BLOGMAS 2024 ~ day 5 ~ DECORATING ~ BLOG 366.338B

Another year has passed and the holidays are upon us again! A late Thanksgiving has put me a bit behind, but I vow to catch up this week 😀

I have to admit I’m one of those people who can’t wait to decorate and leave it up for longer than most. We do have a couple neighbors who fortunately feel the same way we do and the Friday after Thanksgiving had them out taking down the turkey blow-ups and decorating for Christmas. We too wait until the day after Thanksgiving to begin outside decorating.

 

We were at our favorite local Christmas tree farm when they opened the day after Thanksgiving to pick out 2 wreaths for the front porch. If you saw my Happy Homemaker Monday post you know that we were fortunate to get wreaths because they had a fire the next morning and lost their wreath and flocking building so will only have trees the rest of this season. Hubby is going to trade out the green light for another red later this week.

  • Are you a traditional or trendy decorator? I’m a traditional, sentimental decorator. I still have ornaments from when I was a kid and some of my grandparent’s things. We tend to have the same decorations year in and year out, but they may be in different places each year because I add a piece here or there and some even get donated or die by attrition. My ex-sister-in-law recently contacted me about returning some ornaments that my grandmother made that my brother didn’t want back which I thought was so sweet of her! I’m looking forward to having the ornaments back in the family.
  • Are you white lights or multi-colored? This category depends for me. Definitely multi-colored on the tree, but I have white on my sleigh. This year I’m adding some jingle bell garland to those white lights around the sleigh.
  • When do you decorate inside? PLEASE don’t laugh, but since COVID my tree has gone up at Halloween 😀 and stays up through AT LEAST King’s Day.
  • Outside? We wait until after Thanksgiving 😀
  • To Blow or NOT Blow? We’re yes on this category MOST of the time. Years with early snows or stormier than normal windy days we stray away from them. This year I just don’t want to “listen” to the constant hum so we’re building a different set-up with nativities.

Here are a couple of future ideas I’d like to try for outside:


In reality how I decorate each year changes based on my mood, weather, where we are living, etc… so it will never be the same twice! But, it will at least be the same components usually.

This is my Snowman Family arranged from 2 different years. They were so much fun to make out of second hand store finds. They were also a lot of work. I ended up only making two snowmen families, shipping one to a friend who lives in Florida and never sees snow 😀
We made candle yule logs for Advent craft night at church one year and they were a HUGE success and soooooooo easy to do.  The decorations below are a few of my all time favorites, several of which I’ve made over the years.
The ornaments below are some of our homemade bulbs.  Several years ago I made quite a few and then did them with my girl scout troop also.  Hubby liked them so well that we have now donated all our store bought bulbs and made enough of these for the entire tree.

My cousin that passed away in 2014 made the ornament below for me.  It will always be hung by my shooting stars in her honor even though I’m still mad at her for leaving the mess called A HOUSE FROM HELL for me to deal with.
And our favorite handmade ornament by Design Chick Creations.

ALMOND WALNUT DANISH

These are some of my favorite go to danish for a holiday morning. They can be made ahead and served room temperature or warmed up with a dot of butter for decadence.

ALMOND WALNUT DANISH
1 cup butter
1 cup milk
1 1/2 cups warm water
1 cup sugar
2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
2 tablespoons yeast
4 eggs, beaten
7 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup + walnut crumbles

  • In a saucepan melt butter.
  • Add milk and water whisking until smooth consistency and JUST boiling.
  • Cool 5-10 minutes so you don’t kill the yeast.
  • Add the sugar, salt and yeast to form a sponge like blob.
  • Add the eggs until uniform consistency.
  • In a mixer with a dough hook attached, combine flour and yeast mixture.
  • Knead well. Put in refrigerator for at least several hours, but overnight is better.
  • Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
  • Roll a ball of dough the size of a golf ball into a rope and coil into a circle. Make sure the center is thinner than the outer edges to hold the filling in. Sometimes I prefer squares, but you just have to work with your dough after you have it coiled.
  • Fill with a heaping tablespoon of filling per danish (recipe below).
  • Let rise an hour in a warm place.
  • Bake 15 minutes.
  • Frost with drizzle.

ALMOND DRIZZLE
1 cup powdered sugar
2 teaspoons grated orange peel
1 teaspoon almond extract
2 tablespoons milk
1 tablespoons butter, melted

  • Whisk together butter, milk, almond extract and orange peel until well blended.
  • Gradually add powdered sugar, mixing until desired consistency.
  • Drizzle all over danish, sprinkling with walnuts.

MOLASSES CRINKLES

Normally I leave these plain, but just for the holiday we added a little cheery icing and sprinkles.
MOLASSES CRINKLES
3/4 cup butter, softened to room temperature
1 egg, beaten
4 tablespoons molasses
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 1/4 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon cinnamon
turbinado sugar for dipping

  • Sift together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and cloves. Set aside.
  • Cream butter, add sugar gradually until consistently smooth.
  • Blend in beaten egg and molasses.
  • Gradually stir flour mixture into creamed mixture.
  • Chill dough 1 hour or overnight.
  • Preheat oven to 350°.
  • Shape dough into small balls and dip tops in turbinado sugar.
  • Place cookies on WELL greased cookie sheet or silicone mat. DO NOT FLATTEN.
  • Bake 7-9 minutes.
  • Let cool 2 minutes before moving to cooling rack.

GRAN’S HOLIDAY JELLO SALAD aka FESTIVE CRAN PINEAPPLE JELLO

Now there is much debate over Gran’s cranberry salad recipe, but one thing was for sure, she’d have to make a double batch, one for my mom and aunt and another for everyone else.  Now while I usually helped prepare the above recipe, I hated it!! One year she even decided the grapes needed to be peeled – need I say more? I much prefer the recipe below that is a FUN version of hers.  Shhhh, don’t tell anyone, but I have been known to eat a whole batch by myself.  In my defense it was while I wasn’t feeling good and had a sore throat.

GRAN’S HOLIDAY SALAD aka FESTIVE CRAN PINEAPPLE JELLO
1 package (3 ounces) cherry Jell-o
1 package (3 ounces) black cherry Jell-o
1 1/2 cups boiling water
1 can (14 ounces) whole berry cranberry sauce
1 can (20 ounces) crushed pineapple, undrained
2 cups seedless green grapes, quartered
chopped pecans (optional)

  • Dissolve the jell-o in the boiling water in a large bowl.
  • Fold in the pineapple and cranberry sauce.
  • Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
  • Fold in grapes and pecans if desired.
  • Refrigerate until firm.

REINDEER NIBBLES

REINDEER NIBBLES
2/3 cup honey
2/3 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon PURE vanilla extract
4 cups regular oats (uncooked)
1 cup unsalted peanuts, slightly chopped
1 1/2 cups golden raisins
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 cups melted CandyQuick

  • Preheat oven to 300°.
  • Whisk together the honey, peanut butter and cinnamon in a small sauce pan over medium heat, stirring constantly until thoroughly heated through. DO NOT BOIL.
  • Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.
  • In a large bowl pour peanut butter mixture over the oatmeal, stir to combine.
  • Spread oats in a jelly roll pan sprayed with non-stick cooking spray.
  • Bake for 25 minutes, stirring occasionally
  • Return oats to large mixing bowl and stir in peanuts, chocolate chips and raisins.
  • Spread oat mixture back into jelly roll pan and return to oven.
  • Turn oven off and let cool in oven for 90 minutes, stirring occasionally and keeping the door closed.
  • Remove from oven.
  • Melt CandyQuick in 30 second increments until pourable.  Stir after each 30 seconds.
  • Pour CandQuick over oat mixture and freeze for 1 hour.
  • Break apart into pieces.
  • Store in an airtight container.

NOTE: The pieces that are at the bottom make a great granola!

SHARING with FOODIE FRIDAY and TASTY THURSDAY.

BUTTERMILK ROLLS

A batch of homemade bread is a necessary evil for any holiday feast. These rolls are buttery and golden  and just plain delicious!

BUTTERMILK ROLLS makes 24 rolls
1/2 cup warm water
2 envelopes active dry yeast 1/4 ounce each)
6 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon sugar, divided
2 LARGE eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup buttermilk (NOT low-fat)
1 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
4 + 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided and melted
3 1/2 + 4 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
Flaky Sea Salt

  • Combine warm water, heat and 1 teaspoon of sugar, set aside until foamy, about 5 minutes or so.
  • In a medium bowl stir together eggs, buttermilk, kosher salt, 4 tablespoons butter, and remaining sugar until well blended.
  • Add yeast mixture and 3 1/2 cups of the flour, stirring until dough forms.
  • Sprinkle for surface with remaining flour.
  • Turn dough out onto floured surface and knead until slightly elastic. Add addictional flour as necessary.
  • Place dough in greased bowl, turning to coat dough.
  • Cover with saran and chill at least 8 hours or overnight.
  • Grease 2 – 12 cups muffin tins.
  • Punch chilled dough down and turn out onto a floured surface.
  • Divide dough in half.
  • Roll one half of the dough to a 12×16 rectangle 1/4 inch thick.
  • Brush with melted butter.
  • Cut into 12 equal pieces.
  • Gently roll each piece into a round and place in muffin tins.
  • Repeat with the other half of the dough until all rolls are ready for baking.
  • Brush again with any remaining melted butter.
  • Cover with a cheesecloth towel and let rise in a warm place 1-1 1/2 hours until double in size.
  • Preheat oven to 375°.
  • Bake rolls 20-25 minutes until golden brown.
  • Brush again with butter and transfer to cooling rack for 15-20 minutes

SHARING with FOODIE FRIDAY and TASTY THURSDAY.

SEAGRAMS 7 HONEY GLAZED CARROTS

SEAGRAMS 7 HONEY GLAZED CARROTS serves 4

4 tablespoons butter, divided 1+3
1 1/2 pounds carrots, peeled and cut Into thick slices
1/2 cup Seagrams
PACKED 3/4 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon honey
3/4 teaspoon Salt
Freshly Ground Pepper, to taste

  • Melt 1 tablespoon of the butter in a large skillet over high heat.
  • Add carrots, cooking for 2-3 minutes.
  • Remove from skillet.
  • Pour in Seagrams 7 and allow to evaporate for 30-60 seconds.
  • Reduce heat to medium, and add remaining butter.
  • When butter melts, sprinkle brown sugar over the top, stirring to combine.
  • Add honey, stirring to blend.
  • Add carrots back to skillet.
  • Toss carrots in sauce, cover and simmer for 5 minutes.
  • Remove lid and add salt and pepper.
  • Continue cooking uncovered until carrots are tender and the glaze is thick, about 5 more minutes.
  • Spoon into serving bowl, sprinkle with chopped parsley or chives if desired and served immediately.