A gift that keeps on giving

Can you believe it, how is Christmas creeping up so fast again! I started my shopping yesterday, I have to admit mine is pretty easy anymore, with our families so scattered I now send gift cards. Sometimes I feel that is a cop out and I miss the fun of buying toys for the little ones. But for many reasons, shipping being the number 1 factor, cards are a great way to go.

Today however I wanted to share a home made project I made for family and friends several years ago. It was a lot of fun and if you are looking for a little idea, this was my all time favorite gift. I made recipes books for my family and friends. The books were special because the recipes were theirs and I added their picture to it, so it was a combo recipe/picture album.

Add some cute Christmas dish towels, bright red or green utensils and you have a very nice gift.

First I collected the recipes from my friends and family. Now the really fun part was looking through all my old photographs and choosing one to put with their recipe! I loved looking at a picture of my Grandma while making her potato salad, or my Mom making her wonderful Christmas cookies, brought back a flood of warm and wonderful memories.

And see, even Cleo shared her favorite recipe: Party Meatballs and they are delish! Recipe given below, a purrrfect appetizer for your holiday party!

I am sure there are various ways to do this but to make a recipe book like mine you will need:

a small album (8 x 8 size) with top loading plastic page protectors (usually comes with 10 pages) enough for 20 recipes.

copy paper, a computer with a design program and printer

Hubby made a master template for the page using a program such as InDesign. The design area was scaled to fit within the plastic page inserts and to include an area to type the recipe and place a scanned photo. Subject photographs were scanned and saved. After typing a recipe in the master template, the photo to match the recipe was scanned into the template and saved for each individual page. Each recipe page could then be printed as many times as needed to assemble your books.

And now for CLEOS PARTY MEATBALLS:

2 lbs ground meat ( I use ground sirloin)

2 Eggs (slightly beaten)

1 Cup Bread Crumbs

2/3 Cup Milk or Half and Half

1/2 tsp Sage or Poultry Seasoning

Combine all ingredients and blend thoroughly. Make into small balls and brown in skillet that has had 1 Tablespoon butter added and melted. Pour off all fat.

Special Sauce:

3 (4-1/2 ounce jars) Apricot Baby Food

1 Cup Brown Sugar

1 Cup Ketchup

1 Cup Vinegar

1 Cup of favorite Barbecue Sauce

1 tsp Salt

4 tsp Soy Sauce

2 tsp Ground Ginger

Garlic Salt to taste

Mix ingredients and simmer for 30 minutes, stirring often. Pour over meatballs.

Simmer for 15 minutes. Keep hot to serve.

YUM! I'm getting hungry and dinner time is sneaking up, best get cooking!

Enjoy your week :)

Cookies day 2!

Just whipping out these cookies right and left here! Today it was Thumbprints. If you have not made these before, and I just can't believe you have not, the recipe is below. These are fairly easy and one of my favorites!

MOMS THUMBPRINTS

One 10 oz Bag of Chopped Walnuts
Beat together:
1 Cup Shortening (1/2 butter)
1/2 Cup Brown Sugar
2 Egg Yolk (reserve the whites in a separate bowl)
1 tsp Vanilla
Sift and stir in:
2 Cups Flour
1/2 tsp Salt
Roll dough into 1-inch balls. Dip balls in egg whites and roll in chopped nuts. Place on ungreased sheet, press thumb or paws in to centers.
Bake 375 degrees/10-12 minutes
Fill centers with icing. Recipe makes about 2-1/2 dozen cookies.
Butter cream Icing
Beat together 1/2 stick Margarine, 1 tsp Vanilla, 1 Tb Milk
I use about 1/2 of a 2LB bag Powdered Sugar
Add powdered sugar alternately with more milk (1 Tb at a time) until icing is nice and fluffy.