Rustic Rosemary Bread

I made this to go with dinner tonight and let me just say, it is A-MAZ-ING! If you've ever had the bread at Macaroni Grill, this is just as good. I am in bread heaven!

This is how I made it:

In a bread machine, add:

1 TBSP yeast

1 TBSP sugar

1 cup warm water

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon rosemary

1 tablespoon butter

Let the machine mix on the dough setting and gradually add in 1/2-1 cup more flour until a nice dough forms. It shouldn't be sticky or too stiff. When the dough cycle is finished, remove the dough and separate into two equal pieces. Shape each piece into a smooth circle. Drizzle a baking sheet with olive oil; place dough on baking sheet and sprinkle with more rosemary. Plop 1/2 TBSP butter on top of each loaf. Let rise in a warm place for 15-20 minutes. Fill a shallow baking dish with water and place in oven while baking. Bake at 375 until golden brown.

The Gingerbread Man Ran Away!

Here's a fun Christmas activity for young kids. I recently did this for my joyschool group and it went over extremely well.

First, we read the story of The Gingerbread Man, which I checked out from the library. Then I let the kids help me make gingerbread cookies. They got to cut them out and put them on the pan. I sent the kids upstairs while the cookies were baking and when they came back downstairs, the gingerbread men had run away! All they left was a little note giving a clue to their whereabouts. We chased those little men all around the house, each time finding another clue. Finally, we caught up to them and wasted no time eating them all up.

I can't even describe the reaction on the kids' faces when I opened the empty oven. It was priceless! This was such a fun, simple activity. My three year old is still talking about it. And I'm still grinning with delight that my plan went so well.

Advent Calendar

I have been working on this thing for months. It has been finished (except for those darn last couple of ornaments) for about a month now. I just haven't been able to get a good picture of it. I finally decided a mediocre picture is better than posting about my Christmas calendar in February. So here it is.

I am really pleased with how it turned out, but if I ever made one again (which I'm just telling you now, I won't) I would buy different white fabric. The stuff I used was given to me free and it has a little bit of a stretch, which made sewing on it a nightmare. I was able to use almost all stuff I had on hand. All I bought was a dowel, dowel ends and red fabric for the back. The rest came from my stash! Yay!

The wall hanging itself was pretty simple to make, but each of the little ornaments took about an hour to make. I had to think of an idea, sketch it out, then hand-stitch every little stitch. Crazy, I know. I also cut the felt numbers out by hand. Thanks, Mom, for the awesome tip on how to accomplish that intimidating task. Anyway, my daughter has already hung several ornaments and she gets so excited to see what the next one will be. I hope this advent calendar will become a family treasure.

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