Merry Christmas

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas. I love it because we got SNOW! What more could you ask for. All my kids were here and my sweet little grandson.
I finally got something I have been wanting for a while now. I ask Santa ad he said yes....a Silhouette Cameo! Yay!!!  Now I just need to figure out how it all works. Then my brother got me a wide format printer. I couldn't believe it. How awesome is he! It prints 12x12 which means I can print on the scrapbook paper then run it through the Cameo.
I did lots and LOTS of baking this year. Banana bread, pumpkin roll, caramel popcorn, and of course monkey bread for Christmas breakfast. Now it is time to play with the new toys!



Pumpkin Roll

3 eggs
1 c. sugar
2/3 c. pumpkin
1 tsp. lemon juice
3/4 c. flour
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. ginger
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1 c. chopped nuts (optional)

Beat eggs at high speed for 5 min. Gradually beat in sugar. Mix in pumpkin & lemon juice. In a seperate bowl stir together dry ingredients; fold by hand into pumpkin mixture.  (Beating with a mixer will remove all the air from the mixture.). Spread in well greased & floured jelly-roll pan. Top with nuts. Bake 15 min at 350 degrees. Trn nut side down onto a towel sprinkled with powdered sugar.  Roll cake & towel up together, starting at narrow end.  Cool. Do not unroll until ready to fill.

Filling:
1 c. powdered sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla
6 oz. cream cheese
4 Tbsp. soft margarine

Combine powdered sugar, vanilla, cream cheese, and margarine.  Beat until smooth.  Spread over cake & re-roll.  Chill and slice OR wrap well in foil and freeze.

Hint: 1 - 28 oz. can of pumpkin is enough to make 5 recipes.


Caramel Popcorn

12 qts. popped popcorn
1 cube margarine
1 c. white corn syrup
2 1/4 c. brown sugar
1 can sweetened condensed milk

Place popcorn in a very large bowl. In 3 qt. pan melt margarine. Add corn syrup, brown sugar, and sweetened condensed milk. Bring mixture to a boil over medium heat.  Cook and stir till reaches a soft ball stage.  Pour caramel over popped corn and stir very well to coat. Store in air-tight container.

Santa Clause

I have to start out by saying I am new to this blogging thing. I wanted to start because I love creating, baking, a little if everything and I want to share all of that. I love sharing what I know how to do and helping and teaching others to do the same things.

So now on to the good stuff....

A few weeks ago I went to the Jubilee of Trees, and I have to say, loved it! There were some of the most beautiful trees there. I went with a good friend and my 3 yr old grandson. He had a blast. We decorated cookies, made some sand art, and most exciting was we saw Santa Clause! Yay!

Of course we had to get pictures. Now I have this awesomely cute picture of my grandson but nothing to do with it. I wanted to display it til after Christmas then scrapbook it later.

Thinking....thinking...thinking....

Got it! Dollar store picture frame to decorate. Get the frame home and it is already a cute black frame so I think lets just add some glitter because who doesn't love glitter. Well that didn't turn out so well. I didn't like the way it looked so I sanded it down. I remembered seeing this resistance painting technique using Vaseline. I painted red over the black frame and voila.... perfect frame for the picture!

Since the frame was already painted black I could skip right to the addition of Vaseline. I spread it liberally in spots over the frame. Do not cover the whole frame, just kinda make it splotchy on there. 

Next I painted the red paint over the Vaseline, you need to do this carefully as not to spread the Vaseline around more or you won't end up with very much color on your second paint color. 

When the red paint had dried I took a rag and wiped the frame down removing the Vaseline. 

I ended up with more red than I wanted so I sanded just a bit and then went over the whole thing with Delta Home Decor Gel Wood Stain