I was waiting Christmas from September but when they came deep in the heart I was already waiting for the srping It’s good that for Christmas everything was planned and I knew that maybe it’s the first and the last Christmas when I can spend a lot of time doing something for them. So I didn’t hesitate and did almost everything I could. That’s why in this blog before Christmas there was no entries – I didn’t want that the surprise presents were known before getting them.

This (now it’s last) year I made gingerbread cookies for the first time. And I wasn’t lazy so I made two gingerbread houses. This cute house was brought to my son’s group in the kindergarden. I finished it in tree days without a hurry The first day was set for baking the houses, the second – for building those houses, the third – for baking and making decorations. It was fun and scary – when I wanted to show houses to my kids and one of them started to rip the Christmas tree while the other tried to take off the door from the other house And then I had to hear a lot of prayers “Mommy, please please please let me eat this house”, my heart was aching saying “Sorry, not now”. I regret to say that we didn’t taste neither of houses… The second house went left in the place where we celebrated Christmas. Who ate it said that it was very tasty (what can you expect when lickerish falimy eats the house for whose decorations was used half kilogram of sugar powder?)

Now I will try to write down all sources of ideas/recipes that next time when I decide to make gingerbread houses I could spend less time browsing the web

The template of the house is taken from Martha Stewart’s website

The dough for the houses I made like Arūnė from Arūnės trupiniai

The houses were glued and the snow was made from royal icing. The proportions for royal icing I used: 1 egg white, 200 g sugar powder and pinch of lemon acid. This amount was enough for building the houses and make a little bit of snow on the roof. But for icicles and to cover all roofs with snow I had to make royal icing two more times. So in total I made white royal icing three times.

I tried to make almond herringbone from Neringos blog, but baked sponge-cakes’ tops were very slender so herringbones bow down. I was afraid to proceed with Neringa recipe descriptions so I just one more time prepared royal icing, coloured it with green food colour and sprinkle with it herringbone’ sponge-cakes. But what can I say… the wind was very strong and for more it started to snow so my herringbone were leaning.

Next it was time for snowmen. I saw very beautiful snowmen in Minjina Kuhinjica blog but I used only visual material for making snowmen’ scarfs. My snowmen are made of Coconut candies that I saw in Jogos mityba blog.

Snowmen scarfs I made from Chewits candies.

I think I wrote all the sources. Hope that it will be helpful not only for me in the future but for someone else more

Kids-friendly recipe but also very good for adults. I made it for several times and every time all family loved it.

(4 servings)

300 g minced turkey or chicken

1 small onion

300 g chopped or minced white cabbage

1 egg

2 tablespoons rolled oats

salt

pepper

oil for frying

Boil water and pour over cabbage. Let sit for some time, then pour to the sieve and drain. Chop the onion. Mix all ingredients. Form small meatballs and fry over small heat.

Source: Supermamos forumas

One more way to make your kids happy. Preparation takes time because you have to chill the dough long. But the cookies are delicious and we liked it, out kids kindergarden liked them too

2 1/2 cups cake flour

1-2 tsp baking powder (I liked cookies more when I used only 1 tsp)

1/2 tsp fine salt

3/4 cup (170 g) butter

3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar (you can add only 1/2 cup and it will taste great too)

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla sugar

25-50 g chocolate, melted and cooled

For decorating:

Small round candies for eyes

Cashews for beak

In a bowl, sift flour with baking powder and salt. Set aside. In mixing bowl, cream butter with electric mixer at medium speed, beat until creamy smooth, then gradually add brown sugar, incorporating well. Add egg, vanilla and mix well. Stir in flour mixture, adding 1/4 cup at a time until well mixed. Divide cookie dough into thirds. Mix chocolate in 1/3 dough. Cover and chill until the dough can be easily handled. Divide the plain and chocolate dough in half. Return half of the dough to refrigerator. Roll the plain dough to a 12×25 cm rectangle on lightly floured wax paper. Roll the chocolate dough into a 25cm long roll (you’ll get quite big cookies. I made 40cm long roll and plain dough adjusted, so I got medium size cookies that I liked more). Place the chocolate roll on the center of the rectangle. Lift the sides of the of the wax paper to roll cover the chocolate roll with the plain dough. Wrap the wax paper around the dough and chill. Repeat process with remaining cookie dough. Chill dough well, for at least two hours, or overnight.
Preheat oven to 175°C.
Cut the firmly chilled roll into ~1/2 cm slices. Place two sliced cookies touching in the middle on a baking paper. This creates the owl face with two eyes. After all the cookies are placed on the baking sheet, they will have softened. Pinch the top corners of the cookie to make ears (when I used 2 tsp baking powder my owl ears disappeared while baking). Place one candy on each eye. Place cashew nuts for the owl’s beak. Bake the cookies in a oven for 8-12 minutes until lightly browned on the sides. Remove from oven and place cookies on a cooling rack.

Source: - SHARING AND CARING – CAKE DECORATING AND SUGAR ART TUTORIALS