Christmas Cookie Week: Easy Sugar Cookies

Welcome to Christmas Cookie Week 2011!

This week my friend Grace at Sense & Simplicity and I hope to inspire you to get some Christmas baking done before the busy-ness of December starts.
I am going to showcase easy cookies that can be made in 1 hour...and recipes that anyone can tackle.
And remember it's just me and my little blue mixer in my little kitchen!

***

The first cookie I want to share with you is one of my favourites...the humble

*SUGAR COOKIE*

This cookie is so perfect... it can be mixed up in 10 minutes and because it is a drop cookie recipe, it doesn't need to be rolled out with a rolling pin.

This cookie is tender and buttery and oh-so-good fresh from the oven.

This recipe comes from my Grandmother Ada.

She made these cookies year round and kept them in a glass cookie jar on her kitchen counter.

{You can see the recipe below...published in 1979 in a little country community cookbook}

 I double the recipe as my Grandmother suggests.

And when you make cookies....always use real butter and real vanilla...the taste is so worth it!
*SUGAR COOKIES*
{makes 3 1/2 dozen}

In mixing bowl combine:
1 cup butter
2 cups sugar

2 eggs

4 tbsp milk

2 tsp. vanilla

Beat until light and fluffy.

In another bowl, stir together:

3 1/2 cups flour

4 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

Add flour mixture to butter mixture gradually. Beat until mixed to form soft dough.

Roll dough into 1.5 inch balls.

Flatten with a fork.

Add Christmas sprinkles as desired.

Bake in 325 oven for 8-10 minutes.

Let cool on cookie sheet for a few minutes.

Then transfer to cooling rack.

  Here are the sugar cookies on my Christmas cookie platter last year.

I think every cookie platter could use a tasty sugar cookie!

Please make sure you hop on over to Sense & Simplicity to see what Grace cookie is sharing today!

And check back later this afternoon to see fun packaging inspiration for our little cookie!

Announcing 'Christmas Cookie Week'....

I am so excited for Monday to come as Grace from 'Sense & Simplicity' and I are co-hosting a week of Christmas cooking baking and sharing!

Every day next week, starting on Monday, November 21, we will be sharing a cookie recipe with you!

We are hoping to inspire to you to start your Christmas baking and to also try out a few new recipes!
We also want to share some pretty cookie packaging!

Join us on Monday and share in the fun!

Project Homemade Christmas:Strawberry Butter

This is one of my all-time favorite strawberry treats!

It is my mother's recipe and she has been making it for years.

Strawberry Butter. 
It tastes absolutely divine on fresh biscuits....nothing compares!

This year I have decided to share this wonderful butter with my friends for Christmas.

You will be happy to know that this is another very do-able project...you can make it and package it in under an hour!

It takes 3 simple ingredients:

1 cup of butter.

1 cup of strawberry jam.

{I used homemade freezer strawberry jam that I made in Nova Scotia this summer. Yes. I dragged home frozen jam in my suitcase from Nova Scotia to Alberta. Don't judge.}

{And yes, I do think that blackberry jam or raspberry jam would work just as well!}

2-3 cups of icing sugar.

Mix well until you have the consistency of a whipped butter.

Thick but not runny.

Then spoon butter into small, clean jars and embellish how ever you like.

I used red polka dot ribbon...and I made the labels with Avery oval labels and my computer.

You can read more about making Avery labels here.

Store the Strawberry Butter in the fridge until gift-giving time.

Serve Strawberry Butter at room temperature with biscuits, muffins or toast.

You could also tuck a Christmas-themed spreader into the ribbon and give the butter with a batch of biscuits or muffins.

I picked up these little spice jars from Superstore, and the spreaders were 2 for a $1 at Dollarama.

And yes.

As soon as I put my camera down, I ate that strawberry-butter-topped biscuit!

Happy Weekend!

This post has been linked to these terrific parties:































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Project Homemade Christmas: Peppermint Foot Soak...

I have been busy with Christmas this week...having lots of fun creating homemade gifts!

I have a number of projects that I want to share with you in the coming weeks.

I have an important rule though.

I want to share with you projects that only take about an hour of your time...because we are all busy people, right?

I like projects that are completely do-able in a reasonable amount of time....so an hour is my rule of thumb.

The first project I tackled this week...

*Peppermint Foot Soak*

This is a great gift for friends, teachers, book club members and any girl on your Christmas list!

For this project you will need:

Small jars...recycled, canning jars or from the dollar store.

I got these for $1 at the Dollarama.

Epsom salts and peppermint oil.

I picked up this bag of epsom salts at Superstore for $4.29.

Peppermint oil can be found at any health food or natural foods store.

I found peppermint oil in the drug section of my local grocery store for $13.99.

Pour the epsom salts into a bowl and add 8-10 drops of peppermint oil to the salts and mix up with  a spoon.

Now scoop the peppermint foot soak into the small, clean jars,

Embellish with ribbon and a mini candy cane if you like.

This gift would also be great paired with soft, fluffy socks.

I picked up a cute red pair from Dollarama.

Now, how did I make those labels, you ask?

Here's a tip...Avery Labels has a great site where you can go and design and print your labels online.

I love this site and I have used it several times for address labels, organizational labels and food labels.

I picked up a package of the new oval labels from Staples for around $13.00.

I know that I will use these labels often, so the cost was worth it to me.

Then I went online to the Avery 'Design & Print Online' tab, put in the number of this product and made the labels.

I then printed the labels from my computer, peeled them off the sheet and put them on the jars.

Easy!

If you have never done this before, it may take you a little time to figure it out, but having this skill is so useful!

You could also make labels with scrapbook supplies.

Whatever works for you!

Using the size jars and the bag of epsom salts I used made 8 jars of peppermint foot soak.

You could use smaller jars to make more gifts if you like!

Here are some other homemade Christmas gift ideas you might like:

Gourmet Oatmeal Cookie Mix

10 Homemade Gift Ideas

Vacation Memory Jar

4 Amazing Photo Gift Ideas

Vacation Memories Shadow Box

And you can take a peek at these boards on Pinterest:

Christmas Gift Ideas

Christmas Cookies

New Year's Ideas

Linked to:
Handmade Wrap & Gift Party, Handmade Gifts,

Organizing For Christmas 101...

Here in Canada, we celebrated Thanksgiving in October, and with Halloween come & gone, and Remembrance Day observed on November 11, we can now focus on getting ready for Christmas.

Last November, I wrote this post on how I am a formerly 'late to the Christmas party' person.

I used to leave things to the last minute and chronically under-estimate the time it would take to do things....so therefore, I was not enjoying Christmas at all. I found I was tired and stressed out.

I began to think that perhaps there was a better way to 'do' Christmas.

And there is.

And the SECRET is this:

*Start early.*

 *Give yourself deadlines.*

 *Do only the things you enjoy. Let the rest go.*

Part of starting early is to use the month of November to do the 'work' of Christmas.

November is about for preparing for Christmas.

December is for enjoying Christmas.

I am going to share with you my list for November and the things that I like to do because they give me joy!

1. Christmas Cards-Deadline- December 1st.

I love, love, love sending & receiving Christmas cards. It's one of my favourite things about Christmas.

Our Christmas cards include the annual Christmas photo of the kids and a brief Christmas letter to share our news as I still have many older family members who do not have computers.

I want to have my Christmas cards in the mail on December 1.

2. Christmas Baking-Starting November 19th.

I love putting on Christmas music and making myself busy in the kitchen whipping up treats to share with loved ones. Baking relaxes me and I like making old favourites along with trying out a few new things.

This is a cookie platter that I made up last year to share with friends.

I gave out 5 of these platters.

Next week will be 'CHRISTMAS COOKIE' week here at Echoes of Laughter. I can't wait to share some treats with you and I also have a blogging friend joining in with me on the fun!

I am starting Christmas baking this week...beginning with the treats that freeze well.

3. December Daily Album for 2011-Deadline December 1st.

I started doing this 2 years ago and I love this project. It's involves making a mini-scrapbook with a page for each day of December to record all the little things that make up the season.

I plan to have my mini album ready for December 1 so that I can just add a picture and little writing for each day.

4. Christmas Decorating-Deadline-Last 2 Weeks of November.

I love creating fresh tablescapes for the season. I plan to have the holiday decorating done by the end of this week...everything but the tree.

We will decorate the tree as a family the first week of December. We love to listen to Christmas carols while decorating the tree and then we have appetizers and watch 'Elf". It's one of our fav Christmas traditions.

5. Shopping Complete-Deadline-December 1st.

I do not enjoy Christmas shopping in December with heavy traffic, full parking lots and long line-ups.

I know some people enjoy shopping in December because it puts them in the Christmas mood.

But I would rather be home baking!

My personal deadline to have my shopping completed and wrapped is December 1st.

For the last few years, I have had a 'shopping date' with a friend where we go shopping  on a weekday while the kids are in school and we start early, shop, have lunch, and finish up.

For me, it's a huge sigh of relief to have this done early!

By having the work done in November, December brings lots of time to spend with my family....cuddling up in warm flannel jammies, sipping hot choc, playing games and watching movies.

How about you? Will you join me in using November to get some things done?

What do you plan to tackle first?

Edited to Add: I have had some fantastic comments that this post is really helping people tackle Christmas in a more organized approach. My blogging friend Meg at 'Nutmeg & Company' made this list after reading my post.

Isn't it fabulous?

This post is linked to these terrific parties:

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