Gingerbread Love

On December 20, 2018December 20, 2018 By take2createIn Christmas, Food, Holidays, WinterLeave a comment

Whoever created gingerbread is a genius! Thankfully for everyone on this blog, my other passion is history so I went on a quick research adventure to learn more about the spiced treat (While of course snacking on some gingerbread of my own). Although ginger originates in Asia, most of the credit to today’s popularized “gingerbread” flavors seems to be by the Europeans in the middle ages. Elizabeth I is mostly credited with decorating cookies into “gingerbread men” after having some made that resembled guests. Even better, George Washington’s mother, served gingerbread to the Marquis de Lafayette and the confection was passed down for generations in the family (I recently finished Washington by Ron Chernow so this fact made me quite excited to learn).

6th Day Before Christmas – Gingerbread Spritz Continue reading “Gingerbread Love” →

It’s a Pie! It’s a Cookie! It’s a Pie Cookie!

On December 19, 2018 By take2createIn Christmas, Food, Holidays, WinterLeave a comment

There are so many different pies that we make at Thanksgiving! Pumpkin, Apple, but my favorite is Pecan Pie. Cold Pecan Pie is my after Thanksgiving snack, and what I have when I take a break decorating the Christmas tree. But wait, it’s not Thanksgiving, it’s almost Christmas! What are we doing talking about pies then? Well, the cookie on the 7^th day before Christmas we are making pecan pie thumbprint cookies.

7^th Day Before Christmas – Pecan Pie Thumbprint Cookies Continue reading “It’s a Pie! It’s a Cookie! It’s a Pie Cookie!” →

Minty Fresh Christmas Cookies

On December 18, 2018December 18, 2018 By take2createIn Christmas, Food, Holidays, WinterLeave a comment

It’s 8 days before Christmas and my dreams are in cookies. After this recipe, tonight I hope to drift off to powdered sugar capped mountains filled with giant versions of these peppermint cookies. My dad loves candy canes, but more specifically his favorite are the green and red striped peppermint ones. He says they aren’t ripe until they have both the green and red stripes (I think it might be his favorite too because they look extra festive with both bold colors). In my dreamy candy world, you can be sure that ripe candy canes grow everywhere like weeds.

8^th day before Christmas – Peppermint Snowballs Continue reading “Minty Fresh Christmas Cookies” →

Nutty for Christmas Cookies

On December 18, 2018December 18, 2018 By take2createIn Christmas, Food, Holidays, WinterLeave a comment

It’s the 9^th day before Christmas and this is one of the ones I was looking forward to the most. Peanut butter is one of my all-time favorite flavors (perfect for anytime of the year!). I’m a day late on getting this post up and it might happen more than this once. Life always gets a little crazy, in a good way, around Christmas for me. Balancing life already and the addition of cookie making daily can be a challenge but it’s also one of the most rewarding additions to my life this time of year. Cookie making is a comfort to me. It’s a warm hug of traditions and a way of focusing on the joys of sugar instead of stress.

9^th Day before Christmas – Frosted Peanut Cookies Continue reading “Nutty for Christmas Cookies” →

Ho Ho Ho and a Bottle of Eggnog?

On December 16, 2018December 16, 2018 By take2createIn Christmas, Food, Holidays, WinterLeave a comment

Eggnog is an iconic flavor of the Christmas season right alongside peppermint. The nutmeg and rum taste is comforting but it can be a tricky flavor in a cookie. Most of the time it seems to bake out. With a few slight tweaks to an Eggnog Cookie recipe found in Taste of Home Magazine’s Christmas Cookie edition (pg. 45), the eggnog flavor was prominent and delicious. The cookies practically flew off the platter we brought to a Christmas party tonight!

10 Days Before Christmas – Eggnog Cookies

First of all, eggnog + cookies = delicious! The biggest burst of eggnog flavor ended up coming from our impromptu eggnog glaze. It brought out the warm nutmeg taste baked in the cookie and it added a nice decoration to our cute trees. Eggnog Cookies Continue reading “Ho Ho Ho and a Bottle of Eggnog?” →

Sugar Cookie Delight

On December 16, 2018 By take2createIn Christmas, Food, Holidays, WinterLeave a comment

Does anyone else get slightly nervous about decorating sugar cookies? I was worried about the cookies being perfect but after the first mistake (on the first cookie), I accepted that mine were not going to be like the ones idolized on Instagram and to enjoy the process. As soon as I put it into perspective, it was a blast! We sat with our 4 colors of royal frosting and laughed at our silly designs and sang along to Christmas songs. Who know decorating sugar cookies would lead to advice on life – enjoy the process.

11 Days Before Christmas – Sugar Cookies

This sugar cookie was new to any that we have tried before because of two main reasons, the dough contained cream cheese and we were using royal icing to decorate. We found the recipe for the dough and icing in Taste of Home Magazine’s, Christmas Cookies magazine. We ended up combining the dough of the “Best-Ever Snowman Cookies” on page 43 with the royal icing of the “Christmas Lights Cookies” on page 5. The results were delicious and a must try! Warning though, the dough requires 3 hours of chill time. We pulled the butter and cream cheese out of the refrigerator when we first woke up and made the dough right after breakfast so it was ready by noon to roll out and cook. Sugar Cookies.JPG Continue reading “Sugar Cookie Delight” →

19th Annual Twelve Days of Cookies

On December 14, 2018December 14, 2018 By take2createIn Christmas, Food, Holidays, Winter5 Comments

What do you get when you combine wanting to create a new special tradition and two kids obsessed with sugar and Christmas? 12 Days of Cookies! My mom came up with this idea 19 years ago and the tradition has continued every year since then. The 12 days of cookies is simple, we find 12 cookie recipes that we have never done before and we make them every day leading up to Christmas. We are excited to share this experience on our blog for the first time and hope you enjoy them as well. Now, let’s get busy baking!

12th Day Before Christmas – Frosted Cornflake Chocolate Chip Cookies

I’m sure you did a double take of this name. Yes, this cookie has the delicious sugary cereal in it (the kid inside of me did a happy dance when we found this one!). It caught our attention in the cookie edition of the Better Homes & Gardens magazine (Best of BH&G Christmas Cookies pg. 79). With all the years of cookie baking, we have never put a cereal in them so we were excited to see how it would bake. The cereal added a fun crunchy texture into the cookie. We enjoyed the results and loved how quickly the batter came together (no chilling necessary!).

Frosted Flake Chocolate Chip Cookies.jpg Continue reading “19th Annual Twelve Days of Cookies” →

Thankful Hearts and Full Bellies

On November 27, 2018November 27, 2018 By take2createIn Food, Holidays, ThanksgivingLeave a comment

Thanksgiving_Box

Who else ate so much on Thanksgiving that you didn’t want to move the rest of the day? Me! *both hands raised enthusiastically* That extra inch struggle to even grab the remote may or may not have been the deciding factor in the show we watched on TV that night… You’ll notice that our Thanksgiving post is coming a little later than most. We wanted to put our whole focus into enjoying the long weekend so thank you all for your patience. Continue reading “Thankful Hearts and Full Bellies” →

Thanksgiving Minion Wood Cutouts

On November 19, 2018 By take2createIn Crafts, Fall, Holidays, Seasonal, Thanksgiving1 Comment

PSA: You do not need to be a super villain to make this craft

How wonderful would it be if Minions came to our Thanksgiving celebrations? I imagine some banana cream pie, banana ice cream, and really anything with banana would make them happy guests. They could cause trouble, but with those cute faces, I wouldn’t be mad for long. Since we can’t actually invite Minions, we decided to instead make life size wood cutouts of our favorite happy little characters. We saw these adorable pilgrim and turkey Minion pictures online (original source unknown) and started in on making them. We hope you have as much fun as we did creating them! Minion_Turkey_Pilgrim Continue reading “Thanksgiving Minion Wood Cutouts” →

Thankful-ly Burnt in Wood

On November 3, 2018November 3, 2018 By take2createIn Christmas, Crafts, Fall, Thanksgiving, WinterLeave a comment

The thought of holding an extremely hot tool for a prolonged period of time in hopes of getting that perfect line is not for the faint of heart (and for perfectionists trying it for the first time, stressful). I recommend a couple of things: 1) Don’t take it too seriously, imperfections add character to your sign and only you will notice them, 2) Flip on some music, have tea ready and make it an enjoyable experience, and 3) Place the woodburner somewhere safe when not in use… it wouldn’t hurt to know where the fire extinguisher is either, haha! In all honesty, woodburning can be a fun craft for any skill level. Just do it safely, with love, and the results are incredibly rewarding. Woodburned Signs Continue reading “Thankful-ly Burnt in Wood” →