Christmas Eve: Healthy Appetizers

I'm not sure how it started (sorry Mom!), but my family has always opened Christmas presents on Christmas Eve. It was weird to think of it any other way when Tony and I got married, but it did work out when it came to the obligatory splitting up of family time during the Christmas season. Our family would gather every year right around dinner time to open all of our presents, which ended up making dinner a challenge. We (the kids) wanted to get strait to opening presents and would hardly touch our food or if we waited until after the presents to eat we rushed through opening presents because we were all starving.

My mom decided the solution to this predicament was to do a ton of finger foods to put out in the living room to snack on during the present opening. Now every year that is our Christmas Eve meal... a TON of appetizers (and a couple of cocktails). There are so many great appetizer recipes that our eyes always end up being bigger than our stomachs (or some of us just keep eating until we explode). This year I am hosting Christmas Eve at our house and I am having a terrible time narrowing down the options. I have decided that we are going to try some more healthy options (but still kid friendly) than we normally do because we are the ones that are going to be stuck with the leftovers and I am not interested in buying bigger jeans this year! These are 10 of the yummy recipes that I am considering:

Crabmeat Fondue

Harvest Sweet Potato Pecan Pie Tarts

Getting Ready for House Guests

The Christmas season is in full swing! I can't believe that it has come so quickly and now it is about to be over...I feel like we just finished decorating (who am I kidding? I'm NEVER finished decorating!) At any rate, it's time for the house guests to start funneling in next week, so I am trying to prepare this week. Washing the linens, giving the guest bathroom a good scrub, and making sure the entire house is in order, and...if you're neurotic like me...cleaning out all the closets.

I LOVE to entertain people! I'm a complete dork about it.We have a guest room and it never gets used, so I get really excited when we get the opportunity to host something.  I like to add personal touches wherever and whenever possible just to make my guests feel more at home.

Just in case....

My favorite thing to do for any overnight guest is to provide a basket of things that are considered necessities. Bathroom products that are a serious bummer to forget or not have on hand. Most people have travel sized items from their own travels (don't act like you haven't stolen a mini bottle of shampoo or two!) or samples from going to the doctor or dentist. You can have a generic basket of things available in the guest rooms at all times for your unexpected over-nighters, but I like to personalize the items for my planned guests. Consider their age, gender, and then things that are more specific to that person. I am going to be lucky enough this Christmas to have my grandmother stay at our house, so I have some products that are more for a woman. Here is a list of what is specifically in my basket of goodies:

• 3 washcloths
• 1 Exfoliating sponge 
• 1 medium sized bottle of body lotion
• Saline 
• Contact case
• Floss
• Toothpaste
• Toothbrush
• Mouthwash
• Mini manicure kit
• Disposable razors
• Shaving cream
• Lip balm
• Deodorant
• Make-up remover wipes
• Small containers of both Advil and Tums (I mean, it's the holidays!)

Now these are just the things that I used, but there are loads of other things that you can add based on the type of people that regularly stay at your house. I also like to make sure that I have organized the cabinet in the guest bathroom and removed anything that wasn't meant to be seen (doesn't everybody go through people's medicine cabinet?).

If you're wondering where the obvious shampoo, conditioner, shower gel, etc. are, I keep them in the shower for regular use. These are the products that people are comfortable using that have already been used. Having things in the basket like deodorant or razors, prevents them from doing any, "has this been used?" second guessing before they use it. I also keep a number of things handy for them under the sink in the bathroom. I have a couple of bins there that are labeled so that it's clear what they are: hair care, first aid and...the feminine products (let's avoid and embarrassing situation, people!).

Some other things to consider:

Food

Stock the pantry and the fridge with foods that your guests enjoy. The food should be easy to grab and go. As a guest it's so easy to feel like an inconvenience to your host by asking where cooking utensils or even glasses are when they are trying to entertain several people. So your guests don't have to feel like they are a bother to you, stock things like:

Sweet Treats!

• Bottled or canned drinks (those individual Crystal Light packets are really handy too).
• Pre-made snacks like carrots and dip or pre-cut apple packs that are available in the produce section. 
• Make or buy some sweet treats that you know they like.
• Have a make-ahead meal stashed in the freezer, because you will always run out of time during the holidays. 

Make everything easy for your guests. Display them in clear jars on the counter or label them in the fridge or pantry. 

Technology

Another one of the many creature comforts that we have all come to know is accessible technology. I like to leave a welcome note thanking them for staying that also includes our Wi-Fi password so that they can plug it into their tablets, cell phones or laptops. If you have a TV with cable access in the guest bedroom, you may also consider including a channel list (available on your providers website). I know most people use the guide, but it is nice to have a go. Another nice thing to have in there is a back-up phone charger. The fantastic thing about Apple having the monopoly over cellphones and tablets and MP3 players, is that we all have the same charger (unless you have one of the new models...so annoying!). Leave a spare charger in the nightstand and they will have it if they need it. 

These are just a few things that will insure that your guests have an easy and welcome stay at your little bed and breakfast! Do you have anything special that you do to get ready for guests? 

DIY: Paper Ornaments

These ornaments can be easily customized to match your decor. In addition, you can add some personal touches by using different types of paper material. You can use a map of a place that you traveled to this year, photocopies of pages from a favorite book, or sheet music for a favorite song. The option to personalize this project also makes it a great gift option. Keep in mind, whatever paper product that you choose, the thinner the paper is, the better. I don't suggest using anything thicker than a standard piece of scrapbook paper or it will be impossible to get the strips to lay flat.

Here's what you will need:

• glass or plastic ornament
• paper
• scissors or a paper cutter
• Mod Podge
• paintbrush or foam brush
• shallow plate or dish filled with water
• glitter (optional)
• acrylic paint (optional)
• acrylic gloss medium (optional)

1.   Cut the paper into small strips that are about 3/8" x 6". I like to cut the strips in various widths smaller than or equal to 3/8" just to mix it up a bit. The number of strips that you need will vary depending on how you arrange them on the ornament, but you should not need more than half of a 12 x 12 sheet of scrapbook paper. Once you have cut 12 or so strips, place them in the water to saturate them (if you are using something thinner than scrapbook paper, it may be better to saturate the sheets as you use them instead of soaking them).

The Trouble with a Pre-lit Tree

As mentioned in my previous post, we have already come across some decorating obstacles this year and we haven't even gotten through half! There's always a thing in decorating every year that causes me an exorbitant amount of frustration during the decorating process. The thing that follows me around in every project, even when I get to something easy that I have done many time with no problems, there the thing is, looming over the entire project, a menace to my Christmas spirit. This year that thing, that menace, is the lighting!

Last year we made two major Christmas decoration purchases: My big, beautiful, 9 foot, pre-lit, fake-but-doesn't-look-fake Christmas tree for the living room and we made the switch from some hand-me-down icicle lights to the C9 LED lights. We made these investments thinking that they would look good, but also make our lives easier. The LED lights are supposed to allow you to plug in a million strands to one outlet without shorting anything out and the pre-lit tree is only three pieces instead of 72 and is PRE-LIT!

Tony attempted to put up our Christmas lights outside the day after Thanksgiving. He plugged in each strand in the house to test it before putting them on the roof and all worked well at first. Then he gets to the last 3 strands that wimped out on us last year halfway through the Christmas season, and of course only half of them work. So we took an hour and a half to part out the last three strands and make one Franken-strand.  Once that is up, we had two additional strands that we bought this year so that we could do some additional areas that we had not done previously. Apparently this years warm-white of the same brand, is not the same as last year's warm white...BAAAAH!!! On top of that, once the lights that made it onto the house were plugged in, there were huge spans that didn't light up, so frustrating!

Christmas Decor Inspiration: 2012

It's officially Christmas decorating time!! I usually start heavily decorating the day after Thanksgiving, but we had some lighting issues that held us back (a problem that requires far more patience than I am equipped with - by the way) which is giving me more time to organize and get some inspiration for this year's decorations.

I don't know if I mentioned this, but I am CRAZY fickle, specifically when it comes to color. I change my holiday decorations every year and it gets more and more expensive. So this year I have decided we will be getting pretty much new EVERYTHING (except the tree...we got my ginormous tree last year!). Really, this is a practical decision...or at least that is what I have convinced myself. I want to go with all neutral essentials: stockings, tree skirt, bigger home decor items, etc. Then I can change out the small details with a new color or two every year. The problem then became finding the right style of neutrals that would be lasting for at least the next decade and easy to build on with an array of colors.



                             

I love the simplicity of this mantel arrangement.  Mixing soft, comfortable textures with shiny,    more glamorous textures is the direction I would like to go in. It won't limit what I can change out or add to over the years if I build a cohesive mixture of textures now. The boxwood topiaries add an organic touch and the punch of color up high draws your eye up  and creates a nice frame for the overall scene. 

These mercury glass hurricanes are trendy, but are neutral and versatile enough that they can be timeless too. I would love to figure out a way to successfully create the mercury glass look. I've seen a ton of how-to's, but none of them really look like mercury glass....probably why it so expensive!

Top 10 Ingredient Substitutions

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! If you're hosting Thanksgiving this year and you're anything like me, you have forgotten some ingredient that you thought you had or skimmed over in the recipe when you were making your grocery list. You can't very well leave all of the other things that you have started cooking and, well-intended as they may be, if your guy isn't the one who regularly cooks or does the grocery shopping, whatever he comes back with has roughly a 20% chance of being exactly what you need. One of my favorite cook books, especially around the holidays, is the America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook. It has a ton of product recommendations and pictures so that  you know you are getting the desired results. One of the awesome things this book has to offer is a list of emergency substitutions for ingredients that you may not have on hand, check out the top ten below. I wish you all happy, safe, and sane cooking!

To Replace	Amount	Substitution
Baking Powder	1 tsp.	1/4 tsp baking soda + 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar (use right away)
Heavy Cream	1 Cup	1 cup evaporated milk (only use this for soups and sauces)
Fresh Herbs	1 Tbsp	1 teaspoon of dried herbs
Sour Cream	1 Cup	1 cup plain whole-milk yogurt (and visa-versa if you forgot yogurt)
Buttermilk	1 Cup	1 cup milk + 1 Tablespoon lemon juice or white vinegar (Let stand to thicken, about 10 minutes. Not suitable for raw applications such as buttermilk dressing) Also - this really makes you think twice about cooking with butter milk - no?
Wine	1/2 cup	1/2 cup broth + 1 teaspoon wine vinegar (added just befor serving) 1/2 cup broth + 1 teaspoon lemon juice (added just before serving) Vermouth makes a good substitute for white wine (But really, if you forgot wine just give up now!!)
Confectioners' Sugar	1 Cup	1 cup granulated sugar + 1 teaspoon cornstarch, ground in a blender (not a food processor) - Works well for dusting over cakes, less so in frostings and glazes.
Cake Flour	1 Cup	7/8 cup all-purpose flour + 2 Tablespoons cornstartch
Dark Brown Sugar	1 Cup	1 cup granulated sugar + 2 Tablespoon molasses (pulse together in a food processor)
Unsweetened Chocolate	1 Oz.	3 Tablespoons cocoa powder + 1 Tablespoon vegetable oil 1 1/2 oz bittersweet or semisweet chocolate (remove 1 Tablespoon sugar from the recipe)

Our Home

My name is Lauren Musick (pronounced like music, but spelled more awesome) and I live in Texas with my husband, Tony, and our two dogs, Maggie and Vincent. We bought our house a little over three years ago as an investment property, in a matter of speaking. My husband is a construction manager for a local home building company, so his skills were completely wasted living in an apartment. I love home decorating and designing, so I was climbing the walls in an apartment as well. I painted every wall in our 1100 square foot apartment twice in a two year period trying to make it feel more like home. After the second coat, it just wasn't cutting it. It was still a space that wasn't ours, but in colors that we liked(ish). We were 26 and 23 (I'll let you guys figure out who's robbing the cradle), buying a home was something that other people do....you know...grown ups. Then came the government's incentive to buy a home.

Very suddenly we were swimming in a sea of affordability calculators and savings plans and FICA improvement plans......and worst of all......priming the apartment back to white. It was definitely a learning experience for us (for example, buy the good primer...it may be more expensive but it requires 3 less coats than the cheap stuff). We were finally going to purchase our own little piece of the world.  Tony and I were very lucky to have people in our lives that we trusted to help show us how we needed to get this transaction done with as few headaches as possible.

We finally found our house in the spring of 2009. It was a great floor plan, with great potential, it was just super basic and super off white.  We had a lot of big plans for this house from the day we signed the papers, but as most big plans go....there was a holding pattern. We didn't do anything to the house for a year, except paint it (colors that only lasted 2 years!). We decided to live in the house a bit to see what really needed to be changed. Once we got our heads out of the clouds we decided to take a look at what practical changes could be made to the home for two reasons: 1) Make it more ours and NOT like every other house in the area, and 2) Improve our resale value. We finally got to making our changes the Fall of 2010 and we are hoping to finish all of the major changes by the end of next year, the little stuff is never done with me in the house.

This blog is intended to show our journey in making our house a home for us and all who enter. From cooking and cleaning to decorating and demolition, we cover it all.