Saying a Little Prayer for You

STOP!  Don't throw those Christmas cards out just yet.
There are many things you can do with your Christmas cards.  If you check out Pinterest you'll get lots of ideas, from bookmarks, gift tags, wreaths, boxes, origami stars, ornaments, more cards and the list goes on and on.  In Pinterest, just search for "Recycled Christmas Cards".

Our favorite project is to place our cards in a basket that will hold them all.  Pick a card everyday and say a prayer for the sender.  Hubby and I like to do it before our dinner meal but you can also do it during your devotional time or any other time that best fits your schedule.

What a precious and thoughtful way to pray for those special people in your lives!  I got this idea from Focus On The Family ministry decades ago.

Once you're done with each card, place it in a baggie for safe keeping and to have them ready for the next holiday season to get started on your crafts.

May God bless you and your family in the New Year to come!
Until next time,

Finnish Pulla Bread

DOUGH
 Place these dough ingredients into breadmaker in this order:
3/4 cup warm milk
2 eggs at room temperature
4 tbsps. butter at room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsps. ground cardamon
3 1/2 cups bread flour
1 packet or 2 tsps. instant yeast
2 tbsps. melted butter, slightly cooled
When all ingredients have been placed into the breadmaker, follow directions for making dough.  All I had to do was push the number 9 on my machine.  When the bell goes off, punch the dough down, remove from machine.  Place dough on counter or board dusted well with flour.  Knead the dough a couple of times and then cut in half.  Set aside one half of the dough in a bowl covered with a clean cloth.  Cut the other half into three even parts, roll each piece into a 10" dough stick  (approximately).  Place each stick next to each other, slight dampen the top tip of the middle stick, place the left tip on top of the middle and pinch together.  Repeat with the right stick then tuck under.  Now start braiding.  Wet and pinch the bottom tips the same way the top were done, tuck under.  Place on large cookie sheet.
Repeat all of the above with the second half of the dough and place next to first loaf.
Cover both loaves with a slightly dampen warm clean cloth.  Place in a warm area and let rise until it's double in size, 1/2 hour to 1 hour.
Set oven to 350F degrees.
Gently remove towel.  Brush melted butter all over each dough.  Place in pre-heated oven and bake for 25 minutes or until golden brown.
Enjoy with or without icing BUT while it's still warm! YUM!

ICING (optional)

1 cup confectioners sugar

1/4 - 1/2 cup of milk

2 tbsps. butter, melted

1 tsp. vanilla extract

Mix all ingredients together but add the milk a little at a time until the glaze is smooth, not pasty, not watery but smooth. Cover and set aside until ready to use.

Dredge icing over each loaf.

Enjoy while it's still warm and with your favorite cup of hot cocoa.

 

This is a favorite Christmas bread to make every year.  My first time having Pulla Bread was decades ago upon our visit with my husband's brother, Tom, and his wife Linda.  Linda is of Finnish decent and made this bread for our meal.  I had never tasted Pulla Bread before and it definitely had that wow factor.  It was so soft and delicious.  I know a lot of the delicious flavor had to do with the Cardamom spice in it.  I found this recipe years ago on the internet and tweaked it by adding the icing.  Back when Linda served hers I believe she served it like a dinner roll which is just as good too!  No matter how you eat Pulla Bread, with or without icing you will want to keep making it every Christmas.  It just has that holiday festive flavor to it.

Merry Christmas to everyone.  Enjoy your holiday and always remember the reason for the season:

Until next time,

Shared With

Share Your Style #46

The Scoop #203

Cranberry Orange Almond Shortbread Cookies

by Craving Something Healthy

• 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup confectioner's (powdered) sugar
• 3/4 teaspoon almond extract
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups flour
• 1 tablespoon orange zest
• 2/3 cup sliced almonds, toasted
• 1/3 cup dried cranberries, chopped

In a mixer bowl combine the butter, sugar, almond extract and salt.  With the mixer on low, gradually add the flour (sorry no picture for this step)

Then stir in the orange zest, dried cranberries and almonds.

Should look like this when you're done

Remove dough from the mixer bowl and roll it out into a long log (about a foot and a half).  Wrap with plastic wrap and refrigerate for two hours or overnight.

When you're ready to start baking, preheat oven to 325F degrees.

 Remove from refrigerator and cut into 1/4" slices.  It helps that the dough is good and cold all the way through hence the need for refrigeration.

On a cookie sheet covered with a silpat mat or parchment paper, place the cookies one inch apart.

Bake 15 minutes or until edges are slightly golden brown.  Cool.

Wrap and give away as gifts.  Believe you me, anyone would be thrilled to receive these!

I tweeted earlier that I am not a fan of shortbread cookies,  I just always thought they were too bland and boring!  Until I tasted these and POW!  WOW!  I've made about 5 dozen or more so far.  Half I've given away and the other half, well, I'm not going to tell.

The combination of the orange zest and cranberries are tart, sweet and tasty.  A perfect compliment to your hot chocolate drink.  These will definitely become a new tradition every Christmas and any time in between for sure!

Repurposed Front Door

So we had to replace our front door.

There were a lot of reasons we had to get a new door.  I'm not sure if the door was the original door, our house is 100 years old this year.  I wish I knew if it was the original door or not.  Anyways, it wasn't energy efficient.  The wood below the window pane (which also wasn't energy efficient) had a straight line vertical fracture in it so suffice to say, this little entrance room felt like a freezer last winter.  The handle broke off a couple times so when it did that I told hubby that we absolutely needed to get a new door for the front entrance before winter came along.

Now we're left with the question of what to do with the old door.  It solid wood, very heavy.  I know that if I left outside by the curb, it would be gone in no time.  Instead I decided to repurpose it.

I cleaned it real good and then painted it white. A few days later I added Annie Sloan's dark wax to give it that distressed looks.

I painted the glass with black chalk paint.  The door is now placed in front of a doorway that needed a door.  When we moved into this house about a year and half ago, this room was used mainly as a tv room but we turned it into the bedroom (so that hubby wouldn't have to go up and down the stairway to an upstairs bedroom).  This doorway is between the dining room and our bedroom so I thought that by putting the newly repurposed door there, it would look very nice and stylish in the dining room but also cover up the bedroom.  Oh!  I forgot to mention that we have another entrance into our bedroom from the living room....that's another story for another time.

I'm thrilled that I can decorate my new repurposed door with whatever season were in and write a beautiful message on the black chalkboard.  I'm also thrilled that I can keep this older door in the house, especially if it was the original.

So, what do you think?

Thanks for visiting!  Have a great week :)  Until next time,