December 19, 2010

The 2010 SPCA Christmas Bake Sale is now history!  We held the charity event last Monday, and contributions are still coming in but the total amount raised so far is $3,265.  We're short of our $4,000 goal, but considering all of the obstacles that confronted us this year, we're pretty happy to have raised that amount!  We wanted to beat last year's $4,023 total but we're thankful for what we have.

Our conference room wasn't available this year, so our management company allowed us to use an empty suite on the first floor.  We liked the accessibility of the ground floor space, but the large concrete-floored room presented an ambiance challenge.  We used lots of signs and color, and fabrics on our tables.  The focus was on the goodies available for purchase to benefit the animals anyway, not the interior design, right?

We had a wide selection of cakes, breads, candy, treats, cookies and brownies to choose from.  The biggest change this year was that all 15 items that I baked were vegan, and I was really happy with how they came out.

Here are some photos from our wild and crazy day!

Cakes and Breads

SisMama's Cream Cheese Pound Cake: DEEEElicious!

Cookies and Brownies

Vegan Cookies

Vegan Cranberry Orange Macadamia Biscotti

Reindeer Bucket O' Biscotti sold out quickly!

Treats and more treats

Santa's Spiced Pecans surrounded by more goodies!

Huge thanks to our first SPCA Bake Sale Sponsor: CityVet!

Thanks to CityVet and to everyone who helped us raise a bunch more money for the SPCA of Texas!  We appreciate you and look forward to next year!

~BigSis

December 15, 2010

Only days away til Christmas!

Everyone ready?

Here's the official countdown to Christmas clock in case you care to know exactly how many days, hours, minutes, and seconds til Christmas!

Christmas cards addressed & mailed?

Shopping done?

Gifts wrapped and shipped?

Baking planned?

(If your answer is no to any of the above, don't worry; you're not alone. I have to admit that no matter how hard I've tried, I'm still a little behind.)

My top priority right now is to finish up the shopping for out of town gifts so I can get those in the mail ASAP. (I've been so late a couple of times that I've had to pay an outrageous price for 2 day UPS shipping and I refuse to let that happen again.)

Last week I talked about Holiday planning and how it's an absolute necessity for me to have a plan and make lists of all those extra things we have to do during this Holiday Season. BigSis is also a huge list maker and she recently shared her Top 4 Tips on planning and getting organized for Christmas, which can help you get started if you're still struggling with how to get everything done.

If you're planning a cookie exchange or making treats for neighbors, which I usually do, you may find this helpful. I was recently reading How to Simplify and Jen mentioned this wonderful FREE printable eBook, Holiday Treats Your Way, which was put together by Mandi from Life…Your Way.

This fantastic ebook is filled with Tips and Tricks on how to plan your Christmas baking and has pages on how to organize a successful Holiday Cookie Swap. The book features tips and recipes from more than 15 Bloggers and contains recipes for cookies, candies, and nuts.

The book even includes adorable gift tags that you can print to attach to all your goodies! 🙂

~LilSis

December 12, 2010

As I mentioned with great enthusiasm and anticipation last the week, our 3rd Annual Bake Sale for the SPCA of Texas is TODAY, Monday, December 13!  100% of the proceeds go directly to the SPCA.

Last year, our sale raised over $4,000 in one day, and we hope to repeat that success this year.  Here are the details:

Location: Dallas, Texas (If you can come, please email me for the address)

Time: 8 am until 6 pm or sell-out, whichever comes first!

If you can't attend but you'd like to support the SPCA of Texas, you can contribute through this web page:  http://www.spca.org/bakesale

Thanks in advance for your support!  Stay tuned for photos and the scoop on the outcome of the day!

~BigSis

December 8, 2010

This December 13th will be our 4th charity bake sale, and the 3rd one we've done at Christmas for the SPCA of Texas.  Since I stopped eating and using eggs and dairy products this last January, I needed to find some great new recipes for this year's sale.  We've been blessed with great success and happy customers that return year after year, so scrapping all of my old recipes and starting over was a daunting proposition!  I was especially motivated to find some fabulous goodies after a hater told me I'd be disappointed because no one would buy “that vaygan stuff”!

I bought several vegan baking cookbooks and did a lot of online research, and finally swooped into the kitchen to get my hands dirty.  I've been baking up a storm in my lab (aka kitchen) for the last several weeks, trying out new recipes.  The latest test: Oatmeal Dried Cherry Cookies adapted from Veganomicon: The Ultimate Vegan Cookbook.

These cookies had a great flavor, and would have been excellent if I hadn't over-baked them by a couple of minutes.  That's why I test though.  I have a rule that I never make a recipe for the bake sale without taking it for a test drive first.

I'm pretty excited with the successes I've had.  I actually have well over a dozen things to choose from.  These are my favorite options.

• Cranberry Lemon Zing Oat Bars – The 100 Best Vegan Baking Recipes: Amazing Cookies, Cakes, Muffins, Pies, Brownies and Breads

• Super Moist Pumpkin Bread from Allrecipes

• Chocolate Chunk Oatmeal Coconut Cookies adapted from Epicurious

• Spicy Peanut Brittle –  My Sweet Vegan: passionate about dessert

• Coconut Fudge – My Sweet Vegan: passionate about dessert

• Crumb Topped Brownies –  My Sweet Vegan: passionate about dessert

• Rice Krispie Treats with Almond Butter –  The Kind Diet: A Simple Guide to Feeling Great, Losing Weight, and Saving the Planet

• Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie with Peanuts and Almond Meal adapted from Cookie Madness

• Giant Wheat-Free Chocolate Chip Cookies from Cookie Madness

• Almond Toffee adapted from Cookie Madness

• Soft Peanut Brittle from Cookie Madness

• Gluten-Free Banana Chocolate Chip Bread from Babycakes NYC

• Gluten-Free Brownies from Babycakes NYC

• Mexican Chocolate Snickerdoodles –  Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar: 100 Dairy-Free Recipes for Everyone's Favorite Treats

• Gingerbread Biscotti – Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar: 100 Dairy-Free Recipes for Everyone's Favorite Treats

• Cranberry Orange Macadamia Biscotti –  Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar: 100 Dairy-Free Recipes for Everyone's Favorite Treats

• Kitchen Sink Biscotti with Peppermint and Chocolate Chips –  Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar: 100 Dairy-Free Recipes for Everyone's Favorite Treats

There's much more baking to be done so I'm dashing back to the kitchen for more baking frenzy.  I'll be back next week with photos from the sale, and hopefully a big donation to the SPCA to report!

~BigSis

December 5, 2010

In case you missed it, last year BigSis and I did a little Hip Hop as dancing Elves , but this year, we're trying out some Disco moves!

It just takes a minute to watch and hopefully it'll make ya laugh!

JibJab makes it really simple to create your very own Holiday eCards that you can email to friends or family and easily upload to Facebook and Twitter.

We think they're hilarious, but maybe we're just easily amused. 🙂

~LilSis

December 3, 2010

BigSis just talked about her Top 4 Tips to get your Christmas Planning Started and since we're both crazy, obsessed organizers and list makers, I wanted to talk a little more about this topic before we move on.

There isn't anything more important around this time of year than planning, planning, and more planning. It's an absolute necessity for me in order to keep myself from getting totally overwhelmed and stressed out!

I have this adorable little hard back holiday planner that I bought at Hallmark five years ago and I still use it every year.  I actually leave my previous years pages in the planner so I can refer back to them when planning my shopping list. I like the fact that I can look back and see what I bought family members and friends in previous years.

In my planner, there's a tab for the Calendar, Notes, Card List, Shopping List, and Gifts Received. The pages for Christmas cards are ideal because below each persons name and address is the year and a place for you to check off if you sent a card and if you received a card.

(Helpful hint: Write all your addresses in pencil; so when an address changes, you can just erase it and you don't end up with a bunch of old, scratched out addresses in your planner.)

I haven't checked Hallmark to see if this particular planner is still available, but why buy one if you can make your own? I've discovered through browsing the Internet that there's a great selection of forms available to download for free.

Here are a few sites you can visit for FREE Christmas Planner forms.

• Organized Christmas has a huge selection of forms to help you create your very own customized Christmas planner, including printable dividers. (Their Christmas Card form is very similar to the ones I have in my planner.)

• Clever blogger, Meck Mom puts her spin on Christmas planning by creating these great forms for planning, budgeting, and gift giving.

• Family Fun has instructions and some cute forms to help you create Ann's Amazing Holiday Planner. She has a couple of different forms such as Holiday Memories and Holiday Menus and Party Planning.

Hopefully, some of this info will help you get organized for this Holiday Season. I've already printed out some of these forms to use in addition to my Holiday Planner but now I've got the itch to create myself an entirely new full size Christmas Planner. 🙂

~LilSis

December 1, 2010

I hate to break it to you, but it's December.  Yep.  And if that isn't enough to put a little panic into your bones, consider the fact that 3 weeks from this weekend is Christmas!  3 weeks!

Fear not though!  Even if you haven't yet given one single thought to Christmas, it isn't time to freak out.  It's time to get organized and we have some tips to help!

Make lists! These are a few to get you started:

• Gifts to buy

• Christmas cards to send

• Other things you know you'll need, like Christmas lights or new Christmas dresses for the girls

• Charitable donations to make before year-end

Start a calendar. Pick one up at the office supply store, download one online, or just draw one out on a piece of paper…just do it!

• First add every function to it that you know about this minute

• As invitations for parties and other events come in, add them to the calendar so it's always current

• Add travel arrangements

• Add other important dates, such as shipping deadlines

Do as much as you can now. Seriously, don't put anything off til next week if you can avoid it.  You'll thank yourself later!

• Start your shopping NOW!

• Think about what you want to bake or cook this year, and if there are any new recipes on the list test them now.

• Don't wait until Christmas Eve wrapping time to find out that you need boxes and tape.  Get it now when you see it on sale.

Order online as much as possible. You avoid the crowds and the parking lot dramas that always occur, plus you get it all done at the speed of light.  And you can usually get great deals!

• Gifts, of course

• Christmas cards, gift bags and wrapping supplies, mailing materials

• Stamps (avoid that deadly post office line that steals your Christmas joy)

There you have it: our top 4 tips to get your Christmas planning off to a great stress-free start.  Now get out there and deck those halls!

photo credit: jannalauren

~BigSis

November 30, 2010

Now that Thanksgiving has officially come and gone, BigSis is on her way back home today after spending five days with us here in California to celebrate the holiday and her birthday.

Here are just a couple of pics from the visit. We had a very non-traditional Thanksgiving planned this year and BigSis arrived just in time to join us for our first Thanksgiving Feast with all our friends on our dock at the Harbor. It was a GREAT time!

For BigSis' birthday on Friday, we enjoyed lunch at a wonderful Mexican restaurant, El Callejon in Encinitas.

BigSis with the boys, Bry and HayHay

We both agreed that they served the best guacamole either of us has had since we were in Cancun years ago!

BigSis & LilSis

We managed to squeeze in two more lunches to our favorite local Mexican food restaurants, a visit to a new Mediterranean restaurant, a little bit of shopping, a night of playing Wii games with the guys, and a day trip to the Casino. We made sure we had time to go to the casino. Casinos are such fun places. We decided to go in the day to ensure we didn't run into the crowds of people that would be in there in the evening. My friend had been practicing her casino skills the whole trip. She uses an online slot malaysia bossku club website to play when she's at home, so she really wanted to visit the slots at the casino. We had a great time.

(And we did force ourselves to do a six mile walk every morning so we didn't feel too guilty about all the overindulgence of Mexican food.)

We had a great visit, as usual, but time just flew by too quickly. 🙁

Thanksgiving is a time to reflect on thankfulness and we have so much for which to be thankful. Now, as we count down the days towards Christmas and New Years, instead of letting the busyness of the holiday season cause more stress and anxiety, I am going to try to take the time each day to reflect on our blessings and enjoy the true spirit of Christmas.

~LilSis

November 28, 2010

We get pretty passionate about Thanksgiving leftovers!  Remember the episode from Friends where Ross took his beloved Thanksgiving Leftover Sandwich with Moist Maker to work, and someone ate part of it and threw the rest away?  Ross was so enraged that he got sent to anger management classes.  That's how much we care about these leftovers!

I bet most households in America probably still have some of these Thanksgiving leftovers in the fridge. Instead of the traditional turkey and noodle soup, how about a few creative ideas to help you use up all those yummy leftovers?  Here you go…

Thanksgiving Monte Cristo Sandwich

Thanksgiving Monte Cristo Sandwich from Family Fresh Cooking

Leftover Pot Pies

Leftover Pot Pies from Savvy Eats

Turkey, Wild Rice & Cannellini Bean Soup

Turkey, Wild Rice, & Cannellini Bean Soup from Kahakai Kitchen

Turkey, Cranberry and Brie Panini

Turkey, Cranberry and Brie Panini by Baking Bites

Creamy Mexican Turkey Soup

Creamy Mexican Turkey Soup from The Recipe Girl

Whatever you choose to make, just be sure that none of your prized leftovers go to waste!

~LilSis

November 25, 2010

Happy Thanksgiving from BigSis & LilSis!

~LilSis