Merry Christmas

via

Hello Friends,

I hope you've been enjoying this holiday season!  

I just wanted to hop on and wish you a very very

Merry Christmas!

So looking forward to celebrating the birth of our Jesus & 

spending time with loved ones over the next few days.

Lots of love...

Herbal Honey : A Homemade Christmas Gift Made with Ease and Love

Hi Friends!  Melanie here, I have an easy DIY Christmas gift to share with you today!

The parties, the eggnog, the gifts, JESUS -- Christmas is such a beautiful time of year.  For me, what often gets in the way of the holiday sparkle is long shopping lines, grumpy grinch crowds, and dare I say it, burnt cookies.  It can often be a time when wonder and chaos unite and never leave our side until the credit card bills come in January.

Wouldn't it be great if you could make a gift from home that someone could actually use? Better yet, what if you didn't have to go shopping for the ingredients?! 

I made 6 of these tasty treats in 15 minutes all with ingredients and supplies I had in my pantry.  Homemade gifts don't have to be time consuming or require hard to get ingredient!

Flavored Honey

You have honey in your cupboard, right?  However you eat or drink honey, it is possible to enhance the medicinal qualities by adding herbs to it.  You heard me right, that underused, overflowing spice rack is about to get functional.  Herbal honeys are easy to make and substitute into almost any capacity that you use honey.  Your almond butter and honey sandwhiches will never be the same.  Drizzle over muffins, add to tea, top your waffles, or eat herbal honey straight out of the jar.  You can even use them as a barbaque glaze.  C'mon I'll show you how!

   After I washed and dried all of my glass jars, I added my spices and herbs to each jar. 

I heated the honey slightly until it was warm and runny.  Make sure it doesn't boil.  Next, I poured honey into each jar. 

I stirred each jar well and placed the lids once I let them cool.  Christmas gifts, done.  Store them in a cabinet for two weeks so the flavors can mingle, and your cute little presents are ready!  I've used mine before two weeks and they were still delicious, so if you're reading this on Christmas Eve, it's not too late.

You can find corresponding recipe cards for each herbal honey blend here and here to be included with your gift.
You can find the circular labels here.
My jars were from World Market, but any glass jar with a lid that holds one volume cup will do.

You will find the recipe for each herbal honey blend below. Choose 1, all 4, or create your own blend for a unique treat this Christmas.  You could simply make a rosemary honey or a cinnamon honey as long as you powder your herbs the possibilites are endless! The basic ratio to follow is 1/4-1/2 cup dried herbs or spices to 1 cup of honey.  All recipes below are adapted from Kami McBride's The Herbal Kitchen.
 

Barbeque Honey Glaze

Spread on chicken, skewered veggies, or fish before baking or grilling.

1 cup honey, warmed
1 T powdered ginger
2 teaspoons powdered rosemary
2 teaspoons powdered thyme

Powder your herbs in a spice grinder if they are still whole.  It will still be the same measurement above.  Add to a clean jar and stir well. Pour warmed honey over herbs and stir well. Allow to cool, then close tightly.

Spiced Honey

You will never be the same after trying this honey.  It tastes like a cinnamon roll.  Fabulous in tea or spread on pancakes, the possibilities are endless. 

1 cup honey, warmed
1 T powdered cinnamon
2 teaspoons powdered ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves or allspice


Powder your herbs in a spice grinder if they are still whole. It will still be the same measurement above. Add to a clean jar and stir well. Pour warmed honey over herbs and stir well. Allow to cool, then close tightly.
.
Flexibility Honey

Perfect for a family member that suffers from arthritis.  This blend is packed with herbal anti-inflammatories.

1 cup honey, warmed
1 T powdered tumeric
1 teaspoon powdered ginger
1/2 teaspoon powdered juniper berries (no juniper berries? try powdered black pepper)
1/2 teaspoon powdered cardamom

Powder your herbs in a spice grinder if they are still whole. It will still be the same measurement above. Add to a clean jar and stir well. Pour warmed honey over herbs and stir well. Allow to cool, then close tightly.

Poultry Glaze Honey

Sticky sweet barbeque chicken.  Makes you wonder what is in those jars of BBQ glaze at the store, doesn't it?

1 cup honey, warmed
1 T powdered coriander
1 teaspoon powdered paprika
1 teaspoon powdered cumin
1 teaspoon powdered tumeric
1/2 teaspoon powdered thyme
1/2 teaspoon powdered clove
1/2 teaspoon powdered celery seed

 Powder your herbs in a spice grinder if they are still whole. It will still be the same measurement above. Add to a clean jar and stir well. Pour warmed honey over herbs and stir well. Allow to cool, then close tightly.

I hope you will give this easy project a try as homemade gifts for others or to use in your own kitchen.

Merry Christmas, from my family to yours!

-Melanie
The Grecian Garden

- all images via Melanie 
{please ask to reproduce, or properly link if you desire to share via your own blog}

Eight Days & Counting....

So we're coming along....moving is SUCH a job!  Hubby has finally turned in his keys to his old job and is home to help with the move - eeesh, it's never ending.  We had a very successful garage sale last Saturday and after putting all of our big furniture on craigslist & facebook, we had it all sold in less than 48 hrs.  It's safe to say, things are coming along.  As of right now, the living room and office are PACKED!  Woohoo!  Tomorrow it's onto the kitchen.  :)  I'm going for one looooong massage once we make it to Monterrey.  That's all I have to say.

I don't know that I did much of a Christmas or New Years recap, but we had a wonderful Christmas.  Every year our church does a Christmas Eve service at this beautiful, old theater downtown.  It's such a neat way to welcome Christmas.  Hubby and I sing with the band and everyone is all dressed up for the occasion, the theater is decked out in Christmas decor and all the kids come energetic - it's one of my favorite events we do yearly.  A lot of work goes into preparing for it, but we'll miss it next year.  Check out this awesome video my cousin put together to recap our event at the Sanger.

Christmas Eve 2011 from Coastline on Vimeo.

New years was fun as well.  Hubby and I had to be up eeeeaaarrrllly the following morning, so we didn't exactly wait up to welcome 2012.  We did, however, manage to go out for dinner with my family and spend time playing card games, while sipping on sparkling cider.

That's about it for my holiday recap.  We had lots of cherished time with family and we were showered with all sorts of fun gifts.  We are really going to miss this place once we move, but we are oh so excited about the adventures ahead!  Eight days and counting....Happy 2012!

Christmas at the Sanger

{Hubbs and I singing...I love this}

{With one of B's sisters - I'm not sure why I'm standing so awkwardly}

{With more of B's sisters & my mother-in-law}

{Spending time at B's family's home}

{B's Christmas gift to me!}

{Happy New Year's resolutions, February is going to kick my bootay.}

{And this is my latest toy, as of this morning!  Get ready PinkPeonyStyle, you're about to get a makeover and lots of fabulous new photos.  Looking forward to documenting all of our Monterey adventures!}

Hope you had a fabulous Christmas and New Year.  Happy 2012!  

Christmas, moving, and other things...

Wow, the days are slipping away.  Christmas is on our heels and our big move is just around the corner!  I'm done working and taking the time off to prepare for the cross-country move.  All is falling into place except for one (in my opinion) MAJOR thing - housing.  :-\  So many people ask if we're excited and what not, yes, of course we are - it's an adventure....but there's that homemaker thing inside me that's just itching to find a cute little (affordable) place to call our own.  Having a pup in tow isn't exactly making the matter any less difficult.  He's a great little guy, but convincing a home owner that I may just have the best doggie in the world is an entirely different story.  Humph!  What to do?  What to do?  Trust God.  It's all I can do.  He's provided everything else thus far, I'm sure that's on it's way.  The planner in me just wants to know exactly where I'm headed and what I'm doing.

Since my last post some of my precious students participated in my Christmas recital.  Oh my goodness, it was the sweetest thing!  Each student played (piano, guitar, or sang) two Christmas songs; I truly couldn't have been more proud.  I was a little nervous there for a few kiddos, but they all got through their songs and they did such a fabulous job!  Here's a photo one of the mom's snapped:  (Don't they look precious in all of their pretty dresses?  Some of them even doused themselves in glitter for the event!  Oh girls! ;)

In other news, lots of baking has been going down in the Collyer kitchen.  Last night was a pinterest inspired bake-a-thon with gfree Deep Dark Chocolate Cookies & a Tiramisu Roulade.  Ummm, sugar overload?  I think yes!  My kitchen is still doused in powdered sugar - Blakely's enjoying the new sweet flavor the tile has acquired.

You can find the recipe to the cookies here and the roulade here.  (A little tip if you plan to try the roulade - I actually added chocolate chips to the layer of marscapone cheese for a little added sweetness since there wasn't any sweetener in the cream...it turned out perfect!)  The cookies are for our neighbors and the roulade was for hubby's work Christmas party.

And lastly before I turn in for the evening....we had a friend take a few Christmas pics & thought I'd share.  Hope you're enjoying the holidays!  If I don't make it back to PPS before Christmas (cause this whole moving thing is just consuming me), MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Lots of love....

Spiced Apple Cider

What a whirlwind the past few weeks have been - I have a feeling it's not going to slow down anytime soon.  We had a fabulous Thanksgiving - woke up to the Macy's Parade and enjoyed it with coffee, gfree pumpkin bread and pj's.  Then we headed to hubby's parent's home and ate lots of turkey and yummy gfree goodies, took the pup for a walk to let the food settle & played lots of wii and ping pong.  It was a very pleasant holiday weekend.

{A few of Hubby's Fam}

{Our tree in all it's glory}

It's tradition to put the tree up the day after Thanksgiving in our home, so we carried out tradition and went to select the perfect little tree and brought it home for decorating.  It wasn't exactly chilly, tree decorating weather, so to make things more festive I made homemade Spiced Apple Cider - boy does it make your home smell delicious!!!  I was inspired by my sister-in-law's version of yummy spiced cider the day before, it was so good, I had to make my own (and share with you of course ;).

Spiced Apple Cider

- 1/2 Gallon Apple Cider

- 3-4 Small Apples, rinsed well & skin kept on

- 1 Orange Peel, rinsed well

- 1/2 Lemon Peel, rinsed well

- 2 Spoonfuls of Maple Syrup

- 2-3 Cinnamon Sticks

- 4 Whole Cloves

- 1 t Ground All Spice

1. Toss all ingredients in a sauce pan and bring to a boil.
2. Let simmer 20-30 minutes.  Enjoy!

(May also be tossed into a slow cooker for several hours.  Makes your home smell divine!)

Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  Check back this week for a yummy recipe for Homemade Orange Marsala Penne Pasta. (Gluten Free of course)

Lovely November & How To Cook An Acorn Squash

Friends, it's November - NOVEMBER!  How in the world did that happen so fast?  November is my favorite month of the year & for many reasons - it's truly fall and by now we Floridians usually have beautiful weather, it's the month that marks our wedding anniversary and my thoughts are filled with those sweet wedding memories, it's the month of Thanksgiving (my absolute favorite holiday), and it's time to indulge in all of those wonderful pumpkin and cinnamon spiced goodies.

November also marks the beginning of hectic schedules and I've already gone MIA on PPS.  With the holidays around the corner, there are so many fun things to blog about.  I really hope to make little PPS updates a priority here and there.

Today I'm busy packing for a little road trip to the Atlanta, GA area to lead worship for a weekend girl's conference.  I just love meeting new faces and spending time with sweet high school girls.  I'm really looking forward to it - pics to come next week.

You know I couldn't leave without posting a fun fall recipe though, right??  I don't know about you, but I love to buy random produce at the grocery store (usually what's in season) and figure out how to cook with it or add it to a dish.  This week it was a pretty little golden acorn squash.  To some of you, this may be a familiar fall vegetable, but for me it was totally foreign.  It had been sitting in my fruit bowl for a few days and while trying to come up with a quick and easy gfree dinner earlier this week, I couldn't ignore it's golden glow any longer - it was destined to be baked.  On the plate?  Pork Tenderloin, Baked Acorn Squash and Maple Glazed Asparagus....yummy, right?  So here's what I did.

Baked Acorn Squash

Ingredients

1 Acorn Squash

1 T Cinnamon

1 t Nutmeg

1/2 t Brown Sugar

1 T Maple Syrup

Salt (just a pinch)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 150 degrees and rinse and dry your squash.

2. Cut into halves & seed.  

3. Lay flesh down on a glass tray or plate and microwave for 5 min.

4. Remove carefully from the microwave (plate will be hot) and turn over, flesh side up.  

5. With a knife or spoon, carefully rub flesh with butter till the surface has been covered.

6. Sprinkle about a tablespoon of cinnamon, 1 teaspoon nutmeg, 1/2 tablespoon of brown sugar & a pinch of salt over buttered squash.

7. Transfer squash, flesh side up, to a baking dish and drizzle a tablespoon of maple syrup over spices.

8. Bake in oven for 30 minutes or until a fork can easily poke through outer skin.

9. Cut into cubes and spoon out squash.  Enjoy!

Isn't she pretty??

(I know, my halves aren't so even...it's hard to get it just right.)

Beautiful!  

(As for the asparagus - I tossed it in olive oil, drizzled maple syrup and coated the heads with brown sugar and a pinch of salt.  Baked it for 30 min with the squash.  It's salty, sweet and crunchy!)

Have you made acorn squash before?  If so, how do you make it?

Apple Cobbler

Hallelujah - we have ac again!  In Florida, you can NEVER take your working ac unit for granted.  Sure, it racks up the power bill, but oh my goodness, it keeps this girl in a good mood.

What a crazy week it's been.  Hubby and I are preparing to head to Monterey, California (yay!) Sat to lead worship for a church on Sun.  We're so looking forward to being on the West Coast, taking in "mountains" & ocean (anything larger than a sand dune is a mountain to me :), breathing in the fresh air and scoping out the fun local places.  Any suggestions as to what we should do/see while we're there?

As I mentioned a few posts ago, my sister was recently in town and as usual, her visit was far too short.  For her last night home we made a big g-free dinner - it was delish!  We made one of my new favorite meals from a recent Martha Stewart magazine, Braised Chicken with Potatoes, Olives & Lemon, and it's naturally g-free (& oh so beautiful)! (The only substitution I make is swapping out the cornstarch for arrowroot pwdr.)  It was a hit.  To wash down the chicken, we had Apple Cobbler & topped it with vanilla ice cream - can you say yummy??  You can bet this Apple Cobbler will be making a Thanksgiving appearance.  It was so fantastic, I decided to share.  Would love to hear your thoughts, if you give it a try.

Gluten Free Apple Cobbler

Filling
5-6 Green Apples, peeled & sliced
3/4 Cup White Sugar
2 T Brown Sugar
1/4 Cup Almond Flour
1 t Cinnamon
1/2 t Nutmeg
1 t Vanilla Extract
1/4 Cup Hot Water
2 T Butter, Softened

Topping
1/2 Cup Almond Flour
1/2 Cup Arrowroot Powder
1/4 Cup White Sugar
1/4 Cup Brown Sugar
1/4 t Salt
2 T Butter, Softened
1 Egg

Directions
Serves 6

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. In a large bowl, combine all filling ingredients, leaving out the butter.  Toss gently and pour into a lightly greased square baking dish.
3. With a teaspoon, spoon softened butter in several rows on top of filling.
4. Combine topping ingredients and mix until batter is smooth.  Drop batter on top of filling in spoonfulls, evenly (I like to use an ice cream scoop).
5. Bake for 35 minutes or until top is golden and filling is bubbly.
6. Serve with vanilla ice cream or whipped topping.

{Prepared and ready to bake}

{Baked to crispy, flakey, gooey-apple perfection!}

{I'm pretty sure it's safe to say we licked the dish clean}

Okay, I'm off to do some packing & sneak in a few bites of the sushi my hubby just walked in with!  Lots of love...