Non-edible Christmas Goodies

This is clearly a food based blog. We typically write about things you can eat. Technically, you could eat this week’s topic, but you’ll probably get a tummy ache.

Our friend (and first-commenter) Karin gave us the idea when she gave us a present of fresh all natural boiling potpourri. Potpourri, as a rule, smells like an old ladies bathroom, but when your potpourri is a bag with an orange, lemon, cranberries and cinnamon sticks, it’s pretty cool. Just slice up the citrus and boil everything in a big pot of water. It smells great, and adds skin-soothing moisture to the ridiculous dry winter air.

Orange, Lemon & 1/4 c Cranberries
1 whole nutmeg
1 teaspoon each whole cloves, whole all spice & juniper berries
Three each bay leaves and cinnamon sticks

Karin’s gift segued nicely into a problem we were having, how to decorate our Christmas tree in the post-Wilbur-is-walking world. Little-man loves to grab things and throw them over his shoulder. Glass ornaments would be terrible. So we went looking for alternatives, and found an easy recipe for baking your own ornaments.

Baked Ornaments: 2 cups flour 2 cups salt 2 cups water – stir, knead into a ball. roll to 1/4 ” thick. cut shapes with cookie cutters, poke holes in the top with a pencil (to hang them from). bake on greased cookie sheet at 350 for 20 minutes or until hard. let cool, add a string, and hang from your tree.

We had some friends over (hi Zoe and Moon!) and whipped up a batch of ornaments. We also did some fancy string tying with cinnamon sticks and pie tin cutting for fancy tree topping stars. We now have a safe Wilbur-proof tree. Occasionally he plays the game, undecorate-the-tree-and-leave-the-ornaments-in-the-middle-of-the-floor, but it’s safe.