Highdesert Stamper – Artistic Inkspirations

I’d like to wish all my friends and those who follow my blog, a very Blessed Christmas. This isn’t really the time of year Jesus was born, but it’s become the “traditional Christmas” season to celebrate His Birth.  Here is part of the passage of the birth of the KING from Luke 2: 7-16

And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because  there was no room for them in the inn.
And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.
And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.
And this [shall be] a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.
And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.
And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us.And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger.

Out here in the Southwest we have lots of unique traditions, from the lighting of the Farolitos or Luminarias, to eating traditional foods only cooked during the Christmas season. Posole is one of those traditional foods. It was originally a dish from Mexico, said to be a cure for hangovers. But here in New Mexico, it’s cooked and eaten around the Christmas season. If you’ve never had any, you’ll just have to come to the Southwest and try some!

So I made my traditional Christmas Posole…for Christmas Eve, something I have done for the past 30 years (I was reminded…and HAD to do it again this year)….. This has become sort of a tradition in my house. I used to have lots of people stop by for a bowl of this wonderous Christmas special. This year we had a few visitors and I put the rest away for later in the year when you get hungry for a bowl of it, but really don’t want to go to the trouble to make it, and most of the year we can’t find the special Posole mix in the stores to make it. So, we had some good food and good friends to share it with. This is my large pot boiling away on the stove…almost ready to eat!!

It’s often served with garnishes such as sour cream, diced avocados, diced green onions, tortilla chips or fresh flour tortillas. So next time you decide to take a trip to the southwest, if you come during the Christmas season, you’ll be able to find this as a “special” on the menu of all the Mexican restaurants in town.

Hello again…. it’s been cold here, and rainy, and some mornings snow… those overcast types of days we don’t get very often in New Mexico….the days you just want to curl up in a nice warm bed and go back to sleep.  Well, my stamp room has been cold and hard to heat up since it’s on the NORTH side of the house.. but I did manage to get out there and photo some of my Bamboo pages I had extras of for my OSA-APE Publishing event. Each year, our OSA group creates a book of art pages with a specific theme. All those who want to participate create their pages then send them to one of the talented ladies who stitches them with covers into a beautiful book! I can’t wait to get mine back and see all the fantastic artwork. This year’s theme was Bamboo and Budha. I only had bamboo stamps so mine are all with bamboo. I used a pack of paper I have bought several years ago called “Far East” collection.  They were just the right size for the pages. So every page I sent in, had a different background page with my bamboo stamped and mounted on top of some washi paper and the backgrounds.  Here are some of my pages I had left over . I always make extra in case I mess up a page and it’s not up to my standard to send off.

Be sure to go check out my ETSY shop too.. I have some more calendars for 2012 I added. I am working on more…of a different style. There are still some Christmas items too, books, cards, etc.. they make great last minute stocking stuffers!!

I’ve not had time to do much stamping, but did finish a swap I was in for my Oriental group of ladies.  I will post one of my pages later. I did make something called Kolaches last week.  Harry and I used to get them at a little Pennsyvania Dutch bakery in Kemp, Texas. We would go on Saturdays after we’d hit a few garage sales. They were freshly made every day… those and the hand held pies the bakers made.  Here are some homemade Kolaches I made using a basic pillsbury roll mix, some turkey kielbasa and cheddar cheese. I rollled mine into little mini roll shapes instead of the triangles like the traditional ones from the bakery. One batch of the bread dough will make a couple dozen of these tasty little bites!!

If you want a tasty treat for the holidays… these are super easy to make and they will feed a crowd! You can always cut triangles of dough and just roll the chunk of sausage and cheese up into a little crescent shape, let rise til double, then bake 15 min at 450deg.

Come back again for some more Holiday Goodies and stamped projects.