Weekend Fun

 

 

 

If you are looking to get your kids involved in some holiday baking, or you need something fun for them to do while you do your holiday baking, give them this super easy and super cute baking project.  You can make your own sugar cookie dough and let the kids roll and cut their own circles, or you can cheat and buy the store bought sugar cookie roll of dough...just as yummy!

I used a royal icing recipe to ice the cookies...it's the only recipe I keep under lock and key, but I am sure you can google one.  Pretzels as the antlers, chocolate chips as the eyes and a red m&m as the nose and a few extras to munch on while you decorate!

Merry Baking and may your Cookies go down in History!!

xo,
Heather

 



 

 



Rock Around the Christmas Tree

A group of friend's and I get together for each other's birthdays.  We go to lunch, get manicure's and pedicure's and have girls nights out.  Each birthday seems to be more fun to celebrate than the last.  I guess if you are gonna get older, you might as well live by the phrase, Rock On.
So since it is the holidays and my Christmas tree is up and decorated...I was on top of things this year :) ... I offered to host a Rock Around the Christmas Tree Birthday Party for our 2 December friend's birthdays.  They both love Mexican so the menu choice was easy.  And lucky for everyone, I didn't make the food!  I love cooking, but years ago I offered to have our neighbors over for dinner and decided to have a mexican night.  What was suppose to be simple turned out to be a kitchen disaster!  Although the food was good, we did not eat until 11pm and when the neighbors left, my husband and I turned to what was a white kitchen and said, "what happened to this place!"  I used every pot and pan and I think I dirtied every dish.  I have never made mexican again!  So, my friends housekeeper makes AMAZING mexican food and she offered to do the cooking.  The food was delicious and after eating her 3 homemade salsa's, I don't think I will ever buy another store bought jar of salsa again. 
Anyway, as the host, I was in charge of the "House Drink."  So I made Merry Margarita's.  A cranberry margarita made with a 100%Agave Tequila, Cointreau, Key West Lime Juice and Cranberry Juice, it was the perfect festive match for our Rockin Birthday Bash.  I like to make my drinks ahead of time and put them in ziploc freezer bags in my freezer and let them get nice and icy...a trick I learned from my Aunt in Florida.  Then, right before your company arrives, you can cut a slit in the bottom of the ziploc and pour the frozen drink into the glasses.  When your guests arrive, their drink will be just perfect. 
If tequila is not your liquor of choice, you can also make a Christmas Cosmo but substitute Vodka for Tequila. 
The evening was a night of great friends, fabulous food, delicious cocktails and a fun night of Rockin Around the Christmas Tree to celebrate 2 great friends birthdays!
Rock On and may all your Birthdays be Merry and Bright!
xo,
Heather

HO HO HOt Chocolate

 

 

Ho! Ho! Ho!  I hope everyone is doing well and getting into the holiday spirit.  I was looking for a little bit of a different idea than cookies for the neighbors and I saw this idea for Hot Chocolate on a stick.  I wanted to try it but I wanted to add my own twist.  So when I saw these adorable silicone gingerbread molds, I thought that would be the perfect way to change the idea up a bit.  So I used the Hot Chocolate on a stick recipe, (I did use milk chocolate chips in place of some of the semi-sweet chocolate chips) and poured it into the gingerbread molds.  After chilling over night, the gingerbread men popped right out.  I added a few peppermint marshmellows to the packaging and tied it up and there you have it...a fun & yummy treat to hand out to our friends and neighbors.

PS...it is getting late, so I have not made my gift tags yet, but I will probably write Merry Christmas on the front of the tag and on the back write...just add hot milk.  I will try to post a picture tomorrow!

 

xo,

Heather

Elf is arriving soon

With 3 children, we are always going to birthday parties and I am always trying to think of a creative gift idea.  Kids love to paint and I love to give gifts that are keepsakes.  So, with the upcoming arrival of Elf on the Shelf, I decided to create the "Elf House."  I packaged a bird house with paint brushes and washable paint and I attached a note that says:

Elf is arriving soon and he needs a home 

So here is a house for you to make Elf's own

Get creative and have fun painting

When you are done let the paint dry

Then perch his new house high on a shelf 

So when Elf arrives he'll know just where to fly!

 

 

Best Wishes,

 

Heather

 

 



Bat-Attude

I offered to bring cupcakes tonight to our girls night out to celebrate a good friends birthday.  Stuck in Halloween mode, I decided to make these Bat-Attude cupcakes...a chocolate cupcake with a creamy peanut butter frosting.  Hope everyone is having a BAT-ty Good Wednesday!

Heather

I hope you have a Choc-tacular Thursday!
BOO!
Heather

Supper Club 2012

 

My husband and I have been part of a Supper Club for 7 or 8 years now.  We meet once a month with each couple hosting one month a year.  Some months are more formal dinners with fine china and good conversation amongst friends whereas some months we party into the wee hours of the morning.  We have done cookouts and tailgate themes and even game night.  Each year I try to give my guests a Dinner Experience.  It may be the main meal or the "House Drink" or it may be just the overall evening itself.  I  try to come up with a menu that is different...a menu that consists of food I may normally not coook or a recipe that pushes my cooking skills...(If I have any skills!)  I have cooked a Dr. Pepper Glazed Ham, Roasted pork chops with a bourbon-cider glaze, Pork Roast with sausage, fruit & nut stuffing, a Tenderloin of Beef and oh, yes there was the year I cooked a Standing Rib Roast for like 24 people and even with double ovens and an outdoor grill I think it was like 11 pm before we ate!!  Maybe its my crab cake appetizer that people really enjoy or the Cambert with Cranberries & Port.  Perhaps its the "House Drink" that people talk about or maybe the Chocolate Martini's that were appartently so good we slurped down one drink after another and we...well lets just leave it at that.  A signature I learned from my mom is party favors or a small gift at each person's place setting...it may be a box of cookies or a Christmas Ornament...it just depends on the time of year.  Sometimes I get my menu inspirations from the Food & Wine Magazine or a family recipe.  One year I was watching The Today Show and there was a chef who made several dishes but the soup recipe was not provided...so I spent 3 days tracking down the name of the Chef and where he worked and I got a hold of him at a Resort & Spa in Arizona and he happily had his assistant send me the recipe!  So here we are, and it's my turn to host supper club in November.  But my menu inspirtation has not hit me yet.  So, I thought I would reach out to the web and ask, "What should I cook for Supper Club?"  I am not sure how many readers I have...I think I have a few, maybe!?...hopefully!  But if you are reading this and you have a suggestion, I would love to hear from you!  Maybe it's a family recipe or a menu from our own Supper Club.  Food Trucks are all the rage...does anyone own a Food Truck they could pull up to my backyard?  Maybe you read a Food Blog and you saw an idea there.  Whatever or wherever, if you have a suggestion for my November Supper Club...please send it my way!