Wednesday, January 30, 2013

A little game called Cookie Catch Up

I bake a lot of cookies. I take a lot of pictures.  I ask my friends to take pictures.  I send the cookies to my family and friends. I send the pictures, well, lots of places. 

So today I am taking a minute to catch up on my cookie pictures on this blog.

I have one big unorganized mess of these two particular items so if you've seen these before or already, sorry.  My attempt to get caught up is so I can post some more pictures later of the Valentines cookies I have been working on! 

Happy Birthday little Willa!

Happy Birthday Jackson!

These cuties were late for their own party.

For Tight Line Adventures.  Thanks again Sarah!

And thanks to Katie too!  These we so fun to make!

I

Primary mixing bowls anyone?

These were fun too! 

Thanks Linda for letting me make these!

And thanks to Mom for feeding my desire to experiment! These turned out so cute.



Monday, January 28, 2013

Sweet Dreams are made of Cheese

Saturday night our Dinner Club group from church met for the first time.  We had a wonderful meal that included tortilla roll ups and queso for appetizers, a build your own taco bar, fresh fruit and Cupid's floats for dessert.

We had Pastor's famous Beer Margaritas to drink, played a rousing game of Outburst and had a lovely time just catching up and chatting with friends from church for more than the usual 5 minutes.

I was responsible for the queso.  I have recently fallen in love with the chips and queso from Qdoba so I set out to find a copy cat recipe to try for this occasion.

I found it here, from a quick Google search of "copycat Qdoba queso." 

I did use Velveeta where it called for American cheese.  So with that and some peppers compliments of Jan, I was all set. 

I  highly recommend you make this tonight. And probably tomorrow too. And if you need to take something to your Super Bowl Party Sunday, make  it for that too.


Here is the batch from Qdoba I had the other day.  Oddly enough, there isn't any of the batch I made left  for me to photograph. 








The Cupid's Floats can be found on Pinterest.  Vanilla ice cream topped with Cherry 7-UP, whipped cream and a cherry. 

At our house ice cream + pop= Volcanic Eruption.  Dad, be sure to add this to your VE menu.  You will love it.

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

I don't actually have a mantel

We don't have a fireplace. I don't even have a mantel type shelf to work with. I do have a repurposed dresser and a piano with plenty 'o space above them just waiting to be redone after the holiday season.

These were some really great tips!

11 Tips for Picture-Perfect Mantel Styling All Year

 

 



Friday, January 18, 2013

Creativity, or my lack thereof

My sister sent me  this.   It made me laugh and I find it to be incredibly true.  



I love the time after Christmas when the tree comes down and all the decorations get put away and all the new toys and clothes and books have a new home. 

I love it for about a week and then I start thinking I should do something.

So here's to hoping my creativity kicks in and I can get my house back to its super cute, welcoming state.

Maybe I will start by printing one of these great chalkboard prints. Head on over to U-createcrafts.com and pick your favorite!


Monday, January 7, 2013

Peanut Butter Pretzel Bites

When it comes to Christmas, it just isn't complete without an overabundance of food.  Well, at least for our family anyways.  We have our favorites like peppernuts, Gram's veggie pizza, cranberry spritzers and pecan tassies.  We also like to throw new things into the mix.  I think 5 varieties of bacon at one Cracker Barrel breakfast counts as new.

This year I needed to come up with something yummy and new for my food gifts AND that also shipped well.

Enter Peanut Butter Pretzel Bites.  This recipe came from the annual cookie exchange that we have at church.  (Thanks Glennis and Cristina!) These little crunchy, peanut buttery, chocolatey things are the best!  Just as my Dad.

1 cup creamy peanut butter
2 Tablespoons softened butter
1/2 cup powdered sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
Pretzel Crisps - they are in a blue bag by the crackers at the grocery store. These are part of what make these so good. And they are bigger than bite size which is an added bonus.
1 bag chocolate chips

Line a cookie sheet with waxed paper.

Mix peanut butter and butter until combined.  Add sugars and mix well. (I had to add a little extra powdered sugar.)  You should be able to roll the mixture into balls with out it sticking to your hands.   Roll teaspoonful size balls of the peanut butter mixture.  I used the smallest Pampered Chef  cookie scoop to make the balls.  I can't roll anything to save my life :)

Sandwich the peanut butter balls between two pretzels, press down to fill pretzel and place on the cookie sheet.  Place in the freezer for 30 minutes.

Melt chocolate chips.  Dip each pretzel halfway into the chocolate.  Place back on cookie sheet and chill in the refrigerator until set. 



Try not to eat them all at once.



If you would like me to email you a copy of the cook book with all the cookie exchange recipes, just let me know!


© Let it be Done. Powered by