Texas Whiskey Balls--You Bet!

December 1--This is the Day!  To make those whiskey balls--you want them to sit and mellow in all that good whiskey--so with each bite you get a burst of flavor.  Don't open the tin until

Christmas Eve--well, maybe you can sneak one or two before then.  After all, someone needs to be

the tester.

In Texas we use good whiskey, especially this one from Garrison Brothers Distillery in Hye, Texas.

We met Dan Garrison right at the creation of his distillery back in November, 2009--

If you are near Hye (west of Johnson City, TX) sometime be sure to stop in to see the

distillery and have a sample of some mighty fine whiskey.

Anyway, back to making those whiskey balls--they have got to age and I mean if you can mix them up earlier than December 1--do it!

1 Box of Vanilla wafers

1 Cup powdered sugar

1 cup pecans

1/2 teaspoon cocoa

2 Tablespoons of syrup

1/4 Cup whiskey

grate pecans and wafers--mix all ingredients

roll into balls--you can roll the balls into powdered sugar or cocoa

Mellow out those suckers!

Holiday Cookies--

What would the holidays been without cookies--the edible kind?  Over the next few days I will post some of my favorite recipes that have been passed down from friends and family.  Many years ago, when we had young kids, several of us would host cookie parties--invite 12 people who bring 12 plates of dozen cookies!  It was a fun event and you could bake your favorite recipe for 12 dozen and have different 12 dozen cookies to share with family.  Each evening, I would make up a plate of cookies and the family members would come together to share their day's adventures.  Hubby always made a 'mean' eggnog, which the kids enjoyed along with their cookies.  It was a great family time--

now, the kids are grown and have kids of their own--but, when December 21 rolls around and the family comes back together, we share this same tradition.

May your holiday be filled with delicious love of baking to share!

Today's recipe:  Russian Teacakes--Melt in your mouth good!!  You may know these cookies by other names:  Mexican Wedding Cakes or Snowball Cookies.

  Where did they originate? – This is where things get tricky. In the 18th century Russian Tea Cakes began appearing in Russia where they were used as a delicious confection during tea-sharing ceremonies. Tea was introduced during the 1600’s and the Russians used to traditionally consume sweet cakes and cookies with samovar tea. Who actually invented them or their exact place of origin is still unknown and actually causes quite a few headaches and heated debates among food and drink aficionados all over the world. Many believe Eastern Europe to be the main location of origin as many shortbread and cookie recipes were a part of Eastern European cuisine often being made by Eastern European nuns.

• How have they evolved overtime? – So, the exact place of origin and the exact roots of its creators are still a mystery to this day, but how on earth does a recipe believed to have originated in the cold and snowy lands of Russia, find its way over the warm and dusty climes of Mexico in the form of Mexican Wedding Cakes? As you may expect, these confectioneries are often consumed during Mexican wedding ceremonies, but how did they make their way over in the first place? Well, they’re believed to have migrated over to Mexico with European nuns. There were a lot of convents in Mexico and a lot of European nuns made their way over there between the 18th and 20th century. There was often a great deal of baking that went on in Mexican convents so it’s a very strong possibility that they may have been a convent sweet treat brought over by European nuns, that began to make its way out into the public. By the 20th century, these cookies were a traditional part of Christmas time in the US and wedding traditions in Mexico, and began appearing in US cookbooks around the 1950’s. In Mexico, a very similar dish entitled Bizcochitos uses exactly the same ingredients and methods of cooking, except they use the addition of mild anise.
• 
  

• 1 cup butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 6 tablespoons confectioners' sugar

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
  
  
• 1 cup chopped walnuts
• 1/3 cup confectioners' sugar for decoration
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
• In a medium bowl, cream butter and vanilla until smooth. Combine the 6 tablespoons confectioners' sugar and flour; stir into the butter mixture until just blended. Mix in the chopped walnuts. Roll dough into 1 inch balls, and place them 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet.
• Bake for 12 minutes in the preheated oven. When cool, roll in remaining confectioners' sugar. I also like to roll mine in the sugar a second time.

Christmas Trees Sew Along

Okay--why didn't I begin some Christmas sewing months ago instead of waiting to 

the last month..................oh well, didn't (!) but here is an opportunity to

sew along with Lori Holt of Bee in my bonnet as she makes this 

delightful wall hanging of Christmas trees!

I can see all my favorite holiday fabrics here!

She also has the Cozy Christmas Sew Along that

you can find along the side panel of this blog.

or better--just hop over to her blog to pick up this free tutorial.

I'm heading to my fabric stash to see what trees I can create!

Check This Out!!

Definitely check this out!  Last spring Natalia designed a series of free-tutorials, she designed them all with bright fabrics and she is so excited for Christmas Natalia thought that it would be fun to go back through those and see what they'd look like in Christmas fabrics. So, from now until Christmas she'll be sharing some of my favorite free-tutorials, Christmas style! It's her little Christmas gift to you!

Of course, there is no way, absolutely no way, there will be much sewing during this time period

from my studio, but it's worth saving these lovely patterns for future reference.

Let's Crochet A Hyperbolic Plane!

You're saying "A What?"  This involves math--of that I'm not very good at; it also involves geometry--also not good at!  But, if you put these two things together with fiber--I'm good at that!   So let's try our hand at crocheting these handy dandy math involved scrubbies!  If you want to do further study of hyperbolic planes and spheres check out this website. 

Here is the pattern for the hyperbolic plane scrubbie!  I'm so glad there are math enthusiasts out there that can translate geometry to fiber and needles!

Spinning 101

Do you have a question about double drive , scotch tension,  and irish tension on your spinning wheel?
Here is an article from Schacht Spindle and company on understanding your wheel better to achieve the yarn you want to spin.

Scotch Tension

Double Drive 

Black Friday

Sooooo, are you out in the crowds shopping till you drop?

There was one year blond headed daughter and I braved 4 AM to

get in the shopping mode.  It was fun event--just that one time!

We timed our stores to find breakfast at one store, better bargains

at another--we stood in line, conversed with strangers, laughed

and was merry!  We weren't involved in any big fights--everyone was

happy and enjoying the day.

That was then--this is now!  I'm shopping online and let USPS, UPS or FEDEX

deliver my packages.  Of course, I'm a few years older and the grands are

adults so they don't want those special priced games or toys.

Here's wishing you a peaceful Black Friday!

Black Friday is the day following Thanksgiving Day in the United States (the fourth Thursday of November). Since 1932, it has been regarded as the beginning of the Christmas shopping season in the U.S., and most major retailers open very early (and more recently during overnight hours) and offer promotional sales. Black Friday is not an official holiday, but California and some other states observe "The Day After Thanksgiving" as a holiday for state government employees, sometimes in lieu of another federal holiday such as Columbus Day.^[2] Many non-retail employees and schools have both Thanksgiving and the following Friday off, which, along with the following regular weekend, makes it a four-day weekend, thereby increasing the number of potential shoppers. It has routinely been the busiest shopping day of the year since 2005,^[3] although news reports, which at that time were inaccurate,^[4] have described it as the busiest shopping day of the year for a much longer period of time.^[5] Similar stories resurface year upon year at this time, portraying hysteria and shortage of stock, creating a state of positive feedback.

The earliest evidence of the phrase Black Friday applied to the day after Thanksgiving in a shopping context suggests that the term originated in Philadelphia, where it was used to describe the heavy and disruptive pedestrian and vehicle traffic that would occur on the day after Thanksgiving. This usage dates to at least 1961. More than twenty years later, as the phrase became more widespread, a popular explanation became that this day represented the point in the year when retailers begin to turn a profit, thus going from being "in the red" to being "in the black,