Around the House at Christmas

I'm so impressed with this 24-70 lens I rented that I may just buy it. Oh yeah, I'm paying for a ton of dental work right now. Hmmmm, I can probably wait till my birthday. That would be a great way to celebrate and my mouth should be finished by then.
Here are a few I took around the house this holiday.
Not that these are anything special, but isn't that bokeh gorgeous? I never thought about using it as a 'macro' but looks like it will work for me.

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Hope your holidays were fabulous!

Christmas Butter Cookies

When I was kid my favorite cookie in the world was Mom's recipe for Christmas cookies. They were not the typical however and I believed they were highly superior to all others. Of course that's what she told me. It didn't use regular sugar but powdered sugar and lots of butter. We made them thin and crispy.
I'll bet I've made them only once in the past 20 years because there are just other things that I prefer to get my sugar intake from at Christmas. But now that we have a little 4 1/2 year old that likes to help in the kitchen, this would be a good year to make them again.

I remind myself to lower my expectations when it comes to 4 1/2 year olds. We are all much happier in the end. She lasted through one pan and then was off to 'decorate' the house with all the stickers she got at school that day.

A few days later I pulled the remaining dough from the refrigerator.

 The 'lighter' version.

I must admit, these were a lot easier to eat.

The Recipe:

Hipsta Christmas

As in Hipstamatic Christmas. I thought I'd capture a few memories this year with the Hipstamatic app on my iPhone. The lens I've been using is Florence and the film is Robusta.
Today I've been making Pecan Pies. Years ago my Mom died and Dad remarried an Arkansas lady. It didn't last (No offense) but the best thing that came out of that relationship was her pecan pie recipe.

A little dough making for Kuchen.

Around the house.

Happy Holidays!

Merry Christmas

I sit here 2 days before Christmas enjoying a freshly made breakfast burrito and drinking my (own) coffee at the market. It's 7:30, far early for me to be out getting groceries. I've surprised myself this year that holiday anxiety has not been a part of the picture. It's a true miracle because I really can't put my finger on it. (I could guess but won't.) I think about the last 2 Christmases that I wrote about on this blog and I know I don't even want to revisit them. Somewhere along the way I took a giant chill pill this year. 

The past 2 weeks I've even done some art. Just for the fun of it. And plan to do more today, right before I clean house and start making pecan pie. The kids will be over tomorrow and I need to figure the menu for sure before I leave the market this morning. Last year the lines were clear to the back of the store and I don't plan to participate. (Although it was fun chatting with the other shoppers.)

A little art to bid you a very Merry Christmas. 

(iPad, Repix, Snapseed, Retouch, Facetune, Image Blender, Over)

A little Lightroom and Photoshop for you. Supplies by Anna Aspens and Dawn Inskip.

Baking for Christmas

Oh Blog, I've Missed You!
I'm still toying with the idea of moving this to Wordpress but it just seems too far down the list. Actually I think I will talk to Helen about it.
So many irons in the fire....
A December digital art project, baking, shopping, still life shots, present wrapping, shopping, decorating, shopping. I've definitely had fun shopping this year and I'm not a shopper. It's hard to stop though once I get started.
I've rented a 24-70 Canon lens these next two weeks and can see already that I don't want to return it. The only thing I don't like about it is the weight, oh yeah, and the price tag. LensRentals has a promo going where you get a week free. But this is confusing because my lens would have been $77 for a week and when I added another week it only took off $49. I even asked them about it and got an explanation that just made me shake my head. Oh well, I love this lens and I'm glad to have it through the holidays. I'm also taking some baby shots this weekend before Finn looses his baby fat.
In the mean time I'm practicing some human touch still life photos while baking kuchen, a delightful custard that's been a family tradition forever. If you want the recipe I posted it here last year. If you can believe it, my step-son decided to make it last week. Guess he wanted some really bad.

I hope you've had some 

'chill' time this (what can be) hectic season.

Kuchen -Recipe for a Family Tradition

If you haven't made your Kuchen by Christmas Eve, it's not too late.

I've intended to have this post done for posterities sake and my nieces or any other relatives or friends interested in the wonderful custard dessert.

First, we'll make the dough for the crust.

Sweet Refrigerator Dough (Makes 6 Kuchen)
Heat:
3/4 C. hot milk
1/2 C. butter
1/2 C. water
Mean while, mix together:
1-1/2 C. flour
2 pkg. yeast
1/2 C. sugar
2 tsp. salt
(add hot mixture to this. make sure it's not too hot)
Add:
2 eggs, mix
Add 2-3/4 C. flour
Turn out on floured surface and knead in more flour. It will be a soft dough. Oil a bowl. Place in dough ball in bowl, cover with saran wrap or foil and chill a minimum of three hours before using. (Will keep in refrigerator for several days.)

Kuchen (This will make 2)
Cut dough in half. Then cut that into thirds. Use two parts to roll out for two Kuchens. Put the rest back in the refrigerator.

Place in pan like you would a pie crust. Dough will be much thicker though.

Trim away excess dough with a knife.

Brush the bottom of the crust with melted butter. 

At this point add any fruit you prefer. We grew up on prunes and peaches, but I've eaten it with apricots, cherries and cranberries. Dried fruit, not too dried though. If it's dry like a raisin, let set in boiling water to soften. I buy prunes that are already pitted and soft so all I have to do is snip them into smaller pieces with a scissors. Let this sit and prepare the filling.

Custard Filling:
4 eggs slightly beaten.
Mix together:  1/2 C. sugar, 1 Tbl. Flour, dash of salt. Add to eggs.
Add 1 tsp vanilla.  (I actually used coconut sugar this year, turned out fine.)

Last slowly add in 2 C. warm cream.
I heat the cream in the microwave til it is quite hot. (But not boiling or it will cook your eggs.)
Pour into 2 prepared pans.

Sprinkle with a little cinnamon.

Bake 325º for 10 minutes. Turn the oven down to 300º and finish baking. Depending on the temp of the cream and depth of your pie it could take 20-40 minutes longer. Insert a knife in the center, when it comes out clean, it is done.

The very last and important step is to 'butter' the crust edge. Easiest way to do this is just rub the end of the cold stick over the crust as soon as you take it from the oven.

If you like custard or creme brûlée, you will love this!

Kuchen (makes 2)
Custard Filling:
4 eggs slightly beaten
Mix together:  1/2 C sugar, 1 Tbl. Flour, dash of salt. Add to eggs. Add 1 tsp. vanilla.
Add 2 C. warm cream.
Brush bottom of crust with melted butter. Put fruit in pan. Pour custard in pan.
Sprinkle with a little cinnamon.
Bake 325º for 10 minutes. 300º 20-40 minutes.

If you'd rather not make 6 kuchens, this dough is fabulous to use for 'Christmas bread'. Roll it out in a rectangle and sprinkle with candied fruit. Roll it up in a loaf-looking shape, let raise, bake and and drizzle powdered sugar frosting on the top. Yum!

Two Weeks

Yes, it's two weeks until Christmas and I was just pondering how frazzled I was last year. This past Monday we returned from a 12 day 3000 mile road trip to the cold north visiting relatives, attending a conference (not me) and general relaxing taking extra days to get to our destinations. 

As a result, I have no Christmas decorations up because I've been swamped at work. Do I care? Not particularly, but I hope no one at work cares because there are none up there either!

The first thing I did when returning was check my multitude of pumpkins scattered around the house for rotting bottoms.

I'm not ready for fall to be over. We left at it's peak and I was sure it would be gone when I got back but NO! It was still here just barely past it's glory. I drove around Monday and listened to the leaves blow across the sidewalks and watch some fall from the bradford pears. Glorious! I was in heaven for a day and I sure need that.

This was just confirmation that I need my quiet photo shooting trips for meditation. It amazes me how God can speak when you get away from everything, or should I say how much better we can 'hear'?

There were a lot of things that went wrong on this trip. 

• We encountered a rock chip in the windshield on the way out of town that actually cracked about a foot right through 'my' line of vision in the drivers seat. 
• We both ended up with physical ailments. (I nearly went to the hospital and I never do that.) 
• My credit card was compromised. 
• We got snowed in at Dad's two extra days preventing us from seeing my brother and sis-in-law. 
• We saw two really bad car wrecks, one of which we witnessed.

I counted up eight, but I'll spare you the rest.

• There were definitely some good too.
• Getting a lot of Christmas shopping done at the Mall of America and some shopping for myself. 
• Seeing that glorious snow and getting some shots of it. 
• Drive by shooting of tons of barns. I swear there was a barn every mile as we drove through Minnesota.
• Seeing a niece I hadn't seen in 6 years. 
• Watching my nephew's daughter play basketball.
• Finding the folks still in good health.

Well Christmas will just have to wait until I'm ready for it this year. Hallie did pile the ornaments on the tree before Thanksgiving because I promised her she could. (As in several on one branch.) Will I rearrange them? Probably not and that's a big step for the decorator in me.


At Dad's house.
I think they should have used this for their Christmas card by they always do a photo of themselves. Speaking of cards, mine are not done. I started looking through my Lightroom Library last night for photos to use and ended up quite side tracked as you can imagine.

This may just Merry Christmas from me. Have a very blessed holiday season!

Texture Tuesday - Christmas

I found time today to rework my 'live green' arrangement and make two smaller ones with the left overs. And tonight we decided to leave town Christmas morning and make the 1000 mile trek to the Dakotas to see family. Needless to say I will NOT spend any more time decorating for Christmas. Or baking for that matter. And I had such plans…

The good part of this road trip will be…
I can clean up my email, delete photos off my phone and iPad, catch up reading my Photoshop User magazines and who knows how many others I have on my iPad I never seem to read.
Years ago my ritual for this long drive at Christmas was to bring photo albums and all my printed photos for the year, organize and put them in the albums. The last time that happened was 2008. (oh yes, I'll just hang my head for a minute here, but only a minute.)

I must admit, I really like last minute trips. I didn't need the added stress of thinking about this one the past few weeks. I do have a couple days off and plan to bake Kuchen to take home for the family. It's a german tradition in our family and I'm the only one that makes it any more. (Excluding a few aunts.) I told my brother I'd trade him some deer sausage. Can't wait!

I thought Kim was taking a blogging break, but I guess not, so here is my Texture Tuesday, edited in PS Touch. 2 layers of her textures I keep handy on my iPad.

Friday Finds December 19

It's Friday Finds again! This week my best ever find was a bundle of greens at the florist.

I've said for years, "This year I will make something with real greens." (It almost didn't happen this time either as I saw them sitting in water on the patio for days while I kept forgetting to get a few things I needed for the job.)

I found this photo in Martha Stewart's magazine this month and thought, 'hmmmm, I should try that'.

 The vase I used for my fall branches would get another work out. Late last night I started putting it together.

As I stood this morning admiring it, the smell just took me to heaven! I wanted to stay home from work and just inhale!

I decided it was too flat on top and I need bigger ornaments and more red ones. (Another thing to add to my ever growing list. Cross one off, add two.)

So I'll be redoing it tonight and try to decide if I want to add the 'snow' or not. (I'll show the finished product later.)

I only had time for some iPhone shots this morning, edited in VSCOcam.

Yes, I realize it's a bit late for getting the decorating done, but you've got to live with what life dishes out. Has your life been thrown any curves during this holiday season?

Come on over to Kim's blog today and see what kind of great goodies everyone has found/discovered this week...