Christmas Day Amuse-Bouche: Caprese Bites

Christmas Day 2012 has been a wonderful, roaring success in this household! My mom came over late yesterday afternoon and we had (traditional in my family) pan fried haddock for supper. Later, we sat in our jammies and watched National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation while eating some bacon wrapped water chestnuts. Mmmmm!

This morning my mom, HOTGI and I had a blast opening gifts and spending time together. It's been a pretty relaxing day here, the turkey is in the oven and we are all still in our jammies. I made my frittata for breakfast for mom and I (added chopped green, red and orange peppers leftover from Saturday's party) and then we all had pancakes for a second breakfast!

Since we're still kinda full this afternoon, nobody wanted lunch but our turkey dinner isn't for another couple hours, I decided to make a nice light snack, Caprese bites! They're pretty simple to make and are the perfect nibbley between meals.

All you need are:
- fresh basil leaves
- some small (cherry or grape) tomatoes
- fresh mozzarella, cut into small bites
- toothpicks
- olive oil & balsamic vinegar, for dipping (optional)

Assemble together with toothpicks, and ta-dah!

Now, in the middle of this plate is a small bowl with olive oil and traditional baslamic vinegar from one of the greatest small shops around, Liquid Gold! If you're ever in Halifax, Nova Scotia check them out, you'll be glad you did! I had it there for dipping the Caprese bites since I think olive oil and balsamic are the perfect complement.

And as I type this, the turkey will be ready to come out of the oven in just about an hour...

Merry Christmas everyone!

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Warm Bacon Cheese Dip

Since it's been forever and a day since I made my last blog post, this is my official apology. And to make it up to those loyal readers who have checked in just to see nothing new, tonight I am posting a new a recipe. For reals!

Last night, He-of-the-good-ideas and I hosted our annual Christmas party. At one point in the night I was taking some guest's coats upstairs and the noise of the combined voices and laughter of about 20 of our friends all mingling together made my heart so happy. We have some wonderful people in our lives and even if we don't see them very often, it's great to spend a night laughing and having fun with them (and doing shooters and daring each other to do headstands in the kitchen, etc) LOL!

Okay, so I had pretty much everyone ask me for this recipe last night but I feel like it should come with a disclaimer. There is a very good chance you will take one bite thinking "okay, so what, it's a cheese dip" and then before you know it, you're standing over it, shoveling it into your mouth like it holds the meaning to life...

Warm Bacon Cheese Dip
1 8oz package cream cheese, cubed
1 1/2 cups sour cream (don't go getting "light" sour cream either, that's just wrong)
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
1 1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
3/4 cup cooked bacon, crumbled
1/2 cup minced onion

Mix all ingredients together and press into a casserole dish/oven safe dish. Cover tightly with foil and bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.

Serve with crackers. My personal recommendation is the original flavour triangle Triscuit, however I had mini pitas, Tostitos, regular Lays ripple chips, Breton minis, and sliced baguette on hand last night for dipping too. Oh, and a very clever Golden Santa Bread that my friend Jenny made!!

This dip is SERIOUSLY addictive... enjoy/I'm sorry.

When I was first putting it together I thought "gawd this makes a lot, I'll have lots of leftovers". No dice. The dish was wiped clean!!!

And since I didn't take a picture of dip after it came out of the oven, please accept this "WTF" picture of HOTGI doing a headstand in our kitchen...

Look what I can do!

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{T'was the week after Christmas...} Just Relax a Little

One of the Cricut-assisted creations I made to decorate my home this Holiday Season!

T’was the week after Christmas
and all through the dwelling
All the creatures were doing
something they found compelling

Dad drove F1 cars
Mom surfed and repinned
While the animals lounged happily
and if they could have, they’d have grinned

It’s nice to relax
Sit and enjoy one another
Too soon we’re headed back to work
And vacation memories fade darker

So enjoy the here and now
embrace the piles and the clutter
Housework can wait a bit
there’s something to eat smothered in butter...

The New Year is coming
all shiny and fresh
And we're crossing our fingers
that it is bringing us the best!

Hope you've been enjoying spending time with those you love, and sometimes barely tolerate :)

Have a safe and happy New Years Eve!!

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Christmas Eve is Here Again

The shopping has been finished and wrapped and under the tree for almost a week. I am taking lots of time to sit and enjoy evenings with HOTGI and the animals. Today is Christmas Eve, and it feels damn good to be finished everthing.

He-of-the-Good-Ideas went out earlier "for a drive". Uh huh. A drive. When he got home though, I disappeared upstairs so I didn't see what he was bringing in (I hate spoiling a surprise!) and I have since been banished upstairs so he can go all elf-tastic with the wrapping paper.

Tomorrow morning we'll get up, open the stockings that Santa left and drive to HOTGI's hometown for Christmas Day with his family at his sister's house. I am really looking forward to witnessing Christmas morning for our niece and nephew this year!

Monday, we are hosting my mom, grandma, dad and stepmum for Christmas at our house. We have a Butterball for the oven and a cupboard full of Christmas Cheer and I am super excited. I can't wait to set the table and set out the place cards I made!

I am so glad I am relaxed enough to enjoy everything about the Christmas Season this year.

Let me share you with something that warms my heart:



Happy Christmas to all of you. For those of you that follow my blog, thank you. I appreciate your comments and love to hear feedback for what I am posting. This first year of having a blog has been great for me. I've loved sharing with my readers some things I have cooked and crafted, and I find now when I create something I feel as though I should have a camera at the ready!

There will be another turkey soup made soon and I plan on updating my turkey soup recipe with pictures! Look for some other turkey leftover ideas too!

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Holidaze Time

Today marks the middle of December. HOW is it December 15th already?

Momma and I went to see The Nutcracker this afternoon, and loved the performance! The grace of the ballet paired with the sensational orchestra telling such a beloved Christmas tale was an awesome part of Holidays 2011.

I thought I was all done with shopping, stores and the amount of people that populate every retail store at this time of year but there always seems to some unexpected thing to go out for. I am pleased with the gifts I've chosen for people and hope they enjoy them as much as I expect they will! I've given one gift so far (a necklace I made for a friend, and forgot to take a picture of before I gave it to her!) and have many left to wrap.

I don't hate wrapping, but I don't really like it all that much. But I love the look and feel and presentation of a wrapped gift, so this season I am a tape and ribbon maestro!

So there's wrapping to do, and gorcery shopping cus' we still gotta eat, a house to clean, a dinner menu to finalize, parties to attend and still try and make sure you get the opportunity to sit back and relax with loved ones and enjoy each other's company.

It's all well and good to get caught up in the frenzy of the holiday season but maybe let it be less about rushing to get to the mall to spend and shop and be more about hurrying to the welcoming home of a friend for a visit.

I'm getting ranty...

I think I need a egg nog Noel Nog (lactose free and tastes WICKED!), or a toasted almond (made with lactose free milk, the idea of drinking cream skeeves me out), or a nice warm buttered rum. Mmmmm

How are you making out this Holiday season? Ready? Nowhere even close?

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Wordless Wednesday: Christmas Tree Ornaments Sorted for Decorating the Tree (aka. Neurotic Behaviour on Display)

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Festive Favourites - Little Drummer Boy

I love holiday music. I love the classics, the standards sung by the likes of Bing Crosby and Dean Martin. To me, Santa Baby is best by Eartha Kitt, not Madonna.

Tonight I watched a video of Winnipeg, Manitoba teen Sean Quigley performing his version of Little Drummer Boy. I am so happy I happened to watch this video tonight. I love the song, I love how he made it modern and energy filled but kept it pure and familiar. Thank heavens for Youtube; I hope he records more!

Enjoy!

Awesome right?

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{This Chistmas} Let me tell you where to go

Since we confirmed that HOTGI and I would be hosting my family Christmas dinner this year, I've had it in my head that I wanted to have place markers at everyone's spot. We are only going to be a small group, but I like the presentation of a well laid table and for me part of that look this year is personalized place markers. I knew I needed to made something fun :)

There are a lot of inspirations out there on the interwebz, and I like everything so I knew I needed a starting point. So when I went to Michaels this morning, I found these super cute place card holders! They were 2 for $1.50 and I knew they'd be perfect.

Using my Cricut and a borrowed cartridge (thanks Andrea!) I cut out a 3" tag using the "shadow" feature with brown cardstock and a 3" tag using the regular feature in a sheet of holiday scrapbook paper (again, thanks Andrea!) and glued them together.

Then, in an excercise of patience and dexterity I applied glue (via glue-stick) to the back of each letter of each person's name and placed them on the prepared cards with a set of precision tweezers.

I cut a length of pretty green satin ribbon, tied it through the hole of each card and trimmed the ends.

Adorable right?

There are six of us confirmed for Christmas dinner at our house this year and I am incredibly pleased with how these place cards turned out. They might not be appreciated by anyone but me, but I cannot wait to see how they look on my table, and sometimes it's the little things that make me happy!

Now that this project (that admittedly took a bunch of time) is over, I have a mountain of other things to get done... asap!

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