Food Freak

I think there are a few people who think I have lost my marbles because I have stopped making my cookie trays and started finding healthier alternatives. This year I made jam and bread (whole wheat with flax and local wildflower honey). Click Here to see the vast array of sweets from Christmas pasts. But.... My marbles are all there, well at least all the ones I started out with anyways. I remember a few years ago (before I got serious about eating better) coming across people who were strict with thier diet and anal about what they would put in thier body..........I believe my reaction was something like P-f-f-t *food freaks*. Well I have willingly signed on to that bandwagon.

Re-inventing the Christmas Cookie

This is experiment #1 in re-inventing Christmas cookies at my home this year. I used my Grandmothers basic cut-out cookie recipe and substituted Whole Wheat flour for the White and I substituted half of the butter that it called for with applesauce. The dough and the cookie had the same flavor as the "untouched" recipe just more texture, well worth the convertion. The thought of bringing any of that evil white refined sugar into the house did not appeal to me so I decided to try a differant kind of "frosting". I pureed frozen cherries in my blender with a small amount of the slightly lesser evil brown sugar and smoothed it on my creation, grated a little Chocolate on top and Wa-La. Okay, so it doesnt taste completely like the old Christmas cookie Grandma used to make, but since Grandpa died of an artery clogging stroke and Grandma's in the nursing home with alzhiemers, maybe it is okay to rethink how we feed our families. I think Grandma would approve! Change is never easy.....but I am willing to try. P.S. the family loves the cookies.

Donkey Ornaments-Hee Haw

This was kind of an off the cuff project. The best kind in my opinion :) In the process of coming up with a nativity project for the wee ones I came across a great donkey ornament and decided to have a try at making my own. This is my version of Mary's donkey, much cleaner than the one that she had to ride. Could you imagine, riding a donkey while you were pregnant? Not to mention the dirty stable birth and all. I used fleece for the donkey, very easy and as luck would have it I had a great wool skirt waiting to be cut up into little tiny blankets. Note to self, save , save , save those hand-me-down-come-my-way-free-cloths! The skirt was far to short for anyone to ever wear anyway. Re-purpose