Grandmas kolacky (kolachi)

I spent Saturday afternoon doing some favorite baking of mine, making my grandmothers Kolachi. I have always had fond memories her kolachis as a kids, it was the one thing that I really looked forward to at family get together, especially at Christmas time.

A few years ago i spent an afternoon with grandma learing how to make what I feel is a family tradition, the funny thing is, as much as I adhere to the recipe, it just doesn't tase like hers, and probably never will. Thankfully we still have her here to make them for us. :)

If you would like to make some yourself, here is the recipe.

You will need:

Time, at least three hours or so, making these tasty little things is labor intensive, but SO well worth it!

4 Cups of gold medal all purpose flour

8oz of sour cream (room temperature)

1lb of Imperial margarine or is your a purist, butter (also room temperature) (grandma used Imperial, but I think butter would be good too)

Either jam or preserves in varying flavors that you like, I chose cherry and apricot. grandma used to make poppy seed, but with my luck, I would eat them all and then have a drug test the next day at work.:

Mix together butter and sour cream well.

Add flour two cups at a time until well mixed

Knead dough and separate into two balls then wrap in saran wrap and stick in the fridge until firm ( i would give it about an hour)

Take out dough and roll out onto flat floured surface.

Feed toddler some triscuits to keep him busy :)

Make sure to cut off all jagged edges of the dough so that you have a nice clean edge on all four sides.

Cut into diamond shapes.

Fill each diamond shape with a very little bit of filling, (BTW baby spoons work PERFECT for this!)

Fold in the corners and WALA! You have just made a kolachi!

Put them on a greased cookie sheet and bake at 350 for about 15 minutes, but you will have to check the routinely because depending on the size they may need to bake longer.

MMMMMMMM Kolachi

Dust with powdered sugar and serve! You can freeze these for up to a month, and if you warm them in the microwave before you eat them, they are DIVINE!

Enjoy!

Craft Lovin

All I have wanted to do that past few weeks is craft my arse off, probably due to the fact that it is freezing outside and I need something to keep me from going nuts while stuck in doors.

I am currently working on a Knitted cowl which I have been at for three months (I'm a first timer give me a break)

Jewelry that I want to start on cross stitching, ohhh my goodness! Craft ADD for sure!

Before i finish with any of that though I need to work on Christmas stuff, and since my mother is still very ill this year; I am in charge of christmas. Fine by me, I love to bake and cook and all of that jazz.

This weekend, I will be making my grandmothers Kolachi recipe (I hope) I could stand next to her and do everything that she does and her Kolachi will STILL turn out better than mine! lol No flipping joke.

I am planning on doing a photo blog about it later this week. So you can try it yourself if you dare :) I am so paranoid about making it correctly than I refuse to be on my period or be sick or in a bad mood when I make it, everything has to be right lol,it's stupid I know, but it works for me.

So many fellow bloggers have really been doing some super cute things for the holiday season, here are some random crafts of awesomeness that I have found appealing.

Kristy at Kootoyoo

Shows how to make these super cute crochet soaps, Seriously, I NEED to make these, too cute!

Iammommahearmeroar posted this Nativity Block Set for Kids, that her sister whipped up.

And while I'm not really the GREENEST person on earth, I actually did this last year and they came out awesome, it's a bow made out of recycled packaging,you can also make them out of magazine pages, they are super easy to make and look real cute. Find out how to make them here

A season for giving...

The Desire to give
I feel different this Christmas, usually I am running around trying to find the perfect gift for everyone, the absolute most awesome gift, I always feel this need to make everyone happy, it’s a curse i‘m sure of it.
But this year, I am feeling more compassionate that anything, maybe its my mothers illness, maybe its because Hudson is getting older by the minute and I want to teach him compassion, and giving, and that Christmas isn’t just about what he GETS, But what he gets from GIVING.
This year as far as gifts are concerned I really paired down, I am more content on getting people stuff they really NEED, and maybe some little surprises too, but nothing too big, just stocking stuffers.
I am giving to the toys for tots campaign at work, making an extra donation to the Animal protective league and saying yes to when a cashier at the store asks if I want to donate to St. Jude Children's fund or some other childhood cancer fund.
This sort of thing makes me FEEL good, better than getting a gift I probably don’t need. Don’t get me wrong I DO have a wish list lol.
I thought this idea below from I am mamma Hear Me Roar, was cute to do when Hudson gets a bit older.It's and advent banner, each little bucket contains a good deed to do and a peice of candy that they get after they do the daily good deed. Just to teach him kindness and helping out.

I am also concentrating on buying Handmade gifts whenever possible this year,that’s my idea to giving to others also, because I would want people to buy MY stuff if I had it listed on etsy.

The other thing on my mind lately is how amazing it is that having a child will make you question your beliefs . I was raised catholic, I no longer consider myself as such, but I was always taught that Christ was born on Christmas and about the nativity and all that, the older Hudson gets the more I am trying to figure out just how I will explain Christmas to him, I do not consider myself religious but spiritual rather, I believe in a higher being and good to mankind and karma, but I don’t know how much biblical info I still believe. I wanted to have a nativity set, because my parents always had one and I grew up with one, my mother, knowing that I am not a real holy roller,bought us a dog nativity set two years ago, complete with a baby Jesus golden retriever and three wise men, that whole thing.
I am questioning exactly how I will explain it to Hudson, Bill and I do not want to force any beliefs on him but rather give him some information that has been passed down to us and let him foster his own beliefs from that. Still it’s scary and somewhat amazing to discover that maybe what you were taught all your life you don’t exactly believe.
I guess my only goal for Hudson is to teach him to be a good kind man, give back and have compassion for the less fortunate. If I can accomplish that, then I think I’ve done my job.