Wilton Candy Kit for Pretzels

This kit was an impulse buy for me at the store this week. It turned out to be a pretty fun and tasty activity. If you'll notice on the box, some of the examples are fancy, using multiple colors. I tried to be fancy, too, but it was not as easy as it looked. I found it very difficult not only to paint with the chocolate, but also to actually see where I was supposed to paint.

Thinking this was beyond my artistic abilities and gaging my patience, or lack thereof, at the time, I decided I better just fill the molds with solid colors. It was very easy and practically mess free. The molds are washable, so I'll be able to do this project again next year.  It was well worth the $9 spent as all of the melting chocolate came in the kit.  It ended up making 18 chocolate coated pretzels.  

Mine may not look as pretty as the ones on the cover of the box, but my children love them! 

Velvety Vegetable Cheese Soup

The past couple of weeks have been a flurry of activity around here.  With all the holiday bustle, it's sometimes hard to get motivated to prepare dinner at home. Picking it up seems so much easier.  Here is an extremely easy and fairly quick soup that is perfect for those tired nights after a busy day.  Velvety Vegetable Cheese Soup comes from Kraft Food and Family online.  If you puree the vegetables, your kids won't even know they're in there!

Ingredients:

1 (16 oz) package frozen broccoli, cauliflower, and carrot mix

2 (15 oz) cans of chicken broth

12 oz Velveeta cheese cut into pieces (I use the 2% kind to cut calories/fat)

1.  Put vegetables and broth in large pan.  Cover and bring to a boil on med/high heat.  Reduce heat and simmer for 10 min. or until vegetables are soft.  

2.  Mash vegetables.

3.  Add cheese and and cook five minutes, stirring constantly.  

Optional:  Puree vegetables for a smoother consistency. 

Serve with bread or a sandwich.

Crafting with Kids: Trim a Tree Craft

My kids love crafts, so I'm always on the lookout for simple ones that even my three year old can do. This Trim a Tree Craft comes from Family Fun Magazine online. 

Gather all your materials and make supply kits for your kids. Old pie pans are nice for holding supplies.  Since my kids are 3 and 5, I cut the craft sticks for them.  If you don't feel like dealing with the mess of green paint as suggested in Family Fun, just have the kids color the sticks with a green crayon or marker. 

I put dabs of glue on the sticks for my children, and then let them assemble and decorate.  If you don't have sequins, consider small stickers, foam shapes, pom poms, or glitter instead.  

Tangy Pork Chop Stuffing Bake

Tangy Pork Chop Stuffing Bake comes from Kraft's Food and Family magazine. You can also access this recipe and many others online, without being a subscriber. The addition of cranberries to the stuffing makes this a really festive looking dish. I kept the basic recipe, but simplified it a bit.  

Ingredients:

6 bone-in pork chops 

1 pkg. (6 oz) STOVE TOP Stuffing Mix for Pork (or Chicken)

1 can (16 oz) whole berry cranberry sauce

3/4 c KRAFT Original BBQ Sauce

2 TBSP brown sugar

Directions:

(These are based on my modifications.  Follow the link above for the original Kraft recipe.)

1. Preheat oven to 350.

2. Mix stuffing, cranberry sauce, BBQ sauce, and brown sugar together.  Let sit.

3. In a skillet on medium heat, brown pork chops.  Aprox. 5 min per side.

4. Mist 9x13 pan with cooking spray and place chops in a single layer. Spoon stuffing mixture over chops.

5. Bake for 30 min. or until chops are cooked through.

Review of Glad Tidings by Debbie Macomber

I finished my second selection, Glad Tidings by Debbie Macomber, for The True Book Addict's Christmas Reading Challenge.I finally found some time today to write my review.  (Christmas is coming along quite nicely here as I finished shopping both physically and virtually yesterday. Whew!)  Glad Tidings is a collection of two Christmas stories: There's Something About Christmas and Here Comes Trouble!  The protagonists in both stories are journalists, making it a nice pairing.  

The Lowdown on Debbie Macomber Books

Having read several Debbie Macomber books, I know what to expect from one of her stories. First, there will be some sort of conflict between two people who are attracted to each other. These two people will outwardly show disdain for each other, while inwardly long to be with each other. Due to circumstances beyond their control, the characters will find themselves forced to be in each other's company.  This contact will allow them to get to know each other. The resulting friendship paves the way for a deeper romantic bond.  The book will likely end with a marriage.  I have never read one of her books that deviated from this basic plot line.

So, Why Read Debbie Macomber Then?

Every once in a while, I enjoy reading a nice, wholesome love story.  The characters in Macomber's books are nice people, even though they sometimes have rough edges.  The situations she puts her characters in are fun to read...my favorite being The Midnight Sons series where lonely Alaskan Bachelors advertise for woman...so cute and usually pretty funny. 

Back to Glad Tidings

Out of the two stories, I enjoyed There's Something about Christmas better. The premise of this story revolves around a journalist, Emma Collins, who must face her fear of flying in order to further her career.  Her big break is to write a series of articles on National Fruitcake finalists in Washington state. The love interest is Oliver, the outwardly cocky, overly good-looking, maverick of a pilot who takes her to visit these contestants in his small aircraft. After a fair amount of misunderstandings and fights, he wins Emma's love through several heroic acts such as finding her a place to live after she is evicted from her apartment. (This new apartment just happens to be the one right next to his.)  He even manages to help Emma relearn the joy of Christmas, which is very endearing.  Plus, I loved all the fruit cake recipes!

The second story, Here Comes Trouble, begins on Christmas Eve when the young daughters of the protagonists ask to hear how their parents met.  Of course, the couple despises each other at first, being rival Seattle newspaper columnists.  Nolan, the father, publicly insults the mother, Maryanne by calling her a spoiled Debutante who depends on her daddy for home and career.  Maryanne is embarrassed, but sees some truth in this portrayal. Determined to be independent from her father, Maryanne quits her job and moves out of her posh Seattle apartment.  Nolan feels guilty about this and offers to help her.  He (surprise, surprise) finds her an apartment right next door to his.  There are misunderstandings and fights. Nolan must find a way to look past her wealth and upbringing, to see her for who she really is.  There was one small detail in this story that really bothered me, but that clearly reveals the wholesome nature of Debbie Macomber's mind.  Maryanne dresses for a date and wears a long black velvet skirt, a blouse, a black velvet blazer, and a cameo necklace.  Not exactly what I think a young woman in her twenties would wear on a date! 

    

Overall, Glad Tidings is an enjoyable book.  I'd recommend it to people who like light romances.  If you'd pick up this book because of the cute puppy on the cover, you're probably the type that would enjoy reading it.  

Christmas Reading Challenge: The Christmas Box by Richard Paul Evans

Christmas is so over-commercialized that a part of me, just a small part, dreads it's arrival every October. Yes, October.  I'm a bit weary of the Christmas ads that overfill my newspaper, the articles about the must-have toy of the season (It's the Zhu Zhu Pet this year.), people who put up their lights before Halloween, the Christmas commercials, the nonsense of camping out in front of some store to get the best deals, and what seemed outrageous this year...The Merry Madagascar special that aired before Thanksgiving.  

My children are especially greedy this time of year. My five-year old wants every large LEGO set available.  This child informed me that Santa doesn't have to worry about how expensive something is.  He'll make it happen. Santa will make it happen.  (cringe)

But this is sounding a bit down on Christmas, which is not my intention.  The child in me still gets excited about picking out the tree, holiday baking, and singing Christmas songs. The adult, however, finds it increasingly harder to experience the wonder of Christmas.  

The Christmas Box by Richard Paul Evans helped me to recapture that feeling of Christmas wonder this year.  It is not an elaborate story, but a remarkably simple one.  A young couple and their small daughter go to live with a lonely widow in her large estate.  In exchange for their room and board, the family does nominal work for the widow, such as preparing meals. This arrangement has deeper emotional consequences for both the family and the widow.  The father discovers an old Christmas Box in the attic, which intrigues him.  Tear stained Bible pages, dreams of stone angels, and unidentified music help to unravel the mystery of the Box. Through this mystery, Evans reveals the first gift of Christmas.  

I am a person who is very sensitive to cheesiness.  If I find it cheesy, I won't be able to take it seriously.  This novel definitely passes the cheesiness test.  I think it's because the emotion is not contrived, but is honest. Evans originally wrote the novella for his children.  It was definitely a welcomed reprieve from all the holiday madness.  I highly recommend this book.

Sophie McKay's Chocolate Fruitcake (Sort of)

For the Christmas Reading Challenge, I chose Debbie Macomber's Glad Tidings as one of my selections.  There are two stories in this book, and I'm still on the first, so this is not my official review.  It's just that there are fruitcake recipes in this book, and one is for chocolate fruitcake! I'm not especially a fruitcake fan, but this recipe intrigued me.  I wanted to try it.  Although it is still in the oven as I write these words, I decided to go ahead and post.  If you want to make this cake, get on it in the next week because it takes 3-4 weeks in the fridge before it is ready.  

This recipe calls for soaking the cake in creme de cacao, which is a chocolate liquor.  I love Kahlua, so I am using it instead.  

Sophie McKay's Chocolate Fruitcake (Sort of)

Make 3-4 weeks in advance.  Store in a refrigerator.

Place into a large bowl:

2 c maraschino cherries (cut in half)

2 c chopped dates

2 c pineapple tidbits, well drained

1 c coconut

2 c pecan halves

2 c walnuts (I actually substituted 2 cups chopped pecans)

2 12 oz packages semisweet chocolate chips

Beat the following ingredients on low for 30 seconds, then on high for three minutes.  (I put my stand mixer on medium because the bowl was extremely full.):

3 c flour

1 1/2 c sugar

1 TBSP baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 c shortening

3/4 c butter

2/3 c creme de cacao (or Kahlua)

1/2 c cocoa powder

9 eggs

**Now at this point, I had my extra large mixing bowl full of this:

My stand mixer full of this (After I mixed, it expanded to the top of the bowl):  

And I was getting nervous about mixing the two together, so I was feeling like this:

Fortunately it all fit.

Pour batter over fruit and nut mixture. (Pour is a very poor word choice. Unless you can hold a 10 lb bowl of batter steady with one arm while using the other to scrape the bowl.  I could not, so I spooned it. It was 10 lbs btw, I weighed it.) Pour into two well-greased loaf pans.  (I used a flute pan and a mini loaf pan...and then ate the leftover.)  Bake at 275 for 2 1/2 to 3 hours.  After two hours, check with a toothpick every fifteen minutes. 

When cool, set each loaf on a large piece of plastic wrap and pour a jigger (This is the word she used) of creme de cacao (or Kahlua) over them.  Wrap tightly and place inside a Ziploc bag and keep refrigerated for 3-4 weeks.

I have no idea what this will be like.  The batter was delicious, and that is usually a good indicator.  Stay tuned for Fruitcake Part Deux.