Valentine's Day Ideas

We're on the search for the perfect Valentine's Dad candy or cookie.  Something to mail to my nephew.  At Christmas time I told him that he was officially a member of the Dessert of the Month Club.  That means Aunt Erin has to send a dessert to him every month.  The only problem is, he lives in Chicago and I want a dessert that will mail okay and get there in one piece and not get stale.  Hmmm....

Until we find that ultimate dessert, I thought I'd share some of our Valentine's Day ideas we posted last year.

Stained Glass Cookies

Milky Way Stuffed Sugar Cookies

Heart Lollipops

Candy iPods

Chocolate Emergency Can

Valentine Rocket

Puppy Love Dinner

Now for this year.  We'd better get started!


I'm linking to the parties on my sidebar.

Pecan Tassies With A Twist And Week 12

I can't believe the 12 Weeks of Christmas Cookies Blog Hop is over. Twelve weeks! I have had so much fun baking along with all of you. It's been great to see everyone's creations and find so many new recipes that I can't wait to try. I'm honored to have been a part of this great blog hop and want to thank Abby over at Abby Sweets for doing all of this.

For the last week of this great cookie extravaganza I decided to make another of my all time favorite holiday cookies, Pecan Tassies. I love those little pies of goodness. And that's really saying something because I don't like nuts in my food and I surely don't like pie. I know, what's wrong with me, right? But these just call me name and I love them.

So last year when my Mom called me and said she found a new recipe for Pecan Tassies I was skeptical. Change an already perfect cookie? Impossible. But then she told me that she put crushed up Heath bars in the tarts as well. Okay, at this point in the conversation I stopped being able to hear my Mom because a light went on in my kitchen and I started hearing angels singing. Seriously! If you know me at all you know about my obsession with Heath candy. So I got right on it and made them with Heath bits.

And I thought they were perfect before. I now have a new favorite recipe. They are awesome!!! The only complaint I have with this recipe is that it only makes 24 little "pies". 24! Like that'll last more than a day in my house! So I have to at least double (if not triple) the recipe. And no, it's not just me eating all of these. My son also loves them. Strange. Can't get him to eat soup or even a casserole but he'll eat these little mystery pies.

Ingredients:
* 1/2 cup butter
* 3 ounces cream cheese
* 1 cup flour

* 1 egg
* 3/4 cup brown sugar
* 1 Tbls. butter
* 1 tsp. vanilla
* dash salt

* 1/2 cup Heath bits

- Preheat over to 325 degrees.
- Beat the first 3 ingredients until well blended. Chill for about an hour.- In a small mixing bowl, beat egg, brown sugar, butter, vanilla and salt until well blended.- Roll the dough into 24 one inch balls.
- Place into ungreased mini muffin pans.- Have you seen this handy, dandy gadget? It's awesome. I bought it from Pampered Chef but I'm sure they have them other places. They work perfectly to smash the dough into cup shapes. (Have I mentioned my obsession with kitchen gadgets???)- I gently pressed the dough around to make the side a little higher.
- Pour about a teaspoon of Heath bits into each muffin cup. The Heath bits I found didn't have chocolate in them (drats) so I added 3 milk chocolate chips to each cup. I like the chocolate taste with the Heath.- Pour in enough of the liquid mixture to almost fill the cups. Be careful not to fill all the way up to the top or else they will spill while they are cooking.- Bake for 25 minutes.
- Remove from oven and allow to cool.- Remove from pan and enjoy!

Come and see all the other great creations for our final week of Christmas Cookie madness!

And don't forget to check out the other linky parties on my sidebar!

White Chocolate Peppermint Fudge & Week 11

Every year at my work we do a Christmas Fudge Throwdown. The staff room is filled with different types of fudge and the staff vote for their favorite. It's all in good fun but some of the staff get pretty into it. By some of the staff I mean me. I'm the one who starts the emails talking smack about everyone and telling them how I'm going to win again. I know. So unlike me, right? But I have to give them grief. I win every year. Yep, me! This was the winning recipe last year (so I'm making it again this year. It's that good!) Doesn't it look festive?

White Chocolate Peppermint Fudge
Ingredients:

* 4 cups sugar

* 1 can (12.5 oz.) evaporated milk

* 1 cup butter

* 1 bag white chocolate chips

* 1 pint (7.5 ounce) marshmallow cream

* 1 tsp. vanilla

* 1 bag Andes Peppermint Crunch Baking Chips

* In a large saucepan melt butter.

* Add sugar and milk.

* Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until it reaches 236 degrees. Make sure you use a candy thermometer because the temperature is important. If it gets too hot it will harden too much. If it doesn't reach 236 degrees it will be too soft to cut.

* Remove from heat and add chocolate chips, marshmallow cream and vanilla.

* Beat with a spoon until melted and blended.

* Fold in about 1/2 the bag of peppermint chips. (Have you seen these? They are amazing! I'm sure you could use chopped p candy canes if you wanted but I don't like the hardness of the candy canes in baking. These chips are soft, like a chocolate chip almost.)

* Pour into a buttered 9 x 13 pan.

* Sprinkle the remaining peppermint chips on top.

* Cool completely

How easy is that?

A

nd don't forget to check out all the other amazing creations in the 12 Weeks of Christmas Cookies Blog Hop. Week 11 already. Yoikes! Only one more week to go.

And all the great linky parties on my sidebar too!

Candy Cane Blossoms and 12 Weeks of Christmas Cookies

Can you believe I haven't baked in over 2 weeks? I know! If you know me, you know how much that hurts me to even type that. Baking is therapy for me. But it's more than that. It's a time when my kids and I gather in the kitchen, laugh and create wonderful things to eat. It's a time when it's just us; no TV or distractions. We talk about the day or what we are going to do for the rest of the weekend. I get to teach my kids about family traditions and recipes as well as skills in the kitchen that will last them a lifetime.

One of the best parts about baking so much is that I have a freezer full of delicious baked goods. I love it. If I'm going to a friend's house I can pull out a couple of containers of cookies and make up a beautiful platter of assorted cookies. If I feel like taking treats to work, they are there. Or if I fall down the stairs (ugh) I have some morsels in my freezer that I can eat that will make everything better. (Sweets do that, you know?!)

We made these Candy Cane Blossoms before my fall. I'm thankful that we "thought ahead" so that I didn't have to miss week 10 of the 12 Weeks of Christmas Cookies Blog Hop. This has been so much fun participating in these past 10 weeks and I've found so many new blogs that I LOVE and now follow.

These cookies are so festive. I liked that about them! Don't get me wrong, I am a lover of all cookies! But Christmas time is my favorite and I love anything that reminds me of the season. And these did. The recipe came from the Hershey's Kisses package. How easy is that?! And the Hershey's Kisses are amazing! They are the Candy Cane ones. Have you seen them in the stores? If you haven't you have missed out. I used them last week also in my Shortbread Kissed Brownies. Yum!Ingredients
* Hershey's Kisses
* 1/2 cup butter, softened
* 1 cup sugar
* 1 egg
* 1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
* 2 cups flour
* 1/4 tsp. baking soda
* 1/4 tsp. salt
* 2 Tbls. milk
* red or green sugar crystals

Directions
* Heat over to 350 degrees.
* Remove wrappers from candies (get a little helper for this). =o)
* Beat butter, sugar, egg and vanilla in large bowl until well blended.
* Stir together flour, baking soda, salt and add alternately with milk to the butter and sugar mixture.
* Shape dough into 1 inch balls.
* Roll in red or green sugar crystals.
* Place on ungreased cookie sheet and bake for 8 - 10 minutes or until edges are slightly browned.
* Remove from oven and let cool about 2 minutes.
* Press a candy piece into the center of each cookie and allow to cool completely. (Kisses will harden back up after they have cooled off.)I thought they needed a little something more (do I always say that???) so I drizzled white chocolate over them. Pretty festive looking, don't you think? And the candy cane Kisses are amazing!!!Now come join me and check out the other amazing cookies in this week's blog hop!

And don't forget to check out the other great linky parties on my sidebar!

Shortbread Candy Cane Kissed Brownies & 12 Weeks of Christmas Cookies

I can hardly believe we are already at week 9 of the 12 Weeks of Christmas Cookies Blog Hop. This has been so much fun seeing everyone's amazing creations. My stack of "to make" recipes is now huge but I can't wait to start baking them all!

We still haven't been doing much cooking at my house since my fall. The ankle is slowly getting better (thanks for all the well wishes) but it's not quite up to me standing in the kitchen for any length of time. So thank goodness I baked these bad boys before I decided to through myself down the stairs. Am I a planner or what??? =o)

I would love to claim this recipe as my own but I can't. Baking I can do. Creating a new recipe? That's a different story. I rely on everyone else's creativity and I just copy it. =o) So this idea came from Picky Palate's blog (which I absolutely love!) Here's were a Halloween version so I changed this up a bit to make it more Christmas-y. It's a great combination of flavors - shortbread (yum!), peppermint kisses and brownie. A trifecta of deliciousness!

Ingredients:
* 9x13 brownie mix (and ingredients to make brownies)
* 2 sticks butter
* 1/2 cup sugar
* 2 Tbsp. packed brown sugar
* 1 3/4 cup flour
* 1/4 tsp. salt
* Hershey's Kisses (I used the seasonal candy cane kisses - YUM!)

1. Preheat over to 350 degrees.
2. Make brownie mix according to package and set aside.
3. Beat butter and sugars until creamy. Add flour and salt.
4. Press shortbread mixture into a prepared 9x13 pan. (Line with tin foil and then spray with non-stick cooking spray.)
5. Top shortbread mixture with Hershey kisses.
6. Pour brownie mixture over top of kisses.
7. Bake for about 35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

There's a close up for you. See the kiss in there?

They needed a little something so I melted some white chocolate and drizzled it over the top. What an amazing combination of flavors! The Candy Cane Kisses are peppermint so they added the right amount of flavor to these.
So now come check out what everyone else has been baking!

And don't forget to check out the other great linky parties on my sidebar!

Salted Caramel Butter Bars & 12 Weeks of Christmas Cookies

When I saw this recipe over on Cookies and Cups I knew it was going to be one of my new favorite cookies. The pictures were so delicious looking and I love buttery shortbread cookies. So I thought this would be perfect for week 8 of the 12 Weeks of Christmas Cookies Blog Hop. Yep, you read that right. Week 8. Yoikes. That means Christmas is almost here! Yeah!

Salted Caramel Butter Cookies
For the crust:
1 lb. salted butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
2 Tbls. vanilla
4 cups flour

For the filling:
1 bag (14 ounces) caramel candies, unwrapped
1/3 cup milk or cream
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 Tbls. coarse Sea Salt (optional)

To make the crust: In a large mixer, beat butter and sugars until creamy. Add vanilla. Slowly add the flour and mix until smooth.

Spray a 9x13 pan with cooking spray.
Spread about half of the crust dough in the pan to form the bottom crust.
Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
Bake crust for about 20-25 minutes (until lightly golden brown.)
Remove from the oven and let cool for about 15 minutes.
While bottom crust is cooling and the remaining dough is chilling, make with filling.

Place the unwrapped caramels in a microwave safe bowl. Add cream and vanilla. Cook on high for 1 minute. Stir. Continue to cook in the microwave for 30 seconds and stir until all the caramel is melted.

Pour over crust layer. I didn't quite melt all of my caramel because I was a little impatient. I wanted to hurry up and bake these so I could eat them!
Sprinkle the caramel layer with Sea Salt if you chose to use it.

Crumble the remaining dough over the caramel layer and bake for 25-30 minutes (until filling is bubbly and top layer is lightly golden brown).
Now here's the hard part... let cool. I wanted to cut into them right away because they smelled so yummy. So fight it... let them cool.
Doesn't that look amazing??? Here's a close up so you can lick the screen =o)
When they are cool, cut into squares and devour!
I know I say a lot of cookies are amazing but these kick amazing into a whole new realm. These are fantastically amazing!

www.lambaround.blogspot.com

Now come and see what everyone else has been working on.

And don't forget to check out the other great linky parties on my sidebar!