Goodness!  I've been so busy in this mad Christmas lead-up that I've barely had time to cook yummy Christmas treats let alone post on here!!

With the big day coming tomorrow, I'd just like to take this moment to wish you all a Very Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, or however you prefer to hear it!

So much is happening this time of year, my brain can hardly keep up with it!

It's the time of year when people are thinking about getting a new puppy or kitten to surprise their family at Christmas, while others may be wondering what to do with their animals while they are away on holidays.

The title of my post today has a double meaning.

This past week at work has been heartbreaking.

For those of you who are unaware, we are now in kitten season, and we are also fast approaching Christmas, which means there is also a boom in the backyard and factory puppy business.

Summer!  Christmas!  BBQ Season!  Party Season!  New Years!

Pick any of the above, or add your own!  It's around this time of year that I start getting really excited about the upcoming festivities, reminiscing about the months behind, and posting more to my blog (yep, predictable...)!

Long hot days spent enjoying good wine and food with friends...  Camping and kayaking... Swimming at the river...  Why wouldn't I be excited?!

I've already started making mental lists of all the yummy things I get to cook next month to give away to friends and family.  Don't forget to check out my Recipes page to get your own ideas.  I've even got a few new ones up my sleeve to share closer to Christmas!!

Ideas for gifts are racing through my head, and where the heck did I put all the leftover Christmas Cards?!

These made a lovely addition to Gift Bags for friends and family with hairy 4-legged members!

I think this recipe still needs a little more work, but Harry and Abby insist it's good enough to post as is!

Harry Supervises

Ingredients
1 Cup Rolled Oats
1 Cup Plain Wholemeal Flour
1/2 Cup Plain Flour
1 Teaspoon Salt
1/2 Teaspoon Baking Soda (Bicarb)
3 Tablespoons Natural Sugar-Free Yogurt
1/3 Cup Olive Oil
1/4 Cup Water
1/4 Cup Flavorings (See Note)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 150°C
2. Combine the Oats, Flours, Salt and Baking Soda in a bowl.
3. Add in the wet ingredients, and mix well.
4. Mix through the flavorings.  For a more decorative effect, reserve some to press into the tops of the cookies.
5. Knead dough with a little extra Plain Flour until well combined, then roll out to about 8mm thick (just under 1cm).
6. Cut into whatever shapes you like!  I used a dog-bone shape, and some smaller Star and Heart shapes for smaller doggies.
7. Bake on a cookie sheet for approx. 30 minutes, or until firm.  If they are starting to get a bit too golden on the bottom, turn them over.
8. Cool on racks away from hungry noses!

Note
Flavorings can be any dog-safe treat that will keep without refrigeration.
Examples:
Sugar-Free Yogurt or Carob Drops, Dried Liver, Dried Chicken/Beef/Lamb Jerky, Commercial Dog Treats (Schmacko's etc).  Chop them up roughly into small pieces!

These were a huge hit with all recipients!

Recipe courtesy of The Australian Women's Weekly: Macaroons & Biscuits Cookbok!

Ingredients

• 125g unsalted butter, softened
• 110g firmly packed dark brown sugar
• 1 egg yolk
• 375g plain flour
• 1tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 3tsp ground ginger
• 175g golden syrup

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 180C. Line baking tray with baking paper.

2. Beat butter, sugar and egg yolk in small bowl with electric mixer until smooth. Transfer to a large bowl and stir in sifted dry ingredients and syrup in two batches.
   

3. Knead dough gently on floured surface until smooth. Roll dough between sheets of baking paper to 5mm thickness (it may be easier to divide the the dough into halves) Proceed to cut dough into desired shaped and bake about 10 minutes. Cool on trays.

I decorated the cookies with assorted colors of Royal Icing.  I substituted the Lemon Juice in the recipe below with Vanilla Extract, and it was YUMMY.  Note: Do not eat too much Royal Icing...

Ingredients

1 egg white
240g pure icing sugar
4 drops lemon juice
food colouring

Directions

Beat egg in small bowl with electric mixer, gradually beat in sifted icing sugar. When mixture reaches piping consistency beat in juice(/essence). Divide and Colour icing as you desire.

More from my afternoon of baking with Anita!

Neither of us had made Biscotti before, so we weren't quite sure how it would turn out.  And true to form, I changed the recipe to suit myself before we had even started!!

Here's the Original Recipe, and my adaptation is as follows:

Ingredients

• 2 1/3 cups plain flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 2 eggs
• 2 egg whites
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup sliced almonds
• 1 cup fresh cranberries, coarsely chopped
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries, coarsely chopped

We followed the rest of the directions as per the original recipe:

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325ºF.
2. Combine dry ingredients in a medium mixing bowl.
3. Beat eggs, egg whites, and vanilla in a separate bowl until frothy.
4. Add egg mixture to dry ingredients, mixing just until moist, using an electric mixer on medium speed.

The batter was so thick!!  I thought we were going to blow up the mixer!

5. Add almonds and cranberries; mix thoroughly.
6. On a floured surface, divide batter in half and pat each half into a log about 14 inches long and 1 1/2 inches wide.
7. Place on a cookie sheet and bake in oven for 30 minutes.
8. Cool on wire rack.
9. Reduce oven temperature to 300ºF.
10. Cut biscotti into 1/2 inch slices. Stand upright on cookie sheet and bake another 20 minutes.

I think the most important part of making a good Biscotti is to let it cool well, and store it somewhere airy to keep it crunchy - almost letting it go stale-ish.  It was deliciously sweet, and I'll be making this again soon to eat all myself!!

These looked fantastic lined up in cellophane bags, tied with curling ribbon!

We had a lovely Christmas, with a Friends & Family BBQ at our home on Christmas eve, followed by a lovely buffet lunch at Villa Italiana at the Casino for Lunch, and a Family BBQ at my Nan's for Dinner!

Boxing Day was just as lovely, with a lovely cold 'Leftover' spread for Lunch with our friends the Wades, and another BBQ Dinner at Broc's Mum's!

A few snaps from the last few days, more to follow later...

Troy opening his present from Uncle Broc & Aunty Annette

Lateena gets just what she wanted!

Boys and their toys!

Abby with their Bumble Ball

Pussum unwrapping the Kong Kickeroo

Daisy knows just what to do with it...

After-food Bliss

Christmas Recipes will go up soon - I promise!

 
A Very Merry Christmas to all!!

I hope you are having a fantastic day, wherever you are, and whoever you are with!

Eat, Drink, Be Merry and Stay Safe!

With Love,
Annette, Broc, Harry, Abby, Pussum, Daisy,
Mr Lizard and The Fish

xoxox

I have been a busy little elf, baking and icing away the last couple of days to create yummy treats for our friends and family.  I will be posting recipes and photos of my creations after Christmas, as I want them to be a surprise for the recipients!

One that I will share with you is Peanut Brittle.  It's really quite easy to make, but does take some forethought and patience.  I first found this particular recipe about five years ago, and kept it as it worked perfectly first go!
Peanut Brittle on Food.com

All of the things I've created are definitely keepers, and I will make them again next year - starting our own Christmas Traditions!!

Creating amazing and special foods for the people I love gives me a real warm, fuzzy feeling.

What food-related Christmas traditions are there in your household?
Do you make treats and cakes as a family?
Is there a special dish you always serve on Christmas Day?

Happy Baking!

Yesterday I was lucky enough to have my Niece, Brittany here with me for the day again!

After a quick rush in to town to get my nails done (they look very Christmassy!), we came home and started making salt dough ornaments!  They're so easy and so much fun...

The basic recipe is Half a cup of Salt, Half a cup of Water, and One cup of Plain Flour.

Mix the Flour and Salt together in a bowl, and slowly add in the Water, mixing with your hands to form a dough.  Add extra Water in small amounts if your dough is too dry, or extra Flour if it is too wet, then...

You have to knead the dough for about 10 minutes, until it's nice and soft!

After your dough is nice and smooth, you can put a little Vegetable Oil on your hands to stop the dough from drying out.

Then roll it out flat...

And cut out any shape you like!!!

Don't forget to poke holes so you can hang your ornaments on the tree!

I had seen on a TV show where they used the microwave to dry them out quicker.  We tried this with little success, so put the rest in a low oven for about half an hour, turning twice.

Once they're mostly dried out, paint and decorate them any way you want!  We used Watercolor paints, Glitter, Glitter Glue and Nailpolish on ours.

Drying off.  Half Bamboo Skewers made it really easy to hold onto the ornaments while decorating

Thanks to Kirstie's Homemade Christmas for the Salt Dough idea!

Yesterday we had our Niece Brittany (ten) and our eldest Nephew, Braedyn (seven) for the day!

What to do with two bored kids on a rainy day in December?  Why, make Christmas cards of course!

Craft in Progress with Abby supervising in the background, and the cat on the table!

It was really lovely to see them let their creativity flow and create these beautiful cards for friends and family.


We decorated the envelopes too!

Inside of Braedyn's card

You can make cards with pretty much anything - they only thing that is a must is Imagination!!

More craft on the cards today... after I get my nails done of course!

Broc, Harry and I had a fantastic day with all our friends - furry and human - at the end of year bash for the TDTC today!

Bobby, Nala and Harry

Seeing so many people come along to have a laugh, and dressing their dogs (and themselves!) up for the occasion was a real hoot.

Holly in her trendy red Christmas shirt!

There were a couple of doggy games - the Bone & Spoon Race and Musical Squares, as well as photos with Santa Claus, we all had a play with some of the agility equipment, lovely food, and general Merriment all-around.

Nala enjoys some Mutt Muffins

Denver gets his lean on with Glenn

Denver gets his lean on some more!

Group Shot

And there were Encouragement Awards!!  Alexander and Bobby got one...

Alexander and Bobby recieving their award

And Kelly, Gerard and Lucy too!

Kelly and Lucy recieve their award!

So to all my Dog Training friends, don't forget to practice, and see you all in the New Year!!  No doubt Tanya will have some more photos up later, and I'm sure Sean will put up some of his shots on the TDTC website too.

Edit:  No award for Harry, but he and 2 other doggies won the Fancy Dress competition, and I forgot to mention last week... We scored 140/150 in our test, and will be starting the new year in Grade 3!

Okay, so I've had a pretty boring week so far!

If you've been following me on Twitter, you'll know I've been suffering with terrible hayfever, which has been making me feel pretty ill.  I've spent a couple days in bed, and the others feeling terrible.

I did manage to get in to town to do some Christmas shopping yesterday though, and picked up some fantastic bargains at Toyworld for my niece and nephews!!  If you have any children to buy for, and don't have anything specific in mind (except a budget!), I highly recommend you take a wander through the store and have a good look around.

Aside from that, I've spent some time thinking about what Christmas yummies I'm going to make for friends and family!!  So far I've found a lovely Biscotti recipe, and have dug up a couple of old favorites - but more on that when I actually make them!

Well, I certainly do feel Christmassy now! Tanya & family invited Broc and I to go along to the Longford Christmas Carols last night, and despite a slightly cool breeze and angry clouds, it didn't rain, and we didn't freeze too bad. Lots of Aussie Christmas songs, and a few traditional carols too - a nice mix.  Enough talking, time for some pictures!!

Bobby

Tanya & I

Alexander, Sausage & Glenn

Random group shot

My darling Broc

Glenn & Tanya - awww

Cute primary school kids in their santa hats!

Nick, Claire & Zander

Harry and I had a wonderful day today, spent with our friends Tanya, Alexander and Nicholas over at Zannick : Our Home Ed Journey creating Christmas Crafts!!

Next weekend is our last day at our Dog Training Club for the year, and they're having a break up BBQ, complete with Fancy Dress!  Alexander's dog Bobby and my big boy Harry will be going together as Santa and his trusty Reindeer, so the majority of today was spent creating their costumes.  The boys also worked on some beautiful felt Christmas Stockings for their pets: Zander for his Ratties, and Nick for his new ferret Hagrid (when he arrives!).
Great Photos of the day over at their blog.  Craft (and everything else for that matter) seems to take that much longer when five dogs are trying to 'help'!

Yoda, she is!  Molly, her name!  Helping, she was!

On arriving home, a suprise was waiting for me in the mailbox - the Santa Paws DVD I won from Just Us Kids blog competition.  A big thankyou to Norlin!


An even bigger surprise was waiting for Broc when he took the dogs outside a few minutes ago...  A great big stick insect - for your viewing pleasure.

Well, a busy weekend awaits.  Here's hoping I can find some more time to work on those frugal Christmas tips!

Over-the-top spending is becoming less in-vogue, and being frugal is becoming even more common and acceptable than it was when our parents and grandparends were young.  But it's not about wearing worn hand-me-downs or using your the same tea bag all day anymore.

Now, being thrifty is as much about being smart with your purchases and use of products as it is about cutting back on extravagances like dining out or buying the latest fashions.  But I'm not here to give you a lesson in frugality, there are plenty of other websites and blogs out there to do that.  I'm writing to share my suggestions on frugal Christmas gifting!

Start Early
I know you say it every year - "I'll start buying my gifts early this year, in the sales!" - but how often do you actually do it?!  Stores run sales all year round, and the best bargains aren't always found in the post-Christmas rush.  Watch for clearance tags at your local Kmart, Target or other favorite department store.

Think Carefully
Your husband complains every time he looks for a tool that he can't find something, but he never does anything about it.  Perfect!  You can buy him a tool-box or trolley for Christmas.  It's all about paying attention to what your friends and family really want, and buying accordingly.  That way you don't rush out three days before Christmas and buy the most expensive thing in the store just because it will impress them.

Know Your Pricing
Just because one store has something 'On Sale' or a 'Huge Discount' doesn't mean you can't get it cheaper elsewhere.  If you have a specific item in mind, shop around for the best price.  If you're buying a big ticket item, plan to pay in cash and haggle for the best deal.

Shop Online
Online clearance warehouses and department stores like DealsDirect, TopBuy, Catch of the Day and a horde of others have great daily deals, often with extra discounts off their already low prices, and with other perks like free shipping thrown in on top.  Check for offers through online payment sites like Paypal.  Shop smart on auction sites like eBay - take note of the rule above, and don't get caught out by shipping costs either!  Make sure you buy with plenty of time to spare - a gift arriving a week after Christmas won't be much good!

Re-gifting
It's not an evil word!  Sometimes you end up with fantastic gifts that you're just never going to use. Or maybe you win some random competition, and wonder hell are you going to do with a second cordless drill?!  Just because you don't need or can't use an item, doesn't mean you didn't appreciate it in the first place - so why let a perfectly good gift go unused?!  Needless to say, don't gift back to the person who gave it to you in the first place!!

Don't Over-spend
This one is pretty simple.  Set your budget for Christmas spending, and aim to come out on top.  Narrow down that gift list if you have to - and don't be afraid to let people know you can't or won't be buying for them this year.

Make It Up
Close friends and family enjoy gifts made with thought and care.  Gift packs with a mix of smaller items are great fun for kids - and adults too.

Let Other People Know What YOU Want!
Others can be frugal too!!  Make an online Wishlist and let all your potential gift-buyers know about it.  That way you end up with exactly what you want, and people don't over-spend trying to buy you the 'perfect' gift.

I hope you enjoy these tips!!   I'll post again soon with more Christmas tips, to help get in the spirit!

Since my regular theme is a bit broken at the moment, and I haven't found a new one I like yet, I've decided to whack on a Christmas-themed blog template.

Hope it helps everyone get into the spirit of the season :D

What do you love about Christmas? What do you hate?

Well, apparently I'm really hard to buy for, so I've created an online wishlist!
Will update it regularly with stuff I want :P

Cool website too, let you make multiple lists per account, and you can customise each with a template. Would be good for baby showers, birthdays, weddings etc!

Scrap that one, I made a new one!! You can see it Here