Blog Surfing - Happy New Year

From Tasty Kitchen: Kicked Up Spinach Dip, Light and Crispy Waffles,   Chocolate Covered Cherry Cookies, Spinach and Goat Cheese Stuffed Flank Steak,  Island Coconut Lime Chocolate Bark, Butter Drop Cookies,  Graham Cracker Cookie Bars, Gingerbread Scones,


From Hoosier Homemade: Christmas Morning Casserole.

From Picky Palate: Kiss Pies, Soft Chocolate Gingersnap Cookies
 

From Our Krazy Kitchen: Pecan Kringle, Homemade Boursin

From Living in the Kitchen with Puppies: English Muffin Bread

From Mennonite Girls Can Cook: Caramel Corn 


From Taste and Tell: Apple Raisin French Toast Casserole

From Culinary in the Desert: Cardamom Biscotti 


From For the Love of Cooking: Wilted Spinach Salad with Caramelized Shallots

From The Way the Cookie Crumbles: Cardamom Crumb Cake 


From Farmgirl Fare: Easy Holiday Recipe Ideas for Dessert

I'm Gone Until 2011!

I hope you had the very Merriest Christmas with those that you love and hold dear!

We had several special gatherings with family that filled our hearts with comfort and joy! It appears that I have lost one of my almost constant companions; my camera! It gave up on Christmas evening, just as we were ready to start serving dinner! Alas, no pictures of yet another wonderful evening filled with family and friends.

I'm not planning to be back until sometime the first week in 2011, but you never know, I could show up with a picture (?) or two. I will miss you, but I am happy to say that today we start our permanent move. We are moving away from "the farm" (sniff, sniff, tears in eyes) which we will miss very much, but we are moving into our new home on the "mountain," as in Sexton Mountain. I'm sure to most of you, moving sounds like the worst possible way to spend the week between Christmas and New Years. I understand that, and hope you have a good time relaxing and resting up. As for us, we are rested and ready, and, the movers are doing the actual work!

After having most of our possessions stored in PODS since August, we are very excited and looking forward to moving into our new house and making it our home with our "stuff." We plan to take the week to get settled in, with some good quality time snuggling by the fire in the evenings!

We will miss the farm very much and plan to visit very often, especially when the baby lambs start arriving. I think there might be a bottle with my name on it, waiting to feed the double and triple birth lambs. I can hardly wait!

Have a Very Happy and Blessed New Year in 2011!

Wolfe Family 2010 Christmas Pictures: Part 3

Merry Christmas!

I hope that you are having a wonderful and blessed day!

Here are more pictures of our Wolfe family gathering. These pictures are especially for those of you that requested more family pictures!

White Elephant Gift Exchange

 

Wiley Behind the Camera

 

 

That's all we've got!

Inside-Out Chocolate Chip Cookies

I hope that all your Christmas shopping is finished, cookies are baked and you have the luxury of taking it easy for a while. I have one more recipe to share that I made for the Wolfe Christmas gathering. I saw an idea for switching up the average chocolate chip cookie a couple of years ago and decided to give it a try with my own twist this year.

My goal was to make cookie chips and add them to chocolate, making a kind of cookie cluster. First, I made the cookie dough and put it in a pastry bag with a Wilton decorating tip and started trying to squeezing it through the tip to make the cookie chips. I think it would have been easier to get a camel through the eye of a needle. I had to put it aside and head to Michael's Arts and Crafts for a larger tip.

An hour later, even with the larger tip, I had about a third of the dough through the tip. I baked the tray that I had filled, baked them and I was very happy with how they turned out. I knew that I had just given all the time I had to that cookie chip making process so I rolled the rest of the dough onto a cookie sheet and baked it until brown, about 13-15 minutes. After it cooled, I broke it into chip sized pieces and set them aside.

I melted about 3/4 of a 17.6 ounce bar of Trader Joe's Belgium Milk Chocolate and added the broken cookie chips to the chocolate. I would suggest melting the chocolate in the microwave, beginning with 30 second intervals, stirring between each interval. As the chocolate becomes more melted, stop to stir in 15 second intervals. When the chocolate is completely melted, let it sit for about 10 minutes so that it can set up a little bit. (In general, this will help the chocolate stick to the cookie chips or anything else you would ever add to chocolate to make a cluster).

Next, I added the broken cookie chips and folded them in, using a large spatula. I spooned the mixture onto a wax paper lined cookie sheet and let them sit for a couple minutes. I then placed the cookie chips on top of these clusters for a nice looking presentation. I let them cool to room temperature, about 30 minutes. Viola! Inside-Out Chocolate Chip Cookies or Coni's Chocolate Cookie Chip Clusters!

Enjoy!

Wolfe Family Christmas Part 2: Cheesecake Pops and an Unexpected Delay

I made cheesecake pops several years ago for our SoCal family Christmas and they were a big hit then, so I decided this was the year to make them for our Wolfe family Christmas. Did I mention that they are great to look at, everyone loves them and last but not least, they are a very time intensive project. I worked two days for the 52 pops that I made, and that was with help. My son scooped a whole cheesecake into the balls that I needed to work with, which helped so much. If he hadn't done that the night before, they would not have been completed in time for the party. 

As it ended up, I was decorating until 4pm in the afternoon, which left me with just enough time to get myself ready and to the party by 6:30. Oh, and one other little detail, as I was walking out the door, I somehow fell down and found myself laying in a downward position on the steps, with my legs above me, stunned and bleeding. At least I wasn't home alone, my crash was heard and everyone came running, I was helped up, brushed off and headed for the party. 

Isn't it funny how just when you think that you are on Holiday overload, and you are up against time with just enough time to accomplish what you have set out to do, real life continues on, just like every other day, and, splat, you find yourself ... on the ground or stuck in traffic, on a impossible to ignore phone call, in the slowest lane at the grocery store, etc. We still managed to arrive only 4 minutes late, and I'm hoping I won't still be feeling like I was run over by a truck in a few days, hopefully.

I digressed, now, about the cheesecake pops. I have a few suggestions about things that have worked for me. If you decide to make them, you need to allow two days, especially if you are baking the cheesecake from scratch. After cooling to room temperature, it needs to be refrigerated for 24 hours so that it becomes firm. I would suggest baking your cheese cake a little longer than you normally would, just to make sure that it firms up enough.


After the 24 hours in the fridge, you can scoop them out with the scoop size of your choice. I then roll mine in crushed graham crackers or crushed chocolate wafers. You know, the Famous ones in the small yellow box, usually on the top shelf on the cookie isle. Within the hour of dipping and decorating, I place a plate of about a dozen balls in the freezer on a plate. I wait about 30 minutes so that they partially freeze and then take them out one at a time to dip. 

I take one of the Wilton cookie sticks and dip it into the warm coating, just covering about a half inch. I then poke it into about the middle of the ball and immediately put it into the coating, turning it in a circle until the whole ball is coated. I take it out of the mixture and keep turning the ball until all of the excess coating has dripped off into the bowl or has stopped shifting. Once the pop goes into the warm chocolate or candy coating, it will start to harden very fast, so you need to have your sprinkles/candies right there so that you can start sprinkling them immediately. 

Next, I set them in a sturdy mug where they can harden completely and then I place them in the fridge or freezer, depending on when I need them. It usually takes a little longer than I think it will, so I suggest making these at least the day before you actually need them, if your schedule allows. It seems that mine never does; somehow, I'm always dipping and sprinkling right up to the very last minute! I always place them in individual bags, just because I don't like other peoples dirty fingers touching my food before it is eaten. That's about it.

Just tonight, I saw in the freezer that a dozen had been left behind accidentally. That will be an unexpected treat to add to our Christmas Eve or Christmas day dinner. Yes, there are two more Christmas gatherings in our near future. And I'm still loving it!!

Enjoy!

Wolfe Family Christmas: Part 1 - Through the eyes of the youngest

It was so much fun spending time with family. It was our grandsons' first Christmas in Portland and they had fun meeting some family members for the first time. One of my sisters has a granddaughter and a grandson and one of my brothers has a granddaughter. It was the first time all five of the second cousins were together. It was so cute watching them running around and having so much fun together. 

The following are pictures that moms and dads, grandmas and grandpas and aunts and uncles will enjoy seeing.

Every time I saw Ivan, he had another treat in his hands and on his face

Enjoying the piano playing

Kenzy

  

Playing Peek-a-boo

Great grandma and her first great granddaughter

Wiley with his wild animals

Tired boy

Very tired boy

Making plans for their next play date

Time to go home