How: Candy Cane Place Card Holders

Candy Cane Place Card Holder

Christmas is my favorite holiday.  For lots of reasons.  One reason is that my parents host a framily* get together and it is always a wonderful time.  For the last few years, I have prepared a few of the appetizers.  Last year I made little signs to label the apps.  This year I decided to step it up a notch and make these candy cane place card holders to fancy up the app labels. These took me maybe 15 minutes from start to finish.  Super easy and also awfully cute, if I do say so myself.

Start with two candy canes.

Glue the two candy canes together to create the label holder.

Glue on a third candy cane so the holder can stand on its own.

Add labels or place cards and ta-da!
(Yes, these are the apps I'm making for Christmas dinner.)

What You'll Need:
Small candy canes, three for each place card holder, unwrapped
Glue gun
Index cards or other heavy paper for the labels
Pens
Ribbon, optional

Directions: 
1. Place a dot or small stripe of glue along the side of one candy cane and press the second candy cane against the first.  Hold for a few seconds until the glue has cooled.
2. Glue the third candy cane to the back of the first two so that the holders can stand on their own.
3. If using ribbon, now is the time to add a little bow around the three candy canes.
4. Make place cards or food labels out of small tags cut from index cards, or other heavy paper, and pens.
5. Place finished cards in the candy cane place card holders.

* Framily = friends who are family

How: Wine Cork Garden Markers

Basil growing in our garden.

Inspired by a photo floating around Pinterest, I grabbed a few supplies and created my very own wine cork garden markers.  It took me all of five minutes.  

If you are wondering what all we have growing in our garden, here is a list:

• Basil
• Cilantro
• Cucumber
• Rosemary
• Jalapeño peppers
• Zucchini

We also have roma tomatoes that I call our rogue tomatoes because they just appeared once we started watering our yard.  Thankfully, this has been one of our only surprises as new homeowners.  I certainly don't mind delicious surprises. 

Cilantro.

Jalapeño peppers.

Materials:

• wine corks
• long wooden skewers -- the kind you would use for kebabs
• sharpie marker(s) -- fine tipped work best

Directions:

1. Write herb/plant names on wine corks with a fine tipped sharpie marker. 
2. Carefully insert a skewer into the bottom of each cork.
3. Stick them in the ground, next to the appropriate plants.  

Recipe: Pineapple Cupcakes

Make these cupcakes and eat them too!  Why?  Two ingredients that you can easily keep on hand, nonfat/low calorie and inexpensive.

Oh, and they are delicious too! 

I put this query out on my Facebook page yesterday:
I could use recommendations for a yummy cookie or cupcake recipe for my agency's staff meeting on Thursday. Bonus points for being a "lighter" recipe because I wrote our healthy food and beverage policy...  

The responses were overwhelming.  My friends are awesome. 

However, one recipe stood out.  My friend Megan (@2020Aftermath) shared a recipe that she found on a message board at myfitnesspal.com. 

Are you ready for this??


Pineapple Cupcakes

Makes: 32 cupcakes

Ingredients:

• 1 box angel food cake mix
• 20-ounce can crushed pineapple 

Ingredients

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350º.  Line cupcake pans with baking cups. 

Mix together angel food cake mix and the can of crushed pineapple, including juice.  Fill each baking cup 2/3 full.  

Batter filled cups.

Bake for 20 minutes or until lightly browned on top.  

Pineapple Cupcakes

Notes:
These little cups of goodness, based on my calculations, are only 62 calories a piece. 

Both angel food cake mix and crushed pineapple were on-sale at our local grocery store.  The total for the cupcakes came out to just under $3.50, or approximately 10¢ per cupcake.  I know, right?

Refrigerate the batter in between batches.

Recipe: Okra and Tomatoes

I love okra.  Love it.  Fried okra was something I grew up viewing as a treat for when we were visiting family in the south.  I would choose it over dessert any day. 

For dinner last night, I cooked red beans and rice and sauteed up okra as our veggie side dish.  I adapted my recipe from an Okra, Corn and Tomatoes recipe in Danella Carter's Down Home Wholesome, a low-fat soul food cookbook.  I chose to omit the corn.  I hate corn.  Hate it.  It is the texture, not the flavor.  I included notes about adding in corn in case you really, really want to. 

Okra and Tomatoes

Okra and Tomatoes

Serves: 6

Ingredients:

• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 Tablespoons butter
• 1 pound okra, trimmed or tops and tails and sliced crosswise into 1/4-inch rings
• 4 ears sweet corn, kernels removed (optional)
• 3 large tomatoes, seeded and chopped
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

Directions: 
In a large skillet, saute garlic in butter over medium heat until lightly browned.  Add okra and cook for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.  If adding corn, stir in kernels with 10 minutes remaining on the okra cook time.  Stir in tomatoes and salt and cook for an additional 5 minutes.  Remove from heat and stir in the pepper.

Notes: 
I couldn't find fresh okra at our grocery store yesterday but there are always 1-pound bags in the freezer section.  Frozen okra is just fine and a good deal.  I think the bag I bought yesterday was only $1.15 and that makes six (ample) servings.  I would estimate that this dish ends up being less than $5 total. 
 
Okra is slimy.  That is one of the reasons that some people, including Chef Tom Colicchio, don't care for it.  If you cook okra properly, the end result is low on slime.  I consulted with google and found that adding something acidic (i.e. tomatoes) helps to break down the slime.  I'm not sure if all this talk about slime is helping my "okra is delicious" case but I promise that this recipe is worth a try.