Some Most “Pun-derful” Edible Books

Tags

art, Books, Edible Book Festival, Edible Books, Shoreline-Lake Forest Park Arts Council, Third Place Books

Recently I was honored to serve as a judge at the Shoreline-Lake Forest Park Arts Council’s first ever annual Edible Book Festival. I was asked to choose the top entrant in the category “Most Pun-derful”.

I was so amazed by the entries from talented everyday folk and though I’ve been a bit slow about it, Iwanted to share with you all a few photos of some of my faves from the event:

Some of the entries were very literal, such as this perfect re-creation of the book cover of Little Bee and this beautiful portrayal of Alice going down the rabbit hole.

This depiction of The Secret Garden was definitely a crowd favorite.

Have you always wanted to see the inner workings of a bee hive?

This artist reveals to us what really goes on inside! Imported honey! Oh no!

The kids were not to be outdone by the grown-ups – this contest had a place for all ages. My favorite in the kid category – very whimsical! (And it was Yummy!)

One of my favorite books is The Giving Tree and this creation was so artfully done by some very talented teens!

And adults didn’t shy away from child’s play – this “Curious Gourgere” was gorgeous and I could have gorged on the gourgeres! De-lish!

Prizes were awarded for “Most Good Enough To Eat”, “Best 3-D/Architectural”, and “Most Literal Depiction”. All of the categories were tough to call but I felt like mine was the most difficult to choose a winner!

“A Separate Pizza” was one of my top picks for “Most Pun-derful” as the artist used several puns – even using “peace” signs as toppings!

I just love the edible knife on this Cutting for Stone interpretation.

This artist was very clever in her use of puns for The Grapes of Wrath.

“Ella Minnow Pea” made me smile and her cookies were so moist and tasty!

I wasn’t sure without tasting this but “Valley of the Dills” looked like chocolate with pickles – but gross factor aside, I really enjoyed the playfulness of it! (I did later taste it and IT was chocolate! Bold choice!)

The Game of Thrones theme is very hot right now on the party scene. This artfully arranged plate of scones would make a great addition to the buffet table.

But my top pick for “Most Pun-derful” was Ann Sauer’s “Canary Row”. It was so smartly done! Several layers of play on words!

I couldn’t not post this one – being a local girl who loves her burgers and the Pacific Northwest – this ode to Seattle’s best burger gave me a whale sized smile.

Which one is your favorite?

Baked Samoas French Toast with Bacon

Tags

bacon, Baked French Toast, Cookies, Girl Scout Cookies, Girl Scouts of Western Washington, Recipe contest, Samoas

They’re almost here!

There are a lot of cookies in this world. BUT there is one type you can only get once a year!

We wait, and wait, and when they arrive we buy them from our co-workers’ kids, our neighbors kids, from our own nieces, daughters and granddaughters, in front of the grocery store – anywhere and everywhere we can get them! – many of us stockpiling them in pantries and freezers for the long “non-cookie” season ahead.

But what to do with that overabundance of yumminess? Why, think “out of the box”, of course!

We know they are terrific right from the package. But The Girl Scouts of Western Washington hope to show you just how versatile these cookies are by once again hosting their cookie recipe contest. And they have invited local bloggers to submit their original creations.

Frankly, I can’t think of anything more fun than playing around with cookies in my kitchen!

Last year I went savory and made these delicious chicken fingers with lemon-flavored Savannah Smiles.

But my favorite GS cookie of all time has always been the Somoas. So this year I chose them to work with, and decided to go sweet. And sweet it is!

I added a bit of savory with the bacon to balance it all out (and make it a complete breakfast all in one pan) but this is still one dish that will satisfy your sweet tooth

Who says you can’t have cookies for breakfast?

Baked Samoas French Toast with Bacon

• 1 Loaf French or Italian bread (challah would be good too.)
• 8 eggs
• 1-1/4 cup milk
• 3/4 cup heavy cream
• Pinch of salt
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 box chopped Somoas Girl Scout cookies
  
• 4 Tablespoons (1/2 stick) butter cut in cubes
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 6 slices bacon

Cut up loaf of bread into rough cubes of various sizes.

Spray 9″ x 13″ baking pan with non-stick spray and layer bread cubes into it, filling in as much space as possible.

In a bowl mix eggs, milk, cream, salt, cinnamon and vanilla together. Pour egg mixture over bread and cover pan with foil. Refrigerate overnight so that the bread can soak up the moisture.

In the morning cook bacon to a crispy texture and chop it into small pieces.

Chop cookies into small pieces.

In a small bowl, cut butter into the brown sugar to make a crumble. 

Top French toast evenly with chopped cookies first – pushing them down into crevasses, then sprinkle the bacon over this. Top the entire thing with the crumble mixture (brown sugar and butter.)

Bake at 375 degrees for 40 – 45 minutes.

Serve with pure maple syrup.

Whether you’re craving Thin Mints, dreaming about Samoas, or want to get your hands on some Savannah Smiles, your wait is almost over. Mark your calendars!

The cookie sale to the public is happening March 1-17! There is an awesome cookie locator, as well as an app, that tells you exactly where girls are selling cookies in your neighborhood! Very good to keep handy!

What is your favorite GS cookie? How do you like to eat them? Do you cook with them or just enjoy them as is?

Grandma’s No-Bake Snowball Cookies

Tags

chocolate, coconut, cookie swap, Cookies, Cookies For Kids Cancer, holidays, marshmallows, OXO, The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap

Who doesn’t love a cookie swap at Christmas time?

This year I participated in a very special swap with food bloggers all over the world!

The Food Blogger Cookie Swap is hosted annually by Cookies for Kids’ Cancer, a non-profit which raises funds for pediatric cancer research.

It’s very simple how it works. Each blogger participating makes a small donation to the fund (which is matched, dollar for dollar, by OXO®!) and then receives names and addresses of three food bloggers across the country.

They bake and mail three dozen of the cookie of their choice (one dozen cookies to each recipient) and in turn, also receive one dozen cookies from three other bloggers.

Then, today, we blog about it – thereby raising awareness for Cookies for Kids’ Cancer! What better way to raise money and awareness for kids with cancer?

Food bloggers, Lindsay from Love & Olive Oil and Julie from The Little Kitchen coordinated this year’s event with over 500 food bloggers participating, and raising over $4400! Fabulous job you guys!

I received some very wonderful cookies over the last couple of weeks – Honey Roasted Peanut Butter Oatmeal Scotchies (what a mouthful – in more ways than one! Yum!),  from Cayla at Cayla’s Cookie Jar in Indiana, Clove Crisps (Loved these!) from Melissa at The Baked Equation in AZ, and finally this week my last box arrived and it contained Maple Bacon (Bacon! In a cookie? Yep! Oh my!) Sugar Cookies from Carrie at Bakeaholic Mama in NH!

Such a variety of sugary goodness!

After much contemplation, I decided on the perfect cookies.

The rules stated we had to make “cookies that are new to you”, meaning you have never blogged about them. These cookies I had never blogged about, but boy I’ve sure had a lot of practice eating them over the years!

Though it might be considered more of a candy by some, my grandmother’s no-bake cookies are a staple at our holidays. It is just not Christmas without them! I baked up a batch and sent them off to New York, Maine and California.

I hope my bloggers liked their cookies!

Here is the recipe for the very simple no bake cookies my grandmother makes every year with some of my own modifications:

Grandma’s No-Bake Snowball Cookies

• 2 TB Butter (she uses margarine)
• 1 – 6 oz package of semi-sweet chocolate chip morsels (good quality chocolate would be very tasty here but I wanted them to taste like grandma’s)
• 1 egg
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 3 cups miniature marshmallows (she uses two cups)
• 1/2 – 14oz bag of  coconut (her recipe only calls for a half cup but that just isn’t enough!)
  

Melt butter and chocolate in a large saucepan on the stove over low heat.

Remove from heat and add egg. Stir in.

Add marshmallows and powdered sugar stir gently until all ingredients are incorporated.

Pour coconut into a shallow bowl. Spoon balls into hand with a tablespoon and lay in coconut. Place cookie ball into coconut and roll gently.

Place each ball on a baking sheet. Let rest for 2 hours or overnight. Can store in fridge up to 3 weeks.

I doubled the recipe to make 4 dozen. So, yes, I did have some left over! And, no, I didn’t share!

If you are a food blogger and would like to participate next year, go here to sign up for the email list and they will send you information when signups occur. If you would like to support Cookies for Kids, your donation would surely be appreciated – go here for more information.

What is your favorite Christmas time cookie to give or receive?

Finally! A Pot Pie Recipe

Tags

Chicken potpie, events, Foodportunity, Keren Brown, party food, Seattle

About three years ago something magical happened for me in a room full of food lovers.

I was attending my first Foodportunity, “a networking event for all food passionate people” hosted by Keren Brown of Frantic Foodie.

As an events planner, with the belief that food is the key ingredient in connecting us during life’s special moments, I had recently taken to Twitter in search of some fresh, new food vendors for the events that I produce. It was there that I read about this event and decided to step out of my comfort zone. (As an introvert, I was much more comfortable behind the scenes than in a room full of people passing around business cards.)

Terrified, and yet excited, to actually meet in person all the like-minded (food-focused) people I had come to “know” virtually on Twitter, I walked into the room and was immediately pounced on by two very animated women.

It went something like this:

“Oh my god! It’s KristinPotPie! KRISTINPOTPIE! We LOVE you!”

“Hi.” I answered tentatively, looking around, thinking maybe they had me mixed up with someone else.

“We just love your food updates on Twitter!”

“Um. Thank you?” They were looking directly at me..maybe they were speaking to me after all…

“Yeah, why don’t you have a blog?”

I muttered something incoherent and muffled like, “Me? Oh, I don’t know…” and quickly changed the topic of discussion, “I think I’m going to get a drink, anyone else?”

That was the moment I seized my first true Foodportunity. That was the day this blog was born.

What I didn’t want to say to them was that I was a writer who wasn’t writing. Why didn’t I have a blog? In my head I had an arsenal of excuses:

What would I write about that would interest people? When would I find the time to blog? Why would anyone listen to what I have to say when there are so many more knowledgeable people out there?

But here before me were these women, strangers to me, who believed in me more than I did in myself. That was my foodportunity – a living, breathing, supportive community.

And now, several Foodportunity events and countless other food and networking events later, I continue to seize every foodportunity. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not all champagne and roses. It’s hard work and I have my days when I wonder if it’s all worth it, or the words aren’t coming to me, and I’m tempted to pack it in…but then I get an encouraging email or a message from someone I have met through this community and I start typing again.

Throughout my life, when speaking with others about food, I have found myself reveling in the delight that comes with sharing a recipe or a tip on how to make a special celebration more memorable with food – even if what you are celebrating is the everyday. That is what KristinPotPie is all about. It’s a recipe for the most delicious celebrations.

But there is something missing here – do you know what it is?

The most frequently asked question I get when I tell people the name of my blog – “Do you share recipes for potpies?” Well, no actually. I have not once posted a potpie recipe. I guess that’s been an untapped natural opportunity for me…so here it goes.

Kris”tin”Potpies

These mini potpies are made in muffin tins and are the perfect size for a hand-held party snack.

• Your favorite pie crust – I use this one (a recipe for a 9″ pie – top and bottom is just perfect)
• 1 lb raw diced chicken
• 1-1/4 cup chicken stock
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 12 oz. Mixed veggies frozen – corn, green beans, peas and carrots
• Salt
• Pepper
• 1 TB flour
• 1 TB butter
• 1 ts fresh chopped rosemary
• 1 ts fresh thyme leaves
• 1-1/2 ts fresh chopped oregano
• 1 TB olive oil

Heat pan over med-high heat. Pour in olive oil then add chicken and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cool until no longer pink, stirring frequently.

Add vegetables to the pan and cook for 3-5 minutes over medium heat until vegetables thaw. Place butter in the pan and sprinkle the mixture with flour. Cook for about 3 minutes until butter is melted and flour is incorporated, then add herbs and chicken stock. Stir and cook until thickened  – about 7 or 8 minutes. Add cream and allow to thicken over low heat to desired consistency. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Grease 2-6 serving muffin tins. Roll out pie dough to desired thickness – 1/8″ thick. Cut 2 circles from the dough for each potpie – use a small bowl or large drinking glass, making sure that the circle fits into the muffin tin hole and overlaps at the top (a 6″ circle is what I used.) Place the pie bottom into each cup and fill with chicken mixture. Top each pie with 2nd circle and crimp the top and bottom edges together. Brush the top of each pie with beaten egg white. Bake at 375 for 20-25 minutes until golden brown.

Allow to cool for about five minutes before carefully removing them from the muffin tin. Place pies in individual cupcake holders and serve.

Linked up over at:

An Oktoberfest Party

Tags

German, Gingerbread, Oktoberfest, Oktoberfest theme party, Party ideas, Tablescapes

Oktoberfest kicked off last weekend in Munich and runs for two weeks. And while there are all kinds of local celebrations, if you want to throw a party of your own surrounded by friends and family I thought I would share the one we had at our house a couple of weeks ago.

Between my husband and I our heritage is extremely rich with German blood so we throw an Oktoberfest party almost every year. This year, with relatives in town, it was a week early but we thought we would just go for it so they could see how we really party in this house!!!

This year was the biggest and grandest yet! We set up a tent in the backyard with a rectangular highboy table as a sort of ode to the beer tents at Munich’s celebration.

I decorated it simply with a white table cloth and blue gingham runner. Blue and white are the official colors of Oktoberfest – the colors of the flag of Bavaria. I tried to find some authentic diamond-patterned fabric to make my runner, but when that failed I think the gingham worked very nicely.

I lined up small and large canning jars I just happened to have on hand and filled the large ones with white flowers (I bought a couple of bunches at the grocery store – but you could use whatever you have in your yard) and the small ones with tealights, added a couple of small pumpkins representing autumn and done! So simple looking and oh so easy!

We pulled out all the German beer steins to display – and for our guests to use!

Since we had recently had new floors installed, my beautiful heirloom blue and white Spode china was still packed away so I gathered what I could for serving pieces – mostly blue plastic trays and bowls from the dollar store.

On the menu was a platter of German wieners and brats with grilled onions and sauerkraut.

A tasty home-made German potato salad.

And a German tomato salad I found in one of the German cookbooks my mother-in-law gifted me. This was so simple and delicious! What a perfect end-of-summer side dish. I just layered fresh, heirloom tomatoes, diced onion and vinaigrette. It was certainly a hit!

My husband smoked up some ribs too just for good measure! Sure, why not!

Of course we had to have pretzels.

I am so fortunate to have a German bakery in the neighborhood

For dessert we served my Great-grandmother’s German apple cake and the most divine chocolate cheesecake lovingly made by my mother-in-law.

My 10 year-old niece came over to help cook so I decided that since I had an extra hand, we needed a fabulous party favor this year.

We baked gingerbread hearts – Lebkuchenherzen. (This is my go-to recipe from Allrecipes.) And  she carefully decorated each and every one.

They sell these at Oktoberfest in Germany. They usually come on strings for wearing around your neck. We put them on strings but also then enclosed them in cellophane bags for easy transport.

My niece was very diligent in her job of making sure every guest went home with one! It is such a sweet touch to the end of a wonderful evening!

“Mounds” O’ Love – A Recipe for Your Sweet

Tags

"Mounds" candy, chocolate, coconut, Emergency Feeding Program, homemade gifts, Valentine's Day, Will Bake For Food

Earlier this week I received a message that was sent to local bloggers of Will Bake for Food, a food blogger bake sale I have participated in the last couple of years. They were requesting desserts made from the heart for attendees to bid on at the 35th annual auction benefiting the Emergency Feeding Program of Seattle. So I was proud to send this sweet Valentine to their very special guests who are helping to put food on the tables of our local hungry families.

I usually make these at Christmas, but I think they make a fantastic Valentine’s gift. Coconut and dark chocolate are my favorite confection combination (right behind caramel and dark chocolate – especially if it has Sea salt on it! Oh my!) so these are definitely made from the heart. Do you have a special someone you can share these with?

“Mounds” O’ Love

• 14 oz. Bag – coconut
• 2 lb. Confectioner’s sugar
• 14 oz. Can sweetened condensed milk
• 1-1/2 cups butter- softened
• 20 oz. Dark chocolate

Place all ingredients except the chocolate in a large bowl and mix by hand.

Put bowl in refrigerator to chill for a couple of hours. This makes it easier to mold the candies.

Mold about two tablespoon at a time with your hands into mound shaped (I made these my heart-shaped ones for Valentine’s Day with a small heart cookie cutter.) Lay on parchment paper covered trays and then place coconut shapes back in the freezer or the fridge to chill and set up for about another hour or two.

Melt chocolate on a double boiler. Dip each candy separately in the melted chocolate – being sure to completely cover it. Place each chocolate covered mound on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper and place back in fridge (or freezer) to set up once again. Then carefully remove the confections from the sheets, trimming the edges, and place each treat in a cupcake holder, separating layers with wax paper. Store in fridge and serve cold.

Enjoy!

What sweets will you share with your sweets this Valentine’s Day?

This post is linked up:

Sundaes on Sunday – A Last-Minute Birthday Celebration

Tags

Birthdays, Brownies, ice cream, sundaes, Tablescape

It was my son’s 12th birthday this past weekend.

It’s always somewhat of a scramble to make plans with his birthday so close after Christmas and New Year’s.  We are always just a bit preoccupied with the holidays and then, boom, it’s his birthday. In early December there is usually about a week or so that we begin to have the, “Your birthday is coming and before we get too busy with the holidays…” talk, but it truly is difficult to get into it with all the other excitement that time of year.

Of course this year was no different. As the last bit of wrapping paper was dumped in the recycle bin and the poinsettia-themed dishes were packed away, I started the conversation again but then planning the New Year’s menu got in the way!

Now, he is much more of a low-key, introverted kid than my 14 year old. He’s just not that into the social scene or his birthday (at least that’s what he tries to lead us to believe…) While my 14 year old has always enjoyed having many friends around and loves the big birthday party (not that we do it every year!) I think the last time my 12 year old had a big birthday party was when he was a toddler and had no say in the matter. Even still my son went back to school in the New Year with the intention of inviting two of his buddies out for some pizza and video game play. But it was too late – both boys already had conflicts on their calendars and couldn’t make it.

He made it out to be no big deal, claiming that he didn’t really care. which led to many attempts on my part to find out if he would like a special meal at home or what dessert he might like – ’cause darn-it! I’m an event planner and he should after all show some interest in parties, right!? -  and after repeated responses of, “Mom, I don’t really care. You and Dad are the only ones who really seem to enjoy my birthday.” I decided to take matters into my own hands. I knew he was a bit disappointed by not having a couple of close friends to celebrate with and I wanted to make it the best I could under the circumstances.

It was a birthday weekend – because that’s just what we do around here. And there was a definite theme – Food. Go figure! In my house! He is my little food lover after all.  (The other one could care less – in fact he just loves frozen, canned and all food that’s been processed. I’m sure it’s just to spite me. Or maybe it’s just his 14 year old way of rebelling. It could be worse!)

So we started the preparations on Friday night and ended the food festivities Sunday evening with this surprise Sundae bar.

My son loves nothing more than going to the fair each fall and noshing on a giant turkey leg. Ever since my husband started playing around with smoking meats on the grill he has been promising our son that they would experiment together with smoking some at home. The turkey legs turned out very tasty, and I will share more about how we did this later in the week, but the cherry on top of the weekend was this surprise sundae bar that I threw together at the last minute – what a fun alternative to plain-Jane birthday cake and ice cream!

I made my favorite brownie recipe – I was going to cut them up and put them on one of my a pretty colorful pedestals but they were still warm (which, honestly, makes the sundaes even better!) and falling apart.

And gathered some toppings.

Then I put out some ice cream…

…and a few finds from the dollar store.

Like these great colorful sundae cups!

And many other fun colorful items!

Kids this age love to see how much sugary goodness they can fit into one bowl. While the older son put every single topping on his sundae, the birthday boy was more judicious.

It was a huge hit. One of those memory-making moments. I was so touched by just the look on his face – even after all his protestations of ” I don’t really care”, his face lit up the moment he saw the table. The quiet, “Thank you mom.”,  was all I needed to know that it was not so important what I bought for him, but what I gave him, that truly mattered.

My First Home Organization Project of the New Year – Spices!

Tags

Drying herbs, kitchen, organization, Rosemary, spices, TableFare

All week I have been working on lining up my 2012 home organization projects and some of my Christmas gifts have helped me to get a jump-start! Of course you may know that the kitchen is my favorite room in the house to spend time in – but it is also the one room that is most ripe for organization. So, now, time to get busy!

A few months ago I won a starter set of these wonderful Tablefare spice containers. I just love these attractive little jars with the flip-top lid. Sitting on the counter they are so handy and right where I need them when I am cooking. They help me to really control the amount of seasoning I use because I can use my fingers to just pinch the perfect amount of spice. But the best part is that I find the see-through jars so lovely showing off the colors of all my beautiful herbs and spices. But, I quickly found that I could use a few more. Then guess what I got for Christmas?

I also scored some labels to help me get further organized! Now, even the starter set comes with blank labels that you can write the names of your seasonings on, but I really wanted the pre-printed ones – my handwriting is not something I like to display in my home!

Here is a project I have been dreading but itching to do at the same time – you must have projects like that in your home?

Oh my, I cannot believe I am about to show you this… this is going to be so embarrassing…but, here it goes…

This was my spice/baking cabinet before. I decided that I would take out all the seasonings that I used in my everyday cooking and put them in the TableFare jars – leaving behind mostly baking supplies and a few other items.

In addition, I still had a bunch of rosemary being stored out on my porch that was leftover from Christmas.

Remember my holiday chair decorations/favors?

They had dried out nicely so I removed all the needles

And then put them into one of the big bottles -

I needed to save some room – since I still had all that rosemary on my porch!

So in order to dry the rest of it out here is what I did – I tied it all up with some kitchen string and then hung it in the utility room to dry.

For later

I am so happy with how it all turned out! Removing my “everyday” seasonings gave me the nudge I needed to redo the cabinet as well.

I just got a few plastic containers to hold some of the larger items like flour, sugar and salt. Just look at that formerly messy cabinet now!

Now I have to decide what is next…my jewelry? The pantry? Craft supplies? The list is never-ending…

What are you working on organizing in this new year?

Seriously Last Minute Gifts From My Kitchen!

Tags

Gingerbread, holiday gift idea, holidays, homemade gifts, Rosemary wreaths, Tea towels

All week I have been sharing last-minute homemade gifts. And with today being Christmas Eve-Eve, these REALLY last-minute ideas are super simple and take very little time. Of course, I had some help

Gingerbread Cookies with Tea Towel

I made these wonderful gingerbread cookies from Allrecipes.com last year.

My family just loved this recipe, so this year my 11-year-old son and I decided they would be the perfect addition to our Christmas Eve Dessert & Appetizer buffet.

Actually, my son did quite a bit of the work – I made the dough,

but he rolled…

cut-out…

and decorated each and every cookie along side of me! He’s becoming a little expert Gingerbread Man baker!

I love gingerbread men as a gift – they are so cute and taste so good!  This gift is perfect for last-minute because you can use any type of rolled & cut cookie, not just gingerbread.

Package them up with a cookie cutter and tea towel, include a recipe card, and you are done! And even if you don’t have time to bake you can buy store-bought cookies and package them similarly.

I saw these towel and cookie cutter sets for just a couple of dollars and decided to snag up a few of them for neighbor gifts.

And I am so glad I did! We just received two Day-After-Christmas parties in the neighborhood – these will make the best hostess gifts!

Fresh Rosemary Wreaths

For a couple of years now I have seen quite a few images online of little wreaths as decorations on the backs of chairs at a holiday table and have been wanting to try it. This year I decided that I would make little wreaths from fresh Rosemary and spruce up my dining room set!

They will make a lovely decoration for my Christmas Eve Open House. Then as guests leave, I will simply detach them from the chairs, add a smaller ribbon (pre-cut, of course) and hand them out for my guests to take home and use in their own kitchen.

All I did for each of these was take two long-ish pieces of fresh rosemary…

wrap them around one another at opposite ends…

attached the ends with some floral wire…

and then continued wrapping the wire around the “wreath” to secure the pieces together. I added in a few other smaller pieces of rosemary to fill in any gaps.

I think they are adorable! Plus they smell so good!

Merry Christmas!

Last Minute Gifts From My Kitchen – Hot Chocolate Done Two Ways

Tags

homemade gifts, homemade marshmallows, hot chocolate, hot chocolate mix, hot chocolate on a stick, Kitchen gifts, Make & Takes

The last couple of days at my house have been a whirlwind! I have been working diligently on making last-minute home-made gifts from my kitchen. Today I’m sharing not one, but two, hot chocolate-themed gifts. And this first one? Just blew me away with how cute it turned out!

Hot Chocolate on a Stick

I saw these adorable gift ideas from Make and Takes (and then found out she’s a local Seattle blogger! What a great site!) They are the perfect little gift for your office mates – I gave them out at my office and the compliments just kept rolling in!

First the home-made marshmallows - I was so surprised at how easy these were to make! I have been wanting to make marshmallows for a couple of years now but felt intimidated by the process. Lately though, everyone I know seems to be making them and telling me how easy they are – they were right!

Then I just cut up the marshmallows – it uses a lot more powdered sugar mixture than it calls for!

And the chocolate squares…

Instead of sticks I used candy canes for THE most complete hot chocolate experience! I unwrapped the candy canes halfway up so that the top sticking out of the bag would stay fresh.

Then I put them in bags and tied them off with ribbon to coordinate with the cups.

You can put one or two in a cup – these cups I picked up at the dollar store looked nice with two

I tied on a nice decoration – these are foamy coasters from the dollar store – and then attached the instructions for the gift recipient.

 What do you think? They turned out far better than I even expected!

Snowman Soup

Now, for the second hot chocolate gift recipe. Have you ever heard of Snowman Soup? Basically, it is just a fun way of packaging a cute gift of hot chocolate makings – homemade hot chocolate mix, marshmallows and peppermint sticks for stirring.

This is what I originally had in mind for the office gifts until I saw the Hot Chocolate on a Stick (except I was going to put them in cups like I did above.) I had leftover marshmallows and the jars already (I had purchased these jars for the Vanilla Extract I made but they turned out to be too big) so I decided to do both! Crazy, right?! But they are for different people. The hot chocolate on a stick was for my workmates  – great little individual gifts -  and the jars are for some of the families I know and love.

So I whipped up a batch of hot chocolate mix. I found this recipe on the Family Fun website – so simple and fast! I just poured them into jars…

…topped them with fabric squares…

packaged up the marshmallows and attached them, and the candy canes, to the jars with some ribbon.

I love how these turned out too!

What are you making this week for last-minute gifts? I’ll have a few more really easy ideas on the blog in the next day or two so be sure to stop back by