On the 6th day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...

♪ ♫ ...six wish list items ♫ ♪ 

♪ ♫ fiiiiiiiiive pounds of chili ♫ ♪

♪ ♫ four clear glass bulbs ♫ ♪

♪ ♫ three quick breads ♫ ♪

♪ ♫ two craft projects ♫ ♪

♪ ♫ and an invite to Christmas Eve. ♫ ♪

I actually had a difficult time making a wish list this year.  I don't think I even told any of my loved ones specifically about these items.  They are on my Amazon wish list though.  That counts, right?



1.  These are the movies I saw over the last year that I would watch over and over again.  I love Sandra Bullock, Ryan Reynolds, Vince Vaughn, Jason Segal, and especially Paul Rudd.  I've loved him ever since Clueless.  It was the icing on the cake when he married Phoebe on Friends.  :)

The Proposal

Couples Retreat

I Love You, Man

2.  I bought my first iPod over the summer.  I love it so much that my husband hates it.  It's pretty much always near me.  I think an alarm clock that charges your iPod and lets you wake up to it is pretty awesome.

iHome iP9 Clock Radio for iPod and iPhone

3.  I use my stand mixer so much, sometimes it's a pain to have to wash the bowl and beater before I can move onto my next project.  Having a spare bowl and beater would make things that much easier.  I'd still have to clean them, just not as quickly.  :)

KitchenAid K45SBWH Bowl for Pivot Head Stand Mixer

KitchenAid K45B Flat Beater Replacement for KSM90 and K45 Stand Mixer

4.  I have one of these containers and just love it.  It's easy to put the lid on and take it off.  Plus, it looks nice.  I could really organize my pantry with a set or two of these.

OXO Good Grips 10-Piece POP Container Set

5.  This is one of my favorite TV shows.  Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin are great together.  The rest of the cast is pretty darn great as well.

"I'm going to make you a mixed tape.  You like Phil Collins?"

30 Rock: Season 4

30 Rock: Season 5

6.  I'm not a scrapbooker, but I do like paper crafts.  With this machine, there's no limit to what I could create.  I'd love to make some invitations or custom notecards with this.  I see many, many papercuts in my future.  Maybe I should also put some band aids and Neosporin on my wish list...

Cricut Expression Personal Electronic Cutter

On the 5th day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...

♪ ♫ ...fiiiiiiiiive pounds of chili ♫ ♪

♪ ♫ four clear glass bulbs ♫ ♪

♪ ♫ three quick breads ♫ ♪

♪ ♫ two craft projects ♫ ♪

♪ ♫ and an invite to Christmas Eve. ♫ ♪

Okay, maybe not five pounds, but pretty close to it.  :)

We had our first considerable snowfall in southeast Michigan last weekend.  It was sooo cold, and all I could think about was warm, comfort food.

Chili

Recipe courtesy of my mom's co-worker

Ingredients:

• 1 lb ground chuck
• 1 lb ground sirloin
• 1 pkt mild chili seasoning (I use McCormick)
• 1 pkt hot chili seasoning
• 1 can hot chili beans
• 1 can red kidney beans
• 1 can mild chili beans (optional)
• 1 can stewed tomatoes or 1 can diced tomatoes with onions
• 1 small onion, diced (if you use stewed tomatoes or diced tomatoes without onion)
• 1 can tomato sauce
• 1 tsp sugar

Directions:

1. Brown the ground beef in a skillet and drain the fat.  Transfer to a slow cooker.
2. Add chili seasoning packets, beans, tomatoes, onion (if using), and sugar.
3. Mix everything well and heat on medium for 3-4 hours.

I used a can of Chili Ready w/ Onions - Red Gold Diced Tomatoes.  I hate cutting up onions and this eliminates that step for me.  :) 

I also only use two cans of beans.  I don't like beans, so the less there are the better.  They're so gross.  What's up with the texture?  If you don't believe me, this is what my bowl looks like when I'm done eating:

I can be such a child sometimes.  :)

On the 4th day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...

♪ ♫ ...four clear glass bulbs ♫ ♪

♪ ♫ three quick breads ♫ ♪

♪ ♫ two craft projects ♫ ♪

♪ ♫ and an invite to Christmas Eve. ♫ ♪

I picked up a package of four of these bad boys at Jo Ann Fabrics.  They were 60% off. 

Then I did this to them:

I had some leftover feathers from making GIANT angel wings for the Miss Wayne County pageant back in September. 

I forgot about them, so it was too late to return the unopened package I had.

All I did was take off the hanger from the top of the ornament and shove in a few feathers.  I used a coffee stirrer to push them in.  Very technical and professional, I know.  ;)

I actually really love how they turned out. I might have to go snag another package or two of the clear bulbs so I can use up the rest of the feathers.

On the 3rd day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...

♪ ♫ ...three quick breads ♫ ♪

♪ ♫ two craft projects ♫ ♪

♪ ♫ and an invite to Christmas Eve. ♫ ♪

The other day my mom asked if I would make some quick bread for her to take to her office Christmas party.  Like a good daughter, I said "yes" to my mother.  She needed to pick up the breads after work on Wednesday, so Tuesday was baking night for me.

I decided to make pumpkin, apple, and banana nut bread.

I came home from work and immediately started on the pumpkin bread.  It's the easiest of the three, so I decided to start that one first. 

While it was baking, I started prepping for the next two breads. 

I used frozen bananas for the banana nut bread, so I took them out of the freezer and placed them in a bowl to defrost while I worked on preparing the dry ingredients for the next two breads.

I measured the dry ingredients into bowls for each type of bread and labeled the bowl so I wouldn't be confused later on.  My kitchen was starting to become pretty messy...  I then cored, peeled, and shredded my apples.  Have I mentioned how much I love my food processor?  If I haven't before, I love it.  Like seriously love it.  :)  I then mixed the wet ingredients for the apple bread together with the dry ingredients.

By that time, the pumpkin bread was pretty much ready to come out of the oven.  After letting it cool, I cleaned out the bread pans (while silently cursing myself for not picking up two more...) and poured in the apple bread batter. 

Into the oven they went.  While they baked, I prepared the banana nut bread batter, covered the bowl with cling wrap, and put it in the fridge.  We were meeting our friends for our weekly get together at Bailey's ($2 pints all day every Tuesday!  I always order water...), so I figured I'd bake the banana bread when we returned home.  My hubby said he'd pull it out of the oven when the timer when off so that I could go to sleep at my normal bedtime.

Around 12:30, Ryan rushes into the bedroom and wakes me with, "I never heard the timer!"  Oh yeah...we had some pretty rock hard loaves of banana nut bread!  Our house smelled of burnt banana bread, which actually wasn't too bad.  It could have been A LOT worse, right?

I'm just thankful they didn't bake all night!!

Since I've posted the recipes for the pumpkin and banana nut breads before, there's only one recipe today.  It's a good one though!  I think this is my favorite quick bread that I make.  However, when I grabbed the bananas out of the freezer last night I saw some frozen strawberries and had the brilliant idea of strawberry banana bread.  I might have to try that one soon!

Apple Bread

Recipe courtesy of Better Homes and Gardens

Ingredients:

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 3 eggs, beaten
• 3 cups shredded, peeled cooking apples (4 medium)
• 2 cups sugar
• 2/3 cup cooking oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla 

Directions:

1. Grease and flour three 7-1/2x3-1/2x2-inch or two 8x4x2-inch baking pans.  Set aside.  In a medium bowl combine flour, soda, salt, cinnamon, and baking powder; set aside.
2. In a large bowl combine eggs, apples, sugar, oil, and vanilla.  Stir in flour mixture just until moistened.  Pour batter into prepared pans.  Bake in a 325 degree F oven for 45 to 55 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.  Cool in pans on wire racks for 10 minutes.  Remove from pans.  Cool on wire racks.  Wrap and store overnight before slicing.  Makes 30 servings.

On the 2nd day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...

♪ ♫ ...two craft projects ♫ ♪

♪ ♫ and an invite to Christmas Eve. ♫ ♪

The other day I started feeling like we needed more Christmas decorations.  The little table centerpiece in our dining area just wasn't cutting it.  Then, I saw this post over at My Happy House.  I had to try and recreate her chandelier Christmas bulb extravaganza!

Our chandelier isn't quite as substantial or conducive for lots of glass bulbs, but I did my best.  I bought two different sized packages of glass bulbs at Target in a beautiful cranberry color and strung them up with some ribbon purchased at Jo Ann Fabrics at 60% off.  Here's what I came up with:

It's not quite as expansive, but can't figure out where I'd fit anymore bulbs since our glass shades point downward.  Needless to say, I still wasn't entirely pleased with this area of our home.

There were some bulbs leftover and I had one very plain transom window, so I decided they needed to be used again in this area.  One Merry Christmas sign, nine 3M Command hooks, one broken bulb, and some string later, I had this:

Much better!

On the 1st day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...

♪ ♫ ...an invite to Christmas Eve. ♫ ♪
                    

Welcome to the first day of Brookie's Cookies' Twelve Days of Christmas!  Today we are tackling Christmas invitations.

My dad's side of the family has always had our Christmas on Christmas Eve.  It's been that way for the 29 years I've been around, and I'm sure it's been that way for even longer than that.  Everyone know it's Christmas Eve after my dad and uncle get off from work (they're letter carriers and don't have the luxury of having Christmas Eve off).  Even though this is common knowledge, I still felt the need to make invitations.

I think I will always feel the need to make invitations...for almost everything.

I can't take full credit for this invite.  I did have some inspiration help from Vista Print, but I love that I can re-create and make items my own.  Even if I did misunderstand my mother and ask everyone to bring a dessert...  Santa's bringing us cavities for Christmas!

I used my trusty Paint Shop Pro to make the invite and printed it on leftover card stock from our wedding.  I used leftover envelopes from our wedding as well.  Love using what we've got!

I'm back!

I'm back from my hiatus! 

I truly didn't mean to take a hiatus, but immediatly following Ryan's birthday party (actually sort of in the middle of the party), we started not feeling very well.  When I'm sick, I'm a baby.  I did nothing.  Literally nothing for a week.  I didn't even take photos at Ryan's birthday party.  I could tell the birthday boy wasn't feeling all that great and did NOT want a camera in his face.

The next week I was feeling better, so that meant catching up on all of the house stuff I let slide the week before.  Things like laundry and the dishes.  I filled the dishwasher, emptied it, and immediatly filled it again with the dishes sitting in our sink.  Yes, there were that many.

The first meal I made after not cooking for a week was...chicken fingers.  Yes, we've had them a lot since I first posted them.  What can I say?  We like kid food around here.  Heck, I sometimes even order off the kids' menu.  I had a waitress once ask me if I wanted my burger brought out in the car-shaped basket.  I told her a regular basket was just fine.

I did alter the breading a bit this time.  Ryan wasn't thrilled with the panko bread crumbs.  I happened to be out of them, so I found a packet of Shake N Bake and a bottle of Mrs. Dash Italian Seasoning in the pantry and made up my own breading.  :)

Crunchy Chicken Fingers

- Part 2 -

Ingredients:

• 1 lb boneless, skinless chicken tenders
• 1 packet of Shake N Bake for chicken
• 1 Tbls of Italian seasoning (I used Mrs. Dash)
• 1 Tbls of parmesean cheese

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.
2. Lay a wire rack on a baking sheet and spray it with non-stick spray. In a separate bowl, mix Shake N Bake, seasoning, and cheese.  Dip the chicken tenders in the mix and coat thoroughly, then lay on the baking sheet.  Repeat with remaining chicken.
3. Spray each chicken piece lightly with cooking spray (it will help them crisp) and bake for 12 minutes. Flip and bake for 12 more. Let cool.

Ryan liked these a lot better than the first version I made.  I liked them too, but prefer the first version.  I will probably rotate the two types. 

I did not attempt to make french fries again.  We had garlic bread instead.  :)