NORAD, the North American Air Defense Command (the U.S. folks who track missiles) has been tracking Santa’s progress on Christmas Eve, ever since a misprinted phone number for contacting Santa was placed in a Sears Roebuck advertisement. This “wrong number” put boys and girls through to the Commander-in-Chief’s operations “hotline”. The Director of Operations at the time, Colonel Harry Shoup had his staff use their radar to begin checking Santa’s progress from the North Pole and they have been providing this service to kids everywhere ever since.
This year, you too can track Santa’s adventures from your mobile phone using Google Maps for mobile. If you have an iPhone, T-Mobile G1, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, or Nokia phone with Google Maps, just search for “Norad Santa” to see Santa’s location on his way to your home. (Note: You’ll have to resubmit your query whenever you want to update Santa’s location).
If you have a supported phone but do not yet have Google Maps, you can download it for free at the Norad website or from the above Google link. If you’d also like to follow Santa’s progress on Christmas Eve from your home computer, go to this website (http://www.noradsanta.org/) to follow the action.
Good luck tracking Santa snackers, and I wish you all a safe and happy holiday season!
I love everything about the holidays: the blustery cold weather, brightly decorated homes, hot chocolate in cold hands, gingerbread houses, rosy red cheeks, white lights in snow-covered trees, and most of all – Christmas Sugar Cookies!
Honestly, I love my sugar cookies almost as much as Santa loves his reindeer, but only if they’re the right kind: frosting that’s not too sweet, cookies that aren’t too hard, and decorations that are just absolutely ridiculous. You might call me a sugar cookie snob, but I only go for a sugar cookie if it’s the cream of the crop.
Because I’m such a sugar cookie elitist, I am going to share with you what I deem to be the all-time secrets to making, baking, and decorating the best sugar cookies, as well as a video of me and my favorite sugar cookie recipe in action. Watch as I work my way from ingredients to oven, then sit back and enjoy the music video of my cookie decorating fun – the best part! Be sure to check out my ingredient list below, and watch the videos for the full “how-to” for baking and decorating these delicious sugar cookies (just hit the arrows on the sides of the playlist below to watch each step of the process).
A Healthy Blog Snacker’s 3 Secrets to Slam-Dunk Sugar Cookies:
Room temperature ingredients
Room temperature ingredients (specifically your butter and eggs), help to create the air pockets you need to make light, fluffy sugar cookies. Cold ingredients make it difficult to form those much needed air pockets, leaving you with hard, flat sugar cookies.
Roll your dough out directly on the cookie sheet
If you are making sugar cookie cutout shapes, this is a must. It’s a no-fuss way of creating those cute shapes, without having to worry about messing them up in transit to the cookie sheet. *Bonus tip* Use chef-grade parchment paper/reusable cookie sheet linersfor non-stick fabulousness.
Dough chilled overnight for maximum shape making power
Again, if you’re making super santa and sleigh-bell shapes, ya gotta chill man! No seriously, chill that dough. If you’re impatient and try to roll it out immediately after mixing, the dough will be super sticky and you will end up one frustrated Christmas elf.
Have any great cookie tips? I would love to hear them!
No, you are not crazy – it is, in fact, snowing on Healthy Blog Snack. I experienced my first snow of the season this weekend in Boston, and it put me in such a merry mood as I signed off on all of my Christmas cards, that I thought I would spread the holiday joy with all of my readers.
Corinne, Tessa, and I headed to Williams-Sonoma this Sunday for a free cooking class on Thanksgiving Techniques. I have been super excited to learn the ins and outs of cooking a fabulous Thanksgiving meal – as this is my first year hosting Thanksgiving dinner – and I couldn’t wait to dive into this class!
The Stories
The teacher was the sweetest little woman, who started off by reminiscing about her Thanksgiving meals-past, and telling us some really funny anecdotes: for instance, she actually took Julia Childs out for dinner once! She called ahead to the restaurant and said, “I’m bringing Julia Childs in for dinner this week, so please be sure to have a table ready for us.” Well when she got there with Julia, the host stared at her incredulously and squawked, “oh my goodness, she really is here for dinner! I thought it was a joke!” Can you imagine?! How absolutely mortifying! She also got it out of Julia that her favorite junk food to snack on was Goldfish Crackers!!
The Options
I loved all of the great stories, but I also loved the demonstration. The focus of the class was on mashed potatoes, an obvious Thanksgiving staple. Personally, I think mashed potatoes are the best part of the Thanksgiving feast, but there are soooooo many ways to make them – how’s a foodie to decide?! Red-skin potatoes, Idaho potatoes, Yukon Gold potatoes, or you could even try a mashed cauliflower-potato mix as a low-calorie alternative. Check out this article to help you choose the best potato for you, based on your preferences. I whipped up a test batch of red-skin mashed potatoes yesterday (I love the skins in them!), but I think I’m going to try the traditional Idaho mashed potatoes for my Thanksgiving spread.
The “How-To”
Whichever potato variety you decide on, you start off by chopping your potatoes into small cubes, tossing them into a pan, and boiling them on the stove in enough water to cover them. I learned that you shouldn’t fret too much over how long you boil the potatoes for, because you can’t really over-boil them – great tip! After the potatoes were boiled, I was able to see Williams-Sonoma’s potato ricer in action for mashing the potatoes, and boy was it cool! Does anyone use one of these religiously? Apparently you can use it for anything from veggies to pasta. Check out the video below:
After the potatoes were “riced,” our teacher threw in some butter, cream, and a package of Williams-Sonoma’s bacon and chives mix, and voila! Delicious mashed potatoes – and so easy! We were able to try out the resulting potatoes along with Williams-Sonoma’s cranberry relish – delicious!
Regardless of your favorite dish, I think we all have a tendency to over-indulge during our Thanksgiving feasts, but there are ways to keep yourself in check. Here are five things I plan on doing this Thanksgiving to make it a healthier holiday:
My 5 Healthy Holiday Rules
Get Moving
Pop that main course in the oven, grab your dog and your mom, and take a walk around the block a few times. With all of the stress and the food, it’s a great way to unwind and feel better about the indulging you’ll be doing later that day. Too cold outside to walk? How about some friendly family competition then? Get out your Guitar Hero or your Wii and let the battle begin! There are a ton of video games out there today that require a great deal of movement, and they are a fun way to bond with your family during the holiday season.
Use a Smaller Plate
Research shows that bigger plates = bigger portions = more food eaten. Try starting off with a smaller plate, so you’ll eat less on your first time around. You will also be less likely to get up and get seconds because it’s just too much darn work.
Listen to Your Belly
It takes 20 minutes for your belly to signal to your brain that it’s full, so wait for the message to come through! Wait 20 minutes from the time you begin eating, until the end of your first portion to decide if you are actually still hungry, or if your brain just hasn’t gotten the memo yet.
Hydrate
Not only will water help to curb your appetite (it takes up space in your stomach, leaving less room for food), but it’s also going to help you with that day-after bloating. There is a lot of salt ingested during holiday meals, which can cause water retention and bloating. Keeping yourself hydrated will help keep your system flushed and control some of that water retention. Try keeping a bottle or glass of water on you throughout the day, so you have some water to sip on at all times.
“Holiday” Does Not Equal “Don’t-Eat-All-Day”
Don’t pull a, “I’m saving all my calories for later,” stunt, because we all know it will just end badly – typically, it results in a, “I ate triple what I normally would have eaten today because I was famished!” type incident. Treat the holiday just like any other day, and any other meal. Eat a good breakfast if you’re serving a late-afternoon meal, and if the main meal is in the evening, get a good lunch in as well. This will help you to avoid bingeing because you’re starving.
I can’t wait to put my rules into action and I really can’t wait to whip up my first Thanksgiving dinner – especially the mashed potatoes!
What’s your favorite Thanksgiving side-dish?
Do you have any holiday health rules that you swear by?
Healthy Blog Snack is for all of you busy people out there who love food, nutrition, and health, but only have time for a bite or two at each sitting. It is the place to nibble on fun, food, fitness, and nutrition, as HBS serves up recipes, nutrition facts, fun food info, and food & nutrition news. - Happy Snacking!
In the spirit of the holidays…
(Note: You’ll have to resubmit your query whenever you want to update Santa’s location).
