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Update on the gift exchange

In my last post, I mentioned that I was doing some baking for my department's gift exchange. The only requirement was that the gift had to be handmade/homemade.

If there's a craft to be done, chances are I've done it, tried it, and probably still have materials for it. Except for woodburning and pottery.... but I'm interested in pottery. I have a buttload of scrapping/cardmaking materials. I still have acrylics from my woodpainting days. And I still have quite a few things from my cross-stitching days. I still enjoy cross-stitching, just no time to do it. About the only thing that I can contribute these days? Food.

So I decided that if I were going to do some baking, it would be as tasty and as healthy as possible. I chose Hungry Girl's Caramel Pumpkin Pudding Cupcakes -- easy to make, very tasty, and 2 points apiece. My coworkers have all figured that if I make food, it's going to be on the healthier side, and so bless their souls, they don't complain. But they were sweet enough to wonder, "Ooh. What if A gets one of our gifts?" Almost every last one of us -- my boss included -- baked, made candy, or did some other food gift. All but one...........

And God, fate, the universe, The Force, whatever is out there was smiling upon me on Thursday morning. I drew the number of the lone non-food gift!!!!!!!!! I got a glass block with lights. These are so cool, and I've seen them at craft fairs everywhere.... I have a colleague in a sister company who makes them and sells them as well. She also does them with wine bottles as well. At any rate, I was totally thrilled with this -- not that I was worried about the food thing either. I figured if I got some food, I'd just take it home and let the family scarf it down. I was thrilled with my gift, and we all seemed to be pretty happy with what we got.

I also made a great recipe I found on delish.com for crustless quiches made in muffin tins. I had to improvise -- my fresh mushrooms turned out to be less-than-fresh. Less-than enough to toss them post-haste. So I used broccoli instead and they were good. I plan to do a little more baking this week -- nothing too extravagant, and all as healthy as possible.

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