Sausage Braid Recipe

As an adolescent in the Homet household, we were witness to a lot of hostessing. Monthly, my mom would host "Stamp Camp" at our house, and a party of around 8-12 women would come over on a Saturday morning to make the cards and crafts my mom had prepared and snack on some pretty classy breakfast treats. These breakfasts were one of the perks to having a mom who was a Stampin' Up! demonstrator. (Other perks included having access to TONS of craft supplies for school projects, passing out pretty bomb Valentine's Day cards to friends at school, and having the skills needed to be a professional card critic.) 

Jim, Laney and I (and probably dad too), would sneak into the kitchen on Stamp Camp mornings after the women had eaten and, like vultures, fill up our plastic tupperware plates with berries, Costco croissants, Bisquick coffee cake, and on especially wonderful Saturdays, slices of this sausage braid. 

It's creamy and full of meat and flavor and it goes fast. Here's a shot of it baking (and oozing...yum). 

I always double this recipe, so the following measurements will make 2 rolls. 

Christmas 2014

This post is similar to my Thanksgiving 2014 post, except for the one HUGE difference! Baby Emmett was here to celebrate with us! Most of these photos feature him... here's a little peek at our extremely special Christmas of 2014. 

Aunt Laney got to meet Emmett! She fell in love pretty instantly. 

Homet Christmas Morning Quiche Recipe

One of my all time favorite foods is Quiche Lorraine. Egg, bacon, onion, cheese, pie crust...what's not to love? Growing up, it was our Christmas morning breakfast every year. Once a year is not nearly enough, however. Since I got married and started my own family, we've had quiche quite a few times. I even started making my own crusts, and I've gotta say, they're pretty delicious. 

I won't lie and say this is easy or quick to make. The steps are simple, but there are a lot of them and it takes a while to make a quiche. It is SO worth it, though. My tip would be to make 2 or 3 quiches at once because they heat up so well and one just isn't enough! (I mean, look at that. Just look at it.) I am listing the measurements for one quiche, so you'll have to do your own multiplying. 

The Best Caramel Corn You've Ever Had

We made this popcorn 4 times this holiday season and it was absolutely delicious. It was buttery, fresh, sweet with a twinge of salt, and crunchy like caramel corn should be. We gave some away, ate a bunch ourselves, and definitely came up with a new Christmas tradition with this caramel corn! 

Combine 1/2 cup butter (1 stick), 1 cup brown sugar, 1/2 tsp salt and 1/4 cup light corn syrup in a saucepan. Let it come to a boil for 5 minutes. Add 1/2 tsp baking soda. Stir together and pour over freshly popped popcorn (about 6 quarts). Mix thoroughly in a large bowl to evenly spread caramel. 

Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper, spread popcorn out and bake for 1 hour, stirring popcorn every 15 minutes. 

Let cool completely and enjoy! (Easy, right?)

Holiday Cardamom Oatmeal Cookies Recipe

Christmas is a time for sharing. And gift giving. And love. So, with love, let me give you a wonderful gift by sharing the recipe for my absolute favorite holiday cookies (which aren't necessarily 'holiday' at all, I make them all year!). 

These cookies are easy, delicious and surprising. It is a basic oatmeal chocolate chip cookie recipe that replaces the cinnamon with cardamom, and let me tell you! The difference is both subtle and obvious. There is something decidedly unique when you take a bite out of one of these, yet they are familiar and homey. 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Add 1 stick plus 6 tbsp softened butter, 3/4 cup packed brown sugar, and 1/2 cup granulated sugar to mixing bowl. 

Beat in mixer until creamy.

New Christmas Traditions

The weekend after Thanksgiving, the Homet clan decided to start a new Christmas tradition. We went over to Lakewood to Jim and Nadine's house (the same house I lived in after college..ah memories) and set up a little bonfire in the backyard. We also projected It's A Wonderful Life on their garage door and snacked on caramel corn, pizza and hot chocolate. After our Kansas winter last year, it felt crazy that we could be sitting outside at nighttime in November! California all the way. 

Here's some photos from our outdoor movie night. I can't wait to do it again next year with little Emmett walking around! 

IQR - Christmas Crush

It’s that time of year, boys and girls! The return of the ever popular Instant Queue Review. As part of my advent celebrations, I like to watch Christmas movies. You likely have a similar tradition. I mean, who doesn’t have a least one family movie they watch around Christmas? Even if it’s Die Hard, it counts. And now, after almost completing my class on Theology and Film, I feel even more equipped to assert my opinion as fact as I critique movies.

The rules are simple: 1. The movie has to incorporate some aspect of Christmas, this can be stretched to include other holidays, or generic winter themes, ie Snow Day, or 8 Crazy Nights. 2. The movie has to be available on an Instant Streaming Service like Netflix or Hulu. 3. The movie has to look at least a little bit terrible.

So, without further ado, sit back, relax, and enjoy a Lumberjackson Christmas tradition:

Instant Queue Review #1- Christmas Crush

Toward the end of the film I looked away from the movie, off into the distance, and just started repeating, "spaetzle, spaetzle spaetzle spaetzle."

I looked up to see Kate staring at me, like I was some sort of freak.

"Don't look at me like I'm a weirdo, somebody made this movie! They're the weirdos."

"Yeah, but that one guy is hawt."

Now, how did we get to this point you may ask? First, Kate made Spaetzle for lunch, so it was on my mind, and that word is a pretty weird word. Second, this film was so excruciatingly boring and absurd that me breaking out into a spaetzle chorus made perfect sense to me.

Pie Extravaganza

Many factors contributed to the Pie Extravaganza of 2014. First, last year I was taught by a lady at church how to make pie. I didn't actually do much of the baking, I mostly observed, but she showed me methods for making crust from scratch, how to measure very precisely and how to put a crust in a pie dish and pinch the top. It was a long process, but I left feeling more confident about trying to make pies myself. Second, in the past year, I perfected Ree Drummond's Perfect Pie Crust. I have made numerous quiches and a pie or two and this crust recipe is my favorite. Third, I have been trying to get Alex more comfortable in the kitchen, so getting him in on the pie making was the first step toward an extravaganza. And finally, Alex and my competitive natures kicked in when we decided to have a taste off and make these pies Chopped-style. 

He was in charge of the Pecan pie and one Pumpkin pie. I was taking the Dutch Apple and the other Pumpkin pie. The plan was for 4 pies. We ended up with more, but I won't get ahead of myself. 

I began with the crust. I made one batch of this crust, which yields either two large, thicker crusts or three thin smaller crusts. I obviously made the two thick ones. I love a substantial crust. 

You can find a step by step recipe here: Pioneer Woman's blog, but I will include the quick version here:

3 cups All-purpose flour

1 1/2 cups Crisco Vegetable Shortening

1 egg

5 tbsp cold water

1 tbsp white vinegar

1 tsp salt

Combine flour and shortening with a pastry cutter (will take 3-4 minutes). Pour in a beaten egg and combine. Add water, vinegar and salt to mixture. Don't overwork, but blend all ingredients. Split the dough in half, ball up each half and put in separate Ziplock gallon sized bags. Gently pat down into a thick disc and place bags in freezer. Let chill for 20 mins and then roll out.

The Perfect Carrot Cake Recipe

Like all good traditions, I'm not sure exactly when this one started. My mom has always made us homemade cakes for our birthdays. I know when I was younger, some years I would ask for chocolate. On my dad's birthday, though, my mom always made carrot cake. At some point, my brother, sister and I all realized that this was also our favorite birthday cake, and so now for any and all Homet birthdays, there is a perfected carrot cake under those ever-growing candles. 

My sister and I have birthdays 4 years and 4 days apart. This year, my mom made me a beautiful carrot cake for my birthday and a couple weeks later, Laney came down from Northern California for my baby shower and we got to surprise her with a little (belated) birthday celebration as well! This time, I was prepared with my camera. Now that I'm starting my own little family in a couple weeks or so, I am going to need to have this recipe documented somewhere, and where better than my blog? You all are learning this one along with me.... How to make the Perfect Carrot Cake! 

Start with fresh, peeled carrots. You'll need 3 cups of packed shredded carrots by the end of this. 

Finely shred the carrots. The smaller these pieces are, the better! You won't want to be eating big chunks of vegetables in your cake. Trust me.