Christmas Goodies

The girls had blast decorating gingerbread houses and sugar cookies last week.

They have created a holiday tradition with Grandma with decorating gingerbread houses, so we were sure not to miss out on it this year.   I got a kit for a village a few weeks ago and it worked out well that they each could decorate a couple of things in their own way.

 

You probably can’t tell but, K was actually under the weather the day we did this project and Little Mama decorated with Grandma while K and I ran to the doctor for a strep test (all clear!).  Unfortunately, that means I didn’t get any photos of her, but if you look closely at the all red building with the mound of gummy bears on the roof (front left of the photo), you can see her work.

A couple of days later, when K was feeling MUCH better, we decorated cookies. (Didn’t want to add any of her icky cold germs to the beautiful cookies.) 

 

 

 

Grandma and I got into the decorating as much as the girls did. Although, we didn’t end up wearing quite as much as they did.

Kitchen helper

My girls can be great kitchen helpers, when they aren't making a huge mess.  But hey, messes can be fun too.

Since I got my new cook book The Pioneer Woman Cooks I've been able to try out a few recipies (loved them all!).  One of my faves is her Pico de Gallo.  It's amazing.  Not to share all her secrets or anything, but she says that equal parts cilantro, tomato and onion are the key to perfect Pico.  I'd have to agree with her!  It's really great stuff.  Even better when you heap some of it into fresh mashed avocado for guacamole.

M wanted to help me out with the chopping while I was making my 2nd batch of the week last Saturday.

She had a great time, unfortunately, she doesn't quite have the strength required to actually chop those tomatoes (or anything else!).  She still had fun trying though.

When it came time for the onions I got to try out a little trick I learned recently.  It's how I got my onions cut like this:

You might be surprised to learn how easy it was to get them cut like that.  In fact, I didn't even need that giant knife you see there in the photo.

(ok, I fibbed just a little because I did need that knife to cut off the top and the bottom of the onion)

Once the top and bottom were off, I used the apple wedger on the onion and got those perfect little wedges.  If I were doing stir fry, or fajitas, or kabobs they would be perfect just like that.  Of course I was making pico so I had to take the chopper to them after that.

Ready to see the finished product?  Are you sure? 'Cause it's going to make you want some. 

Ok, here you can have see it.  You can't actually have it.  (Unless you are willing to come over - then I'll make you some!)

mmmm.  My mouth is watering right now.

Sadly my little kitchen helper was unwilling to taste the wonderfulness that she helped create.  Oh well, that just meant there was more for me!!

More cookies.

It just wouldn't be Christmas without these cookies.  My absolute fave!  K loves to both make and eat them!

Cookies!!

This year the girls and I enjoyed making sugar cookies.  Ok, well I did most of the work making the cookies.  And they did most of the work frosting the cookies.

Yummy!

(Don't worry, if you recieved a plate of our cookies - we kept hers at home) 

I think we started a pretty yummy Christmas tradition.