Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

We hope you all have a great time spending it with the ones you love!

Pretzel Caramel Bites

Since its Christmas I think A LOT of us are eating more than usual... (maybe even a little too much). I've decided to share a quick and easy Christmas snack that would be perfect to have out in a little dish while you have visitors coming and going over the holidays.

I made this up one evening and it probably took all of 25 minutes... maybe a bit longer because peeling the wrappers off caramel squares are one heck of a tedious task!

Originally I wanted to add pecans on top of these kind of like a turtles themed treat. however, the price of pecans is crazy! When I loaded some into a bag at the bulk barn they rang in as $25, I decided that was a little pricey for a small little snack and that if I went without the pecans it wouldn't even cost half of that to make them. 

So I just went with the pretzels, caramel, and chocolate drizzled over them. 

making these was extremely easy! you can always enlist a child or two to help ;) 

I covered my cookie sheets with parchment, laid out the  pretzels and then unwrapped all the caramel squares and placed one on each pretzel, I then baked them in the oven on 325 for about 6 mins.

Once all the caramels were melted/soft, I took them out and placed another pretzel on top to make like little sandwiches.

I then took my chocolate chips and melted them in a bowl in the microwave once it was all melted I poured it in a ziploc bag to use like a piping bag and drizzled my chocolate all on top. 

I love these. I love the mix of the chocolate, caramel and the salt from the pretzels. perfect quick and easy snack to have out if you know company is coming. 

You could also do some up in cute cello bags tied with ribbon as a little gift if you visit someone over the holidays. 

Cookies!

I'm a bit of a cookie snob. I only like homemade cookies. I hate hate hate store bought cookies. The ones from the grocery store bakery aren't too bad and will do in a pinch but never do I buy packaged cookies. Cookies have always been my go to item when I bake.  I just love how simple they can be, mix them, drop them on the pan and bake. Can't get much easier than that. 

This past weekend a friend and I decided we wanted to get together and do some Christmas baking. We knew we wanted to do sugar cookies and gingerbread, classic Christmas cookies. I actually had never made sugar cookies before I was always so intimidated by them... why I have no idea but for some reason I thought they would be difficult. However I scoured the internet and by internet I mean Pinterest... and found this recipe and decided to give it a try. 

It was sooo easy, and they are delicious! 

I also found a new gingerbread recipe which will definitely now be my go to recipe. Again it was another Pinterest, I loved how the cookies were crisp to the touch but almost melted in your mouth. You can find the recipe here. 

We also made some macaroons which is the recipe I am going to share here with you, as it is my own, or at least a recipe that has been in my book for years and has now become my own.

Disclaimer... I am still getting used to this blogging thing and totally forgot to take pics of the process so I am including a group picture of all the cookies we made. 

Chocolate Macaroons

6TBS of cocoa 

1/2 cup of butter

1/2 cup of Milk

1 1/2 cup of sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
3 cups oatmeal
1 cup coconut

Mix first 4 ingredients together in a pot. 
Boil for 2 minutes
remove from heat add vanilla, mix in coconut and oatmeal*.
Drop spoonfuls on wax or parchment paper while still warm, wait until dry and peel off and store in air tight container. 

* I usually pre-mix my coconut and oatmeal in a bowl and mix together all at once

What are your favourite Holiday cookies? Let me know in the comments below! I am always looking for more cookie ideas!

Christmas Wreath

I thought I would start my blog off with a little craft. A few years ago I bought some burlap to use as a garland for my Christmas tree. However, after I had all the decorations on it I decided it looked best with out the burlap. Fast forward to last week, I had the itch to make something. Something Christmasy... I knew we had an old wire coat hanger and I had seen on Pinterest numerous times people making wreaths out of them. I decided to take the task on.

It was quite easy to assemble. I purchased everything but the burlap at the dollar store. 

I started by taking my wire hanger and bending and reshaping it into a circular shape.

Because my burlap was in more of large sheet shape, I cut up the burlap into thinner strips. Next, I weaved the strips on the wire. Once all the burlap was on the wire I weaved the lights on it. These lights are awesome! I bought them at the dollar store, they are battery operated, and on a timer. Once you turn them on they stay on for 6 hours and then turn off for 18 hours.

I used two sets as each set has about 20 light bulbs, and I didn't want it to look sparse. I however made the mistake at first of putting both battery packs together at the top of the wreath... BIG FAIL. it kept falling off the door because the battery packs would push it off the hook. Might not be bad if you had an over the door wreath holder, but I just had a little hook that I stuck on my door.

Once I had the lights on I just took some white and red jingle bells I bought and some holly berries and alternated where they went on the wreath. I left a space at the bottom because I knew I wanted to add in a red bow.

Overall it only took about an hour to complete and wouldn't have been that long if I hadn't made the first mistake with the battery packs.