Christmas Baking is in Full Swing

I don’t know about you, but the rest of this week my oven will be working overtime. On the list for today are Kolacky’s, peanut clusters, toffee bars, cinnamon rolls, dinner rolls, and puppy chow. I thought I would take a minute to share my Kolacky recipe in case any of you are looking for a good recipe for them. Here it is, have fun.

Print by clicking on recipe

What are your favorite cookies? Have you decided on what you are serving for Christmas dinner? Please feel free to share your ideas and menus.

photo credit: infowidget

The Next Step in Blogging with WordPress

I will start by telling you that I am by no means a WordPress expert, and there are many others out there who are. What I have to offer you is a very basic step by step guide with screen shots to help you.

I  struggled with WordPress in the beginning, but I found some great resources that have helped me a lot. This post will walk you through the very basic steps of getting your blog started in WordPress. Be sure and check out my previous blog about how to get your blog set up.You can find that here  Start a Foodie Blog

Okay, here goes. In the last post I showed you what the dashboard looks like. The first step in publishing your first blog is to go to the Dashboard and click on “Add New” under the post section.

Once you start a new post, this screen will show up. You will have the option of working with the Visual editor, or if you prefer, you can use HTML by clicking in the upper right hand corner.You type the body of your post in the content box.

Many people want to add photos to their post. You will notice the icon circled in pink. If you click on that icon, it will take you to a screen that will allow you to add a photo.

If you have pictures or images on your computer, you can click on “From Computer” and then select files.That will take you to a screen that will let you choose the file on your computer you want to upload.

On my computer, I keep my pictures in My Documents under My Pictures. You click on my pictures and then open.

Choose the picture you want and click on it. The click on Open.

You can decide how large the image will be in your post, and where you want to position it. After you have made those decision, select “Insert into Post”.

As you can see, now the image shows up in the content box of my post and I am ready to start adding some text.

You may want to start your blog with a Headline or Subtitle. To do that, you click on the tab that says paragraph. The drop down menu will give you options for a headline.

Usually Heading 4 or smaller works well, but that is up to you to decide.

Now, you simply add your content to the text box. Remember to share valuable content that will really benefit your readers, that way they will want to come back for more.

Once your content is added, simply click publish. Yes, at this point, your blog has gone live on the internet.

I hope that this simple explanation did not offend your intelligence. It is intended for those who are brand new to WordPress and are intimidated by the thought of blogging and don’t know where to begin.

If you are wondering where I learned a lot of what I know at this point, one of my favorite resources that really helped me was Blogger Starter Pack. It was created by Lynette Chandler. She created a series of 56 videos to show you step by step how to use WordPress. I learned a lot, and have watched the videos several times.

If you would like to learn more about that great resource, you can.  find out more here

Okay Some People Actually Love

It is true. In the good old days, my husband and I were the only ones in my family that appreciated it. I could make two loaves, and it would last quite awhile.

Until I tasted this recipe, I had hated fruitcake. It
doesn’t have that stuff that no one has ever heard of or
eats except  in fruitcake and Hot Cross Buns.( Ugh)

Then one Christmas my mother-in-law offered me a piece of fruitcake at Christmas time. To be honest, since I did not like fruitcake, I just took a piece to be polite. Boy was I surprised. It became my favorite Christmas treat.

Like I told you, since the kids thought fruitcake was gross, we did not try and convince them, and my husband and I kept it our own little secret. Then the inevitable happened. One day one of the kids tried a bit, and surprise, surprise, they loved it.

Word spread, and soon many of the kids decided they also love it. So, now I have to make multiple fruitcakes, and they don’t last nearly as long as they used to. It is all good though, I don’t mind sharing such a treat with the people I love.

So, here is a recipe I kept close for a lot of years, but now, I will share it with your and your family and hope you enjoy it as much as our family does. Let me know if you change your opinion about fruitcake.

Click here to print recipe

Are You Hoping Next Christmas Will Be Better

If your answer to that is yes, than what are you going to do to make that come true. The truth of the matter is that you probably are  not going to win the lottery. If your situation is going to improve this next year, it is most likely to be the result of you taking actions to make that happen.

I know, it is Christmas, and we all just want to think happy thoughts. What I am proposing isn’t gloomy, it should be just the opposite. Instead of visions of sugar plums, you could have visions for your life that are closely aligned with your desires for a wonderful Holiday Season.

So, what would it take to make that dream come true. For a lot us, money would improve our situation. We all know it doesn’t grow on trees. It takes effort to produce additional income. The pertinent question is just how to make that happen.

If you are a stay at home mom, the answer can present a real challenge. As I have reflected over 2010, one of the regrets I have is that for many years, I
did not do much to continue my education. I read little, and it was not until
the last few years that I got serious about diving into the education world
again.

When I got serious again about learning, I did not go and step on the college campus again. I found out that real life experience teaches you much more than homework assignments ever did, at least that has been my experience.

I have found all sorts of online opportunities to learn, and that has been a real treasure. I also discovered that finding mentors who do what you would like to do has immeasurable value as well.

If you are a stay at home  mom who needs a few hundred dollars a month, I would like to suggest you check out my cinnamon roll fund raiser business.
It is a relatively small investment that gives the opportunity to see a nice return, in more ways that one. Simply click here or on the class schedule at the top of the page.

photo credit: R Stanek

Fudge is on Everybody’s List

Okay, I am switching into high gear now, how can it be that  Christmas is around the corner. Next week at this time I will have all the kids back home. I am so excited about that.

In light of that, I decided to get going on this baking that is hanging over my head. Fudge is my husband’s choice of Christmas cookies, so I started with him.

I remembered that the recipe is on the Marshmallow Fluff  jar, so I thought I could save time and forget about the recipe box. I don’t exactly know how long it has been this way, but when I read the recipe on the jar, it called for  1 1/2 pkg (12 squares chopped) Baker’s Semi Sweet Chocolate. It stopped me in my tracks for a minute. I was sure I had always used chocolate chips.

So, I pulled out my trusted recipe box, and sure enough, in the good old days, that recipe called for chocolate chips. What were they thinking? I just can’t fathom why they tell you to use the semi sweet squares and chop them when you can simply use chocolate chips. Hmmm

Maybe they are just looking out for our best interests. At this time of year
lots of us have to taste our creations to make sure we did not forget something. It could be that the added step of chopping the chocolate would burn a few calories.

At any rate, if you are wondering, you can use a 12 oz bag of chocolate chips to substitute for the 12 squares of chocolate. I will take a walk and get my exercise that way, thanks anyway Kraft.

It is Time to Fire Up the Oven and Bake!

I looked at the calendar today and realized that it is almost Christmas. Oh my gosh, where did the time go. I still have shopping to finish, and I have not even started my baking. Every year the time slips away faster, and every year I say I will be better prepared next year.

Well, I pulled out the recipe box, and lined up all the recipes that I only make once a year. Each kid has a favorite cookie that they can choose, so you can see why I get a little panicked about this time each year, but thank goodness that I have a commercial kitchen. ( I baked 300+ cookies this morning for an event at church tonight, and it only took a couple of hours. Well, speaking of events, I have to run and get ready.

Here is the families favorite recipe for Christmas Sugar Cut Out Cookies

Click to print the recipe

Have fun decorating your cookies. I’ll share another recipe soon.

The Seasons’ Message

All the songs echo the same theme at Christmas. It is the Season of Peace. The time to reevaluate our priorities, to think of others before ourselves.

In a perfect world, everyone would be more concerned with the needs of others over their own. If that would happen, the world would be what every Christmas song attempts to help us envision.

Well, whether we knew him or not, in our lifetime, we were blessed with a child whose sole mission in his life was to bring the message of Peace. I just heard an interview with his mother, and he was such an incredible person, as is she.

I immediately got the book after I heard her interview, and I have to tell you that it is probably the most amazing book I have ever read. Have the box of Kleenex ready,  but you will truly enrich your life by reading this book.

It is called “Messenger” by Jeni Stepanik. It is the story of her son’s life, as well as her entire family. This boy truly was a gift from heaven, and when you read it, I know you will agree with me. Put this as a must have on your Christmas list for all your friends and family if you want to give a really meaningful gift. It is my top pick for 2010.

Finally, the details!

So, I am assuming since you are reading this that you have finally decided that you may be willing to try your hand at this blogging stuff I keep talking about. Hooray, jump in, the water’s fine.

I told you I would help you, so here goes. First you have to have the idea for what you will write about, and by now, you probably do. So, now you have to make the decision about what platform you want to use. There are a number of them, but I am going to talk about WordPress.

I started out using a different blogging platform, but I like WordPress better. It is really versatile, so you won’t be limited in what you can do with your blog. It does not require that you know HTML, CSS or other techie stuff you may run into if you build a static website.

There are a ton of places you can get free tutorials on how to set it up and use it as well. I will talk more about that later. If you just want to get the hang of blogging, and don’t want to invest any money, you can use WordPress.com.

It is totally free, you just go to: https://www. wordpress.com and sign up for an account. Then check your email and verify your acocunt by clicking on the link they send you.
The first thing you will have to do is login. That will take you to the Dashboard, which is basically the back end of your blog, the place that you use to create and publish your content. Here is a look at my dashboard, to give you an idea of what you will see.

To give you an idea how easy it is to start, here are some brief steps:

Click on”Add New” under post section in upper left corner

• Give your post a title in the specified box
• 
  

Enter your content in text box

• Click on preview in the upper right hand corner to make sure it looks the way you want, if not click back and make changes
• Click publish in the right hand corner
• Click view post

It is as easy as that to start, when you click publish, your blog is visible to the world. To be sure this is a very simplified explanation. There are a great many videos on how to use WordPress. This is just the explanation for WordPress.com.

I use WordPress.org. It gives you lots more options, but there is a small expense involved for your hosting and domain name. You could be expecting that to cost between $10-$12 for the domain (it is a renewable charge) and $7-$12 per month for hosting.

I am going to stop and give you a chance to go look at https://www.wordpress.com. It is free and you can play with it for awhile. I will talk more next time about WordPress.