Christmas Baking Overkill!

For some reason I got it in my mind that I should bake a crapload of cookies.  I really don't know why, because I won't be the one eating them all, but I guess I just wanted to try some new recipes.  I definitely learned a few things along the way.  Like the fact that I CANNOT make fudge and that you shouldn't add food coloring to almond bark.  So needless to say, it was an experience.

So here are the recipes I tried....

The traditional almond bark covered pretzel.  This is where I went wrong.  I thought it would be cute if I colored the almond bark green, since the pretzels are in the shape of a tree.  Big mistake.  Apparently adding any kind of liquid or moisture to the already melted almond bark causes it to solidify and become grainy and gross.  I would have known this if I had read the back of the package.  Good thing I bought two packages then.

Here is the final product.  I'm not going to bother with the recipe, everyone knows how to make these.

Next...

Mini Candy Cookies

I got this recipe from Pioneer Women's website.  I don't know if you can really call it a recipe though.  But here it is.

Ingredients

• Refrigerator Cookie Dough
• Miniature Chocolate Candies

Slice the cookie dough into 1 to 1 ½ inch slices. Lay the slices on their side and cut them into quarters. Place each quarter into a greased mini-muffin tin. Peel the wrapper from as many pieces of candy as cookies you’re going to make.

Bake the cookie dough in a 350-degree oven for just a few minutes, about 6 to 8 at the most. You’ll want to take them out just when they start to turn golden.

Almost as soon as you pull the warm cookies from the oven, begin lightly pressing one piece of candy into each cookie. The warmer the cookies, the better. They’ll grab onto the pieces of candy and work their magic, making the candy nice and soft and melty. And ridiculous.

When they’re all done, carefully remove from muffin tins with a spoon.


These are pretty tasty.  How can they not be though, right?  I used peanut butter and chocolate chip cookie dough and mini Reese's peanut butter cups, Hershey's kisses, and Hershey's mini candy bars (just cut them in half)

YUM!!!

Next was another recipe from the wonderful Pioneer Woman.  I have my Aunt to thank for introducing me to her.  Amazing!  Here is her website if you want to check it out for yourself.  And I highly recommend that you do!

Toffee Squares

These were my favorite out of everything I made I think.  They aren't too overpowered with "sweet" so you don't feel sick after you eat one.....or two or three....

Here's the recipe.

Ingredients

• 2 sticks Butter
• 1 cup Packed Brown Sugar
• 1 whole Egg
• 2 teaspoons Vanilla
• 2 cups All-purpose Flour
• 2 cups Chocolate Chips (milk Or Semi-sweet)
• ¾ cups Finely Chopped Pecans

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cream butter and brown sugar until fluffy. Add egg, vanilla, and flour and mix until combined. Spread on cookie sheet with an offset spatula until thin. Bake for 15 minutes, or until golden. Remove pan from oven and sprinkle on chocolate chips. Return to oven for 1 minute. Remove from oven and spread chocolate thinly over the cookie layer.

Sprinkle with chopped pecans. Cut into squares.

Next up...

Fudge...

Yeah, well I'll just show you guys my disaster and then we can move on.

Eggnog Fudge

This looks pretty tasty doesn't it?!  Like you could just slice it up and have a piece of this melt in your mouth!  Not exactly....I took it out of the pan and attempted to cut it up.  Key word being "attempted."  It was solid as a brick and I was pretty sure the butcher knife I was using was about to snap in two.  I did try a little shaving I got off of it and it was pretty good....but really sweet.  Almost too sweet.  So this brick of eggnog went right in the trash.  But here is the recipe anyways in case anyone is better at making fudge than I am.

Ingredients

• 1/8 cup butter, chilled
• 3 cups sugar
• 1 cup eggnog
• 6 ounces white chocolate chips 
• 1 1/2 cup mini-marshmallows
• 1 cup almonds, chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Line a 9 x 9-inch cake pan with aluminum foil and set aside. Spray the sides of a large saucepan with butter-flavor non-stick spray. Add the eggnog and sugar, and bring to a rolling boil over medium to medium-high heat, stirring constantly. Boil for two full minutes. Fold in the marshmallows, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Bring back to a rolling boil for another 6 minutes, stirring constantly. The mixture will start to turn brown, which is normal, but if you see brown flakes in the mixture then turn down the heat a little. Remove from heat and add the butter, chips, and nuts. Stir until thoroughly mixed or until the mixture starts to lose its glossy appearance. Pour into prepared pan. Cool at room temperature. Remove from pan, remove foil, cut into 1-inch squares.

Fantasy Fudge

Now this one doesn't look so great, I will admit it.  But it tasted good!  But then again it didn't have the texture that fudge is supposed to have, so I will consider this one a failure as well.  This recipe you can find on the back of the Kraft Marshmallow Creme jar.  But here it is anyways.

Ingredients

• 3 cups sugar
• 3/4 cup margarine
• 2/3 cup evaporated milk
• 1 12-oz. (340 g) package semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1 7-oz. (198 g) jar Kraft Marshmallow creme
• 1 cup chopped nuts
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Combine sugar, margarine and milk in heavy 2-1/2 quart saucepan; bring to full rolling bail, stirring constantly. Continue boiling 5 minutes over medium heat, stirring. Remove from heat, stir in chocolate till melted. Add marshmallow creme, nuts & vanilla beat till blended. Pour into greased 13 x 9-inch baking pan. Let cool and cut into 1-inch squares.

Now it's time for some peanut butter!

Peanut Butter Cornflake Drops

WARNING: If you have dentures, don't eat these!  These puppies are tough and chewy, but goooood!  Here's the recipe.

Ingredients

• 1 cup white corn syrup
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup crunchy peanut butter
• 1/4 cup margarine
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 to 4 cups cornflake cereal

Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil. In a large saucepan stir together corn syrup, sugar, peanut butter, margarine and vanilla. Bring to a rolling boil, stirring constantly. Allow to boil for 2 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in cornflakes. Drop by tablespoon onto prepared baking sheet. Allow to cool and set.

Last but not least...

Chocolate Peanut Butter Crispy Balls

I don't have a picture of these.  I guess I got too excited towards the end of my baking that I forgot to take one, or I was on a sugar high.  I'm not sure...  Anyways, my brother said he liked these the best, and I won't disagree, they are really good.  

Ingredients

• 1 (18 ounce size) jar of peanut butter 
• 2 cups Rice Krispies cereal 
• 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar 
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract 
• 1 cup chocolate chips

In a double boiler over low heat, melt chocolate and set aside. In a medium sized bowl, combine all other ingredients. Blend well until mixture forms a dough. Roll into 1-inch balls. Using a toothpick or fork, dip the balls into the chocolate until well coated. Place onto a cookie sheet lined with wax paper. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

I found it was easiest to use a fork to coat the balls.  If you use a toothpick they just kinda fall apart.  Maybe that was just me though.  Also, if you don't have a double boiler (like me)  you can use a large sauce pan, fill it with about 1-1/2" of water, then place a glass bowl on the top (one that fits pretty well to the size of your pan.)  Don't let the bottom of the glass bowl touch the water.  Then you can just place the chocolate chips in the glass bowl and they will melt away!


Well that's it!  Now I have an absurd amount of cookies in my freezer and I am going to go lay on the couch so I can recover from this sugar coma I am in right now.

Till next time...
B

Time to decorate!

Living in a small duplex creates a challenge when it comes to decorating for Christmas, especially when it comes to the tree.  So this year I decided to do something a little different.

No mess.
Takes up practically no room.
And I only had to move my plant to make room.

My camera doesn't take the best pictures but you get the idea.

Nic was very happy to help with the decorating as you can see.  He makes a fine Christmas decoration.

Can't forget the puddy tats!  Here are their stockings I made for them last year.  Nic's is supposed to be a skull and crossbones.....because he is evil.

I made this little guy last year for the Annual Cookie Exchange the girls do.  I attached him to all the goody bags of cookies.  He was pretty easy to make, except for the shoes and mittens.   Those took some time hand-sewing each one of them.

I made these guys this year out of cotton socks and dried beans.  The guy on the left is supposed to be an elf of some sort.....just go with it ;-)

That's all for now...

B

Christmas Wreaths for Mom and Grandpa

Every year I put together the Christmas wreaths for Mom and Grandpa at the cemetery.  They tend to get pretty weathered sitting outside all season, so I started fresh this year.

Here they are!

This is Mom's

This is Grandpa's

Still working on those Christmas presents....

Until next time...
B

Past Creations...

Right now I am working on my Christmas gifts for everyone, so I can't post those....just yet.  So instead I thought I would post some of my past creations from over the years.

Enjoy!

I made this several years ago....my high school days actually.  I drew the sun face and made a lithograph out of it, then added the colorful background and framed it.  The frame is nothing special.  Actually I think I found it at Goodwill.  I was really proud of this back in the day and still am for some reason.  It's not that great, but I think it's cool.

I got this idea from Real Simple.  A great way to organize my necklaces.  All you need is bulletin board cork, a frame, fabric, and insect pins (skinny pins).  Get rid of the glass from the frame, place the fabric over the cork board then fit it into the frame.  Then arrange the pins and hang your necklaces!

(Don't mind my dusty vanity :-P)

Bottle Cap Magnets!  

These were very easy to make and with my brothers excessive drinking habits I had a surplus of bottle caps to work with!  All you need is a hot glue gun and thick circular magnets!

Until next time...

B

Booonana Bread Upgrade???

My mom made the best banana bread ever and I was lucky enough to inherit the recipe from her.  It's a pretty simple recipe but soooo good!  I've tweaked the recipe a few times over the years to make it my own, like using Butter flavored Crisco instead of butter or margarine. I think it makes it a more moist and velvety bread.  But at the heart of it, it is still my mom's recipe.

This time around I decided to add cinnamon, cinnamon maple sugar sprinkle, and brown sugar.  It added a different flavor to the bread but the banana still was the prominent taste so I don't think it improved the bread any.  This is the 2nd time I've tried changing or adding to the recipe and both times I haven't been impressed.  So I think the lesson to be learned from this is if you have a recipe that you know is good.....don't change it.

It does look tasty from the pictures though!

Welcome to my blog!

So I thought long and hard about whether or not to start a blog and I just decided to go with it.  I do a lot of baking and cooking and crafting and thought it would be nice to document it all in one place.  I really don't know if anyone will look at this or care what I am doing, so this is maybe more just for myself than anything.  But I still want to give it a try and see where I go with this.  So with that......I suppose I will start the blogging!