Blood Orange Margaritas
Hands down my FAVORITE drink!!! If you didn’t know, blood oranges are a seasonal fruit available between January and March. So right now is the season! We found our first bags of blood oranges last week. You can buy blood orange juice, but it tends to be pricey.
We fresh squeeze 3 to 4 bags at a time and freeze the juice. We freeze enough juice so that we can have margaritas well into the summer. It is a sad day when the juice runs out.
Recipe
3 ozs. tequila (which ever tequila you like best)
2 ozs. grand mariner
3 ozs. simple syrup (1 c. water & 1 c. sugar)
2 ozs. fresh lime juice
3 ozs. blood orange juice
Put everything in a cocktail shaker and shake it up.
Rim the glasses in sugars crystals using lime – we use Wilton
Fill the glass with ice and pour in the beautiful margarita. Squeeze in lime juice and garnish with the lime.
Enjoy!
Peanut Bars
My grandma Grace made these delicious peanut bars. The recipe is from her mother in law, my great-grandma Scholta. My dad and I would make these bars at Christmas. Now, my son and I make them on New Year’s Eve. It takes two people to finish them. They are very messy to make but totally worth it!
Bear with me as I interpret the recipe from grandma Grace’s hand written cards.
Start with the Mock Angel Food Cake
1 c. white sugar
1 c. scalded milk
1 1/2 c. flour
1 tsp. salt
3 tsp. baking powder
2 egg whites
1/2 tsp. vanilla
These are grandma’s instructions:
I sift the flour, salt, sugar, and baking powder together 2 or 3 times to blend well in the bigger bowl. I put milk on to heat while I beat the two egg whites (use a hand beater) to near peaks (not dry). When milk is bubbly on the edge it is ready. Add milk and vanilla to four mixture until just mixed, do not beat, just stir well. Add egg whites and fold into mixture. Do not beat or use a mixer. Dough will be kinda foamy.
Pour into a greased 9X13 pan. Bake at 350 degrees for about 25 minutes. Makes 18 bars.
Frosting for the Peanut Bars
Grandma says, “I mix powdered sugar, some butter and some milk for a regular powdered sugar frosting till sort of a runny consistency!
Here is what I do:
Melt 1/2 c. (0ne stick) butter. I then add powdered sugar and milk until a have the runny consistency and the frosting doesn’t taste too buttery. You will need quite a bit to do all 18 bars.
Finely chop a jar of unsalted peanuts.
Put the frosting in a shallow dish and the peanuts another shallow dish. Pie plates work great for this!
This is where the messy comes in! You will need two people to finish the bars.
One person will need to roll the bars in the frosting. Place the frosted bar in the peanuts and the 2nd person rolls the bar to cover with peanuts. Put the bars on waxed paper to set.
Grandma has noted on her card – Grandpa rolls them in peanuts. And does tasting! I love all of her sweet notes on my recipe cards!
I love, love these peanut bars for so many reasons. They are wonderful with a big glass of milk, but mostly I love them because of all the great memories I have of making them with my grandma.
Enjoy!
Art by Rozanne
My mother-in-law, Rozanne Priebe, is an amazing artist. I’m so lucky because I have many of her original pieces of art. My favorites are her Santas. Please take a few moments to look at the pictures below. These are just a few of the Santas from her artistic imagination. I love each one equally. A couple of the paintings are not Santa, but are still part of my Christmas collection.
The Dickens Village
Displaying our Dickens Village each year is quite a chore. A few years ago we decided that it should be displayed above our kitchen cabinets. It looks beautiful there, but it’s no easy feat to get it there. The one good thing that comes of all of this work is that the tops of my cabinets get a good cleaning at least once a year. Judging from how dusty and grimy everything is I could probably do it more that once a year, but I doubt that’s going to happen!
Scott & Cameron are vacuuming and getting the top of the cabinet ready. I get to wash all the grimy stuff!
Christmas Stockings
My grandma Grace had so many talents!! One of them was knitting. She made sweaters for us when we were little. Grandma made us personalized Christmas stockings. I can’t image the time she put into making these. I love pulling these out every year knowing that this was a very special gift she made for each of us.
Christmas Trees
I know most sane people have one, possibly two Christmas trees in their homes. I think we all know that I am not sane when it comes to Christmas. I HAVE FIVE TREES!!! The tree here is the tree in my family room, the one I look at the most. It holds my dearest ornaments, the ones that have years of memories attached.
The tree in my sunroom has a pine cone theme. These beautiful glass ornaments are magical to me.
My Annalee tree holds the my collection of grey Annalee mice. My Aunt Sue started this collection for me when I was in high school. I now look for grey Annalees to add to my collection.
The tree in my foyer is decked with ornaments I made with mirrors, beads and crystals. Bright and shiny!
I have a bay window in my dining room that is the perfect spot for a small tree. This little tree sits on my Gran’s tea cart and brightens up this space.
So, if you only have one tree, maybe you should think about upping the ante!!
Santa’s Lap
For all of you who have taken their children to see Santa, you know that it can be a blessing or a curse. For us it was a curse more that it was a blessing. Cameron wasn’t sure about sitting on Santa’s lap. This picture is when Cameron was four – this was a success!
This picture was taken right before Cameron’s first birthday. If you look closely Cameron is NOT happy. What you can’t see is that Santa is his dad! It was truly hilarious!
When Cameron was two we had a successful trip to see Santa.
Since year two was so successful, we thought we would have another good year. Here we were at Zoo Lights at the amazing Brookfield Zoo. While we were waiting in the long, long line, Cameron was SO EXCITED. He couldn’t wait to see Santa. That all disappeared when we finally got to the room with Santa. Total meltdown! Me being “mother of the year” made my screaming son sit on Santa’s l
On Cameron’s 5th birthday he decided that he was done with Santa’s lap! Which selfishly was fine with me. The long lines are crazy and I never knew what was going to happen when we finally got to Santa! Santa was very faithful and still showed up at the Priebe home each year!
The picture below is of my husband Scott and his brother Craig sitting on Santa’s lap. Santa is their grandfather Priebe. This picture is another gem that I pull out each year!
Santa’s Key
When my son was little we didn’t have a fireplace, so how was Santa going to get into our house? A friend gave us this magic key. We made sure it was on the front door on Christmas Eve. Santa 
🎅 was always able to deliver the presents 
Christmas Mantle
About 7 years ago I envisioned my mantel looking like this. It took about 3 years of collecting trees, but I did it. My mind frequently envisions things my pocketbook can’t fund immediately, so I take it slowly & shop after Christmas sales. I eventually get there!! Then I move on to a new project.
Cheese Board
Do you want a fun, easy and pretty appetizer to take to a dinner or party? Make a cheese board! You can add anything you want. It looks great and satisfies all types of appetites! I love putting these together.