The gorgeous 12 foot Christmas tree is only half decorated. One wreath and the stockings were the only decor to make it out of storage. No fun holiday baking was done, nor was there even a chance to properly shop for gifts for family and friends.

Through the busy hours, however, I found myself listening to Christmas music almost constantly and had come to really enjoy some new songs. So, in lieu of homemade baked goods, or jars of preserves from our kitchen, we exchanged with our friends and neighbors a music CD (the hubs kept offering it as our “mix tape”).

My husband and I were able to crank out a dozen (between our two computers) in an hour or so.

The inside cover had our holiday wishes and a few pictures along with the playlist. I bought jewel cases of red and green at the office store and printed CD labels. But they have adorable already-designed blank CDs available now, too. Total time saver.

As for the music, I tried to add some classics performed by some different groups, some original songs and a small mix of genres. Not everyone will like every song, but it’s the thought that counts – right?

I attempted to “share” my playlist on iTunes for you all to see (and use if you’re so inclined), but wasn’t sure how to link to it, etc. So you can search for it like this:

Go to the iTunes store. In the search window in the upper right corner, type “I’ll be late for christmas!” and then search. Find my playlist on the lower left side of the results in the “Playlists” section.

There were other non-baked, but creative and appreciated exchanges we got from friends that are worth noting. One family came-a-carolling to sing us “We Whisk you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Beer.” And then gifted us the whisk with a baking mix and a 20 oz micro brew. Loved it!!

Another fun idea that was gifted us was a beautifully adorned bag of mistletoe with lip gloss attached and a note that read, “For you and your husband to enjoy!” Find my friend’s blog The Full Measure for a great read and more great ideas!

Since what little we did get done for Christmas was only just done, I think we’ll be observing the “12 Days of Christmas” as they were meant to be, with the first day being December 25th. I still won’t bake, decorate or shop. But we will slow down, read stories and sit by the fire listening to Christmas music and hopefully regain the bits of the Christmas season that we love and feel like we missed while trying to keep-up with everything else. Merry Christmas.

The kicker is, you have to follow the festival’s theme for the year. The 2011 theme was “Snowflake Adventures,” so I complied. But that meant somehow creating an “adventure” out of all edible things and incorporating a house…. hmmm. Ski lodge?

Eight boxed cakes, two double batches of marshmallow, two double recipes of royal icing and one batch of gingerbread dough later (along with other assorted edibles), you have a three-story Adirondack tobogganing resort complete with rope tow, bonfire and skating pond. Whew.

Random list of edibles used?? Shredded wheat, pretzels, guacamole tortilla chips, dried beans, dried pasta, fruit roll-ups, fruit-by-the-foot, graham cereal, chocolates, candy canes and melted hard candies.

I haven’t made a gingerbread house in a couple of years, so it was fun to create this. My first time in a competition as well. I did win first in my class and then took the championship. Two pretty ribbons to prove it. What did I win? A mention in the local paper and my house on display in the hospital lobby (I think they spelled my name wrong). Would I do it again? Yes!

This time I used a basic chocolate chip cookie recipe and instead of chocolate chips, I added an equal amount of anything.

The “compost” of the cookie is anything and everything edible you want it to be. Perfect for cleaning out the pantry and using leftover Halloween candy. I let my son fill the measuring cup with whatever he thought should be in the cookies. The only thing I added was some oats. Everything from Raisinettes to goldfish crackers (look closely for the fish in the photo!), pretzels and Sugar Babies to broken-up fortune cookies went into these. I must say the chewy-salty-sweet surprises make them pretty good.

The only change from the basic cookie recipe would be to refrigerate for about an hour before baking. Otherwise they will spread too much and burn the goodies. A true American dessert – a little bit of everything thrown in. Enjoy!

I’ve always had a thing for pumpkins. Eating them, decorating with them and now growing them, too. For the last couple years, we’ve purchased the fancy, funky looking pumpkins at the market, used them and saved their seeds to plant the next year. Some have been pretty good eating, some are better used for Jack-o-lanterns or other decor.

Well, I think I’ve found my favorite for eating (so far). I think it’s a Jamboree. About 9 to 11 pounds, gray-blue-green in color and a flat round with light ribbing.

This is the pumpkin I used in my earlier “fighter pilot scarecrow” post as the helmet. It had so much meat inside that I needed a crowbar to get the lid off. I hollowed out what I could (and it was quite a bit) and saved it for baking. I spread the chunks onto a foil lined pan and sprinkled it lightly with salt and then about a teaspoon of sugar and cinnamon (skip the sugar if you’re using for savory stuff). Then I dotted it with butter and covered it tightly with foil. Into the oven at 350 for about 30 minutes (longer if you’re using large pieces). Then I removed it from the oven and left it covered as it cooled.

After it was cool I put it into the food processor and gave it a whirl. No draining off water or anything that I’ve experienced with other pumpkins said to be “good for baking.” It was sweet, thick and delicious as it was. But then I started adding it to EVERYTHING…

Pumpkin muffins, pancakes, smoothies and oatmeal, oh my.  It was sweet enough that little to zero extra sugar required. I even whipped it into softened cream cheese with some extra pie spices. Soooo good. I used it on everything from bagels and toast to banana bread as a vessel for it. Yum.

Then I started using more of the raw pumpkin, chunked up in savory recipes. Adding it to minestrone soup, sauteing with portobello mushrooms and tossing with pasta and parm cheese and even layering cooked chunks into a lasagna that had kale instead of spinach.

Well, needless to say, we saved the seeds of this gray-green beauty and I hope it does well in our little pumpkin patch next year. I do need to try a few of the others to see if they are good eating, however. Pictured above, a “turks turban” is next!

I think making this pilot scarecrow is actually easier than a regular scarecrow because you don’t have to try to attach the body to the legs. I made mine sitting to simplify the process even more. Just get something to stack for the torso. I use wood blocks that we had, but even a 5 gallon bucket would work. Then add a cross-piece for the shoulders and to rest the head on, like a 2 x 4. Start stuffing the suit with straw. Or use newspaper for the main stuffing and add a little straw (found in small amounts at craft stores) in the openings to give the authentic look.  The stuffing is the part the kids can really help with. My 4-year-old did most of it. My 20 month old mostly pulled the straw back out. Oh well, they both had fun!

For the helmet, I found a gray-green pumpkin. It was pretty difficult to find one large enough (but not so big it looked like something from Spaceballs.) and round enough to fit over another small pumpkin. Keep searching, it is out there! Also – these pumpkins are great for cooking. Keep all the flesh for later use. And there is a ton of flesh!!

I actually used a crow-bar to get the lid off this pumpkin. Start carving out the inside and scrape what you can with an ice cream scoop to make enough room for the orange pumpkin. Then cut the face out to create the helmet. Add your regular pumpkin – stem as the nose – and draw or paint on the face. If you are really ambitious, you can carve the orange pumpkin face. Cut the bottom of the orange one and lift the whole thing to light (like you would a giant hurricane). Either way, the “neck” of the pumpkin needs to be leveled so it will rest atop the scarecrow. Real aviator glasses would be cute, too. And don’t forget the patches!!!

To make the glittery raised dots, all I did was use a hole punch on foam-glitter sheets with a sticky backing. Peel and stick onto your tapers. It’s that easy. And they pop off just as easily, so you can use the candles for another occasion, too.

For the stripes, I taped off the tapers with painters’ masking tape. Then I used black acrylic paint to fill in. Be sure to peel the tape when the paint is still wet. Let it dry and you have cute striped candles. And the paint washes right off, so again you can re-use your candles! I also did polka-dots on little votives.

Please note: these are for decorative purposes! I have not burned mine and if I light them, I’ll remove the dots from the upper portion and keep a close eye on them! Do not burn as is!!

I use my slow cooker on the “10 hour” setting and fill it with peeled, cored and chunked pears, about a half cup (maybe less) of sugar and add cinnamon and spices with a pinch of salt. Maybe a splash of apple juice to get the liquids started, but you really don’t want too much.

Wait the 10 hours. Let it cook overnight and the smells in the morning are fantastic. Make sure most of the liquid has cooked out and off-set the lid if you have too much. Cook longer if needed. The brownish crust on the outer edges is fantastic for flavor and color.

I then throw mine in the blender and if it seems too liquid – then I put it all back into the slow cooker for more time with the lid off-set until I like the consistency. Whisk and then jar and use. So yummy and so easy!!

The invite: Cruising the craft store for inspiration, I found a pack of yellow blank cards and envelopes on discount. I thought it the perfect bright color to off-set the grays and silvers of the robots in our future, so I went with it. I also found super-cute brads that have screw head imprints. So I made the retro-cool robot stream a message on his chest, saying, “Hi… my name is L-U-K-3. Will you come to my party?” This happens when the reader turns the wheel of the card. The info on back was printed to look like dot-matrix on old-school computer paper.

The favors: Luke wanted to make robot tees for everyone since we made some other shirts so recently (and I finally bought a Yudu of my own). So I told him to draw a few robots… and he did. And he drew and drew and drew!! We picked the best four (since he was turning four) and I scanned and added the “Robot Party! At Luke’s” design. We found dark gray shirts for under $5 each and used yellow ink (girls got pink shirts with silver ink!). Each shirt got rolled up and wrapped with silver curly ribbon and adorned with a robot head tag of Luke’s creation. He’s been excited to cut with kid scissors lately, so I let him draw and cut each one. He gave the girls’ tags eyelashes! We put twisty straws in each as an added bonus, too.

The cake: Well, it was a LUK3 robot, of course! I’m not the best baker, so I used two boxed white cakes and baked two 9×13 pans to construct. I just started by cutting, leveling and stacking squares for the body and smaller rectangles for the head. I put them both on small squares of cardboard for support (pre-pop a hole in the center of the head-piece!). Luke wanted strawberry cake, but I knew I’d be freezing and was worried the fresh strawberries would seep when thawed. So I used strawberry jam – and it was good! The buttercream frosting (and layered as filling) was homemade and a cooked version from Williams-Sonoma. Very good! So I filled, and layered the body and head separately. Crumbed them, then added a dowel down the center of the body. It stuck out high enough that I could later add two marshmallow pin wheel cookies and still pop the head on deep enough for support. Freeze the pieces apart, as is – no wrap. The buttercream used to “crumb coat” it will keep the moisture in. Cut leg and arm pieces and freeze them after crumb-coating as well (I didn’t layer or fill these, just chunks of cake). Day or night before, I pulled it out to frost and assemble then put it in the fridge until a couple of hours before. It held up okay, but started to slide a bit more after it got pretty warm. The frosting was gray buttercream, and I found a silver “graffiti spray” from Duff and gave the cake a silvery coating. I used Oreo cookie thins in hex shapes for his eyes and buttons and used a fork to make the hex-tread texture for the body. Too hard to attempt perfect smoothness and I’m not a fan of the flavor of fondant (though it would have looked great on this cake!!) so I made it textured rather than smooth.

The decorations: Like I said, my son was really into helping with the decorations. So I had him draw robots on triangles and incorporated those with cut sheets of fun printed paper and pre-cut robots from the craft store (sprayed silver) and taped them to a ribbon for a flag banner.

I took regular silver paper plates (there are squares out there too that would be perfect!) and added cut out arms and heads with double stick tape so they’d have little bot-plates to eat off of. The setting has the robots holding the knife and fork. Red cloth and yellow naps and cake plates add the needed color.

Finally the robots. We went for retro-robots for sure. A couple smaller ones inside were spray painted silver boxes just stacked with paper towel tubes taped on for arms and legs. My favorites were the large silver trash can with the dome head (big plastic salad bowl and a plastic red cup for the light, with pipe insulation for arms), the one on the wheel (old silver rim from a set we’re trying to sell) and the little white guy I made from a rice cooker. I just used odds and ends and recyclables from around the house. I turned the indoor trash can, still useable, into a domed bot, too. I almost brought out my bread machine to create another one but my husband intervened in my robot-making-mania. Each bot held a helium mylar balloon that we drew robot heads on one side and “Robot Party” or “Party – Robot Style!” on the other. We had about 7 robots throughout the house, I think.

Other general decor was just air-filled yellow and silver balloons floating around. Kids love to bat them around and many were taken outside to play with. Good cheap fun! Another idea would be to draw a robot head onto your bathroom mirrors with dry-erase markers.

The food: We just had lasagna, so nothing robot-related. But the snacks were “nuts and bolts” of large twisty pretzels and round “bagel-style” pretzels. This little food hint I found listed on several sites on-line. I put the snacks in foil mini-loaf pans and had all the serving dishes in metals and silvers if I could.

The fun: Other than just playing with toys and general rumpus, I planned for the kids to make robot heads. I got silver gift bags and had the parents cut out eyes and shoulder notches. Then I had all kinds of stickers, glittery sticky paper, silver cupcake cups, metallic pipe cleaners, pre-cut papers and an assortment of tapes and glues. They came up with some great creations. Of course my son was the one to claim not to be finished when all were plenty done (he loves the crafty things!). For background music while pure chaos was happening at the craft table, we played “Mr. Roboto” and another song “Robot Rock” with the iTunes screen saver running on the TV screen. Some where mesmerised, some could care less. Funny how that happens!

All in all the party went well. All the kids played well together and I think all had a good time. Luke said his favorite part was blowing out his candles. He announced today that his favorite color is no longer red. Now that he is 4 years old, his favorite color is green. Also, he has plans for his 5-year-old party next year… apparently I need to start working on a banjo cake and decorations!

Well, apparently summer sun at 4,000 feet (and freezing winters) will do some damage to wood and cushions – no matter what. The wood, though it’s been stained and treated with outdoor products several times, continues to peel and look awful. The cushions I paid to have recovered (double the price of the original couch) in an outdoor canvas that faded noticeably the first summer. The second year they were almost white, with the exception of the shaded spots (the original color was a pretty saturated leaf green).

My husband is sick of this couch. He’s sanded and re-stained every year and said this year we should just buy a metal set and call it good. I have guilt over just having paid for the cushions to be recovered AND we just paid to have a pergola built over our west-facing deck (Love it!). So – I got it in my head to paint it with outdoor house paint and dye the cushions.

For the dying process, I did a bit of research on www.ritdye.com to see if I was crazy to attempt this. Not so. I found it to be a great resource for color formulas and even other crafty dye ideas. If you do this – be sure to read every possible process, hint and tip out there. It really helps to figure out what will work best for you.

First, I washed and then bleached the cushion covers. As it turned out, there were little rust stains that never came out – so I chose to go with an orange color rather than the original green. The dye recipes say to use 3 gallons of water per pound of fabric. Each cushion cover happened to be about a pound, so my calculations were easy. We also have a large stainless utility tub that I did all this in – so the “tub or bucket” method worked for me.

The website mentioned somewhere using salt in the dye bath if using 100% cotton. But I didn’t find that anywhere on the bottle. Same with using a tablespoon of detergent to help even dying. Again – I saw that in one place, but not the other. Well, I did both. I also heated 3 gal. of water on my stove until 160 degrees and poured it in the tub for each dye bath. I had a big stainless paddle for mixing and rotating the fabric while it was still too hot to put gloved hands in the water mix. Be sure to time how long you leave each piece (if doing multiples) to keep things consistent. I left mine in the dye bath about 15 minutes each, and wish I’d have left them longer. After the final wash, they came out almost two shades lighter than I thought they would. Also – if you have a HE washer – do the final wash by hand in a large amount of water. I had some uneven areas that weren’t present before the final wash in my HE washer.

For a random experiment with dye (my first ever) I think it came out okay. The couch is certainly more useable and presentable now than it was before. And when the cushions fade again, I know I can easily fix it with another round of dye. Using my “lessons learned” it will turn out even better the second time around – I hope. At least for this summer season we have a cozy area to watch our fire blaze and roast some mallows, but with all the comforts of home… nice.

My friend is a beautiful, creative and warm person. A rosy-cheeked artist, her home was filled with great, funky things that belonged because she loved them. Even the plates were a mish-mash of Fiestaware and hand-painted, all showing off their colors from an open shelf. Everything about that night was relaxed and unpretentious from the music, the conversation and even the bread.

I can only call it an “everything salad” in that it had a ton of stuff in it. No recipe books or food shows could or would replicate it. It was the main course with a torn chunk of rustic bread and a glass of bright white wine. I can’t even tell you everything in it, but I do remember nasturtiums (edible flowers that grow well in Alaska) feta cheese, pecans, peas….

I’ve since made several of my own “everything salads” as a stand-alone meal. Adding unlikely pantry ingredients like dried apricots and any kind of fresh fruit or veg I have on hand, with crumbles of cheese, boiled eggs, leftover chicken, beans, artichoke hearts, tortellinis – you name it, all mixed in some greens.

Salads have become a sort of creative challenge for me. I get to experiment with flavors and textures and it doesn’t take a huge amount of skill or time. Here are a few that I’ve tried and have really enjoyed:

The Pacific Northwest Salad:
Spring greens, smoked salmon (or leftover cooked and flaked) snow peas (frozen peas work, too) fresh blueberries and goat cheese crumbles. Raspberry or a lemon-garlic vinaigrette for the dressing.

The Bistro Salad:
Spinach, sliced avocado, blue cheese crumbles, bacon crumbles (optional) dressed with a honey mustard. Then top off with a warm poached egg and some homemade croutons.

Fried Goat Cheese Salad:
To fry your goat cheese, slice into rounds and dip into egg, then seasoned bread crumbs to coat. Chill in fridge or freezer to get nice and cold. Then fry in a good amount of oil until golden on both sides. I add two slices of fried cheese to greens with roasted tomatoes and dress with a balsamic and thyme vinaigrette.

Now our garden is stuffed full of romaine, spinach and mesclun mixes. The sugar peas are ready, along with the radishes, carrots and beets. We’ve been eating a ton of salads lately. I’ll always try to add a protein to make my husband happy. Shrimp are easy and fast. Or if we have steak the night before, I’ll add thin slices of the leftovers to a salad creation (so good with Stilton cheese slices and the extra spice of radish and arugula!).

Ironically, some of my favorite salad plates (a gift from someone else) were hand-painted by my friend Romney Dodd. Whimsical flowers, plaids and bountiful colors are what my salads try to mirror on her plates, though salads of this magnitude often require a big pasta bowl! Edible art…. yum!