Orange Cranberry Spritzer!

HAPPY NEW YEARS EVE

If you don’t already have something yummy to drink tonight besides a little bubbly, I have a great drink for you. I actually call this my Husker drink and try to make it when the Nebraska Cornhuskers are playing football, which they will be tomorrow against Georgia in the Capital One Bowl! GO BIG RED! Sorry I got a little sidetracked there! Now this can be made alcohol free if you want it to be and it’s still a great refreshing drink!

Orange Cranberry Spritzer- Kismet Kreations

Here’s what you’ll need:

Cranberry Ginger Ale (or any cranberry soda)

2-3 oz Orange Juice

1ozVodka

Ice

Here’s how you make it:

Fill a glass with Ice, add in the Vodka and Orange Juice, now fill the rest of the glass with the Ginger Ale and stir. If you are making this kid friendly just skip the vodka! It’s a great light refreshing drink to ring in the NEW YEAR! (or cheer on the HUSKERS)

 

ENJOY!                                                                                  ~Kristie Kismet Kreations

Italian Focaccia Bites

New Year’s Eve is just a few days away and we are going to be spending it with a few of my BFF’s in California! YAY so excited to see them. We are getting together with our Families and having GAME NIGHT! Can’t even wait for it! So I thought what would be something awesome to take over to their house for a delicious treat and it hit me. We have this great Pizza place near us and they make these amazing Focaccia Bites. I am in LOVE with them or at least in lust! I actually would rather have an order of them instead of the pizza which is still yummy! So because I can’t just go there whenever I have the desire to share these yummy little (ok not so little) bites of awesomeness I decided I needed to make the recipe up for myself and HOPE that it will turn out as yumtacular (it’s a word) And I’m sure my friends will love me even more for bringing this big batch of delish into their lives ;)

 

Here’s what you’ll need:   2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour 1 tsp salt 1 tsp white sugar 1 packet active dry yeast 1tsp Italian Seasoning 1 pinch ground black pepper 1 TBSP vegetable oil 1 cup warm water            2 TBSP roasted garlic olive oil 1 tablespoon Parmesan cheese  A few Roasted Red Peppers sliced 4oz Cream Cheese 20 slices Pepperoni( or half pepperoni, half Salami) 1 cup Mozzarella Cheese

 

                                      

 

Here’s how you make it:

	In a large bowl, stir together the Flour, Salt, Sugar, Yeast, Italian Seasoning and Black Pepper. Mix in the Vegetable Oil and Water.
	When the dough has pulled together, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface, and knead until smooth and elastic. Lightly oil a large bowl, place the dough in the bowl, and turn to coat with oil. Cover with a damp cloth, and let rise in a warm place for 20 minutes.
	Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C). Punch dough down; place on greased baking sheet. Pat into a 1/2 inch thick rectangle. Brush top with olive oil. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.
	Bake in preheated oven for 10 minutes, remove from the oven add on the Cream Cheese, Pepperoni, Salami, and Roasted Red Peppers, sprinkle on the Cheese Blend and place back into the oven continue to bake for another 5-7 minutes or until golden brown. Remove and cut into small pieces, serve with a ranch dip or Italian dressing.   ENJOY!

 

Feeding Soldiers: Twice Baked Potato Casserole

Our Battalion's turn to feed the Soldiers and Families at the Fisher House this month is the day after Christmas. I can’t imagine how hard it must be to not be well and to be away from your home and everything that you know during the Holidays. My prayers for these families are that they heal quickly and that they find a little comfort in the food we provide for them and that they know we are here for them thinking of them and supporting them. This month I decided to make a Twice Baked Potato Casserole. I make twice baked potatoes all the time I’ve even blogged about them. You can find the recipe HERE. So I wanted to make them but make it easier to serve to a lot of people. I saw the idea for it on where else PINTEREST! The recipe I looked at was on Six Sisters Stuff, but I think they actually got it from somewhere else as well. I’m actually just going to use the recipe I have always used to make my regular twice baked potatoes and add the bacon that they used because well bacon makes everything better!

Here’s what you’ll need:

5lbs baking potatoes

16oz Sour Cream

2 1/2 cups Shredded Cheese

½ cup Milk

½ cup Butter

10 slices Bacon cooked & crumbled

1 tsp Garlic Powder

1 tsp Onion Powder

Salt & Pepper to taste

 

Here’s how you make it:

Bake Potatoes at 400 degrees for about an hour or until soft when you squeeze them!

Let Potatoes cool, this is really important otherwise you are going to be playing “hot potato”

Cut Potatoes in half, and scoop out the insides.  In a bowl, combine scooped out potatoes, and all the other ingredients and MASH AWAY! When everything is all mashed up put the potato mixture into a greased baking dish mine was a 13x9. Sprinkle the remaining half cup of cheese on the top. Bake for 20 minutes at 350 degrees, until the cheese is all melty and the potatoes have turned a light golden brown on top. Remove from the oven and add the bacon to the top and Serve!

ENJOY!

Snowball Ornament

     Are you all done Christmas Shopping? I just finished yesterday! The Hubster actually finished yesterday too which is AMAZING because he is usually out Christmas Eve rushing around trying to get his shopping done! Since I'm finished and I have a little down time (how it that possible?) I decided to get a little crafty. It's kind of a mini craft, only made one thing and its small.

     Have you seen the Ornaments that are filled with candy? I’ve bought a few over the years, and I always save them thinking, one of these years I’ll make something with them! Well finally I am with at least one of them. I’ve seen lots of different things made with Epsom salts. It makes things look like snow, I’ve seen them covering Styrofoam balls and they look just like snowballs. So I thought I would cover my old ornament with the Epsom salts and see what it would look like. I love that this craft is basically free for me to do, in that I didn’t have to go out and purchase anything new to make it!

I wasn't going to use spray paint when I first started this project!

Here’s what you’ll need:

Empty candy ornament

Spray paint

Modge Podge

 Epsom salts

 

 

Here’s how you make it:

Place newspaper down on your work surface. Cover the ornament with white spray paint. (I used the kind with Primer included) Let dry. I placed them on tooth picks so that they wouldn't stick to the paper. Then cover with spray paint in your choice of color, I used silver because I wanted it to have a little shimmer to it. You can leave it white if you want it to have a traditional snowball look, if you leave it white you will probably want to give it another coat of spray paint. After the paint dries coat both sides with Modge Podge. Then Sprinkle the Epsom salts over the entire ornament. Let dry and you have a great new ornament!

ENJOY & Merry Christmas!

Cinnamon Rolls

I like to find ways to treat the Hubster and the rest of the Leadership team in our Company, as well as his Soldiers. I’ve been a baking machine this past week in preparation for our Company Christmas party. So you would think that I’d be baked out right? WRONG! Even after baking 8 different desserts for last night, I’m at it again baking Cinnamon Rolls for the Hubster to take into work in the morning! They are all getting ready to go on Leave and this is my Christmas present to them. I’ve tried several different recipes over the years and I needed one that would be easy to convert into a LARGE amount of Cinnamon Rolls, I found just what I was looking for on the Pioneer Woman website. Did you know that Ree and I are BFF’s, no? Well that’s ok she doesn’t know either but we are, in my mind at least! J Anyways, She makes Cinnamon Rolls to give away at Christmas to Family and Friends and I thought, hey these people are my Family and Friends so why not try her recipe out especially since her recipe makes a gazillion cinnamon rolls. So I adjusted a few things and I’m doing a different icing cause I LOVE CREAM CHEESE FROSTING! Ok enough about all that…

Forgot to put the milk and oil in the picture!

Here’s what you’ll need:

Cinnamon Rolls

4 cups Milk

1 cup Vegetable Oil

1 cup Sugar

2 packets Yeast

8 cups Flour + 1 cup (set aside)

1tsp Baking Powder

1tsp Baking Soda

Filling

2 sticks Butter, Softened

1 cup Sugar

1 cup Brown Sugar

Lots of Cinnamon

Cream Cheese Frosting

2 pkgs Cream Cheese, softened

½ cup Butter, Softened

2 cups Powdered Sugar

1tsp Vanilla

 

Here’s how you make it:

For the Dough, combine 1 cup sugar, milk and vegetable oil in a medium sauce pan, cook over medium heat just until it almost boils. Remove from heat and let cool down until it is just warm. Sprinkle yeast on the top and let it sit for 1 minute. Add the Flour and mix until combined, and then cover with a cloth for 1 hour. Remove the towel and add in the baking powder, baking soda and the other cup of flour. Stir until completely combined.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Divide dough in half and roll out the first half into a large rectangle. The dough should be very thin. Spread the dough with the softened butter (it should be really soft like almost melted!) Then Sprinkle on the Brown Sugar, Sugar and Cinnamon.

Now the Fun Part, roll the dough towards you slowly, some of the sugar cinnamon butter goodness is going to come out that's ok don’t worry about it, just keep rolling. When you have a nice big log make sure to seal them seam and that it is facing down. Now slice the log into ½ inch slices. Spray your pans with cooking spray and place the rolls into the pans. Repeat this process with the other half of the dough. Each log roll should yield about 24 rolls.

*Now at this point I cover mine with plastic wrap and place them in the fridge. In the morning I take them out remove the plastic wrap and place them in a cold oven, turn it onto 350 degrees and bake for 30 minutes until golden brown*

Cover the pans with your kitchen towel and let rise for about 20 minutes. Remove the towel and bake for 15-18 minutes until golden brown.

While the rolls are baking make your Frosting

Combine the Cream Cheese and Butter in a mixing bowl until creamy. Add in the Vanilla and Powdered Sugar mix until and smooth.

When you take the Rolls out of the oven let cool for 5-10 minutes and then spread the icing over the rolls.

*You can also make the frosting ahead of time and place spoonfuls of it onto waxed paper on a baking sheet and place in the freezer overnight. Remove the frosting from the freezer in the morning as you put your rolls into the oven. Then when the Rolls come out of the oven place the frosting onto the rolls and it will melt and spread over the rolls, making them even more delish!*

 

ENJOY!

Thin Mint Truffles

Every year at Christmas I make Oreo Truffles. They are such a big hit in my house we have to ration them out or they would all be gone the same day they are made. I usually make up a bunch of goodies for the Hubster to take into work and share (I’m not sure how much he really shares and how much he just eats himself). This year I wanted to play around with the recipe a little. And we just happened to have a few boxes of Thin Mint Girl Scout Cookies in the freezer! So I decided for our Company Christmas Party I would make Thin Mint Truffles! I made some Oreo ones too but I really just wanted to see how the Thin Mint ones would taste, and what better way to try out a new recipe than on a few hundred hungry Soldiers and their families! ;) Just kidding I use the Hubster and the son for all taste testing before inflicting it on the masses! And the Hubster said “if you like Thin Mints than that’s the way to go.”

Here’s what you’ll need:

2 boxes Thin Mint Cookies, finely crushed

1 8oz pkg Cream Cheese, softened

16oz Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips

Here’s how you make it:

In a mixing bowl combine the crushed Thin Mints and the Cream Cheese, mix until no white is showing. Shape the cookie mixture into 1 inch balls. Place on a cookie sheet lined with wax paper. Place the balls into the freezer for about 20 minutes. Meanwhile melt your chocolate chips, I like to use the double boiler method but you can also melt the chocolate in the microwave at 30 second intervals be sure to stir the chips in between heating. When the Chocolate is melted take the truffles out of the freezer. And using 2 forks dip them in the chocolate until they are evenly coated. Roll the truffles along the side of the bowl to remove any excess chocolate. Place the truffles back onto the baking sheet and let set. I did sprinkle some sprinkles on the tops of mine just to make them look a little jazzed up! If you are going to use sprinkles make sure to put them on before they harden. Place them in the Refrigerator to harden quickly and then store them in a container until you are ready to eat them.

ENJOY

Christmas Traditions: Scavenger Hunt

I love looking at all the Christmas decorations that people put up everywhere! I mean some people go all out and some just keep it simple. I love all the crazy decorations and multi colored lights, but on our house I like to keep it simple, much to my Husband and sons dismay. I think they would both love to have the whole house lit up so you could see it from space just like Danny DeVito’s character in Deck the Halls did. But I do love to see other people’s houses all lit up crazy!

Our son is getting older and I’m looking for ways to keep the magic in Christmas for him. So this year I thought what if we went on a Christmas Light Scavenger Hunt? We’ve done this before with friends and it was a lot of fun. So here’s what you do make a list of lights or displays you might see. Give everyone a list, Grab some hot coco in a travel cup and drive around  your neighborhoods, the first one to cross off everything on the list WINS! What do they win? Well that’s up to you, it could be the simple joy of winning or you could do a little gift. Our winner will get a new Christmas Mug for some more Hot Coco!

Here’s our List for this year:

            Mickey Mouse                        Manger

Santa (Inflatable)                   Christmas tree in a Window

Reindeer                                 All White Lights

Star                                         Nativity

Frosty                                      Candy Canes

All Blue lights                         Snoopy

Christmas tree                       Snowflakes

Presents                                  Giant Ornaments

Sleigh                                      Snow Globe (inflatable)

Santa on the Roof                           Rudolf Red nosed Reindeer

 

Enjoy~

*Update: We just went on our Scavenger Hunt, it was so much fun! We had such a great time and are adding things to our list for next year! I hope you get the chance to try it this year, if not maybe add it to next year! It is absolutly becoming a new annual Christmas Tradition in our house!

Ornament Chandelier

I’m always looking for new decorations to Jazz up the house during the Holidays. BUT I HATE having to spend loads of money when it seems like we are already spending so much during this time of year! So I thought adding some ornaments around the house would be a good way to incorporate a more festive look without spending more money, I had everything already in my Christmas boxes!

Here’s what you’ll need:

Ornaments (I used 16 balls in different sizes and variations of the same color)

Jingle Bells (I used 5)

Ribbon

Here’s how you make it:

Ok this is so easy! Thread the ribbon through the first ornament and tie a knot. Then continue threading additional ornaments and alternating jingle bells, I did about 4 or 5 Ornaments and then a Jingle Bell, honestly though there is no need to do it precisely you can make it as random as you want. When you get to the last Ornament tie another knot, then make a loop and knot it off. I added some extra ribbon just to make it a little more festive! You can really personalize this to fit your Christmas décor theme. Use different color balls, or different shaped ornaments, make it your own! Simple Easy and Inexpensive (total cost if you don’t have these lying around is about 4 dollars everything can be bought at the Dollar Store)

ENJOY!

Christmas Clay Ornaments

Every Christmas season we buy a new ornament for our Tree. They are different every year and the best part is taking them out the next year and all the memories of Christmases past that come with them. We have ornaments from our First Christmas when we were just engaged that My Hubbies Mom bought us (that was the first time I met his family Christmas 1998)We have the first Christmas we were married, the first Christmas our son was born and all the Christmases since. That’s 15 years of Christmases we’ve celebrated as a family, and 15 years of memories on our tree! Actually maybe a few more, my Mom gave me a few of my ornaments from when I was little ;) This year I thought maybe we should make our ornament, and in doing that we could also make some for gifts to the rest of our families! I looked at all different ones and decided I liked the cornstarch/baking soda ornaments better than the salt dough ones.

Here’s what you’ll need:

½ cup Cornstarch

1 cup Baking Soda

¾ cup water

Here’s how you make it:

 

In a medium sauce pan combine all the ingredients and stir over medium low heat. Keep stirring until it thickens up, the recipe I used said it’s a like smooth mashed potatoes when it’s ready, I think maybe a thick frosting is also a good comparison. This does take a little bit of time so be patient and keep stirring. When it’s thickened scoop it out into a bowl and cover with a damp towel until cooled. When it has cooled kneed it until smooth, adding more cornstarch if it’s a little sticky. Roll out to ¼ inch thickness and cut out the shapes you want. With a straw poke a hole in the top so that you have a place to string the ribbon to attach it to your tree or presents. For the smaller ornaments use a bamboo skewer to poke a hole in the ornaments. Preheat oven to 175 degrees then bake for about an hour, turning over half way through.Keep an eye on them notice how mine are a little brown? I lost track of time and they got a little done;) Let cool and then leave them as they are or paint them for that little extra touch! Tie a ribbon through the hole and TA DA you have a great ornament for years to come!

ENJOY!