Sunday Food and Pets Post - Sandwich Buffet

Christmas Eve Sandwich Buffet

Hello Friends!

Well, Christmas is over for another year, sigh. New Year's is right around the corner, do you have anything special planned? Alex and I will stay in and (hopefully) stay awake to ring in the new calendar year!  We'll be eating our traditional Raclette dinner.

It has been a tradition for me to make tourtière every New Year's Day. Tourtière is a Quebec dish, a meat pie. Since Alex is now vegetarian, I'm going to attempt a veggie tourtière. I don't dare whisper that out loud in these here parts though - a veggie tourtière? That would be treason.😉 I'll let you know the results next Sunday! And on January 2nd, we celebrate the Pagan Twelfth Night of Yule, we'll be celebrating with some apple wassail, and likely lots of leftovers!

For Christmas Eve, I made a sandwich buffet. It was a great success, but my gosh lots of prep work - you wouldn't think so for sandwiches! I made an assortment of egg salad, chicken salad (for me), CLT's (C for Cheddar) and an assortment of tomato sandwiches with my Homemade Goat Cheese. I also made Pinwheels!

Is this a familiar sandwich for you? I know there are lots of recipes for tortilla pinwheels...but I remember Sunday afternoons at my grandparents home, snacking on pinwheels made with bread. I LOVE this sandwich! I made one with cream cheese and cherries; and the other with Homemade Cheese Whiz and gherkin pickles.

Yes! I made Cheez Whiz! It actually turned out pretty well! I'd say the texture was perfect and the taste was VERY similar to Cheez Whiz. Mine isn't orange because I don't by orange cheese or use colouring to make my Cheddars.

I promised in my last post to include the recipe for my Homemade Crescents - they are delicious!

We have so much cheese in the fridge, with more to come! My Colby is ready to taste but we haven't found time to make a video yet, so that should be coming up in the next few weeks on Rainy Day Cheese Making.

One night we brought out all of the cheeses, plus a Brie I had bought and we had a lovely cheese plate.

I had planned an elaborate pasta buffet for Christmas dinner...4 sauces, 4 pastas, bread sticks, garlic bread...but honestly? We had so many leftovers that we only had our Christmas dinner on the 27th!! And I scaled it down to pasta with Four Cheese Sauce.

Of course I had to make Garlic Bread to go with it!

I tried a Tiramisu-Style Dessert - a recipe I found on Taste of Home's site. It was just okay. Nothing like a real tiramisu! I'll include the original recipe here, but I don't think I'll make it again. Tiramisu is traditionally made with Mascarpone cheese, this recipe called for cream cheese and it didn't work very well, too heavy on the cream cheese filling.

We had some Brandy Alexanders to go with all of the sweets!

More pasta last night, Spinach Ricotta Lasagna Roll-Ups. Quick and easy!

Charlie and Jack - the black and whites. Looks like a meeting of the minds.

Christmas morning...Oscar hiding in the box - can you guess what happens next?

When I met Alex, he already had his two cats, Dana and Leo. In 2015 we adopted these four from July to September that year - we had to stop visiting the shelter because we just couldn't leave without saving an abandoned pet!! I dub them "The Four Rescues" - they are ALWAYS together. Very cute though I do think they're up to something (except Oscar who is out like a light)!

I have some amazing plans for 2020 including finding, visiting, buying and moving to a new house; starting an online art course; planning some business ideas for the future and much much more!!

Do you have plans or do you make resolutions? Please share!!! And if you have some time, please join me for Thursday's Art Date, the theme is Transformation!

Thursday Art Date: Merry Christmas! and Paint Party Friday

Bugs Kringle (Prismacolor Pencils and Sharpies)

Hello Friends! 😊😊

Welcome to Thursday's Art Date, today our theme is Merry Christmas! How was your Christmas? Are you out shopping for Boxing Day specials or do people do that anymore? I remember the days as a teenager, lining up outside my favourite record store "Sam The Record Man"...just hoping to get some good deals on music! Of course that was well before mp3's existed...back then we could "touch" our music so to speak!

A Peaceful Mountain Christmas (watercolours)

We had a lovely few days and we are now digesting and resting! :) I'll post all of the food photos and recipes on Sunday! It rained a lot and it snowed a little, which made for a quiet Christmas in this village of loud snowmobile tourists!

I started a new tradition this year, Christmas Eve bags! I got the idea from Kristina over at Pioneer Woman At Heart.  Her and her hubby exchange new pj's every Christmas Eve and I thought it was a wonderful idea. I decided to sew us some pj pants but I went a little further. I also bought us new slippers and some socks. We watched "Home Alone" in our new pj's, socks and slippers and sipped on Brandy Alexanders and munched on cookies! It was fun...next year I may try to sew some flannel robes!

On Christmas morning, we sat in bed with coffee and homemade crescents (I'll post the recipe on Sunday!), watching Home Alone 2.

I painted this for Alex's Christmas card - my first owl!

I got Alex a tobacco/pipe pouch - he loved it! Now he can bring his pipe smoking supplies out when we leave the house.

Alex got me another Australian outback hat! It's an "Akubra Tablelands", I love the dark brown colour! I think that makes 8 hats for me, four Akubras! 😊

I drew this charcoal as a gift for Alex too, it's based on a photo we took when we were doing a photo shoot for his album artwork. He loved it! I love doing charcoal drawings, but I'm not a fan of the paper I have - it's very grainy. I hope to get some better quality paper soon. I'm going to spend the winter learning more about every facet of painting and drawing - especially with charcoals and watercolours.

Christmas was such a buildup and so much fun...now it's time for another nap. A long winter's nap would suit me just fine!! 💤

By the way, comment moderation is now on permanently on all three of my blogs due to obnoxious bot spammers!

So that's all for now folks! But please check out the link widget below to see more Merry Christmas artwork! And please join me on Sunday for my food and pets post. 🐾🐾🐾

I'm also linking up with Paint Party Friday tomorrow!

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The Moon rises as it transforms day to night (Waxing Moon February 2019).

January 2nd: Next Thursday's theme is Transformation. Click on the link for ideas and inspiration! Remember it's all about creating. You can showcase your paintings, drawings, photography, sculpting, baking, poetry...whatever you like! 🎨

Thursday Art Date With Rain. Click on the link for a description of the art date as well as a list of upcoming themes. 

Don't forget to add the URL link to your post (not your blog) to the link gadget below to share your wonderful creations! The link gadget expires Sunday at noon (EST).

⚡⚡⚡⚡  Be forewarned ⚡⚡⚡⚡ If you include a link that doesn't follow the art date theme, it will be removed! Thanks for your understanding and for respecting my fellow artists who put their minds, hearts and souls into creating art for the themes!

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Sunday Food and Pets Post - Yule Feast!

Hi Everyone!

How are you doing today? I'm trying to catch up with how quickly December is flying by! I have Alex's gift all wrapped and I made our Christmas Eve bags, filled with goodies! I have some stocking stuffers to make and I have to organize myself for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day eating and drinking! So much fun!

Yesterday we celebrated Yule, the Winter Solstice. I made these really neat Ice Lanterns to symbolize the return of the Sun! Click on the link for my tutorial!

For dinner I made a really nice Apple and Pumpkin Soup. This symbolizes my continual gratitude for the fall harvest season. It was a nice soup, a little on the sweet side!

Okay...that thing in the back on the bread board? It was supposed to be a glorious melty Brie bread. I am not including the recipe because it simply did NOT turn out as planned. I made some bread, brushed some herbed olive oil all over the inside and filled it with a Brie wheel. After 45 minutes in the oven it hadn't melted yet, but we ate it anyway because we were starving! It was supposed to represent the Sun bursting out of the darkness! No bursting happened (except my foodie-ego) lol! 😏 It tasted good though! 

Every Winter Solstice I make a Yule Log Cake with Meringue Mushrooms. It takes a lot of preparation and time to make a cake like this, but it's so worth it. We had some for breakfast this morning!! The raspberry jam filling MUST count as a fruit right?

I made some North Pole Cocktails to go with dessert. These are "adult" chocolate milk basically, and go great with cake!

In cheesy news, the Fontinas were a great success! Alex and I opened them up and they tasted amazing!!! I made a video on Rainy Day Cheese Making for anyone interested!

Slowly but surely, the pets start to sneak into the kitchen when I pull out the egg beaters!

Couch potatoes: I love looking over to my right and seeing the dogs all cuddled up together! The cats were very wiley the past week so I have no good photos of them!

I wish all of my friends a happy and cozy Christmas filled with love, warmth and gratitude! Eat drink and be merry! And if you're up to it, see you on Thursday for our art date, the theme is Merry Christmas! 

Thursday Art Date: Holiday Stories, Carols and Lore; and Paint Party Friday

Hello Friends! 😊

Welcome to Thursday's Art Date, today our theme is Holiday Stories, Carols and Lore. This is a fun one! I hope you all have some fun stories to share about the holidays! I'll go backwards and start with Lore. 

Christmas lore warns that anyone refusing a kiss under the mistletoe will have bad luck for the next year. I don't think I could refuse a kiss from Tweety Bird, could you? 😗

One of my favourite traditional Christmas carols is Silent Night. It doesn't have any spiritual meaning for me, but I always thought it was such a beautiful song. I tried to paint that carol with my watercolours.

Here is my favourite Christmas story. In 1995, I adopted two little pugs, Winston and Spencer. They were brothers, 9 months apart. Those two little furballs kept me going during the most difficult time of my life. I really adored them. 

Winston passed away at the age of 16 in 2011. Spencer passed away at the age of 19 in the summer of 2014. I remember Alex asking me that fall what I wanted for Christmas. I was still mourning my pugs and I said very sadly "A sweet dog I can love, with a big red bow around his neck." 2014 was the first Christmas I'd had without a dog since 1994. We had two cats, but for me it wasn't the same!

As time went by, we ended up adopting three dogs as you all know. Well, our first Christmas with the dogs was 2015. When I came downstairs I saw this:

I just broke down in tears because Alex had remembered what I'd said the previous year. Even though Jack was already a part of our family for the previous 3 months, seeing him with a big red bow around his neck touched my heart beyond words! That's my favourite holiday story!

This weekend we have our traditional Yule celebration, I'll post all about that on Sunday!

I promise this is the last Dancin' Santa gif! (My fingers are crossed though lol). I had to get a "rear view" of him wiggling those hips!!

So that's all for now folks, please check out the link widget below to see more Holiday Stories, Carols and Lore artwork! And please join me on Sunday for my food and pets post. 🐾🐾🐾

I'm also linking up with Paint Party Friday tomorrow!

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Sleepy Santa (acrylics, 2018)

December 26th: Next Thursday's theme is Merry Christmas! Click on the link for ideas and inspiration! Remember it's all about creating. You can showcase your paintings, drawings, photography, sculpting, baking, poetry...whatever you like! 🎨

Thursday Art Date With Rain. Click on the link for a description of the art date as well as a list of upcoming themes. Check out the themes for 2020 here!

Don't forget to add the URL link to your post (not your blog) to the link gadget below to share your wonderful creations! The link gadget expires Sunday at noon (EST).

⚡⚡⚡⚡  Be forewarned ⚡⚡⚡⚡ If you include a link that doesn't follow the art date theme, it will be removed! Thanks for your understanding and for respecting my fellow artists who put their minds, hearts and souls into creating art for the themes!

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Sunday Food and Pets Post - Pretzel Bar!

Charlie in the Woods

Hello Friends and Happy Sunday! 

There are TEN days until Christmas! Are you excited? I can't help it, I definitely am! Growing up, holidays were always sources of anxiety and fear for me, so I guess that's why I pull out all of the stops to enjoy each holiday and special event now! The first special event of our Christmas season is Tree Trimming Day. That falls on December 10th each year and I planned a Pretzel Bar!

While trimming the tree, we sipped on egg nog and snacked on cookies. I made some homemade Egg Nog for Alex, he added some pear liqueur to his. My stomach can't handle egg yolks, so my egg nog was store bought. Funny enough, the store bought lists "frozen egg yolks" in the ingredients, but I guess it's been processed enough that my stomach can handle it...I  spiked mine with rum and brandy!

We always munch on cookies when we're trimming the tree. This year I made a few new recipes, these are Fruitcake Cookies - I'm not a fan of raisins but Alex said they were delicious!

I wanted a cookie I'd enjoy too, so I made these Drunken Cherry Ice Box Cookies. I used the cherries that we had leftover from when we made our Cherry Bounce. By the time I took the photo, this was all that was left! 😋

To give us a little break from the egg nog, I made some Sweet Tea to sip on.

I spent about 8 hours preparing this Pretzel Bar and it was well worth it! It was a lot of fun and everything turned out delicious! We had so many leftovers!

Soft Pretzels are delicious but very filling! They were great dipped in my Marinara Sauce.

I tried a new recipe for Pretzel Bites. They are made with Pillsbury Pizza Dough - I don't normally buy that stuff, but they were very good. Sweeter than the soft pretzels and VERY good dipped in honey Dijon mustard!!

I made this dip for Alex - Buffalo Blue Cheese Dip. I can't handle the hotness of the Red Hot Sauce!

By far, this was my favourite dipping sauce - Nacho Cheese Dip. I could probably eat this by the spoonful.

I kind of made this recipe up myself. I saw a few versions of this floating around the internet, but not quite what I had envisioned, so I winged it to an extent - Apple Cinnamon Pretzel Bites with Caramel Dipping Sauce! You need dessert pretzels in your Pretzel Bar!! Actually they reminded us of donut holes. Unfortunately the apples kind of got lost in the shuffle - maybe next time I'll try making an apple sauce to mix into the dough with the chopped apples.

And a little digestif 😉, Chocolate Covered Pretzels.

I can't help myself, I have to show you Dancin' Santa again lol...this time I made a little gif from photos I took! I think Alex might be regretting buying this for me because I have this on from the moment I wake up until dinner time lol!  Leo the cat is not even fazed anymore.

🎅🎶 "Oh by golly have a holly jolly Christmas, this year!" 🎶  🎅

The cats are safe and warm at home watching the Blue Jays in the lilac tree.

Sleepy furballs. I love having the pets with me all day!

Dana's favourite toy is the string rope on the cat tree.

Today is a sewing day! Alex is working on his album today so I have a chance to be sneaky and sew some Christmas gifts! What's going on in your world? 

See you on Thursday for our art date! The theme is: Holiday Stories, Carols and Lore.