Whew! We Survived!!

Wow, we made it through the last weeks of the Christmas season! I wasn’t so sure we’d make it, it got busy between baking, making candies and treats, and a hectic work schedule.

This season, Jess and I learned some new to us recipes. Now, I’ve been cooking and baking for 41 years, but I’ve by no means made everything holiday related. There is so so much to learn, and it’s pretty fun trying out ideas! Social media has been a great place to look, especially when you have great friends who love to share with you wonderful recipes they’ve found.

The first thing I tried out was Cookies and Cream popcorn. It’s a base of sugar syrup, with added vanilla pudding and crushed Oreos. It was a hit here at home!

Cookies and Cream popcorn

Super easy to make, disappears quickly!!

Then, I tried Cookie Monster popcorn. This has a base of the Cookies and Cream, plus blue coloring and Wilton eyes. I need to work on the eyes as they turned blue as well and disappeared into the popcorn.

Cookie Monster popcorn

P is for Popcorn

After the Cookies and Cream and Cookie Monster, I tried Grinchy popcorn. Grinchy popcorn has a sugar syrup and green coloring. It tastes super sweet and is rather addictive. I added imperial cinnamon candies for the Grinch’s heart.

Grinch popcorn, with imperial candies

The recipes for these will be coming soon to this website—free, of course. You will love how they taste, and soon make your own variations of it to suit your own tastes. That is the best part of recipes—making them your own!

Jessica learned how to make brownies from scratch over the fall market season, and she created some with Ghiradelli chocolate in the batter. They taste(d) amazing! The brownie recipe came from Tiffany Hill at The Pink Crumbb .

Pink Crumbb Brownie

Jessica then learned to make Rice Crispy treats. She used a base recipe, then added things like crushed peppermints, sprinkles, chocolate cereal, etc. She loved these, and so did we—they were horrendous on my diabetes but they were so so good! I’ve been building and working out recipes for different flavors, as I did some trials of my own to take to work, and they went over very well.

Christmas Confetti rice crispy treat

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The OG rice crispy treat, super buttery and marshmallowy

Peppermint candy and sprinkles rice crispy treat

I worked on salted caramel maple, banana cream, and a tropical blend of banana, orange, coconut, and rum. The crews at work and my coworkers really enjoyed these. Hubby loved the tropical one and I had to make an extra pan for us. I will be adding recipes for these to the site here as well, as soon as I get them written properly.

I learned how to make fudge as well, a basic recipe that turned into a recipe called Coal. This went over very well at work, where we have coal loads daily. It has a white chocolate base, black coloring, and tastes great. I set it up in powdered sugar to keep it from sticking to itself in layers of wax paper, and it worked out quite well.

What was your favorite Christmas goodie this year?

This weekend while the weather is rough, Jess is going to learn how to make cake from scratch. She’s got an interest in learning how to make cupcakes, so she is going to learn how to make them without a box mix. Scratch cakes are so much tastier than a box mix, and should we sell these down the line, our customers deserve better than a cheap mix from the store. We’re hoping the electric stays on, as the winter storm and the ice/wind involved will threaten the power lines. But, should they hold up, the smell of fresh cake will be a nice thing to have.

What kind of cookies, candy, treat, or cake do you prefer to enjoy the most? Do you have a particular one that you think we should try out here? We’re all ears! Give us a holler and we’ll sure try!

You have a wonderful, blessed week, and we’ll be back soon!