Miniature Santa, Sleigh and Reindeer Set

 July 2021 Farsider's Carvings. 

Step 1, Making a drawing. I am by no means good at drawing. 

After the drawing was completed I had sizes to work with and made the sleigh and Santa. 
The Seigh is about 3.5" long by 2" wide. 

Something looked off. I think that the sleigh and Santa are just too big for the miniature Reindeer. My goof. I usually make my Santas in these sets about the same height as a Reindeer.  

Attempt #2, Larger Reindeer. 

I think that these Reindeer are a much better size and are the same style of Reindeer that I use for my full-size sets. 

Thanks for stopping by. 
Farsider's Carvings

Leprechauns

 St, Patrick's Day Decorations for a wee bit of decorating. 

These guys are 6" tall X 1.5 inches in diameter.  

They are a John Overby Inspiration. A fellow wood carving friend. 

Thanks for stopping by. 

https://www.etsy.com/listing/867254571/leprechaun-wood-carvings

Sleigh Set Finished

 I finally finished the Sleigh Set. I had to wait a few days because I had to order a special chord/ string for the lashings and reigns. 

And a little video

Thanks for visiting. 

Mac Farsider

SANTA SLEIGH AND REINDEER UPDATE

 I finally have the miniature set all painted up and mounted to the base. 

My oldest daughter told me a few years ago that the reindeer look more special if they are painted with the details. I took that to heart, even with this miniature version. 

The ruler in the background is there to show exactly how miniature this set is.

French Apple Bread Pudding

 My wife picked up a bag of Cortland apples earlier in the week. This is the time of the year that is considered an apple picking season. 

I decided to make a bread pudding with apples. This is a standard and simple recipe that takes very little work to prepare. 

                                                                   Not my picture

Ingredients

5 small apples, cored, peeled, and diced. I don't chop my apples up to fine. 

3 eggs beaten

1 14oz can of sweetened condensed milk

1 - 3/4 cups of hot water

Ground Cinnamon to taste

Cinnamon Sugar, Optional

a tsp of vanilla

4 cups of stale bread cubes

Raisins (Optional)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

In a mixing bowl, combine all the wet ingredients and a dash of cinnamon to taste and mix well. Add the bread crumbs and apples and combine the wet and dry ingredients to moisten the bread. 

Pour the mix into a buttered 9" square pan and sprinkle a dash of cinnamon over the surface. I actually have cinnamon sugar that I like to use for this step. Bake for 50 minutes at 350 degrees. 

I like to serve this hot with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top. 

A great and easy dessert for apple season. Enjoy.

09/15/2020 Santa, Sleigh, And Reindeer Wood Carvings

 One set that I carve which seems pretty popular is my Santa, sleigh, and reindeer set. A rather intense set that takes quite a bit of time due to all the pieces and then painting and finishing. I spend pretty close to a month of spare time doing each set. 

                                        

These are very cool sets for a Christmas display. Family heirlooms. 

The first set that I made went to my wife of course. 

Through the years though, I have noticed one thing, the size. The first set that I made was about 

42" X 6". 
I worked at scaling the display down and the smallest set that I have made was about 32" in length. 

Another concern on my end is shipping. It's not that easy getting the right size boxes to ship this display safely. Spending over 30.00 just on shipping is a pretty big expense. I  know I could order custom made boxes but that can be very expensive too. Especially for someone that doesn't manufacture these sets like a sweat shop does. 

That's an item that takes up some serious real estate. The most convenient place to store this set is on top of a China cabinet once the Holidays are over. 

So I believe that size is an issue. 

Which brings me to the set that I am working on now. 
I know it looks rough but it's in its early stages of development. 

I recently did a Noahs Arks set and had the pattern for a deer. I thought that when I was carving them, how it would be pretty cool to do a Christmas Display in a miniature version. 
This set is about 1/3 scale of the sets that I usually do. The reindeer are about 1-1/2" x 3/8" X 2". The sleigh is 3" long by 1-1/8" wide. 
I didn't measure the entire length but will estimate it to be close to or just a bit over 12" in length. A much better size than 42" I am thinking. 

Now to come up with a way to display it. Maybe a piece of heavy gauge wire to make the reindeer look as if they are taking off? 
I'm thinking to maybe just keeping it simple, That will make for easy storage, easy shipping. 

Thanks for stopping in. 

Mac Farsider

Baked Ziti With Meatballs

 

Earlier in the week, I made a meatball parmesan. It turned out delicious but as usual, I made enough for an army, and with none of the kids home, we had a substantial amount of leftovers in the fridge. 
I immediately thought of making a Baked Ziti with the leftovers and finally got around to it yesterday for dinner.

I like many types of baked Zitis. My favorite being the Baked Ziti Siciliano. But in this recipe, I wanted the Ziti to be about the meatballs. So this baked Ziti is a very simple, basic baked Ziti. Not even the standard addition of a Ricotta Cheese. 

I started by taking apart the meatball parm. Separating the meatballs from the sauce. I then put the sauce in a saucepan. To that leftover sauce, I added a 24 ounce can of crushed tomatoes. I prefer crushed tomatoes to a sauce because it taste more like fresh tomatoes. I just get the plain crushed tomatoes. Not the type with basil added. I am not a fan of any commercial tomatoes or sauces with basil added to them. I think that they use way to much basil in them. 

I like to add my spices to taste. Some crushed garlic, oregano, salt and pepper, a touch of fresh basil that's chopped, some hot pepper flakes, and one spice that I get off of Amazon, ground Fennel. I like the ground Fennel in my sauce because it is not only a healthy herb for the digestive system but it also adds that Italian sausage flavor without the added fat of the addition of sausage. It also compliments meatballs. 

Boiling up some pasta is a no brainer. We have actually been using the Ronzoni brand lately because they came out with a pasta that cooks in 3 minutes instead of ten. 

Now I know I call this Baked Ziti so sue me if you want, but I don't really use Ziti pasta for my baked Ziti. I use Rigatoni. Rigatoni is the same shape and size as a Ziti pasta except it has ridges on its surface which I like. These ridges hold onto the sauce. 

While the pasta cooks, I slice up the meatballs getting 3 slices from each and also shred up 8 ounces of mozzarella cheese. 

After I drain my Rigatoni, I put it back in the pan and add my sauce reserving about 3/4 of a cup. Give it a good mixing to combine the pasta and the sauce. 

I top the Ziti like I would a pizza with the mozzarella cheese and the slices of meatballs. 
Bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. About 20 minutes into the baking time I cover the casserole dish with a sheet pan to prevent the top of the baked Ziti from getting burnt. 
The reason that I bake the Ziti for as long as I do is that I want to form a crispy crust where the Ziti touches the casserole dish. That's the best part to me That crispy pasta. 

I like to let the Baked Ziti sit for about 10 minutes before I cut into it after it comes out of the oven. That lets the cheese set up and makes for easy slicing when serving. 

Enjoy with a nice salad and a nice bread with butter. I didn't show it in my picture above but I usually add a little extra sauce on the plate when serving this dish so that it's there for the bread to sop up.