My Early Christmas Present, Girls Weekend Christmas Palooza Recipes and a Texas Toast DEBACLE!!

Hey Y'all!

Sorry, I took the day off yesterday. Literally. I took a personal day and had a wonderful day! I picked up a piece of furniture from a consignment store, did some shopping and enjoyed the beautiful weather! In fact, yesterday afternoon I pulled out my beach chair, poured myself a glass of lemonade, grabbed my kindle and sat my happy hiney on my patio in the sunshine for a few hours. It was so relaxing and I finished a book... True Devotion by Dee Henderson. It is a really good read! Everybody needs a relaxing Monday every now and then!

And, sorry. There is no Christmas Sock of the Day for today and yesterday. It has been in the 70's here and my toes have to be free! They say the colder weather will be back by the end of the week. I can't wait to show off my precious socks that I got this past weekend!

Now!!! If you have ever been to my house, you may notice how much yarn I have. At times, I probably could appear in an episode of hoarders. :) I am not that bad. My yarn is pretty much organized by project and color in my upstairs craft closet. However, I do keep a basket downstairs by my sofa and recliner with all of my current or about to be current projects. Ahem. Recently this basket has gotten OUT OF CONTROL. And, it was an eye sore in my living room. While out shopping with the girls this past weekend, I came across the perfect solution. Since I knew I couldn't fit it in Mitzi Mazda without tying Marie or Toni to the sunroof, I decided to think about it and come back on Monday. If the basket of shelves was still there.. then it was meant to be!

And guess what it now in my living room????? To understand the hideousness.. you must see a before and after shot...

BEFORE.......ACCCCKKKKKK!!!!! My yarn has been multiplying!

AFTER........ SQUEEEEEEE!!!!!!

My living room is much happier now! And, so am I! Santa came to see me a wee bit early! :)


And, now what you have been waiting for! Girls Weekend Christmas Palooza Recipes!
Now, my two favorite recipes I used, I found on Pinterest.. and those folks have blogs who have documented each recipe. Since I was cooking for company and I was under a deadline (read, I hadn't had ANY coffee while I was cooking on Saturday) I forgot to take pictures. So instead of re-inventing the wheel on my blog, I am just going to link to the recipes. I hope you guys really enjoy them! :)

Our favorite part of breakfast on Saturday had to be the make ahead French Toast Bake. Now let me tell you... this recipe calls for Texas Toast. But there is a Texas Toast debacle. After searching several stores for Texas Toast... that I had only seen a few weeks ago, I kept coming up empty handed. Finally the deli manager at my local Food Lion took pity on me and explained what was going on. You see, most Texas Toast in our country was made by Hostess bakeries. And now they are closed. NO MORE TEXAS TOAST FOLKS!!!! So I substituted Pepperidge Farm Farmhouse Hearty White Bread to make my french toast and it turned out great. You could use any hearty bread and I am sure it would be fine. But we really liked the Pepperidge Farm! I also left the crusts on my bread. I am normally not a crust eater... EXCEPT when I eat french toast. The recipe on the blog cuts off the crusts. Don't do it! :)

Here's the link to step by step directions for The French Toast Bake. Make this. Make this for Christmas morning! You won't be sorry!

The other recipe I tried was called Bird's Nest Breakfast Cups. It is a hashbrown base, baked in a muffin tin. Then you add egg, cheese and bacon. It is a great option for protein in the morning and it is easy to make!

Check out Bird's Nest Breakfast Cups here!

Alrighty, Rizzoli and Isles is on and I've got to watch it. I hope y'all have a good Wednesday! We have 10 more school days until Christmas break! :) YAY!

Tootles!
:) JKP

It's Baking Time! Peppermint Dipped Chocolate Cookies

Hey Y'all!

I bet you didn't think that I would be back soooo soon! I have a yummy recipe for some delightful cookies that I wanted to share.

This past weekend my best girlfriends helped me celebrate my 40th birthday. They kindly rented a beach house for the night so we could have a slumber party! You can see a few pics of our celebration in yesterday's post. We decided that instead of going out, we would all bring a dish to share. I spied these cookies in a Red Plum coupon circular a few weeks ago and I had been dying to try them out. This presented the perfect opportunity! The Peppermint Dipped Chocolate Cookies were a hit!

I love this time of year because you can find the best baking and cooking recipes in the most unusual places. I am a magazine hog and usually by a ton this time of year. Some of my favorite holiday and everyday dishes come from things I have found around this time of year. My big purchase last year was The Fix It and Forget It Best Recipes of 2011. Boy. That has provided plenty of yummy dishes for this year!

To make these budget friendly and yummy cookies you will need:

1 package of Pillsbury Chocolate Cookie Mix with Crushed Peppermint Candy. (I found mine at the evil empire.)
1/2 cup of butter softened
1 large egg
1 16oz container of Pillsbury Peppermint Frosting (Again, the evil empire)
*This made a batch of 32 cookies for me. I always like to know what to expect!

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Open the box of cookie mix and remove the peppermint candy pouch to use later. Combine the cookie mix, butter and egg in a bowl. Mix with a spoon until the dough is soft. Drop by rounded teaspoons on a parchment paper covered cookie sheet 2 inches apart. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes or until the edges are set. Remove from the oven and let them cool for 2 minutes. Then place the cookies on a wire rack to cool completely.

 

Once the cookies have cooled completely, microwave the container of frosting for 20 seconds and stir. Make sure the lid is off. DUH. Then microwave for 10 more seconds. Dip the cooled cookies about halfway into the frosting. You can scrape the excess off if needed. Place the cookie back on the wire rack.
*(See NOTE!) Then immediately add the peppermint pieces from the candy pouch ASAP so they will stick as the frosting cools. Continue to dip until all the cookies are coated and sprinkled. I let the cookies sit out for a few hours until I knew the frosting was set.

 

*I placed some plastic wrap underneath the wire racks as I was adding the frosting and and peppermint pieces. It helps with clean up!

That's it! Very easy with pretty AND yummy results. :) So bake up a batch, turn on the Hallmark Channel's Countdown to Christmas Movie Marathon and enjoy!

This weekend I am thinking about putting up my Christmas Tree(s). My girls and I are also going to see Breaking Dawn Part 2. Thank goodness next week is only a two day school week, I am so tired!

I hope you have baking in your plans this weekend too! I do! Look what landed in my grocery cart yesterday....

SQUEE!! More baking for me too!

Also, stay tuned. I have big cooking plans for Turkey Day.. and it involves my Crockpot!

Tootles!
:) JKP

White Chocolate Covered Popcorn Goodness

Hey Y'all!

Well. I finally made it! I am sitting here in my jammies, drinking coffee and blogging. Ahhhh..... I am so happy to finally be on Winter Break! Pitty Pat even let me sleep in until 8:15 this morning and that was such a gift! He is very excited that I am home. He keeps following me from room to room to see if I am leaving for school!

I woke up this morning, turned on the Christmas Tree(s), brewed some coffee and just took it easy. Every year, right after I get out of school, I always meet my college roommate Rose for lunch. We are carrying on our tradition today! So, I had better make this blog post quick because I am sure she does not want me picking her up for lunch in my jammies. Even if they are cute! :)

As I mentioned a few posts ago, I participated in our school's annual goodie exchange. There were 29 folks who participated this year. I really didn't feel like baking (yes, I think something is wrong with me), but I wanted to do something that was festive and different. So, logged onto my new favorite pastime (Pinterest) and found some great ideas! I finally settled on a recipe for White Chocolate Popcorn. Because let's face it, who doesn't love salty and sweet?

To make the White Chocolate Covered Popcorn you will need:

2 bags of microwaved popcorn (you can use butter, I used light butter!)
16 oz of white chocolate chips melted (melt these over the stove, not in the microwave)
1 cup of M and M's (I used green and red)
2 cups mini marshmallows
2 cups of pretzel sticks broken in half, not crushed
About 1 cup of melted dark chocolate (I got a bag of meltable chips from AC Moore and used those!)
*You can also use about a cup of peanuts too. Since I am allergic to those, I left them out!
2 cookie sheets or jelly roll pans

To start, pop the popcorn according to your microwave directions. Place the popcorn in a big bowl and make sure to remove any unpopped kernels or ones that don't look edible. In another bowl, combine the M and M's, pretzels, and marshmallows.

Over low heat, melt the white chocolate chips. Stir constantly. When melted, pour the mixture over the M and M's, pretzels and marshmallows until evenly coated.

Now, for the next part, you can use a really big bowl, or a huge gallon size Ziploc bag. Since I was making two batches I did both, and they both worked well.

Add the white chocolate covered mixture to the 2 bags of popcorn. Stir or shake well.

Once you see that everything has been covered and there are no clumps, spread the mixture out on a jelly roll pan or cookie sheet. You will need two because the batch is large.  I covered mine with parchment paper. Break up any clumps with your hands. While the mixture is "resting" melt the dark chocolate chips in the microwave. I started at 30 seconds and stirred well after each session. It only took about two 30 second intervals for my chips to melt.

Using a spoon, drizzle over the popcorn mixture. I have a heavy hand and I was very LIBERAL with the chocolate. The more, the better!

Now, pop the trays into the fridge for about 15 minutes. This will allow the chocolate to harden. When you remove the trays from the fridge, you can break apart pieces of the popcorn. Kind of like brittle! Then place in goodie bags if you are giving them away as gifts... or stand there and eat it all!!

Yum!!! Also, have you noticed? I have been cataloging and organizing stuff on the blog! So know you can tell the knitting posts, cooking posts and crafting posts apart!

I hope you have all of your Christmas shopping done... or KNITTED!!

Tootles!
:) JKP

Popcorn Cake!

Hey Y'all!

Well, there has been a FLURRY of holiday activity at my house over this past weekend. I had a scarf I had to finish knitting up for my granddaddy, goodies to make for a goodie exchange at school today, and a munchie to make for munchie day today too! Throw in there a quick road trip to Lake City yesterday for our family Christmas get together and two more school days. And... on top of it.. my stomach has decided to throw a MAJOR wrench into things. I am not sure if this is a virus or my Crohn's making itself known, but whatever it is.. IT IS NOT NICE!!!

This is the first year that I have actually done the goodie exchange at school. I thought it would be a great way to get into the spirit of the season and have some wonderful goodies on hand throughout the Christmas holiday! I will post that recipe tomorrow.... The one I am going to post today is the munchie I brought for Munchie Day... Popcorn Cake!  My main ingredient for both goodies was..... POPCORN! Which, happens to be a no-no for me right now!

If you need something quick to bring to a holiday party, with little or no fuss... this is it! I found both of these recipes while hunting on Pinterest one night. If you want to lose a few years of your life, join Pinterest!

To make a Popcorn Cake you will need....

2 bags of popped microwave popcorn (sift through the popped corn and toss out any unpopped  
   kernels. No trips to the dentist over Christmas!
2 cups of M and M's (I used red and green to be festive)
2 cups of pretzels (broken, not crushed)
1 stick of butter
1 bag of 16oz marshmallows
A bundt pan (We have a BIG joke about this in my family... if  you have ever seen My Big Fat Greek Wedding.. you will get it!)

Combine the first three ingredients into a large bowl.

Then melt one stick of butter on LOW heat. When the butter is melted, add the bag of marshmallows.

 Make sure you are on LOW heat. Marshmallows burn very easily. And, don't forget to STIR!

Just about perfect!

Now, drizzle the melted butter and marshmallow goodness over the popcorn, pretzel and M and M mixture. Mix well with a spoon. It is WARM.

Transfer the mix to a bundt pan and press down so that it forms against the pan. Let it sit in the bundt pan for about and hour. It will still be gooey.

Run a knife along the inside to loosen the "cake" a bit. Then flip it over onto a plate. I let mine sit out for a few hours more so it would solidify.

Before you serve it, cut into "cake" pieces. Enjoy! This is the perfect mixture of salty and sweet and a great crowd pleaser!

I'll be back soon with my White Chocolate Popcorn recipe. OMG. GOOD! Now, y'all say a prayer for me! Tomorrow is the last day of school before Christmas break!!!

Tootles!

:) JKP