Pinterest style Christmas Table Topper tutorial for under $10 and Stained Glass Window Cookies-- with new giveaway and WINNERS!!

Hello everybody! Mary Jane here with an easy peasy Christmas table top tutorial for UNDER TEN DOLLARS, a recipe for delicious Christmas cookies, a giveaway AND winners!! *whew* That's a mouthful! Good thing I'm typing...

                               

First of all, we have a kitty ornament thief!! We saw him stealing ornaments off the tree and found his stash! Rude.

                                               

We have had the most AMAZING snowfall the last week. It's so beautiful!

                                          

Oh, teens...

 Just walking to the neighbor's house is so beautiful.
                                          
My daughter went out to cut greenery. She looks like something out of a fairy tale.

"Your sword, my liege!"

                               
But of course, with teens, it devolved into this.

 We went sledding on the property where I grew up. It was sunset-- well, it was three o'clock but it was basically sunset.

So, first of all, the table topper. I don't know about you but I LOVE fresh greenery around the house. It's absolutely a must at Christmas. We always have an Advent wreath but at Christmas, we like to have a display during our big family dinner.

                                   

This is so, so, so easy. All you need is a pair of scissors, some evergreen bushes, five white pillar candles from the dollar store, a few fake poinsettia blooms (also from dollar store) and some ribbon (ALSO from dollar store- see how cheap an easy that is?) All in all, it cost about ten dollars! Look at this gorgeousness!

 Ha! Love my little guy's expression here. "Mom, stop taking my picture!"

                                

The paper punch snowflakes are a wonderful touch but if you don't have the paper punch (I got it at Walmart, Martha Stewart brand), then you can cut some little snowflakes out of paper... or skip that part. 

                                      

Lay out the candles first. I set them on upside down ramekins or bowls to make sure they were higher than the greenery. Then I gently placed the greenery around it. I put a few folded towels down on the table to keep the branches from scratching the finish because it's a very old family table from the early 1900s.

                                                  

I put in a silver snowflake ribbon and had another ready, but it just didn't look right to me.

                                                            

 You're welcome to put the ribbon on and it might look perfect just like that, but I decided to take it off.

                                              

 Here it is, all finished. Total cost? $10 of Dollar Store materials! I love Pinterest. It made it really so easy to find a look I wanted for the table. I just browsed through the pictures until I found one that I liked. And now you can see how to make your own!

                               

Thrift store candle holders for .50 and that awesome paper punch plus some mod podge = some pretty votives for my kitchen! I'm all about the teal right now.These keep me company when I set up to work at the counter in the middle of the night. 

                          

Have you ever put out luminaria? We use paper bags, votive candles inside, and line our walkway. It's a delightful way to welcome people to the house! (I turned off the outside light for this picture. Otherwise they really WOULD need the luminaria.)

So, on to the stained glass cookie recipe!!

                                                 

What you see there is 15 cups of flour, 12 eggs, 4 1/2 cups of butter, 6 cups of sugar, 3 tsp vanilla, 3 tsp salt, 3 tsp baking powder. 

Edna was watching with bated breath. She had never seen so many ingredients put in one bowl. 

Boris handled it like a champ.... except for one small incident. Apparently, he is ticklish. I had just put in the 12 eggs, the 4 1/2 cups melted butter and the 6 cups of sugar. I started him up, and thought it was a bit too high so I felt around his ribs for the little lever... He started to twitch and giggle, and I somehow pushed it all the way to the right.

Eggs, butter, sugar.... EVERYWHERE. Boris has power, no doubt about it. It took us 20 minutes to clean it all up. My daughter and I were laughing at how far we found globs of goo. A whole egg yolk was on the opposite side of the kitchen! Ok, once we changed, we started on the cookies...

 Stained glass window cookies are made by cutting out a regular cookie, then making another cut out inside of the first. Break hard candy like Life Savers or Jolly Ranchers and fill the hole. Bake as normal at 350F for 8-10 minutes, on a cookie sheet with tin foil.

When you take them from the oven, let cool on the counter for a few minutes. Then put them either in the freezer or leave them on the counter for ten minutes. Since we only have two cookies sheets, I put them in the freezer for 3 minutes or so to save time.

 OK, so now for this week's giveaway!

I'm offering one paper copy of Season of Hope

And one copy of Good Housekeeping's The Great Christmas Cookie Swap cookbook! 

Now for the WINNERS from last weeks Twelve Days of Christmas Treats!!

* drum roll *


Marilyn R. is the winner from Mindy's post! She wins the THREE mini recipe books, an inspiring Christmas book, and a woman's journal.  Congratulations, Marilyn R!

Debbie Rhoades is the winner from Jan's post. She wins a SET of Sherry Gore books, a cookbook AND a memoir! Congratulations, Debbie!

Jennifer Hibdon and Karen Varrichio are the winners from Ruthy's post. They BOTH win an ebook copy of Ruthy's new book, Silent Night, Star-Lit Night. Congratulations Jennifer and Karen! 

Lisa Hudson is the winner of a copy of Cate's Christmas book, A Winter in Hiding. Congratulations, Lisa !

Deana Dick is the winner of my Cane River Romance series boxed set

And Gretchen Garrison is the winner of the Taste of Home recipe book!

Be sure to stop by my facebook author pages at Mary Jane Hathaway or Virginia Carmichael, or my website at The Things That Last!

I want to wish you all the merriest of Christmases! I read this quote the other day and thought it was just lovely. May the peace of the Christ child be with you all. 

“And when we give each other Christmas gifts in His name, let us remember that He has given us the sun and the moon and the stars, and the earth with its forests and mountains and oceans--and all that lives and move upon them. He has given us all green things and everything that blossoms and bears fruit and all that we quarrel about and all that we have misused--and to save us from our foolishness, from all our sins, He came down to earth and gave us Himself.”  ― Sigrid Undset

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Fancy Nancy Makes Cookies

Hi everybody! The Fresh Pioneer is back and I'm yearning for something fancy.

 Have you ever seen these children's books?

Fancy Nancy books (by Jane O'Connor and illustrated by Robin Priess Glasser, published by Harper Collins) are geared to preschool girls, but my boys love them, too. A little girl who has to do everything in the FANCY way. She even throws out little French phrases, so I've got a warm spot in my heart for Nancy.

 

  I know it's Lent and we should all be eating bread and water. But what about Sunday? What about visitors? What about... that ending on Downton Abbey??

 

RIGHT?? Sometimes we need a little fancy to get us through the week.
So, instead of the usual chocolate chip cookies, I decided to make some Fancy Nancy cookies.
 These aren't particularly hard to make, but they're definitely not your average after-school cookie.
When I brought out the recipe, Edna accused me of being influenced by Goldie, the new teacup. Was I going to make everything ten time as complicated as normal, just to be showy? Then again, is showy all bad?
Maybe... Maybe not. Let's try it and see.

Preheat oven to 350F.

 So, the base of the RASPBERRY CRUMBLE COOKIE is a standard shortbread.
1/2 pound butter
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp oure vanilla
2 1/3 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt

Mix all these ingredients until just combined. Form into a ball and take 2/3 and pat into the bottom of a 9X13 pan. Leave a bit of the shortbread for about 1/2 inch of dough going up the side.

Spread your raspberry jam (most of a jar, if using all raspberry) on the bottom. I had some apricot, so I used that, too. Spread it to about 1/2 from the sides.

Now, the other 1/3, mix with 2/3 cup granola (no dried fruit, it will burn). This will be the topping.

The original recipe has 3/4 sliced almonds but I couldn't find them anywhere. I may have pulverized them for a pie crust. I don't remember exactly. Anyway, they weren't in the pantry. :P

Break the granola-shortbread dough into small pieces and sprinkle on top. Bake about 45 minutes or until the edges are lightly browned.

Here they are, cooled and cut and ready for the tea party. Edna relented and said that Goldie and her friends were invited to the festivities, so in the end we did have a wonderful time together.

I'm gearing up to start another historical romance, set at the turn of the century and these old-style crumble bookies were just what I needed for plotting.
Who am I KIDDING?? I do not plot.
But in honor of Speedbo (Seekerville's version of NaNoRiMo), I'm definitely thinking... deeply... about plots while I eat cookies.

Of course, I also will be 'plotting' while I refurbish this old trunk I found super cheap. The canvas can't be saved, but I'm hoping to strip and laquer the pine underneath.
Edna is pretending to be uninterested, but she keeps shooting glances at this handsome trunk. Who can blame her?? But he does need a bit of perking up.

Until next time, indulge in a bit of fanciness to get you through the week!

 

 

Making the Ordinary Extraordinary!

Mindy here. Last week I shared that we'd celebrated my daughter's birthday with pizzas on the grill. Of course, that wasn't all we had. After all, a birthday isn't a birthday without the birthday person's cake/dessert of choice. In this case, she likes chocolate cake with buttercream frosting. She also adores cupcakes. So I decided to go the cupcake route and spruce things up just a bit.

First I made their favorite chocolate cake--Duncan Hines Devil's Food Cake. Easy peasy. Since she was having friends over, I made two batches, all in cupcake form.

Now I knew my boys would not eat the cupcakes with buttercream frosting. They only like 'em with Duncan Hines Classic Chocolate Frosting. And heaven forbid I should veer from that course. I made one of them this luscious chocolate cake one time. It had ganache that was to-die-for. He said it was okay, but he really wanted just the regular, my usual, chocolate cake. Like I've said before, they have no taste.

Of course, when we're talking buttercream icing, it has to be homemade.

Here's my recipe:

• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 8 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1/2 cup milk
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• A few drops of food coloring (optional)

Place butter in a large mixing bowl. Add 4 cups of the sugar, milk, and vanilla. Beat until smooth and creamy. Gradually add remaining sugar, 1 cup at a time, until icing is thick enough to be of good spreading consistency. Add food coloring, if desired, and mix thoroughly. Miss's favorite color is aqua, so that was my color of choice.

 I put as much as I can into a pastry bag with a large star tip (D2 or 2D, something like that). Twist the end closed and pipe/swirl the frosting around the top of the cupcakes. Trust me, this is easy. Then I did the same with a can of chocolate frosting. Aqua and brown are such hot colors right now, so it all worked together.

But they were too pretty just put on a plate. Instead, I got two cake pedestals of different sizes (you could use more) and set the cupcakes on those, alternating the colors.

And what a pretty centerpiece it made.

That is, until my grandpup decided to sample them.

The brat. Apparently she likes buttercream frosting too.

Lucky for her, I had plenty of extras.

How do you take the ordinary and make it extraordinary? And it doesn't have to be just food.

Later, y'all.







Low-Cost Fancy!!!

My niece was  here a few weeks ago and we got out the punch set. The punch set ties into my Seekerville post today, because it cost $2.97 from Eckerd's or Rite Aid or some such a VERY LONG TIME AGO!!!! It was a Christmas present from Dave's sister Beverly and I've used it multiple times, every year, for every purpose known to man...

And it survived all these years. See the gold "carnival" glass look?

Haley calls it 'fancy'.  And she sighed and said "Aunt Ruth has such nice things..." with a hint of longing in her voice.

I was no way, no how about to correct her, LOL!

And my grandkids LOVE THESE CUPS.  They sparkle. They reflect the light. The punch shimmers inside!!!!!

:)

I love simple things that stand the test of time, so do you have any cool things you bring out for special occasions? They don't have to be pricey, just something that makes a memory?

Here's a pic of the cupcakes my daughter-in-law Lacey made for Easter:

Simple. Making memories. Not necessarily spending more money.

Jon made fancy Jello, like my mother-in-law used to make for my kids... And Emma LOVED IT!!!

 Layered Jello, sparkling in glassware. That's pretty fancy-schmancy in six-year-old world!

So what fun things do you like to do to make things special?  Share them with us... Over really good coffee and tea, of course!