Christmas Breakfast Traditions...

As far back as I can remember, my mom has always made the same thing for breakfast on Christmas morning. Since I have a fairly firm grasp on the English language, i'm going to go out on a limb and say that makes it a tradition.

Mom makes the infamous honey puff pancake. I guess since it's kind of a cake and it's made in a pan, that qualifies it as a pancake...frankly, I consider it more of a souffle. Call it what you will, it's easy and it is really good. 

Ingredients:

• 1 cup milk
• 6 eggs
• 3 tablespoons honey
• 3 oz cream cheese
• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 3 tablespoons butter
• powdered sugar

Directions:

1. Heat Oven to 400 degrees. Lightly scoop flour into a measuring cup. Level off. In blender, place milk, eggs, honey, cream cheese, flour, salt, and baking powder. Let stand while preparing skillet. Grease 10" oven proof skillet with 1 T butter. Add remaining 2 TBS of butter to skillet.
2. Place skillet in oven and heat until butter sizzles, about 2 minutes. While skillet is in oven, blend ingredients at a high speed for 1 minute. Scrape the sides of blender and blend at high speed for one more minute until smooth. Remove skillet from oven.
3. Immediately pour batter into hot skillet. Put back into oven and bake at 400 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until puffed and dark golden brown.
4. Serve immediately with a sprinkling of powdered sugar and fruit. Other toppings can be blueberries, peaches, or sliced bananas with maple syrup. 

Mom and I both make this in an old cast iron skillet. I line mine with foil because i'm lazy and hate cleaning an iron skillet. 

When the timer goes off everyone is required to run to the kitchen to see the honey puff pancake as it comes out of the oven...this would be the "puff" part...like I said, it's more like a souffle - it starts to fall as soon as you take it out of the oven. Never mind that...it still tastes fabulous! If you want to get all fancy for the holidays you can throw a paper doily on there and dust with powdered sugar and make it look like a snowflake. Let's get real though...we live in Florida. We just serve it plain and everyone adds their own toppings. Jam, jelly, powdered sugar, honey, sliced fruit, syrup...

We also have bacon and sausage, as well as fresh fruit on the table - maybe even a hashbrown casserole. Honestly, i've become a HUGE fan of "breakfast potatoes" lately. I dice up potatoes and fry them up in olive oil and a little butter. The butter makes the brown up and get crisp...(maybe it's just me, but they never come out like that if I use just the olive oil). Add a little salt and pepper and i'm good to go. If I were a fan of onions and peppers, i'd add those too. Knock yourself out if you want to add those when you make them. 

Christmas morning we all drive over to mom and dad's house and we dig into our stockings. That was always the rule growing up. We could go thru the sock, but we had to be quiet and we couldn't wake mom and dad up until 7am (or maybe it was 7:30). So now that my brother and I are in our 30s...well, neither of us is up at 7:30 on a day off! And the stocking is still fair game. Mom is usually in the kitchen and has breakfast in the works. So we all open our stockings while the pancake is puffing and when it's done we all sit down to breakfast in the dining room - the table set with mom's Christmas china of course. After breakfast we gather 'round the tree and usually it's my brother who plays the part of the elf..distributing gifts as they're pulled from under the tree...or rather around the tree and eventually under. 

Here are a few shots from Christmas in the past...

Please excuse the laundry basket - that was my transport of gifts from my house to my parents'.

 The gifts are creeping toward the hallway...

 Yes...it's always this crazy...

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you and yours!

Just Peachy

I lucked into getting an hour or so to browse my favorite antique mall on our trip to TN - simply because we got off to a bad start. 

We were supposed to leave when I got home from work that Friday night...however on my drive home one of the radio traffic reports informed me that there was a fuel spill on the Florida Turnpike northbound due to a tractor trailer accident. They had it shut down to one lane getting by and traffic was backed up to the 429. Not good. Walked in the door, told Mr. P (who HATES to sit in traffic) and of course he had to verify that for himself (because I might just make that up so I could finish packing). It was indeed a fact. So I did do a little more packing and then we went out to eat. When we got back home, we went to bed and set the alarm for 2am. We were on the road by 3. Ouch.

Our first stop was the Florida Georgia visitor's center / rest stop. Mr. P was sure that the few hours of sleep he got were fine. Evidently, he has forgotten that we are both rapidly approaching 40. All nighters are a thing of the past...I think he's in denial.  So after a 45 minute nap in the truck at the rest stop, we drove 30 min or so down the road and hit up Cracker Barrel for an early (for us) breakfast around 7am. Back on the road and a couple of hours later he was yawning again. Time for another nap? Excellent - we're coming up on my FAVORITE place to wander...and one that he is always hoping that I am asleep when we pass by. The Big Peach Antique Mall in Byron, GA. Check out their website for info and if you're in the area - do drop in...

Here are a few photos from that trip while I was inside shopping and Mr. Paisley was napping under a big tree in the parking area.

Could be the ugliest pair of pants on the planet...I'm happy that I was born after these were popular. Lord have mercy...

GORGEOUS old dough bowl. Not willing to pay $54.75 for it.

My beloved iced tea glasses...I believe they are Fostoria. I've been coveting them for awhile now. Not willing to pay $5 each for them. *sigh*

Lovely vintage butterfly quilt...

Vintage Christmas baubles!

You know me...I go right to the Americana stuff for the cabin - for $90 I left it there. (really? $90? No...)

The vintage china that I want so badly...look at this huge set!

Love the fall colors...my mother tells me that my grandmother (my dad's mom) had this and she left it at the last house she moved out of...along with a bunch of other stuff that she didn't mention she was just leaving for the next owners. WHAT?! *sigh*

These creepy feet salt and pepper shakers totally gross me out...

LOVE. Time three...

Awesome vintage china chandelier with pink roses - shabby chic at it's finest!

LOVE this vintage snack set - how cute is that?!

Had to take a picture...raise your hand if you spent hours dressing this weird flat plastic "doll" in scraps of fabric like I did!

Frankly, I think this should say husband...

and last but not least...this wicked cool vintage hanging light fixture. 

On a side note - on the last row of booths...near the very last booth before I would have turned the corner to walk out the door. I found.... MY ICED TEA GLASSES! Set of 8 for  $20! I all but ran to the front to grab a cart to load them up.  No chips, no haze from the dishwasher...8 perfect tea glasses in amber. 

I also picked up a black and white speckled enamel cake pan (simple round) for $1 and a Chinese abacus for $5 (marked $10, but everything in the booth was 1/2 off).

You can kinda see the abacus in this photo - on the far left of the shelf - in front of the juggling pins.  Bad photo (well, for the abacus LOL), I guess I didn't take a close up of it. It has Chinese symbols down both of the long sides and on the bar separating the top and bottom rows. It looks old...but who knows. For $5 I thought it was a great piece for my shelf.

Party Time! Check out what's going on over at these blog parties - sooo many creative bloggers out there!

Christmas decorating...

I didn't do much at the cabin this year. It didn't get cold until the Friday going into the weekend we were packing up to come back to FL...so I just wasn't feeling it. Didn't even put up the outdoor lights. Such is life.

After packing up the fall stuff, I pulled out the Christmas bins that were under the bed. Found a few surprises (don't remember buying some of it), threw some stuff together and here's what we got!

The wood plate I picked up in the clearance section of Marshall's last year. The wood reindeer were a Goodwill find , the somewhat creepy snowman/angel was also from Goodwill, the Christmas tin sign was a score at Ross last year for $4.99. Pine cones were free picked them up in our woods across the driveway. The stockings were $1.99 each at World Market last year. The rocking reindeer was a cheap clearance purchase several years ago - Coldwater Creek. The metal "paper chain" garland is from Terry's Village (had a $10 merchandise credit to use). Umm oh the funky metal tree was $15 on sale at Marshall's last year. Pardon the basket of pine cones. Forgot to move it before I took the picture. The other stuff is usually there including the basket of pine cones! 

 The front deck got cleaned up and I added that cute winter pillow that I picked up at our Old Time Pottery that went out of business (i'm sure I paid about $1 for it) and one of my beloved painted canvas pieces - it doesn't show well from the angle that I took the photo, but it's basically a close up of a door with a wreath in really rich colors and it says "Gather here for the Holidays"

 I finally painted the tin star I picked up last year at I. R. Cheap (seriously...that's the name of the store). I.R. Cheap the first time I went in there I left with a full cart. The last couple of times i've left with ZIPPO - not impressed at all. Anywho - the star was kind of a gold / tan color that pretty much just blended in with everything at the cabin. Flat black spray paint is my new love...and I covered that star with love. Then I stuffed some floral foam in the pocket, grabbed Mr. Paisley's handy dandy wire cutters and cut up the floral bits I picked up at the Old Time Pottery that is still open. One bunch of holly and 4 of those red glitter curly cuecue things (don't know what they're supposed to be, but I HEART them for they sparkle...) clipped, stuck in the foam, fluffed, and called it a day. Now the whole deal is hanging on the chimney welcoming our guests.

 Another shot of the front porch - my poinsettias look orange...very nice.

 And yes...evidently I never took a full shot of the cabin before we left...thus...you get part of the chimney and part of a ladder. Ain't it grand?

Once again, blogging from the cabin just didn't happen.

I'm really going to have to consider paying for cable internet I guess...

At any rate, Mr. Paisley and I are back in icky hot Florida (it was in the upper 20s when we left Tennessee and 80 degrees and raining when we hit the Florida state line...shoot me now).

We are currently trying to get the holiday decorating done and thus, I haven't uploaded my photos yet.  So to tide you over...here is a somewhat odd, but yummy dessert that won't do a number on your diet over the holidays. Heck, you might even get your kids or spouse to eat a veggie without knowing it.

Carrot Pumpkin Bars, only 70 calories!

Ingredients

Filling:
2 cups flour
1 1/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup light butter/margarine, softened
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 large egg whites
1 can (15 oz.) pumpkin pie filling
1 cup carrot, finely shredded

Cream cheese topping:
4 oz light cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon skim milk

Directions

Pre-heat oven to 350. Grease 15 x 10 jellyroll pan.

Prepare Filling:
In small bowl: combine flour, pumpkin spice, baking powder & baking soda.

In larger bowl: Beat sugar, butter and brown sugar until crumbly. Add eggs, egg whites, pumpkin pie mix and carrots. Beat until well blended. Add flour mixture and mix until well blended. Spread onto greased pan.

Prepare Cream Cheese topping:
Mix together cream cheese, sugar and milk until thoroughly blended.

Drop teaspoon-fulls of topping over pumpkin batter and swirl mixture with a butter knife.

Bake for 25-30 minutes or until cake tester (inserted in center) comes out clean. Cool in pan completely on wire rack before cutting into squares.

Makes 48 squares.

Nutritional Info

·         Servings Per Recipe: 48

·         Amount Per Serving

·         Calories: 67.2

·         Total Fat: 0.9 g

·         Cholesterol: 9.1 mg

·         Sodium: 86.7 mg

·         Total Carbs: 13.6 g

·         Dietary Fiber: 0.7 g

·         Protein: 1.4 g

I got this from someone at work and questioned the pumpkin pie filling (as a "diet" recipe, I would have expected canned pumpkin, not the pie filling) so I googled it and it appears as though it came from SparkPeople. Either way, it's yummy and pretty quick and easy to make.

TONS of ways to make a variation. Sub applesauce for the carrots, pumpkin for the pie filling, skip the cream cheese and add a dollop of fat free Cool Whip when they're done. Use a sugar replacement (Splenda, Truvia, whatever), whole wheat (or other) flour...and of course adjusting the spices to your liking.

Potluck Success...

Yesterday we had our "fall holiday" (seriously? Must we be so politically correct ALL the time?) potluck at work for lunch.

First off - thank you to all my participating co-workers...it was FAB!

Second, i'm sharing the two recipes that I used...because once people realized that my crockpot was NOT full of lil' smokies...it was a constant chorus of "hey - who made the carrots?" - carrots...who knew?

Marmalade-glazed Carrots 

- shared by Barb Rudyk on All Recipes 

Ingredients

• 2 pounds baby carrots
• 1/2 cup orange marmalade
• 3 tablespoons cold water, divided
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon butter, melted
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/8 teaspoon pepper
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch

Directions

• In a 3-qt. slow cooker, combine the carrots, marmalade, 1 tablespoon water, brown sugar, butter and seasonings. Cover and cook on low for 5-6 hours or until carrots are tender.
• Combine cornstarch and remaining water until smooth; stir into carrot mixture. Cover and cook on high for 30 minutes or until thickened. Serve with a slotted spoon.

and because I really can't go anywhere without making dessert...

Cranberry Ice Cream Pie 

- shared with Taste of Home's Simple & Delicious Magazine by Geordyth Sullivan

Ingredients

• Pastry for single-crust pie (9 inches)
• 3/4 cup cold 2% milk
• 1 package (3.4 ounces) instant vanilla pudding mix
• 3 cups vanilla ice cream, softened
• 1 can (14 ounces) jellied cranberry sauce, cut into slices
• 2 cups whipped topping
• Red food coloring, optional

Directions

• Line a 9-in. pie plate with pastry; trim and flute edges. Line unpricked pastry with a double thickness of heavy-duty foil. Bake at 450° for 8 minutes. Remove foil; bake 5-7 minutes longer or until golden brown. Cool on a wire rack.
• In a large bowl, whisk milk and pudding mix for 2 minutes. Let stand for 2 minutes or until soft-set. Fold in ice cream. Arrange half of the cranberry slices in the crust. Spread with half of the ice cream mixture; repeat layers.
• Cover and freeze for at least 2 hours or until firm. In a small bowl, tint whipped topping with red food coloring if desired. Just before serving, spread over pie. Yield: 8 servings.

This one I altered just a bit - I don't like pie crust. I just put it in a store bought graham cracker crust. I used skim milk because that's what we buy here at the Paisley Cottage and I wasn't going to run out and buy milk just to make this. I also used Sugar Free pudding and Breyer's Vanilla Bean ice cream (because it's my favorite vanilla). I didn't put whipped topping on it, however I did bring a can of Redi Whip.

 This one is a keeper. Not too sweet and you can prep it about 10 minutes (aside from letting the ice cream soften up a little).  I will also increase the milk just a touch next time as my pudding stayed lumpy - needed a bit more liquid added to it, but I don't normally change recipes the first time I make them so I stuck with the list amount figuring if anything it would be a little runny since skim milk is more watery. Nope...it tasted fine, I just didn't like the yellowish pudding lumps in the ice cream - for appearance sake. Like I said - it was GONE in a flash...

Project finished!

ALEXIS is done...

I started on this altered letter set probably 2 months ago...and then it got put away and ummm pretty much forgotten about. Then Ilene had her baby...Alexis. Crap. Then I forgot about it again with everything else going on around here. So last week she turned up at work...with the baby. CRAP! So I told myself all week that I was going to get it done before we went back up to the cabin so that if she came back to work again, it would be there for her - of course then I forgot about it. That is...until this afternoon when I was cleaning up the living room. There was a reusable shopping bag on the chair by the door and it was full of stuff...guess what I found in the bottom of that bag? Yep...ALEXIS. So I got my act together and knocked it out. 

I hope she likes it!

The nursery is done in pink, blue and spring green - I actually had a hard time with that color combination...I love it, just didn't feel like I was doing it justice. The photo isn't really doing it any favors either. On the A there are several crystals in pink, aqua and clear and the dark spots on the X are all clear crystals. I worked in a couple of my beloved PAISLEY bits. The large pink flower on the S actually has white polka dots on it and the ribbon tied thru it is solid hot pink satin on the edges and sheer down the middle. There's a little pink and silver enamel purse charm on the I, as well as some pale green crystals and a SISTERS label.. There are charms on a couple others as well. A pink and turquoise beaded one on the A, a blue crystal flower on the X, a silver heart on the S and a textured tear drop (that says BEAUTY on the other side) on the E. The bottom of the X says CHERISH in silver metal.  It looks more fun in person.

A couple of years ago I did a set for her adorable toddler Marissa. Here it is put up in her old nursery.

When she first told me she was pregnant with Alexis she told me she hated pink. I thought it was funny since she did Marissa's nursery in pink and brown.  I guess she did it because "it's a girl" and that's what you're supposed to do...from what I hear, Marissa's bedroom at their new house is NOT pink.

Do you shop at wholesale clubs?

Even though there are just two of us at the Paisley Cottage, we keep a BJ's Wholesale Club membership. I know lots of people are loyal to Sam's or Costco - and we have had membership at each of them over the years (and sometimes all of them at once!)

As long as we are in town, we go to BJ's every Sunday after breakfast. Why BJ's? Well - first and foremost, BJ's is NEVER as crowded as Costco or Sam's. They also have self check out lanes. As if those were not good enough reasons...they also publish coupons as well as accept manufacturer coupons. In fact, they take both...on the same item. 

The BJ's we normally go to also has a gas station. It runs at least $.10 a gallon less than the regular stations. This is great for me, because my fancy schmancy Mustang runs on the expensive stuff. It requires 91, but most places don't have that - rather they have 93. There is a 7-11 across from Mr. P's work that has 91, but since he doesn't drive my car to work, that's not really helpful.  BJ's doesn't have 91 either, but today I filled up for $2.99 a gallon - the Quickie Mart down the street is $3.11. $3.07 is the cheapest i've seen lately. Gearing up for the long holiday weekend I see...

At any rate, here's a link to an article about the different clubs if you're interested.

Warehouse Club Showdown

They each have their own redeeming qualities of course...for me that means coupons and no lines! BJ's is my club of choice.

Deals are to be had around every corner. They also have an awesome selection of plants.  Today's haul...

$36.92...my extra savings today was $15.85.

Here's what I picked up:

2 loaves of bread - $2.49

1 box of 20 Christmas cards - $9.99

1 box of Pillsbury Savorings - $9.99

1 box of Granola Thins - $7.99

3lbs of bananas - $1.29

1 case of Green Giant Immunity Blend frozen veggies (5 boxes) - $6.99

2 bags of Green Giant Valley Fresh Steamers (8 individual bags total) - $6.69 each

Discounts:

$1 instant rebate on each bag of Steamers (making them $5.69 each)

$.50 off 2 Steamers

$.50 off 2 Steamers

$.50 off 2 Steamers

$.75 off Granola Thins

$.60 off 3 Green Giant boxed veggies

$1 off Savorings

$10 off any 5 of XYZ (in this case, the Steamers, Veggies, Granola Thins and Savorings)

Oh and if you're doing the math - sales tax is 6.5% - and on this trip it was $.65 

At BJ's you can use as many coupons as there are bar codes (so long as it follows coupon restrictions). Hences all the Steamers coupons. There are 4 individual bags in each large bag...each of those bags has a barcode. So I could use 2 coupons per bag (except somehow I had an odd number...I could have saved another $.50), same with the boxed veggies. There are 5 boxes in the case so I could use the "off 3" coupon.  Even better that there was already an instant rebate on the Steamers!

BJ's is also awesome with returns. I've returned milk that spoiled prior to the sell by date on the carton. I've returned cheese that has gotten moldy within days of opening. This morning I returned the printer I bought 2 weeks ago. It was an HP C74700 series all-in-one wireless. The printing was awesome...when it would actually print. Constant "out of paper" messages. It keeps an error log and for every 1 page I got to print, there would be 6-10 "out of paper" errors. Sorry - that is not going to work for me...it's brand new. Fought with it long enough to print 15 recipes last night and packed it up this morning to return it. They didn't bat an eye.  Oh and there wasn't a line at the customer service desk either. 

We also get tires there - they know me in the tire shop. My car is a magnet for metal (nails, screws, random odd not really sure what that is chunk, etc) in the tires. I always get road hazard. I know better... aside from not being a busy tire shop, they always have my tires in stock and they frequently have coupons for $60 or $70 off a set of 4 - bargain city my friends.

My only complaint about BJ's is that about 6 months ago they started cleaning the floors mid-mornings on Sundays. It's a warehouse...and that guy on that Zamboni-like machine is up my behind from the minute I walk into that store on Sunday morning. I can't get away from him...the place is HUGE and he's always RIGHT THERE where I need something and he has no qualms about getting right up on you with that thing. *ugh* Seriously...WHY are we doing the floors while customers are in the store? I can't take him more than 30 minutes to do the whole place since he's everywhere I am even if I zig-zag thru the store....so why isn't that being done when the opening / closing processes are being done? One of these days i'm going to lose it and be all "GET AWAY FROM ME!" on him...