{Recipe} Pretzel Spoon Snowmen

I love baking, especially Christmas baking! I have for several years made Christmas goodies for neighbors, the mail carrier, garbage collectors, etc.etc.... Even made a tray a few times for my husband to take to work which I really miss doing.  I have a few tried and true treats that I always make...sugar cookies and an oatmeal cookie...either with raisins or cranberries. Then I make a candy type treat.  This year I wanted to use some supplies I had in the cabinet and make a circle pretzel snowman face.  All I needed was the pretzel.  I looked and looked and there was none to be had! What was available was a pretzel spoon!

Looked like the perfect snowman shape to me!!

All I did was dip in white chocolate, added an upside down pumpkin sprinkle for the nose and then used an edible ink pen to make eyes, mouth, and buttons.  Totally cute and easy!! 

Pretzel Spoon Snowmen

Pretzel Spoons

white chocolate

orange sprinkle of some kind

edible ink pen (found at Hobby Lobby)

Follow instructions on package to melt chocolate.  Using a fork drop pretzel in chocolate. Tap to remove excess chocolate and then lay on wax paper. While still wet add orange sprinkle.  Let harden.  Once harden drawn on eyes, mouth, and buttons.

Makes a lot!!

Lil' Hunkie and I had fun making these! And some fun Christmas memories too!

{Recipe} Spicy Candied Turkey Bacon

I love making food gifts.  

When I'm stumped on what gift to get, making a treat is fail proof for me.  

This past week I had such a scenario! I've wanted to try making spicy candied bacon for a while now  and this scenario was the perfect reason to!  I'm sharing because I did read a few recipes and none of them were for turkey bacon, which is what I chose to experiment with and it turned out soooo yummy! And I also used my toaster oven!

Spicy Candied Turkey Bacon

1 regular package of turkey bacon

brown sugar

ground cheyenne pepper

I heated the toaster over to broil.  My toaster oven has a pan with a rack.  I put foil on the pan and sprayed the rack with Crisco (Pam would work to).  Next, I laid out  5-6 pieces of bacon on the rack.  Then, I covered each piece with brown sugar and sprinkled on the cheyenne pepper, this is to your taste.  The person I made this for loves spicy! I didn't go too crazy but some pieces were hotter than others.  Put the pan in the toaster oven and baked for 8-10 minutes. (I started out at 10 minutes with the first 2 batches but then had to adjust the time down for the last 2 batches.)

Let cool.  Store in an air tight container. 

Makes about 22 pieces.

I did managed to package up a dozen for the gift I needed but just about ate the rest before my husband could taste!  He accused me of eating one, saving one, eating one, saving one...... ☺

I did change the foil on the pan after the first 2 batches as the left over brown sugar was getting burned and smoking a little. Other than baking the bacon in batches, this was so easy and very yummy.  You could even do a non spicy version!

There may be more of this yumminess in the near future as Father's Day gifts! 

And the distant future as a new treat in my Christmas goodie boxes!

Did I read there's only 20 Fridays till Christmas somewhere?

I think I did.

Well shoot.

☺

Happy Thursday lovelies!!

Throwback Thursday

Time for another Throwback Thursday share!

For more about what that it is check out here.

 

Throwback Thursday-Craftiness

Ode To The Homemade Baby Gift



I like to make baby gifts like burp cloths, onesies, blankies.  I loved the idea of a diaper cradle as opposed to a cake and this post has proved to be one of my most popular.  This was when I crafted at night and have since learned that blog pictures look better in the daylight! Ha! But when you're a mom you gotta do what ya gotta do!

 

 

Throwback Thursday-Recipe

Easy Peanut Butter Pie

 

Thanks to my sister's recipe for Easy Peanut Butter Pie this post is my 2nd most viewed recipe!

I love that it makes 2, which means you can share or just keep in the freezer for later!

 

Aw what great posts these were! Thanks for liking them!

 

Happy Thursday!

 

{See my Link Parties page for the shares.}



{Recipe} Peanut Butter Bread

When I was growing up my sister and I baked a lot. My mom had a set of 3 McCall's cookbooks...a cookie one, a cakes and pies one and a home-baked breads one.  We used them so much that the majority of them are no longer bound! Well I was going through them a couple of weeks ago and organized them and discovered missing pages.....pages that contained the best Coffee Cake recipe ever. So I called my mom and asked if she could look for them and praise the Lord she found them! I will be sharing that recipe soon!

Another recipe, though, caught my eye....Peanut Butter Bread.  I had never had such a thing so I gave it a go! And results were yummy!

Peanut Butter Bread

2 1/4 cups sifted all purpose flour

4 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 cup creamy peanut butter

1/2 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 3/4 cups milk

Optional: peanut butter chips

Preheat oven to 350. Grease a 9x5x3 inch loaf pan.  Sift flour with baking powder and salt; set aside.  In large bowl, using portable electric mixer, or with wooden spoon, beat peanut butter, sugar, and vanilla until well combined.  Gradually add milk, beating until well blended.  Add flour mixture, beating until mixture is smooth.  Pour into prepared pan; bake about 1 hour or until cake tester inserted in center comes out clean.  Let cool in pan 10 minutes.  Remove from pan; cool completely on wire rack.

Notes: before baking I sprinkled peanut butter chips on top.  Next time I will put them on the inside too, they were a great addition!

I used a mini square pan and baked for about 20 minutes with my oven set on convect. 

 They do need to be stored in an air tight container to prevent drying out.

Recipe courtesy of McCall's Home-baked Breads. 

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I love this kind of recipe because, except possibly for the peanut butter chips, you'd have everything on hand and is perfect if you need to make something in a pinch!

Here's my Instagram of the home-baked breads edition....

.....they are more like a booklet, but you can see where we taped it! Ha!! I did look on Ebay and discovered a variety of these, apparently there was a series so I might have to add to my family heirlooms!

Let me know if you try this recipe out!!

Happy Thursday lovelies!!

{See my Link Parties Page for the shares.}

{Recipe Test} Texas Sheet Cake

So I've never made a Texas Sheet Cake before.  I recently had some buttermilk that needed to be used up and so I searched for a recipe.  I Googled but I like looking through my cookbooks.  My mother in law got me the Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook (you know the red and white checked one)  when we got married and I can always count on it!

The recipe I found is called Chocolate-Buttermilk Brownies but is also know as Texas Sheet Cake.  Which I knew of but never made before.  BHG describes it as "so rich and decadent, it fits much better under the definition of 'brownie'."  Well I'm not sure if I agree....it's in between cake and brownie to me. And since it's not a full fledged brownie then I say cake!  But really who cares about what to call it if it's yummy? Am I right?

Texas Sheet Cake

courtesy of BHG

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 cups sugar

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup butter

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

2 eggs

1/2 cup buttermilk

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

1 recipe Chocolate-Buttermilk Frosting

1. Preheat oven to 350.  Grease 15x10x1 inch or a 13x9x2 inch baking pan; set aside.  In a medium bowl stir together flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt; set aside.

2.  In a medium saucepan combine butter, cocoa powder, and 1 cup water.  Bring mixture just to boiling, stirring constantly.  Remove from heat.  Add the cocoa mixture to flour mixture and beat with an electric mixer on medium to high speed until thoroughly combined.  Add eggs, buttermilk, and vanilla.  Beat for 1 minute (batter will be thin).  Pour batter into the prepared pan.

3.  Bake about 25 minutes for the 15x10x1 pan, 35 minutes for the 13x9x2 pan, or until wooden toothpick comes our clean.  

4.  Pour warm Chocolate-Buttermilk Frosting over brownies, spreading evenly.  Cool in pan for 1 hour.  

Enjoy!!

Chocolate-Buttermilk Frosting

In a saucepan combine 1/4 cup butter, 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder, and 3 tablespoons buttermilk.  Bring to boiling.  Remove from heat.  Add 2 1/4 cups powdered sugar and 1/2 tsp vanilla.  Beat until smooth.  

Frosting...

Frosted and cooling....

This is very yummy!!  

I don't always have buttermilk on hand though so not sure how often I will make this.

But at least now I can say I've made it!!

Give it a try and let me know!!

Happy Monday!!

{Just might link this up! Check out my Link Parties Page!}

Easy Peanut Butter Pie

Hunkie's birthday was this past Monday.  Not gonna lie...he doesn't care for birthdays.  Which is like the equivalent of rain on a parade for me.  He wouldn't let me make a cake or a special dinner.  I did manage to get him a gift...a new shirt from Lil' Hunkie and make a pie!  I just so happened to need to make a dessert for one of our Pastors this week and so I relied on my sister's trusty Peanut Butter Pie to kill two birds with one stone.  This recipe is so easy and makes 2 pies!

Peanut Butter Pie

courtesy of my sister, Erica

8oz cream cheese

1 cup peanut butter-I used smooth but use whatever you like best!

1 1/2 cup powdered sugar

12oz Cool Whip-about 3/4 of a 16oz tub

2 graham cracker pie crusts

1 Hershey chocolate bar, chilled

Melt together in microwave-safe bowl, cream cheese and peanut butter for 1-2 minutes, just enough to melt and stir together with spoon.  And powdered sugar and Cool Whip, mix well.  Pour into graham cracker crusts and chill in freezer for 1 hour.  Before serving, grate chocolate bar on top of pies.

Enjoy!!

This is so yummy and yep it's all gone!

Sharing at my favorite parties!

Link Party Page

Happy Thursday!!

Holiday Baking

The Big Day is almost here! I must say this Christmas has had a whole different kind of fun to it since Lil' Hunkie is a little older.  We've been reading about Baby Jesus, we've got Buddy the Elf here and he knows who Santa 'Caus' is.  ☺ I'm actually not really caring about myself...shhhh..don't tell Hunkie!

I don't have the normal tutorial today just thought I'd share a little bit of one of my favorite Christmas traditions...baking.  Things haven't quite gone smoothly this go round but ya gotta 'roll with the punches' sometimes! My normal procedure is to make sugar cookies and oatmeal raisin cookies (they are my pastor's favorite!) and then some goodies not requiring the oven like easy fudge. Well I got the oatmeal raisin cookies done but then 2 'pops' later and the baking element in my oven was not working!  It broke in 2 places! And I planned on making cute tags for my containers with my new stamp from Pick Your Plum but it just didn't work out for me!  I was proud of myself for not getting upset at these things and just making do!

I did experiment with my Babycakes Whoopie Pie maker and managed to not waste my sugar cookie dough and at least got to include those in my neighbor boxes! As my sister said "nice save"!!

Here...what do you think?

I also made Peppermint Chocolate Marshmallows.  Just dipped a marshmallow in white chocolate then in crushed up candy canes!

I made the ever so popular Saltine Toffee for our church's Ladies Christmas party.  So easy and yummy!

Hunkie said it tastes like a Heath Bar and it really does! I followed Gallamore West's version, thanks Lori!

And earlier in the month I did get to make some sugar cookies for a friend, she was having her work party at her home.  At least I got to make some this season!

We ordered a new baking element today and so I'm probably going to have to have a Plan B for cookies for Santa!  And I also plan on making Santa Hat Party Mix to give to my siblings...thank goodness no oven is required!  

How about you? What yummies do you make at Christmas time?

{Tomorrow is an exciting day here!!  I'm partnering with Allison of Feeding My Temple for our 1st Birchbox Beauty Bash!  It's a beauty themed link party! We'd love for you to join us!!}

See my Link Parties Page for where I might be sharing.

Happy Thursday!

Lace Cookies

I've been on the hunt for just the right Coconut Cake recipe.  My Father-in-Law has requested one!  And I want to get it just right!  So my search started with my own cookbooks.  Back in May, I purchased The American Woman's Cookbook at a garage sale...it looked interesting. I've looked through it  a few times and indeed it is a classic!  From what I can tell it was first published in 1938!  So of course I was hoping to find the recipe but was disappointed, it only has a Ginger Coconut Cake recipe and ginger would be too far out for my Father-in-Law! 

(From reading recipes on line, I think I'm going to just make my own version!)

When looking through my classic cookbook I came across a recipe for Lace Cookies.  Low and behold I had all the ingredients! And I have been wanting to see about baking in our toaster oven due to it being hotter than hot here in Oklahoma!

So here's another experiment baking adventure!!

♥

Lace Cookies

from

The American Woman's Cookbook

1 egg, 1/2 cup sugar, 1 tsp melted butter, 1/2 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup rolled oats, 1/2 cup chopped nuts, 1/2 cup shredded coconut, 1/4 tsp salt

Beat egg until light, beat in sugar gradually and add butter and vanilla.  Combine with remaining ingredients.  Drop onto greased baking sheet and flatten with a knife.  Bake in moderate over (375 F.) until browned.  Makes 2 dozen.

Everything all mixed up! (Note: I used almonds...it's what I had!)



Ready for the toaster oven.  I only got a dozen...I should have done smaller mounds and flatten out a bit more.  Oh ok! And I taste tested a couple times....I know I'm not the only one who does that!! Right?!

I baked them for 15 minutes and in my opinion they were just right....a little crunchy on the outside and chewy on the inside.  However, I should have let them cool a little bit before taking off the pan cause this is what happened.........

....still yummy!!

Honestly, this is seemed like granola to me!  When Hunkie got home from work he nearly ate them all!

So in conclusion, I'm thrilled that our little toaster oven can bake!!  And I'm excited to have an easy, yummy cookie recipe to add to our favorites!

What do you use a toaster oven for?

I'd love to know!

Happy Monday!!

Experiment Baking-Pound Cake Cupcakes

We had our annual family reunion (my dad's side) over the weekend.  And I needed to figure out what food item to take when I decided to do a little experimenting.  Now I love my Babycakes appliances and I know I'm not utilizing them to their full potential....it's on my mental list of things to do more of!

So this wasn't a big experiment but one none the less. 

I had a Chocolate Pound Cake mix that had been given to me as a gift that really needed to be used.  So busted out the Babycakes Cupcake maker and got started.  I wasn't for sure how a pound cake would turn out in mini cupcake form but I was pleasantly surprised! Not too bad!

Then I just wanted a simple glaze to top them.  Well this is where it gets a bit more hairy.

Using the recipe in the Babycakes book, I had to make some adjustments as I didn't have one of the ingredients.  It called for butter;check, light corn syrup;check, semisweet chocolate chips....uh no!  The only thing I had was cocoa!  So that's what I did, 3 tablespoons of cocoa and 1 tablespoon shortening.  Plus more light corn syrup!!  Turned out just sweet enough to compliment the sweetness of the cupcake! Add some sprinkles and they disappeared!!  And had a request from my nephew for more....he ate 6!!  ☺

Now if you like cupcakes as much as I do then let me tell you what I stumbled upon!
It's a month long linky party dedicated to the cupcake!! What a fun idea!!
Screaming Sardine is the genius behind this and one of the hosts!
I'm joining the fun!! You should too!

♥
Happy Monday!!

Darling Day-Independence Day Edition!

Ok so I did some playing on Pinterest and Polyvore for today's Darlings!!

Hope you enjoy!

♥
My first Polyvore Set!! This is what I'd wear to church this Sunday! ☺

Simple Americana Style by vintagegwen featuring a red necklace

♦

Tin Can Luminaries by crafts-for-all-seasons.com
This wouldn't be very hard at all! I love the firework one in the middle!!

♦

Wreath by allyou.com

I adore the medallions!!  And the color of the door!

♦

Nestle Tollhouse Stars and Stripes Cookies at verybestbaking.com

These are perfect!!

♦

Red Velvet Flag Cakes via foodgawker.com
I love red velvet!! These are too cute! I'm enjoying all the yummies on foodgawker.com! You should check it out! These mini cakes can also be found here.

Photos courtesy of Pinterest and their respective sites
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Aren't these some inspiring ideas?
Hope you have a fun Independence Day!!