Wine Lables

How is this for festive? I used those sticker gift tags to label everyone's wine glass.

Baked Brie

I've done this one before right? Well, stop reading then.

• 1 wheel of brie
• 1/4 cup or so of slice almonds, toasted
• 2 tablespoons of raspberry jam
• 1 sheet of puffed pastry
• 1 egg

Slice the brie in half, spreed jam inside. Top almonds on the jam. Put on the other half of the brie. Wrap up with puffed pastry. Do a quick egg wash. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes or so. Let the pastry get a nice golden color. Serve on water crackers. Seriously, this is all the basic food groups. Cheese, jam, carbs, nuts and love. Lots of love.

Cheddar Rosemary Crisps

• 2 cups of finely shredded sharp cheddar
• 1 cups of soften butter
• 2 and 1/4 cup of AP flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon of fresh ground black pepper
• 2 teaspoons of finely chopped rosemary

Combine the cheese and butter in your mixer. Add the pepper, salt and rosemary. Then slowly add the flour. Once mixed, divide in two. Roll into two long cylinders, and wrap in saran wrap. About an inch wide or so, it will be almost a foot long. Put in the fridge over night. Next day, slice super thin, about an eighth of an inch. Put on a Silpat and bake at 375 for 9 minutes. Allow 1 minute to cool on the baking tray, then move to a wire cooling rack. Serve with wine and friends.

Oreo Cheesecake Balls

• 1 package of Oreos 17 ounces (I used Wal-mart's Twist and Shout generics)
• 1 package of cream cheese 8 ounces
• almond bark
• sprinkles

In food processor, combine Oreos and cream cheese. Form into balls, I used my small cookie scoop to make the balls more uniformed. Put in the freezer for a half hour or so. Dip into the melted almond bark, and sprinkle right away with the sugar/sprinkles/whatever. I bought new dusting sugar, and Connor covered it with his construction stickers. I love it.
Allow the almond bark to harden, store in the fridge. Tasty if you let them sit out a bit, to get more room temp before eating it.

Jar of Memories

I came up with this fabulous idea all on my own. I had a photo box I was keeping of "memory" pieces of Connor. I don't like to keep stuff, so I try to keep only the important stuff. I wanted a nice way to keep things. So, here it is.

1 quart mason jars. One for each year of Connor's life. The first one has his onesie he wore home from the hospital, his nuk + chain, and a hand print. The second one has some favorite cars, and it goes on. I intend to put some nice sticker labels on them. All in good time. So, now as we approach year 4, I can save little momentos throughout the year.

Cranberry Mash

This was a true, off the cuff, Heather Creation.

1 bag of cranberries
2 apples
1/3 cup of sugar
1/3 cup of vanilla vodka

Peal and slice up the apples, pretty thin. Let them cook down a bit, mash them a bit with a potato masher. Add the sugar and the cranberries. Allow to cook till they cranberries start to burst. Then add the vodka. For fun, light it on fire.

Serve over ice cream, serve by its self, bake up apple crisp, and put it on as a top layer. I did all 3, and I liked all 3.