For Your Mistle Toes - Holiday Gift

Of course, awhile ago I saw on pinterest what I wanted to make/give the girls at the office. Just a little something to brighten their holidays. So I found super cute nail files at Sally and bought some small nail polishes in Christmas colors and whipped up some homemade sugar scrub.

Sugar/Salt Scrub
1 cup coconut oil (I found some at Whole Foods)
1/2 cup sea salt
1/2 cup raw sugar
essential oils (I used eucalyptus & lavender)

Mix everything together. I ended up adding more salt & sugar because I wanted the consistency to be a little thicker. But just make yours as thick or thin as you like.

I found these super cute jars at Michael's (but actually they turned out to leak), but you can also use canning jars (my fave!).

 I made a few batches!

 Then, I made these super cute inserts for the baggies I was putting together.

 And I wrapped up the bigger ones individually.

And the smaller ones went with the nail polish and see the SUPER CUTE ADORABLE nail file? I chose ones that matched whoever the gift went to.

These were a big hit!!

Hope you have a WONDERFUL Christmas :) And Happy New Year!

xoxox,
Janie from Scratch

AFTER THE FACT: So, the little plastic jars leaked :( Next time I think I'll use mason jars instead!

Bacon Jam

Last time, I told you about the $9 Crock Pot my AWESOME coworker got me from Black Friday. I needed to christen it and what better way than with a batch of delicious Bacon Jam?! I first heard of this from my friend Flossie who loves bacon just as much as I do.

Now, I know what you're thinking... bacon jam... EW! But, take my word for it, it is AMAZING. It will change your life for the better, nay, the best. I brought a jar to work today for everyone to try and it got RAVE reviews! My officemate and I thought of ways to use it: on sliders, on biscuits or egg mcmuffins, as a "sauce" on a thin-crust pizza with onions, with baked brie instead of fruit jam. The list is truly endless. And, of course, it's SUPER easy. :)

Martha Stewart's Bacon Jam
1 1/2 lbs bacon, cut crosswise into 1" pieces
2 white onions, roughly chopped
3 garlic cloves
1/2 cup cider vinegar
3/4 cup coffee
1/4 cup maple syrup (please don't cheat and use Aunt Jemima!)
1/2 cup brown sugar

In a large skillet, cook the bacon until the fat is rendered and the edges are just starting to brown.

Remove with a slotted spoon to the slow cooker. Add the chopped onions to the fat (Martha says to remove most of the fat first, but I refuse... fat=flavor) and cook until translucent.

Pour into slow cooker with bacon. Add the rest of the ingredients, stir to combine.

Cook for 3-4 hours on high with the lid OFF, until liquid is syrupy. Your house will smell amazing, as an aside.

Pour mixture into a blender or food processor, and blend/process until mixture is chunky, but not totally smooth.

 (As a reminder, if you blend hot liquids, leave the little middle lid off, and cover the hole with a dish towel to prevent blender explosions!)

Mmmm looks good!

Pour mixture into canning jars (I don't usually do the whole canning-jar boiling-water process because I put this right into the fridge, but you can if you want). Refrigerate until firm (the mixture will be runny when warm, but firm up in the fridge).

Then share with only your nearest and dearest!

Happy holidays lovies!
xoxox,
Janie from Scratch

Doggy Cookies/I LOVE CHRISTMAS!!!!

IT'S THE HOLIDAYS!! It's my favorite time of year. I am literally obsessed with all things Christmas. I just got back from a week and a half in Hamburg and I went to every Christmas Market I could find. In Germany, in every city, town, neighborhood, they have Christmas Markets. The closest thing we have in America are fairs. There are big ones and small ones, fancy ones and regular ones. There's booths and booths of everything, food, drinks, toys, crafts, anything you could want. My favorite part is the food (wurst! fried dough! latkes!) and the gluhwein, which is a mulled red wine served warm. And also just being surrounded by Christmas lights and happy people and being outdoors in cold Christmas weather. SO good. I love it and miss it.

Here's a gluhwein stand:

And here's one of the fancier Christmas Markets with all white tents:

Sigh, I digress.

So now that I'm back, it's time to get ready for actual Christmas. I LOVE making Christmas gifts from scratch, but don't have a whole lot of friends down here yet to give them to. I found something SUPER CUTE on pinterest for the gals at the office, and I might whip up some bacon jam for the guys with my new crock-pot (one of my AWESOME coworkers bought it for me on Black Friday for $9!). One of my good friends here has an adorable and sweet black lab, so I wanted to make something special for Smokey too. On pinterest, I've been keeping a board of things I can make for Christmas gifts and awhile ago I pinned a big list of doggy treats. They looked super easy, so I whipped up a batch last night :) I highly recommend making homemade doggy treats if you have pups. It was seriously so easy, and of course, all-natural, no chemicals, etc.

Kiss Me Doggy Cookies (supposed to help with bad doggy breath!)

• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 cup oats
• 2 eggs
• 1 tablespoon dried parsley
• 1/2 cup dried milk
• 1 cup peanut butter
• water as needed to combine

Mix everything together in a mixer. The recipe originally called for 2 tablespoons of water, but when it was all mixed, it was still very dry:

 So, little by little, I added more water:

And a little more, until it was balling up in my mixer. My mixer got a little angry at me!

All-in-all, I probably added close to 1/2 cup of water. A LOT more than the 2 tablespoons it called for. So, just add little by little until you get to a more doughy consistency. Remember, you can always add more, but you can't take out! Also, I just thought of this today, but you could probably add in some chicken or beef bouillon and/or use chicken or beef broth instead of water to give these more flavor. As-is, they taste pretty peanut-buttery (yes, I taste-tested a small bite). 

To roll them out is pretty easy. I didn't even use any flour! I rolled them about 1/2 thick and used some cute holiday cookie cutters:

Bake at 300 on a non-stick cookie sheet for 20-30 minutes, depending how chewy you want the cookies to be.

I did about 25 minutes, and they were crunchy on the outside but a little soft on the inside. Let cool on a normal cookie rack:

Then package them up super cute and give them to your doggy-owner friends! This recipe made 36 cookies.

I think Tutu got a little jealous while I was making them... she was keeping pretty good watch. And she taste-tested one for me and liked it too! :)

(She's pretty adorable when she's not knocking all the bulbs off the Christmas tree!)

Hopefully I'll get around to sharing the goodies I'm gonna make for my work peeps, but in case I don't, have a wonderful & happy holidays my lovely blog readers!! :)