A Christmas Tradition Continues

Every year, we would all look forward to Christmas.  Not only to spend time with family and friends, but for my mother-in-law's melt-in-your-mouth shortbread.  It was divine.  I actually had to hide it from Gary and the kids or I wouldn't even get a piece!

Last year, I didn't get a chance to keep up with Gary's mom's tradition, after she passed in August 2011.  This year, however, I was determined to try.

I poured over hundred of recipes, looking for the perfect combination of simplicity, taste and what-do-I-actually-have-in-my-pantry??  I finally settled on a simple mixture of four ingredients - and never looked back!


Christmas Shortbread
(source unknown)

Ingredients:
1 c. butter, softened
1/2 c. icing sugar
1/4 c. cornstarch
1 1/2 c. flour

Original Instructions:
1.  Preheat oven to 375°F.
2.  Whip butter until creamy and light.
3.  Sift dry ingredients into large bowl.  Add to butter gradually, beating on low.  Beat on high for 3-4 minutes.
4.  Pat into traditional shortbread pan (or 8x8" square pan) and prick with fork.
5.  Bake 12-15 minutes - do not brown!

Sue's Notes:
I really just winged it for this recipe and aside from the ingredients and temperature, didn't follow the recipe at all!  Here's what I did:

I did whip the butter until it was very light and full of air.  But I'm lazy when baking and didn't sift the ingredients first.  Heck, I didn't even add them gradually!  I just measured them all out and added them to the butter at once.  I did switch to my dough hook on my Kitchen Aid to mix it all together.  Again, I didn't bother to time it - I just kneaded it until all the dry ingredients were incorporated into the butter evenly.

At this point, I decided I wanted cookies instead of bars so I used my mini ice cream scoop to scoop out even amounts of dough.  I rolled them quickly between my palms to even out the balls and laid them on a cookie sheet, about an inch apart.

My oven was set to 375°F on the convection setting and I cooked them for about 13 minutes.  After removing from oven and letting them sit for a minute or so to cool on the cookie sheet, I transferred them to a rack to cool

The photo above shows the cookies right out of the oven, but after they cooled, I rolled them in icing sugar for a bit more decadence.  The option is yours - they are delicious regardless!

My only complaint was that they were a bit bigger than I wanted.  But I would rather have uniformity (via my mini scoop) over petite-ness (via eyeballing).  As I said before, they are so yummy either way!

Enjoy!

P/S:  Don't forget about the following challenges on my blog for a chance to win:
It's a Sketchy Challenge (deadline:  Dec 31/12)
Leave Your Legacy: What You Fear Most (deadline:  Feb 28/13)

Blog Hop!!

Welcome to the Canvas Corp and myStamp BOX “Partner Blog Hop”!

If you have just happened upon our event now, please begin your journey on the Canvas Corp blog here.

Many of our wonderful designers are joining us today to show off some inspirational creativity. See how well Canvas Corp and myStamp BOX products are working together! 

Ready?  Here we go!

                              Canvas Corp <- please start here

Marsha Valk 

Linda Abadie

                                                   Sue Sykes <-- you are here - and I'm glad! :)

Jeannie DeGruccio 

Jaine Drake

Janet Zeppa

Els Brigé

Jolene Johnston

Cassie Box

Isolde Pyncket 

Agata Pfister

myStamp BOX blog

We are giving away some amazing products from both participating companies. All you have to do is COMMENT on all of the designers' blogs along your journey to WIN. Our two Hop winners will be drawn from all participants and will be announced on the myStamp BOX blog and Canvas Corp blog on Monday, November 28th, so all comments are due by Sunday November 27th at 6pm EST. Good Luck!

I received some lovely goodies from Canvas Corp and myStamp BOX - I created a countdown chalkboard calendar for the kids! :

Supplies used:  Canvas Corp canvas heart, chalkstock, linen cord, decorative clothespin and mini clothespins; myStamp BOX stamps (Let It Snow, Rustic Outlines, Mini Alpha - Small Box); Tsukineko Staz-On ink; Stampin' Up Craft Ink; Ranger embossing powder; Faber Castell Gelatos (metallic); Craft Smart metallic ink (silver); chalk.

(Sorry for the dark photo - I wanted a photo of it hanging up and there's not much light when I leave for work OR when I get home!  Boooo, winter... :(

I kept it really simple, with minimal embellishments because I'm sure that little hands will be wanting to add the chalk numbers and I didn't want to have to keep repairing it!  Instead I used the stamps as accents!

I misted my canvas heart with water and coloured right onto the canvas with the Gelatos.  I then blended the colours with a paintbrush and let dry.  Using Staz-On, I stamped snowflakes all over and added highlights with silver metallic paint, watered down to a milk-like consistency.

You can't really tell in photos but the Gelatos and the silver paint have a lovely sheen to them!!

Using the watered down silver paint, I also painted the white clothespin to add shimmer to it, and to help it blend in with my project's colour palette.  With the pigment ink, I stamped the title on the chalkstock with stamps and embossed to heat set.  I placed a dab of silver metallic paint full strength on my craft mat and just dragged the edges of the chalkstock through it.

I cut the linen cord to length, knotted the ends and attached it to the canvas using natural mini clothespins that I painted using the Gelatos.

And voila!

Now it’s time to HOP along and find out what the next talented designer has created. Your next designer is Jeannie DeGruccio of Canvas Corp.  

Don’t forget to leave a comment below for a chance to WIN one of our TWO product giveaways!  Happy Hopping - and Happy Thanksgiving to our American friends!

Countdown to Christmas

Two more sleeps until Christmas Eve!!

And so much to do, still!

We have always celebrated Christmas Eve at my parents' place.  It's been tradition to head over around 3:00pm, have a wonderful family meal, with traditional Italian staples. 

photo via BlogFood, dal mondo delle Cesarine

Staples like scrippelle 'mbusse, which are italian crepes (recipe here) that are sprinkled with parmigiano-reggiano cheese, rolled up and covered with homemade chicken stock.  We usually cut ours into bite size pieces after rolling.  My kids LOVE this soup! 

photo via Cooking During Stolen Moments

When my mom was alive, we used to always have City Chicken, too.  I've found several references online that infer that this dish has Polish origins, but it was traditional fare at most of our holiday dinners.  Here's a recipe that uses pork only, but my mom would always use pork and veal.  Not sure if this is on the menu this year, though...

photo via Italian Food Forever

Another tradition that we will continue to honour, though, is the antipasto di mare, or seafood antipasto, that my mom used to make. Ours differs slightly from this image, though, as we add giardiniera and omit the salad.  Seeing the octopus bits in here reminds me of a story...  About ten years ago, my best friend from college, Monica, was unable to afford to fly home for Christmas so my parents, considering her to be their one and only blonde haired, blue-eyed Amazonian daughter (she's 5'10"!), graciously opened their home to her at Christmas.  I'll never forget the look on my mom's face when Monica, upon being served the antipasto di mare, said to her, "Gina, are these testicles on my plate?"  LOL!  Monica turned about fifteen shades of red while we all cracked up, including my mother.  "Tentacles!  I mean, tentacles!!"  Ah, love that girl...

photo via Martha Stewart

Even since I can remember, we've served baccalà, which is salt cod, sold by the slab.  Here's a recipe, but we serve ours more simply, dressed with just olive oil, ground black pepper and parsley.  It's so yummy, but can be very salty if not soaked long enough.

Of course, there's also traditional food, usually ham and/or turkey, salad, etc.  My sister always commandeers dessert, for good reason - she makes wonderful desserts!  But there's always traditional desserts, too.

photo via La Cucina Italiana

Torrone is a lovely confection that it usually only brought out (at our house, anyways) at Christmas so it always evokes memories of the holidays.  We've always purchased torrone, but I found a recipe online that I may try next year...

And although you may think that every Italian holiday revolves around food (which is partly right), we have other family traditions.  After dinner is done and the kitchen is clean, we open our presents.  We used to open them much later, around 9pm, and then head to midnight mass, but it's just too long for the little ones to wait!  I think it's more that the adults just couldn't stand hearing, "Is it time yet?" and "Can we open our presents now?", over and over... :)  

So now we open our presents earlier, and then as our kids get into their new pyjamas and settle in with their new books (which we always  get for them to open at my dad's place), the adults settle in for family game night!  Games always differ - we've played Sequence, Taboo (girls against boys, of course!) and the Racing Horse game, which my hubby refuses to play anymore, on account that my dad ALWAYS wins... :)) There's also Mexican Train dominoes (my mom's favourite game) and every Italian's favourite games, rummoli and euchre! :)  I'd like to try to introduce Bunco, as I've heard it's a lot of fun!

This year, we're eating later, as my niece and nephew now live in Toronto and Sarah has to work until 2pm.  We are going to head out to Leamington early and visit my aunts and uncles in the afternoon and take the children to the early Christmas mass at 5pm at the church I attended when I was growing up.

I'm off now, to tidy up before we all get ready for the Christmas party for Connor's swim team.  And then it will be another late night of gift wrapping for me - I may have to pour myself a Bailey's on ice to get me through... :)

It's that time again...

Time for Christmas card photos... :s

We Scrap - Sketchy Saturday

Today is Sketchy Saturday at WeScrap!  Always exciting but more so this week because I was on the receiving end of an awesome sketch from Ally - you can view it here in her post in the WeScrap forum.

Here's my layout created from it:

Supplies:  Scenic Route patterned paper, sticker; Fancy Pants glitter cut frame; Making Memories metal charm; Jenni Bowlin bingo card; Heidi Swapp & Maya Road chipboard; Marvy Uchida pen and scalloped punch; metal label holder, ribbon and tiny bag (unknown)

I deviated slightly from Ally's sketch and used one 5x7 photo, instead of two smaller photos.  I really wanted to finally scrap our Christmas card that I found while sorting through my photos.  I love how cute they are in this picture!!  Okay, so I'm biased - but they are cute! :)

I found an old Christmas pack from Scenic Route and was delighted to see that the colours matched my photo! :) 

Here are some detailed shots.  The transparent Glitter cut (which doesn't look very transparent in the above shot) was originally a long rectangular frame:

I cut off the green frame, and rotated it on my layout to suit the location.

The cluster of items to the right of the photograph were just a result of rifling through my stash and pulling anything that may work.

The best part of the card, in my opinion, is this fantastic sentiment that I found while creating this card. 

I wish I had written down the source so I could give proper credit!  (If you know, please let me know so I can add it!)  It reads:

May Christmas bring to you an abundance

of the precious things in Life:

health, friendship and the

love found in moments share.

Thanks for looking!

Santa Claus Came To Town!

Or should I say, WENT to town!? LOL!

Actually, this year, we didn't really go overboard with gifts for the kids.  We talked to them about the less fortunate, and how Christmas is really a season for giving.  The school had sent home a World Vision catalogue earlier in the month and after flipping through it with them, and discussing how lucky we are to be living in a country where we often take our basic needs for granted, we all agreed that the kids would each forfeit a few gifts and we would use the proceeds to donate to World Vision.

It was heartwarming to see the two of them, bent over the catalogue, discussing whether they would rather buy a couple of goats or stock a medical clinic...

As I said yesterday, Christmas morning was a subdued affair at our place.  With Aili getting sick so often throughout the night, Gary and I were both exhausted.  We skipped our traditional big Christmas breakfast, as no one really had much of an appetite, either.  We got up early with Connor and let him open his stocking gifts and then we all went back to our bed and slept until Aili woke up.

As you can see, she was very pale and lethargic about opening presents.  And you can see the ever-present "puke" bucket on the left... :(  And I don't know what those white spots are - maybe a dirty lens?

Anyhow, what she lacked in spirit, Connor made up for in enthusiasm!  I love the look on his face that I captured when he opened their gift from Santa - a Nintendo Wii!!

Once Connor explained what it was, she showed slightly more enthusiasm:

But only slightly.

She then vomited and went back to bed, the poor peanut!

We special ordered a WEST team swim bag for Connor for Christmas this year:

Santa also brought something for Gary and Connor to enjoy together... remote controlled helicopters!

Star Wars, even!  Gary's been wanting a RC heli for I can't remember HOW long - I'm glad Santa finally listened!

Santa also brought Gary and I the Wii Fit Balance Board and the Biggest Loser game for the Wii!  Perfect for our NY resolution to live a healthier and more active 2010!

Once the presents were open, we spent a relaxing day, trying out our new Wii and napping.  We were supposed to go to my sister's for Christmas, but with Aili feeling under the weather, we didn't want to expose anyone to this virus.

Hope everyone enjoyed their holidays - was Santa good to you?!

Our Family at Christmas

This year, we were actually ready AHEAD of schedule, before heading to my dad's to celebrate Christmas Eve with my family, and since the kids were so cute in their matching outfits, I just had to snap a few photos!

Connor looked so handsome in his sweater vest!  And so grown up, too!  I can't believe he's already TEN!

I picked up Aili's outfit from The Children's Place.  It's a gorgeous taffeta skirt with a tulle underskirt, and it has these gorgeous beaded poinsettias all over it.  The sweater is a soft angora one with beading on the neck and sleeves.  She couldn't stop twirling, "like a princess" and begged me to wear lipstick.  I compromised and gave her a sheer lipgloss.

Gary, again with the extra long arms, snapped this family photo of us - I think it may be the first half decent one in a long time!

We had a late dinner at my dad's.  Sarah, my niece, surprised us and flew back from England for the holidays!  We hung out, pigged out on great food, and opened our presents.  We even had our annual Secret Santa exchange with the adults - I ended up with a Dr. Scholl's Back Cushion Massager and Gary won a Tim Horton's card!  There were alot of good gifts this year!

The only slight on our holiday was the 'flu that everyone got, present company included!  Luckily, it was extremely short lived - 24 hours for all, save Aili.  She felt a general malaise for a few days.  We were all as good as new for New Years', which we celebrated by going to the Windsor Spitfires game and then dinner at Kelseys.  We all came home and had a nap for a few hours and then headed over to the neighbours' place for appetizers while watching the ball drop.  Connor had spent the night before at Liam's and they had had a late night, so he stayed home and slept!  We woke him up when we got home to wish him a Happy New Year and he went right back to bed until morning!

I still can't believe he's 10 already and old enough to stay on his own...  Just like I can't believe that he's almost as tall as I am...

Yikes.  If you need me, I'll be the one in the corner, crying and wondering where the last 10 years went...

Merry Christmas to all!

Christmas is not as much about opening our presents as opening our hearts.

~Janice Maeditere

Wishing you lots of love and happiness across the miles during this holiday season.  Hope Santa's good to you!  I'll be back next week with holiday photos and news, swim meet updates and a new January RAK giveaway!

Visions of sugarplums...

Well, I had good intentions...

Yesterday, Aili and I braved the 15+cm that fell throughout the night and headed into the city for a day of shopping with my sister, Teresa. The roads were TERRIBLE!! There was no rhyme nor reason to how the roads were ploughed (plowed?) - some main streets weren't but some of the lesser-traveled side streets were!! Must have been one of the snowplough (snowplow?) operator's streets! ;)

I didn't get much accomplished - a few more Christmas gifts crossed off my lists but at the cost of an increasingly tantrum-proned child. I finally gave up around 3pm and headed back home to pick up Connor from latchkey - of course, Aili fell promptly asleep! So she was quite grumpy when we got home.

After dinner, she went right to bed (of course, not without a fight though!) I went in to say goodnight and felt an overwhelming need to lay down! I laid down on my bed for a minute... and woke up at 10:30pm - contacts still in, teeth unbrushed... ugh! I got up with the intentions of heading downstairs to get a few hours of work in but still felt so sleepy so I laid my head down for a minute... (do you see a pattern here?)

At 6:00am this morning, I heard my cell phone alarm go off and hopped out of bed! Of course, my contacts were stuck to my corneas from sleeping in them... but it was nice to be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed when the kids got up! ;)

At any rate, that's my excuse for not posting the gingerbread house photos, as promised!

It started off fairly cooperatively... despite some sibling rivalry over who would get to put the peppermint candies on the roof. We started off building the sides:
Next came the roof, which was tricky, as the icing wasn't nearly as fast drying as we had planned. Here, Connor demonstrates his one-finger technique to helping me hold the roof in place...By the way, that is NOT some abnormal growth on my index finger... merely left over icing that I had not licked off (because I had just admonished the kids 3 times for licking their fingers - and had sent them to the bathroom to wash their hands each time...)

Okay, so far, so good... no casualties and the kids are still on speaking terms...
Now comes the fun part: the candy decorating!

After a few power struggles over the gumdrops (kids) and one emotional outburst (me), we ended up with a pretty decent looking house!
Even if the icing did slide off and cause an avalanche on Mr. Gingerbread...
I managed to snap a potential Christmas card photo, too... Not that I'll get around to sending them in time for Christmas though... Maybe Valentine's Day...

And lastly, because a day without laughter is like a day without sunshine, I leave you with this, my dancing queen:
I'd like to say that it's AFTER consuming all of the leftover candies from the house, resulting in a crazed sugar epileptic-type attack, but no... Just my crazy kid, showing us her moves...


Why, you ask, did I convert it to B&W??? To save you from the horror of a 4 year old, picking out her own clothes:


I used The Pioneer Woman's action, The Seventies, since it seems to fit the era! Please note the heinous fashion crime: black socks with white shoes - Yikes!

Crazy kid. Must take after her dad... ;)

7 More Sleeps to Christmas!

And I couldn't be any further away from being ready! Yikes!

Usually, I am done all my shopping and most of the wrapping by now. I have what little baking I can accomplish done, and try to have the teachers' gifts ready to go before the last day of school.

Not so, this year! Christmas really snuck up and tackled us!

But I'm not really stressed out about it. I now know what I am getting my dad, who is, by far, the hardest man on earth to shop for! And as for the rest of my list, I have an idea so it's just a matter of finding the time to brave the shops and hope that it's still available!

We are having Christmas Eve at my dad's again, as always, and I am hoping to whip up a batch of homemade Baileys to bring along.

We did manage to find time, a few weeks ago, to decorate our very first Gingerbread house! I have plenty of photos that Gary snapped as the kids and I got our fingers sticky! Watch for photos tomorrow!