Archive | November 2011
November 30, 2011  

Advent Shadowbox: Day 4, A Birdseed Wreath

November 30, 2011
4th Day of Advent
25 Days ’til Christmas

FEED THE BIRDS

Here’s the interior of today’s Advent Shadowbox:

And here’s how it looks from the outside:

The recipe on the card is taken from the fabulous birdseed wreath tutorial on The Dereila Nature Inn website. This is the wreath that I made as a test product last night:

And this is how it looked beside the Advent Shadowbox this morning:

Weather permitting, we’ll be setting this large wreath outside for the birds this afternoon. It’s quite heavy, so we’ll likely lay it on the bird bath and spy on it from the back windows. [UPDATE: We put the wreath out this morning - see below!] This afternoon, as the birds feast, we’ll make ornament-sized versions of the wreath recipe for our tree and for gifts using cookie cutters as our molds. Perhaps we’ll give them to teachers with our canned goods from our “Summer of Funner.”

Here’s a copy of the printable instructions given on the The Dereila Nature Inn website. If you click on their link, you can view a fantastic photographic tutorial. Please do check out our inspiration!!!

Birdseed Wreath
(as presented by The Dereila Nature Inn)

Ingredients (recipe may be quartered or halved):
8 tablespoons cold water
4 – 1/4 ounce packages Knox unflavoured gelatin  
 1 1/2 cups water
8 cups birdseed

  1. Empty the 4 packages of gelatin into 8 tablespoons of cold water in a large bowl.
    Let the gelatin sit for 1 minute.
  2. Meanwhile, boil the 1 1/2 cups of water. Add the boiling water to the gelatin and stir for 2 to 3 minutes or until the gelatin has dissolved.
  3. Stir 8 cups of birdseed into the gelatin, mixing thoroughly.
  4. Let the mixture set for a few minutes, then stir again.
    Repeat this process a few times allowing the seed to absorb the liquid.
  5. Spoon the mixture into a greased bundt pan.
    Put in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours.
  6. Remove the wreath from the mold by inverting the pan and tapping along the bottom. The pan may need to warm to room temperature before the wreath will come out.
  7. Allow the wreath to dry overnight or longer if necessary.
    Placing it on a cooling rack will help the air circulate.
    The wreath should be very solid when completely dry.
  8. Use several strands of raffia, twine or strong string to form a loop to hang the wreath.

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November 29, 2011  

Advent Shadowbox: Day 3, Letter to a Friend

November 29, 2011
3rd Day of Advent
26 Days ’til Christmas

Tuesdays are for Correspondence
Write a Letter to a Friend

Each Tuesday in Advent, we’ll be writing a letter, note, or email to someone we love.
{Santa included, of course!}
Today’s Advent Shadowbox is filled with Christmas stamps, holiday cards, and charcoal pencils:

On the Glass, you’ll find the text written in dry erase marker:

Here’s how it looks from a slight distance:

It’s a bit untidy, but, then, we’re not exactly tidy correspondents…
It’s the finger-print smudges that show the love.

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November 28, 2011  

Advent Shadowbox: Day 2, Daily Bread Food Bank

NOVEMBER 28, 2011

SECOND DAY OF ADVENT
27 DAYS UNTIL CHRISTMAS

Our Advent Mondays
are Giving Days

You Know
How to Proceed

It’s Time to Gather Cans
and Coins
for All Our Friends in Need

MAKE A DONATION
TO THE DAILY BREAD FOOD BANK

Here’s  a look at our Advent Shadowbox Calendar for the day:

And here’s a close up of the text:

I’ve also attached a pdf file of the image for those who are interested.

Giving has become a traditional part of our Advent season. Over the four weeks of this “new year,” we designate at least one day a week as our “Giving Day.”  Since we make an effort to contribute to the Daily Bread Food Bank on a monthly basis, it makes sense to begin our season by giving more where we give already.  So, today, we’ll do “double duty.” I’ll have the kids help me make a donation online at http://www.dailybread.ca, and we’ll head up to the grocery store to purchase a weekend’s worth of meals for the Food Bank’s donation box at the store’s entrance. I’ll try to remind the kids that Advent is a great time to start a new habit of giving which lasts all year long, and that while this is a season of remembrance, we should be doing as much as we can every day to spread and share the earth’s bounty. I hope I remember this myself as we progress into 2012.

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November 27, 2011  

Advent Shadowbox: Day 1, Baking Cookies

November 27, 2011
First Day of Advent 

28 Days ‘til Christmas
No Time to Sit Around & Wait!
It’s Time to Test New Recipes
For Santa’s Cookie Plate!

This is what the kids will see on the hallway table when they come down the steps this morning:

And this is what they’ll read on the oustide of the shadowbox (my apologies for using “time” twice. I was up at little too early this morning…):

The next step will be to open the shadowbox:

and to read the brand new recipe inside:

It didn’t take long to figure out what to do on our first day of Advent. After all, we needed a new weekly lunchbox treat!  Luckily, my friend Evelyn Manangan-Price, from http://www.fromtheseed.blogspot.com had posted a “wish-I-could-eat-the-picture” photograph of a glorious batch of cookies she’d whipped up, and she was gracious enough to point to where we could find her inspiration recipe.  So, with a few additions of our own (we had “toffee bits” on hand), we had something “new” to try on this, the first day of a “new year,” according to the folks that  matter.

Below, you’ll find a plain text version of the recipe, which is an adaptation of a Cook’s Illustrated classic. You’ll notice the inclusion of a “secret ingredient” which our friend was kind enough to share with us. We didn’t ask for her permssion, though, to share it with the rest of you. So, for right now, it’s still a secret! Please note that it is not necessary to use the secret ingredient to produce absolutely fabulous cookies. It’s just an added bonus. Why not try a secret ingredient of your own? Anything you have on hand…a pinch of this, a dash of that..a crushed candycane, perhaps, or a splash of orange liquer. Or bide by my personal motto: “If your response to the dish is ‘Alack,’ add a splash or two of your best cognac!”

Chewy Chocolate Chip Toffee Bit Cookies

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 tablespoon of our homemade vanilla extract
1 egg & 1 egg yolk
1 ½  cups of our Favourite Chocolate Chips
3/4  cup Toffee Bits
1 tablespoon “Mrs. Santa’s Secret Ingredient”

Preheat oven to 350. Mix the dry ingredients. Cream the wet ingredients. Blend the two together. Add Chips, Toffee Bits and Mrs. Santa’s Secret Ingredient. Bake on parchment-lined sheets for 8-12 minutes, depending on cookie size.

Afternoon Update:

As you can see from the pictures above and to the left, we made the cookies for the first time this afternoon, and they were EXCELLENT! Sooo soft and chewy! 10 minutes was the perfect time in our convection oven! And the dough wouldn’t hold more than 1 1/2 cups of chips and 3/4 of toffee bits, so we’ve revised the recipe accordingly. The crunchy toffee bits made for a great contrast to the eewwy gooey chewy cookie goodness. And we’ve managed to talk Evelyn into letting us post her secret ingredient…..So, what was it?

1 tablespoon of blackstrap molasses!

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