The Christmas Pinterest Challenge Results ... with Photos

Success! 

The second recipe I chose for my challenge, Cherry Coke Float Cupcakes, has to be the best thing I ever baked! And I will most definitely be baking and freezing more, which I will thaw, finish, and serve during the Christmas holidays.

Having favored quick mixes over scratch baking for years, I had forgotten how scrumptious cakes made from scratch can be. These chocolate with cola cupcakes came out of the oven with rounded tops that stayed rounded. I ate one plain and was delighted with the texture and flavor.

A day or so later, I removed the centers and added cherry pie filling, followed by a powdered sugar-and-cola glaze. Then, of course, I ate one. Wow, so very good!

The next day, I beat heavy cream and powdered sugar together and then piped it onto the cupcakes. I have never in my life made frosting like that, and I was a little bit scared that it would be a flop. I usually just get my frosting in a can. Oh my, it was so good! I added a maraschino cherry on top of two cupcakes. My daughter and I each ate a cupcake and were very excited. Then I put the rest of the frosted cupcakes in the refrigerator to see how long the frosting would stay good.

I thought perhaps the frosting would “melt” down the sides after sitting for a while, but five days later, when we polished off the last of the cupcakes, it still looked and tasted fresh! So now I know that I can prepared these cupcakes in advance of a party and not worry about something going wrong. And that’s the purpose of experimenting year round—or at least a couple of months early.

The most time-consuming part of this dessert is mixing and baking it. So that is what I will do again soon and then freeze. Then, a few days before the party I’m planning, I will thaw them out, fill them with cherries, glaze, and frost them.

Now, as for the other part of the challenge. I didn’t quite make it. This time, my plan to do a craft with my daughter was run off course by a fender-bender that she had with my car. Instead of a fun evening, I had to calm her down, talk her through what she was supposed to do (which meant I had to look it up), call my insurance company, find a ride to the scene of the accident, and so forth. The process still isn’t over.

Life happens, every day. Plans get thwarted. That’s another reason for preparing early! Christmas is less than two months away. Even though I haven’t been able to make the decorations as planned, I still have time. I still have time to make and freeze cupcakes and cookies. I have time to experiment with a few more recipes. I am in the middle of planning a Christmas mystery party. I will be prepared for December before it arrives. And then, if an illness or accident or something else unforeseen happens, it won’t throw me into a tailspin. I will be ready, not rushed.  All because I planned ahead!

How are your plans coming?

Update on the Christmas Pinterest Challenge

Have you taken the challenge? Care to share the results?

As for me, my weekend plans ended up keeping me away from home and the challenge, for the most part. I went to the store and got the ingredients I didn’t already have so that I could bake the cherry coke float cupcakes but ran out of time to make them, so I switched plans and went for a crockpot recipe of potatoes with bacon and cheese. It seemed like a no-fail recipe since I love potatoes AND bacon AND cheese, but in the end, I was not impressed with the results. My daughter liked it well enough, so we’ll eat the leftovers, and I may try it again sometime and see if I can do better, but not for Christmas.

My daughter has the next two days off work, so we are going to devote some time to the Pinterest challenge, and I’ll let you know how it goes.

As for my weekend busyness, here’s what happened: Friday, I had to take my car to the shop because it was skipping badly. While it was being worked on, my daughter and I walked downtown and had lunch, wandered around and took pictures, stopped for dessert, and walked some more. We ended up walking more than two miles!

Saturday we both worked. Then I made a batch of chili and took it to a friend’s house for a chili cookoff. I had never entered a cookoff before. I tied for 3rd place and was awarded with a small chili-shaped dish. That was fun! The best fun was tasting all the different chilis. I loves me some chili!

Sunday after church and lunch, we traveled to a popular cornfield maze and enjoyed wandering lost among the corn stalks, talking about growing our own maze out of sunflowers. Wouldn’t that be pretty? Anyway, when we got home, I had to get some paywork done.

So, this week I plan to continue the challenge and do better. I can’t wait to try a cherry coke float cupcake! That recipe had better not let me down! I’ll post a photo of it and of the craft I end up making. (I have a bag of pinecones begging to be made into a window decoration...)

If you haven’t tried the challenge yet, it’s not too late! Simply pick a recipe and a craft or activity that you pinned to your Pinterest boards and do it! You have a week. What are you waiting for?

You really should check this out!

While not exactly related to Christmas, this link will take you to a blog interview about me: Brenda's Interview. So, it’s about the person who blogs about Christmas All Year Long. :-)  My new friend Toi Thomas is responsible for the fun, so check it out! Get to know some fun facts about me and why I blog about preparing for Christmas! Consider it my early Christmas gift to you. ;-)  Teehee

The Christmas Pinterest Challenge!

Greetings to my Christmas-loving friends!

This week I’ve got a challenge for you, and I’m calling it The Christmas Pinterest Challenge. You know all those ideas you’ve pinned to your Pinterest boards—recipes, craft ideas, decorating ideas, gift ideas, etc.? They do you no good as long as they remain confined to that space on Pinterest.

Brenda’s Pinterest Boards

My challenge to you is to choose one recipe and idea for Christmas off those boards and try them this week. Then come back here and share the results!

Do the same with a new recipe and another idea next week. Do that for the next three to four weeks, and you may end up with some new holiday favorites and be that much closer to being prepared for a special Christmas season. (Note: eliciting help from family members IS allowed.)

Take the Christmas Pinterest Challenge now, before holiday preparations start to overwhelm you! And have fun!

Preparing for ... Preparing for Holiday Meals (yes, you read that right!)

My original recipe Dreamsicle Cake

My previous blog was about preparing in advance for your favorite holiday meals and homemade treats. I’ve already added something special to my freezer for a December dinner. But, while perusing the contents of my refrigerators (I have two), my freezers (a small deep freeze plus the two that are part of my fridges), and my pantry, I saw a problem.

Someone has stored old, freezer burnt, and expired stuff inside those spaces! Can you believe that? So now I’ll need to clean out all the junk to have room for my soon-to-be prepared-early holiday foods!

So, today’s blog is a challenge. If it’s been a while, clean the yuck out of your refrigerator, freezer, pantry, and cabinets. Toss all the old, bad, and questionable stuff. Organize what’s left and clear a space for what’s to come. You’ll feel good, and you’ll be ready to create some special foods to save for the coming holiday season!

Holiday Meals: Three Tips for Preparing in Advance for the Tastiest Christmas Season Ever!

Think it’s too early to start planning your holiday menus? Well, think again! If you’re anything like me, you daydream about creating special holiday dinners or parties, but you never seem to to pull it all together and make those daydreams a reality. Your time is limited, and you tend to rely on last-minute, store-bought goodies and fast food for much of the month!

One year, as a newlywed living far away from both sides of the family, I planned meals ahead and served "Christmas around the World" dinners for my husband and myself over the course of Christmas week. I was young, energetic, and full of ideas—I even learned how to make wiener schnitzel for our German meal! Other meals were based on Greek, Italian, and Mexican cooking. I had married a man who knew his way around a kitchen, and those special meals were joint efforts that made the holiday memorable for us.

Then came kids, obligations, and more responsibilities. Advance planning fell by the wayside. These years, I start the season with a list of family favorites that I intend to make, but many times when January arrives, I haven't made more than half of them. Sometimes by the time I want to make a special treat, the key ingredient has already been snatched from the store shelves! I'm flying through the season by the seat of my pants and letting myself down in the process.

It bothers me that I haven’t made Christmas cut-out cookies since my adult children were little. Thinking about that recently, I realized that I’ve been overlooking a simple solution! I do not have to rush through December, living on fast food, one batch of my homemade double decker fudge, and memories of yesteryear’s home-cooked meals.

There are three things I can do to ensure happy tummies and taste buds this year:

• Stock up on ingredients - I’m going to organize my recipes, make sure I have the staple items in my pantry, and create a list of the non-staple ingredients (such as cherry chips) and keep that list in my purse. As I come across those items, I’m going to buy them and stock the pantry so that when I’m ready to bake, I don't have to make a panicked rush to store after store to track down a hard-to-find item. Making those purchases now (or as soon as items become available) will give me peace of mind and will also free up my December budget.

• Buy and store frozen entrees, appetizers, and desserts - While I’m planning to serve up some good home-cooked holiday meals, let’s be realistic. It will be a busy month. I’m glad I can rely on some frozen faves from the store. Instead of spending the money later, when money is typically tighter and items become harder to find, I'm going to plan ahead and shop in advance. We love Nancy’s deli spirals and Lawler’s mini cheesecakes for parties, so I’ll get those. Our traditional Christmas breakfast is monkey bread, which Bridgford makes so I don’t have to, and theirs is ready in less than three minutes! Win! Then, I’ll contemplate sales on the rich variety of frozen casseroles and slow cooker meals and add a few of those to my deep freeze. Finally, I’ll watch the sales on meats and stock up on those that I’ll need for my favorite main dishes.

• Bake and freeze - Why didn’t I think of this sooner??? Those special dishes and desserts that I rarely find time to make in December? Many can be prepared in advance and frozen for later! Those Christmas cut-out cookies I mentioned can be baked and frozen without icing. I could make some today and thaw them out in December, whip up some icing and decorate them, and voila! Quick and easy and yet home-made! For a successful freeze, follow directions for wrapping and freezing cookies. Betty Crocker's website says baked cookies and cookie dough will keep for 2 months, but I’ve seen other sites say up to 6 months is good for pre-baked. Un-iced cakes will also freeze well. Get those holiday desserts made early, and don’t sweat the Christmas rush! 

I’ll be doing some other cooking/freezing as well. A favorite but time-consuming side dish is my sweet & sour green beans and carrots (with apples, onions, and bacon) made on the stove top. That will be going in the deep freeze too. The USDA offers a fact sheet here about frozen food safety. Not everything freezes well. I checked my old Once-a-Month Cooking book for advice, but you can review this list compiled by the National Center for Home Food Preservation. 

The chill of autumn is in the air. December will be here before we know it! What are you doing to get ready?

Before Disaster Strikes: Protect Your Decorations

Ornaments bought for a white tree

I bought my first boxes of ornaments in 1984. As one who relishes the Christmas season, naturally I’ve collected ornaments, garland, knick-knacks and other shiny and colorful decorations every year since then, in additional to six artificial trees of various sizes and colors, so you can just imagine the amount of Christmas stuff I have to store! I have a holiday storage room in the basement, partially set under the stairs but larger than just that space. Some items are stored in plastic boxes with lids, but other items were stashed in cardboard boxes with their contents written on the sides along with some creative doodles to illustrate the category of contents. A set of shelves and some nails in the wall afforded me some extra storage space, but most things are stacked on the floor. And they were safe...until this summer.

In June I had the first flood ever in my basement. It’s not a leaky place. I love it so much down there that when I moved in, I put my bedroom suite down there and have been quite happy. The problem came not from rains but from my combo furnace/central air unit located on the other side of the wall, in the unfinished side. The drain pipe got clogged, and water ran over the drip pan and seeped everywhere—including into that storage closet. 

The decorations in the plastic boxes were safe, but my cardboard boxes got wet. A friend came over and helped me empty out those boxes to save the contents. Fortunately, our quick response prevented anything from being ruined. 

I learned my lesson. I bought some large plastic containers with lids to replace the cardboard boxes and packed up the now-dry decorations in those. No more cardboard storage for me!

Today I discovered more water. I don’t know what the HVAC man did the last time he was here, but apparently it wasn’t enough! While I’m unhappy to have a stream across the concrete floor and into the storage room, I’m relieved that 1) I discovered it before it could really get into the carpet on the finished side of the wall, and 2) I don’t have to worry about my decorations, some of which are family heirlooms. 

Are your Christmas things stored in a safe place, away from possible rodent or water damage? If not, take my advice and make plans to upgrade your storage, the sooner the better. You DON’T want to arrive at the holiday season and discover that your cherished decorations have been damaged or ruined. Some things, like your children's handmade ornaments and your mother’s wood and plaster nativity set, can’t be replaced.

More details about the Tax-Free Weekend

Just a quickie! I discovered that Sam's Club has posted a list to their website of the states, dates, and items eligible for tax-free status! Some states allow clothing and accessories and linens and things with the educational supplies. So check it out and see what you could get tax free! Here's the link: Sams Club Link

Using the Tax-Free Weekend to your Christmas Advantage

As far as I know, seventeen of the United States are hosting a tax-free weekend this month, including my own state. High school and college students are preparing to return to school. There will be bargains galore to be found among necessary school items. Even stores that don't sell school supplies will be creating sales to lure shoppers inside! So, while your mind may be on getting your kids ready to go back to school, I suggest taking some time to consider holiday gift ideas that can be purchased and stored till Christmas. 


You can stock up on some fun stocking stuffers - what kid doesn't love pencils, markers, silly erasers, and activity pads? Budding artists will enjoy an activity kit that you create by filling a box with items such as crayons, colored pencils, markers, stencils, paper, scissors, glitter glue, and construction paper. Buying these things now will save you from shopping in the Christmas crowds and could save you a nice chunk of change.


Do you plan to participate in Operation Christmas Child, where you fill a shoebox with small items for needy children? Stock up now! Then you won't have to rush around trying to fill a box when the time comes.

Don’t leave your Christmas shopping for December–unless you love fighting for parking spaces and shopping in crowds. Do what you can in advance, and you'll be able to relax and enjoy the season like never before.

July: Star Stuff

Clearance sales this month feature lots of left over USA Independence Day items. Some items can easily transfer to Christmas, like the red and silver star-emblazoned paper goods, table centerpieces, and other decorations. Would you be interested in a patriotic-themed Christmas tree this year? If so, scope out the clearance sales for things you can use to decorate your tree!


If you (or your kids or grandkids) need a fun summer craft, check out this wire star craft at Wired-Star. Make sturdy new Christmas ornaments!


Or, you could make the easier, rustic, cinnamon star ornament. Directions are here: Cinnamon Christmas Star. You could even attach these to your wrapped gifts for added interest. Add a small banner with the recipient's name on it, and it becomes a gift tag!


For something intricate made of paper, see the woven star ornament tutorial located here: woven-star-from-vintage-book-pages.


Hmmm, now where did I put my wire cutters?