Santa's Favorite Stew! The Official North Pole Soup! Best in the World!

My husband makes this phenomenal beef veggie soup. This is definitely for either cold or rainy, stormy weather when you need to warm up inside and want to feel nestled and cozy. Its guaranteed to give the ones you love that "Home-feeling" inside. 

Well, Santa stopped by one day to pick up some supplies and couldn't help but to get a huge whiff of this wafting through the house. Of course, we invited him for lunch.  He had 2 big bowls and its now his all time favorite. Mrs. Santa called me for the recipe and said he couldn't stop talking about it. Now she makes it on a regular basis for Santa and the elves. Even his reindeer sneak a little nibble if one of the elves leaves a bowl down while they're grabbing some warm buttery biscuits fresh from the oven.

Try it for your Mr. Claus and little helpers! Its sure to become a family favorite for them, too!

Ingredients:

2 lbs of beef stew meat
1 pkg of Soup Greens
1.5 yellow onions
3 celery ribs
1 potato, peeled and diced
1 cup frozen corn
1 cup frozen peas
1 cup of mushrooms
28 oz can of Hunt's diced tomato
3.5 cups of beef base
2 bay leaves
3 cloves of fresh garlic (the one if the glass jar...use garlic press when adding to soup)
a few shakes of garlic powder
2 T of olive oil
2 t hot pepper sauce
Pepper
Italian Seasoning
Oregano
Red pepper flakes
7.5 cups of water


Directions:

Cut meat in 1/2" pieces

In large pot, sauté meat in 1 T olive oil on medium-high heat until all sides are brown.

Set aside on plate.

Chop celery, onion, potatoes and carrots in bite size pieces.

Sauté celery, onion and fresh garlic in remaining 1 T oil until onion is golden, about 10 minutes.

Add beef, water, beef base, tomatoes with juices, carrots, potatoes, corn, bay leaves, mushroom, garlic, Italian seasoning, oregano.

Bring to a boil.

Reduce heat and simmer covered but with lid a jarred so steam can escape from side. Simmer until beef is almost tender. About 1 hour.

Add peas and hot sauce to soup.

Cover and simmer until beef is tender, about 30 minutes longer.

Serve and season with ground pepper and hot sauce.

Don't forget the warmed biscuits or egg knots with butter!

You've Been Elf-ed!

Photo Courtesy of Organized Christmas

 

 

 

This is a new game I learned today called You've Been Elf-ed! You leave a basket of treats at a neighbor's door with an elf sign and poem explaining how to play. I'm thinking about substituting the basket with a bag or handmade felt elf shoe.  It doesn't have to be anything grand.  Some homemade cookies or bread with jam?  How about a few holiday ornaments as a surprise?  It's the meaning behind the gift, the action you're taking.

 

It's a great way to spread some holiday cheer! On top of that, getting involved in different holiday activities is a huge way to fill your home and heart with that holiday. 

 

Try to step away from all the commercialism as much as you can.  It stresses people out, causes arguments and gets you into debt afterwards. That's not the meaning of the season. Playing Christmas music, writing cards, decorating, reading Christmas books, making ornaments, going to mass, singing holiday songs, watching Christmas shows, sipping apple cider or hot cocoa, building snowmen, driving or walking at night to look at the holiday lights, having a snowball fight...there are many things you can do to enjoy the holidays and bring the real meaning back to you and your family.  Its the simple things that really mean the most to people. Love is not measured by how much you spend on a gift.  I often think some of the children in our world are being raised (trained) to equate the amount of money that is spent on them is equal to how much someone loves them.

 

Instructions for this new tradition can be found at Organized Christmas.

Recycled Christmas Ornament Wreath

 

Photo Courtesy of Learning, Creating, Living

 

 

 

Do you have an over abundance of Christmas ornaments?  Or, maybe your ornaments aren't as shiny and glittery as they used to be?  Instead of throwing them out, give them new life by making this wreath.   And, if they are severely chipped, put this together, then give it a beautiful covering of 14k gold or sterling silver spray paint. Want something more whimsical?  Use a fun color like ice blues or Grinch greens and take a toothbrush to fleck some gold paint across it. 

 

 

The instructions at Learning, Creating, Living are to make the wreathe shown in the above picture; but, you can apply those same techniques to recycle what you already have. Or better yet! Go treasure hunting! Someone else's throw-aways can turn out to be your riches!

 

Peppermint Fudge Crinkle Cookies

Photo Courtesy of Pinterest for Kelsey's Kitchen

Good Mornin', Dearies!  How are you on this fine Sunday morning?  I hope you're all feeling well and many good things are blessing you today.  If it's not one of those "good" days or "times" for you, rest assured, these things will pass.  You will be able to get through it and better times are in store for you.  My Mother always taught us, when you're going through a hard time, its because God has something extra special in store for you.  He'll make up double of what you lost or what has been done to you.   

Well now, on that note, let me get to something really special I came across from one of the other Mrs. Santa's, Jean Marie.  At one of our club meetings, she shared this recipe with us; and, I wanted to pass it on to all of you because it looks so delicious!

8 ounces semi-sweet chocolate, finely chopped, melted and cooled
2 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup canola oil
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract
4 large eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup powdered sugar

In a large mixing bowl, combine the melted chocolate, 2 cups granulated sugar, 1/2 cup canola oil, vanilla extract, and peppermint extract.

Stir in the eggs, one at a time until combined.

In a separate mixing bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, and salt until thoroughly combined.

Add the mixed dry ingredients to the wet ingredients; mix just until combined. Cover and refrigerate for at least 3 hours or place in your freezer for 45 minutes until the dough is chilled. This will make the dough easier to work with.

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Line a sheet tray with parchment paper or coat with nonstick cooking spray.

Working with 1/4 of the dough at a time, begin rolling the cold dough into portions about the size of a tablespoon or portion using a 2-ounce ice cream scoop.

In 2 separate bowls, separate the remaining 1/2 cup of granulated sugar and 3/4 cup powdered sugar.

Roll each ball of dough first in the granulated sugar followed by a generous amount of powdered sugar.

Place about 2-inches apart on prepared cookie sheets.

Bake 12 to 14 minutes or until the center of the cookie is set. Remove from cookie sheets and cool on cooling racks.

Which Reindeer Food to Choose for Rudolph?

Cupid and Comet with Santa - Reindeer Games, Hartford, Wisconsin

Photo Courtesy of Reindeer Owner and Breeders Association

There are many recipes to choose from when deciding what to feed Santa's Reindeer.  Did you know they're also known as caribou? 

Like us, each reindeer has their own preference for what they like to eat. Ohhh, Dancer does love his apples and Comet is big on carrots. Donna will even nibble on a little spinach; but, they all have a basic Reindeer diet they follow...one that is rich in nutrients to keep them healthy and strong to pull Santa's sleigh, especially through those cold, snowy Christmas Eve Nights.

Before they came to live with us, they used to eat shrubs and grasses, Reindeer Moss and mushrooms, occasionally some bird's eggs, small fish (artic char) and rodents (lemmings) and some fruits.

But...as you know...I enjoy cookin' and bakin' up a storm of special treats for everyone!  Now, they definitely have a lot more variety in their diet, which is still very good for them and much more enjoyable then having the same old boring thing all the time!  I've added things like hay and alfalfa, commercial deer food, grasses and other vegetation, willow and birch trees, leafy weeds like dandelions, and carrots and apples as treats.

BUT, the best food is the one that helps make them FLY, which I'm about to share with you right here!  Shhh!  It's a secret recipe!  We don't want everyone creating traffic jams in the sky now, do we?! It's bad enough trying to get to the nearby store.  I remember when there were only...I digress...Anyhoo, Santa would never be able to get through with all that traffic. But, we don't have to worry about that now, do we?  I trust you can keep a secret.

Everyone says its the magic of Christmastime that makes Santa's reindeer fly.  Well, that is partially true.  However, its this recipe that keeps them up there!  If it weren't for that, they'd fall right out of the sky after a short sprint!

Oh yes, the secret recipe.  Here it is.  You can help Santa on Christmas Eve by whipping this up for his team and sprinkling it outside so they can have a little nack-nack (my version for snack-snack).

Here's one recipe:

Photo Courtesy of Today's Creative Blog

Here's another for a little change:

Get yourself a nice selection of food that is safe for birds and animals to eat.  This can be dried oatmeal, cereal, birdseed, Christmas sprinkles, sparkly sugar crystals...things of that sort...and mix it all together.  And, you're all set!

Photo Courtesy of Tom Kat Studio

Elf Tom Kat actually gave these as gifts one year and created these wonderful gift tags to go along with them:  Magic Reindeer Food.

Now you have another one of my secret recipes that you can pass down through your family!  After all, its important to carry on tradition.  Isn't it, my fellow Mrs. Santa's.

More Cupcake Ornaments - Retro Style!

I love these ornaments.  They are so much fun to make and very easy to do.  There is an earlier blog post for making more cupcake ornaments, too, where you can find the basic instructions.  This style was shared by Prudent Baby  who found it on Bake It Pretty.  Bake It Pretty no longer maintain their blog; but, you can find some fun cupcake liners to use for these projects.

You need very few materials:

• small Styrofoam balls (to fit mini cupcake liners)
• something sparkly to mimic snow (glitter, mica flakes, glisten bagged snow, iridescent basket filler, iridescent very very tiny beads
• mini cupcake liners 
• something to decorate the top with like a gold jingle ball or red bead
• ribbon or yarn to hang the ornament
• glue gun to attach cupcake liner, hanger and bell
• modge podge to spread on ball to attach your snow (you can use white spreadable glue but I always favor modge podge for everything
• something to poke a hole in ball to glue and stick the ribbon and yarn in

Photo Courtesy of Prudent Baby

You can play and put the ingredients together yourself because there are so few materials to work with. Get the basic instructions from Tutorial: Glittery Cupcakes and Snowball Ornaments..  Let us know if you tried them!

Tutorial: Glistening Snow Men

Photo Courtesy of Fave Crafts

I found this eye catching decoration and found it to be so charming. Make sure to add LOTS, and I mean LOTS, of the glittering micro glitter to make it shine and sparkle like snow. Any of the winter and Christmas decorations I make are always covered with lots of the spray glitter. It's so appealing.

Tutorial for Glistening Snowmen