Twelve Days of Christmas: Ladies first!

 

Day three of Open House and the ladies are here! I was going a little cross-eyed making birds so it was fun to move on to the people!

On the Seventh Day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, seven swans a-swimming! 

On the Eighth Day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, eight maids a-milking!

On the Ninth Day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, nine ladies dancing!

Can you tell the Lady is my favorite? I really enjoyed making her and giving her a really sparkly gown and some jewelry... even a tiny wedding ring! 

*****

If you're not from Texas (or maybe even the American Southwest), today's recipe may seem a little weird, but in the part of Texas we're from, these tacos are a staple. We eat them at all hours of the day and night, including breakfast. People on their way to work will stop at their local taqueria and buy a box full of these foil-wrapped tacos to take to work and share (especially if they're running late!). When we go to Texas, there's always a box of these at my parents' house for our breakfast, or whenever. Sometimes they will have chorizo (Mexican sausage), potatoes, or egg, but the basic breakfast taco is just refried beans and cheese. 

I am not, and never have been, a breakfast person. I just don't like to eat in the morning. But I've always loved bean & cheese tacos, and I've had to increase my protein intake so these are perfect. I make up a big batch and keep them in the fridge. It's so quick and easy to zap one in the microwave for a low-carb, high protein breakfast. This is an adaptation of a recipe for refried beans. You can make it as spicy as you want. I don't add much in the way of spices since these are mainly for breakfast, but jazz them up if you want to.

Bean & Cheese Tacos

3 c. dried pinto beans

1 onion, peeled and halved

4 tsp. salt

1 tsp. pepper

1/4 tsp. dried minced garlic

1/4 tsp. cumin

7 c. water

-------

low-carb tortillas

shredded cheese

Put first seven ingredients in a slow cooker and cook on high for about 6 hours or until beans are done. Discard onion halves and mash beans with a potato masher. Place a couple of generous spoonfuls of beans on one side of a tortilla and top with a little cheese. Roll tortilla from the side with the beans into an enchilada shape. Three cups of beans will make at least 24 tacos, with beans left over. I make a couple dozen at a time because that's about how many we can eat in a reasonable amount of time. This recipe is easy to scale down. Store tacos in the fridge and zap in the microwave for about 45-50 seconds.

The last three tomorrow! See you then!

Twelve Days of Christmas: More birds. And jewelry!

 

Welcome back, everyone! Ready for day two? Or should I say, the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Days of Christmas? 

On the Fourth Day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, four calling (colly, from the 18th century poem) birds!

On the Fifth Day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, five golden riiiiiiiiiiiiiings!

On the Sixth Day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, six geese a-laying!

Making that ring was fun! I used aaalll my sparkly paper! 

*****

Today's recipe is a super easy side dish. You can pair it with the roast we made yesterday if you opted not to add vegetables, or with whatever you're making for supper. Meatloaf, maybe? Meatloaf, definitely.

Super Easy Side Dish (Slow Cooker Potatoes & Green Beans)

2 cans green beans, drained

1 lb. red or yellow potatoes, washed & quartered

1 Tbsp. dried minced onion

2 tsp. minced garlic

3/4 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. pepper

3 c. chicken broth

bacon or bacon bits, if you like

Throw everything in the slow cooker and cook on high about 3 hours or low about 6, or until potatoes are tender. This is a good basic recipe you can customize with your preferred seasonings, and scale up for a potluck dish. There never seem to be enough good sides at a potluck.

*****

See y'all tomorrow for the second half! 

Twelve Days of Christmas: Birds, Birds, Birds! And a Pear!

 

Welcome, welcome, welcome to my 12th annual Christmas Open House! Surely y'all guessed the theme! For my 12th year, it had to be The Twelve Days of Christmas! 

I wanted to do something a little different this year (sometimes I need a break from stitching). Back in 2022, during what was a very rough year, I did a Christmas tree decorated with little paper birds and animals I made. I really enjoyed making them and loved the result.

When I was a little girl, I had a best friend named Christina and our favorite thing to do was "play paper stuff." We spent countless hours with our paper, and crayons, and scissors making everything you can imagine out of paper: purses and all their contents (including powder compacts that opened and had powder puffs inside), every kind of food and groceries, kitchen items, baby dolls and all their clothes and necessities, pets and everything they needed, and on and on. When I say we made everything, we made everything. We made elaborate carrying cases to tote all our paper stuff back and forth to each other's houses where we would spend all day pretending with the things we had made. It was paper dolls, but on an industrial scale. It was so much fun.

So my love for "playing paper stuff" is lifelong and Christmas is the perfect time to revisit it. Paper Christmas ornaments have been around as long as there have been Christmas trees. And it's a nice change from stitching ornaments, usually goes faster, and requires less finishing. Generally speaking. Unless you get carried away. *cough*

For years I have had this beautiful felt ornament set from mmm crafts saved on my computer, and fully intended to make it in felt some day. And then late last year, while thinking about my 12th open house, I had the idea to translate this set into paper ornaments. I didn't have a clear idea of how I would do that, I just figured a felt pattern should work in paper (it does, for the most part) and off I went.

And so I present The Twelve Days of Christmas Felt Ornament Set But in Paper Which Nearly Killed Me and It Will Be A Long Time Before I Want To See A Pair of Tweezers Christmas Open House. (You'll understand the tweezers part by the end of this week.)

The sewing room and kitchen are open! Let's Christmas!

On the First Day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, a partridge in a pear tree!

On the Second Day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, two turtle doves!

On the Third Day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, three French hens!

These are super sparkly in person but the camera just isn't seeing it. I went a little nuts with the glitter paper! At the end of the week I'll provide info on the supplies I used and some tips on making these ornaments in paper. (Hint: tweezers)

*****

The recipes I'll be sharing this week are ones I've been relying on this year. If you've been with me all year, you know it's been a challenging one, but we're not interested in that right now. We're interested in getting through one of the busiest times of the year with some good, comforting food. Easy to make, only a few ingredients (inexpensive!), and everything goes in the slow cooker, so you can put them on and go do other stuff. Christmastime can be a season of elaborate recipes and fancy food, but it can also be hectic, stressful, and expensive. The more of these simple, homemade recipes you have in your stash, the better. Always nicer to have something in the slow cooker than swinging by the drive-thru. With that said, let's start off with the easiest, tastiest pot roast recipe ever.

The Easiest, Tastiest Pot Roast Ever

3 lb. chuck roast (or whatever size you want)

potatoes, carrots, and an onion if you like

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1 packet onion soup mix

2 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce

If you're using potatoes and carrots, put those in the bottom of the slow cooker and add about 1/2 c. water. Add the roast. Mix the soup, soup mix, and Worcestershire sauce and pour it over the roast. Slice an onion and put it on top of the roast. Cook on high for about 4 hours or on low for 6-8 hours, depending on your slow cooker. 

This roast will absolutely fall apart when done. Don't use an expensive cut; a chuck roast is perfect for this recipe, which is as old as the hills, but I've posted it elsewhere in the past and have been surprised by the number of people who've never heard of it. Always pass along good stuff. Just because you've known something for decades doesn't mean everybody else does. Even on your busiest day, you can have a lovely pot roast ready for supper. Maybe we'll be fancy next year.

*****

First day of my 12th annual Christmas Open House in the books! Thanks for being here, and come on back tomorrow!

It's Coming...

 

It's happening, y'all! I actually got it done! Make a sticky note for your forehead because my 12th annual Christmas Open House starts Monday, 15 December! Join me for my cozy tradition of throwing open my sewing room and my kitchen and sharing what I've made for Christmas and what we've been eating! If you're new here, welcome! and make sure to catch up on the last 11 years of Christmas cheer by clicking on the Christmas Open House tabs at the top of the page.

See y'all Monday!

Saturday Sampler: Rainy Saturday Edition

 

Crockpot Chicken Gnocchi Soup

In Which I Reveal My Love for Godzilla

 

I love Godzilla. 

But I am a Godzilla snob. 

I don't care about any of the Hollywood Godzilla movies. They have to be made in Japan, in Japanese. No English dubbing. Do I speak Japanese? No. Does it matter? No. 

I know what you're thinking. "That is a weird thing for a middle-aged stitcher lady to love." Maybe so. But I have an older brother, so I grew up with monster movies and heavy metal and bugs preserved in jars of rubbing alcohol in the refrigerator and even a tarantula. [We thought it was a male, but when she started spinning an egg sac my mom drew the line and my brother had to let her go in my grandparents' pasture.] 

After school, the three o'clock movie on the little black and white TV we had was often an old monster movie, and regularly a Godzilla movie. I loved them. Still do. They're like comfort food for me. Put me in front of the TV, under a blanket, with an old Godzilla movie on, and I will drift off to sleep to the sounds of Tokyo being destroyed. In Japanese, of course.

Imagine my delight when I stumbled across this awesome little Godzilla design. It's a scene from the 2023 movie Godzilla Minus One, which turned out to be the highest-grossing Japanese Godzilla movie of all time (we saw it twice--and I *never* go to the movies). It also won an Oscar for Visual Effects. This is the scene on which the design is based:

Pretty cool, huh?

Saturday Sampler: All Werewolves Edition

 

Feverishly working to finish up Christmas Open House! I've never been this late before, but then, I've never had a year like this before. Don't worry, it's happening! My not-so-little fuzzy helpers are being very good and letting me work. Except when they need snuggles.

Happy Stitching!