Treat Day- Christmas Is Almost Here

After a mini-meltdown last night over cleaning, Christmas, and wrapping, I regrouped, and slept. Today, I jumped right into the last of the wrapping, which was for extended family. On Thursday, we'll make the 90 minute trek up to Mount Pleasant for Christmas with Nick's family. On Saturday, we'll make the 70 minute trek over to Sparta for Christmas with my dad & step-mom, then with my step-mom's family.

I had to get everything wrapped and sorted still for all those get togethers, so I turned on a Christmas movie and got to work. As soon as that was done, I tackled Christmas treats. Oh, boy, did I tackle them.

Today,  I made Christmas Crack, Peppermint Crack, and so far, 4 dozen mini-muffin Chocolate Chip Cookies, complete with chocolate melted into the center. I still have Turtle Cookies to make, more chocolate chip cookies, and then, both peanut butter & gingerbread cookies.

 

I love warm gingerbread cookies, all soft and squishy straight from the oven. Oh, so delicious!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last night, before my melt down, I made Christmas snowflake coasters, inspired by Jessica's over at Mad in Crafts.  I found the snowflakes in blue, though, not white. Luckily, I had plenty of white glitter felt on hand to use with it.

This morning while I was wrapping, I was trying to decide what to do with them, and decided to turn them back into ornaments by adding blue ribbon loops to each one. From there, I added a small bath & body item to the front, and wrapped them up for the younger girls on Nick's side of the family. He has a younger sister, and 2 girl cousins who are in their early 20's. These made great gifts for them, and were frugal- I had all sorts of samples on hand that I picked up at Bath & Body Works for $.50 each months ago. The ornaments cost about $1.50 to make 6 of them, so each gift cost me less than $1.00!

 

So, while I was in a Christmas funk yesterday, I've decided to just go with the flow. I will finish up what baking I can today, and that's that. It will be enough. What baking I'm doing today will be split up for taking to the various parties, and another small plate to my neighbor across the street. He's such a helpful neighbor- he's used live traps to get animals out of our backyard, he fixes our cars dirt cheap, lends us tools when we need them, and helps when we need help.

I sent over a plate of goodies earlier this month, and he told me it's the only time he gets homemade goodies, when I send them over to him. So, I decided I'd send another plate over there.

Merry Christmas, everyone! May your sanity stay in tact, along with mine!

Christmas Candy

This week, I need to get going in the kitchen a bit. Here are a few of the recipes I'll be making.

Christmas Crack, found via Jessica at Mad in Crafts

You'll Need:
1 cup dark brown sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) butter
a sleeve of saltine crackers
12 oz. chocolate chips

In a saucepan, combine the brown sugar in the butter and bring them to a boil.  Boil for three minutes.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Cover a jelly roll pan with aluminum foil.  Cover the foil with a layer of saltine crackers.

Pour the buttery/sugary mix over the crackers, making sure they are all saturated. Put pan in the oven for 10 minutes.

Take pan out and sprinkle chocolate chips over the crackers. Let sit until chips soften. Spread the chips with a spatula or the back of a spoon.  Freeze for two hours.

Remove the pan from the fridge and peel off the aluminum foil. Crack it up into pieces, whatever size you’d like. Store in an air tight container, or bag.

Peppermint Crack

You'll Need:
a sleeve of Ritz crackers
38 Andes Mint candies (regular packs come 28 to a box, Dollar Store packs come 10 or 12 to a box)
Crushed peppermint candy canes

Bring water to a boil in a pot, then add a smaller pot, or smaller metal bowl on top to create a double boiler. Melt the Andes chocolate in the bowl.

Dip the crackers into the chocolate to cover, then set on waxed paper, and sprinkle with crushed candy canes. Let cool, and store in an air tight container, or bag.

Peppermint Bark

You'll Need:
1 bag White Chocolate Chips
1 bag Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
2 teaspoons Peppermint Flavor Oil
Crushed peppermint candy canes

Line a jelly roll pan or cake pan with wax paper, very lightly buttered.

Melt the semi-sweet chocolate chips in the microwave, stirring every 30 seconds until melted. Add 1 teaspoon peppermint oil, and stir. Pour onto the greased wax paper and let harden.

While the chocolate is hardening, melt the white chocolate chips in the microwave, again stirring every 30 seconds (to prevent scorched chocolate) until melted. Add 1 teaspoon of peppermint oil, and half the crushed candy, and stir well. Pour the white chocolate onto the semi-sweet chocolate, then sprinkle with the remaining crushed candy canes. You can also add red sprinkles for color. Let harden in a cool spot, then lift the wax paper out, and break the bark up. Store in an air tight container, or bag.

Festive Fudge

You'll Need:
1 bag baking chips, any flavor (Chocolate, white chocolate, peanut butter, butterscotch, etc)
1 14 ounce can of sweetened condensed milk (not evaporated milk!)
1 spoonful peanut butter, optional (tastes great with chocolate chips!)
crushed peanuts, optional
crushed peppermint candy canes, optional

Line a Jelly Roll pan or cake pan with wax paper, very lightly buttered.

Melt the baking chips and milk together. If adding peanut butter, stir this in as the chips and milk melt together. Stir often, to prevent scorching.

Once the mix is melted, add any additional ingredients you wish to add, stirring them in well. Pour onto the greased wax paper, and let harden. Lift out of the pan using the wax paper. To cut, use a pizza cutter for super easy, fast cutting.

Enjoy your holiday!!

Christmas Treats: Rice Krispie Trees

I was on Walmart.com looking at several of the Christmas baking recipes they have. A photo caught my eye- 3 Christmas tree shaped treats with candy cane trunks. I was immediatly in love with the visual.

To me, they looked like Rice Krispie treats cut into Christmas Trees, and decorated. However, they are actual cake. I'll post the recipe below. For me, though, I do believe we'll be making these as Rice Krispie treats that the kids can frost & decorate. I just love the candy cane trunk on it!

Sparkling Tree Cakes

1. Preheat oven to 350*F. Grease and flour two 9-inch round cake pans; set aside. Prepare cake batter as directed on package; tint with food coloring. Pour evenly into prepared pans.
   
   
2. Bake as directed on package. Cool in pans 10 minutes; remove to wire racks. Cool completely.
   
   
3. Beat cream cheese and powdered sugar with electric mixer on medium speed until well blended. Stir in whipped topping with wire whisk. Spread onto tops and sides of cakes.
   
   
4. Cut each cake into eight wedges to resemble Christmas trees. Insert peppermint stick into curved side of each cake for the tree trunk. Decorate with remaining ingredients. Store in refrigerator.

All in all, the cake recipe is pretty easy, but I just can't get it out of mind with rice krispies instead of cake!

Good Morning!

I spent almost all day yesterday on my feet baking, but my mom and I got SO much done. I won't have to bake this month again, unless I want to, and I'll have plenty of treats to take to holiday parties, and pass out to neighbors, and of course, eat here at home.


We tackled:


Homemade peanut butter cups
Peppermint Bark
Peanut Brittle
Brownie Bites with Candy* -you bake the brownies in mini muffin tins, then shove candy in the top as soon as it comes out, so it melts into the brownie.
Cookie Bites with Candy* -you bake the cookies in mini muffin tins, then shove candy in the top as soon as it comes out, so it melts into the cookies.
Peanut Butter Fudge
Chocolate Fudge
Sugar Cookies


I -think- that's everything. It was a long day, but I came home with 2 large boxes filled with treats, and an ice cream bucket filled with treats. Oh, so good!


Don't forget everyone- I'm holding a contest that ends on December 1st for a copy of the movie Fred Claus. Sign up is just a comment on the post.

It's Baking Day!

Last year, I got together with my mom, two sister-in-law's, aunt, and a friend of my mom's to bake on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Today, we're getting together again with a smaller group.

We spend the day making our holiday treats, so that we can stash most of them in the freezer, so that we can get our baking done before the holiday's get hectic. I have 6 different types of cookie dough going with me, as well as candy canes for peppermint bark.

My mom made up the peanut butter stuffing for peanut butter balls, and peanut clusters. We're also making fudge, brownie bites, and peanut brittle.

The day will be fun, and packed with goodies galore! I've got containers and freezer bags to bring the treats home in, so I can stash them away until closer to Christmas.