These Reese’s Chocolate Egg Nests made my little guys so happy! They are delicious and a mix of all of our favorite things, chocolate, peanut butter, marshmallows and Rice Krispies! They are so adorable too, right? My youngest, Vaughn, asked me if he could have his friends over so that he could give them some of the nests. It was More »
It was my husband’s birthday this past Thursday and he’s more of a birthday pie kinda guy than cake. So I made a couple of pies for him. This past summer my Mom gave me a couple of cookbooks. They are Volumes 1 & 2 of Meta Given’s Modern Encyclopedia of Cooking. MeMudder, my grandmother, got these when she married my grandfather back in the 50′s. It is so interesting More »
I saw Paula Dean make these years ago on the Food Network. I’m not sure the exact recipe anymore I just make the concept of them now. Everyone in my house loves chocolate. We all love dessert but chocolate gets more appreciation. These brownies are more like a Symphony bar sandwich. Have you had a Symphony? The are milk chocolate with toffee and almonds. This recipe takes your favorite brownie recipe then puts a Symphony bar in the middle. CRAZY good.
For Valentine’s Day I like to keep the dessert simple but dressed up. So with these I did a couple things. First I pulled out my heart shaped cookie cutters and had fun. I cut out large rectangles and cut out the center with the cookie cutter. Inside the cutout I put chopped strawberries (the berry of choice with my kids) but you could do raspberries as well. The hearts that were cut out I sprinkled with powdered sugar. I also cut out a paper heart and laid it on a brownie rectangle and sprinkled the powdered sugar over it. I then lifted the paper heart and had the shape of the heart left below. My kids loved the different shapes and had a great time eating all the brownies and berries. My husband was in heaven with the Symphony bar in the center. Give them a shot and let us know what you think. Be careful though a pan goes fast. 
Last week we were all heartbroken by the events that took place at Sandy Hook Elementary in CT. Stacey and I both have sons about the age of the kids taken from their parents and we can only imagine the immense pain the families are in. A lot of us had the same reaction, give our kids the biggest hug for as long as they would let us, as often as they’d let us. We’ve all been sending those affected by this tragedy our prayers, thoughts, condolences and now we want to send them some monetary help.
Instead of our normal link party this week we are joining forces with other bloggers and Etsy shop owners for Cookies and Crafts for Sandy Hook. A lot of bloggers and business owners have joined together to raise money for Newton Youth & Family Services. They have been offering free services to the community and will be supporting the victims and families. The healing process is going to take a long time and a lot of help will be needed. There are links at the bottom of the post to take you to the online shops offering donations from their sales today. Make a purchase or if you are interested you can donate directly to the Newtown Youth & Family Services. Just click image below.
Stacey and I spent some quality time with our kids and we made sure that we were present and appreciated what a gift it was for us to be able to do so. We both made cookies with our kids and Stacey’s mom and dad even got in on the action, with some gingerbread house fun.
Today I’m sharing with you my kids’ favorite Christmas Cookie. They LOVE chocolate. (Just like their Momma. ) I usually make a chocolate chip with candy cane pieces cookie but this year I changed it up and substituted M&M white peppermint candy for the candy cane. Everyone, especially my little monkeys, loved them!
If you’re making purchases give you business to the shops below, if not, just donate what you can to the Newtown Youth & Family Services or find a way that you can make a difference in the families and community affected by this sad day.
document.write(‘
Shops and Businesses Supporting Newtown and Sandy Hook Elementary
‘);
This event is brought to you by: Hezzi-D’s Books and Cooks, The Red Headed Baker, Real Housemoms, Crazy for Crust, Something Swanky, Life After Laundry, Two Kids Cooking, Frugal Foodie Mama, The Doctorate Housewife, Heather’s French Press, Operation Dinnertime, Lovely Pantry, What’s Cooking Love?, Cupcakes and Kale Chips, Occasionally Crafty, Pint Sized Baker, Pineapple and Coconut, Wine & Glue, Lemonsforlulu, A Sweet Baker, Mom On Timeout, The Freshman Cook, Sweet Twist of Blogging, A Family Feast, Julie’s Eats & Treats, Eat at Allie’s, Here Comes the Sun, The Kitchen is My Playground, Just My Crazy Kitchen, The Sweet Chick, The Tasty Fork, Wholly Delicious Dishes, Chocolate, Chocolate and more , Yours and Mine ARE Ours, Kitchen Meets Girl, Daily Dish Recipes, Sweet Bella Rooshref=”http://www.momstestkitchen.com” target=_blank”>Mom’s Test Kitchen
Persnickety Plates
Recipe from Just My Crazy Kitchen
For day 2 of our 12 Days of Sweets we were part of the Christmas Cookie Swap organized by Julie at White Lights on Wednesday! This time instead of shipping off our cookies we mailed our recipes to our matches to bake. I love this idea! It’s fun to bake cookies and find new recipes, right?! I was so lucky to be partnered up with Cristina from Just My Crazy Kitchen! She has a great blog. If you haven’t had a chance to check it out hop over and say hi. So, I received this recipe from Cristina for Chocolate Snowballs. They are a family favorite for her. Here’s what she says about this recipe:
Chocolate Snowballs! Don’t they just sound so festive? My aunt gave us this recipe. On Christmas Eve, we all get together and everyone brings their Christmas cookies. Then, we share everyone’s cookies. It’s like a really massive cookie swap. My mom is one of eight children, so if everyone brings cookies, we can have up to about 40 dozen cookies. These are one of my favorites. I don’t like nuts, so I usually add more chocolate. Hope you enjoy them as much as I do!
I love family Christmas traditions. That’s why I love Christmas so much. There are so many different family traditions happening and every year there is a new one born! These cookies are delicious and so easy to make. I thought I had let them cool enough before putting on the powdered sugar but I don’t think I did so you may want to have more patience than I do and let them cool all the way before you roll in the sugar or maybe just do two coats. I really recommend joining in the fun next year, you don’t even have to have a blog to get in on the fun. This year you can see some of the recipes that were shared below. Check them out!
