Something About Nothing

Just laying back, relaxing, enjoying the pre-holidays. Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah OH That is SO FUNNY!!! My sides hurt! I'm a last minute kinda person.   The holidays always sneak up on me!  I've been working on finishing up some gifts,  doing last minute shopping and thinking about doing some baking.    These are just two of the types of cookies I normally bake each Christmas. However this year is a little different.   My youngest daughter and I have taken gluten out of our diet to see if it will help her Cyclical Vomiting Syndrome and my arthritis.  It is hard to eat gluten-free when other people in the house are still eating gluten!  But it does help to have a buddy.  Fortunately for us, my friend, Terina , just did a few posts on her gluten free blog about a cookie sharing party she had.  She has posted a number of fantastic looking gluten-free cookie recipes. If you would lik...

I received a little surprise in the mail this past weekend. . . . . .the latest issue of Quilting Arts Gifts   which contains all kinds of yummy patterns for holiday Gifts. My friend Candy's pattern made the cover! Wahoo Candy! There are a lot of creative items to make in this issue.  I am always excited to see the great ideas people come up with!  And this time I was very excited to see that one of  my Gift Tags made it into the Gift Tag Challenge pages. . . (blue snowflake by the arrow!) . . .and my Ghostly Trio Banner pattern was publish! Wahoo! There is also a bonus online pattern for a Jack'o lantern variation, and another bonus of holiday cookie recipes that anyone can download here . This coming in the mail reminds me that there are only about 3 1/2 months until Christmas!   Gah!  I should start my Christmas making!   Have you already started? You haven't?  Well maybe a copy of Quilting Arts Gifts wi...

MMMM Oatmeal. I LOVE OATMEAL! Especially this oatmeal served at The Grove in San Francisco. Steel cut oats cooked overnight and served with fresh fruit, nuts and brown sugar.  My mouth waters thinking about it.  I've been craving this oatmeal for months.  I decided I wanted to make it here at home so I've been looking at mini crock pots to make it in.  Turns out my oldest daughter had a mini-crockpot she never uses so I borrowed it.  I found a recipe online that I thought said I could use regular oatmeal since I didn't have any steel cut oats or groats in the house.  I threw the oats, water, sugar, sliced up a nice apple and threw some crasins in the slow cooker wrote a sweet note for the family and went to bed. This is what greeted the family in the morning. I think I made pectin. :S And I want to throw up every time I look at this picture. So it's a big time failure. Do I cry and complain all day because I failed? I could. I could take it personally and s...

A few weeks ago I ran across a recipe at The Pioneer Woman. She had a special visitor, Bakerella , who has created a recipe for Cake Balls . They looked so easy and fun that I filed away the idea to do with the kids during spring break. Today I unloaded the file and we had a great time! First bake a cake (we used a Devils Food mix) and let it cool. Play a game of Monopoly Jr. while you wait for it to cool. Once the cake is cool, crumple the cake into a bowl. The kids LOVED this part. And yes, I made sure they had all washed their hands first! Next dump in a tub of store bought frosting (we used cream cheese frosting). I forgot to load the picture of them dumping in the frosting and it's too much of a pain to load a picture into the middle of a post so I'll just totally skip that photo! They also enjoyed this part, and used a spatula to dump it in, not their hands, as tempting as that was for them. Mix the frosting and cake together until you get a nice crumbly mixture ...