Gift Idea: Baking Kit

I really love the challenge of coming up with relevant, practical gifts at Christmas time, and enjoy sharing my ideas with you each year! This year for a gift exchange I threw together a Christmas baking kit, and I think it was one of my favourite ideas yet. (See last years ideas here)

I know...this post is so totally after the fact. But it doesn't just have to be used for Christmas...this would make a fantastic gift for a wedding, bridal shower, or the birthday of a friend that likes to cook.

The idea started with these potholders and oven mitts. I thought the gingerbread theme was fun, and what does gingerbread make you think of? Baking! Okay, and eating...

These cupcake papers were gingerbread men as well, so I grabbed a package of those and a few other "bake-y" items. I included cookie mix, a small bag of flour, frosting, and shortening. Lets face it, that cute little bag of flour is just plain fun.

To round out the gift I grabbed a Food Network holiday magazine full of recipes and ideas.

Had I been prepared, it would have been fun to get together all the ingredients needed to actually make gingerbread men...but I was working on a spur-of-the-moment decision so that didn’t happen. Maybe next time!


Here is a quick budget breakdown. There are Canadian prices, so you can probably do better than this in the States!

Crisco - $2.27
Flour - $3.18
Chocolate chip cookie mix - $2.27
Frosting - $2
Potholder set - $3
Oven mitt - $1
Baking papers - $2.47
Food network magazine - $5.50
Total: $21.69

Don’t you just love buying gifts for the people or events in your life? Do you have any suggestions for the readers as to what to buy for gift exchanges? How about hard-to-buy-for people? What was your favourite gift to give or receive this year?

Christmas 2013 in pictures

I enjoy snapping still life pictures, so I thought I'd let my camera tell the story of our 2013 Christmas. So much more happened than this - like family time, games, food, and lots of other fun stuff. But this gives you an idea, shows you some of what I've been soaking in and enjoying the last two weeks.

What did your Christmas look like?

Candy Cane Brownies

If you are anything like me, you have about a zillion candy canes in your house right now that need to be eaten. Am I right? I made these brownies right before Christmas, {ya know, after we'd been gifted a bunch of candy canes} and ABSOLUTELY LOVE THEM! In fact, I made them twice in one week, I love them so much. To my simple mind, mint and chocolate is pretty much perfection. :)

Here is the simple brownie recipe with my added candy cane twist. This brownie recipe is our favorite as-is, so if you aren't a minty person I'm telling ya, you want these brownies!

3 eggs
2 cups sugar
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla
½ cup melted butter
¼ cups melted shortening
1 ½ cups flour
¾ cup cocoa
½ teaspoon salt
3 candy canes, crushed

In a mixing bowl, beat eggs, sugar and vanilla until well mixed. Stir in butter and shortening. In a separate bowl, combine flour, cocoa and salt, stir into egg mixture and mix well.

Pour into a greased 9x13” pan. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes (25 minutes for a cake-like brownie.) Take out and sprinkle crushed candy cane on top, bake for 3-5 more minutes.

A few of my own notes:

I found that 3 candy canes was just the right amount of mint for these brownies. Adjust that amount depending on your tastes.

When I crushed the candy canes, I left some in large chunks and crushed some to powder. I liked how it looked on the brownie. Oh, and my highly professional method of crushing them was lay them on a glass cutting board and hit them with the heavy end of a can opener. Ya know, whatever works.

The candy canes will start to melt in those last 3-5 minutes you have them in the oven, so just keep an eye on them. Having them melt slightly really helped keep them on the brownie once it was cut...it wasn't like those doughnuts dipped in candy where it all falls off on the first bite.

Perfection.

What is your favourite way to use up Christmas candy? I received some cappuccino candy canes for Christmas, and I'm thinking those would be yummy this way, too. ;) Any other recipes you'd like to share?

A Blue Christmas

I did a couple of Christmas projects recently that actually deviated from my red-and-white-at-Christmas obsession. Unbelievable, right? {wink!} They were both just small projects, but hopefully they will get your creative juices flowing and be a help to you.

When you stop and think about it, snow has nothing to do with Christmas. Other than Christmas is in the winter, but that still doesn't associate it with snow. Lots of people live in places where it doesn't snow at all, yet we still often think of snowmen and such as "Christmas decor." I guess it is ok, since Christmas Day is the only day I allow it to snow. {wink!} Anyhow, these two projects involved snowflakes and a blue color scheme. Here's to being different!

The first was our church's bulletin board. You saw how I fixed it up for Fall/Thanksgiving, but it was high time for the leaves to come down and something Christmasy to go up. I chose a design with a whole lot less cutting this time, lol!

We had the snowflake border on hand already, so I just went with that theme to make things simple. I covered the cork with white paper tablecloth from our huge roll at the church, and securely stapled the border around the sides. I decided to cover up the wood frame as well, to make the board look bigger.

I printed off 4 Christmas bulbs {I got a red one from Microsoft clip art and just colorized it to the shades I wanted} and stapled them with some gold string to help them look authentic.

Very little cutting, which was great! I think the end result turned out nice! We are currently using the board for Christmas/Thank you cards the church receives. After Christmas is over, I'll just pop those ornaments off and we'll be good to go for the rest of the winter!

That was my first blue project. The second was fixing up some goody bags for the families in the church I attend.

I made a batch of these Christmas cookies and bagged them up in these cute baggies I got at...wait for it...the dollar store. {Love that place!}

These cookies are so, so good! Soft, with yummy frosting and sprinkles. I love sprinkles. And the recipe makes around 50 cookies, so they are a great choice when giving them away.

I whipped up a little label to sign my name to, which made things easy! I enjoy giving a small gift like this instead of just a plain old Christmas card. And using a printable means I don't have to think of words to write in a card, either. {wink!} #nowyouknowtherealme

You can download these labels for your own use if you go here. Obviously, they won't have my name on them. :) You can sign your own, or write personal notes on the back. If you enjoy using snowflakes or blue and white at Christmas, I think you'll enjoy these!

So those are my two small, non-red-and-white projects. Do you like blue color schemes at Christmas? Do you fix up goody bags? Anyone think I should go back to red and white now? I thought so..

Christmas Party

I  may or may not have mentioned my new opportunity this fall to assist with a Bible study at our local nursing home. Did I talk about this before? No?

I assist a lady with a Bible study each week at our local nursing home. There, now I've mentioned it! :)

Yesterday was our last meeting until after the new year, and we threw a Christmas party for the residents! I took my two younger sisters to help out and provide some music, and a great time was had by all! You may remember us helping out with this same party last year.

It is such a privilege to be able to help out with this meeting, and meet and befriend these dear folks. Many of them have sharp minds and quick wits, and it is truly fun to be with them for an hour or so each week! It has been a blessing to see this group grow, and the excitement of each one as they come out. It is such a privilege to serve the Lord, isn't it?

Here are some pictures of our Christmas party this year:

Isn't that a great group of people? I always start by playing the piano for about 30 minutes as the residents are making their way in. Mrs. H, the lady that runs the study, did some Christmas trivia with the folks...they were amazing! They knew all the answers!

Rachel and Carrie sang them some Christmas carols, and then we played "Name That Tune." Again, they did great! I would play the first three notes and they would start shouting out the answer. I only was able to stump them on one song, I believe it was "Thou Didst Leave Thy Throne." It was so fun!

There was treats...lots and lots of treats!

No one went away hungry, and everyone was able to take a plate of goodies back to their rooms as well!

You may remember Candy, the dog, who makes weekly visits to the nursing home. He was present for our party this year, too, with gifts for each of the ones that attend the Bible study.

Of course, he dressed for the part.

The back of his Santa suit says, "Ho, ho ho!" :)

And let me say a word about the decor.

Whomever is in charge of the decor at this nursing home does an excellent job. The nursing home is huge...the building is just over a year old, and is spread out in 8 different "houses." Between these houses are long hallways. Each house has its own kitchen, dining area, and living room with a big screen TV. It is really nice. And the entire thing is decorated to the hilt. I wished I had time to just run around and snag pictures of the different displays and decor, but unfortunately I didn't. Kudos to the decorating committee!

Besides the presents and fun, Mrs. H shared a brief Christmas devotional and read the Christmas story. Our prayer is that the Lord will use this season to work in the hearts of the residents that don't yet have a relationship with Christ! What a fantastic Christmas present that would be!!

So there's our Christmas party for this year. Anyone else attending parties this week? I have two more before the week is out! What things make your party(s) special and unique?

Christmas Food: Coconut Snowmen

Years ago, my mom found this recipe in a Taste of Home magazine. She made these cute little buggers way back then, but vowed it was so stressful she’d never do it again.

You know where I’m going with this.

This year, she planned our yearly Ladies Christmas party with a snowman theme. Yup, these cute guys needed to make an appearance!

She has tweaked the recipe some in ways that seem to make it easier to put together. This time she declared them “a little stressful”… so apparently practice makes perfect?? Ha!

Here is the recipe and her updated techniques:

Coconut Snowmen
4 cups flaked coconut, coarsely chopped
3 ¾ cups confectioners sugar
⅔ cup sweetened condensed milk
¼ cup butter, softened
White candy melts
Milk chocolate candy melts
1 package large marshmallows
Decorator gel icing (orange for the nose, red for the holly, another color for the eyes and mouth)
Green leaf-shaped candies (found in christmas sprinkles)


To make the coconut ball:
Combine coconut, confectioner’s sugar, milk and butter. Shape into 1 ¼ inch balls; place on waxed paper-lined cookie sheets. Chill for 1 ¼ hours or until firm.

To make them into snowmen:
Melt your white candy melts. {We put it in a bowl and set it on a hot griddle to keep it softened and warm while we are working with it. You can melt it in the microwave, too.} Once it is melted and stirred smooth, dip coconut balls; place on waxed paper cookie sheets. Chill until firm, about 15 minutes.

Melt the milk chocolate candy melts. When it is softened and smooth, dip each marshmallow in until completely covered. Set on waxed paper cookie sheets, allowing the excess to pool around the bottom and make the brim of the “hat.” Chill until firm, about 15 minutes.

{A note about this dipping process: this is the stressful part, making these come out looking like you want. This time, mom found using a fork was the best method - piercing the top of the coconut balls or marshmallows with a fork and dipping them into the melted chocolate, then transferring them onto waxed paper. The top of the coconut ball will not be seen anyway, and she just dropped a little more chocolate on top of the marshmallow after placing it on the waxed paper, to cover up the fork holes. Just find what works best for you!}

With a knife, level the top of the coconut balls. Use a dab of melted white chocolate to attach the marshmallow “hats” onto the ball.

Use gel icing to add eyes, mouth, and nose. Add “holly’ to the front of each hat. Be creative! What other embellishments could you use?

This recipe yields about 4 dozen coconut balls. How many snowman you end up with depends on your patience. :)

I wish I had more pictures of the "afters" because they were just so stinkin' cute, there wasn't much time for picture taking. These guys didn't last very long! Chocolate and marshmallow is pretty much one of my favorite combinations...it makes the coconut worth it, in my opinion, lol!

Have you been doing any holiday baking? Let me know if you try this recipe!

Linked up with Kraven It!

Christmas Cookies!

Holly and I talked last week about making Christmas cookies, and I mentioned having some little ones around to help me with it. Here are some pictures (and the recipe!):

It definitely involves making a BIG mess....

Carefully cutting out the shapes....

Frosting them....

And some very serious sprinkleputtingoning....

But boy, are these things good!

We just won't say how many fingers got licked in the process. ;)

Here is the easy peasy recipe....

Sugar Cookies

Cream: 1 1/3 cups soft butter, 1 1/2 cups sugar, and 2 eggs

Add: 2 teaspoons vanilla, 1/4 cup milk, 4 cups of flour, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, and 3 tsp. baking powder.

Divide dough in half. Chill 1 hour.

Roll out on floured surface. Bake on greased cookie sheet at 350 degrees for 6-8 minutes.


Frosting: cream 1/2 cup shortening and 1/2 cup butter.

Add 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla, 5 cups confectioners sugar, 3 teaspoons milk, and 2 egg whites.

Color them red (or pinkish, like mine) and green, if desired, and top with loads of sprinkles!

This is a necessary part of Christmas, I tell ya. Don't miss out on the fun and yumminess!