Holiday Treats

Holiday Treats that I made for the kids teachers this year and passed out to my staff at work.

1) Ritz Peanut Butter Cookies

CHOCOLATE DIPPED RITZ PEANUT BUTTER
COOKIES
Ritz Crackers
peanut butter
chocolate almond bark
Sandwich 1 teaspoon peanut butter between two Ritz crackers. Make as many as you want and set aside.
Melt chocolate bark in a double boiler. Dip the sandwiched crackers in the chocolate with tongs.

Place on wax paper until cool. White Chocolate Almond Bark may also be used).

2) Rolo Turtle Pretzels

Rolo Pretzel Turtles

Rolo chocolate candies
Mini pretzels
Nuts – toasted pecans/almonds/hazelnuts/walnuts

Preheat your oven to 350

1. Upwrap your Rolos. Place pretzels on baking sheet. Top with a Rolo.

2. Bake in oven for 3-5 minutes, until the chocolate just begins to melt. The Rolo should be soft but not completely melted.

3. Remove from oven, place on cooling rack and immediately squish the chocolate with a nut. Watch the caramel oooze out.

3) Spritz Cookies ( from Betty Crocker)


1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
2 1/4 cups Gold Medal® all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1/4 teaspoon almond extract or vanilla
Food color, if desired
Currants, raisins, candies, colored sugar, finely chopped nuts, candied fruit or fruit peel, if desired

1. Heat oven to 400ºF. Beat butter and sugar in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed, or mix with spoon. Stir in flour, salt, egg, almond extract and a few drops of food color.
2. Place dough in cookie press. Form desired shapes on ungreased cookie sheet. Decorate with currants.
3. Bake 5 to 8 minutes or until set but not brown. Immediately remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. To decorate cookies after baking, use a drop of corn syrup to attach decorations to cookies.

4) Chewy Chocolate Gingerbread Cookies (Martha Stewart)
7 ounces best-quality semisweet chocolate
1 1/2 cups plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter
1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger
1/2 cup dark-brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup unsulfured molasses
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup granulated sugar
Directions

Line two baking sheets with parchment. Chop chocolate into 1/4-inch chunks; set aside. In a medium bowl, sift together flour, ground ginger, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and cocoa.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter and grated ginger until whitened, about 4 minutes. Add brown sugar; beat until combined. Add molasses; beat until combined.
In a small bowl, dissolve baking soda in 1 1/2 teaspoons boiling water. Beat half of flour mixture into butter mixture. Beat in baking-soda mixture, then remaining half of flour mixture. Mix in chocolate; turn out onto a piece of plastic wrap. Pat dough out to about 1 inch thick; seal with wrap; refrigerate until firm, 2 hours or more.
Heat oven to 325 degrees. Roll dough into 1 1/2- inch balls; place 2 inches apart on baking sheets. Refrigerate 20 minutes. Roll in granulated sugar. Bake until the surfaces crack slightly, 10 to 12 minutes. Let cool 5 minutes; transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
From Martha Stewart Living, December/January 1997/1998

5) Snickerdoodles (Tasty Kitchen)

2-¾ cups All-purpose Flour
2 teaspoons Cream Of Tartar
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
¼ teaspoons Salt
2 sticks Unsalted Butter, Softened
1-½ cup Sugar
2 whole Eggs
2-½ teaspoons Vanilla Extract
3 Tablespoons Sugar
2 Tablespoons Ground Cinnamon
Preparation Instructions
1. Line baking sheets with parchment paper or a baking mat and put in refrigerator to chill.
2. Whisk together the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt in a bowl. Set aside.
3. Cream together the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy, it should have a very light and fluffy texture (think mousse, kinda).
Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition (just when you think you’ve beaten the eggs well enough, beat some more).
Beat in the vanilla.
4. Gradually stir in the flour mixture, slowly beating just until the flour is blended.
5. Chill the dough for at least 30 minutes (it will make forming the dough much easier).
6. In the meantime, mix together the sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl.
7. Heat the oven to 350 degrees.
Scoop 1-inch balls of dough and roll in the cinnamon and sugar mixture to coat.
8. Place on chilled cookie sheet about 2 inches apart and bake for 10 minutes.
9. Chill the dough and cookie sheets between batches.
10. Let cookies set on baking sheet for 2-3 minutes and then remove to a cooling rack.

I also added the Oatmeal Toffee Cookies ( see recipe from last post)

These are my favorite christmas time cookies - Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cherry Toffee Cookies by Martha Stewart
I substitute cranberries instead of the cherries.

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup light-brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups oatmeal
1 cup dried cherries
1 cup bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
1 cup toffee pieces, (5 1/2 ounces)
Directions

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Sift together flour and baking soda, and set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter and sugars on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl once or twice during mixing. Add egg, and mix on high speed to combine. Add vanilla extract; mix to combine. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.
Add the sifted flour a bit at a time on a low speed until well combined. Add oatmeal, cherries, chocolate, and toffee pieces; mix to combine.
Divide dough into three equal portions, and roll into logs using plastic wrap, approximately 1 1/2 inches in diameter. To bake, cut logs into 3/4-inch pieces. Bake on parchment-lined baking sheets, until golden brown, 8 to 10 minutes. Remove from oven, and transfer to a baking rack to cool.

Traditions

One of my favorite traditions at Christmas time is to get together with a group of ladies that I used to work with at Resources For Child Caring. It was about 10 years ago! We met at RCC, we were all case managers. One of them is my so called twin Stacy the other two lovely ladies are Bert and Janet. Now Bert and Janet are my mom's age - they are like "cool mom's". They are a complete hoot! We have been through a lot with these ladies birth of our kids, their grandkids, surgeries, retirement, etc, etc.
Let me give you a little more dish on these relationships that Stacy and I hold with Janet and Bert. Many many years ago, we took them to the Gay 90's, we have had sleepovers at Janet's cabin, we still need to get to Bert's. When Stacy and I left RCC to work at another job we bought them thong underwear as a joke - remember these are women that are my mom's age. I would never buy my mother a thong! Well, one of them actually wore them!
I honestly cannot remember when we started this Christmas dinner tradition it had to be years ago. We always get together about a week or two before christmas for dinner.
The reason that this tradition is so awesome - is that none of us work at RCC any more. Bert and Janet are retired and actually fly away for the winters. I'm at the salon and Stacy is a busy stay at home mom. It shows that traditions can be made not just with your family but your extended family and they truly are my extended family.
We talk about everything with these ladies from work, being mom, wives, menopause, hot flashes, grandkids - i mean everything if you know what i mean. We can talk for hours and have such a blast!
I am truly thankful for these wonderful ladies that are part of my life and that I call my "family".
This year we chose Wild Fire for our annual dinner - it was wonderful. We met on Sunday at 5:30pm and I did not get home until after 9:30pm! Here are some pictures from that evening:

All four of us - not sure what the waiter did with this pic:


Janet and Bert:


Bert and Stacy:


Janet and I:


Stacy and I:

Let the games begin:



The ladies were looking at Stacy's scarf I was trying to take a pic and told Bert to get in closer. She did and basically
sat on top of the people next to us!






Needless to say - we had a fabulous time catching up on family, life and everything else in between. We laughed, we cried because we were laughing so hard and more laughing! I can't wait for next year!
xoxo

Thanksgiving!

I hope that you had a wonderful thanksgiving with your family and friends. i sure did! This year it was only my family, my mom (since my dad is out of the country) and my little sister.
The menu was this: Apricot Glazed Turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, yankee sweet potatoes, squash and sauteed green beans! What a feast and we have so much to be thankful for!

Yummy!

Tyler and the food drive

Last week Tyler came home from school and handed me a piece of paper. The paper stated that the school was having a food drive - he kept telling me "mom, I have to bring food to school". I was like sure we will get it done. Well, by Thursday I was gently reminded by my son, mom I need to have this food to give to people that don't have any. He was very concerned and determined.
It was so sweet to see how passionate he was about the food drive and getting that food to school by the end of the week! I thought to myself - he gets it. He is understanding that there are families out there that need help and are not as fortunate as our family.
We went down to the pantry and picked out some items so he could bring them to the food drive at school the next day. He was so proud that he was doing something to help others! That's my boy!

Fathers and Daughters

The other night while I was cooking dinner, I found these two playing UNO in the living room. It was just so sweet the two of them hanging out together. I thought to myself that Mira is a very lucky girl! She is lucky because her father loves her unconditionally, he spends time with her, he teaches her, he encourages and he also corrects her when she is wrong. That alone makes me love this man even more! I wanted to share the lyrics of Fathers and Daughters by Paul Simon. Ron loves this song and way way in the future when Mira gets married Ron will request that this be played for the father and daughter dance.




If you ever leap awake
In the mirror of a bad dream
And for a fraction of a second
You can't remember where you are
Just open your window
And follow your memory upstream
To the meadow in the mountain
Where we counted every falling star

I believe the light that shines on you
Will shine on you forever
And though I can't guarantee
There's nothing scary hiding under your bed
I’m gonna stand guard
Like a postcard of a Golden Retriever
And never leave till I leave you
With a sweet dream in your head

I'm gonna watch you shine
Gonna watch you grow
Gonna paint a sign
So you'll always know
As long as one and one is two
There could never be a father
Who loved his daughter more than I love you

Trust your intuition
It's just like going fishing
You cast your line
And hope you'll get a bite
But you don't need to waste your time
Worrying about the market place
Try to help the human race
Struggling to survive its harshest night

I'm gonna watch you shine
Gonna watch you grow
Gonna paint a sign
So you'll always know
As long as one and one is two
There could never be a father
Who loved his daughter more than I love you

I'm gonna watch you shine
Gonna watch you grow
Gonna paint a sign
So you'll always know
As long as one and one is two
There could never be a father
Who loved his daughter more than I love you

Happy Halloween!!

I know I'm very behind with my posts -sorry. We had a halloween celebration at my sisters house : here are some pictures

Mira getting her done at Details Salon (where I work) in DT St.Paul, hair done by Brian Horst ( my boss and brother in law)



Liza's cheese ball goblin

My pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese frosting

The best for last - the kids: