Christmas dishes...

Some friends gave us a set of Christmas mugs and dessert plates and I love them!  Aren't they fun?  I'm not a huge fan of santas and trees on dishes, but I think these are just christmas-y enough.  We've been drinking tea out of the mugs every night.

Leftover candy cane idea...

I had a bunch of candy canes from something, so I decided to make mini candy cane cupcakes.  This is a really easy, cute dessert.  Just make mini vanilla cupcakes, frost them, then roll them in crushed candy canes.  You don't even have to worry about the frosting looking good because the candy canes cover it.  Enjoy!

Holiday candy...

If you are in Denver this season, I highly recommend a tour of Hammond's Candies. I am only a little embarrassed to admit that I am a big fan of factory tours, and I think this is one of the best. They make classic candy canes and ribbon candy and lots of other things... 

Take the behind the scenes tour... they let you make candy and it is really fun.

This will end up as a candy cane!

Yes, you have to wear a hairnet but it is worth it (and as far as hairnet pictures go, I actually think these are kind of cute... the hat really adds something!).  You also leave with a giant bag of candy that you can't possibly eat but it is definitely worth it.

Their website is fun too.  I just found these candy stirrer sticks that look like so much fun for a party... I have some baby showers and bridal showers coming up and I am definitely putting this on my idea list.

Enjoy!

Holiday hostess gift...

We have had a lot of holiday parties this year.  I have sort of mixed feelings about homemade hostess gifts, but I have the best recipe for sweet-hot spiced nuts that is worth sharing.  It is really good and really easy.

I also had a bunch of little metal cannisters that I had been saving for something that turned out to be just the right thing for nuts.  So I printed out the recipe on a little card, calligraphed the recipe and our names, taped the card on the cannister and tied it all up with a nice bow... an easy, cute holiday hostess gift.

Working on Christmas decorations and cards...

More posts to come soon!  In the meantime, here is Chica the Christmas dog to get the celebration started:

Isn't she cute?!  (Reindeer headband from the Target $1 bins for anyone else who enjoys dressing up their pets...)

Thanksgiving recap #2...

In case you didn't notice from my earlier posts about Thanksgiving dinner and our family Turkey Trot, we had a turkey theme this year.  My sister didn't know this before she came, but brought me turkey taper candles!  Aren't they fun?

The other turkey-themed activity this year was part of a family tradition that we call "the Program."  My aunt and uncle started the Program, which is basically some activity (usually chosen by the hosts) that we do in between courses.  For example, past programs have included:
*Each person showing pictures of their favorite trips
*Telling our favorite stories about each person
*Showing each person's favorite you-tube or funny internet video
This year I wanted to make it something easy for everyone.  I had a leftover cinderella pumpkin from Halloween, and I came up with the idea of turning it into a turkey. I made a turkey head out of construction paper and then I made a bunch of cut out sugar cookies on sticks (upside down christmas ornament cookie cutter for the shape, if you are wondering) and frosted them in thanksgiving colors.  Each person had to take a cookie, write something they were thankful for on the cookie (with food markers), and then stick it in the turkey.

Then we all guessed whose cookie each one was and everyone had to explain what they had written.  We did three rounds, during appetizers, after soup, and after dinner.  It was a fun way to get conversation going and remember the things we are thankful for.... and then eat turkey feather cookies!

Thanksgiving recap...

We spent today cleaning up and recovering from Thanksgiving... It went really well this year.  Things got started on Wednesday afternoon when our families arrived.  I'd sent out a schedule the week before using Paperless Post so everybody knew the plan for the weekend.

My plan to make everything ahead worked out great this year.  I'd made the Wednesday lasagna and Thursday breakfast pumpkin rolls (a big hit) ahead and put them in the freezer, and did the same for just about everything on the Thanksgiving menu too.  This was our Turkey Day menu:

Nick was in charge of the turkey and the wine.  We have cooked the Turkey on our gas grill for the last two years.  The turkey is good and it also gives me oven space to heat everything up, so the make ahead plan is workable. I made the soup and the cheese puffs two weekends before (put in ziplocs in the freezer).  The pesto dip is just pesto cubes I made over the summer (and put in the freezer) mixed with a block of cream cheese.  I made the sweet potatoes the weekend before and put them in the freezer, and the mashed potatoes the day before.  On Wednesday morning, I made the pies and the stuffing.  By the time everyone arrived on Wednesday afternoon, everything was about done.  The green bean recipe is so easy that all I had to do on Thursday was throw it in a pan and make sure everything else was in the oven.  Definitely the easiest Thanksgiving ever!

Turkey butter...

One of my favorite things from our thanksgiving last year:

Isn't it great?  I wish I could say it was my idea or that I made it, but it was really just from the dairy section of our local Safeway!  It was also the inaugural run for my china (Kate Spade Union Street) and I thought the turkey looked particularly cute on the new plates...

Thanksgiving craft project...

Every year, my husband tries to find a turkey trot run on Thanksgiving morning.  We have done a few and it's always fun.  This year, we decided to put together our own for the family, which will consist of walking or running a little route through our neighborhood.  But what turkey trot is complete without the obligatory t-shirt? (Also, we thought an incentive to participate might be good...)  So I put together my own little turkey logo from some layered circles and ovals, and "STTT" ("Steiner-Tronquet Turkey Trot") was born!

I found some $2 t-shirts and iron-on printer paper at Michaels, and created an assembly station on my ironing board.  Disclaimer:  If you are looking for high-quality t-shirts this is not the project for you, but if you are looking for a novelty (and probably one-time-wear) t-shirt I definitely recommend this approach.  My printer had a "t-shirt transfer" setting under properties which automatically printed a mirror image that would iron on properly.

All you have to do is place the printout face down on the t-shirt, iron (I found that 2 or 3 passes with the iron for 10-15 seconds worked best, with a little extra focus on the corners and edges), then peel off the backing (an exacto knife helps here).  Here is my final project:

And of course, the project wouldn't be complete without some cute packaging, so I rolled them up (with the STTT logo prominently displayed) and tied it with some cute ribbon.

Who wouldn't want to run in this?

Make ahead mashed potatoes?

In my pursuit of easy thanksgiving recipes, I came across Martha's recipe for Luxurious Mashed Potatoes.
Apparently, you can make them a day ahead of time and just heat them up in the oven. Sounds good to me!  It was a big hassle last year to have to mash them right before dinner, so I think I will make a test batch this weekend...

Thinking turkey...

Now that November is here, it's time to start thinking about Thanksgiving.  We are hosting this year.
Last year we grilled the turkey and it turned out great:

Pretty nice, right?  My husband gets all the credit for this one... it was really good.  All of my sides were good too, but I think I was a little too ambitious with the menu:

It turned out as good as it sounds (yes, carrot souffle is amazing!), but I'm looking for simpler recipes this year and less time in the kitchen... more Thanksgiving planning coming soon!

Halloween costumes...

Yes, I dressed up my pet for Halloween.  Meet Chica, the fire dog!

Cute, huh?  Unfortunately, she's not as crazy about her Halloween costume as I am... both she and my husband are thoroughly embarrassed.

Happy Halloween!