Storybook Woods

Hamemade Gift Bags

I know this is not a new idea, but I was hopping seeing my fabric gift bags, would inspire you to make some. (Here is a great tutorial on how to thread a drawstring bag)They were soooo easy to make. I made myself only use fabric I already had. I took large scraps I had, found two different fabrics that complement each other (but not too match ;-). I let the size of the fabric dictate the size of the bag. I just use twin for a closer, add a pine cone. I plan on making a bunch this month to keep on-hand. It is a great reuse of fabric and can make even the simplest gift feel special. I am I the only already thinking next Christmas ??? xoxoxo

Pantry Gifts

 

One of my favorite Christmas gifts this year, was the homemade pantry items my mother made me. There is nothing like a homemade gifts. I know my mother has been very interested in herbs this year and how to use them to help stretch her budget. Everything was really good and don't you love that red jar for the tea !!!! Thank you mom, I can not wait to see what you make next year ;-)  xoxoxo

Cinnamon basil vinegar

Greek spices, I used it on a roasted chicken the other night and it was soo good.

Candy cane tea, with my candy cane syrup to sweeten it a bit more, perfect winter treat. Wouldn't the tea and the syrup be great gift.

Rosemary maple glazed nuts, which is not in the picture, becuse I was too busy eating it. Oh this is my favorite. She made it with smoked chili powder for David, but left it out for me. It is just barely sweet, with the rich browned butter and then the bight rosemary. Heaven and veryyyyy addictive !!!

A Year Of Storybook Woods 2009

I can not believe it is the end of 2009, this year went by fast. I am grateful for the blog, because it is a wonderful way to see what was happening in the past year. I was freaking out about 2009 because Auberne`turned 18 and I was just not ready. But it really has been a lovely year, both my girls have really grown this year. I see them both becoming amazingly creative and giving women. We are becoming more and more friends, enjoying each other company, kindred spirits. I am not ready to look forward yet, I want to savor this past year for just a bit more. Here is a list of my favorite posts each month. Happy New Year, I would love to hear what you loved about this last year xoxox

PS. I am so embarrassed, I was not asking what of my blog you liked, I mean what about your life this past year did you love !!!

January: Candy Cane Syrup

February: I Cut Up A Sweater

March: Silhouette Cake Plate

April: Lavender Seabeck
 

 
 

May: Espresso Sugar

June: Sewing Themed Party 

July: Outdoor Washing Station 

August: Out With The Apple Green  

September: Make Your Own Microwave Popcorn

October: Cosette 

 

November: Wool Flower Tutorial
 

 
December: Woodland Box 
 
 

Bock Choi with Sherry and Prosciutto

 

Hello, I hope you had a blessed and yummy Christmas, we did. No drama, just relaxing and low key. The girls got dressed up. Auberne` made the sweetest hat and Chloe even made Elisabeth (her doll) a hat from an MnM container. Good reuse Chloe !!!! 

This year's dinner was really good. My mother was afraid the chicken with cranberries and pears would be sweet, but it was not. It was rich and earthy. The dish everyone loved the most was the bock choi. But I do want to apologize because when I went to read the bock choi recipe I had posted, I realized it was not what I though and would not go with the dinner. So here is my recipe xoxoxo 

 

 

Bock Choi with Sherry and Prosciutto

12 baby bock choi, cut in half

1/4 cup dry sherry

3 think slices of prosciutto, chopped

Heat 3 TBL olive oil in a large pan on hight till pan is very hot. Set bock choi cut side down in hot oil. Let it brown for a few seconds. If you can not put them all in at one time, pulling them out and set the bock choi on a platter. Add oil as needed till all pieces are browned on high heat.

Then put bock choy in pan again, quick pour sherry over the bock choi, sprinkle prosciutto over bock choi and cover with lid. Turn down heat to low and let cook two minutes. Check tenderness. I like it still a bit crunchy, but cook to your liking. Add some pepper and enjoy.

From Our Family To Yours

I know I said I was not going to post again till next week, but the girls made this video and I had to share !!!!

From our family to yours, Merry Christmas and cookies wishes xoxoxx

Woodland Place-setting Box

 
I want to thank all of you for putting up with all my woodland posts. I had a lot of fun with this theme, but this is my last idea to share. I will say there was still soooooo many ideas I did not get to, such as making felt pillows that looked like a slice of wood, pinecone and pom-pom garland, wood tags and ornaments, 4 foot frosted branches stuck in my Christmas tree and so much more. I think I needed Martha's team to help me or AA for Christmas decorating !!! 

 

This last idea is a woodland box that is both a place-setting card and a gift. I always love to have a little gift for everyone at Christmas dinner. In past years I have had figgy pudding box, pastel paper stockings and last year, little fabric trees. What I love about these is every year it reminds us of a past years. I always put a popper and chocolate with them.  I am sooo over-the-moon with these boxes. Just to let you know I got the deer and tree from Sweet Treat Supplies and I made the mushrooms from fimo clay.

 

After a month of posting just about every day (I had a lot to share didn't I) I am going to take a week off, enjoy Christmas, recoup, refresh, plan next years theme  ;-) I wish each of you dear readers (because you are all dear friends to me) a blessed Christmas. I know this is a hard time for some of you, a bittersweet time. I hope there will be more sweetness then bitter for you this Christmas. 

Merry Christmas each and every one of you. I wish we could all celebrate together (because you all know how I want to feed all of you). Eat something yummy and think of me xooxoxox

Glimpes Of My Home

 

 

Woodland Menu

This is our Christmas dinner, Christmas eve we will have cheese fondue and lots of cookies. Christmas morning is gingerbread overnight orange baked french toast, scrambled eggs with whatever goodies you want in your eggs and bacon. So what are you making ??? xoxox

Chicken breast with cranberries and pears in a cream sauce is from Susan Branch Christmas book

Wild rice hazelnut pilaf

Bock Choi with Sherry and Prosciutto

Individual Bouche De Noel

Orange cream brulee

Individual Bouche De Noel

 

Well I had all you facebook readers grossed out, when I said I was creating something with chocolate, whipped cream and mushrooms. That does sound like an oh-so-interesting combination. But what would a woodland themed Christmas be without a yule log cake, Bouche De Noel ? I decided liked the idea of making individual Bouche De Noel. I also wanted to figure out how I could make it, but do most of the work ahead of time. I always try to pick recipes for the holidays were I can do a lot of the cooking ahead. It keeps me from doing too much last minute and therefor I am a happy hostess.

1. I decided instead of making a rolled, filled cake, I would just made a chocolate mayo cake and cut it into small individual cakes with a biscuit cutter. I made these a week ahead and froze them. I will pull them out on Christmas morning. I also made chocolate curls the same day and am keeping them in the fridge.

2. On Christmas morning, besides pulling out the cakes, I will set up all the dessert plate with pieces of wax paper to catch all the extra whipped cream and coco powder. I also will make the whipped cream. Homemade whipped cream made with heavy cream will hold all day in the fridge.

3. After dinner, I will get a few people to help and we will set up a assembly line.

4. Take your cake and set it in the center of the wax paper pieces.  Start spreading the whipped cream on the side but NOT the top * then take coco powder and a sieve and dust the whipped cream. Run a fork up the side of the cream to make lines.

* one thing I learned doing this cake is the coco powder that gets on the top of the cake, makes it hard to spread the whipped cream on top. So I suggest cutting a circle from wax paper and set it on the top while you do the coco powder part.

5. Now spread whipped cream over the top. I put a few chocolate chips in a sandwich baggie and zapped it in the microwave 40 second to melt it. I cut off the tip of the baggie and pipe circles of chocolate on the top.

6. CAREFULLY pull out the wax paper pieces, one at a time and throw away. Add chocolate curls and mushrooms. About the mushrooms, I am lucky to have a grocery store with a large Asian section that has chocolate mushrooms and that is what I used.

I know this sounds complicated, but really with some ahead prep time and a couple of friends it is very easy. As you can see I did not try to make it perfect, I did not stress about frosting and if some of these steps seem like too much just skip it. Make is fun for you, work with what is comfortable for you. That is a big part of cooking and entertaining. I hope you are not burned out on woodland ideas, I only have two more to share xoxoxo 

Faux-Bois Wrapping Paper Tutorial

So you know I had to come up with some wrapping to go with my woodland theme. I though faux-bois paper would be perfect. I looked around and all I could find was a bit more then I wanted to do. Plus I did not want to spend the money on one of those wood grain tools ;-)  I thought, there has to be a simpler way to do this. So here is what I did. I bet you could come up with an even more beautiful then I did.

I simple took a silver sharpie pen and drew with irregular, long circles, with a smaller circle inside. The add a bunch of wavy lines. Perfect ?  no !!! But it gives the feel and was sooo very doable. 

In the fall I had took a bunch of pine cones, drilled a hole in the top and added eye screws. I simply ran some beautiful ribbon through the screw and made a lovely topper for the package. Beauty does not have to be complicated, just thoughtful xoxox

Woodland Wreath

Thank you for all the prayers and kind thoughts. The appointment went well. Some good news, some bad news. But over all it was good and she will have two women cardiologist, so that is cool. Now I will just look forward to focusing on these last days of Christmas. This has been a stressful time. I have tried to focus on the blessing, but now it will be much easier.

One good thing about my woodland theme, is my property is full of wood, pine cones, holly, moss and more moss. I wish I could say this wreath was my idea but it is not. I saw this wreath and loved it. This is another elf from David's childhood and a huge mushroom from the Christmas House. I did not worry about fully covering the straw wreath. You know moss grows and covers things in an irregular pattern, so this seemed more realistic to me. I am sooo thrilled with this wreath.

I hope you have a blessed day, I am hoping to start wrapping gifts today xoxoxo

Woodland Cakeplate

 

Thank you sooo much loving my snow tree, I had fun making it. This is another project that David's injury sort of wreaked. I had plans on making a wood cake plate (here is another one), but the top involved using the chain saw (I wanted a big cake plate and I am not allowed to go near sharp things ;-) So again I improvised. David and I were able to cut the bottom with a ban saw. I wanted a large flat surface. The problem with plates is they are not totally flat. I ended up using the top of a large tin. Which I used upside down so I could keep the moss damp and not have water running off the plate.

I added some fun trees, a little house, deers, holly berries, fake snow. I am very happy with it. BUT I tell you when David can use a chain saw again, I am sooo making a cake plate.

Please be praying for Auberne`, she is going to a new cardiologist today. It is always nerve wracking to go to a new cardiologist, but we are hoping she will be a better fit for Auberne`. Thank you xoxoxox

 

Snow Tree

Good morning. Well I hope you are warmer then we are. We woke up this morning with the heater out and it will not be repaired till tomorrow. Luckily we have a wood stove, we will just hang out in front of it, crafting. A few of you sweetie, asked about the smoked salt caramels, I just used the recipe linked above and used smoked salt instead. I used the amount of salt called for in the recipe, but I sprinkled a few more gains on each piece as we wrapped them up. They are amazing, thank you Angie for your caramel craze. You are forever my foodie friend and partner in crime  !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Snow Tree Tutorial

This is my last tree to share. I do not even remember where I saw it, but I saw this tiny peek of part of a tree in a magazine and it inspired this snow tree. It is very easy to do. I cut out a bunch of wool felt leaves and pined them on a foam tree. If you click on the photo below and you can see the detail better. I cut leaves about 1 1/2 " wide and 1 1/2" deep with pinking shears. I just overlap the top corners and pinned then down. Use white pins (I used color so you could see what I did). I set the point of the leaf to cover the pin below and did this about two thirds up the tree. Then I switched to longer, narrower pieces, about 2" long and 3/4" wide. I pined those as what looked good. Cut a small round piece for the top. Glue it down and then glued the tree to a cut piece of wood. I was going to frost the tips, but decided I liked it better plain. But I could change my mind any minute ;-P

Have a warm day and I will be back soon with a LOT more to share xoxo 

Felt Tree

Good morning, hubby went back to work last night and survived. I finally got a good night sleep, ahhh. I LOVE Thompson Family-life's look. Her style is sooo much fun and I had to make one of her trees. I think I want to make a second one with more wild colors next. Oh the possibilities.

I am still hoping to make these felt trees and these too !!!

Today is a stay at home cooking day. We are hoping to get made layered peppermint bark, smoked salt caramels and espresso cookies. What are you up to today ??? xoxoxo

 

Paper Tree

Do you get a thrill like me for taking junk and turning it into something ??? That is why I like theses folded paper trees, they are a good reuse of catalogs or magazines. They are sooooo easy to do. You could bling them up if you wanted to or paint them. Anything really. Also check out Fabric, Paper, Thread paper trees. Beautiful idea Lorrie.

Well Hanukkah was a bit of a disaster for several reasons. One of those days were everything goes wrong. BUT the roasted pear sauce was amazing. I promised on Facebook to share the recipe.

Roasted Vanilla Pear Sauce

 Smitten Kitchen has a recipe for roasted pears similar to mine and I loved how she did the vanilla sugar, so I am going to post hers. All you do is after the pears are roasted, pull out the lemon and vanilla bean. Using  a potato masher and mash the pears right in the pan. Skin of the pears does not bother me, so I left them on. But if it does you, peel the pears before you roast them. Also if you want a smooth sauce, then puree it, instead of mashing it. Lastly for the sauce you can use ripe pears, because if they fall apart, it will not matter because you are mashing them up anyways. The roasted vanilla pear sauce with the potato pancakes and a dollop of sour cream, was heaven xoxoxo