Mr. Willowby's Christmas Tree

This very book shown to the left has been our family for years and I cannot wait for it to become a new tradition with our son!  Written by Robert Barry, it was first published in 1963 and I am pretty sure it has been in my family for that long.  I remember it being on a book shelf at my parents' house and while reading it wasn't really a tradition of ours, I remember loving the book.

To briefly summarize... a wealthy family receives their Christmas tree, but it is too tall, so they snip the top and toss it.  That tip is given to the maid who has to snip the top because it is too tall to fit where she wanted to place it.  That tip is tossed and found by a gardener...and on and on.  It is such a wonderful story!

I managed to snag that old copy from my parents when I moved away from home.  I read that book to my husband every year and while I felt silly doing that, he really saw how much I loved that book.  A few years back, he ordered me the revised edition for Christmas.  It was such an amazing gift from him!!  We now have both copies on our shelf and while it is a bit too long for our son's attention span, he does enjoy looking at the pictures!

Soon enough, it will become a regular part of our holiday preparations.  I cannot wait!

So simple and delicious.

Penne alla Vodka

We have made this many times, but for some reason it was better than ever last night!  Unfortunately my camera battery was charging when I wanted to photograph our full bowls, so I had to use the one shown with the recipe.   If you haven't made this before, you must.

Ingredients:

• 5 large tomatoes
• 1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 garlic cloves, very thinly sliced
• 1/4 cup vodka
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• Pinch of red pepper flakes
• 1 lb. penne
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• Leaves from 3 or 4 large fresh flat-leaf parsley
    sprigs, coarsely chopped

Directions:

1.  Peel and seed the tomatoes, then cut them into small dice. If the tomatoes are very juicy, drain them for about 10 minutes in a colander. Set aside.

2.  In a large fry pan over medium heat, warm the olive oil. Add the garlic and sauté until just starting to turn golden, 1 to 2 minutes. Remove the pan from the stovetop and add the vodka. Return the pan to medium heat and cook until reduced by half. Add the tomatoes, salt, black pepper and red pepper flakes and simmer, uncovered, for 10 minutes.

3.  Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water to a boil over high heat. Generously salt the boiling water, add the pasta and cook until al dente (tender but firm to the bite), 10 to 12 minutes. Drain well and add the pasta to the fry pan.

4.  Add the cream and cook, stirring, over medium heat until the pasta is well coated with the sauce, about 2 minutes. Taste and adjust the seasonings. Pour into a warmed large, shallow bowl. Add the parsley and toss briefly. Serve immediately.

Serves 4.

Adapted from Williams-Sonoma Collection Series, Pasta, by Erica De Mane (Simon & Schuster, 2001).

A few little projects...

Happy Tuesday!!  This time of year has me feeling crafty and somewhat cheesy. Here are a few little things I have been working on:

1.  family garland:  I wanted to start adding something personal and handmade to our tree every year.  This year, I busted out my cookie cutters, glitter card stock, and pencil and started tracing:

I liked the trees, but decided to go with a gingerbread family:

2.  gift tags:   Last week I saw on How About Orange that West Elm was offering free printables on their site for cards, tags, menus, etc..  Since I adore wrapping gifts, I thought these would be the perfect tags.  I was a little disappointed when I printed them on regular paper, so I thought they needed glitter.  :)  I haven't glued them on yet, but I like how they look so far.  You will also see how I plan to wrap gifts this year....just plain white paper with the sequin garland.  While I love the look of some of the really beautiful, earthy wrapping designs I saw linked from this post, I wanted something that represented us.  ...so bright and crazy and cheery it is!  :)

3.  advent calendar:  This is more of a confession than anything.  Remember when I said I wanted to do an advent calendar?  I am still working on that project.  I ended up going in a different direction from what I posted originally and it is taking forever and is stressful!  I do know how ridiculous that sounds, but it has been the most time-consuming thing ever and if I am lucky, it will be done in time for next December.  Did I mention it is the tackiest thing ever?  I am clearly obsessed with that sequin garland and was kind of going with that theme for the calendar. Each day would add another piece  to the garland and the last day would be a Santa...maybe...honestly, I haven't gotten that far yet.  Here is some of what has been going on with this project:

4.  recipe for Christmas:  This is the cheesy part I mentioned.  :)  Using parts from some of the West Elm gift tags, I put together a "recipe for Christmas" to help me calm down when I get crazy thinking about gifts and traveling and baking and random projects like the ones above.  I have this on the island in our kitchen:

Mix peace with joy with love.  :)

Peppermint Bark Brownies!

When you have these things in your house, there is only one logical thing to make:  peppermint bark brownies!  I thought for sure there had to be a recipe for this online and I was right.  I found this, and while they look absolutely fantastic,  they seemed a bit too complicated for me, so I did my own thing and came up with my own version...which I am sure also exists out there, but I did not look to see.

I wish I either used my go-to brownie recipe or cheated with these, because the ones I made weren't really that great.  :(  I usually mess with recipes because I have a hard time with authority, I guess...but this time I followed it exactly, just omitted the nuts, and they are so thin and almost dry.  I even took them out of the oven 10 minutes early.  Oh well...I still love the idea of this, just not the recipe I used.

Mistake #1:  They are so thin and seem dry.  :(

Mistake #2:  I am not at all sure why I thought this would be a good idea.  If I need to put all of the chocolate on top, why waste some by putting it in a bag and why waste my time when it is just going to be spread with a knife?  Duh...dummy!

After spreading the melted white chocolate and sprinkling with crushed candy canes, at least it looked the way I wanted:

Despite their mediocre taste, at least they look ok, right? Hopefully Santa won't mind.  ;)

I suck at baking!  ...Happy Monday!!  :)