I’m a pretty big Nigella Lawson fan. I love how practical and imperfect her cooking is. I love how round she is. I love how she literally flirts with you from the beginning of her show to the end. I’m a little concerned with her midnight eating habits, though.

Normal people don’t raid their fridges in the middle of the night for the sweetest most fattening foods with such a proud look on their face. If normal people do graze their fridge after everyone is long asleep, surely the expression on their face is that of great shame. You should be ashamed Nigella… of the midnight binging, not for this awesome granola recipe.

This is the first granola I’ve ever made. Once you get past the gazillion ingredients, it really is a tasty snack worthy treat. Jeff eats this every morning with yogurt for breakfast.

A few tips. I  found the brown rice syrup in a health food store. It wasn’t super cheap (about $7) but it’s lasted a good 5 batches with some still left. Also, if you’ve never made granola before, when you pull this out of the oven, it will still be soft – not crunchy. Like cookies, it will harden as it cools. Keep an eye on this, as it will burn quickly. Also, this is my version of Nigella’s Granola, it is not the exact recipe (it’s better, ahem). Follow the link below to follow her exact words.

Hug a tree!

Chocolate Peanut Granola

Adapted from The Food Network

1/2 cup best quality cocoa
4 1/2 cups rolled oats
1 cup sunflower seeds
1/3 cup coarse ground flax seed
3/4 cup applesauce
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/3 cup brown rice syrup or rice malt syrup
1/4 cup honey
3/4 cup light brown sugar
1 2/3 cups raw peanuts
1 teaspoon kosher salt
2 tablespoons flavorless oil (I used almond oil)

You haven’t made your Christmas cookies yet, have you?

No?

Perfect, because you definitely should try this recipe this year in place of your old boring sugar cookie recipe.

These cookies are easy to make. Easy to roll. Easy to manipulate. And the flavor couldn’t be any more interesting, addictive, sweet – but not too sweet, subtle yet memorable. Seriously, they’re good.

This is my third year using this recipe and I shall never make any other cut-out cookies as long as I live!

I iced my cookies using royal icing. If you’d like to do the same but aren’t quite sure how to do that, I recommend you visit Annie’s blog and follow her tutorial and recipe. Don’t compare my cookies to hers. Hers are stunning and mine are boring and far from perfect, but meet my typical standard of “good enough”. Anyway, I don’t want you to look at them, I want you EAT them. Num num…

Merry Christmas! Happy Holidays!

Honey & Cardamom Cut-Out Cookies

Adapted from Fine Cooking Magazine

13-1/2 oz. (3 cups) unbleached all-purpose flour; more for rolling
1 tsp. ground cardamom
1/2 tsp. table salt
1/4 tsp. baking soda
8 oz. (1 cup) unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup honey
1 large egg
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

1. In a medium mixing bowl, combine the flour, cardamom, salt, and baking soda. Whisk until well blended.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or in a large mixing bowl with a hand mixer), beat the butter and sugar on medium speed until well blended and slightly fluffy, about 3 minutes.
3. Scrape down the bowl and the beater. Add the honey, egg, and vanilla. Continue mixing on medium speed until well blended, about 1 minute.
4. Add the flour mixture and mix on low speed until the dough is well blended and comes together in moist clumps, 30 to 60 seconds.
5. Divide the dough roughly in half. On a piece of plastic wrap, shape each dough half into a smooth 5-inch disk. Wrap well in the plastic. Refrigerate until chilled and firm enough to roll out, 1 to 1-1/2 hours.
6. Position a rack in the center of the oven and heat the oven to 350ºF. Line two or more cookie sheets with parchment or nonstick baking liners.
7. Working with one disk at a time, roll the dough on a floured work surface to about 3/16 inch thick. Dust with additional flour as needed. Choose one or more cookie cutters of any shape that are about 2-1/2 inches wide and cut out shapes.
8. Arrange the cookies about 1 inch apart on the lined cookie sheets. Gather the scraps and gently press together. Re-roll and cut. Repeat with the remaining dough.
9. Bake one sheet at a time until the cookies’ edges develop a 1/4-inchwide light-brown rim, 11 to 13 minutes (rotate the sheet halfway through baking for even browning). I have a hot oven and only needed 10 minutes for perfectly baked cookies.
10. Let the cookies cool on the sheet for about 10 minutes and then transfer them to a rack to cool completely.

If I felt euphemistic, I would call my husband a minimalist. But I’m not feeling very euphemistic today. So I’ll just call it what it is: my husband could care less about decorating.

Yeah, I know I’m not alone on that one. However, most women don’t let this paralyze their homemaking efforts. Most women have a healthy self-esteem which translates into some sort of “eff you dear, we’re hanging this g-damn picture right here” and most husbands know well enough to reply “I couldn’t have picked a better place. You really are keener than Martha Stewart.”

Instead in our house, we leave framed artwork leaning against the wall 4 or 5  deep for years. Dust bunnies penetrate the small spaces between the frames, forming a lovely organic insulation. Our walls are naked, and not even an interesting color, but varying shades of gray or beige. I fantasize about wall collages a la Young House Love. But the fantasy is quickly squelched when my husband grumbles about the pains of hanging anything on 80 year old plaster walls, let alone perfecting the placement of 16 different objects. So I’m left to dream up lightweight decor that the hubster won’t get all grumpy about how “sturdy” or “safe” it will be when attached to our plaster.

Enter this project which consists of mostly paper and thread and rests nicely on a lightweight picture ledge from IKEA. Also, if IKEA is involved it should  be assumed (correctly) that this project is extremely inexpensive. It cost me less than $40 in tools and materials.

Yarn Wrapped Letters

What you will need:

Paper mache letters (any craft store will carry them)
Yarn (I used a medium weight acrylic)
Hot glue gun
Patience and perseverance

I discovered this idea on Sarah Ortega’s blog and recommend following the link to her tutorial. If your name is “Lee” or “Elle”, you should totally do this project as I found it extremely easy to achieve a pleasing outcome on the letters “L” and “E” . However,  the more complex or rounded letters are extremely frustrating and my overall feeling of the outcome is a solid “meh.” I thought for sure I could do this project in a couple nights. It took me one night of about 2 hours of work per letter. Just a warning. I’m not trying to steer you away from this project, just trying to keep it real yo.

Paper Garlands

What you will need:

Large circle hole punch (I used a Fiskar’s 2″ punch)
Card stock or other sturdy paper
Standard all-purpose thread
Sewing machine

These garlands are all over the crafting world wide web. I’ve admired them for months and was determined to make them for my new baby’s room. They really couldn’t be simpler. It helps if you have a machine that has a pedal-free start/stop button feature, though it’s not necessary. Here’s the how to:

1. Punch circles out of card stock.

2. Wind bobbin and thread sewing machine.

3.  Using a straight stitch, sewing straight through the center of the first circle. You can either position the second circle immediately after the first with no space, or continue to run the machine while pulling gently at the first circle to create a gap and then continue to feed the next circle.  Continue until desired length is achieved.

Simple right?

After my husband hung the  picture ledge, I suspended the garlands from the bottom using simple scotch tape.

I love that the final look has a kind of party vibe to it. The garlands also have great movement and provide something interesting for Lennon to look at while she’s getting her diaper changed. This is a wonderfully versatile project as you can make it as gender specific or gender neutral as you want depending on the color scheme you choose. Also, it’s a great space hog for those big empty walls and requires just a few nails which should make every husband or designated household picture hanger happy.