Nothing Like Hot Chocolate & Homemade Marshmallows

Today was the perfect day to relax, take leisurely baths, play with gifts, and eat leftovers. We just took it easy, came down slowly from the holiday high, and had the same friends over for leftovers that were here yesterday for Christmas dinner. In the late afternoon, Quin & I needed a cocoa break. I am a bit of a cocoa snob, and have been known to make it from scratch with no powdered anything involved. But, I bought a bunch of fair trade organic Cocoa Camino products from friends who were selling them for fund raising, and one of the items was Instant DARK Hot Chocolate Mix! I have been dying to try it and since we had a few homemade marshmallows we made last weekend we needed to eat, we dove right in. The mix was delicious with organic milk, heavenly to say the least. I can't wait to do it again tomorrow. We hope you had a heavenly hot chocolate sort of day...

Nutella Cookies, Yes, NUTELLA Cookies...

Finally, I made them! I have been wanting to make these ever since I read a post about them on the awesome cooking blog, Ginger Rose. I have been back to her blog a few times to read through the mouth watering recipe, and I have now tasted these cookies in all of their wonderfulness. I changed up the recipe a bit, mostly because I could not find hazelnuts anywhere in my grocery store. I decided to use macadamia nuts, since they are so darn yummy in white chocolate macadamia nut cookies...


Ingredients:
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour (I used unbleached)
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp kosher salt (if unavailable, regular salt is fine)
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup chocolate hazelnut spread (recommended: Nutella)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup chopped macadamia nuts (mine were salted and so was my butter, so I didn't need the kosher salt)
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

2. In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

3. In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the butter, chocolate hazelnut spread, sugar, and brown sugar. Cream the ingredients together, about 3-4 minutes.

4. Add the egg and vanilla and beat until smooth, about 1 minute.

5. Hand stir in the flour mixture into the wet ingredients until JUST combined. Add the macadamia nuts and chocolate chips until JUST combined.

6. Using a teaspoon measure, spoon out cookie dough onto a cookie sheet, spacing the mounds evenly apart so they will not spread into each other when baked. Bake until lightly golden around edges, about 10-12 minutes. Transfer cookies to a wire rack and let cook.

Make these, ASAP!

Chocolate Eggs

We don't usually let Quin have a lot of sugar, but since Aunt Julie sent mini chocolate eggs, Q has been averaging one a day. My hubby had to use one to get her to go with him on a truck ride, which she was resisting since she knows she will end up taking a nap. So cute!

Gifts in the Mail

I have been meaning to blog about this for about a week... and yes, I know that still means it would have been two weeks since Valentine's Day, but come on, can you ever really have had enough of the day of love?

My lovely friend and fellow crafter from EveryDayCreate, Bri, who by the way posted a killer interview and follow up about me on her blog The Craft Begins, was chosen as my secret Valentine, by Stacy, who had the great idea. AND I was chosen for Bri! So, I mailed her a little collection of goodies, which I didn't want to blog about here, until she received them. And she sent me an equally cool box of things. Here they are, since pictures are worth a thousand words...

My box to Bri:


Ok, I am still talking, or typing, even though I was supposed to let the photo do it for me... Matted print, photo card, photo magnets, photo pendant, candy necklace, and chocolate!

Bri's box to me:


It should be noted that there were a couple more chocolates that were eaten before I could take a pic, LOL! And my daughter took off with the very cute heart bean bag that was also in this box... The heart with my initials hangs on a door knob and holds my valentines. So cute and so vintage. And the Love Mix is awesome! Nothing like a mixed CD. I truly love it when people send them to me. Thanks, Bri!


May it be noted that Bri lives in Arizona, near the Mexican border, and I live in the Canadian Rockies, so it took awhile for our packages to reach one another. So fun! Like having a pen pal when I was a kid...

You Should Really Make The Brownies...

Photo from the Martha Stewart website

...because they are oooooooohhhhhhhhhhhh sooooooooooooo goooooooooooddddd! When the Martha Stewart Cookie A Day email arrives in my inbox I am sometimes inspired to make the featured yum yum right away. As was the case with these brownies. I LOVE fresh ginger and was impressed that this recipe includes both fresh and dried. The recipe is simple and the results are worth it... even if mine don't look nearly as dark, rich, and chewy as the ones in the MS photo. Snag the recipe here.

Handmade Valentines & Truffles for Kids

My friend, Kristal, from The Rikrak Studios, asked me to contribute some kid crafts and activities to her blog. I love the idea, and asked her if she would consider doing the same for my blog. So, we plan to have a bit of a project tutorial swap on an ongoing basis which we hope you enjoy. Stay tuned!

I teach crafts to kids and seniors in my community, AND I get PAID! I love it! Today, I made valentine cards and truffles with my favorite seniors. I have taught the same projects to kids ages 6 - 12 years old. These are fun and doable projects for all ages if you join in the fun.



Valentine "Puffy Hearts" (as my friend, Sue, calls them)
I LOVE tissue art. It brings me back to childhood. I love the bright colors and texture of the paper. I also find the repetitive

You will need:
- Colorful tissue paper, folded as many times as you can and still cut it into 1" squares (the idea is to make many squares from minimum cuts). You can go as large as 2", but just keep in mind the larger the square, the higher they will be off the paper.
- Hearts cut out of card stock, ours were about 5".
- White glue
- Pencil
- Markers or pen for a greeting

1) It is easiest for kids to write a greeting on the card BEFORE adding the tissue paper.

2) When I do tissue art I put glue in a little bowl and dip, but for kids it seems to be easiest if they make a running bead of white glue around the piece.



3) Put the end of pencil in the middle of a square of tissue paper and wrap the paper around the end of the pencil, then push into the glue on the card, and pull out the pencil. There is no wrong way to do this. The less perfect the better. If a child doesn't have the patience to fill in the whole heart they can still make adorable cards by just putting the paper on the border of the heart.



A variation on this theme is to just put the tissue on the border and then to paste another heart on top so that the tissue paper sticks out the sides.



Truffles



These are not comparable to fine Belgian chocolates, but they satisfy the chocolate cravings of adults and kids alike. They are fast, easy, and yummy! No cooking required, which makes them great for a class (although you need a microwave to melt the butter). I quadruple the recipe.

You will need:
2 1/2 oz graham crackers
4 oz icing sugar
3 Tablespoons cocoa
4 Tablespoons butter, melted
1 teaspoon cinnamon or instant coffee (you can probably tell which is best for kids)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla



1) Put crackers in a clean plastic bag. Use rolling pin to crush them into fine crumbs.

2) Sift flour and cocoa into a bowl. Use a wooden spoon to stir in butter, cinnamon OR coffee, and vanilla.

3) Pour the crumbs into the bowl. Mix them in. Then, use your hands to squeeze the mixture into a ball.



4) Break off pieces of the mixture and roll into small balls the size of walnuts. You can roll the balls in more cocoa, icing sugar, or crushed nuts.

5) Put the finished balls onto a large plate and let cool. Then, package them up in fun Valentine bags or boxes. Give to your sweetheart and hope they will share some with you. Enjoy!

An Old Dog (Me) Learns New Tricks...

I have baked thousands of chocolate chip cookies. I am SURE I have. After all, I used to work at this little general store in Maine, and I would bake things to sell there for extra money. I had my home kitchen licensed and everything. I baked giant banana chocolate chip muffins and blueberry muffins, giant chocolate chip cookies, carrot cake, and brownies. Yet, for some reason, the other day, when I decided it would be a good day for Quin and I to bake some chocolate chip cookies for our friend who made us this holiday basket, I decided to do a little research. I used to know my recipe by heart but since I am pregnant, and old (as the title states), my memory is failing me. And I can't seem to find the written recipe amongst my considerable cookbook, magazine, and loose recipe collection (that's for another post). So I went online for a recipe. Would have LOVED to have tried this one, but didn't have the time or the gourmet chocolate discs (but it is a goal for another day). Decided on this one, although I will rewrite it here in this post since I found the ingredient list to be a bit wonky (I like my ingredients listed in the order they are used, I thought everyone did...). While looking for the recipe, I stumbled onto a lovely little blog called The Bumbling Baker, and in this post she had tips for making better chocolate chip cookies. I had no idea. I decided right then and there to use all the tips during our cookie baking extravaganza...

....am I glad I did! They really made a difference. The cookies would have been good no matter what but they were WONDERFUL, HEAVENLY, DELICIOUS! What were the tips you ask?


1) This one I already knew... always use butter, never margarine. Check!
2) Line your pans with parchment paper. I SWEAR this is why all of my cookies were the same golden brown on both the top and bottom. I have never used parchment paper with my cookies, and will now always use it.
3) This one was a bit of a bust for me... Use an ice cream scoop so that the cookies are the same size. Well, I don't have a mini ice cream scoop, so I used a Tablespoon measuring spoon, but my cookies turned out all different sizes, so I may go back to just using a metal table spoon, since it really doesn't bother me that they differ in size.
4) After placing the dough on your parchment lined cookie sheets, put the sheets in the freezer for a few minutes before baking to prevent the dough from spreading. This worked like a charm! My freezer even had this wire drawer that supported the sheets while keeping them perfectly flat. It was not made for this purpose but worked really well.
5) Press some loose chips into the tops of the cookies to make them picture perfect. Quin had a grand time with this. In fact, you can tell which cookies are mine and which are hers by the number of chips on the tops of the cookies.
Thanks, DLB, fellow baking Canadian!


The only tip I really have for baking cookies would have been to invest in the best cookie sheets you can, but once I used the parchment and put them in the freezer before baking, even my worst pan produced the same results as my Air Bake pan.


BAKER'S CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES
2 1/4 cup All-purpose flour
1 tsp Baking soda
1/2 tsp Salt
1 cup butter (2 sticks)
3/4 cup Firmly packed brown sugar
3/4 cup Granulated sugar
2 Eggs
1 tsp Vanilla
12 oz Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
1 cup Coarsely chopped nuts (opt)

Mix flour with baking soda and salt; set aside.
Beat butter, sugars, vanilla and eggs until light and fluffy.
Blend in flour mixture.
Stir in nuts and chips.
Drop from teaspoon, 2 inches apart, onto ungreased baking sheets.
Bake at 375 for about 10 minutes or until golden brown.
Makes about 6 dozen. (made about 4 doz for me)

Happy Baking! I am off to eat some more cookies...

Ahhhhh, the Weekend....

So, as an artist, who has been self employed for almost 10 years, the weekend is not normally seen as a big deal. My schedule can be all over the board so I don't live for the weekend like someone who works Monday to Friday. My husband, Andre, works pretty much 7 days a week from November to April, as the GM of Norquay, a ski resort. This is the first weekend they are closed. SOOOOOOO, Andre, also known as Daddy/Papa has his first weekend off in months! YEAH!

Currently, until the beginning of May, we have our friends, Mariana & Sylvain, staying with us. They were working at Norquay, so they also have the weekend off. Everyone slept in, we had a big breakfast of eggs with the works, and then Andre took Quin to Motoring Munchkins for the first time since October. We had planned to make a snowman this afternoon, but the snow is too powdery. After a short while outside we came in and made homemade hot chocolate with on the stovetop with milk and some almond chocolate I bought in Mexico in January.

Enjoy my little photo essay of a perfect snowy weekend day apres outdoor fun.

Vintage Inspired Chocolate

Dad and Tillie, my little sis, were here for 3 fun filled days. I am 34, my sis is 9. We didn't get any crafting in, but we did make it to the antique shop and the thrift store to go rummaging. I found an awesome set of copper molds, that Tillie was able to talk the shop guy down from $18 to $12 (she has the guy wrapped around her little finger, he just loves her!) so I bought them. And this awesome apron for $3! We went home and melted chocolate and poured it in. They set up in the fridge in very little time and popped right out of the molds. Easy-Peasy. And oh so cute! This makes me want to go out and find some delicious Belgian chocolate to use. Anyway, as luck would have it, Andre and I went to Mariana's birthday party at Bruno's Pub tonight and guess what I gave her as a gift... chocolate and a scrabble tile necklace :)