{ Christmas Look Back, Post One }

Now that Thanksgiving is done and dusted, I'm so ready for Christmas, aren't you? Ok, not ready for CHRISTMAS, but ready for the festive, wonderful season.

I'm going to do a few "Look Back" posts. A post full of things I've done in the past.

Here we go with number one!


Gingerbread houses are so much fun to make, but the kits are super expensive and making them from real gingerbread is, well, it's just plain hard. So, try my tips for making them from graham crackers. Cheap and easy... lots of tips and illustrations in this post.

Gingerbread House Tips & Tricks

Next up is a super fun ornament idea. Here I've used it for Bible verses, but you can use this for numerous ideas. Memories from the year, Baby's firsts, favorite book quotes, etc. Ideas are limitless and I've listed more in the post itself.


Bible Verse Ornament

Here's an idea for Christmas breakfast, inspired by my favorite Christmas movie, Elf.

Maple Coffee Crumb Cake

If you aren't into crumb cake, how about waffles? Liege waffles are, in my opinion, the BEST waffles on this green earth.

Vanilla Bean Liege Waffles

My favorite Christmastime drink is most definitely Wassail! I just love saying it too. Wassail! (Learn about the history of Wassail along with an awesome recipe for it in this post).

Wassail

And to wrap this post up, a delicious winter time treat, Cocoa. You'll find the recipe for several different cocoas in this post. Yummeh.

Homemade Cocoas

That's all for now. Stay tuned for more merriness :)

Tina

{ Doctor Who 3D Glasses Cookies }

Happy Who-liday!

Can you even believe it? The Who 50th anniversary is FINALLY HERE.

In this house, we've been reading/talking about it for months! And finally... here!

I was once told that if you put more than one exclamation point in a post that you are over doing it. There should only ever be one. Um. SUCK ON THAT, MAN. It's excitement time!!!!!!! Woot woot!

I had many ideas for a 50th Anniversary treat, but none of them stuck with me until I came up with this idea. I mean, Tenny in his 3D glasses? I'll take 2, please.

The idea of "stained glass" cookies combined with a glasses cookie cutter just seemed too perfect... and so...

I used a sugar cookie dough & the basic instructions for Stained Glass Cookies (links at end of post). I did find that crushing the candy super finely did not have a happy result. Bigger chunks work better. (There are nice visuals in the Stained Glass Cookie post I'm linking). You will also want to roll your cookies quite fat. More area for the candy to melt.

I found my cutter on Amazon, of course. It's a solid cutter though, so I had to improvise for the lenses. If you have a small round or oval cutter, you are in luck. I didn't, so I took a medium sized icing tip and squeezed it a little. I popped it back into shape when I was finished, but I realize some people might not want to squeeze their tips. Improvising is fun!


After cutting the cookies and placing them on a parchment lined baking sheet, return them to the refrigerator to chill for another hour. This will help them hold their shape much, much better.

I washed mine in a quick and easy glaze. They really didn't NEED this. It didn't make them white like the glasses, but it tastes good. You can totally add royal icing or buttercream to yours if you'd like them to be white white.

In case you are wondering HOW excited Bean is for tonight? Well, there's this:

We are off to the store to get ingredients for Pizza Bread to go along with our cookies. Perhaps I'll pick up some Blue Hawaiian Punch for TARDIS blue drinks!

It's STILL not too late to go ALL OUT and throw a Doctor Who Party. The ideas in this post are super easy!

Be sure to take the TARDIS over to see what Darla made up at Bakingdom for the 50th. They are AMAZING, AMAZING Doctor Cakes. GO. SEE. NOW. Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Cakes.

Just a few more hours now, folks!

Also, I like exclamation points, so there! :p

Allons-y!

Tina

P.S. If you haven’t already,  you can ‘like’ my Facebook page here, and follow me on twitter here, and you can follow me on instagram here.

Doctor Who 3D Glasses Cookies

Stained Glass Cookie Instructions *
Sugar Cookie Recipe (I used this instead of what is in the stained glass post)


*I used Jolly Ranchers as my candy

Glaze:

1 cup powdered sugar
1 Tablespoon Corn Syrup
1 Tablespoon Water
splash of vanilla

Mix together
Brush on cooled cookies with brush

Or you can use-

Royal Icing
or Buttercream