Baking and Other Nonsense

I'm not sure why I bother.  I did have some success with the pumpkin bread during the fall and decided I needed to add a little something to the gift cards of the apartment staff.

I have a cranberry nut bread that I seemed to remember making a lot, or maybe it's just that Mama liked it and copied the recipe and then made it a lot and talked about it being so good.  I don't remember it being that wonderful, but I looked for the recipe to give it a try anyway.  The only place I found it was in Mama's cookbook, and it did make me sad to see it in her good handwriting before it got shaky.  I remember her sitting at my table in Columbus on a sunny Thanksgiving day copying it.

Divinity was her specialty, though.  I can't even begin to imagine how many batches of divinity she made throughout her life.

She loved making sweets, and every Christmas when we got to Andalusia on Christmas Day, she would have a table just filled with candies and cookies and brownies and pies.

She was a really good cook and loved doing it.  I missed that gene somehow.  I don't really love it like she did.  There are all her old favorites there - mostly desserts, but cornbread and biscuits and casseroles and vegetable soup.  I hope the girls will enjoy it one day.

So, that cranberry bread.  I first tried it with half whole wheat flour and half all-purpose but didn't really like it that much.  The second batch (muffins) I used the original recipe and didn't care for it much again.  I think I don't like that orange juice is used for the liquid along with grated orange rind.  I put them in the freezer and figured the girls would enjoy them this winter.  They're filled with fruit and nuts, so they're not the worst.

Now Elise has discovered them and proclaimed them the best "bran muffins ever."  That was another one of Mama's standbys.  I guess they won't stay in the freezer for long now.

They look pretty even if they are two different sizes!  I sliced one loaf for whenever the Win-Bins come by to do stockings.

No one needs all this extra food, but I like to pretend to be a good hostess.  Carol sent a tin of delicious Southern cheese straws and praline pecans, so I put them out too.

We didn't end up going out to eat after all because Emily and Ryan aren't feeling well, which was fine with Elise and me.  Any chance I get to stay home and stay warm is a plus.  I've got the stockings filled and ready though.  The girls know Santa only comes to their house, not Mimi's house, so I get to do it over here.

I finished the last of the sewing I'm going to do.  One of the gifts I'm giving the girls is a spa set for their dolls.  I just looked at it today when I wrapped it, and when you turn the faucet, it sounds like running water.  I think they'll like it.



I made towel wraps and towels and bathcloths for all the dolls, and that was not the most fun I've ever had sewing.

First I tried one made from an old baby towel with the binding already on it.  It was fine and easy enough but kind of a faded blue.  Then I tried putting binding on, and putting binding on stretchy fabric is a nightmare.  Then I used the same pattern with armhole cutouts but no binding and rick rack and that was better, but the final one where I just used a hemmed Dollar Tree microfiber towel and sewed a length of rick rack down the front was what I was looking for.  Whew.  I wish I had just done that from the beginning.

I found a package of baby bathcloths at Dollar Tree also that are perfect for towels.

I can't remember if I posted pictures of the dog beds I made for the doggie spa, so I'll do it again.  Graysen wanted a dog for one of her dolls, but I refused to pay the American Girl price for one and ordered three of them on eBay for less than what one cost new at AG.


 I had bought the doggie spa used and so made some towels and then decided to make dog beds for all of them.  They were simple in concept but not so simple to stuff and sew neatly, but I think they'll do.

Those paperwhites I started last week are doing just great.  They could bloom by Christmas.  

Emily brought my Grand Diva amaryllis over and left it outside my door.  She was going to give it to me for Christmas, but she called this morning all upset that she didn't read the directions and was supposed to have put it in a cool dark place for weeks.  I don't think it matters.  It looks big and hearty, but I'm not sure how that pot is going to hold it if it is, in fact, GRAND.

My second blog post nearly 10 years ago was about the very same flowers.  We keep trying.  I didn't know how to enlarge pictures back then.  I do like that moss I used though.  I need to go see if I still have some to hide those ugly bulbs.  Katherine used a paper punch to make those yellow flowers for me that are in there now.  That amaryllis was pretty, but my new one is a Grand Diva, so no telling what it will be like.  

The next 3 days should be busy, but I'm sure I'll be back with pictures and happenings.  The picture I just got from Emily showed both girls lying on the couch with cucumber slices on their eyes.  Guess they're getting rested up for the excitement.  

I imagine their mother needs it more than they do after being with them for nearly 3 full days.