Dinkersnoodles – Holiday Bake Along

The joy of creation can result from doing beautiful needlework, creating a lovely quilt or simply baking and cooking delicious treats for your loved ones!

Professionals from the Quilting and Needlework Industries have joined together to share their holiday memories, a glimpse into their businesses, and MANY irresistible recipes!

Please visit ILovetoBakeCookies.com and TheArmchairChef.com for more fabulous holiday creations!

Needlework and Quilting Pros
HOLIDAY Bake Along!

ILoveToBake.com
DINKERSNOODLES

Several years back I made a batch of Snickerdoodles for our Family & Friends Christmas party. One of the guests, a young Captain in the Air Force, took quite a liking to them and the next time he came to the house he wanted to know if I was making “Dinkersnoodles” for
dessert. He was quite embarrassed when he realized his mistake. Much to his continued chagrin, we have since re-named the cookies in honor of that humorous occasion. I am sure he would love to live this one downâ€¦maybe next year.

Ingredients

1 cup shortening
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 3/4 cups flour
2 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt

Step by Step

Preheat oven to 400 degrees
1) Combine the shortening, sugar, and eggs.
2) Mix thoroughly
3) To the above mixture add the flour, tartar, baking soda, and salt.
4) Mix and shape in to balls
5) Roll in raw sugar & sprinkle with cinnamon
6) Bake 8-10 minutes
7) Serve and Enjoy!

Plumcute Designs

My goal at Plumcute Designs is to provide original stitchery, wool applique, and quilt projects for all levels of individuals to enjoy! I take pride in providing excellent customer service, quality, and affordability. In addition to stitchery, wool applique, and quilt patterns I also offer a selection of kits. Check out the catalog to see the newest creations as well as some old favorites. http://www.plumcutedesigns.com/

Lily’s Carrot Cake – Holiday Bake Along

The joy of creation can result from doing beautiful needlework, creating a lovely quilt or simply baking and cooking delicious treats for your loved ones!

Professionals from the Quilting and Needlework Industries have joined together to share their holiday memories, a glimpse into their businesses, and MANY irresistible recipes!

Please visit ILovetoBakeCookies.com and TheArmchairChef.com for more fabulous holiday creations!

Needlework and Quilting Pros
HOLIDAY Bake Along!

ILoveToBake.com
LILY’S CARROT CAKE

I love carrot cake, especially during the holidays. My late “Keep On Rockin’” friend, Del Shannon, of “Runaway” fame,’s first wife, Shirley, (did you follow that?!), made a wonderful carrot cake but refused to divulge the recipe. I think this one is just as good! I have named this one after my granddaughter, Lily, who, at age four, is helping me with some of my Lily Pad designs that will be coming soon to the web site. During the Holiday Season, I like to decorate the plate that the cake is on with some kind of flower or ornament decoration around the base of the cake. Bakeries oftentimes save a bit of the cake frosting, add red and yellow food coloring to it, and make a carrot shape on top of the cake.

Ingredients

Carrot Cake Ingredients2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp salt
1-1/2 cups vegetable oil (like Mazola)
4 eggs
3 cups grated carrots
1/2 c. chopped walnuts

Frosting Ingredients1 box powdered sugar
1 8-oz package cream cheese
1/2 stick butter
2 tsp vanilla

Step by Step

Carrot Cake InstructionsPreheat oven to 350 F
1) Sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt.
2) Add the vegetable oil to the flour mixture.
3) Beat on low speed.
4) Add the eggs, one at a time, beating into the mixture.
5) Add the carrots and walnuts, mixing well.
6) Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes (test by sticking with a toothpick in center of cake – if it comes out clean, cake is ready to be removed from oven)
7) Let cake cool thoroughly, then frost.

Serve and Enjoy!

FROST: When cake has cooled:

Frosting InstructionsMix together powdered sugar, cream cheese, butter and vanilla.

Lancaster Quilt Works

Original Quilt Designs by me and people I love.

Our designs are as varied as our personalities. We are a brand new company and new designs are arriving all the time, so look to see more of us in the future.

We originally met in a mini group which we named “Loose Threads” because sometimes we are not “all there”. In fact, I am having to PUSH these creative friends of mine to collect their original designs so I can publish them. This was my original inspiration for this company. At that time, I did not know that I, also, can design quilts.

We hope you like our designs!Web Site coming soon!

Peppermint Bark No Bake Recipe – Holiday Bake Along

The joy of creation can result from doing beautiful needlework, creating a lovely quilt or simply baking and cooking delicious treats for your loved ones!

Professionals from the Quilting and Needlework Industries have joined together to share their holiday memories, a glimpse into their businesses, and MANY irresistible recipes!

Please visit ILovetoBakeCookies.com and TheArmchairChef.com for more fabulous holiday creations!

Needlework and Quilting Pros
HOLIDAY Bake Along!

ILoveToBake.com
PEPPERMINT BARK
No Bake Recipe

We have a tall living room and generally get a fairly tall tree. A couple of years ago, we put the tree up Christmas Eve in the afternoon and trimmed it right away. All seemed well when I went to bed about eleven. About an hour later, my daughter heard a sound from the living room as if one of the cats was climbing up the tree,something they have never done. It turns out , she got there in time to see the tree slowly falling.

The ornaments had made the tree too heavy for the stand!

We lost a few ornaments, some of which we replaced, and some of which we repaired. But many of the packages got wet.

So we ended up opening presents at about 1 AM, an having a delightful time.

Good thing we were all old enough to stay up that late!

Ingredients

1+ pounds good white chocolate
1 box candy canes
peppermint extract (optional)

Step by Step

1) Line a jelly roll pan with wax paper.
2) Unwrap the candy canes and put them into a large Zip-loc bag. Using the mallet, pound the candy canes into small pieces.
3) Meanwhile, break up the chocolate and set it to melting in a double boiler. If you don’t have a double boiler, you can melt the chocolate in the microwave, but white chocolate burns easily, so take it out before it is completely melted and stir to complete the melting.
HINT: Because white chocolate is the main flavor, it’s important to use good chocolate. Most white “coating” does not have a good flavor. The best white chocolate has cocoa liqueur in it, although this can be hard to find. If you can’t find that, use a chocolate from a well-known chocolate maker. I use Ghiradelli, which I buy in big chucks at Trader Joe’s.
HINT: If you want a more intense peppermint flavor, add a drop or two of peppermint extract to the melted chocolate.
4) Stir the broken candy canes (including the dust) into the chocolate. You can control the crunchiness and flavor of the bark by how much candy you add. I like mine to be really thick with candy.
5) Stir until well-combined and pour out into the jelly roll pan.
6) Spread into an even layer and let site overnight to harden.
7) When hard break into irregular pieces.

Serve and Enjoy!

Napa Needlepoint

Janet Perry has almost never been without a needle in her hand since learning to needlepoint in 1970, when she was a teenager. And she’s been designing her own needlepoint almost that long.She takes an innovative approach to needlepoint, developing new stitches and fun ways to do techniques which are often regarded as difficult.

Her specialty is writing stitch guides for canvases from a wide variety of designers, including Melissa Shirley, Whimsy & grace, Raymond Crawford, Elements, Kelly Clark, Needledeeva, and River Silks. She is also developing a line of hand-painted canvases, available in 2007 from Whimsy & grace.

She is a popular writer of needlepoint news and instruction, both in her blog and newsletter, Nuts about Needlepoint, and in her column for Cross-Stitch and Needlework.

In addition to her work for designers, she does stitch guides and custom designs for shops and individuals.

Web sites: http://www.napaneedlepoint.com,

Â http://www.nuts-about-needlepoint.com

Chocolate Chip Kisses – Holiday Bake Along

The joy of creation can result from doing beautiful needlework, creating a lovely quilt or simply baking and cooking delicious treats for your loved ones!

Professionals from the Quilting and Needlework Industries have joined together to share their holiday memories, a glimpse into their businesses, and MANY irresistible recipes!

Please visit ILovetoBakeCookies.com and TheArmchairChef.com for more fabulous holiday creations!

Needlework and Quilting Pros
HOLIDAY Bake Along!

ILoveToBake.com
CHOCOLATE CHIP KISSES

Chocolate Chip Kisses are a little taste of sugar overload for the holidays. I found the recipe in the coupon section of the paper about ten years ago and weâ€™ve made them every year at Christmas since then. Sometimes, if we are feeling especially like we might want to tempt diabetes, we even frost them with leftover frosting from our Christmas cut-out cookies. Decadent.

Ingredients

1 bag Hersheyâ€™s kisses â€“ they have so many kinds now, this year Iâ€™m going to make these with the mint ones!
1 cup butter, softened (No substitutes)
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 t vanilla
2 cups flour
1 cup mini chocolate chips

Step by Step

Preheat oven to 375.
1) In a large bowl, beat butter, sugars, and vanilla until well blended.
2) Add flour, mix a bit with mixer, then finish with your clean hands.
3) As this recipe does not call for eggs, the dough is very dry and the flour is best worked into the dough with your hands.
4) Stir in small chips with a spoon or your hands.
5) Mold 1T of dough around each kiss, covering completely.
6) Shape into balls, place on cookie sheet.
7) Bake 10-12 minutes.

Serve and Enjoy!

EvaPaige Quilt Designs

EvaPaige Quilt Designs came about because of a random moment of narcissism. Last summer I was a stay at home mom of toddler twins who just happened to love to quilt and play with her own designs. One fateful afternoon in August of 2005 I had a sudden self-appreciating thought as I gazed upon the latest quilt I had recently completed: â€œItâ€™s better than some of the patterns I have seen in quilt shops.â€ Three days later I had decided to take my ego trip to the next level and was researching options for self-publishing the pattern, which in late October of 2005 hit the marketplace as â€œFeelinâ€™ Hot Hot Pinkâ€.

Suddenly I was CEO of my own company (thank God for that minor in Business I accidentally completed in college), which had, after much debate and many rejected names, finally been named after my daughters, Eva and Paige, who were almost three at the time and thankfully still fantastic nappers so that I could be a business woman two hours a day.

My goal for my patterns was then and is now fairly simple â€“ I want quilting to be about having a good time, not about worrying over matching seams and perfect points. I design by trial and error, just grabbing some fabric and seeing what I can do to make it look like the pictures I see in my mind, and the resulting quilts reflect that design freedom.

My patterns feature fun cutting and piecing techniques, appealing designs, quick construction, and often strive to break a quilting rule or two or make up a new one entirely along the way. I want people to see my patterns hanging in a shop and to be barely able to control their urge to want to get home and dive into their stash and start creating. After buying the pattern, of course.

In short, they are â€œFun and inspired designs for quilters and quilt loversâ€. Fast forward a little more than a year to October of 2006, and I now have three patterns on the market, two more in production and countless many in my head, three distributors, several custom quiltmaking jobs going at any given time, and one more daughter, Greta, â€œA tiny little division of EvaPaigeâ€, born in August of 2006.

Iâ€™ve lost my fantastic nappers, any semblance of appearing to ever clean my home, all free time, and sometimes feel I am losing my mind, but it is all worth it. EvaPaige Quilt Designs has enjoyed growing successes in 2006, and I strive for even bigger successes in 2007, followed by official recognition as a quilt pattern diva by 2010.

http://www.evapaigequiltdesigns.com/

Epiphany Seven-Layer Bars for the Holidy Bake Along

The joy of creation can result from doing beautiful needlework, creating a lovely quilt or simply baking and cooking delicious treats for your loved ones!

Professionals from the Quilting and Needlework Industries have joined together to share their holiday memories, a glimpse into their businesses, and MANY irresistible recipes!

Please visit ILovetoBakeCookies.com and TheArmchairChef.com for more fabulous holiday creations!

Needlework and Quilting Pros
HOLIDAY Bake Along!

ILoveToBake.com
EPIPHANY SEVEN – LAYER BARS

At our house, our Christmas Party is celebrated around January 6, Epiphany. Not only is this the day the three Kings came to visit Jesus, it is also Twelfth Night, the traditional end of the holiday season. We celebrate by having a Pot-Luck Dessert and Champagne Party. It’s always a huge hit, sometimes with over 100 people coming.It’s so fun because everyone brings treats, we don’t have to do huge amounts of cooking, and we never have conflicts with other parties. I leave all my Christmas decorations up until after the party, so everything sparkles with Christmas long after most folks have taken down the tree. I like that this keeps the spirit of Christmas going until the season is over in the Church.

It also is a wonderful way to celebrate a special, and often overlooked, day. Everyone in the house invites people, so it is a real family event. Some years, my kids’ friends are still here well after midnight and watching a movie.

These bars are one of our favorites for the party.
–
Keep Stitching,

Janet Perry

Ingredients

1 1/2 c graham cracker crumbs
1 stick butter, melted
1 c chocolate chips
1 c white chocolate chips
1 c pecan pieces
1 c coconut
1 can sweetened condensed milk

Step by Step

Preheat oven to 350 F
1) Mix crumbs and butter in a bowl.
2) Press this mixture into a greased 9″x13″ pan.
3) Sprinkle on both kinds of chips, then pecan, then coconut.
4) Pour on condensed milk in an even layer
5) Bake 20-30- minutes until golden on top.
6) Let cool before cutting and removing from pan.
HINT : These cookies can look very fancy if you trim off the edges before cutting into bars. This removes the more done edges (and let’s you eat them!).

Napa Needlepoint

Janet Perry is the owner of Napa Needlepoint, a company specializing in making needlepoint fun, easy, and affordable. She has brought her innovative stitching techniques to stitch guides for many designers, project charts, and books. She is introducing hand-painted canvases in 2007. Janet is also the writer of Nuts about Needlepoint , the largest independent needlepoint newsletter and now a popular blog. She is also the Needlepoint Pro for Cross-Stitch and Needlework. http://www.napaneedlepoint.com/

http://www.nuts-about-needlepoint.com/

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Chocolate Crinkles – Holidy Bake Along

The joy of creation can result from doing beautiful needlework, creating a lovely quilt or simply baking and cooking delicious treats for your loved ones!

Professionals from the Quilting and Needlework Industries have joined together to share their holiday memories, a glimpse into their businesses, and MANY irresistible recipes!

Please visit ILovetoBakeCookies.com and TheArmchairChef.com for more fabulous holiday creations!

Needlework and Quilting Pros
HOLIDAY Bake Along!

ILoveToBake.com
CHOCOLATE CRINKLES

“Chocolate Crinkles” meant Christmas! These were the special cookies that were made in our home only once a year. Mom made lots of others during the year, but when the bowl of “powder sugar” came out, it was time to make Christmas cookies and that meant Crinkles. My job was to grease the baking sheets when I was little. Then I could roll the dough in the sugar after Mom dropped in each spoonful. I then carefully placed each snowball exactly the same space apart on the sheets. It was such a treat to sit in the living room that night and have a plateful of cookies with milk before the storage tin was hidden away until the holiday. The only thing that made them taste even better was if “Rudolph” was on TV that night!

Ingredients

1/2 c. vegetable oil
4 squares unsweetened chocolate (4 oz.), melted
2 c. granulated sugar
4 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
2 c. flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 c. confectioners sugar (at least), in shallow dish

Step by Step

1) Mix oil, chocolate and granulated sugar.
2) Blend in one egg at a time until well mixed.
3) Add vanilla.
4) Stir in flour, baking powder and salt into oil mixture.
5) Chill overnight.
Preheat oven to 350 F
6) Drop by teaspoonfuls of dough into confectioners sugar and roll into balls.
7) Place 2″ apart on greased baking sheet.

Bake at 350Â° for 10 – 12 minutes.
9) Serve and Enjoy!(Makes about 6 dozen cookies)

The Wooden Needle

The Wooden Needle is a charming cross stitch and needlepoint shop located at the foot of the Green Mountains, near New England’s ski capital, Stowe, Vermont. Stitchers will marvel at the rainbow of threads — the full lines of overdyed cottons from The Gentle Art and Weeks Dye Works as well as Paternayan Persian wool, DMC and Anchor flosses. A lovely variety of Watercolours, Wildflowers, Waterlilies and Impressions from The Caron Collection will dazzle the needlecrafter’s eye. Also tucked in is a good selection of Pearl cottons, sizes 3 and 5, Kreinik metallics as well as fun fibers from Rainbow Gallery. This cozy shop boasts 150 bolts of cross stitch fabrics in a variety of counts — linens, cottons and blends. A splendid selection of needlepoint canvases and cross stitch charts will entice stitchers of all levels. Exclusive to The Wooden Needle are handpainted canvases of Vermont themes designed by a local artist.
http://www.wooden-needle.com/