Fun packaging idea

I am always on the lookout for unique ways to present my gifts, and thought this was fun! I have given cookies in a gingerbread bowl before, and am delighted to have another gingerbread idea in my repertoire; I'm thinking if one were ambitious, one could also make little mini gingerbread houses to present gift cards, jewelry, etc in....
 

The ultimate edible gift wrap!

Our gingerbread gift boxes are simply made of square cookies glued together with Royal Icing. It’s hard to make these very big, so the boxes are best for small gifts – and are a wonderful decorative and edible gift on their own. Or, use them to serve treats on the coffee table at Christmas.

Materials and Tools

• Gingerbread cookie batter
• Royal Icing
• Box templates
• Ribbons

Step 1

Enlarge the templates on a photocopier, but we recommend making these boxes no larger than 6” square. Otherwise, they’ll be too fragile.

Step 2

Cut the gingerbread squares using the templates. Bake cookies.

Step 3

"Glue" together and hide edges using Royal Icing 



Here is the gingerbread bowl :

Darling idea to make a special occasion even more fun

Every year, Mr. Christmas Heart and I look forward to watching the Charlie Brown Christmas Special.

We both vividly remember anxiously waiting for it to come on TV when we were kids; we have a copy of it on DVD now, but there is still something magical about catching it when it airs for the first time on TV.

I always make hot chocolate, and we drink it out of special mugs, just for this occasion.

This year, I'll be adorning my mugs with these!

Aren't they darling? Her website as other cute ideas; she adapted this herself, and hers would work better I think, because the others seem to me like they'd get soggy too quickly to stay on the edge?

http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2009/12/18/a-gingerbread-house-that-perches-on-the-rim-of-your-mug/

 Some websites that offer the cookie cutters...looks like they're sold out for now, so check the sites later!

http://www.gadgetgrid.com/2009/10/23/cup-adorning-cookie-cutters/

http://bakingbites.com/2009/04/coffee-cup-cookie-cutters/

http://www.gadgetgrid.com/2009/12/04/message-in-a-cookie-holiday-cookie-cutters/

And of course I have to add this in; after almost 40 years, I STILL get goosebumps watching it!

Giveaway at Christmas Tree Lane!!

 My dear and VERY inspirational Birthday Triplet Terri is sponsoring a darling giveaway on her Christmas blog


GO CHECK IT OUT!


http://christmastreelane.blogspot.com/2010/07/christmas-in-july-giveaway.html#comment-form

Cookies again

I do enjoy baking and decorating Christmas cookies very much; I have fond memories of getting together with  friends and cousins who are also Christmas-crazed, and just having a blast.

We're all a little crazy anyway and one of my cousins brought some wine, and we may or may not have gotten a little tipsy on top of our usual silliness and it was just hysterically good fun.

We did this for several years, but eventually everyone moved away from me, so I no longer bake every year. It just depends on my mood year by year.

I thought I'd share some tips I find helpful, and an idea I like to use for packaging them up.

From: Living - Martha Stewart

Decorating cookies can be as simple as using icing dots to make a gingerbread man's face and buttons, or as challenging as flooding and flocking with bright royal icing and tinted sugar. Follow the techniques below for beautifully iced cookies.

EQUIPMENT
Pastry bag with coupler
#2 tip for piping
#3 tip for flooding small cookies
#5 tip for flooding large cookies

ICING TIPS

1. Royal Icing can be made several days ahead of time and stored in pastry bags -- at room temperature if made with meringue powder or in the refrigerator if made with egg whites.

2. The icing can be thickened or thinned by varying the amount of egg whites and sugar. A thinner icing (with more egg whites) is best for flooding, since it spreads more smoothly; a thicker icing (with more sugar) is best for piping.

3. If the colors start to separate, gently massage the bag to remix the icing.

4. To fill a pastry bag: Place the bag tip side down in a glass about 3 inches shorter than it; fold the top of the bag down over the edge of the glass to form a cuff. Using a large rubber spatula, scrape the icing into the bag, filing it to one-half to two-thirds full. Unfold cuff, and close bag with a twist tie.

5. To prevent the tip from clogging, either place a damp paper towel in the bottom of the drinking glass, or insert a toothpick in the tip, and remove it just before piping.

FLOODING COOKIES

This process coats the entire surface of a cookie with royal icing.

1. Outline half a cookie with piping (thicker) icing, using a #2 tip. Rotate cookie 180 degrees, and outline the other half. Let the icing set, 5 to 10 minutes.

2. With the flooding (thinner) icing, using a #5 tip, draw zigzags over the cookie's surface.

3. Using a small offset spatula, spread the flooding icing evenly within the piping outline. Let the cookie dry overnight at room temperature.

4. When the flooding is dry, use the #2 tip to pipe your chosen design.

FLOCKING COOKIES

This process creates an effect like flocked velvet: Sparkly sanding sugar adds color and texture to the cookies.

1. While the icing is still soft, hold the cookie over a baking sheet, and sprinkle it liberally with sanding sugar -- a large-grain decorating sugar. Let the cookie sit for 30 minutes before shaking off excess sugar. Allow it to dry for several more hours before gently removing stray crystals with a soft pastry brush.

First Published: December/January 1997/1998

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A nice icing "how-to"

Flooding technique

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I did this one year, although I didn't use the initial cut out...I just used a cookie that fit the recipient. I used a basic gingerbread recipe and they smelled so good!

A pretty way to present your cookies, it's my favorite presentation:

Close ups of a few:

Here are some tips on how to make the cookie cans especially nice!

Merry Christmas-In-July-Eve!

Christmas Music

My husband is a very talented musician, and we are both passionate about music regardless of the season, so needless to say, music is a BIG part of our holiday season.

July is a GREAT month to start checking your local library, to see if they have any Christmas music you can check out.

We have built up a pretty substantial collection this way over the years. Our library, which I must admit is fabulous, has a wonderful selection of Christmas CDs that we can check out for a dollar.

(While you're there, don't forget to check out the Christmas books!)


Although I decorate very early, we don't start listening to Christmas music til the day after Thanksgiving, which is also the day we exchange our new Christmas CDs to each other.

My husband always has to work on Black Friday; every year when he comes home, we get in our Christmas PJs first thing, crack a bottle of bubbly, turn off all the lights, and listen to "We Three Kings" by Patti Smith (A Very Special Christmas 3) It is hauntingly beautiful, and never fails to give us both goosebumps after all these years.

We then exchange and listen to the new music we have for the year.

This way of kicking our Christmas music season off is my husband's favorite of all our little traditions, and we both look forward to it every year!


Here are a few of our favorite CDs:


Mellow piano solos:

December (George Winston)

The Vigil (David Nevue)

Emmanuel (David Nevue)


Jazz:

Diana Krall Christmas Songs

A Charlie Brown Christmas, Vince Guaraldi Trio

Oscar Peterson Christmas

A Dave Brubeck Christmas


Flamenco/Classical Guitar:

Poets & Angels, Ottmar Liebert

What Child is This, Esteban


Great party music:

A Very Special Chrsitmas (1st one is till my favorite of the entire series)
Boogie-Woogie Christmas, Brian Setzer Orchestra (I don't think we could get through Christmas without this one!)


What are your favorite Christmas albums? Do you have a lot of music? Do you listen to it all through the year?

Favorite Cookie recipe

I have a few Dirty Little Christmas Secrets, and one of them is that I actually don't care much for Christmas Cookies! I know, I know....

I love to decorate them, but  most of them are SO bland! Especially sugar cookies, and what I think of as the Scandinavian/German/ Eastern European types...just flour and a sweet taste, with maybe some vanilla or cinnamon or anise flavor. Blah to me, though I know everyone else adores them! In truth, I don't have much of a sweet tooth; I am more about salt and grease!  :o)

 These are not traditional Christmas-type cookies at all, but they are the most requested of all the cookies I make around the holidays. They are SO good.

I remember when one branch of my family decided that we'd no longer exchange gifts at our get together, I got calls from three different in-laws, anxiously asking if I'd still be making my Chex Mix, deviled eggs and "those cookies" ! LOL!

If you like coffee and chocolate, I know you'll enjoy these. The flavor is best the day after making them, so it's a good recipe to make a day ahead.

I am not a fan of frozen cookies, so I am not sure if these are suited for that.

Mocha Truffle Cookies

Source: Better Homes and Gardens

Makes 30 cookies
Prep: 25 minutes
Bake: 10 minutes

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate pieces
tablespoon instant coffee crystals
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 beaten eggs
teaspoons vanilla
cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
cup semisweet chocolate pieces

Directions


In a large saucepan melt butter and the 1/2 cup chocolate pieces over low heat. Remove from heat. Stir in coffee crystals; cool 5 minutes. Stir in sugars, eggs, and vanilla.

In a medium mixing bowl combine flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt. Stir into coffee mixture. Stir in the 1 cup chocolate pieces.

Drop dough by rounded tablespoons onto lightly greased cookie sheets.

Bake in a 350 degree F oven 10 minutes. Let cool 1 minute before removing from sheet. Makes 30 cookies.

St. Nicholas Day

As part of my plan for extending the joy all throughout the season, I'll be doing a little something for Mr. Christmas Heart this year on St. Nicholas Day.

I love the idea of making up little traditions for a small gift, but he’s very difficult to buy for, and any “little gift” ideas I may get are things I need to stuff his stocking with; it’s a BIG stocking, and I don’t want to deplete my stash too much before Christmas Day. I hate a limp, half-empty stocking!

I want to have a little something for him, though; he’s a musician, and I think I’ll go with that theme.

I’ll get guitar picks, nail-clippers, maybe some guitar strings; things that I always put in his stocking anyway, and can STILL add in. I normally put 10 clippers and picks in the toe; this year, he'll just get half of them a little early.

Oh, and maybe some Throat Coat tea, and a note telling him how very much I love to hear him play carols every night. He plays every single night for me, and I just adore it....

This year Hallmark has a guitar ornament that I could give him on St Nick day, too.

A lottery scratcher and some snacks would fill it all out nicely!

I need to find a little boot to stuff!!!! Anyone know where I can get one?