• Recipes: Auntie Anne’s Apple Cinnamon Pretzels

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    Delicious Auntie Anne’s Apple Cinnamon Pretzel ready to be eaten!

    We had the opportunity to try these Auntie Anne’s Apple Cinnamon Pretzels and they were delicious!  It wasn’t completely homemade, but it was fun putting them together.  The girls had a blast rolling out the dough, putting into different shapes, and sprinkling on the cinnamon and sugar mixture.

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    Pretzel dough rolled and shaped into cool designs!

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    Apple pretzels are baked, now on to the next step!

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    They have been sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar!

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    Anyone ready for a special treat?!

    Recipes - Pretzels - Asparagus - Potato Wedges - P1450910c

    If you are looking for a fun and delicious treat!  Try Auntie Anne’s Apple Cinnamon Pretzels.

  • Be My Valentine: I Will Always “Root” for You Handsome!

    Every once in awhile I like to get a special treat for my man!  It doesn’t have to be for any specific Holiday but this would be an easy way to say “I Love You” during the Valentine season.  For this special treat I picked up a six pack of IBC Rootbeer for Jake and put a sticky note on it that says “I will always “root” for you Handsome!”   I stuck the six pack with the note in the refrigerator, when Jake opens the door to get a drink he will find his cool treat.    He appreciates the thoughtfulness and the treat reminds him that I love him.  I am truly thankful for all he does for our family!

    I will always “root” for you Handsome!

  • Easy Snowflake Marshmallows

    The girls loved having these marshmallows in their hot chocolate!

    Yes, I know you can make fabulous homemade marshmallows, but if you are limited on time and resources this is a quick, easy, and fun food craft you can do with your kids.  You only need 2 items to do  these cute snowflake marshmallows (and you probably have these items in your kitchen already).  The kids will LOVE these marshmallows in their next cup of hot chocolate!

    Easy Snowflake Marshmallows

    • 1 bag Large White Marshmallows
    • 1 pair clean Kitchen Scissors
    • Optional – Small Cookie Cutters

    Take one large marshmallow and flatten it with a rolling pin (it doesn’t need to be completely flat just enough so you can cut it easily).  Use your scissors to cut snowflake or other shape for your marshmallow.  If you have small cookie cutters you can use those to cut out the shapes.  You can do as many or few marshmallows as you like.  Place the marshmallows on a serving platter and enjoy with your next cup of hot chocolate.

    I did a mix of scissor and cookie cutter snowflakes.  You can do snowflakes, stars, trees, or whatever shapes you want.  The girls wanted to help, they did more of the cookie cutter ones but enjoyed experimenting with cutting the snowflakes with scissors.  These are cute for a fun evening with the family or a get together with a larger group.

    One of the super easy cookie cutter marshmallow treats the girls made!  They ended up eating some of the snowflake outlines and the rest they used in their hot chocolates.

    Snowflake melting in a mug of hot chocolate

    Another cool “experiment” the kids can do with their snowflakes…..have them check out how much the snowflakes grow (expand) while in the hot chocolate!  Take a tooth pick and carefully pull the marshmallow out of the hot chocolate after it has been in only 30 seconds or so (depending on temperature of your hot chocolate) and see how plump your snowflake looks now.  The kids will LOVE it! 🙂

  • Rice Krispy Super Bowl Footballs

    In celebration of the Super Bowl event tomorrow our family has put together Football Rice Krispy treats to share with our family and friends.

    Football Rice Krispy Treats with Chocolate Frosting!

    We used an oval football cookie cutter to make footballs in celebration of the Super Bowl weekend.  The chocolate frosting turned out pretty well.  The girls had fun helping us decorate and eating the extra rice krispy corners that were not made into footballs.

    Rainbow Football Rice Krispy Treats for the Super Bowl!

    The girls loved the rainbow colored footballs in celebration of the Super Bowl weekend.  I recommend staying away from the yellow frosting because it doesn’t show up as well.

    Are you doing any special recipes for the Super Bowl festivities?

  • Recipe: Beary Cute Cookies

    We were not able to make these on our Christmas Baking Day, however, the girls were excited to do them so we decided it would be a neat recipe to do with the girls.   I have had their recipe for a long time, you can either use this Sugar Cookie recipe or following the one below.  The basic idea is the same and the bear shape is a huge hit with adults and kids alike.  The following recipe is from Quick Cooking.

    Beary Cute Cookies

    • 3/4 cup Shortening
    • 1/2 Sugar
    • 1/2 cup packed Brown Sugar
    • 1 Egg
    • 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
    • 2 cups All-Purpose Flour
    • 1 teaspoon Salt
    • 1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda
    • Additional Sugar
    • 30 miniature Chocolate Kisses
    • 60 miniature M&M Baking Bits

    1. Preheat oven to 375° F.

    2.  In a mixing bowl, cream shortening and sugars.  Beat in egg and vanilla; mix well.  Combine the flour, salt, and baking soda; gradually add to creamed mixture and mix well (dough will be crumbly).  Set aside 1/2 cup of dough for the ears.  Shape remaining dough into 1 inch balls; roll in additional sugar.

    3.  Place 3 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets.  Flatten to about 1/2 inch thickness.  Roll reserved dough into 1/2 inch balls; roll in sugar.  Place two smaller balls about 1 inch apart touching each flattened ball (do not flatten smaller balls).

    4.  Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until set and edges are lightly browned.  Remove from oven, immediately press one kiss and two baking bits into each cookie for nose and eyes.  Cool 5 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks to cool completely.  Makes about 30 cookies.

    Picture by Cooking

  • Recipe: Berry Shortbread Dreams

    I made these after our Christmas Baking Day for another event.  They are a super delicious treat for those looking for a fruity shortbread cookie to share this Holiday season.  I got this recipe originally from 2002 Taste of Home Annual Recipes and have done it several times with different flavors of jams, all of the ones I have tried have been awesome.  Chose a flavor that you enjoy for this recipe, we picked raspberry because it is one of our favorites.

    Berry Shortbread Dreams

    • 1 cup Butter, softened
    • 2/3 cup Sugar
    • 1/2 teaspoon Almond Extract
    • 2 cups All-Purpose Flour
    • 1/3 to 1/2 cup Seedless Raspberry Jam

    1.  In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar.  Beat in extract; gradually add flour until dough forms a ball.  Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour or until easy to handle.

    2.  Preheat oven to 350° F.

    3.  Roll into 1 inch balls.  Place 1 inch apart on ungreased baking sheets.  Using the end of a wooden spoon handle, make an indentation in the center.  Fill the center with jam.

    4.  Bake for 14 to 18 minutes or until edges are lightly browned.  Remove and cool on wire racks.  Spoon additional jam into the cookies if you want.

    GLAZE

    • 1 cup Confectioner’s Sugar
    • 2 to 3 teaspoons of Water
    • 1/2 teaspoon Almond Extract

    Mix ingredients and drizzle over cookies slightly cooled cookies.  This recipe makes about 40 cookies.

    Photo by Taste of Home

  • Gift Giving: Delivering Christmas Goodies to Neighbors

    Brina & Karlie Delivering Christmas Gifts to our Neighbors

    We had a blast on our Christmas Baking day last weekend but I think the biggest joy came when we delivered the goodies to our neighbors.  Once the girls realized that we were not giving every morsel of the baking goodies away they were excited to share.  I think they were worried that we did all the baking and they wouldn’t be able to taste any of it.  Although, they definitely got their share of sampling the day of the event.

    Sunday afternoon we put the baked items into gift bags, added a photo mug of the girls full of candy, put in a Christmas Card with the traditional annual picture we give to the neighbors, and tied the packages with ribbons to deliver.  The girls got bundled up in their coats and mittens to help me deliver the goodies.  We have 6 neighbors on our street.  Most of our neighbors are retired couples that enjoy seeing the girls and getting their annual card with a picture.  I found out the hard way the one year how much the yearly pictures meant to our neighbors when we didn’t give out Christmas pictures and one of our neighbors showed me her refrigerator with pictures of the girls from every Christmas.  Oops!

    Karlie carrying the next gift!
    Brina rang the doorbell!

    It was cold and windy day delivering the goodies but our street is pretty small and we were so excited about handing out the presents to those on our street.  Only 3 of the 6 neighbors were home or answering their doors on a Sunday afternoon.  We headed back out on Monday to hand deliver the rest of the goodies, but it wasn’t until later in the week we were able to successful hand deliver all our treats to the neighbors.

    The amazing blessing came when we delivered the presents.  Seeing the smiles, joy and gratefulness on the faces of our neighbors made it worth all the time and energy it took to put together the packages.  It is a wonderful blessing being able to share with others.  Not to mention it opens doors into the lives and hearts of those on the street near you.  We look forward to more opportunities to share with our neighbors.

  • Recipe: Cheerios Christmas Trees

    We made these little Christmas Trees on our Christmas Baking Day.  These were super fun but a little more difficult than I first anticipated.  The trees were a little hard to make into the correct shapes and it took a little extra time to decorate.  I had to keep reforming the trees but they did end up pretty neat once we figured out what we were suppose to do.  I don’t think they looked as amazing as the ones from Betty Crocker but they looked cute and the kids thought they tasted great.

    Cheerios Christmas Trees

    • 6 cups Honey Nut Cheerios Cereal
    • 6 tablespoons Butter or Margarine
    • 4 1/2 cups Miniature Marshmallows
    • Green Food coloring
    • Red Cinnamon Candies, Decorative Pearls, Sprinkles, Icing, and String Licorice

    1. Line a cookie sheet with waxed paper. (May want to lightly grease because our stuck a little when pulling them off)

    2.  Pour the cereal into a 4 quart bowl.  Set the bowl aside,

    3.  Place the butter and marshmallows in a 3 quart saucepan (I used the microwave instead).  Heat over low heat, stirring constantly until mixture is smooth.  Remove the saucepan from the heat.

    4.  Stir in the food coloring until mixture is evenly colored.  Pour the marshmallow mixture over the cereal and stir until the cereal is evenly coated.

    5.  Lightly spray your hands with cooking spray.  For each tree, shape about 1/4 cup of the cereal mixture into a Christmas tree shape on the cookie sheet.

    6.  Press the candies into the trees to decorate.  Refrigerate until firm, about 1 hour.  Store the trees in a a loosely covered container.

    Makes about 18 trees.  I did the whole box of cereal which was about 1 1/2 of the recipe.  Our recipe made about 25 trees.  Thankfully I had someone around to keep spraying my hands with spray because it was really sticky and I had to keep reforming the trees.  They ended up looking pretty cute and seemed to be holding up okay but would probably be better if you ate it the same day.  The Honey Nut Cheerios flavor really comes out in this recipe so if you like the cereal you’ll probably enjoy this too.  You could do with any flavor of Cheerios, I think next time we’ll try the Multi-Grain Cheerios for different flavor and color.  It was fun to do something a little more unique!

  • Recipe: Cinnamon Star Cookies

    Recently, I spent a few hours on a Saturday doing a Christmas Baking Day with Ashley from Reflecting on the Simple Things in Life baking treats to give to family, friends, and neighbors.  One of the recipes we made from Favorite Brand Name: Cooking for Kids, Kids’ Party Food was the Cinnamon Stars.  We made Stars, Christmas Trees, Snowmen, Bells, and many more fun shapes with this delicious recipe.  The recipe was easy to do and  delicious!  The girls helped with this one recipe by picking out the shapes and sprinkling the cinnamon and sugar mixture over the top of the cookie cutouts.

    Cinnamon Stars

    • 2 Tablespoons Sugar
    • 3/4 teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
    • 3/4 cup Butter or Margarine, softened
    • 2 Egg Yolks
    • 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
    • 1 package Duncan Hines Moist Deluxe French Vanilla Cake Mix

    1.  Preheat oven to 375° F. Combine sugar and cinnamon in small bowl.  Set aside.

    2.  Combine butter, egg yolks and vanilla extract in large bowl.  Blend in cake mix gradually.  Roll dough to 1/8 inch thickness on lightly floured surface.  Cut with 2 1/2 inch star cookie cutter.  We used a variety of cookie cutters when we made our cookies.

    3.  Sprinkle cookies with cinnamon-sugar mixture.  Bake at 375° F for 6 to 8 minutes or until edges are light golden brown.  Cool 1 minute on baking sheet.  Remove to cooling rack.  Cool completely.  Store in airtight container.  We put separated ours out into Christmas bags to distribute to family, friends, and neighbors.

    This is a quick and easy recipe you can do with little ones helping.  The recipe makes about 3 to 3 1/2 dozen Star cookies at 2 1/2 inches, however, our recipe made closer to 3 dozen since we used a variety of shapes.  We had plenty to divide out and give as gifts.  If you are looking for an inexpensive and easy recipe for the Holidays you may want to try this one.

  • Gift Giving: Baking Christmas Goodies

    It has been a busy week!  Tomorrow I am very excited to have the opportunity to get together with Ashley from Reflecting on the Simple Things in Life and cook up some yummy recipes to share with friends, family and neighbors.  It should be a lot of fun and I am sure we’ll have some funny stories to tell and pictures to share.   I have all my recipes marked and a table full of ingredients to pack.  The girls are licking their lips thinking about all the amazing goodies that are going to be created tomorrow.  They have been asking for two weeks if the “baking” day was here yet.

    Here is what we are looking forward to baking tomorrow:

    Several of the recipes I have never tried, however, they all appear to be fairly easy to make.  It will be interesting to see what we can accomplish in a few hours and if we have any hiccups along the way. No matter what happens it will be a day full of fun and memories.  Since the oven will be full of baking goodies we decided to give ourselves a break from cooking a meal for everyone and will be ordering pizza for dinner.

    While we are busy in the kitchen cooking the men will be helping entertain the kids, enjoying some time gaming together among other tasks I am sure they will be delegated to do.  They don’t get together as often now with all the busy family schedules so they are looking forward to some fun time too.   The kids are really excited about having some time to play together while we cook.  Although I have been told from my girls that they want to taste every recipe to make sure it is good before we give it to anyone else.   So now I am off to pack up the ingredients, sprinkles and all, so we can eat dinner at the table tonight.  I look forward to sharing our adventures with you next week!