This month we will be revamping the upstairs bunk room/flex space. The boys have run of the majority of the area, which they use for gaming, making videos, jam sessions, and generally acting like teenage boys. Hubs and I hang out with them a fair bit, as well, so we need it to serve multiple purposes, as I also have a small sewing space, and #2 has his puppet making counter up there also. It’s a wide open space with very little structure built in, so we need to add some storage, seating, and just fun decor too, so it feels like an enjoyable place to be.
I have been scouring Pinterest specifically, and the internet in general, to find appropriate furnishings to complete the project, on a reasonable budget, that will stand up to a lot of abuse, and be flexible, too. I feel like so much gaming decor has been completely played out, so if we go that route, it needs to be highly curated, so as not to come across cheesy. First let’s start with the floors. Right now, the floors are wood and although we do have a throw rug, it really needs replaced. Here’s what I’ve found, so far.
For all their games and music, this rotating cube should do the trick.
These are perfect for our game room rug, and furniture for our white and gray room. Now we need some accents. The boys are here for these Kontrol Freek Lights. They’ve been looking at them for a while.
We plan to hangs these lights all around the gaming area.
Because the boys all play instruments, they spend a lot of time hanging out practicing together. We have a shortage of available seating right now, so I am looking for a few musician’s stools and a couple of new mics.
We have a plethora of geekcentric pictures to hang, plus various comic book/gaming/pop culture merchandise to set about, so with a few floating shelves and some great lighting, our little game room should be perfect for us.
With the turn of the year comes a turn in style, and we believe this is our signature game room style. Do you have any rooms in your house you plan to remodel this year? Did any of these products, perchance, spark you own interest in a room re-do? Show us any pictures you take on Instagram at #canigetaramen! Find us on FB and Pinterest @canigetaramen.food.blog! Thanks for reading!
One of the more important goals that I have for the oncoming new year, is to find ways to help people eat more healthfully. Not in a latest diet fad- lose 40 lbs this month-kind of way, but in a self-loving-here for the future me, showing up for my best self-best life-long term kind of way. I know that the optimal way to do that is to lead by example. With that in mind, I am going to share two of my favorite morning smoothie recipes that help me feel on top of my game, everyday.
Yes, that’s a Matcha Pocky stick.
This is a time of year when improving is on everyone’s mind, whether that’s health, career, or maybe relationships, many are setting goals for improvement. Having come back to my roots, for the time being, I am often re-exposed to the patterns and mindsets, surrounding food, that helped to shape my early relationship to eating. The feast or famine relationship with food, exercise, weight. I am so thankful that I don’t struggle with this mindset anymore, but I see so many people who do, and I just want to help fix them all. Of course, that’s not possible, but if I can help even a few do better, I will feel that I’ve improved, too.
Everyone’s heard, again and again, that consistency is the key to weight loss. (Because it is.) I don’t need to say it. (If you feel that you would be healthier at a lower weight, or a higher weight, then go ahead and make that one of your goals.) What I will say though, is if you take the focus off of just losing weight, and put it on eating well, for your health, out of self love, right where you are at, right now, that you will find it’s easy to eat healthfully, because you are doing it for the right reasons. To feel great when you wake up in the morning. To be there for your family. To give life your everything. When you show up as your best self time and time again, you will find the confidence, over time, to tackle your scariest goals, both physical and mental, to face your fears, and do what you thought you never could. And it all starts with a little self care. What could be easier than that?
It makes sense that self care starts with nutrition, right? If you are properly nourished all the other little things just seem to fall in line, don’t they? You may find the energy to do a little yoga, or make it to the gym. What about mental wellness? You might read a book on starting that business, or healing childhood wounds. You may be inspired to set your finances in order, or Kondo your home? You just seem to have the energy to make things better. Or improve.
OK. On to the smoothies:
Smoothie #1:
This is my go to a.m. smoothie.
Mango Oatmilk Smoothie
1 small banana
1 cup frozen mango
1/2 cucumber chopped
1 1/2 inch knob of ginger
1 tbsp. almond butter
1 tsp honey
1 scoop of greens and protein powder
3/4 cup of oatmilk
Place cucumber and oatmilk in blender, blend for 30 seconds. Add banana, blend again. Add frozen fruit, plus remaining ingredients, blend until smooth. Pour into glass, add re-usable straw, Matcha Pocky stick, and garnish with mango and cucumber.
Smoothie #2:
Triple Berry Pom Smoothie
1 small banana
1/2 cucumber
3/4 cup of coconut milk
1/2 tsp. honey
1/3 cup pomegranate juice
1 scoop of greens and protein powder
1/2 inch knob of ginger
Add cucumber and coconut milk to blender, blend for 30 seconds. Add banana, blend again. Add frozen fruit, plus remaining ingredients, and blend until fully combined, and smooth. Pour into glass. Enjoy!
This is a great anytime smoothie. Or even dessert!
Here’s to hoping these smoothie recipes help you up your game, and present your best self, moving forward into 2020! Cheers!
If you have any smoothie recipes you think are fantastic and want to share, please feel free to leave them in the comments, or share on instagram@canigetaramen. Find us on FB and Pinterest @ canigetaramen.food.blog. Happy New Year!
Last night I ended up taking my tree down. On December 25th.
Last night I ended up taking my tree down. On December 25th. This was not done out of an abundance of impatience to be done with the holiday. I had intended to leave it up until this weekend. We had a minor accident, with the mirror that hung over the mantle. It came crashing down, after a fair bit of stomping upstairs, and shattered, all around the Christmas tree. I ended up, in an abundance of caution, taking the tree down, shaking all of the glass out of it, and storing it away for next year. Not an ideal end to Christmas Day. My Christmas was already feeling a little depressing, because with the boys being mostly grown now, Christmas shopping was all about gift cards, big ticket items like guitars and amplifiers, and mixers. The number of presents felt a little light, our tree opening ceremony was short lived, and it lacked the energy of Christmas morning with little ones, with loads of presents, to watch them excitedly unwrap. Our youngest was very animated, therefore fun to watch, and the older boys were happy with their gifts, but this year I struggled, more than usual, with the fact that they are all growing up. I have spent every possible minute with them but it still feels like it’s happened too fast. Such is the struggle of the parent of teens. As there is almost always a bright side, I woke up today with the biggest post-Christmas chore already accomplished, and a yen to get back to a very tidy feeling home again.
Photo by Pixabay. This is how I want my home to feel. Maybe someday.
We have embraced minimalism for many years now, but have been finding it a struggle, since moving north again, to maintain it, especially in the wintertime. You just need so much stuff! I find myself purging our belongings monthly, but it feels as though we are buried under a mountain of junk. Everybody has at least four jackets. In Florida we had one. Everybody has at least eight pair of shoes. In Florida we had four or five. You just need more. We had a bigger place in Florida. As you can imagine, six people in a smaller space, with twice as much stuff, is a recipe for disaster. Literally. Now, my sons are not slobs. They put a ton of effort into keeping things orderly. They have had a consistent chore routine since they were small. Keeping a clean house was completely effortless in Florida. Here it feels overwhelming at times. Since most of our Christmas mess was handled last night, due to the small number of gifts we had purchased for the boys, we decided to spend today purging and deep cleaning the house to prepare for the coming new year.
Photo by stevepb
After Christmas there seems to be a few things in particular that holds people back from tackling the Christmas clutter:
An abundance of new toys, games, clothes etc, with no set place to store them.
Leftover food.
Christmas ornaments
Tree
Lights
Miscellaneous Christmas decor: rugs, linens, pillows, candles, pictures, knick-knacks etc.
Hopefully, before Christmas, you purged the toy room, to make some extra space for the new toys and games coming in. If not, now is a great time to do so. If you use the one in/one out rule you will have the toy mess handled promptly. The same rule can be applied to new clothing. For every new article of clothing purchased, you can remove an old one and hang it’s replacement in that space.
With a family of six, with four tween/teen boys, we don’t often have leftovers for long. We make lasagna for Christmas dinner, so it’s not hard to convince them to clean up the leftovers for the next couple of days. If we did do the traditional ham dinner I would have tons of leftover ham. They would happily eat it on Christmas day, but that’s it. If you do have leftover ham, my suggestion would be to freeze it until New Year’s Day, and use it in your Hoppin’ John. Toss some black eyed peas, onions and collards in a crockpot with the leftover ham, and let it cook all day. Invite friends over for a New Year’s feast. Freeze your leftover cookies, candy, or fudge, to pull out on New Year’s also. Set up a dessert table, add champagne, for guests to enjoy. By the end of the meal, you should be pretty much, leftover free.
When it comes to taking down the tree there are tons of little tricks to keep it orderly and keep your special ornaments safely tucked away until next year. You can, of course, buy special boxes with individual slots for each ornament, but they can get pretty pricey. An easy method that my sister taught me is to wrap similar ornaments in color coded tissue paper, and nestle them neatly into sturdy shoe boxes, put on shelves. This way you know which set is which, and if you change up your tree’s theme each year, you can easily find the sets that you are looking for.
The simplest way to store your tree’s lights, is to wind them up neatly and store in a gallon ziplock bag. We set ours right into the tote with the tree, on top, so they are easily found and tested, the next year.
A part of Christmas cleanup that I find particularly frustrating is going around the house, searching for all of the miscellaneous Christmas items that we throw around to bring cheer to every corner of the house. Throw pillows, Christmas rugs, tablecloths, napkins, the Christmas candles, and little soaps etc. We even switch out our art to Christmas pictures. We set around wooden nutcrackers, and nativity sets. With all of the little things we set out and around, we are bound to forget one or two. Or ten. That means ten different trips back to the Christmas storage to return everything to its proper place. I’m pretty patient about it, until a week after Christmas, when I think I’ve gotten it all, then find one lone bauble hanging out in my kid’s room, under the bed.
Photo courtesy of Canva.
Where the heck did that come from? Trip number eleven. Finally, done! I hope.
The most difficult part, for some, is finding the motivation to take on the overwhelming task of Christmas cleanup. When I am feeling buried under the mess, I scour pinterest for minimalist homes, decluttering posts, tiny home hacks, and anything that inspires me to get up off my butt and clean. I start in one corner of my house and begin purging what needs purged. I divide my home into six zones. Three downstairs, and three upstairs. Starting in zone one, I put everything back in it’s proper place, and purge/donate what needs to be gotten rid of. Then, I tidy, fluff, arrange until everything looks exactly right. Next, I sweep and mop, swipe and dust until everything is gleaming. This includes, floors, ceilings, lights, walls, pictures, baseboards, everything. When zone one is finished, I move onto zone two, repeating the same process until zone two is finished. If I have to stop, for some reason, as soon as I get a chance I pick up with zone three, and continue until the entire house is immaculate. The great thing about this process is that with six zones, and six people, if I have the boys around to help, I can just assign them a zone and they know what to do. If all six of us are here, the whole house can be immaculate in 30-60 minutes.
Don’t hesitate to enlist the help of family members to get your home back in order. Everyone enjoyed the holiday, everyone should participate in getting life back on track after. It’s important to start your New Year feeling organized and on top of your game. That goes for everyone in the family. Put the kids in charge of taking care of their new things, teach them how to organize, and keep belongings in great condition. Start the New Year strong with everything in it’s place. Help the kiddos do the same. They will go back to school refreshed and ready to tackle the rest of the school year, and you will feel accomplished and ready to handle whatever new and exciting prospects 2020 has in store for you!
How about you? Do you have any tips or hacks for dealing with the Christmas cleanup? Share your ideas in the comments. Find our Can I Get a Ramen boards on Pinterest to see more minimalist home ideas. Find us on FB @canigetaramen.food.blog and on Insta @canigetaramen.
I am always a little bit torn, when it comes to writing about skin care. I love to help educate people about the importance of taking great care of their skin, after all you only have one body, but I…
I am always a little bit torn, when it comes to writing about skin care. I love to help educate people about the importance of taking great care of their skin, after all you only have one body, but I am aware of how many people, especially young girls, are taught to compare themselves to others and find themselves lacking. This is never the goal. I don’t want to feed that particular monster. Everyone has days that their skin looks great, and days that it doesn’t. I don’t want to encourage you to seek perfection, because it does not exist. Even in skin care; especially in skin care. On the flip side, your skin is reflective of your overall health. If you are taking great care of yourself, getting enough sleep, drinking enough water, and consuming healthful foods your skin is going to show it. Therefore, excellent self care should be the priority. Always. A small part of self care is taking care of your skin.
Now that winter has come roaring in, you will probably see it taking effect on your skin. It doesn’t take much exposure to high winds, freezing temps, dry heat, and a total lack of sun, before your skin, even young skin, will start feeling, flaky, itchy, and dehydrated. With skin as young as early thirties, you may even begin to see crepey lines and some sinking around the eyes and other fragile areas of the skin. This is not necessarily related to aging, but when you see it on your own face, you may begin to panic. I know I do.
There are loads of skin care products out there, designed to help with all sorts of winter skin problems, but most of them contain nasty chemicals which may help in the short term, but cause you more grief down the road. A lack of hyaluronic acid and hydroxy acids may be the cause of your winter skin blues.
Hyaluronic acid affects your skin ability to retain moisture, keep skin looking plump, fresh and healthy. In it’s natural form, it cannot penetrate the skin, therefore you must consume it to actually gain its benefits. There is a synthetic hyaluronic acid that you can buy in chemical filled skin care products, but I would never recommend putting that on your skin. Instead I would suggest consuming foods such as bone broth, citrus,leafy greens, soy products, bananas, and potatoes, and root vegetables. Also red wine. I can get behind that;)
Hydroxy acids plump and smooth skin, increase cell turnover, reduce fine lines and wrinkles, and boost product absorption. This says to me that, when using a product in conjunction hydroxy acids I need to make sure that there is nothing toxic in that product because it’s actually helping my skin absorb it, which brings us back to that old adage: If you wouldn’t eat it, don’t put it on your skin. If you would like to add AHA containing foods to your diet, reach for citrus, in all its various forms.
Today, we are going to make a gorgeous smelling, soothing, healing winter elixir for your skin, designed to combat these potential skincare woes. We are using shea butter, rosehip oil, castor oil, frankincense essential oil, grapefruit essential oil, and pine needle oil. You will need a mixing bowl, preferably glass, a hand mixer/ stick blender and kitchen scale or mail scale, and a clean tin for the finished product.
You all probably know of my deep abiding love of Shea butter. I won’t go into songs of it’s praise again, but just know, that I choose this for every skin care base because of it’s unmatched anti-aging, and healing properties. “Nuff said.
Castor oil was chosen for it’s hydrating powers, wrinkle fighting properties, and ability to reduce puffiness, not to mention staying power.
Rosehip oil mimics hyaluronic acid’s ability to plump up skin and reduce it’s sinking appearance, but without the synthetics.
Grapefruit essential oil is loaded with alpha hydroxy acids which will clear and smooth congested skin.
Another oil which is great for cell turnover is frankincense oil, which will help clear skin imperfections, and strengthen and tighten skin, reducing the appearance of fine lines and thin, crepey skin.
A great essential oil for relieving dry, itchy flaky skin is pine needle essential oil. This EO is loaded with antioxidants which can fight the appearance of wrinkles, sagging in the skin, and other signs of premature aging.
Let’s get started. Set your mixing bowl on your scale and tare it out. Add 1.5 oz. of shea butter to bowl, next add, .1 oz of rosehip oil, then castor. Add 30 drops of frankincense oil, 20 drops of grapefruit and 10 drops of pine needle oil.
Mix with stick blender until desired consistency is reached. I only whip until thoroughly combined, because I don’t want my shea butter over processed, as it changes the potency of the butter. You can whip the oils until you attain the consistency that you are comfortable with. Many people like a heavily whipped, shea butter, for it’s lighter, creamy texture and that’s ok. 😉
What winter skin care issues do you most often struggle with? Let us know in the comments, and feel free to share your skincare DIY recipes on insta #canigetaramen or find us on FB and pinterest@canigetaramen.food.blog.
For a bit of backstory, every year my father asks me to make him blackberry truffles around the holiday. This is his favorite..
For a bit of backstory, every year my father asks me to make him blackberry truffles around the holiday. This is his favorite holiday treat. His second favorite is eggnog. He knows that I love to create new, elaborate desserts for Christmas dinner, so he challenged my to create something which combined both blackberries and eggnog. What can I say except:
While this is, by no means, elaborate, it’s certainly festive and definitely delicious. It is also very quick to throw together, looks beautiful, and makes a stunning dessert to take to all your holiday gatherings. Here’s what you’ll need:
2 pkg vanilla pudding mix
2 1/2 cups of eggnog
1 1/2 cups of milk
1 can of blackberry pie filling
1 carton of cool whip
1 angel food cake
mint leaves
There is not one single healthy aspect of this dessert; it is the easiest thing in the world to put together. Life is full of trade-offs. First start thawing the cool whip. Then, you’re going to dump the pudding mix into your stand mixer, add eggnog and milk. Mix on high until thick, pudding consistency is reached. Cube the angel food cake. Open blackberry pie filling, and get ready to assemble the trifle.
There is a rule of thumb for making a trifle like this one; first add the cubed angel cake, then layer in the pudding, next add fruit filling, repeat with cake, pudding, fruit, then pudding, top with cool whip, and finally garnish. Golly, that is a mouthful, metaphorically and literally.
Now, we will see if it passes muster with one of the pickiest eaters that I know. My father. If not, I’ll eat the whole thing myself. Life is full of trade-offs. 😀
If you have a picky eater at home as well, some version of trifle is sure to satisfy. Share your trifle recipes in the comments, and pics on insta @canigetaramen. Find us on FB and Pinterest@canigetaramen.food.blog.
Update: This recipe passed, in my opinion, the ultimate test. My extremely picky father, who only loves my mother’s cooking, devoured this trifle. Loved it. Everyone who has tried it has given it rave reviews. This trifle is a definite win, if you need an easy inexpensive dish to pass at holiday parties. Enjoy!
As promised, we spent today at the Mifflinburg Christkindl Market. We were very excited to experience this market, as we are huge fans of handcrafted items. As I had mentioned in my previous post, when I was in my early (read: broke) twenties, I was lucky enough to take a trip to Europe to visit a friend. We spent a few days driving around Germany sight seeing. The two places that left the biggest impression on me were The Black Forest and Rothenburg. I found a Christmas pyramid that I fell in love with, but could not figure out the logistics of purchasing it and shipping it home with the sad (lack of) funds I was working with at the time. I have been haunted by this, each Christmas since. You may be haunted by three ghosts, but I am haunted by one Christmas pyramid. All kidding aside, this market took me back, with the cuckoo clocks, ornaments and pyramids. There were beautiful examples of both, but sadly, I did not find the Christmas pyramid of my dreams, yet, so I did not purchase one today, as I had hoped. Maybe next year. You won’t save money buying them here, but you can take it home right away, won’t have to ship it across the pond, and, an added advantage, there is no language barrier.
I think we’ve covered all the important words…
While I did not find my Christmas pyramid here, the town has two gorgeous pyramids which I took plenty of pics of, to tide me over, until I find “The One.”
You can purchase the one on the left for $3000, but you’re going to need a pretty big picture window to display it in;) The other is in the town square.
It pretty much rained the whole time we were here, but you know that didn’t ruin our fun. We spent a fair bit of time perusing the craft vendors, where we saw some fine examples of handmade pottery by Lukacs Pottery. Plus, many woodworkers, glassblowers, huts with jewelry, soaps, candles, maple, honey and much more. My favorite maker find, though, were these fantastic antique sleigh bells, which were lovingly restored by hand by the owners, of the brilliant little business, titled “Mike’s Antique Sleigh Bells. What a fantastic item to bring to a Christkindl market.
Aren’t they spectacular? Love the folk art!
We walked up to the Elias Performing Arts Center, where they were serving hot toddies, and had live entertainment, and found a very talented local artist, by the name of Valerie Moyer, who specializes in landscapes and Homestead Portraits. She has also just illustrated her first children’s book, which, naturally, I purchased, and she graciously signed for us.
The book was written by a local teacher, and illustrated by Valerie. Look for the hidden bunny pictures, too.
Here’s a few more examples of Valerie’s work:
Stunning, pastoral views, anyone?
Valerie is still in the process of creating social media accounts for her work. If you are interested in any of her pieces she can be contacted at vmoyerartist@verizon.net. Most of her paintings include an endearing little hidden bunny, which is her trademark. She also can be commissioned for personal, homesteads, residences, churches, historical buildings, family farms, etc.
We enjoyed wandering the market with the boys, snapping pics at every little photo op, which were plentiful, and watching the entertainment. There was a live nativity, and German dancing, puppet shows and live music in various spots throughout town.
The two older boys stayed home because they were not going to go through the posing again:D
Wow. What an @ss!
This was all loads of fun, but if you know the Bridges, you know we came for the food!
If that picture of him eating doesn’t sum up our family, I don’t know what does!
We tried the brats and kraut, which were okay. We tried the pierogies, giant homemade candy canes, and the cinnamon sticks from The Strudel Factory, which were good, but the Strudel Factory’s hot strudel is what it’s all about. We tried cherry and apple both, [no, we’re not sorry,] and they were both fantastic. I can’t really decide which one is better. I would say it would depend on mood. They had an apricot/almond strudel that I will try next year, along with the cheese strudel, which I almost insisting on trying this year, but got outvoted. There was a ham and apple dumpling that I didn’t get to try [I’m not pouting], and I never even found the Nokerl, that I, sort of, went there for. But there’s always next year. Or Austria. Long story short if, next year you do get the chance to drive out to the Mifflinburg Christkindl market, you won’t regret it. If you’re just not that into Christmas, make the drive for the town’s history, German/Austrian culture, buggy museum, covered bridge or quirky little personality.
The top right sign is the sign hanging over the covered bridge that we drove through on our way into town.
What others types of Christmas markets do you attend? We would love to hear about them in the comments. Share pictures on insta@canigetaramen, or find us on FB and Pinterest@canigetaramen.food.blog.
In Union County. Pennsylvania, there’s a little town called Mifflinburg, population 3500, which boasts the oldest Christkindl market in the United States. For 31 years, this little town, has hosted a traditional German Christmas market, starting with 20 little huts, and growing to over 100, which carry across two and a half blocks of this picturesque, little town. What sets this market apart from others, is a unique tradition of celebrating the old world culture and traditions of a different city each year. This year it is featuring Salzburg, Austria. The birthplace of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who was born there on January 27, 1756, and spent 25 years of his life there. It is also well known for its baroque architecture, and was the filming location for The Sound of Music. With it’s incredible views of the eastern Alps, and its pristine lakes, this city is one of the most beautiful places to visit in all of Austria. With that said, if a visit to Austria is not in the budget this Christmas, you can experience, this weekend, a small taste of it’s culinary delights, such as Strudel, Weinerschnitzel, Tafelspitz. Don’t forget to top it off with a bite of Nokerl, a powdered sugar laden souffle, sometimes drizzled with raspberry sauce.
Photo courtesy of Wikipedia. Meant to resemble the Snow capped Alps, this dessert is a can’t miss.
The food alone is worth making the trip for, with vendors presenting German sausages, potato pancakes, roasted chestnuts and much, much more, but let’s not overlook the unique artisans that hawk their wares at this market each year. There are glass blowers, and jewelry makers, soapers and woodworkers. There’s knitters, and ornament makers, dollmakers, and candlers. There’s unique handmade Christmas decor, like sleigh bells, and traditional German Christmas Pyramids. (This is the one thing I regret not buying when I went to Rothenburg, and I’m hoping to find one I love at the Christkindl market.) There’s puppets and marionettes, and handmade instruments. Plus nesting dolls, handmade kitchen ware, hand painted eggs, plus, endless vendors of gourmet foods. The market will have events throughout town, starting on Thursday 12/12 at 5:00 when the opening ceremony begins, through 12/14, at the close of the market where the market will be closed with a parade from 7:45 to 8:00 p.m. The market’s website has a map of the market, and don’t forget to check the events schedule for entertainment and activities throughout.
Do you have a family tradition from another culture that makes Christmas special for you? If so, please share in the comments, or share photos @canigetaramen on insta. You can find us on FB and pinterest @canigetaramen.food.blog.
One thing that I love is baking at the holidays. All through the month of December, you will find me trying out recipes, new versions of cookies that I make all year, new cookies that I have just heard of recently, but am dying to try my hand at, and of course, old versions of cookies that I only make this time of year. This is a Polish version of one of my favorite cookies. Kolacky. I really only make it between Thanksgiving and Christmas, though. It’s a must have at the holidays for me. There are various ways to make Kolacky. This version uses a cream cheese dough filled with a teaspoon of your choice of preserves. It is such an easy recipe, it can be filled with many different flavors, and in our house, it is one of the first to fly off the cookie platter. The original dough recipe is 3 simple ingredients: Butter, cream cheese and flour. As you may have already guessed, I am replacing the butter with avocado based plant butter. I am also subbing regular cream cheese with higher protein Greek cream cheese, and I am also adding 2 tbsp. of sugar to the dough, for sweetness. Just a little. If you would like to try this simple delicious Kolacky these are the ingredients you’ll need:
1 cup plant butter (preferably avocado)
8 oz. Greek cream cheese
2 cups of flour
2 tbsp. sugar
At least two flavors of your preferred preserves. I used blueberry, and apricot here.
Preheat oven to 350*. You may be astounded at how easily this dough comes together. It’s as easy as creaming butter, cheese and sugar in your stand mixer, then slowly adding the flour, until a firm dough forms. You may want to refrigerate for an hour before baking. Mine didn’t seem to need it this time, but it sometimes does. Once dough is ready to roll out, roll to around 1/8 inch thickness, then, use a 3 inch square cookie cutter, (or a butter knife, and ruler), to cut out squares.
4 easy ingredients
Set on cookie sheet, then spoon a teaspoon of preserves in the center of each square, fold opposite corners in, and pinch closed.
Cut, fill, fold.
Once all are filled and closed, bake for 12-15 minutes, or until bottoms of cookie are lightly golden brown. Sprinkle tops with a smattering of powdered sugar. Let cool completely before serving.
Simple. Delicious.
Do you have a favorite holiday cookie recipe that whips up in minutes? Or, one that you just can’t live without at Christmastime? If so, feel free to share in the comments. Share pics on insta @canigetaramen. You can also find us on FB and pinterest @canigetaramen.food.blog. Thanks for reading!
This weekend Wellsboro, PA is putting on their spectacular Christmas Festival: The 36th Annual Dickens of a Christmas. This is a don’t miss event for the Southern Tier of NY/PA. The festival runs Fri., Sat., and Sun. Events run throughout the weekend but the huge vendor market runs only on Saturday. The townspeople are very friendly and always willing to give you advice on where to find parking. It’s a festive place to get a few holiday photos of your family, friends, dog, etc.
They may be getting tired of posing for photos here…
During the Saturday market there are over 130 vendors, selling wares ranging from handmade alpaca products, to wood artists, primitives, soaps, candles, ornaments, maple goods, Christmas decor of every kind, wind chimes, to name a few.
You can never go wrong with maple…
Aside from the hundreds of Saturday street vendors, the town of Wellsboro, itself, has the most charming downtown, with unique shops, ranging from outfitters, to pop culture shops, to gifts, and candies. There are quite a few apparel shops, and even a traditional family owned department store. If you are afraid of missing out on larger city conveniences Dunham’s Department Store has a Starbucks inside, where we went to warm up after walking around in the 25* temps outside.
The Starbucks decor stays true to the style of the town, which I thought was brilliant!
As you walk around this amazing little town, you notice a wreath hung on every gas streetlamp, every tree in the square decorated, charming shop windows, dressed for the holiday, and smiles on so many faces. If you are not yet feeling the holiday spirit, an afternoon in this small town might just change your heart.
Isn’t it so classic?
During the market the streets are filled with carolers, street performers, and townsfolk dressed in Dickens era costumes. Everything about this place is Christmas personified for this weekend.
Love the costumes.
Here too.
If you are looking for something fun and family friendly to do around the Southern Tier this weekend head down to Wellsboro, and share in the festivities, with this town and the thousands of revelers who come to spread some holiday cheer. Feel free to bring Fido, as well, as it’s a very dog friendly event.
Freeman and I were starting to freeze here, and Luc, being Luc, needed sustenance. Again. ;]
Grab a snack, eat at one of the many restaurants in the town center, try the wine tasting at Oregon Hill’s winery store, or maybe finish your Christmas shopping in one the many interesting boutiques. Remember to dress warmly though, it gets chilly walking around outdoors after a bit. If you forget a layer or two, one of the vendors is sure to have a supply of gorgeous handmade hats, scarfs, and gloves for every taste and budget.
So, how are you spending this weekend? If you know of more festivals/celebrations in NY and PA, feel free to leave them in the comments, and share festival photos on insta @canigetaramen. Thanks for reading!
Since moving back north, I find the short days and lack of sunshine disheartening at times. When I lived here before, I struggled with depression, occasionally. I had small children, plus, worked full time with other peoples’ children, so I chalked it up to exhaustion, and post partum depression, at the time. The entire 12 yrs. that I lived in the south I did not experience it, even during some brutally difficult times. Yesterday,I woke up, feeling not the greatest, went to the gym, to help quell the gloominess, and was truly surprised when it didn’t help. At all. I tried implementing every self care technique in my arsenal, throughout the day, down time, music, meditation, yoga, even smudging, but I just could not shake it completely. It lasted through the entire day, and was even hanging on a bit when I woke up this morning. The difference today is that it was much more manageable. It has been snowing here for a few days. Don’t get me wrong, I love the snow.
Here’s me, loving the snow.
Usually. Yesterday I loathed it, but today I made a conscious decision to find the fun in it. So…we cancelled today and had a sledding party. Because we school year round, and have a large family, we can do this, on short notice, pretty much whenever. I realize though, that not everyone can, so you may have to save yours for a weekend. We made Banana Nut Pancakes for breakfast, and made a list of all the things we love about winter while we ate. Then we went out sledding on the hill beside our house.
L.L. Bean Tobaggan. This thing really goes!
This tobaggan is from L.L. Bean. My parents bought it for the boys. My father loved teaching them how to wax the bottom to protect it, and of course, make it go faster. It can hold all four of us at once, and it flies, once you get a good path carved out.
After our fingers and toes were numb we came back inside and made hot chocolate.
We used a quick microwave recipe, that comes together in five minutes and cleans up very easily. Because, today was really about self care, I took every shortcut available to me and focused on spending my time relaxing, and having fun with the boys.
Recipe:
3 1/2 cups of milk
1 pkg. vanilla instant pudding
3 heaping tbsps. of cocoa powder
pinch of cinnamon
2 tbsps. maple syrup
Mix all ingredients in a microwavable bowl, and heat for 5 minutes, stopping to stir midway through. Ladle into mugs. Add marshmallows, peppermint, or other preferred toppings.
Next we made paper snowflakes, and tossed some easy sticky buns, made from crescent rolls, in the oven.
Not gonna lie, these improved my mood more than anything else;)
Here’s the Recipe:
1/4 c. brown sugar
1/4 maple syrup
1 tsp. molasses
4 tbsp. plant butter
2 pkg. crescent rolls
2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 walnuts, crushed
Preheat oven to 350* Unroll crescent rolls into a full rectangle, pinch seams closed. Mix half the butter with cinnamon, spread onto open rectangles, roll up from short end and cut each roll into six slices. Mix remaining butter with brown sugar syrup, molasses and cinnamon and walnuts. Spoon 2 tsps. into cups of muffin pans, and set one slice in each slot. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until done. Let cool, before eating, syrup comes out very hot!
Finally, we settled in to watch a winter themed movie. The kids chose Cool Runnings, which we have watched so, so, many times, but still laugh at. John Candy is always funny. We stuffed ourselves with popcorn and sticky buns, and had a great time.
This was how we spent our day warding off the early winter blues. How do you cope with the bleak, sunless days of winter? Let us know in the comments, and share your sledding pictures with us on insta @canigetaramen. Happy Winter! Thanks for reading.
