Creative Living: Falling into holidays

Information on making a magazine purse and preparing food gifts will be the featured topics on "Creative Living" 9:30 p.m. on Tuesday and noon on Thursday. (All times are Mountain.)

Ann Butler is a designer, author and instructor for Creative Industries, and she's going to show how to use magazine pages to create a fabric where you can make a one-of-a-kind purse, totebag, book cover or whatever you desire. She's from Villard, Minn.

"Falling into the Holidays" is the theme for the segment Connie Moyers will share. She'll show some food gift ideas, talk about packaging food gifts, as well as discuss food safety. Moyers is an Extension Home Economist with the New Mexico Cooperative Extension Service and lives in Clovis.

Information on making pillows with fat quarters of fabric, preparing food gifts with pistachios, and dealing with parental advice will be the featured topics on "Creative Living" noon on Tuesday and 2 p.m. on Saturday. (All times are Mountain.)

Kimberly Jolly owns the Fat Quarter Shop in Manchaca, Texas, and she will explain what fat quarters are and then shows how to make a 14-inch pillows using five fat quarters of fabric.

Lisa Journagen, spokesperson for the California Pistachio Commission in Fresno, Calif. will talk about the history, harvesting and availability of pistachios as she demonstrates some delicious dessert recipes featuring pistachios.

Author and educator, Dr. Jane Bluestein will share some tips and techniques for parents as they deal with common sense problems of rearing children. Her company is Instructional Support Systems in Albuquerque.

Chocolate-drenched

chipotle-roasted nuts

3 tablespoons sugar

2 tablespoons water

2 teaspoons minced chipotle pepper in adobo sauce

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons butter, melted

1 cup pecan halves

1 cup walnut halves

Parchment paper

1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate morsels

1 tablespoon shortening

1/4 cup white chocolate morsels, melted

Preheat oven to 250 degrees Farenheit. Combine sugar, water, chipotle pepper and salt in a medium-size nonstick skillet. Cook over medium heat until mixture comes to a boil, remove from heat; stir in butter. Add nuts and gently stir to coat. Spoon coated nuts in a single layer onto a rimmed baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake at 250 degrees for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes. Spread nuts on wax paper or parchment paper to cool, breaking apart large clumps as nuts cool. Melt semisweet chocolate morsels and shortening in a small saucepan over low heat, stirring until smooth. Remove from heat; cool slightly. Toss cooled nuts in semisweet chocolate until coated. Return nuts to wax paper and let harden. Drizzle white chocolate over nuts (do not toss). Let harden.

"Creative Living" is produced and hosted by Sheryl Borden. The show is carried by more than 118 PBS stations in the United States, Canada, Guam and Puerto Rico and is distributed by Westlink, Albuquerque.