Christmas 2013

By popular demand, the Christmas 2013 post! Forgive me for being extra behind on my blogging. Can we just write it off as December being the busiest month of the year?

Christmas for the Hogans is always an event. We have four Christmases to squeeze in and it's always a little crazy. Good crazy. Christmas Eve we do with Brendon's momma and brother, Christmas morning with my mom and sister, Christmas afternoon with my dad, step-momma, and step-bro, and Christmas night we have our own. And we both worked Christmas Eve. Cray cray! But always wonderful and always worth it. But forgive me this year, I did not take a lot of photos. My energy level was sub par due to December being iNsAnE. Also my camera is still acting funny (??? dropped it too many times? too much flour and sugar all over it? whyyyy??), so the quality has been frustratingly meh lately. But there's a few!

Ask and you shall receive, Jules. AND CAT IN THE PAPER:

Can we talk about that "cellulose sponges" box and how many Christmases and birthdays it's seen? Best box ever. Also, this is my "YAY, COOKING UTENSILS!" face.

HEY GIRL HEY! :)

OH, so my mom and I made these AWESOME little danishy things and they were incredibly easy and reeeeeeally good. Mom, send me dat recipe! It's just slices of canned croissant dough with sugary cream cheese and preserves on top, plus icing. Winner!

And the only photo from Christmas at my daddios (slackerdom was really kicking in):



PAPA LUCHADOR! AY AY! We got him this luchador mask like MONTHS before Christmas and it was decently hilarious. Also scary.

So again, sorry about the lack of photos. Your girl was sleepy. I assure you it was magical and wonderful and full of my favorite people in the world. It was a fantastic Christmas, followed by two more days off! I had a strike of genius and decided to take a day of vacation the week of Christmas so, three days off! First time since August. It was perfect. Having the two days after Christmas off with Brendon to do absolutely nothing (seriously, I'm not sure we even left the house on the 26th) was the best. Best best best. We have worked the day after Christmas since we've been in Austin and having it off was SO NICE. 100% worth working Christmas Eve. And now we know.

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas if you celebrated and a relaxing Wednesday if you didn't. I know I owe the internet more posts, and they're coming I promise! For the three of you who read this regularly. (52 weeks of baking recap! 2013 review! New Years! Etc!) I no longer have the responsibility of blogging weekly with a baked something or another, so I'm going to have to work on becoming interesting so I can still fill my corner of the web with blabber. Because I know you'd miss me.

KIDDING.

52 weeks of baking: 52 - double chocolate torte

Fifty-two. We made it! I did it! 52 weeks of baking. Done. PHEW!

For my last week of baking I baked something that I knew I'd love, because it's my year of baking and I'll do what I want! I needed something involving chocolate, and specifically chocolate mousse. I think my favorite food might be chocolate mousse. So I made a double chocolate torte, via Smitten Kitchen of course. It's basically a big ol' pile of chilled mousse with an almost flourless cake at the bottom. It's a pretty little thing and very yummy. Oh and it has a pound of chocolate in it.

No lie huh, it's pretty. It had to chill in the fridge overnight and it was torture. I wanted at that thing. And raspberries are the perfect companion to chocolate mousse. They are killer on this and I'm not even that nuts about raspberries.

This torte is easy to make, just very time consuming. Like hours and days unless you start it in the morning. There's a lot of chilling and a lot of whisking involved. And chopping a pound of chocolate. Worth it though. Chocolate mousse is always worth it. Unless J-E-L-L-O has anything to do with it.

So that's it, y'all. 52 weeks!!! Thanks for hanging out if you managed to stick through the year. It's been fun and yummy. There will be a follow up post for sure. Because, I mean, a year of baking deserves one.

52 weeks of baking: 51 - gingerbread men

Isn't that just like the perfect shade of dog poo? Don't let that deter you, these cookies are delicious and spicy and festive as heck. Dough or batter of any sort containing molasses just always comes out poo colored. Amusing!

This week has been insanity. Not that that is anything new, that's the story of my dang life, y'all! But this week, I got sick! Figured it would happen soon, you can only go full throttle for so long before your body is like, NOPE. But luckily it kind of worked out, most of the feverish worst of it was on my two days off so I only spent one very long day at work feeling absolutely rotten. So baking was pushed to the end of the week. And it was a close call. I've just worked 24 of the last 48 hours, but I somehow managed to bust out these cookies last night and am throwing them onto the internet before I go to work today.

Also, there is something real funky going on with my camera. The top portion of all the photos is blurry as hell and everything sort of looks like a nineties glamour shot. It's been going on for a while and I have no idea whats up. But everything kind of looks like this:

Oh well, faces are overrated anyway.

For shapes we only did a handful of traditional gingerbread men, and the rest were stars, kitties, and ducks! Because why not?

My royal icing was waaaay watery, but I was too lazy to add more powdered sugar, so we rolled with it. Came out just fine.

Brendon's design's were my favorite. He made a cute dark wing duck with a mask!

Clearly my writing skills have some room to grow. But these cookies are GOOD! Like I said, spicy! There's a good amount of black pepper in them, and it's awesome. I think if I made them again I'd roll them out thicker. I like a softer cookie. They're a little ginger snappish when they're thin, which is yummy, but I'm into chewy cookies generally.

ONE MORE WEEK OF BAKING! Craziness. I probably won't bake or have anything interesting to report until after Christmas (I have three days off next week!!!!), so Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to the internet!

EDIT: I just realized I did NOT include the recipe I used. What the hell? It's a Smitten Kitchen recipe, I'M SORRY, I WAS RUSHED!

The Sound of Music dress

I call this the Sound of Music dress, because I love the Sound of Music. And it's made out of drapes. The bodice anyway. My sewing boss sent me home with some leftover drapery fabric one day and after letting it sit on my desk for a while, I decided to make a dress out of it. Because that's what Maria would do. And the stripes actually reminded me of a dress Maria wore! I found some soft woven cotton for the skirt on the cheap, so the whole thing cost me about $6. Seamstress on a budget, y'all.

I used Simplicity 1651, and I am in LOVE with the circle skirt. I guess it's a half circle really, but it's my first of any variety of circle skirt and I love love love it! So swingy! I changed the bodice quite a bit. Lowered the neckline because Simplicity patterns are ever SO modest, and added a couple darts to the neckline as well. The stripes were a lot of fun to work with, I love them! Also stripes make sewing in a straight line incredibly easy.

The only thing I'd change would be to fully line the bodice instead of using just facings. So over facings and the fact that they never stay put. But this is a fun dress! Makes me feel like I'm in Salzburg. Ha, I WISH. I definitely plan on making this dress again, circle skirt paaaarty!

Mathilde Blouse

I made this top about a month ago, but am just now getting to blog it because life you guys. Life. This is the Mathilde Blouse Pattern from the cutest little sewing blog Tilly and the Buttons. I don't often make tops, it's usually all dresses up in here, so it was fun to make something without a skirt attached and it's a welcomed addition to my wardrobe! I used a blue cotton sateen which is incredibly soft and just lovely to sew. I need more things made of this.

This blouse was truly a joy to sew. It came together beautifully and there are so many fun details! Pleating! Bell sleeves! And that row of buttons in the back? The best! The pattern comes with very simple instructions for the experienced sewer, and more detailed step by step illustrated instructions online on the blog. I used about half simple and half detailed. And I learned all about french seams! They are beautiful and easy and I am sad my sewing life has been void of them previously. Learning new techniques makes me happy.

I plan on making this pattern again, with multiple fabric action! Sleeves one color, bodice another? Yoke and arm bands in a contrasting color or fabric? Endless options, y'all. I think it might be cute with a little cap sleeve as well! Although I do dig those bell sleeves, a lot.