A Make-Ahead Mother's Day Gift

You might think it too early to start putting together a gift for Mother's Day in January, but what better to do (well, okay besides de-clutter your house!) during the remaining cold winter months than put together a gift that will help you know Mom better? Not only that, but this week there are fourteen weeks before Mother's Day. With this project, you need to come up with, and write out, 52 questions for Mom. If you start this week, that comes out to about two or three questions a week, and still give you time to get to the post office to mail it out. Work a little faster to make a second jar for your sweetheart!

Home Made Christmas Gifts

To give warning, this post is intended to be the first of many as we close in on the holidays. Does it seem too early to you? If you're making your own, I promise you it's right about the best time to start!

The picture at top is a shirt we've done twice now. We will probably use this idea a few more times in the coming years as our family grows and our children get bigger. Four out of four grandparents polled love this gift - what more can be said in its favor? If my informal poll is not enough to entice you, here are other reasons this makes a great gift:

• Each shirt costs less than $25 to make
• This creates a lasting, make Grandma cry reminder of where-your-kids-were-when
• Takes as little as 15 minutes to make (not including drying time), depending on the age and number of your children
• You can tailor the shirt to match whatever style and color the grandparent prefers - short sleeves? Check. Long sleeves? Check. Turtleneck? Check. Yellow/green/blue/tan/red? Check/check/check/check/check. I think you get the idea!

So here are the nitty-gritty details:

What you need:

Shirt(s) in the correct size(s) for your recipient

Fabric paint in a color that contrasts well with the color of your shirt(s)

Child/ren

Grocery sack or piece of cardboard

* Puff paint fabric paint to outline the hands/feet

What you need to do:

1. Launder the shirt ahead of time in case there is an issue of shrinkage.

2. Lay the shirt out as flat as possible with a large piece of cardboard or a cut up paper grocery sack laid flat inside the shirt. This keeps your paint from bleeding through to the other side.

3. Make sure your children are in clothes that you don't mind getting paint on - this paint is designed to stay in unless you've washed the garment around 2,000,000 times. Make sure your clothes are similarly carefree!

4. Have the child hold their hand or foot (we do both if the shirt is big enough or maybe hands on front, feet on back) flat open and smear paint all over the hand/foot. Then carefully help the child push their hand flat against the shirt and pull it off again. The first time or two is tricky but you get the hang of it pretty quickly!

5. We outlined the handprint in puff paint to make it stand out a bit. This helps because where the palm imprint is does not usually fill in all the way due to the natural lay of the hand.

6. If you'd like, write a cute message on the shirt. Ideas: "Hands on Grandma/pa" near handprints; "My grandkids walk all over me" near footprints, etc. We also write in names and ages around the prints themselves and put the year on there somewhere.

7. Lay flat to dry out of eyesight of the recipient and out of reach of the children and other clothing for at least 24 hours before wrapping carefully and doing the tissue paper, gift wrap thing.

8. Washing and care: we usually advise our grands to wash these inside out so they don't get so much friction on the other clothes in the wash, on cold water, no bleach, etc. Low heat in the dryer or hang to dry.

More gifts to come! Come back to show off your "Grand"shirt!

Eureka! Biscuits!

After eleven years (almost twelve!) of marriage, I have finally managed to make biscuits that I can feel good about. The NHL may be saddened by this news - they will have lost a major supplier of hockey pucks, but I know that some other young (?) bride will soon replace me in this ministry!

So how did I do it? I am here to share my recently-gained secrets with you... There are additional tidbits in there as well about ... Bisquik, Buttermilk and what's a gal to do if she doesn't have either in the house??

Here is the general recipe:

2 c. flour

1 Tbsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. baking soda

3-4 Tbsp. shortening

2 Tbsp. cold butter

3/4 c. buttermilk OR just under 3/4 c. milk and 1 Tbsp. white wine vinegar

1. Mix 1 1/2 c. flour and the rest of the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Set aside the final 1/2 c. flour for kneading. Cut in the shortening with a pastry cutter.

Incidentally, at this stage you have homemade Bisquik - has a decent shelf-life when stored in an airtight/bug proof container, wonderful to have when going camping or on trips!

2. Cut in the butter with a pastry cutter or two knives. Little tip: Cut the butter up into pieces before adding to the flour mixture. If you don't have shortening in the house, add in extra butter. The chunks of butter/shortening should form small "peas" in the flour by the time you're done, but those "peas" make it so the dough is extra buttery and good so don't mash them all out!

3. Add in the buttermilk. Stirring it in until you have a soft dough - this will actually still

be slightly sticky because we kept out that last 1/2 c. of flour.

** So what is a girl to do if she doesn't have any buttermilk in the house? The buttermilk is, believe it or not, an integral part of this recipe. The acidity in the buttermilk reacts with the baking powder to make the biscuits rise and fluffy! SO, the secret is... vinegar! Mix your 3/4 c. of milk with 1 Tbsp. vinegar to curdle it just the right amount. **

4. Preheat the oven to 450 deg. F. Put 2 pats of butter or a bit of oil into your biscuit pan and place it into the heating oven to melt. This step will give a nice crust to your biscuits. Pour the reserved flour out onto a clean counter and knead the dough onto the flour three or four times until your dough is soft but not stiff.

5. Roll the dough out to about 1/2" thick and cut into 2" wide circles with a glass or a biscuit cutter, rerolling and cutting the scraps as you go. Place your biscuits into the heated pan and bake for 12 to 14 minutes, until golden on top.

In the picture on the left you'll see my new biscuit cutter - the center piece comes out to make biscuits, or you leave it in to make doughnuts! Haven't done those in ages - perhaps Saturday before the pumpkin farm, then we can share with friends! (If I do, I'll try to get pictures to share here!)

Here is an extra tip, just for reading this far:

How to make the flaky layer biscuit similar to the ones you see in the store (Shhhh... don't tell my secret!)

Instead of rolling the dough out to 1/2" thick, roll it out thinly, cut it and stack it several times. Then bake as before!