Happy Christmas Eve!

After I got off work this morning, I spent the rest of the day wrapping gifts and baking for the holidays. I sat around all month feeling smug because I had all of my shopping done early but I was really grumbling at myself today for waiting so long to wrap everything.

All my knitted goodies wrapped and ready to go.

I decided to make some tassels this year in lieu of bows. I dug out some random red acrylic yarn and went to town. I think they look really neat, but they're definitely going to have to be cut off the packages. I don't think there is any other way to do it without making a giant mess.


I also made some buckeyes this year! I used the recipe from eat make read.



Ronnie helped me with the chocolate dipping. He didn't want to use a skewer on them so we used a spoon to ladle them out of the chocolate so the wax paper isn't looking so pretty in these pictures. I used ghirardelli dark chocolate chips for the coating. I'm usually a huge fan of dark chocolate but these chips taste a little bitter to me.

I forgot to add the salt when I was making these, I'm not sure if it made a huge difference because they still taste delicious. Ronnie has already eaten about 20 of them. :)


I'm going to pack up a few bags of these to take to friends and family and here is my first experiment. More yarn.

I made some brownies too, but they were from the box and don't look very special so I won't bore people with a picture of them. There is just something about the Duncan Hines chewy fudge brownies that bring me to my knees.


We're going to spend our annual evening with the Karnes family tonight so I'll be sure to take a picture of Sarah with the Ishbel I made for her. After that were going to midnight mass with my mom and Auntie Kay so we can see my great aunt sing in the choir. I haven't been to church in years so if I never post again everyone can rest assured that I spontaneously caught on fire upon entering the doors.

Gourmet Double Chocolate Chunk Cookies Recipe

One of the things that I really love about Disney World is the food. When I stumbled on the recipe page on allears, I was pretty sure I found heaven on earth. Here is a recipe for one of my favorite cookies in the Magic Kingdom.

Gourmet Double Chocolate Chunk Cookies from the Main Street Bakery
Ingredients:

1 cup Butter
1 tablespoon Brown sugar
1 cup Sugar
2 large Eggs
1/4 teaspoon Vanilla
1/4 cup Cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups Flour
1/4 teaspoon Baking soda
1/4 teaspoon Salt
18 oz. Semisweet chocolate chunks

Method:

Preheat oven 375 F. Cream butter, sugars, vanilla, and cocoa powder. Stir in remaining ingredients and blend well. Refrigerate 30 minutes. Drop dough by rounded teaspoons onto ungreased cookie sheet about 2" apart. Bake until cookies are set, 5-8 minutes. Cool slightly and remove from pan. When making large cookies, press down slightly on cookie dough to help cook more evenly. Bake slightly longer, 8-10 minutes.

These cookies have a spongy, cakey like consistency, but taste like a brownie. I had a bit of a problem finding a happy medium for a cooking time using our new pans that we got for a wedding gift. I ended up having to cook mine for 8 minutes on the bottom shelf, and then for 3 on the top.

Rich and Creamy Potato Casserole Recipe

If there is 2 things that I love, it's cheese and potatoes. Put the two of them together and I'm in heaven. My mom e-mailed me this recipe yesterday and I went out early today to get the ingredients to try it out. They are easy and absolutely DELICIOUS!

Rich and Creamy Potato Casserole
6 medium potatoes
2 cups sour cream
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
3 green onions
4 tablespoons melted butter
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper

Place potatoes in a large saucepan and cover with water, bring to a boil, reduce heat and cover and cook for additional 15-20 until tender. Drain and cool.

Peel & grate potatoes; place in a bowl. Add the sour cream, cheddar cheese, 3 tbsp of butter, onions, salt & pepper.

Transfer to a greased baking dish. Drizzle remaining butter (1 tbsp). Bake uncovered at 350degrees for 30-35 minutes.



I cut this recipe in half since I was only cooking for myself and Ronnie. I picked up 4 potatoes from the grocery store, but 3 was plenty. I've never boiled potatoes in their skins so this was a first for me. From now on if I ever need to boil potatoes I'm going to do it this way. It makes peeling them so easy, I could peel the skin off with my fingers. I didn't use the onion in mine since we aren't big fans of them. My mom made hers with a sweet onion. Next time I make this, I will cut the potato cubes a little smaller because they were a little awkward for me to eat in one bite. So Yummy!

Boiled potatoes cooling off

All of the ingredients ready for the oven.

Anxiously awaiting them to cool so I can eat them up!

Happy birthday Mumsie

Today is my moms birthday, but we celebrated yesterday. I decided I wanted to bake her something but since I was in a bit of a rush, I didn't go complicated. I ended up making her some Duncan Hines cupcakes straight from the box. I made these for Ronnie when we first started dating and they were such a big hit with him that I decided to make them for my mom this year. I have to admit I'm a sucker for these cake mix boxes because they're so easy to make. This mix has a separate fudge packet (which looks like instant hot chocolate) that you mix with the vanilla cupcake ingredients. It's given me an idea for some of the ghirardelli hot chocolate mix I have laying around. I have so many things on my 'to bake' list, but this is certainly something I'd like to experiment with.

Speaking of my 'to bake list', my mom gave me 2 recipes that I can't wait to try out here. Her famous banana bread, and some cheesy potatoes. Yum, I can't wait!