Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Holiday Cookies!

A frenzy of Holiday baking! I love to bake for Christmas. I plan on making a coffee cake for tomorrow morning and some yummy eggnog!

These little gems are delicious! I wish I could take credit for it but the recipe is here. It is worth it to check it out, they are my new favorite!

I think I have used up most of my almond bark. I have been dipping whatever I can get my hands on! The kids especially like the graham crackers...they are really good at helping me decorate them as well!

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Dreaming of a White Christmas (and almond bark)

I received a TON of almond bark this year from dear relatives...the Brits have no idea what it is and don't carry it at Tesco. I think however my family would like to stock the entire island with almond bark, since they sent me 12 pounds collectively!

I'm not complaining though since I love the stuff. Sure it tastes a million times better to have real chocolate but I don't care. By the time you get chocolate melted and tempered who has the energy to create anymore. It's different doing chocolate work at home, at least in my experience, and I have never had the kitchen space to do it properly...especially now!

So since its the holidays Sophia and I made snow men! Since there is no snow on the ground this will be a yummy substitute. Though the cookies may disappear as quickly as the real thing does!






On a side note I am starting to bake my own bread. Not fancy bread or anything difficult...but plain ol' white bread (though I am considering a wheat bread.) I am mostly doing this for my husband benefit, since he is the one who has to pick up sliced bread after working 12 hours. We will still be purchasing and eating sliced bread but hopefully this will help prevent daily grocery store trips!

We will see.....

Merry Christmas to me?



I have a pretty good idea what I got for Christmas and it's not boots. (It's even better I can't wait!) However I still want boots. The website is down at the moment so I have no choice but to ponder the decision for a few hours. I need to decide whether I have been good enough this year for these amazing, rugged, ass-kickin' boots.

What's funny is I think I like them mostly because I'm homesick. These are the kind of boots I would have cringed at as a teenager. We always got good quality, warm, sturdy boots as kids, and I never appreciated it until now. Man what I wouldn't give to be able to go shopping at the feed store!

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Christmas is coming...

Our house is slowly getting into Christmas. We may not get all the way into Christmas as far as decorating is concerned, since there is no room in our tiny living space. We are hoping to get a small tree just for traditions sake but we will see.

Our stocking's are hung however...accented by our small Christmas card collection. I'm sure many people don't know where we live anymore. I can't even keep track these days!
The majority of our loot has arrived however. As you can see it has taken over my dining table since there is nowhere else for it to go. Also we are quite spoiled!

I made some of my famous fudge tonight...it's super easy and all kinds of delicious! I tweek it every year to make it different. One year I even tried to add marshmallows...which didn't work out since they were too soft to keep the fudge stable...but I like to experiment.

The recipe is pretty mistake proof...just don't over heat it!

1 12 oz bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 9 oz bag of peanut butter chips
1 14oz can of sweet condensed milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup walnuts
1/2 cup dried cranberries

Grease a 8 inch cake pan. (I use glass) Melt chips and milk on low heat until melted. Add vanilla and remove from heat. Stir in nuts and cranberries. Pour into pan. Cover and chill.

You can add ANYTHING to this recipe....be creative!