for me) is that they are easy to freeze (BHG and recommends freezing unfrosted, by the way), and I can enjoy my favorite flavors whenever I want without having to eat an entire cake!

Tuesday Tutorial: Cookie Exchange

 

Last weekend I hosted a cookie exchange at my house.  It was quite fun, but requires a little planning.  First of all, I researched it on different blogs.  There are a lot of ways you can do it, but I selected the most basic.  Each guest was asked to bring 4 dozen homemade Christmas cookies.  Given that it was Christmas for a theme, chocolate chip cookies just didn’t cut it!  Then for the tough part.  We all had to find a sitter and leave the kids at home so there was plenty of time for girl talk!  My kids went out hunting with their dad…gave them all plenty of bonding time!  Plus, he could take them out for dinner at that happy meal place which they loved.  I also asked them to bring recipes so that we could all make the cookies again if we loved them.  I thought the girls who came did a great job with their holiday cookies and my family has definitely been enjoying all the food!

I had hot cocoa ready for everyone.  Sadly enough, it was not my favorite recipe.  Next time I’m going to try making Red Velvet Hot cocoa.  Doesn’t it look much prettier?

Here are the cookies I made with their link to the appropriate blog.  By the way, I LOVE blog hopping and trying new recipes!  Thanks to pinterest, I can cut back a little on the 20 or so blogs delivered to my email every day!

Reindeer cookies were definitely a favorite of my family.  The hardest part was finding the tiny little chocolate covered pretzels.  Needless to say, I found them finally through keebler 100 calorie packs.  I stocked up with enough to spare!

Spiral cookies were a little work, but definitely fun.  I switched the strawberry flavoring out for a little peppermint extract to make it more festive and it turned out great!

 

Candy Cane Blossoms were definitely fun.  I even made the colored sugar like she suggested and it turned out pretty good!  I think this would even be fun with a plain kiss in the middle and different colors during other times of the year! 

Obviously if you’ve seen our pictures in the past, you know that these pictures came from their respective websites.  I’d like to thank those awesome bloggers for being much better with the camera than I am.  Hopefully though someday I’ll get better.  Until then, hope you got some great cookie ideas, and maybe next year you’ll invite me to your cookie exchange, or just come to mine! :)

glittery ornaments

I recently saw an awesome video for making Christmas Ornaments.  I thought I would try my hand at them this week... while Sarah (the crafter on the video) made it look so easy, it wasn't quite so simple.  I found I had to do some tweeking, which I will share with you today!  See the original video here  and while your there, look around... she has some cute stuff!

Supplies:

Glass ornament- mine is round but somewhat flat, I found them with Christmas Decor at both Hobby Lobby and Michaels

Spray glue

photo

clear adhesive (I recommend xyron sticker maker)

glitter

 Print your photo to a size that will fit in your ornament.  This one is about 2x2.  I STRONGLY recommend using plain paper to print, as opposed to cardstock or photo paper.  The reason for this is because when I tried the other types of paper, they were too firm, and did not roll up nicely to fit inside the ornament. 

The next step is to put some adhesive on the FRONT of the paper... again, I recommend the sticker creater.  THen very lightly roll the paper into a tube so it fits inside the ornament... you DO NOT want to roll this too tightly, as the point is to UNROLL it inside the ornament.  You're going to want to use some long objects, such as a knitting needle, pencil, etc.  I noticed that it worked really well to put the adhesive all over the object (in the video she just says corners, but I noticed that when I put the glitter in, the glitter would get in front of the picture.  I also found it worked best to smooth out the air bubbles, and a pencil eraser works well for this!  Make sure you try to get the picture as centered as possible before you start sticking it down!

OK, next, you want to GENTLY spray in some adhesive... I recommend a repositional/non-permanent adhesive, as this kind didn't seem so "wet"... the permanent adhesive would leave drips and puddles when I sprayed it in.    Just do a few gentle bursts throughout the ornament.  

Next:



notice you can see the film from the spray adhesive on the glass!  (the picture is not centered, I ended up doing this one over)

 Make a paper funnel and stick it inside your ornament.  Then you can use this to put your gitter in neatly... It doesn't take much for glitter... I used 2 kinds, white (to look like snow) and gold.  After you add your glitter cover that hole with your finger and give it a good shake... this distributes the glitter evenly!  You can empty out the excess... if you want to save the extra glitter probably do one color at a time...

Finally, put the cap back in the ornament, and decorate with a pretty ribbon.  You have a lovely ornament for your tree or a gift!!  Hopefully these tips help you avoid several attempts at trial and error (like mine), and leave you with a Merry Christmas!  Again, thanks to Sarah for her cute idea!!

A Report card from Santa!

This past week I was at the store with my ornery kids.  I ran into a friend who told me that when her son was little, she would give him a report card from Santa to make him behave better for that month.  I thought it sounded like a great idea, but couldn’t find anything on pinterest! (I know, sad day, right!)  So, here is what I came up with this morning and I am going to share it with you.  Print as many as you like, change it to fit your kids better, and enjoy!  And if someone can figure out how to pin it on pinterest, please do that too so we can all have a report card for our kids!

Tuesday Tutorial: Snowflakes!

 

A few weeks ago my kids were wanting it to snow.  It of course did not here yet, but I did find a good pinterest craft!  We made some borax snowflakes!  The process is simple, mix some borax with hot water, dip in your flake and let it soak for a day or two.  Ours turned out pretty good, but I never got a good picture!  Oops!  So here it is for you step by step!

First step is to make a snowflake shape, we did ours with pipe cleaners cut in half.

Then you suspend it in a bowl, we did ours by hanging it with string from a pencil, it worked quite nice!

  

Finally add the borax mix.  We tinted ours blue, can’t say it worked all that well to add the color, but the kids liked it!

 

Check out the complete instructions here: 

Martha's snowflakes

Tuesday Tutorial: Christmas Cookies!!

In our family, baking and decorating Christmas Cookies is an annual tradition, one that I look forward to every year!  I thought I would share some of the tips that we have found useful over the last several years. 

So tip # 1:  If possible, Do all of this at GRANDMA'S house.  This will eliminate messy clean up for mom later on (ha-ha).

tip # 2: To save time, we bake our cookies the night before, or earlier in the morning, that way the day we plan to meet and decorate, we are able to just decorate all the cookies.  This is a family affair: we try to get to gether with as many sassysisters and sassysister-in-laws as possible, as well as our mom and grandma.  Dads are not invited, as they make too much mess, but all the sassykids come, and if they are able to eat solid foods, they help!

 Here we have the sassy family busy at work.  So some tips from this picture: Have the grown-ups or older kids frost the cookies.  I like to store all my sprinkles in a cute wire basket, that way they are ready to go and easy to find whenever I need them.  We also all bring our own containers to store cookies in, so we can bring them home.  I think we usually make 4-5 batches to accomodate this!

 Grandma (our mom) found that the easiest way to contain the sprinkles is to put cookies needing to be frosted in a pan with sides, that way they don't sprinkle everywhere.  She also conserves sprinkles by using a spoon to pick up excess sprinkles and put on cookies.  These cookies aren't as pretty, but the kids really like them!

As I mentioned before, everyone gets involved, even the little ones!  This is my niece, who's 1 in the picture.  She got 1 cookie and a bottle of sprinkles, which kept her busy the whole morning (we just kept putting more frosting on her cookie, as she licked it off.  Between the high chair tray and the pan on her tray,  not so messy!  However, I do advise giving the little ones an older bottle with fewer sprinkles... this one was pretty new, and she licked it, which made it so that we couldn't use the sprinkles.

Another tip, not pictured, is that every woman brings a batch of cookies to bake while we are there that day, that way we get a ton of cookies to bring home!

Enjoy the holidays and happy baking!

Tuesday Tutorial: Hat soup

My kids love to eat hat soup, and anything that is fun makes it even more delicious.  I love hat soup because to me it is very delicious, and easy to make too!  Plus, adding some left over turkey next week would make it even better, just incase you needed some ideas!

I came across the recipe for Tortellini in Brodo last year at the Tasty Kitchen website.  It’s amazing and I make it every chance I get.  As you can see, I skip the vegetables…I know, evil right?   I’m just too lazy.  Plus, its good without them. 

Give it a try with your leftover turkey next week, you won’t be disappointed!

Tortellini in Brodo

(A classic Italian soup: Tortellini in Broth)

 

Preparation Instructions

1. Into a large Dutch oven, melt the butter over medium-low heat. When melted, add the celery, onion, carrot and garlic. Cover and reduce heat to low and cook for approximately 8-10 minutes until vegetables begin to soften.

2. Add the broth, water and cheese rind and increase heat to medium-high and bring to a boil. When broth boils, add pepper and nutmeg. Stir to combine. Reduce heat to low and add the tortellini. Allow to simmer until tortellini cooks to al dente (follow package instructions for timing).

3. Once cooked, remove the cheese rind. Add the parsley. Stir to combine. Garnish with freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano!

Ingredients

• 3 Tablespoons Unsalted Butter
• 2 stalks Celery, Chopped
• 1 whole Small Onion Chopped
• 1 whole Carrot - Peeled & Chopped
• 2 cloves Garlic, Minced
• 8 cups Chicken Broth
• 4 cups Water
• 1 piece Small Parmigiano Reggiano Rind
• ½ teaspoons Pepper
• 1 pinch Ground Nutmeg
• 20 ounces, weight Cheese Filled Tortellini
• 2 Tablespoons Flat Leaf Italian Parsley - Chopped
• 2 Tablespoons Parmigiano-Reggiano, Grated

Tuesday Tutorial: Thanksgiving wreath

Sorry for the belated post!  Today I am showing you a simple craft project that you can use to display what you are thankful for!  Because you just stick the cards between twigs, this is a very versitile project... you can use it for Thanksgiving every year, (have guests/family members take turns writing what they are Thankful for, count down the days to the holiday by writing something you are thankful for each day, etc.) or you can change it out to put in memories for someone's birthday or anniversary, well wishes for the holidays, and so much more.  You could even use it to display photos!  (I wish I had though of that earlier, this would probably be an entirely different post!)


Recipe:
1 grapevine wreath
Ribbon to hang your wreath
cardstock cut to size (3.5 x 2) in this case
Marker

Simply use the marker to write down the items you are thanful for onto the cardstock cut to size, and place on wreath, sticking the cards (photos, whatever) between branches of your wreath.  Use the ribbon to hang the wreath and enjoy!  Wouldn't this be a cute way to do a photo display at a graduation or birthday party?

:

Tuesday Tutorial: squids and pinterest

I know, right, squids and pinterest…well since we were so busy catching up on orders and getting ready for our Halloween party, we totally missed, so this week, you  get double. 

So we start off with squids.  My kids loved these, and my 4 year old could definitely help. 

Start off by cutting your hot dogs into 4-5 pieces.  Then poke 4 linguini noodles into each.  I have found the linguini works much better because it’s not so thin it breaks when you spear it into the hotdogs.

Despite being a Hawkeye fan isn’t he cute? :)  Ignore the messy kitchen and naughty daughter on the counter.  Sometimes it is the only way to get her to behave!

Then you boil them.

 

It’s really just that easy.  Once the noodles are done, plate them up and watch your  kids devour  You can go ahead and put some spaghetti sauce on them, or my kid’s favorite “mommy sauce” (a jar of Alfredo sauce). 

 

Now to pinterest.  Have you ever heard?  Well let me tell you, I’m hooked.  And, unlike facebook, I actually have found lots of fun things to do on there!  like this and this and this and many many more. 

How do you start?  Well, email us here and we’ll send you an invite.  Make sure to set up lots of fun boards like cooking and crafting and Christmas and the all important, what I’ve made just to show off to your friends, and then pin away!  It’s kind of a trial and error thing, but I promise you can’t screw up more than not pinning something and never finding it back again (I know, I’ve done that plenty).  Happy pinning!

Tuesday Tutorial: Chocolate Chip Scones

I have been meaning to put this recipe on here for quite awhile, but just haven’t gotten to it yet.  Tonight we are going to have our only booth with all our crafty stuff at the Ladies in Pink evening at the college in Sheldon.  So, in honor of that and breast cancer awareness month, I have sugared my scones pink.  This is a great recipe though and it can be used for more than just chocolate chips.  Imagine your favorite cranberry scone, or blueberry scone, or even an almond flavored one with little almond slivers on top?  The possibilities are endless!  And, it’s so simple to make, that soon you will be like me and have to make these for your family at least once a week!

 

So, to start out, mix your flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in the mixer together like this:

Pretty boring, right?

Add a little fun to it with the chocolate chips (or blueberries or cranberries or whatever you want)

 

Now comes the fun and ease.  The recipe I copied this from says to knead this together.  I, as a busy mom, said “yeah right” and use my trusty KitchenAid and got this done much easier by slowly pouring the cream into the bowl while mixing.  Much easier.   Now, big note hear, you must use the heavy whipping cream.  Half and half and other milks just won’t do it and you’ll end up with more of a bread texture. 

As you can see, it slowly forms  a ball.  There may be a few crumbs of flour left at the bottom you can mix in by hand, or just do like me and ignore it or add more cream to that.

Next divide the dough into two balls, flour your surface, flatten the dough and cut it like a pizza into 8 triangles.  The rolled out dough should be fairly thick, so if it’s about the size of my hand, I figure it’s good enough.

After it’s cut out, place it on your pan and then brush it with the melted butter and sprinkle with sugar.  I like to improvise here a little and make it fun for the kids.  This year for 4th of  July I cut them all into stars with a cookie cutter and sprinkled them with red, white, and blue sugar.  Today I used pink sugar and white sugar, mostly cause if my son and husband had to eat pink, they might have freaked. 

I personally think the pink ones are prettier!

Finally bake them for 15-17 minutes at 375 degrees and they’ll come out looking beautiful!

Now doesn’t that look good?  So go home tonight and grab yourself some heavy cream on the way and make up these scones for your family in the morning!  They’ll love you for it!

 

Chocolate Chip Scones

3-¼ cups All-purpose Flour

½ cups Sugar

1 Tablespoon Plus 1 Teaspoon Baking Powder

¼ teaspoons Salt

2 cups Dark Chocolate Chips

2 cups Cold Whipping Cream

2 Tablespoons Melted Butter

2 Tablespoons Sugar For Sprinkling

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Lightly grease two cookie sheets.

Mix together first five ingredients. Pour in cream and stir with mixer until the flour mixture is moistened and forms a ball.  Divide dough into two to  three equal-sized balls.  Flatten dough into a circle (use your hands to flatten the dough out) and cut each dough circle into eight triangles. Place on cookie sheets about two inches apart. Brush tops with melted butter and sprinkle with sugar.

Bake for 15-20 minutes or until lightly browned. Serve warm.

Ladies in Pink!

Be sure to check us out at our booth at the ladies in pink evening at NCC in Sheldon on Tuesday October 18 from 7-9.  This will be our only craft booth, and we've been working hard at lots of examples of our things plus some new crafts we'll only have there!

Tuesday Tutorial: Treat Bags!!

Today we're going to make these ADORABLE treat sacks, just perfect for special treats.  I have chosen to fill my treat bags with fun little treats for my kids Trick or Treats, but this pattern can EASILY be adapted for any occasion, such as party favors or holiday gifting.  Recently, Jackie and I made a ton of "fall" themed bags like this, and filled them with party mix for her son's preschool class.  It was a HUGE hit!  (Too bad I forgot to take a picture!)

OK, so let's move on to supplies;

As you can see from the picture above, you need:

 a resealable sandwich baggie

 some decorative paper

craft products such as a stapler, paper cutter, and something to score the paper

 and, of course, something to put inside!

So, this is really easy.  First, fill up your sandwhich baggie with your treats. 

Next, cut your decorative paper so it measures 4 inches long, and 1/2 inch longer than your baggie, which is about 7 1/2 inches.  Score the paper at 2 inches and fold so it measures 2 x 7 1/2.  Place the fold over the "zipper" of the baggie, and staple down.  Then Decorate! 

For this sample, I have 2 styles: The "boo" I made on my Cricut using the Wrap It Up cartridge, the Happy Halloween is a sticker from Karen Foster designs that I found at our local craft store.  Super easy!  Enjoy!

PS: Wanna learn how to add glitter to projects in a quick and easy way?  Check out Mean Jean's CraftMachine for tips!