Homemade Gift Ideas #1

I've been busy, creating homemade goodies for Christmas... I'm planning to show several over the next week or so. These are not my own creations, but are so good they are worth sharing again:

First up, I've made dozens of microwave baked potato bags. Have you heard of them? If you give it a try I suspect you will not go back. It's not just the amount of time and energy that you will save, it's the texture of the potato. They emerge from the bag, steamy, moist and so fluffy.

The bags are really simple. There are several instruction sites on the web if you are interested. You can jazz them up or go simple. The most important thing to keep in mind is cotton cotton cotton. Use 100% cotton fabric and batting. I used muslin on the inside and chose from my cotton scraps for the outside. You can even piece the fabrics together if you want to use up smaller scraps. Anyway, if you are looking for a fun, useful, quick, handmade project I highly recommend.

Cooking instructions:
wash potatoes and wrap wet potatoes individually in paper towels. do not prick! place inside bag. place bag inside mircrowave and follow your microwave's directions for potatoes, and go. (my microwave has a potato button, you hit the button for the number of potatoes you are planning to cook and the readout shows 1,2,3 or 4. then it starts automatically, and about 2/3 of the way through it stops and beeps for you to turn the bag over and hit the start button again for the remainder of the cooking time. it takes about 15 minutes for 4 potatoes. your microwave may be different, so please read your instructions.) If you cannot find your instruction book, check online. There are tons of instructions manuals on the net and chances are you can find yours.

And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow, stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so? It came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes or bags. And he puzzled and puzzled 'till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before. What if Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store? What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more? dr. suess