Alright, so I know that I should ban bacon from my diet. It has sugar and all those nasty nitrates, but I just can’t (or won’t) give it up because it’s just too tasty. If I knew that eating bacon would bring dire consequences, then maybe I’d consider giving it up, but for now I stick to using it sparingly in dishes where I feel the flavor is truly enhanced by its presence. And sometimes I just munch a whole piece or three.

I love simple, flavorful side dishes, and this warm green bean and potato salad is tasty and pretty quick to make. A bit of bacon adds flavor, but I think the salad would still be quite good without the bacon. The only issue that I have with the original recipe is that it contains no mention of draining the bacon fat from the pan before adding the other ingredients, but I had to soak up most of the fat because, otherwise, I felt that the entire dish would be swimming in it. I like bacon fat, but even I have my limits.

Cookies have been one of my biggest challenges since I started a gluten and sugar free diet. Cakey cookies are usually no problem, but crunchy, crispy, or chewy cookies? It just hasn’t been easy for me to replicate these textures with the ingredients that I use. I’m sure it’s down to chemical makeup and reaction or non-reaction, which I’m certainly finding out more about as I go along, but I’m no expert … yet. However, I am starting to get better cookie results, so I guess I must be learning something. Or it’s dumb luck. Either way, I’ll take it.

My gluten and sugar free take on one of my favorites, thumbprint cookies, comes pretty darn close to the “real” thing. I’ve always enjoyed the balance of the subtly sweet, shortbread-like cookie, covered in toasted walnuts, with a sweet burst of jam in the center. My favorite jams to use are raspberry and strawberry, and I’ve also seen them with chocolate frosting or ganache in the center.

This winter, so far, has been more than a little unusual. It’s been strange to be in New England looking at weather maps and watching everywhere from Pittsburgh to Washington, D.C., and even the deep south get inches upon inches of snow as we sit here looking at bare earth and brown trees. But I can’t complain too much, as the roads have been perfectly clear! And, hey, it’s still cold, so perfect beef stew weather.

This recipe from Paula Deen has been my go to beef stew recipe for a while, and I think it’s great because it’s pretty hands off. I usually get the beef simmering, cut up the vegetables to add later (wait to cut the potatoes), and then go do whatever for an hour and a half. I have found that I need about twice the liquid called for in the recipe because the two cups originally called for boil almost completely away by the time I add the vegetables. This may be my stove (ick, electric), so you may find that you need to do this, too, or you may find that there’s no need. Instead of water, I use beef stock for added flavor — Kitchen Basics is my favorite brand. And I add extra veggies, too, because I was finding that we’d run out of veggies well before the beef. The recipe calls for Worcestershire sauce, which does typically contain high fructose corn syrup, but you can leave it out if you’re not comfortable with it and use liquid aminos, instead, to add flavor.

I’ve been meaning to post a little roundup of the crafts that I made over the holidays. Hey, it may almost be Valentine’s Day, but at least I know that no one on my gift list is going to have their Christmas surprise foiled by seeing what I made for them.

From top to bottom:

* Snow Babies project by Jenn Docherty, from  Holiday Crafts by Better Homes and Gardens. This special interest mag had a lot of great crafts this past holiday season, and as soon as I saw these snowpeople I knew I had to make them for my mum for Christmas. I turned them into ornaments so she can hang them on her tree. Next year, I definitely have to make some for myself. So cute!

* Peppermint Swirl Pincushion project, from Moda Bake Shop. I made these for all of the seamstresses in my life, and I think that they turned out really well, especially since I’m not a pro with the sewing machine. The result of my first attempt was not good, but after that I got the hang of it.

* I broke out the candle making supplies for the first time in a while and whipped up lots of candles and scent melts. Our apartment smelled fantastic, like a mix of Christmas trees, roasted chestnuts, and pumpkin bread. Yum!

I hope to be back with more recipes and crafts soon, and I’ll let you know when the new project launches!

I try to design a new set of holiday gift tags to use on my gifts every year, and this year I had a lot of fun with a wintry holiday theme. Icy blues, teal, pink, and red have been some of my favorites for the holidays over the past couple of years, and I made use of most of those in this set, which includes ten different tag designs. Print them onto cardstock and punch a hole for twine or thread, or print them onto sticker paper for festive holiday labels. Download the Wintry Holiday Tags (185Kb PDF).

You will need the Adobe Acrobat Reader to download and use this file. Download the reader for free here. These templates are for personal, non-commercial use only.

Have you ever started a project thinking, “This is going to be so cool! I’m totally going to finish it in a few hours, and I’ll probably end up making half a dozen more because I like it so much,” only to find yourself, weeks later, still working on the same project with not much of an end in sight? Yeah, this was one of those projects. However, I did finish, and I love, love, love the result, so it’s a very happy ending.

My ruffly wreath was inspired by a felt rosette pillow tutorial that I spotted back in September over at Etsy’s The Storque blog. It’s a beautiful felt project by Anne Kyrrö Quinn, and I was in love the moment I saw it. This wreath is actually pretty easy to make, but be warned that you’re going to need many, many felt circles. My wreath had 286, to be exact. Oh, how I wish I’d known about maya*made’s genius tutorial for making lots of felt circles quickly while I was doing this project. If you use her tutorial, then you’ll probably be able to cut the time spent on this project in half, at least. I’d say that it took me about 12-15 hours to finish the wreath, and after you have the circle patterns made it’s easy to sit and watch T.V. while you’re cutting, pinning, and attaching.

I was going for an ultra modern, neutral look that will match any décor year ’round, which is why I made mine completely white, but you can add holiday flair with red or green felt, or you can use a rainbow of felt for something bright and whimsical. I got a great deal on felt — Eco-fi, which is made from 100% post consumer recycled plastic bottles — at Jo-Ann, so I only spent five or six dollars on that part of the project, plus about four dollars for the wreath form and a few more dollars for the pins.

What you’ll need for the wreath:

- a 12 inch styrofoam wreath form
- approximately 2 1/2 yards of felt
- straight pins (enough to match the number of felt circles needed, plus two for attaching the hanger)
- scissors
- a 3 inch circle template
- a pencil
- ribbon for hanging

Using a pencil and your circle template (or that great tutorial from maya*made), trace circles onto the felt. Cut the felt circles, and fold them in half twice to form rosettes. Insert a pin near the bottom corner of the rosette, about 1/8 inch from the corner.

Attach the felt rosettes to the wreath form, making sure to group the rosettes tightly enough that no styrofoam is showing through the rosettes. After you’ve added a few, fluff and adjust the rosettes to your liking. Continue making, pinning, and attaching the rosettes until you’ve worked your way around the wreath form. If you have circles that are slightly misshapen or that have a little pencil or ink on them, place them toward the outside or inside edges, where they can’t be seen when the wreath is hanging.

This is what my wreath looked like on the back when I was finished. As you can see, I started off with ball point straight pins, but I switched to flat head pins when the rosette count started to get up there and I had to run out and buy more pins. If you use flat head pins, then I suggest using a thimble to push them into the wreath form, or your thumb will take a beating. Ask me how I know.

After you’ve finished adding the felt rosettes, cut a 5 inch length of ribbon, fold it in half, and attach it to the wreath form with two pins to form a hanger.

I love how organic the wreath looks when it’s finished. The ruffly felt rosettes, when grouped together like this, remind me a bit of a coral reef. While this is a rather ambitious project, I think it was completely worth the time spent. I’ll be using my wreath year ’round as part of my home décor!