Christmas/Hanukkah/Holidays/Festivus is quickly approaching and here on THE BEACH we have some ideas about how to keep your sanity.
Diana Layne, who has six children (9-31) and 3 grandchildren, (not to mention several Romantic Suspense Bestsellers!) has learned a thing about how to make gift giving easier!
Take it away Diana. . .
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The days are quickly passing and Christmas will soon be here. Are you ready? If not, I have some links to last minute do-it-yourself projects!
I’m not much of a do-it-yourselfer except when I’ve been forced into it; times of too many kids and not enough money. More often than not, my projects never turn out as planned. One year, I had the bright idea to make candles . . . not too hard, right? Let me just say if the grid ever goes out and we no longer have electricity and have to go back to the candle days . . . I’ll be in the dark. #disaster
One project that did turn out well was a
potpourri hanger made out of an embroidery hoop. Likely that turned out well
because it was a church project and I had someone helping me step-by-step. I
don’t have a picture but I did find one on the internet with instructions. Really,
if I can do it, it’s pretty easy. The article suggests making them for Mother’s
Day, but they do work for Christmas too. (Actually, I bet a lot of these
projects work for any special occasion.)
Finally, though, my go-to homemade gift was
cookies. I baked all kinds, but became most well-known throughout the family
for my Russian teacakes. They look festive inside a small holiday tin and most
everyone loves them. I’ll include the recipe at the end of the post.
Below are some links to pages with a bunch of
other links—hopefully you’ll find something perfect to make for that last
minute gift!
Really big
list of Homemade Stocking Stuffers: Click here
Gifts you can
make in under an hour: Click here!
Stocking Stuffer Candy Sleighs: Click here (I plan to make these for
the grandkids)
Want the house to smell Christmas-y while
you’re working? Click here.
And as
promised, the Russian teacake recipe:
(The picture was taken with my iPod. I don’t
have a camera; I pretty much flunk in the photography department, too. But
trust me, they’re cute inside a little tin. Or big one, just depends on how
much of a baking mood you’re in.)
Russian Teacakes
1 cup butter or margarine, softened
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 ¼ cups Gold Medal® all-purpose flour
¾ cup finely chopped nuts
¼ teaspoon salt
Powdered sugar
Heat oven to 400ºF.
Mix butter, 1/2 cup powdered sugar and the
vanilla in large bowl. Stir in flour, nuts and salt until dough holds together.
Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Place about 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie
sheet.
Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until set but not
brown. Remove from cookie sheet. Cool slightly on wire rack.
Roll warm cookies in powdered sugar; cool on
wire rack. When thoroughly cool, roll in powdered sugar again. (I just put the
sugar in a big bowl)
TIPS: Margarine or butter works
equally well, but I prefer the taste of butter. I also use salted butter for
this particular recipe, it tastes too bland without it, even though there is a
bit of salt in the recipe itself. Do NOT use reduced fat butter, the cookies
will turn out tough and rubbery (said from experience).
I always use a Bosch to mix them. If you mix
by hand and find it’s not mixing well, the butter is not soft enough. If you
use a food processor or kitchen machine and the dough is crumbly and not
sticking together, again, the butter is not soft enough. The perfect dough
should clean the sides of the bowls as it’s mixing.
I always divide the dough and leave part of
it in the fridge while I’m rolling; otherwise if it gets too warm the balls
won’t hold their shape. Also, if you find your balls flatten while baking, the
dough needs to be chilled a bit. I do the first rolling of sugar when the
cookies are just barely cool enough to touch-they need to be warm to melt the
sugar.
Hope my ideas help. If you have your own
foolproof last minute DIY gift, or if you’ve tried one of the ones listed,
please feel free to share in the comments.
Diana Layne,
Check out Diana's Bestselling Amazon Series THE VISTA SECURITY SERIES. Just visit her Beach Read Authors page by clicking here.
Thanks Diana! I just spent the last hour looking at very cute crafts on those sites! Great ideas. My daughter and I will have to do some of these.
ReplyDeleteKim
I find crafts fall into the same category as cooking with me. I have tons of cookbooks, I love to read the recipes. But cook, not so much. Same with crafts-I tend to be all thumbs. But since I homeschool, some of these things are fun to do for art class. If I approach it as fun instead of having to be perfect, I do better. :) (ok, ok, I'm a tad OCD, I admit it, ha.)
DeleteMy mom made Russian Tea Cakes every year. Good cookies!
ReplyDeleteYes, melt in your mouth good. Except it's a tradition, once started, can't seem to be stopped. :)
DeleteAwesome! Thank you for all the great, crafty gift ideas. And the Russian Teacakes sound delicious...they ARE cute! Merry Christmas!
ReplyDeleteThanks and you're welcome and Merry Christmas to you, too!
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