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Magazine Christmas Trees

December 17, 2009 By

Magazine Trees

I went to my friend Beth’s house for a Christmas party a few weeks ago, and she had these cute little Christmas trees set out. I really liked the look of them–they are so simple and modern, and when she told them she made them from old magazines, I liked them even more!  I think I might try to make them sometime next week.  I’ll let you know how that goes! You can learn how make them at Martha Stewart’s website. If you’ve never checked out her site before, she has oodles of fun projects–some easy, some more complicated.  So if you’re in a crafty mood, definitely go browse.

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Minty Delights (the closest cookie to Thin Mints I’ve ever tasted!)

December 14, 2009 By

Minty Delights

Craving a Thin Mint but it isn’t Girl Scout cookie time?  Just want a fun new holiday cookie recipe?  Have I got the cookie for you!  How was that?  I’m practicing for my future career as a QVC saleswoman! Okay, not really.  BUT…I did just make these cookies for a cookie exchange and they are quite delish!  So delish, I decided I had to post the recipe immediately!

Minty Delights

(makes 3 dozen)

  • 3/4 cup butter
  • 1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
  • 2 tablespoons water
  • 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 18-36 Andes Mints (depending on how minty you want the top!)
  1. In a large pan over low heat, cook butter, sugar and water until butter is nice and melted. Add the chocolate chips and stir until partially melted. Remove from heat and continue to stir until chocolate is completely melted. At this point,  you may feel the need to stick a large spoon into the pan and overdose on chocolatey goodness.  Please resist.  Pour into a large bowl and let stand 10 minutes to cool off slightly.
  2. At high speed, beat in eggs, one at a time into chocolate mixture. Reduce speed to low and add dry ingredients, beating until blended. Chill dough about 1 hour.
  3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
  4. Roll dough into balls and place on ungreased cookie sheet about 2 inches apart. Bake 8-10 minutes. While cookies are baking unwrap mints and divide each in half, or keep them whole depending on how gooey you want your minty topping. You may need to have a mint or two to tide you over until the cookies are done cooling. Cookie Balls
  5. When cookies are brought out of the oven, put 1/2 mint (or whole mint) on top of each cookie. Let the mint sit for up to 5 minutes until melted, then spread the mint on top of the cookie.  Don’t worry, the chocolate will be perfectly spreadable.  Trust me.  I know. When your done spreading around the chocolate, they’ll look like they do at the top!  They will  need to cool for a bit, so to speed up that process (if you’re running late to a cookie exchange like I was when I made these) you may throw them in the fridge for awhile.  Enjoy!Almost Done!
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Unique Hostess Gift Idea

December 13, 2009 By

It’s been a great weekend filled with holiday parties!  Tis the season, eh?  As much as I love wine, I know that every time we have a party at our house, we end up with five or ten extra bottles as everyone brings one as the standard hostess gift.  Don’t get me wrong, I love a good bottle of vino, but I wanted to take something to our hosts last night that was a little more thoughtful.   So I decided to put together a little bag filled with goodies that they could have for breakfast the next morning!  I don’t know about you, but the morning after a party, when we have empty beer bottles on our counters and the random brownie inevitably smooshed into our floor, the last thing I want to think about is breakfast!  So I whipped up a batch of blueberry muffins, chopped up some fruit for a fruit salad, and bought a few individual bottles of oj and apple juice and packaged them all nicely in gladware containers and then in a larger gift bag:

Muffins

Fruit Salad

Great idea, right?  I was headed to an all-girls party (party #1) before the party I was taking this gift to (co-ed, party #2), so I had my hubby, who was meeting me at party #2 bring the gift.  It was in the fridge, so I reminded him several times, “Don’t forget to take the hostess gift!!!”  Well, he was wonderful, and remembered to bring it to the party; he arrived about 30 minutes before I did, and handed off the breakfast in a bag to the Mrs. of the house.  However, I apparently did not explain well enough (or at all, if you were hearing this from my hubby) the concept of this gift, as he gave the bag of goodies to her to put out on the food table right then.  When I came in 30 minutes later, I explained the premise of the gift and she promptly stuck the fruit in the fridge (sadly the muffins had already been devoured). She did tell me that the fruit was wonderful to have on hand this morning! Oh well…next time I’ll know to explain the gift a little better! In any case, in this holiday season, mind the words of Emily Post and “Never arrive at a party without a gift for your Host!”

Oh, and one more thing – I know you’re all probably eager to know how I’m liking my canisters, I’ll let the picture do the talking…

Canisters

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In the dark of the night

December 12, 2009 By

First of all, Happy Birthday Caroline!  My little sister is 19 today!!!!!

A few days ago, I listened to a This American Life episode about things people do in the middle of the night when no one is watching.  What do I do?  I decorate my house for Christmas!  I came home from work and grocery shopping to my hubby sleeping on the couch.  We’ve both been working long hours this week and have party after party (not that I’m complaining!). As you now, we purchased our tree on Monday and it’s been sitting undecorated and looking a little sad since then, so I was determined to decorate it tonight. Of course, after making dinner (crab cakes, yum!) and relaxing with the hubby (he eventually woke up) for a few minutes, it was 9:30…but I had my plan, and I was sticking to it!  So here I sit, blogging,  5 hours later…but with a clean kitchen, a decorated tree, a Christmas-a-fied house, and a clean floor!

My hubby helped decorate for a bit, and even stuck it out through the annual White Christmas viewing, but he crashed sometime shortly after that.  I debated going to bed, but it would have meant leaving the house in a complete mess, which I really, really didn’t want to wake up to in the morning!  So I pushed through and even got a second burst of energy (which led to me cleaning the kitchen floor…I know…I’m seriously nutso).  So now our house looks like this…

Garland

MantelTree

I LOVE it!  I did more of a stylized tree this year, and I really like it!  Eventually, I’d like to have a pretty stylized tree, and then a family-friendly tree with all the ornaments I have from my childhood and such.  But for now, I feel like one tree is plenty.
And….guess what came in the mail today!!!!

Canisters!

Yeah!!!!! I got them on sale at the NEX (the Navy Exchange….the tax-free department store on base) for 30 off what they were at Macy’s plus no-tax! So, I had to get them. And I LOVE them.  They have a wide mouth so I can easily fit the 1 cup measuring cup, the lid seals really well, but it’s also easy to get off!  I can’t wait to do some baking this weekend!  It’s 3:00am, so I think that means it’s time to head to bed.  Goodnight everyone…and Happy Birthday Caro!

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