Chocolate Candy Cane Cookies
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| Via Kraft Canada |
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| Via Chatelaine |
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| Via Better Homes & Gardens |
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| Via Martha Stewart |
Holiday Icebox Cookies
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| Via Martha Stewart |
Thursday, December 9, 2010
This Year's Christmas Cookies
Every year I make a selection of Christmas cookies. I take some to my office, Chris takes some to his and we eat the rest here at home! I generally start baking about about a month or so before Christmas, freezing the cookies as I go, but this year I fell behind and I find myself with 12 days until Chris' last day in the office, aka my cookie deadline, and I haven't baked a batch! Tonight I decided it was time to get down to business so I spent some time selecting this year's cookie lineup. These are the cookies I will be baking and blogging about over the next 12 days.
Chocolate Candy Cane Cookies
French Butter Cookies
Peanut Butter Bites
Chocolate Shortbread Diamonds
Holiday Icebox Cookies
It's a lot of cookies in a pretty short time so this could get interesting. Be sure to check back in with me over the next 12 days to see how it all turns out :)
Chocolate Candy Cane Cookies
Holiday Icebox Cookies
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Style.Play.Work.Shop
STYLE.PLAY.WORK.SHOP. is a styling workshop created by the blogs Compai and Minted Condition. Designed to be a playground for stylists and bloggers, each month they pick a specific number of household objects to photograph into a still life. Each still life image is then placed together to compare different styling and photographic styles and ideas.
The ladies over at Compai and Minted Condition both provided some constructive feedback on my photo and I can't wait to apply it to January's assignment. They also pick their favourite shots and post them on their blogs so be sure to check them out here and here. Then head on over to the Flickr group to see all of the entries and to sign yourself up for Round 4!
In the meantime, here are a couple of my favourites from this round.
I first read about it on What's Up Whimsy when Shannon participated last month and I thought it sounded like a lot of fun and a good opportunity for learning. I'm often less than satisfied with the photos I post here and would love to develop my skills a little more so I signed up in time for Round 3: gift, cookie, calendar, sphere.
The items were in easy reach as I have presents under the tree, leftover cookies from my bake sale, and round Christmas ornaments everywhere! Putting the items together and taking a decent photograph of them proved a little more difficult. I must have taken about 50 pictures to get to one I was pleased with but at least I got there! Here's my entry:
The ladies over at Compai and Minted Condition both provided some constructive feedback on my photo and I can't wait to apply it to January's assignment. They also pick their favourite shots and post them on their blogs so be sure to check them out here and here. Then head on over to the Flickr group to see all of the entries and to sign yourself up for Round 4!
In the meantime, here are a couple of my favourites from this round.
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| via lanalou style |
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| via Compai |
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Freebie Winter Pencil Holders & Bookmarks
I've written before about awesome digital scrapbooking site Shabby Princess and their fun and beautiful blog with its freebie customizable desktops. I really can't get enough of their designs. My bake sale flyer was even made using freebies from Shabby Princess. So I am really excited to share with you another cool freebie from the site, Pencil Holders and Bookmarks!
Click here to read the instructions and download all of the images necessary to make both "boy" and "girl" versions. They'd make awesome party favours or gifts for your child's classmates. All you need to make them are a printer, some paper, an adhesive and optional ribbons. And of course some pencils for the boxes! The bookmarks are sized so that they will fit in the pencil boxes too so you can give the pieces separately or as a set. So cute!
I will definitely be making some of these before the holiday season is over. Thanks to Shabby Princess for being kind enough to share!
Monday, December 6, 2010
Charity Bake Sale
Today at the office we had a good old fashioned bake sale. People looked at me sort of funny when I first brought up the idea of a bake sale but I was convinced that it would be a great way to raise money for our local food bank. And I was right!
The idea was to ask my colleagues for donations of baked goods and then to sell them in the office kitchen at lunchtime. I was kind of nervous this morning about how many treats people would actually bring but I was overwhelmed by the response. We were up to our eyeballs in cookies, cupcakes and squares this morning. And everything looked delicious!
I made Butter Cookies (sort of like a cross between shortbread and sugar cookies)
and Snowman Cupcakes. I used a box of white cake mix and my homemade buttercream. Then I used regular chocolate chips for eyes, mini chocolate chips for mouths and orange jellybeans for noses. So easy but I think they turned out very cute!
People swarmed the kitchen as soon as we spread everything out and they kept on coming until almost everything was gone. And the best part? We raised $325 for the food bank!! We're going to take the money to the grocery store tomorrow and purchase food that will be given to the less fortunate in time for the holidays. The bake sale was a hit and I don't think anyone will look at me funny when I bring it up again next year ;)
This was such an easy event to put together and it was a lot of fun too. You could replicate this in your own office kitchen to raise some money for the charity of your choice. And there's no better time to give than during the holiday season.
The idea was to ask my colleagues for donations of baked goods and then to sell them in the office kitchen at lunchtime. I was kind of nervous this morning about how many treats people would actually bring but I was overwhelmed by the response. We were up to our eyeballs in cookies, cupcakes and squares this morning. And everything looked delicious!
I made Butter Cookies (sort of like a cross between shortbread and sugar cookies)
and Snowman Cupcakes. I used a box of white cake mix and my homemade buttercream. Then I used regular chocolate chips for eyes, mini chocolate chips for mouths and orange jellybeans for noses. So easy but I think they turned out very cute!
People swarmed the kitchen as soon as we spread everything out and they kept on coming until almost everything was gone. And the best part? We raised $325 for the food bank!! We're going to take the money to the grocery store tomorrow and purchase food that will be given to the less fortunate in time for the holidays. The bake sale was a hit and I don't think anyone will look at me funny when I bring it up again next year ;)
This was such an easy event to put together and it was a lot of fun too. You could replicate this in your own office kitchen to raise some money for the charity of your choice. And there's no better time to give than during the holiday season.
Friday, December 3, 2010
Christmas Giveaway Winner & 12 Days of Holidays
Just a few quick updates to share tonight. First, I wanted to thank everyone who entered to win my Christmas magnets. I love how they turned out and I'm so excited to give this set of 5 away.
I used random.org to select the winning comment and the magnets go to Comment #5 posted by Suzanne!
Congratulations, Suzanne! I hope the magnets add some cute to your fridge for the holiday season :)
The other thing I wanted to share with you tonight is a feature going on over at What's Up Whimsy called 12 Days of Holidays: A Blogger Wishlist. Every day for the first twelve days of December, Shannon is giving readers a peek at what's on the wishlists of a bunch of awesome bloggers. And in today's post she was kind enough to feature an item from my list! Be sure to click over and check it out. It's bound to make your own wishlist grow!
I used random.org to select the winning comment and the magnets go to Comment #5 posted by Suzanne!
Congratulations, Suzanne! I hope the magnets add some cute to your fridge for the holiday season :)
The other thing I wanted to share with you tonight is a feature going on over at What's Up Whimsy called 12 Days of Holidays: A Blogger Wishlist. Every day for the first twelve days of December, Shannon is giving readers a peek at what's on the wishlists of a bunch of awesome bloggers. And in today's post she was kind enough to feature an item from my list! Be sure to click over and check it out. It's bound to make your own wishlist grow!
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Marshmallow Dreidels
As many of you will know, Hanukkah began at sundown yesterday. Though we don't officially celebrate the holiday in our house, Chris grew up celebrating Hanukkah with his father's side of the family so I thought it would be nice to make him a little treat to acknowledge the first night. I found the idea for Edible Chocolate Marshmallow Dreidels on Martha Stewart's website and I knew it was the perfect thing!
They were really easy to make and they turned out so cute. They tasted great as well. All you need to make them is marshmallows, milk chocolate wafers, white chocolate wafers, Hershey's kisses, and some pretzel sticks.
Insert a pretzel stick into each marshmallow and unwrap your kisses while you melt the milk chocolate wafers. Once your chocolate is melted, use a dab to attach a kiss to each marshmallow, it will be the point of the dreidel. Let the chocolate harden long enough that the kisses won't fall off, about 5 minutes in the fridge.
Next, holding onto the pretzel stick, dip the marshmallow into the melted milk chocolate. Rest the chocolate covered marshmallows on a piece of parchment paper on a cookie sheet. Once you've got all of your marshmallows covered, put the sheet in the fridge and let everything harden, about 10 minutes. Once the chocolate has firmed up, melt some white chocolate in a Ziploc bag. Snip a tiny corner off the bag and then use it to pipe Hebrew letters onto your dreidels. This was my very first attempt at Hebrew so please forgive me for letters that are probably more gibberish than anything!
The dreidels were a big hit with Chris and I imagine they would be with just about anyone. It's hard to go wrong with sugar and chocolate!
Happy Hanukkah to everyone celebrating the Festival of Lights. May your homes be bright with love and happiness :)
P.S. Tomorrow night I'll be drawing the winner of my magnet giveaway, make sure to leave your comment before then!
They were really easy to make and they turned out so cute. They tasted great as well. All you need to make them is marshmallows, milk chocolate wafers, white chocolate wafers, Hershey's kisses, and some pretzel sticks.
Insert a pretzel stick into each marshmallow and unwrap your kisses while you melt the milk chocolate wafers. Once your chocolate is melted, use a dab to attach a kiss to each marshmallow, it will be the point of the dreidel. Let the chocolate harden long enough that the kisses won't fall off, about 5 minutes in the fridge.
Next, holding onto the pretzel stick, dip the marshmallow into the melted milk chocolate. Rest the chocolate covered marshmallows on a piece of parchment paper on a cookie sheet. Once you've got all of your marshmallows covered, put the sheet in the fridge and let everything harden, about 10 minutes. Once the chocolate has firmed up, melt some white chocolate in a Ziploc bag. Snip a tiny corner off the bag and then use it to pipe Hebrew letters onto your dreidels. This was my very first attempt at Hebrew so please forgive me for letters that are probably more gibberish than anything!
The dreidels were a big hit with Chris and I imagine they would be with just about anyone. It's hard to go wrong with sugar and chocolate!
Happy Hanukkah to everyone celebrating the Festival of Lights. May your homes be bright with love and happiness :)
P.S. Tomorrow night I'll be drawing the winner of my magnet giveaway, make sure to leave your comment before then!
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Bake-N-Blog: Holiday Edition!
The lovely Kelly over at JAX does design was kind enough to organize a kind of virtual cookie exchange for bloggers and today is the big reveal day! The concept was simple: every participant had to choose a holiday treat recipe from Food Blogga to try out and then share the results. I made Rah Cha Chow's recipe for Scotcheroos with a few minor variations of my own ;)
This recipe was really easy to make and, because I substituted Rice Krispies for Special K, they are kind of like a fancier holiday version of your standard rice krispie squares.
Here's what you'll need to make them:
6 cups Rice Krispies
1 cup white sugar
1 cup corn syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup peanut butter
1cup chocolate chips
1 cup butterscotch chips
Measure the cereal into a large bowl. In a saucepan over medium heat, combine the sugar and corn syrup, and bring to a rolling boil.
Remove from heat, and stir in the vanilla and peanut butter. Pour the mixture over the cereal and mix well. Press the mixture into a greased pan. Because you're not going to bake anything you can use any size or shape pan you choose. Use a smaller pan for thicker bars or a jelly roll pan if you want your bars to turn out thin. Also work as quickly as you can throughout these steps because this stuff gets STICKY!
Melt the chocolate and butterscotch chips together in the microwave, stopping and stirring every 30 seconds, until smooth and well blended. The original recipe called for 3 cups of chips but that seemed excessive so I cut it back to about 2. To be honest, I think I could have used even less.
Spread melted chocolate over the top of the bars. Chill until set. Then the instructions said to cut them into bars but, not wanting to scratch my pan, I kind of cracked it like an ice cube tray and the whole thing came out in one clean piece. Amazing! And you can see how thick that chocolate is.
The recipe didn't tell you this but I learned pretty quickly that you want to wait for the bars to come back up to room temperature before you try to cut them. These bars are really dense and it was a challenge to cut through them even after I warmed them up.
This recipe was really easy to make and, because I substituted Rice Krispies for Special K, they are kind of like a fancier holiday version of your standard rice krispie squares.
Here's what you'll need to make them:
6 cups Rice Krispies
1 cup white sugar
1 cup corn syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup peanut butter
1cup chocolate chips
1 cup butterscotch chips
Measure the cereal into a large bowl. In a saucepan over medium heat, combine the sugar and corn syrup, and bring to a rolling boil.
Remove from heat, and stir in the vanilla and peanut butter. Pour the mixture over the cereal and mix well. Press the mixture into a greased pan. Because you're not going to bake anything you can use any size or shape pan you choose. Use a smaller pan for thicker bars or a jelly roll pan if you want your bars to turn out thin. Also work as quickly as you can throughout these steps because this stuff gets STICKY!
Melt the chocolate and butterscotch chips together in the microwave, stopping and stirring every 30 seconds, until smooth and well blended. The original recipe called for 3 cups of chips but that seemed excessive so I cut it back to about 2. To be honest, I think I could have used even less.
Spread melted chocolate over the top of the bars. Chill until set. Then the instructions said to cut them into bars but, not wanting to scratch my pan, I kind of cracked it like an ice cube tray and the whole thing came out in one clean piece. Amazing! And you can see how thick that chocolate is.
The recipe didn't tell you this but I learned pretty quickly that you want to wait for the bars to come back up to room temperature before you try to cut them. These bars are really dense and it was a challenge to cut through them even after I warmed them up.
Now for the most important part, you want know how they taste? They are delicious! The butterscotch and chocolate mix just right with the hint of peanut butter. My husband and I both love them and I would definitely make this recipe again. If you make them as thick as I did then just be sure to keep them at room temperature so you don't loose any teeth trying to bite into them!
Now that you've read my entry, be sure to click over to Bake-N-Blog: Holiday Edition to see what everyone else made. At last check there were 15 recipes and counting. Maybe you'll be inspired to do a holiday food exchange of your own!
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