Multiple Christmas Card Designs from One Paper Pack (Joyeux Noel)

For the most part, all you need is a pack of envelopes, the Joyeux Noel paper pack from Hobby Lobby that is 8.5 by 11, glue and mounting dots.

For one of the cards, I did use a present sticker and glitter glue, red ink or marker, and a green inkpad or marker would be helpful but you can get by without.

I started off by cutting a half inch of the narrow side of the paper, then cutting the sheet in half.  This gave me 5.5 x 8 pieces of paper that folded into 4 x 5.5 cards, which is the size of my envelopes.  The paper is good enough that I used it as a base, except on the Santa card which I had to cut just a front out and glue to a different card base.

The poinsettia cards were my favorite.  To make these, I cut strips of paper 4 inches long by 2 inches wide.  On the back of one, I drew the shape I wanted for a poinsettia petal.  I would argue there is little need to print out a template, as they are mostly an oval with wavy edges. As with most things, irregularity is actually your friend on this one.

I cut five sheets at once to make sure that my petals were close enough alike.  I used the same process for leaves and glued them down first.  Next, I glued 3 base colors down flat to the card, then put the two printed ones on mounting dots.  You can bend and fold the edges if you like to give them a little texture, or curl the tips up.  Cut off any excess material. I folded a small scrap of paper over a couple times to cut out three rough small circles to put in the center.

For the tree cards, I used the tree paper as the base, then glued 1.5 inch by 4 inch scraps over the top and bottom.  To create the white cores on the smaller details, you will need to tear some paper.  Working SLOWLY to make sure you get the look you want, tear the part that you DO NOT WANT TO USE (e.g. the top part and you want the bottom to use, or similar) TOWARD YOU.  The part you do want to use you should be slowly pulling away from you.  By keeping your fingers close to where the tear is, you can manipulate the paper to get peaks and curves as desired.  Glue these accents right on the line of the border scraps.

I used some of the sheet music pages to make the birch trees in the card with the redbird.  I used varying widths of paper, then used the backside of another sheet to give myself some white snow.  I hit the snow and a few places on the trees with glitter glue.  Next, I freehanded a small bird on the back of the red and white paper, cut it out, and colored over it with a red marker.  This left the lighter details while toning down the color differences.  This bird was attached using a mounting dot.

Finally, for the busy card on the bottom right, I used the printed paper for the base, and used another sheet of it to cut out a few details like a piece of the stamp, Santa's face, and a tree.  These I put on the card where the image was on the base, but used mounting dots to give them depth.  I hit the Santa and the tree with glitter glue.

When I glitter things, I use a Q-tip to just paint a little glue on.  My glitter glue is close to being empty anyway and it has not wanted to play nicely, so that is a nice little workaround.

This did not use hardly any of the paper pack at all, and I plan on using some of the paper to make some simple Christmas tags to put on things.  Considering this paper was half price, I really feel like it was a good deal considering how little extra things I had to buy to make this all come together.

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Minion Lightbulb Ornament

You need yellow, blue, black, and white paint, and a lightbulb of course.

I painted the yellow top first, and the blue simultaneously. Let this dry and then add the eyeball details.

To let this dry, I typically find something like that a bottlecap or a roll of washi tape or similar.  Minions don't mind drying upside down! :)

This will be a fun addition to the shenanigans tree when I get home to put it up again.  I have been switching out my lightbulbs for CFLs throughout my apartment.  I had so much fun last year upcycling bulbs that I decided to let it carry over.  And I DO love Despicable Me and the minions.

To hang this, I am planning on gluing a ribbon or similar onto the top with E6000, you could use hot glue as well of course.

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Chobani Yogurt Whole Wheat Pizza Crust

Ingredients:
-1 6 oz container chobani plain greek yogurt
-3/4 C whole wheat flour
-option 1/2 tb honey
-hefty dash of salt (remember, yogurt starts it more sweet than normal)
-1 TB garlic cheese topper (McCormick or other brand as available)
-1 tsp baking powder

Mix all of this yumminess up, I kneaded mine in the bowl to combine for a few minutes after it was fairly well mixed.  Turn out onto a floured surface and roll out to desired thinness.  Dust a pizza pan with cornmeal and put the pizza crust on.  Top as desired and bake at 400 for 14 minutes, and optionally switch over to the broiler for a few to brown the cheese.

You could also brush the edges of the crust with butter and top them with herbs.

As you may have noticed, I did not take a lot of care in making my edges pretty.  I.  Was. HUNGRY.  I typically make a no-knead dough for my pizzas, but those have to rise 8 hours and that was just not going to happen.  I really wanted pizza, and I wanted it right now.

This little guy takes no time to rise!  You of course could use AP flour if you are not a wheat fan.  I actually like wheat crusts on pizzas.  I topped mine with pulled pork, 3 kinds of cheese, tomatoes, BBQ sauce, and a few little jalapenos. I cut mine into 1/4ths and ate two, so I get two meals out of this little guy! That is even better.

I topped my slices with parmesan cheese, of course.

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Flaky Layer Biscuits

Ingredients:
-6 TB butter, softened
-2 C AP Flour, plus 2-3 TB more as needed
-1 C Milk
-1 TB baking powder
-Salt

Mix the ingredients, adding flour 1 TB at a time after the first 2 C until it just forms a ball.

Turn out onto a floured surface and dust the top with flour.  Roll out about 1/4th inch thick or so, and brush the top with melted butter.

Fold the sides over like a brochure, overlapping in the middle.  Fold the top or bottom, or both, as well if needed or if you want more layers.  Give it a good roll (or smoosh) with a roller to meld the layers back together. You want it to be an inch or a so tall dough when you go to cut it.

Cut as desired, I like to use a square cutter that way I don't have to reroll my dough since when you fold this it has relatively squared off sides.

Bake at 400F for 16-18 minutes. 

I decided to try this while pondering pastry dough.  I also was out of bread this morning, so it was a perfect time to give it a whirl.

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Meatballs in a Fresh Tomato Sauce

Ingredients:
-14 meatballs of desired brand, I use Trader Joe's
-7 or 8 Roma tomatoes
-Hefty pinch of salt
-1 TB butter
-1/4 small onion, finely minced
-1 tsp garlic
-2 tsp basil
-1/2 tsp rosemary
-Optional bit of oregano if you like it, I happen to not be a fan
-Noodles and cheese as desired

In a medium saucepan, I chop up and add all the tomatoes with the butter, herbs, and onion.  Typically I heat this on medium and give it a five to eight minute head start before I add my meatballs.  This way, there are already juices flowing and bubbling by the time they are added in.

I leave my very chunky and cook with the meatballs for about 20 to 30 minutes after the meatballs are added.  You could reduce the heat and simmer this if you wanted it to thicken up, but I actually like the light sauce with chunky tomato bits, personally.

Top it over noodles and then add some freshly grated parmesan cheese.

What I really like about this (especially since I have been in college) is it takes me a long time to get through a jar of spaghetti sauce.  I constantly had the issue of it going old well before I could use it up.  This gives me a lot of similar flavors with stuff that I always have on hand, like tomatoes and herbs.  Plus, I like the taste of the fresh tomatoes without being overly herbed in the process.  It really strikes a nice balance for me personally.

You could also use this sauce for chicken in a pasta dish or as a chunky fresh pizza sauce.  I have not made pizza in so long, but tasting this sauce today really made me want to make one again.

Happy crafting!
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Brownie Cookies with Dark Chocolate Chips

Ingredients:
-1 box betty crocker fudge brownie mix
-2 eggs
-1/2 C AP flour
-1/4 C oil
-2 TB water
-1/2 C dark chocolate chips
-Optional 1/2C walnuts (highly suggest)
Other inclusions as desired such as craisins, dried cherries, almonds, caramel pieces and pecans for a turtle cookie (wish I had thought of that sooner!)

Mix all of these ingredients up and add a little more oil if needed.  I use jumbo eggs.  Some people don't.  Your two eggs may be much different than mine so be prepared to adjust.

Preheat your oven to 350F and drop dollops onto a silpat or parchment paper.  I highly recommend using one of these two as these little guys like to stick.

Bake for 9-10 minutes or until edges have set and middle is barely still shiny.  Especially when using the fudge brownie varieties, it is very important to not let these bake too long. 

Remove from the oven, let sit a minute or so on the cookie sheet, then transfer to a wire rack to cool.

I love these they are chewy and rich and have a lot of potential to be something completely sinful.  I had to adjust this recipe from what I actually made because I put pretzels in them and that was a really big mistake.  It tastes like stale pretzels are in my cookies.  Rawr.  However, the dark chocolate chips are so tasty in them it pretty much makes up for it.

I highly suggest trying the turtle option, that will be my next venture with these.

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Tempura Battered Veggies (And Everything Else I Could Find!)

Ingredients:
Batter
-3/4 C corn starch
-1/4 C flour
-1 tsp baking powder
-1/2 tsp salt
-1/4 C water
-1 jumbo egg
-2 TB milk, more as needed

To dip in batter:
-1 sweet potato, peeled and sliced 1/8th inch thick
-handful of snap or snow peas
-8 spears of asparagus
-1 large carrot, peeled and sliced by length, then cut in half to make smaller pieces (see picture)
-other veggies like sliced summer squash, onions (delicious, highly suggest) etc
-1 small chicken breast, cubed

Mix batter ingredients together, adding more milk as needed to form a batter the consistency of cake batter or just a touch thicker.  Err on the side of thicker.  Before I added the milk, mine was really firm like a hush puppy batter, then I added a fourth cup of milk and made it to thin, then I had to correct back with a bit of flour to thicken it back up.  I suggest the 2 TB as projecting what I think I would have needed if I had just started off small to begin with.

Dip your veggies and chicken in and drop in a pan or whatever you like to use for frying.  Fry until golden brown.  I love the snow peas because they poof up when they are fried! I was not expecting such fun.  I would say most things are going to take a bare minimum of 5 minutes each side to fry.  I typically don't time frying, although I really shouldn't say typically because I rarely fry.  I don't always fry, but when I do I time it by looks not by time.  Golden brown.  You can also tell because the batter will get firm and not squishy.

The BEST part about this batter is it reheats AMAZINGLY WELL! Seriously, I saved the rest of my meal and put it in the oven on a baking sheet at 350F for 10 minutes.  The oil that gets trapped in the batter basically fried the veggies and such again making it even more crispy and tasty.  I was really impressed.

I don't like frozen food, I don't really want to go to a hibachi grill where I always get tempura, and I don't really want to order takeout most days.  Having a way to make a tempura batter off of things I always have in my cabinet was a serious win for this apartment.  My only complaint is since I did not have a dipping sauce, some of it tasted a little bland.  I sprinkled salt on mine when it came out of the fryer.  Keep in mind, however, that I am very used to using sea salt in meals and used regular salt in this, which I always thinks skews my taste buds.  You can adjust the salt level as desired.

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