Project Handmade Christmas Presents: Felt Food

Here is another installment of Project Handmade Christmas Presents 2012.

Last year for our niece I made a little apron and a set of felt cookies. Word on the street is that she loves, loves them and plays with them often.

So when we drew her name again this Christmas, I figured it would be grand to make her some more felt food.

I had some awesome plans. I can get carried away with plans for felt food. Making felt food is addicting and fun. In light of our house of illness, I kiboshed the kitchen full of food I had planned on making, and I kept it simple, making something for each meal.

Felt is easy and fun to work with. You don't need to finish the edges. You often don't even need to pin pieces together. You can make felt food as simple or as detailed as you have time for.

Felt food is the perfect toy for an imagination that likes to cook. All but Oldest still really enjoy playing with it  in our house. In fact, they were a little bummed that this was leaving our house. I made everything better by promising to make them some of the pretzels (their new favorite).

If you have a felt food lover in your house, this set is really quite easy to sew. Especially the breakfast and dinner patterns.

I have put together a very basic how-to.

What you will need:

felt in all the food colors ( you should need less than a 1/4 yard, but I always have felt on hand)
2 1/2"x16" strip of color for crust (not included in pattern)
batting or stuffing
coordinating thread
Breakfast of Champions pattern
Brown Bag Lunch pattern
Gimme a Slice pattern 1 and pattern 2

I am going to show the basics with the pancakes from my Breakfast of Champions, a felt food pattern I shared years ago. Your pancakes will look a little different because I did it without the pattern. However, the pattern will give you the shape. ALSO, this how-to is different then the original. It is a little simplified.

The first thing you will do is cut out all the pieces.

Then you will sew from top to bottom.

By that I mean, you always sew the top items on and then work your way down. So for the pancake, it is sewing the butter on to the syrup. Then sewing the syrup onto one pancake piece.

With the pizza it would be, the toppings onto the cheese, then the cheese onto the sauce, then the sauce onto the crust.

For the pancake and pizza, you will sew together the front and back pieces by layering the top and bottom right sides together. Then you will add a circle of batting to the top of your stack.

You will sew around the outside leaving a 2 inch opening for turning the pancake (pizza) out. Make sure the batting lays flat. Then hand sew the opening closed. Pancake done!

To make the lunch pieces, the meat, cheese, lettuce, and pretzels it is a simple matter of layering the pieces on top and sewing around the outsides. Now turning or stuffing.

The lettuce and pretzels have some sewing details, like the leaf ridge pattern on the lettuce.

Or the holes in the pretzels.

The most difficult item to make was the bread.

You pin the 1 1/2" crust strips to the outside of two pieces of bread.

You sew the ends of the strip together at the bottom. Then you attach the crust to the one piece by sewing all the way around the outside. Repeat on the other piece.

Then you take the two extra bread pieces and, right sides facing, pin the piece onto the crust edge not attached to the other bread piece.

Like so.

Sew around to attach, leaving a 1-2 inch opening to turn. Then turn out. Stuff it with batting. Then hand sew the opening closed. Bread all done.

So there ya have it, a breakfast option, a lunch option, and a dinner option.

 Hope your little chefs enjoy!

Thai Chicken Pizza

You know the really corny, yet accurate saying, "If you want God to laugh, tell him your plans"?

I feel as of late that I am experiencing my own version of that over here. More than laugh at me, I feel that my Father in Heaven is trying to tell me to slow down, knock it off, take it easy, and as a friend recently admonished me, take it down a notch.

When October rolls around, I start making a never ending list of things to do all in the name of celebration and holidays. So once December hits, I am on a little bit of project burn out. At the same time, that is when all the ideas are coming. I also really enjoy with coming up with create gift ideas to make.

In my mind, I have plenty of time and of course I have the best time management skills...cough...cough...It doesn't matter that I have yet to actually use that time management over previous holiday seasons.

This year will be different I think to myself. I will get what I can done during the day and happily sew at night. I will not fall exhausted onto the couch cursing my sewing machine. I will get all the gifts done and mailed by the 15th. I will then be able to spend the last 10 days before Christmas baking, singing, and all around merriment-making with my loved ones.

This year more than any previous, things have not gone as planned.

Yes, this is my first Christmas with four kids, but truth be told, they are really good kids and the four kids card alone I can't use as an excuse.

HOWEVER, when all four of the sweet little cherub faces take alternating turns getting sick, well that is a valid excuse for things not getting done.

Everyone but me was sick over Thanksgiving week.

Then almost two weeks ago Oldest got croup. Over the next two weeks that or other illness have cycled through all the kiddos, and this time me. Ugh it is germ-tastic over here.

We have not left the house in days.

I have decided this is His way of telling me to cool it, and I have decided to try not to stress about it.

We will stay in our jams. I will work on stuff here and there, but presents might be late...sorry Moms. We watch movies and will have hot cocoa, popcorn, and pizza.

Probably not necessarily together.

Pizza is kind of a staple in our house and is the perfect thing to make when you need to just chillax and take it down a notch.

This Thai Chicken Pizza is just about the most perfect homemade pizza.

Now, I will say my Little Men are not really adventurous and don't eat this pizza. Now, sometimes I am annoyed when they won't eat what I make, but in this case I am more than happy to make them a regular cheese pizza and just have this one for the Hubs and I.

The sweet red chili sauce is one of my favorite parts. I am not a big marinara fan and whenever a pizza has an alternative sauce I get pretty happy. This pizza is lighter on the cheese and heavier on the veggie goodness.

My next favorite part, the peanuts on top. Yum. Yum.

As I write this I am reminded that I have some leftover in the fridge and I am seriously debating whether or not I need a second breakfast...I mean the saying is "feed a cold" right??

Since I haven't been able to exercise all week, I should probably leave it in the fridge...

Probably...

The great thing about this recipe is that the dough recipe used makes two crusts, so you can use one for this super yummy adult-friendly Thai Chicken Pizza and you can use the other crust for a simple cheese pizza for the kiddos.

A win, win for everyone involved. Pizza is always a good idea. Pizza is a great slow down, take it down a notch dinner.

Enjoy. I hope all of you are finding moments to take it easy during this busy holiday season. I would love your secrets to success! I need all the help I can get.

In return I will give you the yummiest pizza recipe. Deal?

Deal!

Thai Chicken Pizza
adapted from Annie's Eats

Print Here


1 recipe Pizza Dough (below)
1/4 cup sweet Asian chili sauce, plus extra
3 green onions, thinly sliced
1/2 medium to large zucchini, thinly sliced
1 1/2 cups shredded chicken*

1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup small carrot slivers
3 Tablespoons chopped peanuts
3 Tablespoons chopped cilantro

Make pizza dough.

When the dough is done rising, preheat oven to 500 degrees.

Roll out the pizza dough into rounds. Brush the perimeter with olive oil. Spread the chili sauce evenly over the top. The layer with first the green onions, zucchini, chicken, cheese, and carrots.

Bake until the cheese is melted and the crust is golden brown, between 10-12 minutes.

Remove from oven and let cool for a minute.

Sprinkle the top evenly with the cilantro and peanuts. Then drizzle more chili sauce over the top.

*I love to use rotisserie chicken.

Pizza Dough:
1/2 cups warm water
2 1/4 teaspoons instant yeast
4 cups bread flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 1/4 cup room temperature water
2 Tablespoons olive oil

Measure warm water in a bowl. Sprinkle yeast over the top. Let it rest for about 10 minutes. In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the flour and the salt. Measure room temperature water and add to the yeast/water mixture.

With the mixer on low speed, slowly incorporate the water mixture and the olive oil into the dry ingredients.

Mix until it is well combined and the dough is formed. Switch to the dough hook. Knead the dough in the mixture on medium-low speed for about 5 minutes. The dough should be smooth and elastic. Form the dough into a ball and transfer to a lightly greased bowl. Coat the dough. Cover with a piece of plastic wrap and let it rise until doubled in size. Roughly 1 1/2 hours**.

Punch the dough down. On a lightly floured surface, divide the dough into two pieces. Form each piece into a ball. Cover with a damp cloth and let it rest for 10 minutes.

Shape dough with a rolling pin into two round pizza crusts. Transfer to a pizza stone. Brush edges with olive oil.

**Here is a great trick I learned for cutting the raising time in half, run the dryer on the fastest cycle. When it is done (and empty), place the bowl of dough uncovered in the warm dryer and then shut the door. The warm heat left over from the drying cycle with make that dough rise in half the time. Yippee, who couldn't use that?

Thanks for stopping by Friends!

Neighbor Treat: Candy Cane Num Num Mix

First, thank you for the kind words concerning our house full of sickness. Much love to all.

Second, Happy Birthday to Hubby!!!

Thirdly, WE HAVE A WINNER for the Cutting Edge Stencil Giveaway. Thanks to everyone who entered. Thanks to a random number generator, the lucky winner is number 7...

Melanie congrats!

I will get you in contact with Cutting Edge Stencils soon.

Lucky girl!

Fourthly(?) aka lastly, in light of my sweet Little Men passing on their sickness to their Momma, today I am reposting a holiday recipe from last year. Mostly because it is a good recipe...okay mostly because instead of accomplishing my projects to share with you, I either held a recovering Bean or I sat my tushy on the couch blowing my nose.


This is a holiday remake of our family favorite Num Num Chex Mix. I know I have gone on and on about our family favorite treat, but it seriously is heavenly! This candy cane version is a quick and easy treat to add to your neighbor goody plates.

Thanks for letting share this festive pepperminty recipe with you again. For reals,  if you are looking for a quick and easy treat to make for your friends, family, neighbors, mailman, teacher, or for you...hop on this recipe!

You make this. I will rest. Then I will sew. Then I will share!

Candy Cane Num Num Mix


Ingredients:


1 box rice Chex cereal
3 sticks of butter (I know GASP...remember you are giving it away/sharing)
1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cups light Karo syrup
1/2-1 teaspoon of peppermint extract (depending on your love of peppermint)
6-7 candy canes, smashed up

First get some little elf in your house to smash up your candy canes. I am pretty sure they will love it as much as my destructive elf did.

Pour the entire cereal box into a large bowl and set aside.

Next you will combine the sugar, syrup, and butter in a large saucepan. Heat over medium high heat until boiling, stirring often. Once it starts boiling, let it boil, stirring constantly, for 3 minutes. After 3 minutes, remove from heat and stir in your extract. It will pop, fizz, and maybe foam a little. Oh and the intense smell of the peppermint might burn your eyes and nose. Don't be scared, just keep stirring. It will all calm down.

Pour the mixture over the cereal in the bowl. Scrap out as much of the mixture as you can using a spatula. Then with a more sturdy spoon, stir the cereal to evenly coat with the syrup mixture.

Once it is evenly coated, pour the cereal out onto two baking sheets. Spread out the cereal. Then sprinkle the crushed candy canes over the top of the cereal.

The cereal will need to be stirred/tossed/moved around every couple of minutes to ensure that as it cools it doesn't stay in large clumps. You can use your hands for this. Just kind of move all the cereal around and break up any big clumps. You want the cereal to stay in small or individual pieces.

Once the mixture has completely cooled you can store in a gallon Ziploc bag or other airtight container. You can package it to give out or keep it on hand for holiday snacking.

Merry Christmas everyone!

On Hold for Croup

Our getting-ready-for-the-holidays-schedule has been put on hold due to a not so welcome bout of croup traveling through our house.

Oldest had it at the beginning of the week. Since he is eight, life was able to go pretty much as scheduled. Then when Middle got it, at least it was Saturday night and Sunday because Hubby was home to split the duties. 

Then when I had to leave church on Sunday because Bean very quickly went from seemingly well to croupy in 30 minutes, life went on hold. Poor little babies just can't hold illness as well. The symptoms came on quickly and our happiest of happy babies was lethargic and miserable. It was rather heartbreaking.

We took both Middle and Bean in to see the doctor yesterday. Middle has croup and strep. Bean has croup and an ear infection. They both got some meds. At the doctors Bean had a little bit of an episode that had the doctor saying if the medicine didn't work I would probably have to take him to the ER. 

Not what these Momma ears wanted to hear.

She also said that I basically had to watch him all night.

She also reminded us that with croup, if he is having an episode we needed to bundle him up, take him outside, and let him breath in the cold air. We were aware of this remedy thanks to all of the breathing problems Oldest has had.

So last night he had a couple of trips outside. He slept in my arms for a bit and in his swing next to my bed for a bit. He needs lots of love and attention. So that is what he is getting.

So our life might be on hold for a couple of days while he gets better. 

I hope your home is germ free and that you are able to enjoy all the holiday festivities around you.

I will announce the winner of the Cutting Edge Giveaway tomorrow!!

8 Months (and 7 months)

Awww 2 months can go by so swiftly. Swiftly enough that before you know it is no longer your child's seventh month, but in fact his eighth...okay in fact half-way to his ninth.

Oops.

I had such high hopes of staying on top of these monthly updates. I guess I can count it as some kind of victory that I only have missed one (ehem...so far).

Bean is just delightful. His adorableness and sweetness far outweigh the few things (mostly those which get in the way of me sleeping) that get in the way of him being the most perfect baby ever.

I tend to think that I have pretty cute kids (I mean what mother is not going to think that). I will be honest with ya, I think he is my prettiest baby. His sweet little head and those pretty phenomenal blue eyes tend to melt our hearts.

He is starting to express more and more of his own little personality. He already holds his own with his older brothers. He goes from one spot in the room to another clear across the same room within no time. I have to work a lot harder to keep him off the kitchen floor.

Or I guess I could work harder at mopping the floor and not stressing about the baby touching the filth and foul...

He is a floor ninja.

He is tallish and skinny.

He puts up with being squeezed, kissed, patted, sat-on (that one thanks to Little), tickled, zerberted (yeah I think I just made that word up).

He, as I alluded to earlier, still does not sleep through the night. We don't have to feed him until early morning, but alas he still gets up 1-2 times before that. Sometimes a simple binkie pop in will fix it. Other times I am falling asleep while rocking him to a calm enough state to put down. This Momma could use a solid 8 hours.

The biggest road block to him sleeping through the night...

He, two times out of three, has leaked through his diaper. UGGGGGHHH!

We have tried several brands of diapers but nothing works 100% yet.

So for now I will just try to cherish my middle of the night cuddle time.

I do enjoy a good Bean cuddle.

We can't believe he is 8 months. He is just starting to enter the really fun exploring stage. We are excited to watch him process the world around him.