Holiday Punch with Snowflakes

I say why have the traditional ring or just normal ice when you can have pretty, festive, snowflakes. You can even add a drop of food coloring or add sugar to the mold before freezing to make the color and sparkle enhanced.

1/2 gallon sherbet
1 lg. can pineapple juice
1 (2 liter) bottle 7-UP
1 (2 liter) bottle ginger ale

Place unthawed sherbet in punch bowl about 1 hour before serving. Add cold pineapple juice, 7-UP, and ginger ale just before serving.

Use orange, strawberry, lime, or raspberry depending on holiday and color desired.

For Snowflakes:

Purchase Candy or Soap molds in the shape of snowflakes and fill them with some of the punch. Place in freezer until frozen. Place in punch bowl just before serving.

I found snowflakes online here: http://www.spiritcrafts.net/sncaemcamo28.html

*Also, keep the snowflake molds afterwards to garnish desserts with chocolate snowflakes.

Almond Raspberry Heart Cookies

These delightful cookies are made with a cream cheese cookie dough rolled in coarsely ground almonds, and they're filled with a dab of seedless raspberry jam. If you would like a smooth finish, you may decide to super-finely grind the almonds or go without them altogether. For the health-conscious guest, you may choose to purchase all organic ingredients.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 cup (8 ounces) butter, softened
• 1 small package (3 ounces) cream cheese, softened
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 egg yolk
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, sift before measuring
• 4 ounces slivered or blanched almonds
• seedless raspberry jam

PREPARATION:

In a mixing bowl with electric mixer, beat butter and cream cheese until smooth; slowly beat in sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg yolk and flavorings. Stir flour into the creamed mixture just until blended. Shape into a disk and wrap in plastic wrap; refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

Heat oven to 350°. Grease a cookie sheet or line with silicone mat or parchment paper. In a food processor, pulse almonds until finely ground.

Shape dough into small balls; roll in the ground almonds. Flatten each dough ball and cut out two medium sized hearts for each cookie. Now take every other cookie and cut a smaller heart in the center. Place all the cookies on prepared baking sheet. With a 1/4-teaspoon measuring spoon, drop a bit of the raspberry jam in each solid heart.

Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, or until lightly browned and filling is bubbling. Remove the cookies from the oven and let cool. Take the "hollow" hearts and place them on top of each solid, raspberry covered heart.

Makes about 4 dozen cookies.

Snowman Cheese Ball Appetizer Recipie

All holiday appetizers should be this fun! This adorable snowman is made of a delicious spread of seasoned cream and Cheddar cheeses.

Make-Ahead Snowman Cheese Ball

3 (8-ounces each) packages cream cheese, softened
4 cups shredded Cheddar cheese
2 tablespoons basil pesto
1 tablespoon grated onion
1/4 teaspoon yellow mustard
2 drops red pepper sauce
1 (4-ounce) container whipped cream cheese, softened
Decorations (see Success Hint), if desired
Assorted crackers, if desired

1. Mix 3 packages cream cheese and the Cheddar cheese; divide into 3 equal parts.
2. Combine 2 parts to equal two-thirds of mixture; mix in pesto.
3. Mix onion, mustard and pepper sauce into remaining one-third mixture.
4. Cover each cheese mixture and refrigerate about 4 hours or until firm enough to shape.
5. Shape each cheese mixture into ball. Wrap each ball, label and freeze.
6. About 12 hours before serving, remove balls from freezer. Thaw in wrappers in refrigerator.
7. Arrange balls on serving plate with smaller ball on top for head of snowman.
8. Frost snowman with whipped cream cheese before serving. Decorate as desired.
9. Serve with crackers. Store covered in refrigerator.

Makes 7 cups spread.

Do-Ahead Tip:
You can make this cute little guy up to 1 month ahead!

Success Hint:
Use your imagination to decorate this whimsical snowman! You can use fresh rosemary and dried cranberries (crown), chopped olive pieces or raisins (eyes and buttons), pimiento or red bell pepper (mouth), radicchio or carrot ribbon (scarf), and asparagus spears or celery sticks (arms).

Nutritional Information: 1 Serving, Calories 42 (Calories from Fat 35 ); Total Fat 4 g (Saturated Fat 2 g); Cholesterol 10 mg; Sodium 45 mg; Total Carbohydrate 0g (Dietary Fiber 0g); Protein 2 g% Daily Value: Vitamin A 2 %; Vitamin C 0%; Calcium 2 %; Iron 0%. Exchanges: 1 Fat.

Recipe and photograph provided courtesy of General Mills, Inc.

Cute Trendy Boot Stockings

This is a really cute way to have hip and trendy stockings hanging from your fireplace during the holiday season.

-Take the pattern I've included below and enlarge the scale on a photocopier or your printer and print out the pattern.

-Cut out the boot pattern and fur pattern separately.

-Get some silver metalic (or whatever color you like) fabric and cut out two boots out of the fabric.

-Take your white fur and cut out 1 rectangle from the strip

-Take your boot fabric and place them front to front and pin.

-Sew along all the edges except for the top of the boot.

-Flip the boot rightside out so you should now see the silver shiny side.

-Take your fur and fold in half so you see the non-furry side.

-Sew the open fold closed.

-Pin the fur to the top of the boot and sew around the edge. (it's easier to do this part by hand)

-Flip the fur rightside out over the edge of the boot.

Green Tea Soda

Serves 4

Prepare ahead of time

What you’ll need:

2 green tea bags

2 cups (1 pint) boiling water

Pint sized measuring cup, or heat-proof jar

1 tsp. raw organic honey

2 cups total Natural Sparkling Mineral Water (½ glass per serving tea)

Preparation:

Place teabags in heatproof jar

Pour two cups boiling water over teabags

Add 1 tsp honey (if desired) and stir

Place tea in refrigerator for an hour to cool

Once cool remove tea from fridge

For each serving pour half a glass of tea into tall iced tea glasses

Pour half a glass of mineral water into each tea

3-D Paper Snowflakes

How totally hot are these 3-D paper snowflakes. Since you've all figured out by now how crazy I am for snowflakes, you'll see why I'm totally in love with how cute these are.

They're actually not as complicated as they look, they just need some time and some patience. You can make one, or an entire snowflake army out of this.

Check out the instructions Here on WikiHow

Wrinkles

Here are some simple home remedies to deal with wrinkles on skin and prevent the formation of new ones –

Apply egg whites to the skin under your eyes.

Odor-free castor oil can be applied to the skin under the eyes or on that of the throat.

Empty the contents of 3 Vitamin E capsules into a small bowl. Add to this 2 tsps plain yogurt, 1/2 tsp honey and 1/2 tsp lemon juice. Apply this mixture on the face using a cotton ball. Leave it on for 10 minutes and rinse.

A mixture of 1/4 cup comfrey infusion, 1/4 cup witch hazel and 10 drops of patchouli essential oil is effective in treating wrinkles. This can be stored in a clean bottle and applied on affected areas with a cotton ball.

Gently massage coconut oil on portions of skin prone to wrinkles every night a bedtime.

A paste of turmeric made with sugarcane juice is great to get rid of wrinkles and slow skin ageing.

Cut a green Thompson seedless grape in half and gently crush it on your face on the wrinkles. Leave it for 20 minutes and rinse with warm water and let it dry in natural air.

Rub the core of pineapple on the face and leave it for 10-15 minutes before rinsing off. This works well on fine wrinkles.

Applying juice of green pineapples and apples on the face daily for 10-15 minutes is good for fine wrinkles and cracked skin.

Application of pure castor oil regularly prevents wrinkles.

Remember the outside of your skin is the reflection of the inside of your body. Keep yourself healthy by eating a balanced diet filled with lots of fruits, veggies, nuts and legumes. Stay away from processed and chemical laden foods. Try to eat organic. Your body will tend to break down and age more quickly if it doesn't have what it needs on a regular basis. Don't do multivitamins if you can help it. Try to go for the source of the vitamins, your food. Multivitamins are filled with preservatives and fillers, plus you might be getting megadoses of other things you don't need or things that can hurt you. For example you can overdose on too much vitamin A and die as a result. You can't, however overdose from carrots because they have beta carotine (which is vitamin A before it's converted by your body, ensuring that you don't have too much). Make sure you drink water. 8 Glasses is recommended, I can't do this because it's just too much for me, so do what you can.

Hyppocrates said, "Let food be your medicine"

Insomnia Cures

Remedy #1. Add 2 teaspoons of apple cider vinegar and two teaspoons of honey to a glass of boiling hot water. Drink. Another version, from Vermont: Mix 3 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar with one cup of honey. Take two teaspoons at bedtime. If needed, take two more an hour later.

Remedy #2. Take an onion and cut it up. Place it in a jar with a screw top lid. Before you go to bed unscrew the lid and sniff.

Sparkling Sugar Snowflakes

What you need:

2 cups granulated sugar

1/2 cup water
1/2 teaspoon corn syrup

Vegetables spray and/or oil

Wax paper

1. Cover the work space with parchment or waxed paper and the floor with newspaper.
2. Spray a large, heavy baking sheet with vegetable spray, wiping any excess off with a paper towel. Set baking sheet in the middle of the prepared work space.
3. Place the sugar, 1/2 cup water, and corn syrup in a heavy-bottomed saucepan, over low heat. Stir occasionally until sugar is dissolved. Raise heat to high and bring mixture to a boil. Continue cooking until the temperature registers 310*F (hard-crack stage) on a candy thermometer. Remove from heat, and briefly plunge the saucepan into ice water to stop the cooking. Let stand to thicken slightly, about 1 minute.
4. Dip your spoon into the pot and bring over to your wax paper. Begin to lightly pour out the spoon into the shape of your snowflake onto the wax paper. Snowflakes are easy, really they’re just lines. Do one straight line, up and down. Position your spoon in the center of the line. Now move side to side. You should now have a cross. Next move in a diagonal from the center. Continue to make these lines until you have what looks like a star made from lines. You can make other pretty patterns in the snowflake, just be creative. Before the snowflake dries you can add a sprinkle of the sugar crystals to make it look more crystallized and snow-like.

Once your snowflake is completely dry, remove from the paper by peeling gently. Not only are these pretty and edible, you can also turn them into lovely decorations or ornaments.