Christmas Treats!

Got a sweet tooth? This post is for you :)

Chocolate Covered Peppermint Oreos

Ingredients

Oreos
candy canes
white chocolate chips or milk chocolate chips
dab of vegetable oil

Put your candy canes (3-4) in a plastic bag, seal, and then hit candy canes with a rolling pin until they are in small pieces. Be careful not to crush them into powder. Bring 2 cups of water to a boil in a small sauce pan and place a glass bowl on top (large enough to seal the steam inside the pot). Pour your chocolate chips into the bowl and heat until melted, stirring often. Stirring often will ensure the chocolate does not burn. Add a teaspoon of vegetable oil to the chocolate to thin it out a bit. Once the chocolate is melted, begin dipping your oreos, making sure they are coated on all sides, and place them on a cookie sheet that has been covered in wax paper. The next step is great for little helpers. Sprinkle your peppermint on all of the cookies while the chocolate is still melted. Place cookie sheet in the fridge to cool for a bit and then INDULGE! Yum!

Get a festive Christmas cookie tin and share with your coworkers or neighbors. These would be a great gift!

Classic Christmas Sugar Cookies

Every year the girls and I make sugar cookies (OK, I admit it- they are slice and bake) and decorate them with icing and tons of sprinkles (a few cookies get decorated with M&M's, but most of those end up missing :) This year we decided to invite a few friends over who also have this Christmas tradition and make it a baking party! We got lucky this year and had a great recipe for homemade sugar cookies that our friends helped us make. Kids or no kids, it's fun to bake and decorate cookies at the holidays!

Ingredients

2/3 cup shortening
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon orange zest
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg
4 teaspoons milk
2 cups sifted all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

Heat oven to 375 degrees.

Chef Ansley, Chef Ava, Chef Harper, and Chef Stella

Thoroughly mix sugar, shortening, orange zest, & vanilla in a medium mixing bowl. Add egg and beat until the mixture is light and fluffy. Stir in the milk. Sift together dry ingredients and blend in creamed mixture. Divide dough in half and chill for one hour in the refrigerator. Cover dough and counter lightly with flour. Roll dough to 1/8 of an inch. Use your Christmas cookie cutters to cut dough into shapes. Bake on a lightly greased cookie sheet 6-8 minutes (do not let cookies brown on top). If your cookie shapes vary drastically in size, seperate the smaller cookies and larger cookies onto 2 different baking sheets because the smaller cookies take less time to bake. Make your icing glaze while the cookies cool.

(Harper wanted to wear her Minnie Mouse dress while baking :)

Icing

1 cup sifted powdered sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon milk- maybe more

In a small bowl, combine ingredients (add milk at a constant drizzle). Ice cookies and add sprinkles right away.

Christmas Wreaths

Who doesn't like rice krispie treats? Click HERE to get the full recipe, but check out the pictures below to see just how fun this treat is to make!

Happy Holidays everyone!

~ Emily

SHE's CRAFTY: Reindeer Beer

Bring a 6 pack for a hostest gift or create a number for your guests to drink at your holiday party! Either way - they will be a hit! Mine are a little different from most because their nose isn't a little red cotton ball; it's an actual Christmas Bow. The truth is the Walmart was out of the little red cotton "noses" and so I improvised - but I think they might be even cuter with the bow!


They are super easy to make.


What you need:
Bottled Beer
Brown Pipe Cleaners
Craft "Eyes"
Little Christmas Bows

Take the pipe cleaner, wrap it around the cap and twist the two ends together. Cut small strip of pipe cleaner to wrap around to the ends of the antlers. Put the eyes and the bows in place and you are done!

Happy Holiday's!!!


xoxo,
Melissa

SHE's CRAFTY: Treats for the Holidays!

ROLO PRETZELS

The Holiday's would not be the same without making the cookies I've been making with my mother since I was a little girl! I have shared my "recipes" with Emily so that she could make some of our absolute favorites! This week, be prepared to see some amazing cookies and treats and we hope that you'll bring them into your home too! They are DELICIOUS!

Let's start with the easiest recipe! The hardest part about making these is unwrapping the Rolos!

What you need:

Rolos (I used two bags)

Pretzels - apparently the square pretzels are easier because the chocolate doesn't melt all the way through like the regular pretzels, so when you make them look for the square pretzels

M&M's (one bag)

You can make different varieties of this treat! Try adding pecans instead of M&M's or Hershey Kisses (the white peppermint is fun for the holidays). Whatever you do, it will taste amazing! But if you use Hershey's Kisses set your oven for a lower temperature and keep them in the oven for less time (keep the light on and watch because they melt a lot faster than rolos)

Set your oven for 350 degrees. Spread the pretzels on a cookie tray, put the rolos on top and put the tray in the oven. Keep your eye on them and as they are beginning to melt pull them out.

Immediately from the oven put the M&M in the rolo and push the rolo into place! Let cool! If you're in the North (my fellow Minnesotans!) put them outside for five minutes and then remove from tray. You can't remove them until the chocolate re-hardens otherwise you will pull up the pretzel but the chocolate will remain on the cookie sheet. If you don't want to worry about waiting for them to cool - put parchment paper down and your pretzels on top so that you can remove the paper and keep using the cookie sheet. 

Picture below is how melted I let them get... :)

And that's it! Just beware, they are addicting!!!

xoxo,

Melissa

SHE's CRAFTY: Holiday Wreath

Create a festive holiday wreath that smells good too!

What you need:
Wooden Wreath Circle (I used Styrofoam and it was challenging because of the weight of the sticks so I would suggest something a little more sturdy)
Yarn - whatever color you'd like
Cinnamon Sticks
Ribbon
Glue Gun


Wrap the circle in your yarn.

Glue the cinnamon sticks onto the yarn. You're going to see the glue so what I did was take the yarn and wrap another layer in between the cinnamon sticks to cover the glue.

Tie a bow around the wreath and then hang it up for all those to see!

xoxo,
Melissa